After receiving his naturalization papers last week, however, I now had a month and year: January, 1904, plus a departure point (supposedly Hamburg) and the name of a ship (the Pretoria).
Finally I found Sam--except he arrived here as Simon Schwartz, on a ship from Cuxhaven. It's definitely him, because in the far-right column, my grandpa Teodor (Theodore) Schwartz is listed as Simon's brother in New York City. A small step forward and a new mystery, never to be solved: How did Simon get from his hometown of Ungvar, Hungary, to the dock at Cuxhaven? That's quite a journey.
I was told my grandparents, great-aunts and uncles took trains to Hamburg or Bremen. I'm certain the trains didn't run to their small Carpathian mountain villages, but Ungvar was a good sized city and may have had train service.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Susan, for that idea! Gives me a different view of the trip.
ReplyDeleteThat's a real breakthrough. How would you have known to look for him as Simon?
ReplyDeleteDee, there's no way I would have even thought to look for Simon. Now I can try to trace from the other end using that name!
ReplyDeleteSearching for my grandfather, Simon Schwartz from Czechoslovakia. He came to Us in 1911. He had three sisters in NYC. One was Gussie Hochhauser. She lived on Thayer Street. She had a daughter, Harriet. Another aunt was Lina. He might have live on the West Coast for a while.
ReplyDeleteNo, it seems my Simon was not your Simon, because the dates and names don't line up at all, sorry to say. Hope you can find out more about Gussie, perhaps she holds more clues!
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