Family Tree Guide to Finding Your Ellis Island Ancestors: A Genealogist's Essential Guide to Navigating the Ellis Island Database and Passenger Arrival List

by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack

Island of Tears No More! Embark on the journey of finding your Ellis Island ancestors Nearly 20 million immigrants arrived through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924 - roughly 40 percent of Americans descend from these "huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Since the Ellis Island website launched in April 2001, there have been more than 60,000 users visiting it every day, trying to find their ancestors. For some researchers, locating their immigrant ancestors in Ellis Island's massive database of passenger arrival lists is a snap. For others, the "Island of Hope, Island of Tears" takes on a new meaning. You know your ancestors are in that giant computer file somewhere, but where? The Family Tree Guide to Finding Your Ellis Island Ancestors is here to help. In this comprehensive guide, you'll

Genres: Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published August 26, 2005

About the author

Sharon DeBartolo Carmack has an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing and postgraduate coursework in American History. She is a thirty-five-year veteran Certified Genealogist®, Retired (2024).

Sharon is the best-selling author of twenty-nine books, including Madame Restell: The True Story of New City’s Most Notorious Abortionist, Her Early Life, Family, and Murder; In Search of Maria B. Hayden: The American Medium Who Brought Spiritualism to the U.K.; and If We Can Winter This: Essays and Genealogies: The Gordon Family of County Leitrim, Ireland, and The Norris Family of County Tyrone, (now) Northern Ireland.

A few of her guidebooks include Telling Her Story: A Guide to Researching and Writing about Women of the Past; Tell It Short: A Guide to Writing Your Family History in Brief, 2nd ed., and You Can Write Your Family History. Sharon is part of the English adjunct faculty for Southern New Hampshire University and the genealogy faculty for Salt Lake Community College.

Reviews

[Marilyn]

Dewey 325

[Kbord · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book may be 10 years old, but much of the information is still valid. It's good if you want to learn more about historical/genealogical immigration to the United States.

Reading this book will teach you what you need to know to search for your immigrant ancestors. It focuses on Ellis Island (1892 to early 20th Century), what the poor immigrant's experience was like ("Beware the eye man."), and what all those squiggled remarks and the Board of Special Inquiry mean.

There are tips on what kind of records may have been generated by/about a particular person, along with alternative places to look for information. There's also good background information on why the original records were destroyed (so sad). The "immigrant experience" was well documented, and there are many photographs of what being processed at Ellis Island was like.

It very briefly touches on the fact that there are other ports besides New York where immigrants entered the nation. It also mentions Castle Garden (the pre-Ellis Island "Ellis Island").

I learned a lot reading this book. Just know that it's written with the association that sells printed copies of immigration papers to you in mind. (And that site's Terms of Use are absolutely atrocious! Quite appalling.)