Chapter 3 · The crossing · Ellis Island
New York processed the majority of Polish arrivals: at Castle Garden on the tip of Manhattan until 1890, and at Ellis Island from 1892. The Ellis Island manifests are the record most American families have already seen, and the one most often misread.
Castle Garden, 1855 to 1890
Before Ellis Island, immigrants landed at Castle Garden, a former fort at the Battery. Its manifests are shorter than later ones: name, age, sex, occupation, country and destination. For the earliest Polish arrivals, mostly from the Prussian partition, this is often all that exists.
Where to find Castle Garden immigration records
Search the Foundation’s Arrival Search with a New York arrival location and the appropriate date range. NARA’s passenger-record guide by port lists additional digitized collections. A collection can cover years before and after Castle Garden: its title does not mean that every passenger used that station.
For a family arriving before 1892, compare the ship, age, traveling companions and destination with later American records. Use the step-by-step passenger search guide for name variants, then read the surviving image rather than relying only on the index.
Ellis Island, 1892 to 1924
Ellis Island handled its busiest years between 1900 and 1914, when Polish emigration peaked. After the Immigration Act of 1924 introduced quotas and visas issued abroad, inspection moved largely to consulates, and the island’s role shrank.
Who actually wrote the names
The manifest was completed at the port of departure by the steamship company, from tickets and from what the passenger said. Inspectors at Ellis Island checked passengers against it and added marks, but did not write the names. The story that names were changed at Ellis Island is a myth. Changes happened later, in American workplaces, schools and courts.
Searching the manifests
- Search by surname variants and first names in Polish, German and English forms
- Use the year of arrival from the census or naturalization papers
- Search by age and by the town of destination when the name fails
- Read the whole page and the next one: families traveled together
If a family “cannot be found on Ellis Island”, check spelling variants, date coverage and the complete manifest before ruling out New York. Also consider Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston and Canadian routes.
Sources and research tools
How we can help
Immigration & Passenger Records locates every crossing a person made and reads each manifest in full, annotations included.