LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Ellis Island: New York
built 213 days ago
York Bay, a short distance from the New Jersey shore, Ellis Island was originally known to Native Americans as Kioshk, or Gull Island, named for the birds that were its only inhabitants. Consisting of nothing more than three acres of soft mud and clay, it was so low that it barely rose above the high-tide level of the bay.
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Records of passengers that arrived at Ellis Island after 1924 aren't yet available in the Ellis Island database. These records are available on microfilm from the National Archives and your local Family History Center. Indexes exist for New York passenger lists from June 1897 to 1948.
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Ellis Island is ... known as a place where people changed their names. If the immigration officer couldn't spell the original name, they'd come up with an approximation, or something shorter or simpler. This was especially common when the newcomer couldn't read and write English.
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During this period, Ellis Island was used by the military a lot. British fleets were sailing freely into the New York City Harbor. To prevent the British from doing this, America made coastal fortifications, just prior to the war of 1812.
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Sometimes new arrivals had to wait aboard their ships for days before being transferred to Ellis Island. Once there, they were often confined to the overcrowded barges for hours without food or water, waiting for their turn to disembark for inspection. The barges, chartered by the steamship lines lacked adequate toilets and lifesaving equipment, they were freezing cold in winter and unbearably hot in the summer. When disembarking at Ellis Island, some immigrants were so encumbered with large bundles that they kept their health certificates handy by clenching them between their teeth. Their assortment of baggage contained what must have been their most prized but portable belongings: clothing, feather beds, dinnerware, as well as photographs, family prayer books and other mementoes of the homeland.
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More than 17 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954. The first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island was Annie Moore, a 15-year-old girl from County Cork, Ireland, on January 1, 1892. She and her two brothers were coming to America to meet their parents, who had moved to New York two years prior. She received a greeting from officials and a $10.00 gold piece.[3] The last person to pass through Ellis Island was a Norwegian merchant seaman by the name of Arne Peterssen in 1954. After 1924 when the National Origins Act was passed, the only immigrants to pass through there were displaced persons or war refugees.[4] Today, over 100 million Americans can trace their ancestry to the immigrants who first arrived in America through the island before dispersing to points all over the country.
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