A Day In Castle Garden

[sandnsea]

If you haven't found your ancestors at Ellis Island, maybe they came through Castle Garden. I didn't even know the place existed. There is a database search at the site.
castlegarden.org

I was looking for an old picture for my scrapbook and ran across this 1870 article from Harper's Monthly. Looks interesting, thought I'd share.

http://www.theshipslist.com/pictures/CastleGarden.pdf

Another one from 1855
http://www.theshipslist.com/pictures/castlegarden1855.htm

[CBHagman]

1. One of my great-great-grandfathers is listed there.

I'd looked through the microfilm at NARA, but the film was in such bad shape I couldn't read it. The searchable database at the Castle Garden website was a huge help.

http://www.castlegarden.org/

[dragonlady]

2. Here's a great tool that may help with Castle Garden and many other data sites

Someone once said that Steve Morse should get the Nobel Prize for genealogy. His search aids let you put in different kinds of information and may help locate the hard-to-find data you want.

http://stevemorse.org/

[Up2Late]

3. Not everyone came though New York, it was only one of about a dozen ports immigrants came through.

That said, If you are wondering where Castle Garden actually was, check out this site and this old map from back in 1835, when it still existed:

<http://www.davidrumsey.com/detail?id=1-1-601-60239&name=City+Of+New+York.>

Also, check out how much of the "Wallabout Bay" has been filled in since then, filled in with Navy Yard docks and such and how Brooklyn and Williamsburg were separate cities.

More cool old maps of New York at this link: <http://www.davidrumsey.com/directory/where/New+York/>

Another very cool map is at this link of Roosevelt Island, which was called "Blackwells Island" back then:

<http://www.davidrumsey.com/detail?id=1-1-30676-1150182&name=41.+Central+Park,+Blackwells+Island.>

[theHandpuppet]

4. I think some of you might find this site useful

The Immigrant Ship Transcribers Guild has done some fabulous work transcribing passenger manifests of early arrivals.

http://www.immigrantships.net/

[Bitwit1234]

5. There was also a point on the West Coast

This one was called Angel Island. A lot of Chinese came thru here, but there were also others. Angel Island had a detention center where immigrants could be processed before being released into the country.