Young Vito arrives at Ellis Island in 1901 in The Godfather Part II.
The film opens Vito’s childhood story in Sicily, where he is sent away after his family is killed by the local Mafia chieftain, Don Ciccio. When the boy reaches New York, immigration officials record him as Vito Andolini from Corleone, and the name is changed because “Corleone” is mistaken for his surname.
The 1901 arrival date anchors the historical timeline of the film’s flashbacks. Robert De Niro plays the adult young Vito, while the opening scenes show the character as a child. The film then follows his rise from immigrant worker to neighborhood crime boss.
The date is sometimes confused with the period of Vito’s later return to Sicily. That revenge journey occurs decades afterward, when Vito is already an established New York gangster.