Since Antonio had explained his immigrant journey took him through New York, we decided to search the Ellis Island site to document Antonio's journey. The site lists over 22 million immigrants who passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924.

A search revealed over 106 people with the name Antonio Palmieri. Antonio often spoke of coming through Ellis Island. It was a difficult passage, he said.

We knew his date of birth and the approximate date he arrived in the United States. After searching at length, we found several "Antonio Palmieris" who could be my grandfather. A search of a name will reveal the date the person came through Ellis Island. If you click on the name you will be brought to a page that may have a scan of the ships manifest (passenger list), the age at the time of entry, and the details about the ship they arrived on. Not every entry has an available manifest. Some of the records may be unavailable.

The manifest reveals the passenger's place of birth, the amount of money the person had, as well as their final destination. There are also other interesting facts listed.

After looking at countless manifests we hit a dead end. Our Antonio Palmieri was not listed. The search raised more questions than answers.

"Why don't we try looking for my mother", my mom said. "I remember she said she came over from Italy when she was one year old…"

Read Part III

 The Search for Filomena and Leopoldo Fratantuano

The Immigrant's Tale:  Part I   Part II   Part III  Part IV