Content area
Full Text
When many Americans think of their ancestors at long last arriving in New York Harbor and catching their first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty they assume that their predecessors then headed straight to Ellis Island to be processed. However, many of their relatives probably didn't go to Ellis Island, but instead were sent to the little-known immigration center called Castle Garden at the Battery.
Castle Garden was the city's first official debarkation point for immigrants, from 1855 until 1890. In 1892, Ellis Island took over the immigration process.
According to The New York Times, "More than one in six native-born Americans are descendants of the eight million immigrants who entered the...