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!
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