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From:
Subject: [MDCAROLI] Looking Beyond Ellis Island
Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 19:59:59 EST

Hi list,

I received this from another mailing list & thought it would
be helpful! :)

Happy hunting, Helen (DCGS)

This newsletter has some interesting background for those of you looking
for immigration records in NY in the 1800's:

Family Tree Finders
by Rhonda R. McClure
Email:
..............................................
FAMILY TREE FINDERS
Tuesday - 4 December 2001
Immigrant ancestors came through many ports in addition to Ellis Island.

Looking Beyond Ellis Island

Most people think that Ellis Island has existed since people started
arriving on ship in New York. And in some cases, people assume that if
someone immigrated to the United States, they had to go through the port
of New York. This is a misconception.

There were a number of eastern seaboard ports that our ancestors used to
arrive in the United States. In addition to the port of New York,
passengers entered the country through Boston, Baltimore, and
Philadelphia.

Castle Garden was officially opened on 1 August 1855. Before this, there
was no set place where immigrants were processed. As the boats pulled
into Manhattan, immigrants disembarked from wherever the ship was
docked. There was no processing center as we understand it today from
our exposure to Ellis Island.
Castle Garden was located on Manhattan, in Battery Park to be specific.
It occupied the Southwest tip of Manhattan. On the Southeast tip of
Manhattan sat the Barge Office. At two different times during the
history of the port of New York, the Barge Office was used for
processing immigrants. Castle Garden was officially closed on 18 April
1890. By this time it was literally bursting at the seams in trying to
handle the onslaught of immigrants swarming through the port of New
York. Of course, Ellis Island did not open until 1 January 1892. During
the interim eighteen months, immigrants were processed through the Barge
Office.

The next time the Barge Office was used was when the wooden buildings on
Ellis Island were destroyed by fire on 14 December 1897. The fire did
not take any lives, but it rendered the recently built Ellis Island
station useless until it was rebuilt. Rebuilding took two and a half
years and Ellis Island reopened on 17 December 1900.

As I mentioned earlier, there are other eastern seaboard ports that were
also busy admitting immigrants. Many people automatically think of Ellis
Island when thinking of an immigrant and often times Ellis Island is
used synonymously with the Port of New York. As researchers, though, we
do our research a disservice by concentrating solely on the Port of New
York.

In searching the Internet, I found a number of sites that deal
specifically with the immigration center by combining the term "Castle
Garden" (yes, with the quotation marks) and New York. Here are a few
sites with pictures and
information.
-- Castle Garden, New York City - great photo of the Castle Garden
Immigrant Station
(http://home.att.net/~germanroots/ellisisland/castl egarden.html)
-- Immigrant Processing Centers for New York
(http://germanroots.home.att.net/ellisisland/)
-- The Immigrant Experience
(http://members.tripod.com/~L_Alfano/immig.htm)

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