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In 1890, President, Benjamin Harrison designated Ellis Island to be the first Federal immigration station, and the doors were officially opened in 1892. On the evening of June 14, 1897, the original building was destroyed in a fire along with many immigration records for both the State, dating back to 1855, and the Federal records of immigrants to Ellis Island to this point. Three years later, a newly constructed building was opened and Ellis Island remained operational until a Norwegian merchant seaman by the name of Arne Petersson made history, being the last person ever to immigrate through Ellis Island in 1954.

Today the main building exists as the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, receiving nearly 2 million visitors a year. During its official years of operation, over 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island, and today, The Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation provides free to the public an online database with over 25 million records for anyone wanting to learn more about who they are and where the came from.

To begin tracing roots through Ellis Island, visit and register for free at ellisisland.org. Once registered, on the home page, Click on "New Search" from the "Passenger Search" pull down menu. The next screen will ask for passenger's first name, last name, approximate or exact year of birth, and gender. Fill in as much information as possible and search.

For those with unique or uncommon names, the search will be much easier. Either the exact record or a small amount of passengers with the same name will appear. For example: My family has a very uncommon last name. I know my grandfather immigrated from Switzerland via Ellis Island. When I type in his first and last name, approximate year of birth and gender, his exact record comes up without any list. He's the only immigrant under this name. The more unique the name, the easier it will be to find your roots.

For common names, the search will not be so easy. So, the more you know about the person(s) you are searching for, the easier it will be to find them. Here is what happened when I search the common name, "John Smith."

After typing in John Smith with an exact year of birth of 1900, I get a list of 72 names. If I type in the name using 1900 as an approximate year of birth with (+) 7 years, 869 records appear. So, you can see the dilemma you my be facing.

Here are some tips for searching roots with common names:

1.) On a blank piece of paper, write down the country of origin for your ancestry.

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