Half my family came through Ellis shortly after it opened, they came from Southern Italy. They were classed as their "race" being "non-white." My great grandmother (my grandmother's mother and her parents) remembers being at Ellis as a young girl and being very scared of the eye exam. She passed. They could send you home if you had syphilis, which often has ocular symptoms. They could also isolate you if you had a cough. Also, other very contagious diseases had ocular symptoms, and you might be put in isolation away from your family to see if you improved or you could be sent home.

My great grandfather (my grandpa's father) came alone from Italy (He was the illegitimate son of the Parish Priest and they wanted to get rid of him,) and someone at Ellis gave him a banana and he didn't know what it was. He was in his teens. He was disappointed at how dirty New York was, because literally thought the "streets were paved with gold" and all he saw was garbage and dirt.

My Celtic side had two immigrations. One side of the Celts came during the Potato Famine and that was in the 1860s and before Ellis opened. The other side of the Irish (including one member of the family who had converted to Catholicism when he emigrated to Ireland, from Judaism in Germany in the 1880s) came during the Ellis Island years.

If you're American, do you know where and when your people came from?

My father's family came in from Northern Ireland to escape the sectarian violence (they were Orange - or Protestant Irish).

My mother's family came from Italy and as you would expect Catholic. So although the marriage was troubled -it was one of those only in America stories where people that would have been enemies in their home country can escape the prejudice here in the US.

My grandmother came here from Northern Italy when she was a child. She changed her first name to make it less Italian, which always kinda made me sad. We still have relatives in Italy, but since she was the one that kept in touch with them and she has passed, I don't know who they are or where they live. Also kinda sad because I'd love to have someone to bunk with and show me around if ever I went to Italy.

My great grandfather came from Ireland, but I don't know exactly what part or when he came. My cousin would know the details of it. She's so self absorbed I'm scared to call and ask. I'd end up hearing five hours about her day to day life. Meh.

My great-grandparents came to America from Norway in 1928 shortly before my grandfather was born.

Many of my father's family (my great grandparents and some of my great aunts) came through Ellis Island between 1901-1925. My great grandmother actually came through twice after moving back home to Italy, and then came back again in the late 19-teens and remarried.
My grandmother had a lot of siblings and because of the move back to America after immigrating once, her siblings are split into two halves--the older ones, and the younger ones, since there was a break between my great-grandmother's husbands. My grandmother was one of the youngest.

My great-grandparents came through Ellis Island from Ireland.

My great grand parents came over from Germany in the middle 1800's both as children

I think only my grandfather, who emigrated from Norway in 1908, was stopped there. The Irish came in from two sides - New Orleans in 1863 and New York between 1863 and 1880. The Germans were already here in the 1860's, since they were somewhere out West during the Civil War, before coming back to settle in Pennsylvania around 1910. And the lone line of English came over on the Mayflower, but that was a hushed up family scandal.

I don't know if any of my ancestors came through Ellis Island...

Nope :/

Nope, My mom came from Poland in the 70's.

My great-grandmother came through Ellis Island from Poland sometime in the 1920s

Sooner- England, Ireland & Germany.

I'm in Canada, and I'm aboriginal. So my family has been in the same area since the first peoples walked across the ice from Monogolia! Because we're aboriginal, there aren't too many records that date back further than the early 1900's, and many of my great-grandparents and their families were wiped out during the 1920 Spanish flu epidemic.

My father's side of the family would have gone through Chicago, my mother's through Ellis or Boston.

My mom's side has the whole kit and caboodle listed but damned if I know any of it. Dad is tight-lipped other than giving the very basics of lineage. It's unfortunate that it costs money to research these kinds of things.

Mr Bignuf/ Russia, Poland, Germany, Italy and France. Mrs Bignuf, Italy, Sicily, England, Ireland and Scottland. All European zones. Our families are a mish mash and we are both MUtts. However, we are ALL AMERICAN "mutts", who embody the American dream. Families came over here with few skills and no schooling. Their kids went on to college and professional degrees and now the grandkids are the picture of American success, in multiple fields. Doctors, lawyers, business owners, CEO's and VP's of major companies...etc.

Due, in GREAT part, to the ethics of hard work and appreciation of freedom imparted to them BY those Ellis Island ancestors!!!!

My ancestors from my father's side came through Ellis Island, all from Ireland and all quite Catholic. My mom's adopted but her adoption records say her parents had Irish heritage as well so maybe everyone is, it's hard to be sure.

I recently found out that I have family members from Greece...Kinda cool but my mothers father was Native American. My grandmother's family was from Greece.

As far as I know, my great great (how ever many more) uncle on my mother's side (grandfather) came to the US in the late 1800's from Germany... but I do believe it was 1880 something, so I don't recall where exactly he came in through, but I do know that he immigrated to Pittsburgh.

Other than that, well, not sure. My father was adopted out of Pittsburgh and my parents are divorced (so I don't know him) and apparently he doesn't know his birth parents... so I don't have that side of family history.

I don't know if any of our family came through Ellis Island, I need to find out a few birth and death dates for my grandparents before I can track down anything on my mothers side and since I have no idea who my father is I'm pretty much stuck with only knowing half of my ancestry.

Nope, all of mine landed via spaceship.