"Ward's Island Park is located on Ward's Island, a 255-acre landmass lying in the northern end of the East River, between Manhattan and Queens. ...The island lay largely abandoned until 1840, when overcrowded Manhattan sought convenient locations for almshouses, mental health facilities, and potter's fields (graveyards for the poor). Hundreds of thousands of bodies were relocated to Ward's Island from the Madison Square Park and Bryant Park potter's fields. The State Emigrant Refuge, a hospital for sick and destitute immigrants, opened in 1847 and it was the biggest hospital complex in the world during the 1850s. The predominance of public works led the City to purchase Ward's Island outright in 1851. Twelve years later, the New York City Asylum for the Insane opened on the island. From 1860 until the 1892 opening of Ellis Island, Ward's Island along with Castle Clinton on Manhattan's southern tip welcomed America's newcomers at its immigration station." http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=12869 I stumbled across the 1870 census, done on June 18th, naming emigrants at this location, which that year was in the 12th Ward, 6th District. If you have access to the census films, you can start with the superintendent and physicians, in series M593, roll 989, printed numeral 174 for the page/handwritten numeral 43 as the page. (There is no E.D. nor sheet numbers for that year.) If you have access to online versions of the census, a unique name to get you to the right spot is the Catholic priest Joseph Prohouski, age 48, born Poland. Unfortunately the info given is the usual: name, age, country of birth. It would have been wonderful for counties to be specified. These folks are clearly labelled as emigrants (not inmates). There are at least 30 pages of them. Sharon Carberry