Before 1892 where were immigrants to America processed? is there any search-able

Question:

Before 1892 where were immigrants to America processed? is there any search-able records?

looking to find details of family who emigrated to America from Ireland in 1888, also is there anyway to search a return journey back to Ireland?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: You're getting close answers. From 1820 - 1920, Castle CLINTON operated on the lower tip of Manhattan. It was still in operation even after Ellis Island opened. The reason is that it was a smaller facility and handled everyone who came over first and second class, while the steerage passengers got off at Ellis Island and were processed in the cattle pen.

Technically, everyone entering through Castle Clinton came through "The Port of New York". It's the predecessor to the Port Authority and was operated by the State of New York. Ellis Island was a federal facility and its records are completely separate.

Castle Clinton is now in the care of the Battery Conservancy. They are in the process of transcribing all of the records, but admittedly with more than 90 years of records to process, it will take a few more years. I can find about half of my immigrant ancestors on there. Irish records from the Potato Famine are a major part of the hold up...so many of you had ancestors fleeing by the thousands everyday. It's going well though and you can search the site at
http://www.castlegarden.org

The other places they may have entered are the ports of Boston and Philadelphia. Some of those records are searchable through HeritageQuest and Ancestry.com (free if you go to the library to search them...you have to pay for a subscription if you do it on your own). The films are also available through your local library, the National Archives and the LDS Family History Centers.

1888 is a decent year to search. The vast majority of those records have survived. But unless you know the actual ship's name and date of arrival, you may have to wait for them to be transcribed.

Good luck and happy hunting. Source(s):
BTW, most of the records weren't lost. They just were never organized. The records are the property of the State of New York and were only transferred to the National Archives in the last 15 years. They were not transferred to Ellis Island.

I'm not sure where all the misinformation is coming from in the answers on this question, but the records do exist and are quite safe. The only records lost were those from pre-1840 when the US wasn't organized. By 1888, we were not only organized, but we were careful to protect those records. d I pretty sure Ellis island was operating at that time

http://www.ellisislandrecords.org/member...

This link should help you.

From an Irishman.
http://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/rectype... Before Ellis Island opened, European immigrants who came into New York came through Castle Garden, which was located in the extreme south tip of Manhattan Island. MANY of the Castle Garden records are searchable online, though they are not as complete as those from Ellis Island. Like Ellis Island's records, searching is free.

Chances are your Irish ancestors came in through Castle Garden, but other ports also have available records, though I haven't found them online. Check at your largest local public library for help; many own passenger lists on microfilm. Indexing is available separately at large libraries.

Also, check Steve Morse's website. He has several "one step" search tools for genealogy. All I can tell you is this but if you go there you will be able to do some research.

http://www.answers.com/ellis+island?cat=...

Good Luck. My grandfather emigrated to America in 1891, landed on the Battery,and was processed through the Castle Gardens port of entry in New York city. Finding records before the opening of the Ellis Island Immigration is very difficult indeed. However, if you know where your relatives were in America you might strike lucky with the census records of that state because they will tell you when your relatives emigrated to America, and where they came from in Ireland originally. Practically every state in the USA has family history centres managed by retired volunteers, and if you provide them with enough information they will tell you where to look, where to go, and what records are available. Looking for your relatives shouldn't be to difficult because they were Irish, and there are numerous Irish Family History sites on the Internet both here in England, in America, and in Ireland. Research your Irish family first, and if possible go to the place where they lived prior to emigration, and ask in the reference library, and do look up the local newspapers because they sometimes printed lists of people emigrating every week. As for the return journey, it might be possible to find the ship they sailed on at Ellis Island in America-but you will have to go there personally and do your research on site. And do go to the place they lived on their return too because there will be records of them living there on the electoral roles, and births, marriage,and death records. Good Luck! There were other places that were ports of entry besides New York. New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, Charleston, SC, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, Galveston. The specific records for immigration processing, quarantine, etc were lost. Most records in NY were transferred to Ellis Island in 1892 when it opened it's doors. But fire destroyed them, and a lack of interest did away with anything else. What did survive are the passenger manifests. Now that's important because even when Ellis Island was open not everyone went through it's doors. So the passenger manifests give a listing of everyone onboard. No one had to really prove who they were, and spelling were done phonetically. Sometimes the yoeman or scribe didn't understand the person, and sometimes the person didn't know how to spell their name anyways.

But passenger manifests are the main source. Ireland did get a number of immigrants back from the US due to Lease laws. A family could lease land and the lease was typically in three names, the father, the eldest and the youngest. So sometimes they went back to Ireland to farm and work their land. Records were kept, but not yet online. I believe there are some records available on CD you can buy.

The best way to search these records is either through the ancestry.com website which you can access for free at your public library (usually). As has been stated in other answers castle garden is a place to start, as is the web sites below.

Good luck and good hunting