Ever Been To Castle Clinton??

 

If you've been to Castle Garden you've been to Castle Clinton! This monument is a restored circular sandstone fort within Battery Park at the southern end of Manhattan in New York City. 

Castle Clinton stands near where Fort Amsterdam was built in 1626; this fort was demolished by 1790 after the Revolutionary War. As war was still on the horizon, a new fort on the site was deemed necessary. Originally known as West Battery, and constructed between 1808 and 1811, this fort never saw warfare and by 1822 the fort was ceded to the city by an act of Congress. The fort reopened as Castle Garden in 1824. 

Between 1824 and 1855, the structure has functioned as a beer garden, exhibition hall, theater and public aquarium. Jenny Lind gave her first U.S. performance here in 1850 with tickets costing the 2023 equivalent of over $8000. 

From 1855 to 1890, Castle Garden was the first American immigration station. More than 7.5 million people came to America here between 1855 and 1890. (The Ellis Island Immigration Station opened in 1892.)

According to the Wikipedia article, "many of Castle Garden's original immigrant passenger records were stored at Ellis Island where they were destroyed in a fire in 1897." That's the sad news; the happy news is that the majority of immigrants processed at Castle Garden were from Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Scotland and Sweden. 

So did your immigrant ancestor come to America through Castle Clinton??? 

P.S. Wikipedia has a dandy long informational article on this place. 

Nordic Museum in Seattle & Ellis Island tidbit

 Are you of Norwegian descent? Especially Norwegians who came to the Pacific Northwest? Are you aware of the fabulous National Nordic Museum in Seattle?? WOW, you say?

Located in NW Seattle, close to the water, this museum offers so much of interest to those of Nordic descent and those (like me) who are not. Here's a snip from their website:

Five countries, twelve thousand years  ---  At the Museum, you’ll visit five distinct galleries with selections from our permanent collection and more than 100 objects on loan from the national museums of all five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.) Whether you want to be transported to the Viking-era or explore twentieth-century modern design, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

You just must visit their website to see what all the Nordic Museum offers:  www.nordicmuseum.org.  Right now, until June 30, there is a really special artwork display: "....an immersive artwork.... specifically crafter for the museum and illumimating the natural ocean connections between Seattle and its Nordic sister city, Reykjavik." "To immerse guests into a marine atmosphere, the scent of seaweed harvested from the Pacific and North Atlantic oceans will be tinctured, distilled and dispersed through the room."  I want to go!!

The Ellis Island tidbits come via a query posted to the Washington State Genealogical Society and from a lady in one of my classes: Steve asked "if 1st and 2nd class ships' passengers to New York disembarked "at the pier" and the ship then went to Ellis Island to unload 3rd class passengers for screening.....what about the upper classes' servants (nannies, maids, valets, wet nurses, etc)? Did they disembark with their employers? And would they be on the passenger lists?"  The answer to Steve was advising him to click to this site:

http://immigrationinmy.weebly.com/the-experience-at-ellis-island.html

I answered the other question, posed in my beginner's class, that Ellis Island opened in 1892 and prior to that the records would be at Castle Garden. WELL!  This lady found her ancestor coming from France into Ellis Island in 1889! Doing some fact-checking for her, I found that yes, indeed, there were some immigrants who somehow came through Ellis Island prior to its official opening. 

Don't we learn something every single day if we but keep our eyes and mind open??