SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - Deciphering almost-impossible-to-read microfilms and photocopies. Scrutinizing century-old handwriting. Hand-copying and typing isolated pieces of information originally recorded by multiple scribes who took it down from people of different nationalities speaking different languages.

Such was the painstaking work performed by thousands of volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their efforts helped produce the computerized Ellis Island passenger records database recently contributed by the Church to the National Park Service, for use by The Statue of Liberty—Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. The Ellis Island database provides easy access to the passenger arrival records of approximately 22 million individuals whose names appear in the original ships’ passenger manifests for the Port of New York from 1892 to 1924.

"The Ellis Island database is now a reality because of the untiring work of more than 12,000 Church volunteers," says Wayne J. Metcalfe, director of the Field Services and Support Division of the Family and Church History Department.

"It represents the culmination of a cooperative project of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the National Park Service, and The Statue of Liberty—Ellis Island Foundation, intended to preserve the cultural heritage of the American people."

"This was a fairly sizeable project," Metcalfe continues, "accounting for approximately 71 percent of all United States immigration records."

Sizeable is right. If stacked flat, the 3,678 boxes of microfilms examined by Latter-day Saint volunteers would exceed three times the height of the Statue of Liberty, from the hem of her flowing robe to the top of her torch.

According to Metcalfe, visitors to the American Family Immigration History Center on Ellis Island can now search on computer for ancestors who may have immigrated to the United States from many countries during this 32-year period.

If a visitor discovers an ancestor in the database, a system link allows the Center to print for the visitor a copy of the passenger manifest and a picture of the ship on which the ancestor sailed.

The database will also be available free to the public on the Ellis Island web site at www.ellisislandrecords.org. Web site visitors can locate an ancestor, then order a printed copy of the passenger manifest and a picture of the ship.

"Because of the uniqueness of the data and limited readability of the microfilm, it has been one of the most challenging projects we have ever undertaken," says Metcalfe. "But our volunteers stuck with it to create this valuable resource."

Latter-day Saint volunteers in 2,700 congregations throughout the United States and Canada donated approximately 5.6 million hours to the work of carefully examining the original records on microfilm and photocopies, then "extracting" only pertinent information onto data-entry forms or typing it directly into computers.

As a further step to improve accuracy, approximately 100 full-time volunteers at Church headquarters in Salt Lake City compared the original microfilms to extracted data and made corrections as needed.

"Our volunteers really put their hearts into this project," said Peggy Crook, a Family Record Extraction director for a congregation in Sandy, Utah. "The incentive for many of them was knowing they had relatives who immigrated to the United States and arrived at Ellis Island."

"They knew if they could overcome the challenges of the painstaking extraction work, a wonderful database would be available that would help them and so many others in their search for these ancestors."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encourages its members to be actively engaged in family history research. Church President Gordon B. Hinckley stated, "Seeking to understand our family history can change our lives. It helps bring unity and cohesion to families. There is something about understanding the past that helps give our young people something to live up to, a legacy to respect."

Through its popular FamilySearch.org web site, the Church has made available to the public a number of other genealogical research tools, including census records and vital records indexes. The web site currently receives approximately 9 million hits per day.

Crook, who extracted and automated Ellis Island passenger records and who trained other volunteers, saw first-hand how the project provided workers with life-enriching experiences.

"I don’t speak Italian," said Crook. "But after you work with it for a while, you start to notice the pattern in the endings of names and placement of vowels. Some of us were involved exclusively in German extraction, so the Ellis Island project was refreshing—there were so many languages and countries. It familiarized us with the world."

The Church originally purchased microfilm copies of the Ellis Island passenger records from the National Archives. The idea of automating these records and creating a database gathered momentum as the Church pledged its support during the 1992 Statue of Liberty Centennial.

Upon learning of the Church’s intent, the National Park Service and The Statue of Liberty—Ellis Island Foundation expressed interest in making public availability of this database a joint project.

"This seven-year project tested the persistence and best extraction skills of our Church-member volunteers but was most certainly worth the effort," says Metcalfe.

"The end result is a database which will allow as many as 100 million living descendants of United States immigrants to find information about their ancestors or confirm these ancestors’ first steps on the land of their hopes and dreams."

The Family and Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is committed to producing high-quality products for the family historian. It maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources. To promote local and family history (genealogical) research, the Church also maintains the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and over 3,500 family history centers in 64 countries.