January 2, 1892, a fifteen year old Irish girl, Annie Moore was the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island. More than two million immigrants passed through Ellis Island in the years it was open.
When the immigrants ship sailed into New York harbor first and second class passengers were given a brief, cursory shipboard inspection and then disembarked on the piers in New York or New Jersey where they quickly passed through customs. Third class or steerage passengers (the vast majority of poor European immigrants) traveled by ferry to Ellis Island where they were given medical and legal inspections to make sure they were not bringing a contagious disease into the United States or a condition that would make them a burden to the government.
My Norwegian grandfather Paul Sevald(sen) passed through Ellis Island in 1923. Working in a brewery in Chicago he saved enough money so his wife, my grandmother Dagmar Sevald(sen), arrived in 1924 as a second class passenger and disembarked directly to New York Harbor. She was very proud of that!
Ellis Island officially closed.
Remembering my grandfather Paul today,
