Angel Island Family History Day is Here!

There's no need to worry, Angel Island is a state park so it's not affected by the government shut-down. Ferry service to Angel Island provided by Blue and Gold Fleet.

Grant Din has put together a fantastic program:

10:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Free open house of the Immigration barracks by State Park interpreters and staff – at your leisure. You are also encouraged to visit the grounds from the barracks to the bay, including the footprint of the Administration Building, the Immigrant Heritage Wall, Chinese immigrant memorial, and dock where immigrants first stepped ashore. The pier that formerly extended into the bay was torn down in the 1960s.

12:30 p.m.
Family History Panel at the historic World War II mess hall will explore Angel Island and family history research about families that traveled through the facility. Introduction by Michael McKechnie, executive director of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation.

Moderator: Grant Din, Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation staff, grandson of four Angel Island grandparents and avid family history researcher for over thirty years.

Panelists: Maria Sakovich, public historian, independent scholar and author of Angel Island Immigration Station Reconsidered: Non-Asian Encounters with the Immigration Laws, 1910-1940 (MA thesis) and several related articles; Kay Speaks, expert genealogist and member of the Livermore-Amador Valley Genealogical Society; and Rosalyn Tonai, executive director of the National Japanese American Historical Society whose mother’s family journeyed through Angel Island in the 1930s.

There will be handouts and time for questions.

2:30 p.m.
Formal ending of the program but panelists will be available for questions. Attendees can continue to
make self-guided visits to the Immigration Station.

Several genealogical and historical organizations will have information display tables in Room 105 in the nearby immigration barracks.

Special thanks to the staff and volunteers of Angel Island State Park who make this event possible!

Copyright © 2013 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library.