Sunday, October 21, 2007

Paul Valasek on Immigrant Ships

Friday evening I went to hear Paul Valasek speak on "Immigrant Ships" at the Bloomfield Hills Family History Center. He gave a very interesting presentation with loads of wonderful slides illustrating the ships he was speaking of. Paul has a great collection of immigrant ship memorabilia and it was a very educational presentation. He's quite an authority on the ships that carried our ancestors across the Atlantic!

We were given two handouts, one which listed the steamship lines 1890-1950 with the dates of operation and some ship names, and the other handout was a bibliography of sources about immigrant steamships. His favorite online sources were:

Polish Roots www.polishroots.org/immigration
Cimorelli Ship List www.cimorelli.com
Ellis Island Website www.ellisislandrecords.org
Immigrant Ships www.fortunecity.com
Steamship Historical Society www.ubalt.edu/archives/ship/ship

I also enjoyed seeing my genealogy buddies, Mary K., Valerie and Tom K., Ceil J., Kathleen L-S., Dick Z., Bernadine D., and Roger L.

A evening of education and fun!