Ellis Island Opens

First Ellis Island Immigration Station in New York Harbor. Public domain. Available from Wikimedia Commons.

On 1 January 1892, Ellis Island opened. On that day, 700 immigrants arrived on three ships. The first immigrant processed was Annie Moore, an Irish teenager who arrived with her brothers Anthony and Philip. The original immigration station was destroyed by a fire on 15 June 1897. The second immigration station opened on 17 December 1900. Before it was completed, the passengers were processed at the Barge Office.

Ellis Island closed on 12 November 1954. More than twelve hundred immigrants had arrived at the port, which is shared by New York and New Jersey.

My Schneider ancestors immigrated in 1892, but I do not know if they came through Ellis Island. However, my 2nd-great-grandfather Carl Joseph Schneider arrived at the port when he returned from a visit to Germany. He sailed on the Noordland and arrived on 16 August 1900. By then, he had become an American citizen. He was listed on the manifest as Charles Schneider.

Manifest SS Noordland, arrival in New York, NY, 16 August 1900. Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957. Microfilm Publication T715. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.

My 2nd-great-grandfather Andrew T. Anderson (formerly Andreas Troedsson) also arrived at Ellis Island after a visit to his homeland. He traveled to Sweden in 1912, and returned on the Caronia on 28 July 1912.

Manifest SS Caronia, arrival in New York, NY, 28 July 1912. Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957. Microfilm Publication T715. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.

References
Ellis Island
Ellis Island History
9 Things You May Not Know About Ellis Island