Good morning! When do we get to ride the ferry to Victoria, BC?
Saturday morning we woke up early to make our 8 am ferry to Liberty and Ellis Island. We took the train, the light rail, and walked to the ferry terminal. The ferry terminal is actually the old Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal. It is estimated that of the 12 million immigrants processed through Ellis Island, 10.5 million of them departed for points across the United States from this same railroad terminal.
After waiting in line and going through security we hopped on the ferry and headed over to Ellis Island. A little known fact is that 83 percent of Ellis Island was actually created by landfill. Only about 17 percent of the land area comes from the original island. In the early 1800s the area was used for military purposes - namely, a battery, magazine, and barracks. At the end of the War of 1812, Fort Gibson, as it was known, remained a military post for nearly 80 years before it was selected to be a federal immigration station.
The federal immigration station was opened on January 1, 1892 and was closed in 1954. Wikipedia claims (with no footnote) that over 100 million Americans (about a third of the population) can trace their ancestry to the immigrants who first arrived in America at Ellis Island. I don't know if that is true, but my Dad and I looked through the records and did find a record of Mary Sudduth from Springfield, Illinois. She was already a U.S. citizen and had taken a ship to/from Ellis Island and England in the 1920s. Although we know she was related to us, this wasn't a big surprise. From my uncle's work, we know that the Sudduth family entered this country as early at the late 1700s...a long time before Ellis Island. However, it was fun to see a record of a direct family member coming through Ellis Island.
When you first enter the building you find yourself in a large open room called the Luggage Room. Immigrants were herded into this room and told to drop their luggage and possessions. Then, they would head up the stairs to the Registry Room (pictures with the flags). If everything panned out, and they answered the questions correctly, they were processed through the Registry Room and free to enter the country. That's the simple version.
Generally, those immigrants who were approved spent from two to five hours at Ellis Island. Arrivals were asked 29 questions including name, occupation, and the amount of money carried. Those with visible health problems or diseases were sent home or held in the island's hospital facilities for long periods of time. Once cleared, they would head down the other staircase to be met by friends and/or family or left on their own. Being the generous people we are, each person was given a little money and the opportunity to buy supplies and food before heading on their way. It's not like we just kicked them to the curb with nothing - at least in the sense of basic human needs. The peak year at Ellis Island was in 1907, with 1,004,756 immigrants processed. The all-time daily high was on April 17, 1907, when 11,747 immigrants were processed (as represented by the picture of jelly beans in the jar).
One of the common misconceptions about Ellis Island is that people's names were changed when being processed into the country. In reality, any changes to a family's name happened after they entered the country on their own accord or due to inaccurate records by the passenger ship companies on the manifest. In short, the officials at Ellis Island only copied the spelling of/and names given to them. Any errors were probably made in the country of origin by the shipping company.
More than three thousand would-be immigrants died on Ellis Island while being held in the hospital facilities. Some unskilled workers were rejected because they were considered "likely to become a public charge." About 2 percent were denied admission to the U.S. and sent back to their countries of origin for reasons such as having a chronic contagious disease, criminal background, or insanity. Ellis Island was sometimes known as "The Island of Tears" or "Heartbreak Island" because of those 2% who were not admitted after the long transatlantic voyage.
Since this was our last day and we only planned to see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, we stayed here for a couple of hours and took the audio tour. After we finished the tour we ate lunch on the island and then caught the second leg of the ferry over to Liberty Island.
Wednesday, On the Border. Saturday, making a run for the border!
This morning Julia decided it was time to get dressed for work. Her work attire consisted of my t-shirt, shorts, and socks and Stacey's shoes. Later in the day she kept asking if she could go see Dadda at work after her nap. Stacey told her that it probably wouldn't work out because I was busy...to which she responded, "he's not busy, let's go". I think someone is really going to enjoy having me around the house for a few months.
Last Sunday we took a quick drive up to Green Mountain Falls. We just wanted to see the town and hang out for a little bit. We mainly stayed around the pond and let Julia play on the playground. Towards the end of the afternoon Julia asked to go on the swing. She kept telling me to push her higher and higher until the swing lost the tension on the chain and then dropped a bit. Turn on your speakers to hear her laugh.
