The Happiest Place on Earth, Part 2: We Have Arrived!

After spending time at Liberty Island, we caught the next available ferry for Ellis Island. I was sooooooo excited! (Poor KShum...!)

And here we have Idaho, er, Ellis Island, winning her way to fame

We first wandered through the main floor of the building, first running into (of all people) 2 sister missionaries from the New Jersey mission who volunteer at the Ellis Island family history center once a month. (I'll post about that story later!), and then viewing an immigration exhibit.

My fascination with family trees, pictures of trees, and tree decorations continues

From a display about accordions and their ties to immigration

Leave it to the Germans to introduce the accordion to Mexican immigrants. I can thank my own people for the music I listen to whilst I am doing my laundry!

Wisconsin German immigrants introduced kindergarten to the US. You're welcome.

The concentration of German immigrant settlement in the US. Looks like a weather map you'd see on the nightly news, though. I don't think the burnt orange color means that it'll be in the 100s tomorrow....

A nation of immigrants, starring Germany. Size of font indicates size of immigrant population in the US.

And then...THEN we got to go upstairs to the Registry Room, which was by far one of the coolest things I've ever seen. (Again, go with my nerdy-ness on this, okay?) I tried to imagine what it would've been like to be in that room, how it felt to have come such a long way and to be stalled (sometimes quite literally) in the place with your future in the hands of people who could either make your dreams come true or send you back. Being in the Registry Room, imagining the millions of immigrants who endured this great uncertainty (including my great Uncle Jack and his sister Lena), I started to tear up...probably, you know, from all of the dust there, and what with my allergies and all....

The Registry Room as it looks today. A very special and sacred place to me--and to the millions of immigrants who passed through Ellis Island.

Ceiling of the Registry Room at Ellis Island

As we did more exploring through the exhibits, I learned much about the process an immigrant endured once arriving in the Port of New York. Fascinating stuff.

Literacy test given to immigrants. This card is for native Swedish speakers; Uncle Jack and his sister would've been tested with a card similar to this.

When restoring some of the pillars, they discovered original carvings made by immigrants who passed through Ellis Island. This is an example of some of those carvings.

A photo I took of a photo of the Registry Room with immigrants waiting to be processed

My artistic take on a set of the "separation stairs" the immigrants took during processing

A drawing of Castle Garden, the predecessor of Ellis Island. Castle Garden was in what is now known as Battery Park in Manhattan. Most of my immigrant ancestors arrived here.

Immigration brought the prospect of a new life, but it was also a hardship.