Stories from Ellis Island: Exploring the Immigrant Journey Through Manifests

While they may look straightforward, passenger manifests include a bounty of information about each traveler's journey to America, as well as their lives before and after arrival.

In this class, the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation’s Family History Center experts shed light on some of the more curious pieces of information included on arrival manifests:

- Understand why certain names are crossed out and why some immigrants were detained.

- Learn how stowaways were represented on manifests.

- Discover what happened when babies were born at sea and steps taken when tragedy struck, and passengers died on the long voyage to the United States.

- Finally be convinced that names were not changed at Ellis Island!