Almost done.

I've got about 4 days left in NY and we've been taking it kinda easy. On Monday we got up at 6 AM and went to visit the Statue of liberty and Ellis Island. Mario had to go to his school and sign up for classes so we (Scott and I) separated at the Lexington subway station and went down to the Battery Park station. There was a nice park there with some war memorials and a giant Eagle. We got our first clear look at the Statue and it looked tiny! In all the movies it seems like it would be huge - bigger than the empire state building. We went to Fort Clinton and bought the fairy tickets. It was about 8:30 AM and we joined the line waiting for the first fairy to arrive. We got there at a good time because about 10 minutes after we got there the line really started getting big. We were definitely some of the few Americans in the line. I heard about 8 different languages while waiting there. We went through a security area that was exactly like getting on a plane. The fairy was pretty big and had 3 decks, each with a little cafeteria area. We went up to the top and settled in. It was a very warm day and pretty clear, although there was a little smog. We were leaving the southern tip of Manhattan and as we pulled away we got a great view of the city line, including the Empire state building and the gap where the twin towers used to be. As we got closer the Statue we realized how big it really is. It was a very impressive statue on a very nice looking island. We docked and began walking around Liberty island. We did a full loop reading the little information stands they had all around. The pedestal was also huge. We had been given two of the few tickets that lets you go into the pedestal. Since 9/11 no one has been able to go up the statue itself. To get into the pedestal you had to go through a security area that was a little more intense. We had to stand in these big machines that puffed air up from the ground in short, intense bursts until the light turned green then we were led to another metal detector and x-ray machine. The pedestal's base was made from the remains of an old fort and had many masonic symbols on the outside. Once inside we walked through a museum that told the story of the statue of liberty. Once through there we walked about 200 steps up to the observation area, which was pretty close to the feet and offered a beautiful view of Manhattan, Jersey, Brooklyn and Queens. We stayed up there for a while before heading down to catch the next ferry to Ellis Island. The ride was about 10 minutes and by now it was about 65F out. Beautiful day. Ellis Island was the first stop for millions of immigrants and I was interested to find out if any of my relatives records were inside. Once on the island we went into the main processing building and walked around the immigrants museum for a while. We then went to look up our family names in the hall of records. Volunteers over the years had but all the paper records into digital memory so they had banks of computers where you could view search results. Scott went first and found records of his Pangrazzi ancestors. I went next and put in Walklin. There were a few different results from different areas but I put in what information I knew and came up with

First Name: Charlotte
Last Name: Walklin
Ethnicity: German - Germany
Last Place of Residence: Hannover, Germany - U.S.A.
Date of Arrival: Oct 28, 1912
Age at Arrival: 35y Gender: F Marital Status: M
Ship of Travel: Cincinnati
Port of Departure: Hamburg
Manifest Line Number: 0021

It also lets you see the original copy of the ship manifest, which shows she came with two more little Walklins. This is the text version of the manifest.
0021. Walklin, Charlotte F 35y M German - Germany Hannover, Germany - U.S.A.
0022. Walklin, Walter M 9y S German - U. S. born Hannover, Germany - U.S.A.
0023. Walklin, Herbert M 7y S German - U.S. born Hannover, Germany - U.S.A.

It was really cool because it showed the answers to all the questions they asked like if they could read or what their profession was. http://www.ellisisland.org/

I'll finish the update soon!