Posted on 04/30/2010 8:56:10 PM PDT by Kaslin
Some of my ancestors would have been there to welcome you, but they were otherwise occupied at the time. Of course, a lot of my other ancestors came later on.
Yes, and Yes. My ancestors complied completely with the immigration laws in effect at the time. That included a health check and a criminal background check. There were no social services available at the time, so no employer bond was required. Now there are such services, so a bond should now be required.
People seem to forget — or never learned — that Ellis Island has hospitals where health checks were performed on arrival. They also forget — or never learned — that almost 1/3 of all immigrants used to give up and return to their home countries because they had underestimated how tough it would be to start with nothing in a new country and there were no government handouts if they failed.
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