ELLIS ISLAND (1892-1954)

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ELLIS ISLAND (1892-1954)
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Ellis Island LOCATION
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What is Ellis Island?

• US government building on Ellis Island, NY
  (Built 1892)
• Processing station that regulated the massive
  flow of immigrants coming to the US from
  1892-1954
• Station where immigrants were checked for
  disease, disability, etc before being allowed
  into the US (also helped US keep a record of who
  was entering the country).

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Why Build Ellis Island?

• Immigrants usually had a limited knowledge of
  English and American ways
• Immigrants often fell prey to swindlers thieves
  that frequented major ports of immigrant entry.
• To prevent that sort of criminal activity and
  regulate foreigners, US government built Ellis
  Island!

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Obstacles

• Ellis Island Original Building burned
  down-replaced by brick structures
• Federal Government had difficult task of ridding
  Ellis Island of corruption and thievery.
• President T. Roosevelt Very involved in removing
  immigrant officials/employees of Ellis Island who
  were found guilty of tricking immigrants out of
  their money and other crimes.

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Immigrant Regulation

• Federal Government did NOT want immigrants
  bringing contagious diseases into the country
• Also did not want to admit anyone likely to
  become a ward of the state

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Medical Examiners

• E.I. Doctors denied anyone
• Anyone having or suspected of having any of
  several defects or diseases of the body OR mind.
  (i.e. trachoma disease of eyes common in SE
  Europe)
• Stair walk, health exam, interviews,
  mental/intelligence tests all were part of the
  process.

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Medical Exams
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Quote

• The doctors and everybody else that were
  supposed to interrogate us were dressed in
  uniforms. That had terrible effect on me. We
  were scared of the uniforms. It took us back to
  the Russian uniforms that we were running away
  from.
• -Katherine Beychok, Russian Jewish Immigrant in
  1910

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Quote

• They asked us questions. How much is two and
  one? How much is two and two? But the next young
  girl, also from our city, went and they asked
  her, How do you wash stairs, from the top or
  from the bottom? She says, I dont come to
  America to wash stairs.
• -Pauline Notkoff, a Polish Jewish immigrant
  (1917)

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Result of Ellis Island

• A new beginning (US industry had created many
  jobs for foreign workers)
• Families Split Up (trauma)
• Many immigrants received new names
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vp2lJs-0swH8modere
  latedsearch (Hanson Family)

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A New Beginning!

• 6 Decades 71 of all immigrants in US
• By 1954 20 million passed through E.I.
• ½ of all Americans can trace their ancestry by
  way of E.I.!!

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Quote

• I remember my grandfather always telling me how
  he knew he could be rich in America because he
  saw riches in the architecture of Ellis Island.
  He felt that if they let the poor in such a
  gorgeous hall then life in this country was
  just.
• -Rosanne Welch, granddaughter of Guiseppe
  Italiano (1904)

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Can You Trace Your Ancestors To E.I.?