I dedicate this photo book to Dr. Drew Polly and his wonderful and enthusiastic ELED 3111 class at UNC Charlotte. Dr. Polly, thank you for all of your help, support, and instruction. It has been a pleasure being a student in your class.

Preview audio:

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My Family:

My family and I arrived to Ellis Island in the year 1910, fleeing from Italy because of the poverty our country was facing. We heard of a beautiful new land called the United States of America that would give my family a fresh start, an opportunity for a better life, and make my dreams become a reality.

My Travel Experience:

My family began our journey to the beautiful land by train in order to get to a seaport from Italy. When we finally made it to the coast, we boarded a steam ship that sailed the Atlantic Ocean. Our journey on the ship lasted almost two weeks, where we were divided by wealth and class. Because my family comes from an impoverished background, we stayed in a steerage at the bottom of the ship. The ship was very crowded, with almost 3,000 people who came from different backgrounds, countries, spoke different languages than me, and believed in different religions.

Arrival:

After a very rough two weeks, we finally arrived on the beautiful island where we were greeted by a woman in green welcoming us to our new home. I knew we had finally reached freedom. After being on the crowded and dirty ship for almost two weeks, seeing this beautiful landmark made me cry tears of joy. We had finally made it. We were greeted with health professionals,looking for signs of diseases., thankfully our ship passed inspection. However, because we were in the lower class we had to wait hours to get off the boat. I knew it would all be worth it in the end.

The Baggage Room:

Officers wearing polished uniforms greeted us as we got off the ferryboat, as we finally reached Ellis Island. The men shouted at us to walk down the gangplank to the main building, where we received identity tags. Because my family and I did not speak very good English we were confused to what the men were saying. There was commotion everywhere, we wore our numbered tags and entered the Baggage Room where we left our precious belongings until our inspection was done. We then made our way to the Registry Room, where the medical and legal inspections took place.

The Registry Room:

The Registry Room was the next room we went to for medical and legal checks. This room was so big that it had the nickname the Great Hall, it was over 200 feet long and 102 feet wide. I had never seen such a large indoor space. I remember it being so loud because the voices of thousands of people speaking bounced off the walls.

The Medical Exam:

In the Registry Room I had my medical exam, we heard a rumor that the doctors had developed a system to identify which one of us needed medical attention. The first test I had was a six-second physical were a uniformed doctor looked for signs of illness or contagious diseases. The doctor made sure I did not limp, was short of breath, my eyes were read, I acted disturbed, or seemed abnormal. After I passed my check, I made my way through the maze of metal rails toward the far end of the hall for my legal inspection.

The Legal Inspection:

When arriving to the legal inspection we were called one by one to speak with a uniformed inspector seated on a tall stool behind a very high desk. Because I did not have very good English and the man could not understand my Italian, an interpreter helped me communicate. The man behind the desk asked me 29 questions that included "where you were born,? Are you married?, What is your occupation?, Have you ever been convicted of a crime?, How much money do you have?, and What is your destination?" This process was very scary because I knew that I could be detained if my answers were different than the answers they had on their "manifest".

The Stairs of Separation:

After both my medical and legal inspections, I arrived at the top of another staircase at the other end of the Great Hall. This staircase was very big and had three aisles. I observed as I saw different people walk up and down the stairs. In the middle center aisle I saw other immigrants who were being detained being brought down, on the right side of the staircase I saw people who were traveling west or south, and people going to New York City or to the north walked down the left side. At the bottom of the stairs there was a post office, a ticketing office for the railways, a money exchange office , and social workers to help us immigrants who needed assistance.