How much distance did my grandparents and great-grands cover in coming to America from their homelands in Eastern Europe? All apparently sailed in steerage, never telling descendants very much about what must have been a difficult and uncomfortable trip. None lived near a port, so their travels also included a journey by foot or wagon or train to the port where they boarded a ship to cross the Atlantic.
- 4430 miles. Above, my maternal grandfather's "as the crow flies" route from Ungvar, Hungary (now Uzhhorod, Ukraine) to New York City in 1902. Grandpa Theodore Schwartz was a teenager and the first in his family to leave for America. With his encouragement (and probably his financial help), an older brother and a younger sister also came to America. Happily, I'm in touch with their grandchildren, my 2d cousins.
- 4460 miles. My maternal great-grandparents, Morris Farkas and Leni Kunstler Farkas, left for America as adults, coming separately from where they had married and lived in the area of modern-day Berehovo, Ukraine. Morris arrived first, with Leni arriving later (and their first 8 children joining them afterward in two groups). Morris missed his homeland and longed to return, but Leni wanted a better life and more opportunity for their growing family.
- 4200 miles. My paternal Grandma Henrietta Mahler arrived from Riga as a preteen. She sailed past the Statue of Liberty in the year it opened (1886). I'm still following up on the possibility that Henrietta was a cousin of some kind to her husband, Isaac Burk, connected through the Shuham part of their family trees.
- 4670 miles. My twenty-something paternal Grandpa Isaac Burk took the journey to North America in two hops. First, he left Gargzdai, Lithuania for Manchester, England. After staying with relatives and learning some English for a year or more, he sailed to Canada but got very seasick. He got off the ship at the first stop in Canada and continued to New York overland. Of all my ancestors, Isaac Burk had the longest journey from his home town to America.
Thank you to Amy Johnson Crow for this week's "Travel" prompt in her #52Ancestors series.
It is amazing how far they came; how long it took; and what they did without to establish a better life.
ReplyDeleteYour ancestors traveled just a tad longer than my dad's family, who migrated from two small villages in Slovakia. However, they settled in Passaic, NJ, so only had to travel about 15 miles after arriving in New York. My grandmother said she sailed from Hamburg, Germany.
ReplyDeleteFascinating, Marian. Imagine the conversation they all might have around the dinner table, if only you could have gathered them all together! Hmm...maybe an idea for a future post?
ReplyDeleteLadies, thanks for your comments. What courageous ancestors we all had to leave their homelands and travel so far! Wish we could ask, now, what they were thinking and how they feel about the way things turned out. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteInteresting information, Marian. I did a post on travelling in steerage a year or two ago but did not consider the distance travelled. At this time I have hometowns of only British ancestors but one of these days I hope to find the hometowns of my German grandparents.
ReplyDelete