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THE JOURNEY TO AMERICA..... They arrived at many different ports of entry, but Ellis Island is what greeted most emigrants as their first image of America. Imagine their thoughts and feelings as they caught their first glimpse of what was to be their new homeland. They must have been filled with high expectations for a new beginning that was accompanied by emotions associated with fear of the unknown and sadness from leaving their family and friends in Poland. What would they do, where would they settle, and why?
The Journey..... 
They made the decision... What to take? What route, to what port?
What is ultimate destination? What would you do? The sites below were chosen to provide you with a varied subject matter on the subject of immigration to and in America. Read about the orphan emigrants who were sent west to find a better life, or the first hand story of an emigrant's experience onboard a ship in 1843 in route to new country.
Several decisions confronted emigrants as to the port of departure that they would use. Costs, timing, distance to travel, and what land travel was necessary to traverse.
Hamburg: For most, this would be their first trip outside of their homeland. When they finally arrived at their port of departure, many would will see an ocean vessel for the first time. It would seem large, but small in comparison in the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean they would soon be traversing. This would be the first exerience of being at sea for most of them. The fear of drowning without ever reaching their destination may have added to the their anxiety.
Ellis Island is the best known port of entry, but there were others, including processing centers for each state. The best source for this data is the National Immigration and Nationalization Service (NARA). All of these points of entry are categoried by their location giving the years of service, and the microfilm number. Also, information is included for emigrants who came into the USA By Way of Canada (article).
CA, San Francisco: NY, New York: "On June 13, 1897 the original wooden structure burned to the ground. All the administrative records for Castle Garden for the period 1855-1890 and most of the records for the Barge Office and Ellis facilities were lost. Ellis Island's entire collection of state and federal lists were stored there and burned (even the underground record vault burned!). Fortunately, copies of the passenger lists were held by the Customs Collector and abstracts were held in Washington, DC. The Customs lists did not have as much information about passengers as did the Immigration lists, and the fire is the reason that the New York Immigration passenger lists begin with arrivals on June 16, 1897, instead of with 1891 arrivals." - This is a quote from Louis S. Alfano's web site, The Immigration Experience, which one of the best for covering the processing centers used for immigrations coming through the New York harbor. Arriving at their port of entry, they would now need to be processed into the USA. With their own records in hand, they would generate more records before moving on to their ultimate destination. NARA provides a very good reference for understanding this process and the following links will take you to them:
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Baltic Sea
Ship from the late 1800s period. (NOAA Photo Library)
