Over 25 million Italians have emigrated between 1861 and 1960 with a migration boom between 1871 and 1915 when over 13,5 million emigrants left the country for European and overseas destinations.
And a film about the hospital (dated 4 July 2014) which states:
This is the first film about the once abandoned immigrant hospital on Ellis Island. In the era before antibiotics, tens of thousands of immigrant patients were separated from family, detained in the hospital, and healed from illness before becoming citizens. 350 babies were born, and ten times that many immigrants died on Ellis Island, 3,500 were buried in pauper's graves around New York City.
Thank you for providing these links Tessa. I've both read the article and watched the documentary today. I found the documentary very moving and thought-provoking. We have so much to be grateful for.
Angela
The legal requirements for recognition of Italian citizenship claims made by persons born abroad, but whose births were never registered with an Italian consular agency, vary considerably according to particular circumstances, and also depend upon existing treaties between the Italian Republic and v...