An Immigrant’s Kiss
The Italian kisses his children but scarcely speaks to his wife, never embraces or kisses her in public. The Hungarian and Slavish people put their arms around one another and weep. The Jew of all countries kisses his wife and children as though he owned all the kisses in the world and intended to use them all up quick.
—Maud Mosher, 1910, matron at Ellis Island
At just about every port in America, it started with a kiss. But at Ellis Island, the spot where that welcoming kiss was shared is still celebrated, even earning its own name—the Kissing Post.
Ellis Island’s Kissing Post is actually a pillar located at the exact spot on Ellis Island where immigrants who had been routed through a lengthy process of inspection and paperwork were finally reunited with family members who had come to meet them.
And long, short, private, or public, whatever the style of the kiss, there were plenty shared between new arrivals and their family members already in America. Especially if you consider that approximately 16 million Americans-to-be made their way through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954, and that on its biggest day alone, 17 April 1907, Ellis Island received more than 11,000 immigrants. That’s a lot of puckering up.
To find out if your ancestors were among those immigrants who shared a kiss at Ellis Island you can check out the newly expanded immigration database at Ancestry.com. It is the most comprehensive online database of passenger lists available, including over 100 million passenger and crew names for immigrants who passed through Ellis Island and other American ports.
Remember, even if a smooch doesn’t transfer well to official records, you can bet that your ancestor’s arrival was celebrated—and sealed—with a well-deserved, welcome-home kiss.
Sources: Maud Mosher quote and information excerpted from Encyclopedia of Ellis Island, by Barry Moreno. Greenwood Press, 2004; additional information from www.EllisIslandExperience.com and Ancestry.com.
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Sharing a kiss is so true for some cultures. My grandmother came from Italy in the early 1900’s. Though she is no longer with us I do remember *always* getting a kiss when we would visit and a kiss when we would leave, and we visited her often as she lived in the same city as my parents. My grandfather died at an early age, but I would image if I had known him, the same greeting and good-bye kiss would have occurred.