Ellis Island is an island located in New York Harbor. From 1892 to 1954, Ellis Island was the busiest immigration center in the United States. (Interestingly, I have found two of my ancestors that immigrated through this location.) Something like 12 million people were processed through Ellis Island when they entered the United States. In addition to an immigration station, the island was home to Fort Gibson, a naval magazine, a detention center for migrants, and housed prisoners of war in both World War I and World War II. Ellis Island was added to the Statue Of Liberty National Monument as a historic site for tourism in 1965. I would love to see this site one day.

The author of this book did an amazing job in communicating what it was like to filter through Ellis Island in a vivid enough way that readers could imagine it. I appreciated the research that the author did into the history and development of Ellis Island, but I appreciated the telling of stories from people who actually immigrated and came through there. First hand accounts are so valuable to the historical record, and to the families in which they belong. I learned a great deal about immigration from this book. This was a really tremendous book, and I wish that I would have gotten around to reading it sooner. If you are looking to learn about the history of Ellis Island and immigration, I highly recommend this book.