The Internet As Time MachineThe Internet As Time Machine

When she was 3 years old, Lillian O'Donnell arrived in the United States on Dec. 15, 1913, on the 600-foot steam ship Cymric, which was launched in 1898 and sunk by a German submarine 18 years later.

The ship's manifest shows that Lillian traveled with her parents, Edward and Laura O'Donnell, from Liverpool, England, to New York. Their destination was Lake Forest, Ill.

That kind of information, which took a few seconds to find on www.ellisisland.org, will be delivered faster and more reliably via an upgrade to Oracle's 9i database and clustering software. What the site won't tell you is that, for years in the future, Lillian spoiled her oldest grandson, John, with fresh-baked pork pies on his frequent visits to her Chicago home. And, boy, were they good.