Our trip turned out to be helpful in my quest for family info. I knew the name of the ship my father had arrived on, and the date the ship had docked, but what I discovered at Ellis Island was that it was a ship of the Holland America line, and they even had an old postcard of it. I was later able to contact Holland America headquarters, and they sent me historical info and a photo of a painting of the the original ship (MS Ryndam). They also sent me info and photos of two subsequent ships that bore the name MS Ryndam II and III.
That was awfully kind of the company. My grandfather came over in steerage, but his sister-in-law, wife of his brother who was already in the US, had enough money to pay 2nd class fare, and she didn’t have to go through Ellis Island processing. My parents learned that when they visited and didn’t find Aunt Martha in the E.I. records.
She was still a British subject when she died in the 1990s, something over 100 years old.