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Today Is National Ellis Island Family History Day

National Ellis Island Family History Day

National Ellis Island Family History Day is held annually on April 17th.  “Ellis Island, in Upper New York Bay, was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States as the nation’s busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1924.”  On this day in 1907, just under 12,000 names were recorded as passing through Ellis Island.  During all of 1907, over one million immigrants were processed through Ellis Island.

HOW TO OBSERVE

Use #EllisIslandFamilyHistoryDay to post on social media.

HISTORY

Faith Based Events

On April 17, 2001, the first National Ellis Island Family History Day was observed.  It was by official proclamation of our nation’s governors that April 17 be designated as “National Ellis Island Family History Day.”

Ellis Island History

On this page you will find a detailed history of Ellis Island. The below text details the actual origin of the island as a location for an immigration hub, all the way to its current status as a national monument.

Feel free to jump forward to specific sections, by clicking on a section title in the table of contents below:

   1700s: The Origin of the Island
   1794 – 1890: From Military Fort to National Gateway
   1800s: Immigration Policy Embraces the Masses
   1897 – 1900: Ellis Island Burns and Years of Records Lost
   1900s: Journeying By Ship to the Land of Liberty
   1907: A Record Year for New Americans
   1916: Arrival at the Island and Initial Inspection
   1924 – Present: Immigration Laws and Regulations Evolve
   1965: Ellis Island Dedicated as a National Monument

The Origin of the Island

From 1892 to 1954, over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the portal of Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor. Ellis Island is located in the upper bay just off the New Jersey coast, within the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. Through the years, this gateway to the new world was enlarged from its original 3.3 acres to 27.5 acres mostly by landfill obtained from ship ballast and possibly excess earth from the construction of the New York City subway system.

Before being designated as the site of the first Federal immigration station by President Benjamin Harrison in 1890, Ellis Island had a varied history. The local Indian tribes had called it “Kioshk” or Gull Island. Due to its rich and abundant oyster beds and plentiful and profitable shad runs, it was known as Oyster Island for many generations during the Dutch and English colonial periods.

By the time Samuel Ellis became the island’s private owner in the 1770s, the island had been called Kioshk, Oyster, Dyre, Bucking and Anderson’s Island. In this way, Ellis Island developed from a sandy island that barely rose above the high tide mark, into a hanging site for pirates, a harbor fort, ammunition and ordinance depot named Fort Gibson, and finally into an immigration station.


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