On today’s date, November 12 in the year 1954 Ellis Island closed it’s doors after 62 years of operation. In that period of time, over 12 million immigrants had been processed. Today,
It is important to note that not all immigrants who sailed into New York went through Ellis Island. Wealthy immigrants that traveled first and second class disembarked elsewhere around New York or New Jersey and went through customs. But third class passengers were always transported to Ellis Island for the purpose of close medical examination and legal inspection. Those with disease or other health problems were either sent home or detained at the island’s hospitals. Only 2% of these immigrants were denied entrance into the United States.
Thirty years after the last immigrant was processed at Ellis Island, renovation began, and in September of 1990 the Ellis Island Immigration Museum opened.
The aforementioned Ellis Island Records website provides information about the history of Ellis Island, Genealogy helps and various Passenger searches. It is free to search the database but you must be registered first.
To register, click on the SIGN IN button on the top right of the main page. You will see a box asking if you are ALREADY REGISTERED and below that is a smaller box which says, ARE YOU NEW TO THIS SITE? Click on the YES, I AM NEW TO THIS SITE, button below that.
Fill in all of the forms on the page you are taken to and click on SUBMIT. Once you do, you will automatically be signed in and ready to start your search. Your user name and password will be sent to your email account in case you forget it.
To start your search run your mouse over the PASSENGER SEARCH tab in the upper left of the page. A drop down menu will appear, click on New Search or Advanced Search. Fill in whichever fields you desire (though a surname is required) and click on the START SEARCH button. The next page will be a list of matching Passenger Records.
Clicking on the name of a Passenger or the Passenger Record link will take you to a record for that passenger with personal information about them including first name, last name, ethnicity, last place of residence, date of arrival, age at arrival, ship of travel and more. You can even purchase the certificate if you’d like.
By clicking VIEW under the Ship Manifest category you can view the original ships manifest with your ancestors name on it. By clicking VIEW under Ship Image you can see some sort of sketch, or photograph of the ship on which your ancestor sailed. You can also order copies of these for your own records.
This website is a wonderful resource, so if you think any of your ancestors may have arrived through Ellis Island, go register and search now.
