Angel Island, the West Coast Counterpart to Ellis Island (Ancestry Blog)
January 25, 2024
By Ancestry® Team
Most people know about Ellis Island, America’s major port of entry under the Statue of Liberty. Less famous, but just as important and on the West Coast, was the immigration station at Angel Island.
Angel Island is one of the islands scattered around San Francisco Bay, not too far from Alcatraz and Treasure Island. Between 1910 and 1940, approximately one million people, largely of East Asian descent, were processed by Angel Island officials, many of them leaving their mark with poems on the walls and personal histories of their hopes and dreams about a new life in America.