and sam: kopp machen zu!

After reading your response I realized how unclear my comment was.

I went to the Ellis Island website and found the following:

After 1924, the only people who were detained at Ellis Island were those who had problems with their paperwork, as well as war refugees and displaced persons.

That last sentence is the key, and explains why your father’s family may well have come through Ellis Island in the late 40′s or early 50′s, even though non-refugees, non-DPs would not have been coming that way. It appears that you can search their database at this site to try to find your ancestors’ names and entry dates.

After 1924, the only people who were detained at Ellis Island were those who had problems with their paperwork, as well as war refugees and displaced persons.
ellisisland.org

As the first war after 1924 was WWII, it’s very possible he came through Ellis. Between 1945 and 1948 they were detained at a relocation camp in Europe and entered the U.S. in ’48. They could very well have been shipped with a number of others and landed on the island.

So, it’s possible that your father spent some time in Ellis Island. But not likely.

(It is possible that Ellis Island was put back in use for processing of large numbers of Displaced Persons or refugees after the war, but I don’t know.)

Thanks for the kind thoughts (Owen replied in Estonian). They were indeed sad, but some stories were also very funny. Despite the pain, Dad could be a very funny man.

sam,

I agree it would be nice to hear speakers– GAs & otherwise– to speak in their native tongues. Perhaps a compromise would be to deliver the message in English and then bear their testimony in their native language? I do love hearing someone bear their testimony in their first language– the tenderness and intimacy seems to project more clearly when they do.