The homepage of the new American Family Immigration History Center™ www.ellisislandrecords.org developed by The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.

The American Family Immigration History Center's database contains immigration information on over 22 million people who entered through the Port of New York and Ellis Island from 1892-1924. From here you can select "new search" or reload a search which you saved on a previous visit.

The passenger search screen asks for first name, last name and gender. The only field which is required for a search is the last name.

The initial results screen provides a list of exact matches, close matches and alternate spellings. From this screen you can also refine your search by adding other known information such as the approximate year of arrival, ethnicity, approximate age on arrival, port of departure and name of ship. You can also select several alternate spellings to search for.

 Once you select a passenger from the list of matches, you will be taken to a passenger record screen. This provides transcribed information on the passenger which has been taken from the original microfilm including name, ethnicity, place of residence, date of arrival, age on arrival, gender, marital status, ship of travel and port of departure. Once you find a record you can even save it in your online Ellis Island File for easy recovery the next time you log on.

 From the Passenger Record screen you are given several options. One of these is to look at the ship manifest. Here you will see your ancestor listed along with the others who traveled on the same boat. This particular manifest has been manually typed in by a volunteer from the original manifests on microfilm. At the top left of the list, there is a button which will allow you to also view the original manifest.

Clicking on "View Original Manifest" from the typed transcript brings you to this screen with a small view of the original transcript. From here you can click on the small image to bring up a full size screen. 

 The original manifest usually includes more information than the typed transcript, including such details (in the later years) as who the immigrant was coming to meet (including address), height, hair color, place of birth and more.

The American Family Immigration History Center™ database also contains information and images for over 800 ships. This information is available for approximately 85% of ships to date.

One of my favorite features of the site, the Ellis Island File allows you to save searches in progress, passenger records, ship images, etc. which you have found during your online search. This makes it easy to review your previous progress at any time, even on future visits.

 The restored Main Building at Ellis Island, which houses the 100,000 square foot Ellis Island Immigration Museum, was reopened to the public in September 1990. Millions of immigrants to America were processed here prior to their arrival on mainland America. 

If stacked flat, the 3,678 boxes of microfilm examined by Latter-day Saints volunteers would exceed three times the height of the Statue of Liberty, from the hem of her flowing robe to the top of her torch.