Castle Garden, Ellis Island, Names
Anni Braverman
There have been a number of msg. concerning Castle Garden, Ellis
Island name "changes," (apocryphal and/or real), and related
matters. Perhaps the following will help resolve a number of
puzzlements.
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1. The following book was especially helpful to me in understanding
all the various factoids I had heard about the immigration process.
_Ellis Island_, Wilton S. Tifft, Contemporary Books,
Chicago, 1990. (With Introduction by Lee Iacocca.)
It explains the entire process--from the moment of arriving in NYC
harbor until being set free on dry land--through which immigrants
passed at Ellis Island from 1892 (and Castle Garden before). It also
details the function of the passenger lists/cargo manifests within
that process. Many wonderful photographs are included.
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2. In 1855 the New York Board of Commissioners moved to take possession
Castle Garden, located on a narrow strip of landfill on the southwestern
tip of the Battery. Originally built as a fort, Castle Garden had, more
recently, served as an opera house which had hosted Jenny Lind.
Castle Garden was one of the country's earliest immigration stations.
The first immigrants landed there two days after it opened in 1855.
The procedure for immigrants at Castle Garden was similar to later
processes at Ellis Island.
Castle Garden was not large enough to handle the inflated numbers of
the 1880s. A Congressional committee visited the facility in 1888 and
found it unsatisfactory. After further study the Secretary of the Treasury
terminated the government's contract with the NYC Board of Commissioners
in 1890 and assumed the sole authority in immigration matters in New York.
The search for a better procedure would culminate in the construction
of a new immigration facility on Ellis Island.
Between 1890 and 1892, with Castle Garden unavailable, Treasury authorities
transferred their operations temporarily to the Barge Office in lower
Manhattan's Battery Park. Less than a decade old, the Barge Office had
been for the convenience of cabin class--i.e. first and second class--
passengers who were ferried there by barges (thus the name) to pass through
customs. However, as the steamship companies preferred to land passengers
directly at the docks of New York and New Jersey, it was little used. The
first passengers came through on April 19.
Ellis Island opened in January, 1902. (This date suggests that many of
your relatives _may not_ have arrived in the New World through this
facility.)
* * * * * * *
3. I've heard so many "authentic" versions of the _vergessen_/Ferguson
name-change story that I am becoming convinced that it is an urban myth. What
say you (all)?
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REMINDER: Surnames should always be posted in ALL CAPS.
Nothing else!
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