Ellis Island

When thinking about what I wanted to write about, I started to ponder about my existence, my background, my heritage and so forth. I wouldn't be in the United States if it weren't for my great grandparents. On my Mothers side, they fleed from Germany and on my Father's side they fleed from Russia. I really feel that some of us don't even think twice about what our ancestors went through to make it possible for us to live the lives we have in the U.S. Therefore, I figured writing about Ellis Island and what immigrants went through to live here. 

Ellis Island first opened up in 1892 and closed in 1954, between those years 12 million people entered the U.S. Once one arrived on the Island doctors examined you, as you walked up the entry stairs they would stare and analyze the way you acted, walked, breathed, or analyze other problems. If they saw a problem they would put a chalk letter on you  with markings that meant different things. Next they would roll back your eyes with a button hook or their fingers for Trachoma which is a contagious disease. The worst part is is that the buttonhook wasn't sterilized after each person nor were the doctors hands, so even if you didn't originally have the disease, you had a higher chance of getting it through the contact and would have to be sent back. All the medical exams together took less than 5 minutes.  After that was the mental exam. All the things you had to perform such as putting pictures and puzzles together determined your mental state, therefore those that were not educated or couldn't speak english had no idea what to do so they were at a disadvantage. The last exam was the legal one, it was supposingly very scary and intimidating because you were asked a series of questions and had to answer quickly, if not you could have been deported. One of the questions was, "Do you have money?" and if you said yes they would say let me see it and they would take it from you, if you said you didn't and you did they would send you back or even if you said no they would send you back. So right away, you were stuck and neither answer was the correct one.

Overall, coming over here was very scary because some people had no idea how to speak english. Since so many immigrants wanted to leave their countries due to various reasons, they were all crammed in boats, some once in healthy condition became very sick, or died. So many people that patiently waited for their arrival would quickly be sent away due to their physical state or if they weren't letting more people in. Once people ran into the Grand Hall there were stairs that divided the room so a lot of families became separated if they got pushed over to the other side. If people had last names that officials couldn't pronounce their names would quickly be changed. My father's side of the family had a russian last name that began with R and since it was unable to be pronounced it was quickly changed to "Ross". So after the 5-7 hours they would spend at Ellis, 12 million lucky people were let in and had to find jobs, live different lives and save enough money to bring the rest of their family over. So many people had to deal with the hardships of being isolated from others because of where they came from, a lot of jobs would have signs that said "Irish no need apply".  Ghettos were formed and basically everyone that was from the same country started moving into the same neighborhoods. From what their idealistic views were of the Great America Dream and how America had streets of gold, the harsh reality hit them hard, but they worked through it.