12/1/2002
By David A. Fryxell
Your brick walls are made to be broken.
I'd hit the proverbial "brick wall" in my quest for my Eckstrom ancestors, despite extraordinary long-distance assistance by a researcher not even related to me (as I chronicled in our June issue): Where in Sweden did this branch of my family come from?
I envied those with Ellis Island immigrant ancestors, who can use the online passenger-lists database at <www.ellisisland.org>. In this month's cover story, contributing editor Sharon DeBartolo Carmack shows how to find your Ellis Island ancestors even when they don't seem to be in the database.
But my Eckstroms arrived too early, before Ellis Island opened its "golden door" in 1892.