Ellis Island This site is the result of resent revival of the Ellis Island site. The has been many press stories about saving and restoring the site and the work is ongoing. This site has a search able data base of passenger lists for persons that were processed through the port. This is the largest Passenger list site on line but still has limitations. The first passenger arrived at Ellis Island Jan 1 1892. Before that Passenger arrived at Castle Gardens and their arrival would have been recorded in the New York Times, maybe. After 1892 up until 1954 it was the arrival point for immigrants coming to New York.
Some 21 million people were processed through the port, depending on the political climate the flow of people varied from a high of 1,004,756 in 1907 to the port being almost closed during war years, in 1918 only 28,867 were processed. If you have ancestor that entered here the information that can be found here can vary for a blotted name on a passenger list to an absolutely wonderful capsule with pages of details. The search and most of the information is free, but be ready to see many offers to accept donations or buy photos of the ships that arrived or specially printed certificates and documents. Just a note here passenger lists are the least organized and hardest resource to find. Finding one can be the key the takes your research ‘across the ocean’ and will be the clue that tells you were to look once you get there. But don’t be disappointed if you can’t find a listing, these records were mostly considered local and the archiving is poor at best.
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