Ellis Island

Steerage passengers went there by ferry or barge for medical and legal inspection, which usually took a few hours; first and second class were mostly checked aboard ship. Only about two percent were refused entry, most often for contagious disease or as likely to become a public charge.

Inspectors worked from manifests already filled in abroad and were told not to change names, so the family story that a name was changed at Ellis Island is seldom true. A fire in 1897 destroyed the first wooden buildings.