History of Irish immigration through Ellis Island

The first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island and allowed entry into the United States was, famously, 15 year old Irish immigrant Annie Moore, who arrived at Ellis Island on January 1, 1892. Annie today symbolizes the struggles and hopes of the 3.5 million Irish immigrants - and the 12 million immigrants overall - who would go on to pass through Ellis Island for over six decades, and she holds a special place in the origin story of the Irish diaspora in the United States today.

Annie was the first Irish immigrant to enter Ellis Island, but she was, of course, far from the first Irish immigrant to enter the United States (and, for this reason, I personally think the hoopla about her is slightly misplaced).

Millions of Irish immigrants came to the United States before Ellis Island existed.

In fact, the majority of Irish immigration to the United States occurred 40 years before Ellis Island opened its doors.

Waves of Irish Immigration

The peak years of Irish immigration to the United States were around 1845-1852, which coincided with the famine. In just a few years, nearly 2 million people were estimated to emigrate from Ireland, leaving behind the struggle, poverty, and starvation that arose from English colonization of the island.

Most of these immigrants were rural, Catholic, and Irish-speaking, coming from western and southern Ireland.

Chain migration to the U.S. continued in the following decades: over 3 million more Irish immigrants came between 1855-1920: some to join their relatives who had immigrated during the famine, others coming on their own to simply seek a better future. This group represents the majority of Irish immigration to the United States.

Still, as Ellis Island didn’t open until 1892, this means that the majority of Irish immigrants arrived before Ellis Island opened its doors - which is why, in my opinion, Annie Moore represents not much more than just a happy circumstance for the Irish diaspora: there were plenty more who came before her.

Why this matters

The majority of Irish immigrants came to the U.S. before Ellis Island opened. This means that if you have Irish ancestry, it is most likely that your Irish ancestors never touched foot on Ellis Island.

This is true for each of my Irish ancestors. My third-great grandfather John Devine emigrated from Dublin in 1851; my third-great grandmother Ellen Lynagh emigrated from Donegal with her mother in 1854. My other pair of third-great grandparents, James O’Toole and Bridget Roughan, arrived in New York sometime around 1849 and 1852 respectively (dates I was able to infer from the 1855 New York State Census). This means all of my Irish ancestors arrived to the U.S. before Ellis Island’s existence.

This may seem like a small, obvious detail, but it’s important to understand and think critically about: there are so many misunderstandings about our ancestors’ immigration to the U.S., and particularly about what happened at Ellis Island (no, names were not changed there).

Being aware of these misunderstandings is important if you are trying to research your Irish ancestry and, particularly, your Irish immigrant ancestors. If you are under the impression that they immigrated through Ellis Island and go searching on the Ellis Island database for their name on a passenger list, you will most likely be unsuccessful.

So, should you search the Ellis Island database for your Irish ancestor?

It depends, of course, on the year they immigrated. Utilizing the census data and their naturalization records, determine their immigration year (or at least narrow down the time period) and use this information to find your ancestor on a passenger list (also called ship manifests). If your Irish ancestor did immigrate through Ellis Island (or at least at a later date where passenger lists included more detailed information about our ancestors), finding your immigrant ancestor on a passenger list is by far the best way to research your ancestry abroad.

I teach these research strategies in Origins Unlocked 🔓

Are you wondering where exactly your Irish ancestors came from?

Maybe you’ve played around on genealogy websites, but you can’t find what you’re looking for, or…

maybe you aren’t even sure what you should be looking for.

But you know one thing: you want to know how to find your ancestor’s naturalization records and immigration records easily, know how to interpret them, and how to use them to trace your family in Ireland.

If this sounds like a familiar scenario, consider joining Origins Unlocked, a self-paced genealogy course, to unearth your family’s origins:

• stop sifting endlessly through genealogy records trying to find the right one.

• stop relying on hints to pop up and feeling helpless when you’ve gone through them all.

• stop missing all the juicy, hidden details on records that will help you take your research further.