Everything you want to know about Ellis Island in this link to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island
When searching Ellis Island Records, there are many factors to consider in order to successfully locate your immigrant ancestor. The peak period of American immigration occurred between 1892-1924, with the majority of these arrivals coming through the Port of New York at Ellis Island. As the number of arrivals increased, so too did the controls imposed upon steamship companies bringing passengers to American ports. It was consoling to find that music, in order to be relished by a modern audience, is not obliged, as a matter of necessity, to be boisterous and overpowering, full of violent contrasts, fantastic, exaggerated, and so forth. In the two symphonies there are no loud instruments--no trombones or ophicleides. In the second, the immortal "Jupiter" (so called, not by the unassuming Mozart, but by his admirers)--there are not even clarionets. M. Jullien, with real artistic feeling, refrained from interference with the original scores, simply adding a third bassoon in the last-named symphony.In New York, Jullien programmed symphonies by two American composers, George Bristow and William Fry. How ironic that a visiting conductor would play the music of local composers that the local orchestra disdained to touch. Jullien performed both symphonies again after he returned to London. Although American orchestras continued not to play American symphonic music, they did notice that Jullien’s orchestra played with a polish and precision they could not match. Jullien’s legacy in America includes an elevation of performance standards.