Historical Context: Prior to 1890, the individual states (rather than the Federal government) regulated immigration into the United States. Castle Garden in the Battery (originally known as Castle Clinton) served as the New York State immigration station from 1855 to 1890 and approximately eight million immigrants, mostly from Northern and Western Europe, passed through its doors. These early immigrants came from nations such as England, Ireland, Germany and the Scandinavian countries and constituted the first large wave of immigrants that settled and populated the United States. Throughout the 1800's and intensifying in the latter half of the 19th century, ensuing political instability, restrictive religious laws and deteriorating economic conditions in Europe began to fuel the largest mass human migration in the history of the world. It soon became apparent that Castle Garden was ill-equipped and unprepared to handle the growing numbers of immigrants arriving yearly. Unfortunately compounding the problems of the small facility were the corruption and incompetence found to be commonplace at Castle Garden. From Ellis Island.org, http://www.ellisisland.org/genealogy/ellis_island_history.asp

Questions Asked:
Given Name
Surname
Approximate Year of Birth
Date of Arrival
Age of Arrival
Residence

Why This database is Valuable: The Ellis Island Passenger Arrival Records contains details for more than 24 million passengers and crew who arrived through the Port of New York at Ellis Island between January 1, 1892 and December 31, 1924. This index is provided in cooperation with FamilySearch and The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation and contains passenger name, residence, year of arrival, and age on arrival. More complete records available on www.ellisisland.org also provide: ethnicity, exact date of arrival, gender, marital status, name of ship, and port of departure. The site also provides digital images of passenger ships and original passenger manifests which include even more details for each passenger - their final destination in America , physical conditions, education and more. You can also learn about the Ellis Island Immigration Experience.

Next Steps: Depending upon the year that a passenger came into the United States, their previous residence is often listed giving an instant location of where to check for records going back years. A good way of checking on the location in question is to first try Googling the location to make sure that it is spelled correctly, and then search for a gazetteer to make sure that you have the full government administrative divisions for the place in question. This will help when searching for documents on the Family History Library Catalog's Place Search option. If the location is found (likely), then there could be any sort of pertinent data for the person in question and/or for their family. For an example, Slovakia during the 1890's was part of Hungary and all Hungarian vital records up through the early 20th century have been microfilmed by FamilySearch (formerly GSU) and there are new announcements concerning partnerships between FamilySearch and many societies and locations worldwide. Though the current chance that there will be information on family members via films of the FHL, there is an even greater chance as time goes by and partnerships enfold.

The Ellis Island Passenger Arrival Records contains details for more than 24 million passengers and crew who arrived through the Port of New York at Ellis Island between January 1, 1892 and December 31, 1924. This index is provided in cooperation with FamilySearch and The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation and contains passenger name, residence, year of arrival, and age on arrival. More complete records available on www.ellisisland.org also provide: ethnicity, exact date of arrival, gender, marital status, name of ship, and port of departure. The site also provides digital images of passenger ships and original passenger manifests which include even more details for each passenger - their final destination in America , physical conditions, education and more. You can also learn about the Ellis Island Immigration Experience.