Ten Thousand Ships in Milwaukee

Most folks take an interest in the vessels that carried their ancestors across the ocean, but how many of us know how much information there is on the boats that carried our people across the Great Lakes, from New York and Pennsylvania to Michigan or Wisconsin?

Right now I'm wishing I lived closer to Milwaukee (although at least I can get there entirely by train :-)). That's where the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society and the Milwaukee Public Library have consolidated the work of many Lakes aficionados into a Great Lakes Marine File that holds, among other things, records of more than 10,000 lake-going ships of all kinds from 1679 to 2008 and counting. Don't miss this chance to make our forebears' experiences real.