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The History of Ellis Island. Ellis Island may not appear large on a map, but it is an unparalleled destination in United States history. After welcoming more than 12 million immigrants to our shores, Ellis Island is now a poetic symbol of the American Dream. Explore the History.
- Passenger Search
The Passenger Search database allows you to look for family...
- Family History Center
Once at Ellis Island, a host of research stations are...
- National Immigration Museum
The Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration is a living...
- Overview + History
The new structure on Ellis Island began receiving arriving...
- The Future of Ellis
Years after being decommissioned as the nation’s first...
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Our Shop. Heritage documents, commemoratives, books, and...
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Ellis Island. / 40.69944°N 74.03972°W / 40.69944; -74.03972. Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York, that was once the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 million immigrants arriving at ...
- U.S. Immigration History
- Ellis Island Museum of Immigration
- Ellis Island Timeline
- Trivia
- Sources
When Ellis Island opened, a great change was taking place in U.S. immigration. Fewer arrivals were coming from northern and western Europe—Germany, Ireland, Britain and the Scandinavian countries—as more and more immigrants poured in from southern and eastern Europe. Among this new generation were Jews escaping from political and economic oppressio...
Passage of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the National Origins Act of 1924, which limited the number and nationality of immigrants allowed into the United States, effectively ended the era of mass immigration into New York City. At this point, the smaller number of immigrants began to be processed on their arriving ships, with Ellis Island ser...
1630-1770 Ellis Island is little more than a spit of sand in the Hudson River, located just south of Manhattan. The Native Americansof the Mohegan tribe who lived on the nearby shores call the island Kioshk, or Gull Island. In 1630, the Dutch acquired the island and gifted it to a certain Michael Paauw, who called it Oyster Island for the plentiful...
The First Arrival On January 1, 1892, teenager Annie Moore from County Cork, Ireland, became the first person admitted to the new immigration station on Ellis Island. On that opening day, she received a greeting from officials and a $10.00 gold piece. Annie traveled to New York with her two younger brothers on steerage aboard the S.S. Nevada, which...
Closing the Door on Immigration. National Park Service. Ellis Island. The Statue of Liberty—Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. Ellis Island. UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Topics in Chronicling America - Ellis Island. Library of Congress. Immigration and Deportation at Ellis Island. PBS: American Experience.
4 days ago · The island was named for Manhattan merchant Samuel Ellis, who owned it in the 1770s. In 1808 the state of New York sold the island to the federal government, and it was used as a fort and a powder magazine. It served as the nation’s major immigration station from 1892 to 1924, after which its role was reduced; during that period an estimated ...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The new structure on Ellis Island began receiving arriving immigrants on January 1, 1892. Annie Moore, a teenage girl from Ireland, accompanied by her two younger brothers, made history as the very first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island. Over the next 62 years, more than 12 million immigrants would arrive in the United States via Ellis ...
Welcome to our free Ellis Island Passenger Search database, home to 65 million records of passengers arriving to the Port of New York from 1820 to 1957. For tips on how best to utilize the database, check out our Genealogy Primer page. If you have questions, please email ContactUs@LibertyEllisFoundation.org.
The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation is a cornerstone partner of THIS IS NY, part of the Festival of New York, which launched in 2022. THIS IS NY is a collective of 200+ organizations across the five boroughs that celebrates NYC’s immigrant heritage and communities. Festival activities take place Memorial Day through Labor Day.
