Daily AncestorAngel Island
Angel Island was the federal immigration station in San Francisco Bay from 1910 to 1940, where Pacific arrivals, above all Chinese, were held and questioned.
Passengers with papers in order often landed directly in San Francisco; those with questioned documents went by ferry to the island for a medical exam and a hearing. Chinese arrivals faced long interrogations meant to catch false family claims under the exclusion laws, and cases could take days, months or longer.
A fire burned the administration building on August 12, 1940, and the station moved to San Francisco. The hearing transcripts in Chinese case files at the National Archives are rich in family and village detail.
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Daily Ancestor. "Angel Island." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/immigration/angel-island. Last checked 2026-10-03.