Ellis Island arrivals, 1892 to 1924

Key dates at Ellis Island

According to the National Park Service chronology, the station formally opened in 1892, and Annie Moore of Ireland was the first immigrant processed. On June 14, 1897 a fire destroyed the wooden buildings, and processing moved to the Barge Office in Battery Park, Manhattan. A new fireproof main building opened on December 17, 1900. The busiest year was 1907, when 1.2 million aliens were examined.

The 1897 fire matters for research. A National Archives article notes that the immigration service's own Ellis Island manifests only date back to June 1897, so for an arrival between 1892 and mid-1897, look for the customs passenger list for New York instead. Our passenger lists guide explains that gap.

In 1924 the National Origins Act required immigrants to get visas at American consulates before they sailed. After mid-1924, the Park Service explains, inspection moved for most passengers to the consulates in the home country, which is why 1924 marks the end of Ellis Island's peak years.

The manifest was made before the ship sailed

Shipping companies created the manifests, and the answers were taken down at the port of departure. At Ellis Island, an immigrant inspector questioned each person and checked the answers against what was already written on the manifest. The Park Service calls it a myth that names were changed at Ellis Island, since the inspectors worked from lists the shipping companies made.

An 1893 law required passengers to be listed in convenient groups of no more than thirty names per page, which officers took to mean members of the same family or people from the same town or village. Each passenger got a numbered ticket matching the page and line of the entry. So the people on the lines around your ancestor may well be relatives or neighbors, and are worth reading.

Reading the columns

The Park Service lists what the lists added over time. From 1893 they record marital status, nationality, last residence and final destination, whether the passenger had been in the United States before and when and where, and the name, address and relationship of any relative the passenger was joining. Race was added in 1903; a physical description and birthplace in 1906; the name and address of the nearest relative back home in 1907; and whether the person could read and write in 1909. By 1924 a manifest held at least 31 pieces of information about each alien passenger.

Later alien manifests, like the 1920 example the National Archives shows, are two-page records, so one passenger's entry runs across two sheets. Copy the line number from the first page and find the same line on the second, or you will miss half the columns. Not every list from these years has every column, so check what the form on your page actually asks.

Marks and notes on the page

The National Archives explains why a name may be crossed out. Someone who booked passage but did not sail was usually crossed off with N.O.B., for not on board, or did not sail or not shipped in the left margin. Duplicate entries were struck out to leave one official entry. A person who stayed aboard for a later port might be crossed off at the first port and appear on that port's list instead. Notes may also send you to another sheet, as when a passenger listed among U.S. citizens was transferred to the alien manifest.

If a passenger was detained, the Park Service says the manifest should include notes about it, usually both at the main entry and on a separate page listing all detainees. Inspectors could admit only people clearly entitled to enter. Excluded classes included contract laborers, paupers, convicted criminals and anyone likely to become a public charge.

Inspectors wrote their notes in red and blue ink, which, a National Archives article notes, appear only in black on the microfilm. The original paper manifests were destroyed after filming, so the film, and images made from it, are what survive.

Who appears, and who does not

The Port of New York records include almost everyone on every ship entering from overseas, not only the immigrants who passed through the island's main hall. First and second class passengers were inspected on board ship, and U.S. citizens and crew also appear. The port included docks in New Jersey as well as New York City.

Not every Ellis Island name you find online is an arrival record. The American Immigrant Wall of Honor on the island lists people whose families paid to inscribe their names, and is not a list of all immigrants who came through.