The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation Inc. has begun computerizing the records of immigrants who entered Ellis Island from 1892 to 1924, said Maria Antenorcruz, the foundation's public affairs coordinator. The project will cost $15 million; the foundation has raised $11.5 million so far, she said.

Volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are entering data from immigration records into the database, Antenorcruz said. Once completed, the database will hold information on about 17 million people in the American Family Immigration History Center, she said.

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This first phase of the database project is expected to be finished by late 2000. Internet access to the data is expected to follow soon after, said Peg Zitko, the foundation's director of public affairs.

Thirty-four workstations will let individuals and families trace their roots based on the archived records, Zitko said. Information will include ancestors' names, the ships they arrived on, ports of origin, departure and arrival dates, and marital status.

The system will lead visitors through a series of questions and is set up so that names don't need to be spelled correctly, Antenorcruz said. Visitors will also be able to create a file and add information to the database even if their families didn't arrive in the U.S. through Ellis Island, she said.

If users find information they want to keep, visitors will be able to print it out or save it on a CD-ROM for a nominal fee, Antenorcruz said. The foundation decided to create the database to make research efforts easier and to keep the records archived, Zitko said. The records themselves haven't been on Ellis Island since it closed as an immigrant reception center. The documents were moved to the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, she added, where they were put on microfiche. Some of the logs were thrown out in the late 1950s, she said.

Eventually, the Center will house information about ports other than Ellis Island and will add immigrants from additional years, Antenorcruz said.