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.