So it was exactly 100 years ago today that the largest number of people -- almost 12,000 -- arrived at Ellis Island on a single day. Out of curiosity, I went poking around the arrivals for that date. Turns out a lot of Dutch families heading for Michigan arrived on April 17, 1907. Not sure why, but they're heavily represented. Of course, you can find a little of everything -- Italian, Swedish, British, Jewish, whatever. Probably a typical day for the folks who worked there except for the sheer volume they were trying to process.
I did trip across a sad tale in the arrival records that day. Search on Olga Hermansen (and incidentally, everyone can search the Immigration Collection at Ancestry.com for free until the end of April) and you'll find a 23-year-old Swedish woman who died on board just two days prior to arriving. The manifest even notes where her body was taken and what she died of. Apparently, she died in childbirth, which make the story even sadder. Her husband and toddler daughter (Carl and Ellen) must have been heart-broken. I found them in census records in Cornell, NY using the surname of Beck (discarded the patronymic) and was able to determine that he didn't remarry for about 12 years.
I realize this is a melancholy immigrant tale to share, but it's part of the bigger story of the American Dream and illustrative of just how much those seemingly dry pieces of paper have to tell us. And I hope it's some small consolation that 100 years and 2 days after her death, Olga is being remembered by others.