Pietro Del Principe arrived in New York on the passenger ship called the Belgravia on May 21, 1891.

The Belgravia

He arrived with someone named M. Del Principe according to the ships manifest.

Who was M. Del Principe?  There are rumors that Pietro had a son before he married Elvira.  Was this his son?  Was he a cousin or brother?  I don’t find any record of him in the census, if only I knew his full first name! (more…)

Ellis Island opened on January 1, 1892 and was closed in 1954, with twelve million immigrants processed there by the US Bureau of Immigration.    Today, over 100 million Americans – one third of the population – can trace their ancestry to the immigrants who first arrived in America at Ellis Island before dispersing to points all over the country.

In the 35 years before Ellis Island opened, over eight million immigrants had been processed by New York State officials at Castle Garden Immigration Depot in lower Manhattan, just across the bay.  The peak year for immigration at Ellis Island was 1907, with 1,004,756 immigrants processed. (more…)