The Voyage

Updated June 18, 2024

It was very common to send one member of a family to America first and then save money to bring others.

The average cost of a ticket was about $30 ($900 today). Larger ships could hold up to 2,000 immigrants. The conditions in steerage were crowded, dark, and unsanitary.

By The Numbers

From 1820 to 1969 about 4 million immigrated from Italy to the U.S. In 1907, the year Pasquale came, saw the largest number of 285,731 Italian immigrants. In 1924 the number dropped 90% due to the restrictive Immigration Act and didn’t pick up again until after WW11. Many more went to Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

Actually, no. This is a myth in genealogy research.

Names were recorded on the ship manifest at the port of departure. The names were far more likely to be recorded correctly or incorrectly before sailing.

When immigrants arrived at Ellis Island, the processors would match the name on the manifest and ask questions based on the manifests to make sure they had the correct person.

If the Ellis Island staff changed anything about a name on a manifest, they usually corrected a misspelling indicated to them by the immigrant through their interpreter.

Sometimes immigrants later decided to change their name to fit in with American society or the local community.

Sometimes, names were changed before even getting on the ship. There was no requirement to use a real last name when coming to America. As long as the name matched with the ship’s manifest.

We still need to find out when, how and who changed “Tomassi” to “Tomasso”.