Officials had hoped to make the database available to the public late last year. However, like many such huge projects, the original projections slipped a bit. The church also devoted 20 full-time staff members and 35 missionaries to the project. This new computerized database will provide automated access to more than 22 million historic Ellis Island passenger records. However, the digitized records will only cover the period from January 1892 to December 1924 and will include only about 71 percent of the passenger arrivals during that period.
Plans call for a future expansion of the project to include additional passenger years and records.
The database contains information on aliens, U.S. citizens, crew members, deportees and even those who literally missed the boat. Traveler name, name of vessel, departure, ports of arrival and dates of arrival comprise the standard information to be available. Age, gender, marriage status, birthdate, place of birth, and ethnicity is other information available on some entries. The Wall honors all immigrants, not just those who were processed at Ellis Island. He arrived on the Mayflower in 1620, two hundred seventy-two years before Ellis Island first opened.