A freebie from Ancestry. com

[Gormy Cuss]

Until the end of November the "Immigration Collection" is free to all. A simple email registration is required. Ancestry has the Ellis Island images and the Boston passenger manifests from the mid 19th century forward as well as other records.

[Montauk6]

1. I actually received a free month of access to the International Collection

a while back. It was the settlement for some class action suit.

[Gormy Cuss]

2. I've received two private freebie offers this month.

Hmm. Maybe there were other lawsuits.

[CBHagman]

3. Thanks for the heads-up!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Gormy Cuss.

For years I've been trying to nail down the precise details of my great-great-grandfather's arrival in America during the 19th century. I spent a frustrating time trying to read extremely faint microfilm of what I thought was the right record at the National Archives. :banghead: Copying was out of the question due to the poor condition of the record.

A local genealogical society turned up great-great-grandpa's naturalization papers, which confirmed the port, month, and year of arrival, and the Castle Garden website provided more of the details. But now that I've seen the manifest (and printed it out), I can verify additional facts. Great stuff! :bounce:

[Gormy Cuss]

4. I'm glad to hear that someone here benefited.

I had searched in vain for my FiL's mother in the Ellis Island database but the Ancestry search engine offered better fuzzy matches and I found her. Both her first and last name were recorded incorrectly but phonetically. Because I knew her hometown in Europe and the name and location of her brother who was already in America I was able to confirm that I had finally found her.

Isn't it great to have this stuff available online?

[sybylla]

5. So how did that work for you?

I clicked on the link on the immigration records page and it took me to a page that asked me to become a subscriber. It didn't even offer me a link to go back.

[Gormy Cuss]

6. During the free period all that was required was to set up a user account.

The Immigration free access offer was extended through December 30. I set up access for four friends and never ran into an issue with needing a subscription during that time. Now I expect the subscriber screen is back.