Have you ever wondered what immigrants arriving at Ellis Island went through? Join us as 9 volunteers will demonstrate the actual records of 9 immigrants who came through Ellis Island. A slide show illustrating the various documents of the immigration process will accompany the simulation. Attendees are invited to arrive early, as there will be seven tables of Ellis Island/immigration memorabilia including a piece of Ellis Island! (Members should get there early or they will miss these exhibits.) Members should be prepared to be stamped and chalked, just like ancestral immigrants were. They can even take an Ellis Island IQ test if they want (but we won’t be using our buttonhook on them!).

Joel Weintraub, a New Yorker by birth, is an emeritus Biology Professor at California State University, Fullerton and has won awards for his science teaching. He became interested in genealogy about 15 years ago, and volunteered for 9 years at the National Archives and Records Administration in southern California. Joel produced locational tools for the 1900 through 1940 federal censuses, and the New York State censuses for NYC (1905, 1915, 1925) for the Steve Morse "One-Step" website (stevemorse.org). He, Steve, and their volunteers, are currently working on 1950 U.S. census tools. He has published articles on the U.S. census, the name change belief at Ellis Island, searching records in NYC, and a biographical revision of biologist AL Heermann, and has given presentations on census and biographical research, immigration and naturalization, Ellis Island research, and Jewish genealogy. His hobbies include birding, collecting memorabilia for his talks, and making interesting PowerPoint presentations.