Eunice Boeve

My husband’s paternal grandmother arrived in America from Holland with her parents, siblings, grandparents, and other relatives when she was 4 years old on the ship pictured at the side, the SS Zaandam.
The immigration point in this year of 1883 was Castle Garden which operated as a processing point for immigrants arriving in New York from 1830 to 1892 when the process was moved to Ellis Island.
I was always under the impression that all immigrants were literally processed through the earlier Castle Garden or the later, Ellis Island buildings, but many escaped that arduous process.

Cutters meeting the ships when they pulled into the harbor had inspectors and physicians aboard who examined all 1st and 2nd class passengers. A few may have been detained, but most were saved a visit to Ellis Island because they satisfied immigration officials by either one or more categories: They had money, were in good health, evidenced good social standing, or were temporary visitors. Those in steerage or third class in the bowels of the ship were usually poor, illiterate, or in ill health. These people were crowded aboard a ferry and taken to Ellis Island to be processed. They were carefully tagged with their names and the name of the ship on which they arrived. The men were separated from women and children and each group waited in long lines to be examined for illness, disease, mental retardation, neurosis, or insanity. Doctors chalked a letter(s) on the chest of the immigrants with suspected health problems: ie: H for heart, K for Hernia, Pg for pregnant, X for mental illness. After that they were asked 32 basic questions. Among them: name, age, country of origin, occupation, literate or not, understood English, amount of money, final destination, and so on. If the immigrant, to the inspector’s mind, acted suspicious they were asked more questions. Detention often lasted days, weeks, months even. Women and children were never released without a male person to claim them. Those without money were detained until one came forth with money or could vouch for them financially. Those found incompentent in some way, mental or otherwise, and criminals were denied entrance into the US and were deported back to their homeland. Children 12 and older could be sent back alone, but someone had to go back with a younger child, thus creating more stress and the potential for heartbreak.

To the immigrant, America was the promised land, some even heard its streets were paved with gold. But the cost for passage was a hardship, the emotional toll of leaving behind grandparents, and other relatives was huge. Sometimes the men went alone to work for five or so years before having enough to send for their family. Some found America to be all they’d dreamed, but many found hardship equal to or even greater than what they’d left behind.

The first immigrant to Ellis Island was Annie Moore. She arrived Jan 1, 1892. The entertainer, Bob Hope came from England in 1908 at age 5. Vera Winston remembers the sailors rigged up swings on the ship for the children and the disinfectant water they had to bathe in turned the ocean green when poured overboard. Angelo Falcone was 12 when he arrived from Italy in 1929. Later, he joined the army and spied for the allies behind enemy lines in Italy. Randall Peat, born in North Wales, came to America at age 19. A few years later his mother and two sisters flew into the New York airport.
Ten-year-old Doris Fagendam came to America from Holland. She had a comfortable life in both countries. She said the kids didn’t tease her at school, but instead treated her as a novelty because she spoke differently and wore wooden shoes. Molly Mendelsohn came from Germany when she was 19 years old to escape the Nazis. Her mother’s brother also immigrated. He invented the first suitcase for hanging garments such as dresses and suits. In 1930, Carl Bellapp, age 18, said that when the ship pulled into the New York Harbor, everyone crowded to the side of the ship to see the Statue of Liberty. With shouts of exhaltation, they cried, each in his or her own language, "America,I love you."

These stories and more can be found in Ellis Island Interviews by Peter Morton Coan and Island of Hope, Island of Tears by David M. Brownstone, Irene M. Franck, and Douglass Brownstone


The love of books is a love that requires neither justification, apology, nor defense. Langford
Happy reading ! Eunice Boeve