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ELLIS ISLAND, NEW YORK

Ellis Island lies in the New York harbor, and was a US immigration station for more than 60 years. The American Family Immigration History Center is located at Ellis Island. From Ellis Island, twelve million immigrants approached America’s "front doors to freedom" in the early twentieth century. During its peak years, 1892 through 1924, Ellis Island received thousands of immigrants a day. The passenger records for persons passing through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954, when it closed its doors, are found on their website at:   http://www.ellisisland.org  

Over 100 million Americans can trace their ancestry in the United States to a man, woman or child whose name passed form a steamship manifest sheet to an inspector’s record book in the great Registry Room at Ellis Island. Records include, among other items:  name, gender, marital status, year of arrival, ethnicity, age on arrival, date and port of departure, name of ship, and the name of the friend or relative they were to visit, and amount of money on them.

The Main Building on Ellis Island was restored to its former grandeur in September, 1990, and today it houses the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, which is "dedicated to commemorating the immigrant’s stories of trepidation and triumph, courage and rejection, and the lasting image of the American dream."

Records of the American Family Immigration History Center at Ellis Island may be viewed free of charge at:   http://www.ellisisland.org