Return to Ellis Island

This story tells about people going through Ellis Island, you can read the few questions people had to answer in order to be allowed in legally to live and work here. Nothing like now. It took a couple hours standing in line and only 2% were rejected and sent back, mainly for poor health. - - Donna Poisl

Millions of Americans can trace their roots to the immigration station

by Marti Attoun

Ninety years have passed since Felicita Gabaccia Salto arrived on Ellis Island, but she vividly remembers her father’s excitement as the Dante Alighieri steamed into New York Harbor and her family prepared for a new life in America.

“We came in at dusk and the Statue of Liberty was lit,” recalls Salto, 96, of Westwood, N.J. (pop. 10,999). “It was very, very cold, and I remember big chunks of ice on the Hudson River. My father was calling to all of the Italians, ‘Come over and see the statue! Come over and see the statue!’”
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