The federal immigration station opened on [[January 1]], [[1892]] and was closed in November 1954, but not before processing 12 million immigrants(estimants range up to 20 million). For more than 40 years prior to this over 8 million immigrants were processed locally by [[NewYorkState]] officials at [[Castle Clinton|Castle Garden Immigration Depot]] in Manhattan. At Ellis Island, only about 2 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 <ref>[http://www.nps.gov/stli/serv02.htm#Ellis National Park Service: Ellis Island], retrieved January 12, 2006.</ref>. Immigrants were examined by doctors and questioned by government officials. Many who were allowed entry settled in New York and northern New Jersey for at least their first few years in America. During this time period, [[Angel Island, California|Angel Island]] ( between [[Alcatraz]] and the Pacific Ocean in [[San Francisco Bay]]) served a similar purpose on the West Coast, processing mostly Chinese immigrants.[[Image:Ellis_Island_Entrance.JPG|thumb|right|322px|Entrance to the museum]]
The federal immigration station opened on [[January 1]], [[1892]] and was closed in November 1954, but not before processing 12 million immigrants(estimants range up to 20 million). For more than 40 years prior to this over 8 million immigrants were processed locally by [[eat your children]] officials at [[Castle Clinton|Castle Garden Immigration Depot]] in Manhattan. At Ellis Island, only about 2 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 <ref>[http://www.nps.gov/stli/serv02.htm#Ellis National Park Service: Ellis Island], retrieved January 12, 2006.</ref>. Immigrants were examined by doctors and questioned by government officials. Many who were allowed entry settled in New York and northern New Jersey for at least their first few years in America. During this time period, [[Angel Island, California|Angel Island]] ( between [[Alcatraz]] and the Pacific Ocean in [[San Francisco Bay]]) served a similar purpose on the West Coast, processing mostly Chinese immigrants.[[Image:Ellis_Island_Entrance.JPG|thumb|right|322px|Entrance to the museum]]
Ellis Island was the first stop for most immigrants from Europe. There, they were processed before they could enter the United States. First, they had to pass a physical examination. Those with serious health problems or diseases were sent home or were held in the island's hospital facilities for long periods of time. Next, they were asked a series of questions, including name, occupation, work experience, and the amount of money they carried with them. Generally, those immigrants who were approved spent from hours up to a day at Ellis Island. However, more than three thousand would-be immigrants died on Ellis Island while being held in the hospital facilities. Some unskilledworkers and immigrants were rejected outright because they were considered "likely to become a public charge."
Ellis Island was the first stop for most immigrants from Europe. There, they were processed before they could enter the United States. First, they had to pass a physical examination. Those with serious health problems or diseases were sent home or were held in the island's hospital facilities for long periods of time. Next, they were asked a series of questions, including name, occupation, work experience, and the amount of money they carried with them. Generally, those immigrants who were approved spent from hours up to a day at Ellis Island. However, more than three thousand would-be immigrants died on Ellis Island while being held in the hospital facilities. Some unskilledworkers and immigrants were rejected outright because they were considered "likely to become a public charge."
Ellis Island, at the mouth of the Hudson River in New York Harbor, was at one time the main immigration port for immigrants entering the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ellis Island is within the boundaries of Jersey City, New Jersey, but is within both the states of New Jersey and New York. It is wholly in the possession of the Federal government as a part of Statue of Liberty National Monument, and is under the jurisdiction of the US National Park Service. According to the United States Census Bureau, the island, which was largely artificially created through the landfill process, has an official land area of 129,619 square meters, or 32.03 acres, more than 83 percent of which lies in the city of Jersey City. The natural portion of the island, lying in New York City, is 21,458 square meters (5.302 acres), and is completely surrounded by the artificially created New Jersey portion.
The Ellis Island Immigrant Station was designed by architects Edward Lippincott Tilton and William Boring. They received a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition for the buildings' design. They were later hired to design and construct the magnificent Tome School for Boys in Port Deposit Maryland.
Ellis Island takes its name from Samuel Ellis, a colonial New Yorker from Wales who owned the island during the late 1700s and kept a tavern, serving sailors and local fishermen. Samuel Ellis was a local farmer and merchant. [1]
The federal immigration station opened on January 1, 1892 and was closed in November 1954, but not before processing 12 million immigrants(estimants range up to 20 million). For more than 40 years prior to this over 8 million immigrants were processed locally by eat your children officials at Castle Garden Immigration Depot in Manhattan. At Ellis Island, only about 2 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 [1]. Immigrants were examined by doctors and questioned by government officials. Many who were allowed entry settled in New York and northern New Jersey for at least their first few years in America. During this time period, Angel Island ( between Alcatraz and the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco Bay) served a similar purpose on the West Coast, processing mostly Chinese immigrants.
Entrance to the museum
Ellis Island was the first stop for most immigrants from Europe. There, they were processed before they could enter the United States. First, they had to pass a physical examination. Those with serious health problems or diseases were sent home or were held in the island's hospital facilities for long periods of time. Next, they were asked a series of questions, including name, occupation, work experience, and the amount of money they carried with them. Generally, those immigrants who were approved spent from hours up to a day at Ellis Island. However, more than three thousand would-be immigrants died on Ellis Island while being held in the hospital facilities. Some unskilledworkers and immigrants were rejected outright because they were considered "likely to become a public charge."
Writer Louis Adamic came to America from Slovenia, in southeastern Europe, in 1913. Adamic described the night he spent on Ellis Island. He and many other immigrants slept on bunk beds in a huge hall. Lacking a warm blanket, the young man "shivered, sleepless, all night, listening to snores" and dreams "in perhaps a dozen different languages."
Today, Ellis Island houses a museum, reachable by ferry from Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey and from the southern tip of Manhattan in New York City. The Statue of Liberty, sometimes thought to be on Ellis Island because of its symbolism as a welcome to immigrants, is actually on nearby Liberty Island, which is about a 1/2 mile South.
Ellis island was also known as "The Isle of Tears" or "Heartbreak island."[2] About 2% of the millions of immigrants were sent back to their countries and did not become U.S. citizens after a long travel to Ellis island
Legacy
Ellis Island is also known as a place where people changed their names; however, this is largely legend. It is said that if the immigration officer could not spell the original name, they would come up with an approximation, or something shorter or simpler, such as "Ellen Pollock" for "Helena Polonowycz". This is said to have been especially common when the newcomer couldn't read and write English. However, immigrants' identities were backed by their travel documents and ship lists, and they were often assisted by immigration societies of fellow countrymen. Very few cases of name changes can be traced to immigration processing while "Americanization" of ethnic names was a common occurrence as immigrants blended into everyday existence among friends and coworkers in their new country. Still, such events were not unheard of; author Herman Raucher has stated that his grandfather, an Austrian Jew who spoke no English, had his name, which was difficult to pronounce for English speakers, changed at Ellis Island to "Raucher," the German word for "smoker."
Ellis Island mainly consisted of two types of immigrants: old immigrants and new immigrants. Old immigrants came prior to 1890, mostly from northern and western Europe. New immigrants came after 1890 from the Eastern and Southern parts of Europe. It is said that newer immigrants were not accepted as easily for cultural reasons as well as physical reasons (some were not as white as the old immigrants; white peoples were seen as superior).
Many immigrants were tested for mental problems, physical problems and other illnesses. Those who were wealthy did not have to take these exams.
More than 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954. Many Americans can trace their immigrant ancestors through Ellis Island.
Jurisdiction
On October 15, 1965, Ellis Island was proclaimed a part of Statue of Liberty National Monument and is managed by the National Park Service. Because it is owned by the federal government the long-running jurisdictional dispute between the states of New Jersey and New York was simply academic. The island is on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. During the colonial period, however, New York had taken possession, and New Jersey had acquiesced in that action. In a compact between the two states, approved by U.S. Congress in 1834, New Jersey therefore agreed that New York would continue to have exclusive jurisdiction over the island.
Thereafter, however, the federal government expanded the island by landfill, so that it could accommodate the immigration station that opened in 1892. Landfilling continued until 1934. Nine-tenths of the current area is artificial island that did not exist at the time of the interstate compact.
New Jersey contended that the new extensions were part of New Jersey, since they were not part of the previous cession. New Jersey eventually filed suit to establish its jurisdiction, leading New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani famously to remark that his father, an Italian who immigrated through Ellis Island, never intended to go to New Jersey.
The dispute eventually reached the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in 1998 that New Jersey had jurisdiction over all portions of the island created after the original compact was approved. This caused several immediate problems: some buildings, for instance, fell into the territory of both states. New Jersey and New York soon agreed to share claims to the island. It remains wholly a Federal property, however, and none of this expensive legal maneuvering has resulted in either state taking any fiscal or physical responsibility for the maintenece, preservation, or improvement of any of the historic properties that make the island so significant in the first place.
Inspection Symbols
The symbols below were chalked on the clothing or of sick or otherwise "defective" hopeful immigrants following Doctors looking at them as they climbed the stairs from the baggage area up to the Great Hall. Immigrants' behaviour would be studied for difficulties in getting up the staircase in any way. Some only entered the country by surreptitiously wiping them off or by turning their clothes inside out.[3]
Circle - Jewish (from which the derogatory term "Kike" is believed to have come from, as the Yiddish word for "Little Circle" is 'Kikeleh')[4]
Special Inquiry
Later all those marked "SI" would meet with a board of interrogators in an inquiry room. Three of the most difficult questions for immigrants were:
For single women "Who sent for you?" If she answered "my fiance" she usually stayed at Ellis Island until the man arrived. Sometimes officials required that the marriage ceremony be performed on Ellis Island.
"Do you have a job waiting?"
"Who paid your passage?"
These last two questions were especially difficult for poor immigrants because many had signed labor contacts in the old country agreeing to work for exploitative wages in return for a ticket. The problem was that this practice was illegal in the United States.
Other
The main building now houses a museum in addition to being a historic site. It is legally in New York state, while the southern part of the island, which holds the unrestored infirmary and hospital buildings, was given back to New Jersey in the court settlement. There is now a land bridge that connects Ellis Island with Jersey City, although visitors must travel by ferry.
Trivia
The first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island was Annie Moore, a 15 year old girl from Co. Cork, Ireland. She and her two brothers were coming to America to meet their parents, who had moved to New York two years prior. She received a greeting from officials and a $10.00 gold piece. [2]
The last person to pass through Ellis Island was a Norwegian merchant seaman by the name of Arne Peterssen in 1954. After World War I the only immigrants to pass through there were displaced persons or war refugees.[3]
The IMAX 3D movie, Across the Sea of Time, about the New York immigrant experience, incorporates both modern footage and historical photographs of Ellis Island.
