Today the main building exists as the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, receiving nearly 2 million visitors a year. During it’s official years of operation, over 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island, and today, The Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation provides an online database, free, with over 25 million records for anyone wanting to learn more about who they are and where the came from.

To begin tracing roots through Ellis Island, visit and register for free at ellisisland.org. Once registered, on the home page, Click on “New Search“ from the “Passenger Search” pull down menu. The next screen will ask for passenger’s first name, last name, approximate or exact year of birth, and gender. Fill in as much information as possible and search.

For those with unique or uncommon names, the search will be much easier. Either the exact record or a small amount of passenger’s with the same name will appear. For example: My family has a very uncommon last name. I know my grandfather immigrated from Switzerland via Ellis Island. When I type in his first and last name, approximate year of birth and gender, his exact record comes up without any list. He’s the only immigrant under this name. The more unique the name, the easier it will be to find your roots.

For common names, the search will not be so easy. So, the more you know about the person(s) you are searching for, the easier it will be to find them. Here’s what happened when I search the common name, “John Smith.”

After typing in John Smith with an exact year of birth of 1900, I get a list of 72 names. If I type in the name using 1900 as an approximate year of birth with (+) 7 years, 869 records appear. So, you can see the dilemma you my be facing.

Here are some tips for searching roots with common names:

1.) On a blank piece of paper, write down the country of origin for your ancestry. Then, look at a world map, writing down possible ports of origination and ports they’d be passing before arriving at Ellis Island. The reason for this is -- if they off-boarded anywhere along the way, or changed ships for some reason, the second ship could be the ship of manifest which would be from a different country.

For example: An ancestor from Liverpool may have changed ships in Bermuda, so the passenger’s record might say Bermuda. If searching for someone from Liverpool the logical thing would be to skip over Bermuda.

2.) Once you have the ports listed, prioritize them in the most likely way any events would have transpired.

Using my grandfather to demonstrate this, my grandfather was from Switzerland which is inland, so I know he could not have sailed from there. The counties he could have sailed from are Italy, Spain or France. And he could have stopped in England or Bermuda on his way to Ellis Island. To prioritize this list, I’d write down France (his most likely departing port), Italy, Spain, England, and finally Bermuda. Once you have this list, you are ready to start searching Ellis Island archives.

At the top of the records page, the following fields appear: “Arrived” (referring to the date of arrival), “Age on Arrival,” “Passenger Record,” “Ship Manifest,” and “Ship Image.” Your search will begin with either “age” or “year of arrival,” which ever you feel is the most accurate information you have about the person being searched. Age will be more common, and I will use age to show how to search.

3.) On the left side of the screen, each passenger has a corresponding number from the search. Using John Smith, age 19, as an example, the first John Smith age 19 has a corresponding number on the left of 93. On my tablet, I would write down 93.

4.) Click on the “Passenger Record.“ The only line of interest at this point is the second to the last line that reads, “Point of Departure.”

If the city of departure is NOT in the first country on the priority list, simply write down the name of the departing city next to the corresponding number on your tablet. This could save time later. Continue going through the passenger’s list writing the cities next to the corresponding number until a city is located in the first country of choice.

5.) Once a port of choice has been located, write down the manifest number located on the last line of the passenger’s record.

6.) Click on “Original Ship Manifest” located at the top.

7.) Click on, “Click to enlarge manifest” located (a small button) next to the manifest picture.

8.) Scroll down to the number line corresponding with the manifest number from the passenger’s record. For example, my grandfather’s manifest number on his passenger record is six, so I would scroll down to line six in the manifest.

There is more than one page in the manifest, most often three, with the last page being the doctor’s certification of health. On the first two pages, read across the passenger’s line to see what makes sense in relation to the person being searched. For example: If you know “grandpa” was 6’2”, and the manifest states 5’4” it’s a good chance it’s not him.

These first two pages in the manifest will offer a wealth of valuable information including: “occupation,” “country,” “city/town,” “languages,” “special markings” (tattoos, etc.), “height,” “final destination” and so on.

If you think you may have found roots, the information in the manifest can now be used for cross-referencing with other means of genealogy research.

If this is not the person you are looking for, repeat the above steps until you feel you have found them. If after completing all steps for a particular age, and the person being searched has not yet been found, one of the two things can be done (here’s where that list becomes a valuable tool).

Either go back through the numbered list looking at the passenger’s records for ports of departure in cities of the second country on the priority list. For example: If the second country on the list is Scotland, go back over the numbered list looking for ports of departures in Scotland.

Or, extend your age search to the next higher or lower year. In the case of my John Smith, age 19, I was searching 19 year olds. From here I would either next search either 18 or 20 year olds.

Keep repeating the above steps to search for family roots.

Here are a couple things to keep in mind when searching for roots through Ellis Island:

- Many initial records up to 1897 were destroyed by fire, but some do still exist.

- Some immigrants Americanized first and/or last names…i.e., Hans to John, Blackstone to Black or Stone. If looking for John Smith, the original record could be Hans Smith.

- Initially, first and second class second passenger’s were considered “affluent,” so they were dropped off in other ports and did not have to go through Ellis Island unless they had some problem such as illness or legal issues. It is unclear if these immigrants were actually documented through Ellis Island.

- Lastly, “to error is human” and their will be errors in the documentation. True story…Two of my great aunts came to visit my grandfather after he immigrated, and they came through Ellis Island, so they are documented. One of my great aunts is listed as a male. Keep this in mind when your looking for pertinent information for cross-referencing. If all else makes sense it might the right person.

Though genealogy can be tedious and time consuming, the rewards can be fun and invigorating, and informational family tidbits can be found through Ellis Island research. If you stick with it, you might find out some really cool stuff. Have fun!!!

Source: ellisisland.org

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