Ellis Island

Ellis Island opened as a federal immigration station in 1892, processing millions of immigrants to the US until it closed in 1954.  It was the busiest immigration station in the country, opened to cope with the biggest wave of immigration the US had ever seen, peaking in the late-19th and early-20th centuries.  However, Ellis Island was all but abandoned after closing in 1954, and it was in a state of disrepair when President Lyndon Johnson issued a proclamation in 1965 making Ellis Island a part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.  In 1990, the historic Main Building dating back to 1900 reopened as the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, and with renewed federal support Ellis Island is being restored to its former glory. 

• Learn about the “six-second physical” as doctors quickly checked incoming immigrants for medical conditions
• Discover the story of the island’s reputation as an “Island of Tears,” for the two percent of immigrants turned away from the US mostly for medical or legal reasons, and see the “Kissing Post” where cleared new arrivals reunited with friends and family in America for the first time
• See if any of your ancestors are in the immigration records at the American Family Immigration History Center