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Whenever I asked my parents where our ancestors came from, they replied, "They came from somewhere over there." I suppose I'm more curious than they ever were, so I got on the internet. There, I discovered the history that created me.

Like most Caucasians, I knew that more than likely my family began in Europe, but where? The only thing I had to go on was the fact that I'm Caucasian, but I do have dark eyes and hair. My mother said that she thought my great grandmother was an American Indian. It made sense to me, since I do have those features, but my maiden name of, "Stockard," sounded German to me.

I found a website called ancestry.com, and found my great, great grandfather,by tracing back from my grandfather's birth records. It was a good tool to begin, but the information was slim. Still, I knew that most Europeans came to the USA, through immigration on Ellis Island, so browsing through the Internet again and was surprised by how many sites I found, but one in particular appealed to my Stockard eyes.

"The Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation" has a site where you can freely have access to the old, ship passenger files. It's amazing to see all those names come up on the screen, but there were two that I just knew were related to me. One was Katherine Stockard, who traveled alone. She arrived in June of 1905. I was able to see a photograph of the ship she sailed in all the way from Stockholm.

The other didn't sail on the same ship or at the same time, but I just knew who he'd be the moment I saw the name, Samuel Stockard. He turned out to be my great, great grandfather that I found on ancestry.com. As it turned out, his original place of residence was listed as Dublin Ireland. Who'd have thought?

I was able to do all this in less than five minutes, incredibly, but I didn't stop there. Since I'd been to Ellis Island by way of a ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty, reading about it fascinated me.

Everyone knows the USA is a big melting pot, filled with diverse languages, cultures and ethnicity. Still, I never knew that there were literally millions of Europeans that came through Ellis Island and created what became of us today, right here in the USA. Of course, they had to be, "processed, " first, but it became a blessing in disguise as that's why we can find them today, and see their signatures with our own eyes.

Tchnology gave us the opportunity to see who our ancestors were, where they came from and when they arrived in the USA. I can't imagine how long the

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