Castle Garden Arrivals from Craco

An Insight Into Craco Immigrants Arriving Before 1892

Ellis Island has become synonymous with immigration into the United States but there were several other locations around the country that served as earlier points of entry. One of these, commonly known as Castle Garden is important for anyone researching an ancestor that arrived in New York Harbor from Craco before 1890.

Based on Note Storiche sul Comune di Craco, the history of the town of Craco, the first immigrant to come to America from arrived in 1880.¹ The Castle Garden Immigration Station operated from 1855 to April 19, 1890 so the earliest immigrants entered through this location.

After that, immigrants entered New York through an immigration site known as The Barge Office located at the foot of Whitehall Street near the Battery at the southeast end of Manhattan until January 1, 1892 when the Ellis Island immigration station opened. The Barge Office operated again from June 13, 1897 through December 16, 1900 after the original wooden structure of the Ellis Island immigration station burned to the ground and until the new Ellis Island facility reopened.²

Although researchers can use the well known Ellis Island website (http://www.ellisisland.org/) to find information about ancestors entering the US, the content there only covers the period from 1892-1924. The Castle Garden website: http://www.castlegarden.org allows individuals to researching ancestors that came to the US before 1892. For example, the list of 50 names that follows represents individuals who can be identified as coming from Craco through the Castle Garden Immigration Station before 1892, based on their reporting the town on the ship’s manifest when they boarded.

This list is by no means exhaustive, since the “Place of Last Residence” wasn’t always required or a misspelling of the town name did not produce a match. Individual searches on the Castle Garden website should be conducted to locate records before 1892.

¹ D’Angella, Dino, Note Storiche sul Comune di Craco, An English Translation of the History of The Town of Craco by The Craco Society, Café Press, 2009, pg. 94
² The Immigration Experience. http://members.tripod.com/~L_Alfano/immig.htm

Last Name First Name Age Sex Arrival Date Place of Last Residence

ARANZO

MARIA

28 Mar 1885

CRACO

BALDO

PIETRO

28 Mar 1885

CRACO

BARBETTA

ANTONIO

28 Mar 1885