Chalk letters on coats, a six-second eye check and 29 questions. On Ellis Island I learned how America decided who could stay - and who got sent back.
Ellis Island is a short ferry ride from the Statue of Liberty. From 1892 to 1954 it was the busiest place in the United States for checking new arrivals. About 12 million people came through.
The very first was Annie Moore, a 17-year-old from Ireland, travelling with her two younger brothers.
## The stairs were a test
New arrivals left their bags downstairs and climbed up to the Great Hall. Doctors watched them climb. Anyone who looked sick, puffed or limping could be pulled aside.
The hall is enormous, with a curved ceiling made of about 29,000 tiles. On busy days thousands of people waited here, speaking dozens of languages.
## The six-second exam
Doctors gave each person a quick look. If they spotted a problem, they wrote a chalk letter on the person's coat, like "E" for eyes or "H" for heart. Then an inspector asked about 29 questions: name, job, where you were going, how much money you had.
About 98 in every 100 people were let in, usually within a few hours. The rest were sent home on the ship they came on. Some people called it the "Island of Tears".
A common myth is that officials changed people's names here. Historians say that mostly didn't happen. Many families changed their own names later.
## This one is personal
A DNA test showed that some of my fourth and fifth great-grandparents were immigrants who arrived through Ellis Island, and some were born in the USA. That means some of my own family once climbed those same stairs and waited in that same hall. How cool is that?
## One bag for a whole life
The museum has a room full of the real trunks and suitcases people carried. For many families, that one bag was everything they owned.
## The hard part
The welcome wasn't for everyone. In 1882 the United States banned most Chinese workers, and in 1924 it set strict limits on people from many countries. Aotearoa New Zealand has hard history too: from 1881 Chinese arrivals had to pay a special poll tax, and the government apologised in 2002.
## What I learned
Moving countries is one of the bravest things a family can do. Standing in that hall, I kept thinking about how it must have felt to see the city through the window and not know yet if you were allowed to go.