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Freedom
and Liberty for All
Collective History Unites
Collective History Unites
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Audience
Descendants of immigrants who entered the
United States via Ellis Island in New York City are the primary audience
of www.EllisIsland.org.
According to the site, over 100 million U.S. citizens, or 40% of
this country’s population, have ancestors among this particular group
of immigrants.
From 1892 to 1924, the time that Ellis Island served as major port of entry for immigrants, ships were the mode of overseas transportation. The “passenger search” function, the most prominent feature of the site, broadens the site’s appeal to descendants of any person who was a passenger on a ship that used Ellis Island as a port. These include family members of ships’ crews, those who hoped to immigrate but were deported, non-immigrant aliens, and U.S. citizens returning from European destinations to the United States.
Those interested in U.S. history and persons involved in genealogical research are also served through the “Immigrant Experience” section as well as other informative, though less prominent, pages.
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Context
The “Immigrant Experience” section is key to placing the Ellis Island era in historical context.
Shared in “Family Histories” of this experience are personal stories of the descendants of U.S. immigrants who originated not only from Europe but also from Africa and Asia. A man of Chinese ancestry says, “You see my story is no different from anyone else’s….In all of our collective past, we’ve all had that one ancestor that had the strength to break from what was familiar to venture into the unknown.”
The “Peopling of America” is the companion to the personal stories. It provides a brief history of immigration from before 1790 to 2000 with graphical representations, visual images, and text illustrating and exploring global reasons for population movement.
The site itself is the virtual location of the American Family Immigration History Center (AFIHC), which has a brick and mortar presence on the Ellis Island property. After several virtual visits, I placed the Center into its context by realizing that it is just one part of a visitor’s Ellis Island experience.
Interestingly, the primary source of content and the site’s primary “traffic” driver are the ships’ manifests, which have been removed from their original context and re-interpreted into individual passenger records with links to ship manifests and images. Volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a site sponsor, helped to create a passenger database in order to allow searches of records. Site users and members can locate records and then put them into a new context of individual files as well as publicly-available Community Archives and Family History Archives.
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Purpose
This site is not only an information source for those conducting family research but also a forum for researchers to compile and share their findings. There is an extensive passenger database that can be accessed to aid in research. In addition, annotations to each record can be added or viewed, and information can be compiled in designated locations.
A benefit is the exposure to a national and even international audience. Outreach goals are served by educating the target audience as well as the general public and the press regarding the Foundation, whose mission is “preserving, enhancing, and protecting” The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Fund-raising is effectively integrated with the outreach component throughout the site.
Thanks to the National Park Service for its photograph of the Statue of Liberty.