July 4th is fast approaching, and if you’re not thinking about where to buy fireworks, an American flag bandanna or a large container of potato salad, you might be thinking about you got here in the first place.

I mentioned my Irish ancestors in a previous post (for the record, my grandmother informs me that my maternal great-grandfather was a blacksmith who left Belfast in the 1830s), but there are many other immigrants in my and most people’s pasts who made their way to the United States in the pursuit of a better life. And when I think of immigration, I think of Ellis Island.

More than 12 million people came here through Ellis Island between the years of 1892 and 1954. If you were in steerage on the passage from your homeland to Ellis Island, you’d likely suffered through weeks of disgusting, unhealthy conditions — rotten food, rampant illness, crowded quarters. When you’re all belowdecks and seasick for days, things are less than pretty, to put it lightly. Many people died on their journeys here. If you survived the trip, you ended up in the Registry Room on Ellis.

According to the National Park Service site, getting through inspections usually took from three to five hours for third-class passengers (entering the U.S. was easier for people with the means to travel first- or second-class). Doctors took a quick (and I do mean quick) look at these sea-weary travelers for obvious medical conditions and turned back immigrants with contagious diseases.

Despite the stories that abound of immigrants treated harshly and forced to change their names, that wasn’t the case for most people (although I can’t speak for the con men awaiting the new arrivals once they exited the island). In fact, some immigrants were happy to change their names — a new place, a new life, why not a new name, especially if discrimination against certain ethnicities would hamper your efforts to start fresh?

We’ve had a spotty past with immigration — the Chinese Exclusion Act being a particularly unpleasant stain on U.S. history. Today, illegal immigration is one of the most hotly debated issues in the political arena, and one that isn’t likely to be resolved anytime soon.

More reading:

How Immigration Works
Ellis Island
How Fireworks Work