The real Ellis Island
Ellis Island — New York Harbor
In the New York guidePlan a day here
In the story
In the story nine-year-old Vito arrives here in 1901, and the immigration clerk turns “Vito Andolini from Corleone” into “Vito Corleone”. But the scene wasn’t filmed here: the hall was shot in Trieste’s old fish market, in Italy.
The place today
The immigration station operated from 1892 to 1954, and some 12 million immigrants passed through it. Its main building is now the National Museum of Immigration, reached by ferry from Battery Park in Manhattan or from Liberty State Park, with a stop at the Statue of Liberty. At the museum you can search the arrival records, perhaps for your own family.
Sources: Wikipedia IT · movie-locations