On New Year’s Day, 1892, a 17-year-old girl named Annie Moore stepped off a ferry onto Ellis Island in New York Harbor—under the watchful eyes of the Statue of Liberty. Annie and her two younger brothers had just made the 12-day journey across the Atlantic Ocean from County Cork, Ireland. Believe it or not, these three siblings traveled without their parents, who already lived in New York. The Moore children would be the first of over 12 million immigrants to enter the United States through Ellis Island.

Immigrants are people who come to one country from another, and during the 1800s, millions of men and women from across Europe were flocking to the United States. Many came from Ireland, England, Scotland, or Germany, and by 1892, immigrants were pouring into the country from other places like Russia, Hungary, Poland, Austria, and Italy. The U.S. Government opened Ellis Island to inspect these newcomers and decide if any of them should be sent back home.

Immigrants came for many reasons. Some didn’t have enough to eat in their homelands because of famine. Some couldn’t find work or had very little money. Others were no longer welcome because people didn’t like the religions they followed. The United States was a land of promise where they could find jobs, food, and freedom.

Like Annie Moore, most men, women, and children traveled across the Atlantic in a steamship as steerage passengers. They stayed on the lower decks near the steering gear, but they were usually crowded and uncomfortable. If the weather was bad, the journey to the U.S. could take as long as two weeks.

Upon arrival in New York Harbor, the newcomers were ferried in a smaller boat to Ellis Island. There, they were checked by doctors who made sure they didn’t have any dangerous illnesses. After the doctors’ exams, interviewers asked immigrants about their families and jobs.

Many couldn’t speak English. Thankfully, interpreters were hired to explain what the questions meant in the immigrants’ native languages and what the immigrants’ answers meant in English. If someone’s name was difficult for an English speaker to say or spell, that person sometimes chose to change their name or shorten it.

While most people spent only a few hours on Ellis Island, those who didn’t pass the tests could be kept for days, weeks, or even months. In the end, one out of every 50 people was sent back home. Sadly, some families were separated. Fittingly, Ellis Island became known as both the “Island of Hope” and the “Island of Tears.”