Ellis Island Family History

On April 17th, 1907, 11,747 names were recorded as passing through Ellis Island.  It was the busiest day of Immigration in U.S. history.  While in operation from 1892 to 1954, roughly 12 million immigrants. passed through Ellis Island.  Among these were my Grandmother and my mother (age 17 and 10 weeks). My Grandparents met when my grandfather was stationed in England during WW2 and married on May 8, 1945.  Grandma and my mother arrived in America, for the first time, in June of 1946.   Grandma once shared with me her instances of culture shock, the biggest was when she was brought to a supermarket for the first time.  Keep in mind that food rationing started in January of 1940 in England and continued even after the war (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom).  Grandma said her first instinct was to fill the cart because she had  a "get it before its gone" mentality and had trouble believing that the store would just restock their shelves    

April 17th is NATIONAL ELLIS ISLAND FAMILY HISTORY DAY and to encourage people to  get to know their family history.   Statue of Liberty— Ellis Island Foundation, Inc offers a searchable passenger list, that includes the passenger record, the ship manifest, and ship information. 

You can also explore your ancestry at the library!  When you're logged into one of our computers, just check out the Virtual Library and click on the link for ancestrylibrary.com in our eResources.

Encountering Ellis Island: How European Immigrants Entered America by Bayor, Ronald H.

America is famously known as a nation of immigrants. Millions of Europeans journeyed to the United States in the peak years of 1892-1924, and Ellis Island, New York, is where the great majority landed. Ellis Island opened in 1892 with the goal of placing immigration under the control of the federal government and systematizing the entry process. Encountering Ellis Island introduces readers to the ways in which the principal nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American portal for Europeans worked in practice, with some comparison to Angel Island, the main entry point for Asian immigrants.

America Classifies the Immigrants: From Ellis Island to the 2020 census by Perlmann, Joel

When more than twenty million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1880 and 1920, the government attempted to classify them according to prevailing ideas about race and nationality. But this proved hard to do. Ideas about racial or national difference were slippery, contested, and yet consequential--were "Hebrews" a "race," a "religion," or a "people"? As Joel Perlmann shows, a self-appointed pair of officials created the government's 1897 List of Races and Peoples, which shaped exclusionary immigration laws, the wording of the U.S. Census, and federal studies that informed social policy. Its categories served to maintain old divisions and establish new ones. Across the five decades ending in the 1920s, American immigration policy built increasingly upon the belief that some groups of immigrants were desirable, others not. Perlmann traces how the debates over this policy institutionalized race distinctions--between whites and nonwhites, but also among whites--in immigration laws that lasted four decades. Despite a gradual shift among social scientists from "race" to "ethnic group" after the 1920s, the diffusion of this key concept among government officials and the public remained limited until the end of the 1960s. Taking up dramatic changes to racial and ethnic classification since then, America Classifies the Immigrants concentrates on three crucial reforms to the American Census: the introduction of Hispanic origin and ancestry (1980), the recognition of mixed racial origins (2000), and a rethinking of the connections between race and ethnic group (proposed for 2020).-- Provided by publisher.

 What was Ellis Island? by Demuth, Patricia.      

One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle over American Immigration, 1924-1965 by Yang, Jia Lynn

"A sweeping history of the legislative battle to reform American immigration laws that set the stage for the immigration debates roiling America today. The idea of the United States as a nation of immigrants is today so pervasive, and seems so foundational, that it can be hard to believe Americans ever thought otherwise. But a 1924 law passed by Congress instituted a system of ethnic quotas so stringent that it choked off large-scale immigration for decades, sharply curtailing immigration from southern and eastern Europe and outright banning people from nearly all of Asia. In a compelling narrative with a fascinating cast of characters, Jia Lynn Yang recounts how a small number of lawmakers, activists, and presidents worked relentlessly for the next forty years to abolish the 1924 law and its quotas. Their efforts established the new mythology of the United States as "a nation of immigrants" that is so familiar to all of us now. Through a world war, a global refugee crisis, and a McCarthyist fever that swept the country, these Americans never stopped trying to restore the United States to a country that lived up to its vision as a home for "the huddled masses" from Emma Lazarus's famous poem. When the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, one of the most transformative laws in the country's history, ended the country's system of racial preferences among immigrants, it opened the door to Asian, Latin American, African, and Middle Eastern migration at levels never seen before-paving the way for America's modern immigration trends in ways those who debated it could hardly have imagined"--. Provided by publisher.

Life in America: Comparing Immigrant Experiences by Baker, Brynn

Immigrant groups were not treated equally when they arrived in America. Some were loved and welcomed. Others were hated and cast aside. Compare and contrast immigrant experiences and how those experiences changed the United States. Meets Common Core standards for comparing accounts of an event

American Immigration: Our History, Our Stories by Krull, Kathleen

Award-winning author Kathleen Krull takes an in-depth historical look at immigration in America--with remarkable stories of some of the immigrants who helped build this country. With its rich historical text, fascinating sidebars about many immigrants throughout time, an extensive source list and timeline, as well as captivating photos, American Immigration will become a go-to resource for every child, teacher, and librarian discussing the complex history of immigration. America is a nation of immigrants. People have come to the United States from around the world seeking a better life and more opportunities, and our country would not be what it is today without their contributions. From writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, to scientists like Albert Einstein, to innovators like Elon Musk, this book honors the immigrants who have changed the way we think, eat, and live. Their stories serve as powerful reminders of the progress we've made, and the work that is still left to be done

America is Immigrants by Nović, Sara

"Stories of remarkable American immigrants are brought to life in short, lyrical biographies written by Sara Nović and charming full-color illustrations by artist Alison Kolesar. Some of the names you'll find here are familiar: Founding father Alexander Hamilton was born and raised on the tiny Caribbean island of Nevis before coming to New York to pursue his education, and Yoko Ono's parents disapproved when she fell in with the bohemian art scene after the family moved to the United States from post-war Japan. Some less so: when Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981, three of the doctors who saved his life were immigrants. Many iconically 'American' products wouldn't be here without their immigrant inventors: Levi jeans, Chevrolet, Nathan's Famous hotdogs, Chef Boyardee, Carvel ice cream. At a time when so much of public debate is focused on who belongs in America, and who doesn't, this book offers an opportunity to celebrate the diverse paths and contributions of so many of our friends and neighbors. America is Immigrants features athletes and war heroes, Supreme Court justices and pop stars, fashion designers and Civil Rights leaders, including: Madeleine Albright; Isabel Allende; Desi Arnaz; Isaac Asimov; George Balanchine; Sergey Brin; Gisele Bundchen; Willem de Kooning; Marlene Dietrich; Albert Einstein; Alfred Hitchcock; Arianna Huffington; Enrique Iglesias; Iman; Hedy Lamarr; Yo-Yo Ma; Pedro Martinez; Joni Mitchell; Sidney Poitier; Wolfgang Puck; Rihanna; Knute Rockne; Nikola Tesla; The von Trapps; Elie Wiesel; Anna Wintour"-- Provided by publisher.

Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women who Revolutionized Food in America by Sen, Mayukh

"America's modern culinary history told through the lives of seven pathbreaking chefs and food writers. Who's really behind America's appetite for foods from around the globe? This group biography from an electric new voice in food writing honors seven extraordinary women, all immigrants, who left an indelible mark on the way Americans eat today. Taste Makers stretches from World War II to the present, with absorbing and deeply researched portraits of figures including Mexican-born Elena Zelayeta, a blind chef; Marcella Hazan, the deity of Italian cuisine; and Norma Shirley, a champion of Jamaican dishes. In imaginative, lively prose, Mayukh Sen-a queer, brown child of immigrants-reconstructs the lives of these women in vivid and empathetic detail, daring to ask why some were famous in their own time, but not in ours, and why others shine brightly even today. Weaving together histories of food, immigration, and gender, Taste Makers will challenge the way readers look at what's on their plate-and the women whose labor, overlooked for so long, makes those meals possible"--. Provided by publisher.

American Intolerance: Our Dark History of Demonizing Immigrants by Bartholomew, Robert E.

"This historical review of the US treatment of immigrants and minority groups documents the suspicion and persecution that often met newcomers and those perceived to be different"-- Provided by publisher.

Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American by Ali, Wajahat

"A rollercoaster ride of a memoir, by turns hilarious and heartbreaking, by the journalist, playwright, and political activist Wajahat Ali. "Go back to where you came from, you terrorist!" This is just one of the many warm, lovely, and helpful tips that Wajahat Ali and other children of immigrants receive on a daily basis. Go back where exactly? His hometown in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he can't afford rent? Awkward, left-handed, suffering from OCD, and wearing Husky pants, Ali grew up on the margins of the American mainstream, devoid of Brown superheroes, where people like him were portrayed as goofy sidekicks, shop owners with funny accents, sweaty terrorists, or aspiring sweaty terrorists. Driven by his desire to expand the American narrative to include protagonists who look like him, he became a writer, and in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, an accidental activist and ambassador of all things Muslim-y. He uses his pen with turmeric-stained fingernails to fill in missing narratives, challenge the powerful, and booby trap racist stereotypes. In his bold, hopeful and hilarious memoir, Ali offers indispensable lessons and strategies to help cultivate a more compassionate America"--. Provided by publisher.