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Ellis Island is a part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, but is its own island with its own history and worthy of separate exploration. Twelve million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island for over 60 years starting in 1892.

The Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration is in the main building where arrivals were processed. Half of today’s American people are descended from the immigrants who passed this way.

I visited here recently with a community school. We stopped first in Ellis Island on our way to the Statue of Liberty and took a guided tour of the museum with a park ranger.

The first floor is the…