At the risk of repeating a story, it's also been said that since the
ship manifests and passenger lists were often used to check those
arriving at Ellis Island (and prior to that at Castle Clinton in
today's Battery Park once surrounded by water, reported to have been
filled by prison labor in the 19th century covering over a pneumatic
tube paper delivery system to the former US Customs House some of the
tubes I saw monitoring a new subway tunnel on the "swing shift" 3:30pm
to midnight) and often errors on boarding may have been carried over
once arriving here in New York City. I'm not sure about other areas
(Angel Islannd, California, St. John, New Brunswick, etc.).

George Myers