A Brief History of Castle Garden and Ellis Island

New York and Ellis Island immediately come to mind when you think of "immigration." And no wonder, since it is estimated that some 20 million immigrants enter the United States through the doors of Ellis Island, and it is still within the living memory of many thousands of Americans. But New York was not the main port for immigrants to America before the middle of the 19th century; Baltimore, Boston, Galveston, Philadelphia, and New Orleans were other noteworthy ports. The Ellis Island immigration center did not open until 1892, and other facilities in New York were used for processing immigrants. Here is a timeline of New York immigration facilities.

Prior to 1820, immigration laws did not require record keeping of any kind, although there are still some extant ship manifests, although they are minimal. The law changed in 1820, and masters of all ships arriving in the United States were required to record all passengers’ names on the ship’s passenger lists. But no immigrant processing took place, and upon arrival, passengers were free to simply walk off the ship.

Beginning in 1855, the State of New York began processing immigrants at a facility in lower Manhattan known as Castle Garden. Under new legislation, the Federal Government assumed responsibility for immigration in 1890, but had no facility in New York. New York State, upset with the new law, refused to allow the use of their facilities, and a temporary immigration center was established at the Barge Office while facilities on Ellis Island were constructed (1890-91).

Ellis Island opened January 1, 1892, and until 1924, more than 12 million third class and steerage passengers were processed at Ellis Island, except for the three-year period of 1897 to 1900, when Ellis Island was closed due to fire damage, and processing returned to the Barge Office. Wealthy immigrants traveling first and second class were automatically granted entry into the United States. They had to undergo a 10-second "physical examination" and answer a 29 questions including their name, occupation, and the amount of money they carried.

With passage of the "quota laws," after 1924, passengers were processed by U.S. Embassy personnel overseas and there was no need for the massive infrastructure of Ellis Island. From 1924 until 1954, Ellis remained open for "special cases." However, in reality, it was mostly used for war detainees and refugees; Italians and Japanese were detained or interned, but the major group of detainees were German Americans, falsely accused of being Nazis during World War II. It formally closed November 1954,and is now administered by the National Parks Service.

Records from these periods are divided into three groups and are online as:

• Pre-Castle Garden Database (1820-1850), available on Ancestry.com, consisting of a searchable name index. Images are no available on-line but may be obtained through the National Archives, microfilm records for series M237, rolls 1 to 94, or the holdings of the Family History Library.
• The Castle Garden Database (1851 to 1891), is available from Ancestry.com $$ or free at castlegarden.org. The castlegarden.org website is missing many records and does not have manifest images online; Ancestry.com does.
• The Ellis Island Database (1892 to 1924) is available from Ancestry.com $$ or free at ellisisland.org.