Ellis Island Lives on Through Stories

40% of Americans can trace at least one ancestor through Ellis Island, which opened on this day in 1892. Here are some of their stories.

Ellis Island, the Gateway to the New World, has a rich and complicated history. As I described in a previous post here (Ellis Island Opened on New Years Day 1892: A Look Back) and in a day-long theme on Twitter, the island was first used to hang pirates, then later became an immigration screening center, a detention center, and now a museum.

But I wanted to do more than just talk about the history of Ellis Island. I also wanted to learn more about how people today are still connected to the island in some way. So I asked people online to share stories of their family’s connection to Ellis Island.

Angelo Paparelli, a well-known immigration author, described how all four of his grandparents came through Ellis Island and shared a quote from an Italian…