I am forwarding the following posting from another list to which I subscribe. This may be of interest to anyone who had ancestors immigrate through New York City from 1830 through 1890. Sue Tilleman List Administrator ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cheryl Rothwell" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 6:31 PM Subject: Castle Garden Immigration Database. This is from Dick Eastman regarding Castle Garden, an immigration processing center from 1830 until 1890. It's database is now online at http://castlegarden.org . This is a shortened version of the Dick Eastman article. I did some searching and found some probables. However, this site is a bit glitchy. It tells you here are 10 results but you only 6. If you reload the page you MAY see more. However, it is 60 more years than were available before. Ellis Island seems to receive all the publicity for immigrants arriving in New York City. Many people do not realize that Ellis Island did not begin operations until 1892. More than 73 million Americans can trace their ancestry to immigrants who arrived in New York City prior to that year. From 1830 until 1890, these new arrivals first stepped ashore at Castle Garden in lower Manhattan. The site of Castle Garden remains as one of the oldest public open spaces in continuous use in New York City. American Indians fished from its banks, and the first Dutch settlers built a low stone wall with cannons as a battery to protect the harbor and New Amsterdam. The stone wall was later converted to a street that is now the well-known financial center called Wall Street. The Castle Garden immigration processing center started operation in 1830. By 1890, the arriving throngs were overcrowding the center, and there was no room to expand the facility since the ocean and the city surrounded it. After reviewing several possible sites, the United States government selected Ellis Island for the establishment of a new federal immigration center for New York. On the island, it would be easier to screen and protect the new immigrants before they proceeded out onto the streets of Manhattan. Castle Garden processed its last immigrant in April 1890. After the closing of Castle Garden in 1890, immigrants were processed at an old barge office in Manhattan until the opening of the Ellis Island Immigration Center on January 1, 1892. Then a huge fire at Ellis Island occurred during the night of June 14, 1897. The fire burned the entire immigration complex to the ground. Nobody was hurt, and nobody knows why it happened or who started it. However, many state and federal records were lost in that fire. Immigration processing was moved back to the old barge office in Manhattan while Ellis Island was being rebuilt. In December of 1900, the new Main Building on Ellis Island was opened, and 2,251 immigrants were received that day. In a single day in 1907, 11,747 immigrants were processed at Ellis Island. Cheryl Rothwell [email protected] Logan County ILGenWeb www.rootsweb.com/~illogan Central IL Regional Coordinator, ILGenWeb Clark, Downing, Harding, Lucas, et al