This was, by far, the one thing that I was looking forward to on our trip to New York. Hadley and I absolutely love history and we thought it would be cool to check out where our ancestors made their arrival into the New World. Only they didn’t. More on that in a bit…

Ellis Island is an amazing place to experience. Over the course of 62yrs, between 1892 & 1954 more than 12 million immigrants were processed here. It became a place of hope for all, but it wasn’t realized for everyone who crossed over its threshold. Many immigrants made it to the New World to become American citizens, but many more were met with devastation and sent back to their port of call, never to return.

The main hall that receives the passengers from the Ferry has been restored to it’s former greatness and now houses a museum showcasing photographs, stories and personal possessions donated by the families who’s ancestors passed through Ellis. It’s an amazing look back in time and well worth the visit.

Jennifer, the awesome wife that she is, signed us up for the “Hard Hat Tour”. A kind of behind the scenes if you will. This add on tour brings you on a guided trip through the older unrestored buildings on the island and really tells the in depth story about life on Ellis. We were able to visit the laundry facilities, the psychiatric ward, hospital, mortuary, operating rooms, infectious disease ward, power house and many others. It was an amazing experience and one that we would highly recommend to anyone visiting. If you’d like to find out more about these tours visit:

http://www.saveellisisland.org

We are in no way affiliated with them. The tour really was that good and we’d be remiss if we didn’t share it with you.

In the main reception hall, there are kiosk where you can search the records for your ancestors that had passed through Ellis Island. It’s a pretty cool experience and one you should be slightly prepared for with possibly a name or a date of some sort… We were not and came up empty handed. However, our ever vigilant daughter with the power of the internet was able to discover why we were not able to locate our relatives, even though I knew they had come in through New York. It turns out that our relatives arrived to the New World in September of 1874, eighteen years before Ellis Island opened. Which means they would’ve been processed through immigration at Castle Garden, now known as Castle Clinton National Monument at Battery Park in New York City. I guess it’s a good thing that we were able to visit Battery Park on our way to explore more of New York City later that day.