Some Genealogy
Ellis Island Foundation website:
You can search this site for information about those passengers on ships entering the US through Ellis Island - New York City. I did such a search for my maternal and paternal grandparents. The last name (first name is optional), the sex and an approximate year of birth (you can define the search window) is sufficient for the search. A text version of the relevant page of the ship's manifest containing the name is available as well as a scanned image of the pages along with a photo of the ship and information about the ship. The text version of the manifest contained limited information and it provides the line number on the relevant page of the manifest for the passenger. The original versions (scanned images and there are two pages) give the age, marital status, physical characteristics, nationality, race, birthplace and eventual destination in the USA. You can also purchase hard-copies of the pages (framed or unframed) and a copy of the ship's photo.
Katarryna Balmas - maternal grandmother
Pawel Dzierba - paternal grandfather
Wladyslaw Marzec - maternal grandfather		 If anyone knows the maiden name and approximate year of birth of my paternal grandmother, Pawel's wife, please send me an e-mail at alex@dzre.com
Wladyslaw Pierzchala - Alex, Bob and Carolyn's maternal maternal great-grandfather
Djerba is an island located in North Africa in the Gulf of Gabes off the coast of Tunisia. The name of the island is pronounced like the correct pronunciation of our name. According to the Wikipedia article about the island, Djerba was the island of the Lotus-Eaters where Odysseus was stranded on his voyage through the Mediterranean. The island is known for its beautiful beaches.

Unfortunately Al-Qaeda waged an attack on a synagogue in 2002 but supposedly things are back to normal.

The land area of Djerba is approximately 200 square miles.