One of 30 processing stations, and at one time the main entry facility for immigrants entering the United States, Ellis Island was opened by the federal government on January 1, 1892.  While most immigrants entered through the New York Harbor, others sailed into ports such as Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco, Miami and New Orleans. 

Between 1892 and 1954 over 12 million immigrants arrived at Ellis Island and were inspected there by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration (Immigration and Naturalization Service).  Inspectors would use the passenger lists of the steamship companies to process each foreigner.  The steamship companies included: White Star, Red Star, Holland America, Italian Steam Navigation Company, and so forth.  While wealthy immigrants traveling first and second class underwent a cursory inspection aboard ship, “steerage” or third class passengers went through a far different scenario.  Upon arrival in New York City, first and second class passengers would disembark, pass through Customs at the piers, and were free to enter the United States.  The steerage, on the other hand, were transported by ferry or barge to Ellis Island where everyone would undergo a medical and legal inspection. 

If the immigrant’s papers were in order and they were in reasonably good health, the inspection process would last three to five hours. As the passengers climbed the stairs from the baggage area up to the Great Hall (Registry Room), doctors studied behaviors for signs of difficulties in getting up the staircase in any way.  During the medical inspections, doctors would briefly scan each immigrant for obvious physical ailments.  The inspection process soon became known as the “six second physical” after conducting thousands upon thousands.  If it was concluded that the immigrant was potentially sick, symbols were chalked on their clothing indicating the illness.  Some only entered the country by wiping off the marks or turning their clothes inside out.  The symbols/marks included:

After going through the medical inspection, immigrants went through a legal (or primary) inspection.  The ship’s manifest list contained the passenger’s name and his/her answers to numerous questions.  This document was used to cross examine the immigrant, and was the sole immigration record for entering the country – not prepared by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration but by the steamship companies.  About two percent were denied admission to the U.S. and sent back to their countries of origin for reasons such as chronic contagious disease, criminal background, or insanity.

There are multitudes of notable immigrants who were processed through the Ellis Island system. Listed below are a handful – you might recognize a name or two.

John Bartz, Nicholas Bartz, Theodora Bartz, Zoe Papaloucopoulos Bartz, Lucky Luciano, Leslie Towne Hope (aka Bob Hope), Irving Berlin, Knute Rockne, Chef Boyardee (Ettore Boiardi), Julie Styne, Charles Atlas, Isaac Asimov, the Von Trapp Family Singers, Ezio Pinza, Bela Lugosi, Charles Chaplin, Stan Laurel, Arthur Murray and Max Factor.

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson declared Ellis Island part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.  The island was opened to the public between 1976 and 1984 before undergoing the largest historic restoration in U.S. history, and reopened in 1990.  Outside of the main building there is a “Wall of Honor”.  There is a myth that it lists all of the immigrants processed there.  It is actually a wall giving people the opportunity to make a donation to honor any immigrant into the United States.  As of 2006, the wall lists 700,000+  names spanning 400 years of immigration. 

If you are interested in finding out whether your relatives went through Ellis Island, the more information you know, the easier the search can be. The National Archives and Records Administration is the official repository for the nation's manifest documents. Original manifests are on microfilm at the National Archives. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Foundation opened the American Family Immigration History Center at Ellis Island in 2001 which contains a database of copied manifests for Ellis Island and the Port of New York between 1892 and 1924. The center's database is also on-line at: www.ellisislandrecords.org