In history books, we often read where people say they're walking in someone else's footsteps.  I now know what that means since I toured Ellis Island over Memorial Day Weekend 2002.  This page and the next follow the path of my ancestors, the Shediack, Nasser, Leamy and Boylan families through Ellis Island as they escaped religious persecution in Ireland and what we now call Lebanon.  To say this tour was emotional is an understatement as these pictures will show you.

The only way to get to Ellis Island is to take the Circle Line boat from Battery Park in Manhattan to the Statue of Liberty and then, after visiting the Statue of Liberty, re-board the boat to go to Ellis Island. 

Lady Liberty smiles down today with the same dignity she displayed when immigrants passed by one hundred or more years ago...

...and then Ellis Island comes into view as your boat approaches the docking slip.

Walking into the main building, you enter the "Baggage Room" where most of the immigrant families left their suitcases and trunks while undergoing the immigration processing.

Today, there is a staircase to your right which replicates the 1924 staircase to the second floor.  My ancestors, who came through in the 1880s through 1900s, would have walked around the pillar to the right of the blue sign stand and ascended from right to left, up the original stairs to the second floor's Great Hall. 

Arriving at the top of the stairs, you enter the Great Hall where the immigration inspections were held.  We are looking down from the third floor, where, if you had had some medical or other problem, you would have been housed in one of the rooms on the left side of the balcony.  When my ancestors arrived, the stairs came up between the two flags, ascending towards you.  The view of the Great Hall below shows how it looked in 1924.

Prior to 1924, when you ascended the stairs, you were seated on benches in the "pens".  This National Park Service collection photograph below shows how the scene above looked in the early 1900s.

please click here to go to Ellis Island Page 2