ELLIS ISLAND

ELLIS ISLAND. From 1892 to 1954, Ellis Island was a gateway for more than 12 million immigrants seeking access to the United States' way of life. Because of its historical significance and proximity to the statue, the site was declared part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, but the land and its buildings remained in decay and disrepair. After a $1 million cleanup grant by the federal government for the bicentennial in 1976, $165 million was raised in private donations to restore the main building, including the huge Great Hall, which was opened as a museum for visitors in 1990.

The federal government established its first immigration center at the site in 1890, using ballast from incoming ships as landfill to double the island in size. In

1892, Annie Moore from Ireland, age 15, was the first immigrant recorded to come through Ellis Island proper (for a few years before this, immigrants were processed at Castle Garden, still considered part of the Ellis Island experience today). In 1897, the original wooden buildings burned to the ground. While some records were lost, none of the ship manifests were lost as they were stored elsewhere. The main building that exists today was opened in 1900, and 389,000 immigrants were processed through it in the first year alone. The record number in one day occurred in 1907, with 11,747. By 1917, Congress required all immigrants over age 16 be literate, and quotas began a few years later.

An estimated forty percent, or over 100 million Americans, can trace their ancestry through at least one man, woman, or child who entered the country through Ellis Island. During the peak years, thousands of immigrants arrived each day. Each immigrant was checked for diseases, disabilities, and legal problems, and each name was recorded. In the confusion and with so many languages entering the country, many of the clerks wrote names based on English phonetic spellings or quick approximations, and many of these names have stayed with families to this day. People in steerage class on the crossing steam-ships were asked to board ferries that brought them to the Ellis Island facilities. There, they stood for hours in long lines reaching up the long stairs to the Great Hall, complete with children and all the belongings they had brought with them, awaiting inspection and passage through Ellis Island to the trains or boats that would take them to New York City or upstate New York, or on to other areas of the country. About two percent, or 250,000, did not pass the inspections and were turned around to go back to their countries of origin.

The open-door policy of immigration did not always exist at Ellis Island. In the 1920s, quotas were enacted; later, immigration processing was moved overseas. During World War II, the facility was used to house enemy aliens. Finally, the entryway was closed in 1954 and offered for sale as surplus government property, until the National Park Service took it over during the Johnson administration in 1965.

Today, thousands of visitors include a trip to Ellis Island with their visit to the Statue of Liberty. Ferries bring them to the hallowed island, much as they did years ago with their ancestors. A passenger database helps them locate their ancestors' records.

Connie AnnKirk

See alsoImmigration ; Immigration Restriction .

ELLIS ISLAND

Ellis Island is situated in the New York Harbor, off the southern tip of Manhattan. It was named for Samuel Ellis (n.d.), a merchant and farmer who owned the island during the late 1700s. New York acquired the land and, in 1808, sold it to the federal government. The site served as a fort and later, as an arsenal. By the end of the century record numbers of immigrants prompted the federal government to establish a bureau to process the new arrivals, the vast majority of whom entered the country at its largest port, New York City. On January 1, 1892, the Federal Immigration Station opened on Ellis Island—in the shadows of the Statue of Liberty (dedicated 1886 on nearby Bedloe Island). The Ellis Island facility, which by 1901 consisted of thirty-five buildings, was the country's chief immigration station. Its heaviest use was in processing the influx of immigrants who arrived between 1892 and 1924. The majority of new arrivals were European, but immigrants also came from the West Indies, Asia, and the Middle East. More men than women arrived at the immigration depot.

New arrivals (mostly third-class passengers; firstand second-class passengers were processed aboard their ships) were ferried from their transatlantic vessels to Ellis Island, where they disembarked and were guided into registration areas in the Great Hall and questioned by government officials who determined their eligibility to land. Upon completing the registration process newcomers were ushered into rooms where physicians examined them. The process, extremely business-like to the point of being dehumanizing, typically took between three to five hours. Ninety-eight percent of those arriving at Ellis Island were allowed into the country; two percent were turned back for medical reasons (as U.S. health officials tried to keep out infectious diseases) or for reasons of insanity or criminal record. Other facilities at the Ellis Island Immigration Station included showers, restaurants, railroad ticket offices, a laundry, and a hospital. At its peak the Ellis Island station processed some five thousand immigrants and non-immigrating aliens (visitors) daily.

The facility was closed on November 29, 1954— immigration quotas had drastically reduced the number of incoming people, eliminating the need for the mass processing center. On May 11, 1965, Ellis Island was designated a national historic site. During the 1980s it was extensively restored. More than twelve million people first entered the United States through Ellis Island; their descendants account for an estimated 40 percent of the nation's current population.

See also: Immigration

Ellis Island served as the entry point for millions of immigrants to the United States.Situated in upper New York Bay, the island has had various names, including Gibbet Island, recalling its history as an execution site where pirates were hanged as late as the 1850s. The present name comes from Samuel Ellis, a butcher who owned it in the 1780s. New York City ceded ownership to the state in 1794, which transferred it to the federal government in 1800. The city, however, retained jurisdiction for legal and tax purposes.

Enlarged to some twenty‐seven acres, Ellis Island opened as an immigration facility on 1 January 1892. Some 446,000 immigrants arrived that year. With the twelve million who followed came overcrowding, deterioration, and public‐health problems. Ellis Island also housed a hospital for immigrants detained for medical reasons. For those denied entry, Ellis became an “Island of Tears.” During World War II it was an enemy‐alien detention facility. The immigration center briefly reopened after the war, but closed permanently in 1954 and was declared surplus property in 1955. It reopened in 1965 as a museum of immigration history administered by the National Park Service as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.

Ellis Island lies between New York and New Jersey, and the two states long quarreled over it. In 1834, Congress approved a compact that granted New York jurisdiction over Ellis Island but gave New Jersey the submerged land west of the island. New Jersey revived its claim in the 1960s, arguing that its underwater land had subsequently been drained and made part of the island proper. Upholding this claim in 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court divided Ellis Island between the two states.
See also National Park System.

Bibliography

Thomas Monroe Pitkin , Keepers of the State: A History of Ellis Island, 1975.
Barbara Benton , Ellis Island, A Pictorial History, 1985.

Leo Hershkowitz

Ellis Island island, c.27 acres (10.9 hectares), in Upper New York Bay, SW of Manhattan island. Government-controlled since 1808, it was long the site of an arsenal and a fort, but most famously served (1892–1954) as the chief immigration station of the United States. It is estimated that 40% of all Americans had an ancestor arrive at Ellis Island. Now part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument (see Liberty, Statue of ), the island was opened to tourists in 1976. In 1990 an immigration museum was opened, and many records of immigrant arrivals have been computerized and are available there and on line. In 1998 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, pursuant to an 1834 interstate compact, only the original 3.3 acres (1.3 hectares) belong to New York, the remainder (created by landfill operations) belongs to New Jersey. See also Angel Island .

Ellis Island Island in Upper New York Bay, near Manhattan, se New York, USA. It acted as the main US immigration centre (1892–1943); at the height of immigration it was handling one million applicants annually. From 1943 to 1954, it was a detention centre for aliens and deportees. It is estimated that more than 20 million immigrants entered the United States via Ellis Island. Area: 11ha (27 acres).

Ellis Island (USA) An island in New York Bay off Manhattan Island. Long used as an arsenal and a fort, from 1892 until 1943 it served as the main US centre for immigration control. From 1943 until 1954 it was a detention centre for deportees, until it became part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1956. More than twelve million immigrants passed through Ellis Island.

http://www.ellisisland.com

Ellis Island an island in the bay of New York, formerly the site of a fort, that from 1892 until 1943 served as an entry point for immigrants to the US, and later (until 1954) as a detention centre for people awaiting deportation. The island is named after Samuel Ellis, a Manhattan merchant who owned it in the 1770s.

Ellis Island, New York/USA Within New York City, it was named after its owner in the 1770s, Samuel Ellis. Between 1892 and 1943 it was the main immigration centre for the USA.