If your name was changed at Ellis Island

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If your name was changedat Ellis Island

• Facts from
• Ellen Levine

Compliments of T. Atkins
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What was Ellis Island?
It was an immigration center located in New
York Harbor.
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Millions of newcomers passed through its
gates and were examined by doctors and legal
inspectors.
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Before Ellis Island opened, immigrants were
examined at Castle Garden at the tip of Manhattan
Island.
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When was Ellis Island opened?

• 1892

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At least 12 million people passed through Ellis
Island.
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Did all immigrants come through Ellis Island?
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Some immigrantsentered through other east coast
ports

• Boston
• Philidelphia

• Baltimore

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Other Ports

• New Orleans
• Galveston
• San Francisco

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In 1907 there were 70 immigration stations.
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If you had the most expensive tickets, 1st or 2nd
class, you were examined aboard the ship. If you
passed you were free to enter the country.
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Immigrants aboard a ship, waiting to unload.
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America The Golden Land
Free School Decent jobs People ate well
Why was it called that?
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Would everyone in your family come together?
It could take many years before you were reunited
with your family
Usually a father or an older sibling would come
first. That person would find work then send
money back for you.
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What did people bring with them?
People brought whatever they could carry. Some
had suitcases and trunks. Most had bundles
tied together with string. People
carried baskets, cardboard boxes, tins,
and leather sacks.
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Many immigrants brought their feather quilts,
mattresses, and pillows, for the steamships
just provided thin blankets
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Some people packed fancy clothes, specially
embroidered and crotched. Sometimes people wore
layers of all their clothing so they wouldnt
have to pack them
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Often they brought food for the long trip over
the ocean, like smoked sausages or hams.
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How did people travel to the ships that brought
them to America?
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If you lived out in the country, you often had to
go to a big town to catch a train to the port.
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Other people from Russia or Poland left in the
dead of the night to escape mobs that
were beating and murdering people.
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If you had to cross into another country before
you reached your port, you needed a special
permit.
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If you reached a border and did not have a
permit, you might have to bribe the border guard
to let you pass.
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The trip overland sometimes took weeks. Finally
when you arrived at a port city, you might have
to wait a week or two, sometimes even longer,
until the ship was ready to depart.
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Were you examined before you left for America?
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According to a U.S. law, ship companies had to
pay the return fare for anyone who had to be
sent back from America. So, before leaving,
ship doctors examined all passengers to see if
they had any illnesses that would prevent them
from being allowed to enter the U.S.
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Doctors vaccinated and disinfected all
passengers. Men and boys often had their hair
very short, and women and girls had theirs
combed very carefully to look for lice, which
carried the deadly disease typhus.
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The ship companies also had to prepare a
manifest- a list of information about everybody
on board the ship. Each immigrant was assigned a
number, and the ships captain listed
everyones nationality, age, sex,
destination, and occupation.
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They were asked if they could read and write,
whether they were married, and how many pieces
of baggage they had. The list was given to the
immigration inspectors when the ship landed in
America.
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How long would the trip last?
If there were no bad storms or other problems,
the trip usually took about six to thirty-two
days.
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Where would you sleep and eat on the ship?
1st and 2nd class had a private cabin to sleep
in, and food would be served in a dining room.
Most immigrants were steerage. This area was
below the deck on the lowest level of the ship.
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Several hundred passengers were crammed into
steerage with no fresh air. They slept in narrow
bunk-beds, sometimes 3 high.
There was 1 bath area for all of steerage, with
sink faucets that frequently didnt work.
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The food was not very good. They ate lukewarm
soup, boiled potatoes, and stringy beef.
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Some immigrants reported all they ate was
herring, bread and potatoes. The one good
thing about the herring is it cured seasickness.
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How can a steerage passenger remember he was a
human being when he must first pick worms from
his foodand eat in his stuffy, stinking bunk,
or in the hot atmosphere of a compartment
where 150 men sleep?
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Would you go straight to Ellis Island when you
arrived in New York Harbor?
All the ships were stopped in lower NY bay,
where doctors boarded. They checked passengers
for contagious diseases.
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There were 2 small islands in the lower bay. If
you were sick, youd be put in a hospital on
one of them. If the doctors thought you had been
exposed to a disease, theyd place you on the
other island for observation.
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Further up the bay, immigration officers would
examine all 1st and 2nd class passengers. The
boat would then dock at the tip of Manhattan
and those that passed were allowed to enter the
country. All steerage passengers went to Ellis
Island, no matter what.
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Even after arriving, frequently they stayed on
board ship for one or more nights until
barges could take them to Ellis Island for
further examinations.
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One passenger said, Isnt it strange that here
we are coming to America where there is
complete equality, but not quite so for the
newly arrived immigrants.
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Ellis Island was like a miniature city. There
were waiting rooms, dormitories for over a
thousand people, restaurants, a hospital,
baggage room, post office, banks to exchange
foreign money, a railroad ticket office,
medical and legal examination rooms,
baths, laundries, office areas for charities,
and courtrooms.
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When the barge pulled up to the dock at Ellis
Island the first place you went was The Great
Hall to be inspected by doctors.
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Who examined you once you got to Ellis Island?
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As soon as you arrived you were examined. They
did not know it was happening. When you walked
they watched to see if you limped, or had
difficulty breathing.
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Children older than 2 had to walk on their own.
All immigrants were asked their names to see if
they could hear and speak.
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Doctors used a finger or a buttonhook to
roll back your eyelids to see if you had a
contagious disease called trachoma.
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The walk up the stairs was called the six-second
medical, and then the doctors at the top usually
took two to three minutes to examine you. All
examines together took less than 5 minutes.
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What if they found something wrong with you?
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X
Possible Mental Case
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B
Back Problems
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E
Problem with eyes.
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P
Physical Problem or Lungs
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Sc
Scalp Problems
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L
Lameness
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CT
Trachoma
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If you were found sick, but Curable you were
taken to the hospital until you were better.
If your disease was contagious and incurable, you
were put in a special hospital until a ship
could take you home.
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If you were marked with an X the doctors were
uncertain that you would be able to work. They
gave you some intelligence tests that included
math problems, they would ask you to count
backwards, and do some puzzles.
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Who were the inspectors?
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Inspectors asked you between twenty and thirty
questions. They had to decide whether you were
clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to land.
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Did you have to have money when you arrived?
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At first all you had to have was ten dollars and
money for a railroad ticket.
Later the amount raised to 25. The rule was
later dropped, but inspectors continued to use it.
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Did you have to have a job waiting for you?
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You could not have a job waiting for you. In
1885 US Congress passed a law that said
employers could not make contracts
with immigrants to bring them to America.
Congress was afraid that immigrants would accept
lower wages than American workers, and take
jobs form those that already lived here.
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You could be deported if the inspectors thought
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• had committed crimes
• in your old country.

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• had a job when you arrived in America
• wouldnt be able to support yourself
• had certain mental or physical problems that
  would keep you from working

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How long did you stay at Ellis Island?
Most people were questioned, examined, and ready
to leave the island after three to five hours.
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If you were detained, or arrived at night, you
were served meals in the Ellis Island
restaurant. There were 2 kitchens, 1
for religious Jews, and one
regular.
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If you stayed overnight youd sleep either in a
hospital bed or in a dormitory. During the
years of the greatest migration to the US, both
were overcrowded.
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Why did some immigrants change their names?
Some were afraid their names were too
long. Sometimes the inspectors got confused and
wrote down the wrong thing.
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What was the Staircase of Separation?
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Whether you passed all the examinations or were
detained, you went down the staircase.
Straight ahead led to the much-feared detention
rooms
A turn to left led to the ferry to Manhattan.
A turn to the right at the bottom led you to the
railroad ticket office.
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Angel Island
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Angel Island

• In 1905, construction of an Immigration Station
  began in the area known as China Cove.
• The station was finally put into operation in
  1910.
• Known as "Ellis Island of the West
• Within the Immigration Service it was known as
  "The Guardian of the Western Gate"
• Designed to control the flow of Chinese into the
  country, who were officially not welcome with the
  passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

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Angel Island

• Some detainees expressed their feelings in poetry
  that they brushed or carved onto the wooden walls
  of the detention center.
• Others simply waited, hoping for a favorable
  response to their appeals, but fearing
  deportation.
• Many of the poems that were carved into the walls
  of the center are still legible today.

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Detention Center

• This facility was primarily a detention center. 
• Beginning with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882,
  a series of restrictive laws had prohibited the
  immigration of certain nationalities and social
  classes of Asians.
• Although all Asians were affected, the greatest
  impact was on the Chinese. 

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Processed Picture Brides

• By 1920, an estimated 6,000 to 19,000 Japanese
  "picture brides" were processed through Angel
  Island.
• Immigrants from other Pacific Rim countries,
  including Russia, Korea, the Philippines, and
  Japan, were detained here.
• During World War I, "enemy aliens" (most of them
  German citizens who had been arrested on board
  ships in West Coast harbors) were held at the
  Immigration Station. These men were later
  transferred to permanent detention quarters in
  North Carolina.

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Japanese Picture Brides Arriving at Ellis Island
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Katherine Mauer with Asian Immigrants in Waiting
Room
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Closing Angel Island

• In 1940, the government decided to abandon the
  Immigration Station on Angel Island.
• Their decision was hastened by a fire that
  destroyed the administration building in August
  of that year.
• On November 5, the last group of about 200 aliens
  (including about 150 Chinese) was transferred
  from Angel Island to temporary quarters in San
  Francisco.
• The so-called "Chinese Exclusion Acts", which
  were adopted in the early 1880s, were repealed by
  federal action in 1943, because by that time,
  China was an ally of the U.S. in World War II

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Prisoner Processing Center

• In 1941, following the departure of the
  Immigration Service from the island, the station
  property was turned back to the Army, and it
  became the North Garrison of Fort McDowell. 
• When World War II began, the old detention
  barracks became a Prisoner of War Processing
  Center, and German and Japanese prisoners were
  processed there before being sent to permanent
  camps in the interior. 

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Compare/Contrast Angel Island and Ellis Island

• What to do
• Use a Venn Diagram to compare Angel Island to
  Ellis Island