Today is Ellis Island Family History Day, a day to celebrate the achievements and contribution of the immigrants and their descendants who came through Ellis Island; on the anniversary of the day, in 1907, when 11,747 immigrants were processed through the island, the most in one day).
Ellis Island, in New York Harbor, was used to process immigrants to the US starting on January 1, 1892. Its first immigrant was Annie Moore, a 17-year-old girl from Cork, Ireland, who was traveling with her two brothers to meet their parents in the U.S. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 million immigrants arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey were processed there; approximately 40% of Americans may be descended from these immigrants.
New York was not the only port of immigration during the period. Right here in Maryland, Baltimore was one of the largest ports of immigration with some 2 million immigrants arriving through the Locust Point terminal. Many of the immigrants arriving in Baltimore traveled west on the B&O railroad. A partnership between teh B&O and the North German Lloyd Steamship Line allowed immigrants to purchase a single ticket for transatlantic travel to America and rail travel further west on the B&O railroad.
200-year nuts!
On this day in 1974, Vinnie Taylor guitarist with US rock ‘n roll revival band Sha Na Na was found dead in a Holiday Inn hotel room in Charlottesville, Virginia from a drug overdose. Sha Na Na played at the Woodstock Festival, their 90-second appearance in the Woodstock film brought the group national attention. The group appeared in the movie Grease as Johnny Casino & The Gamblers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCB95WrqApk
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