Posted
on January 1, 2016
Ellis
Island is the famous U.S. immigration station that opened on this
date in 1892 and operated more than half a century. Millions of
immigrants arriving on the East Coast of the U.S. passed through this
station – and, amazingly, close to 40% of all current U.S. citizens
can trace at least one of their ancestors to Ellis Island!
According
to this short video, many people who themselves later became
famous – people that, in some cases, we think of as simply
“American” – were immigrants who came to this nation through
Ellis Island. They include comedian Bob Hope (who arrived from
Britain in 1908, just 5 years old), actors Charlie Chaplin (who was
also British, but who came over when he was in his early 20s, in
1912) and Cary Grant (yet another Brit who arrived in 1920, age 16),
and musician Irving Berlin (who arrived from Russia when he was 5
years old, in 1893).
Did
you know...?
 |
| In this photo, Ellis Island appears just behind Liberty Island. |
Ellis
Island is an island in Upper New York Bay. The island is really close
to Liberty Island, so immigrants had a great view of the Statue of
Liberty as they waited in line for their “6-second physicals” and
processing.
Ellis
Island is now a museum with numerous fascinating exhibits about
immigration. It is a part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument,
run by the National Park Service. You can take a ferry to both
islands, one after the other, for a great day of sightseeing!
Ellis
Island, the island itself, was greatly enlarged with land
reclamation.
In
1897, a fire broke out and destroyed the buildings on Ellis Island.
Thank goodness, nobody died in the fire, but it is unfortunate that
most of the immigration records were destroyed. This includes not
only the 1.5 immigrant records processed in the first five years of
the immigrant inspection station's use, but also immigration records
being kept there from as far back as 1855!
The new immigration station was built to be fireproof!
The new immigration station was built to be fireproof!
Ellis
Island by the numbers...
From
1905 to 1914, an average of one million (1,000,000) immigrants a
year arrived on Ellis Island.- During peak years, immigration officials processed about 5,000 immigrants per day.
- The all-time daily high (in April of 1907), there were 11,747 immigrant arrivals.
- Arrivals were asked 29 questions ranging from name to how much money they carried. Most successful immigrants spent 2 to 5 hours being processed.
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