http://www.castlegarden.org/searcher.php
CASTLE GARDEN: America’s First Immigration Center
Castlegarden.org is a free database developed and funded by The Battery Conservancy. It contains and makes available eleven million records of immigrants who arrived at the Port of New York from 1820 – 1892. Today more than 100 million Americans can trace their ancestry to this early period of immigration.
From August 3, 1855 to April 18, 1890, Castle Garden was America’s first official immigration center, a pioneering collaboration of New York State and New York City. In 1890, the federal government determined to control all ports of entry and take responsibility for receiving and processing all immigrants to the U.S.
The Castle was closed and the reception center was moved to the U.S. Barge Office which was located on the eastern edge of The Battery waterfront. It operated until the U.S. Office of Immigration opened the newly built Ellis Island in 1892.