Ellis Island processed over 12 million immigrants between 1892 and 1954. Contrary to popular belief, agents rarely changed the spelling of foreign names. Immigrants sometimes changed their names to sound more American. Inspectors also asked questions to screen out troublemakers and the disabled.
Between 1892 and 1954, more than 12 million people entered the United States on Ellis Island, a small island off the coast of New Jersey. During the height of the immigration wave of the early 1900s, inspectors interviewed up to 500 people a day, a process that could take up to seven hours. But contrary to a persistent myth, agents very rarely changed the spelling of foreign names. The Ellis Island Encyclopedia says steamship company employees — usually overseas ticketing agents who didn’t require formal identification from passengers — wrote down the names of the passengers they were given. Immigration inspectors at Ellis Island simply checked the names on the ship’s manifest against what the passengers had told them, and only made changes if a newly arrived immigrant insisted there was a mistake.
Immigration screening during the day:
On April 17, 1907, a record number of nearly 12,000 immigrants were processed, according to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.
Historian Philip Sutton of the New York Public Library said many immigrants changed their names, sometimes to make them sound more American. “If nothing else, Ellis Island officials were known to correct errors in passenger lists,” he said.
Ellis Island inspectors also asked a series of 30 questions to screen out troublemakers, slackers, and the physically and mentally disabled. They also wanted to know where people would live once they entered the United States.
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