Ellis Island Records
Did you know that 40% of Americans can trace their ancestry to one of the passengers who arrived in Ellis Island? I had no idea this was such an important port. The Ellis Island site contains the largest collection of passenger lists on the Web.
They have records for over 22 million passengers and ships' crew who entered America through Ellis Island and the Port of New York between 1892 and 1924. Each person's information was written down in ships' passenger lists, otherwise known as "manifests."
The Passenger Record Archive includes passenger records, original manifests, and ship information. These records will have the passenger name, date of arrival, ship of travel, and age of arrival. Sometimes there will also be a picture of the ship they sailed on.
I have not found any of my own ancestors as passengers yet, but I urge others to give it a try and let me know how it goes. Ellis Island is the only website that has post-1890 U.S. passenger lists.