New York, New York - The Immigration Museum on New York Harbor's Ellis Island is to be completely renovated at a cost of around $100 million.

The museum, which opened in 1990 and is visited by around two million people a year, is to be modernized and improved by 2026, according to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, which manages the island together with the US National Park Service.

In addition, the museum's archive, which currently houses around 65 million immigration documents, will be expanded to include material from other US harbors.

Interested parties will then be able to search around 154 million documents for information about their family history.

"We are a nation of immigrants, and Ellis Island is a symbol of that history," said Jesse Brackenbury, President of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.

"Our project will ensure that the National Museum of Immigration welcomes, educates, and inspires visitors for decades to come."

The immigration center on Ellis Island in New York Harbor - right next to the island with the Statue of Liberty on it - opened in 1892 and quickly became the largest and busiest in the United States.

More than 12 million people arrived here from countries around the world by 1954. Today, one in three Americans can trace their roots back to Ellis Island.

The facility closed in 1954 because the flow of immigrants could no longer be centralized in one place. The island has since become one of New York's most popular tourist attractions.