Ellis Island / Castle Garden ("Kastigari")

Historical photo of the inside of the second floor of the Ellis Island processing center.

My father arrived on June 3, 1907. He climbed the central stairwell to the registry room on the second floor shown here in the photo. He was examined by medical and legal inspectors. Since he passed the exam, he was allowed to return to the first floor on his way to his new life and new homeland.

In groups of thirties, the immigrants were getting readied for their health inspections. They were moved from section to section in the "cattle pens" to obtain their exam. The cattle pens made up of piping and wire helped the inspectors make some order of bedlam.

The exams which would take less than 6 minutes per individual were supervised by the United States Marine Hospital medical service corps (US Public Health Service). If classified as Class A, these people were excluded because they suffered from dangerous illnesses or were insane or idiots. The most common dangerous diseases were trachoma and tuberculosis. Class B were potential public charges, but not excluded.

The peak year of immigration was in 1907 when over one million immigrants were processed through Ellis Island alone. (This is the year my father arrived in America.)


| About |

Skip ]

Greek Immigration to America, a slide presentation, delivered originally as a lecture to the Lancaster County Historical Society, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, December 3, 2004.

Copyright © Nikitas J. Zervanos, M.D., 2005. All Rights Reserved.
Contact

Citation Guidelines

Published in PAHH, 2005.

Your Location

You are here : PAHH : Memoirs and Histories : Zervanos.