The Today Show has broadcast an interesting story about Ellis Island and also has placed the video online. Amanda Marshall, a TODAYShow.com contributor, writes:
Julia Marshall was born Juliska Facsali on May 16, 1900, in the village of Szekely Derzs in northeastern Hungary. Her father was a shoemaker; her mother, a seamstress. It was a point of great family pride that her mother owned the town’s first sewing machine.
Julia loved to share tales from her childhood, including stories about the town crier who each day would announce the news at noon from the highest hill. Cable news was still a long way off in those days!
By the turn of the century, the peasant population had grown dramatically. Unfortunately, jobs were scarce. Political and economic pressures forced many to look for opportunities beyond their thatch-roofed towns in Eastern Europe. By 1913, Julia and her family decided America was their best hope for a stable future.
Julia’s father and three older siblings traveled ahead to Cincinnati, where friends had settled. Then they sent for the rest of the family. Julia, her mother, and her sister Helen had to make the 23-day journey alone. They purchased three third-class tickets and left on a ship destined for New York City.
You can read the rest of the story and watch the video at: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30623014.
