A-Z Blogging Challenge - The letter J is for Journeys our relatives have taken!

In 2017, there was a challenge. I heard about it from jillballau blog and more information can be found out about it on the A-Z Blogging Challenge (which was at http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/) page itself. However, as I was testing links I found the A-Z Blogging Challenge link is no longer working *frown*

Many people had done this challenge in April 2017, but I’m a rebel and do things when I have time, so I’ll do mine now. I’ve been working on it over many days, and was hoping to get it all done before posting BUT it’s taking me a lot longer than I expected. I’ll do a few posts now and work on the rest. 

I know I have about ½ of this challenge done in draft format, so not too bad.  J

What can I say – I’m an original. So, here I go…

The letter J is for Journeys our Relatives have taken!

When you sit down and think about where your relatives came from, think about the travel they had to do to get to the US. Some of the reasons could be:

Before they left the country:

• Could they leave? Conscription/Draft? Military/Police to stop them?
• Did they have to report or get anyone’s permission TO leave.
• WHY did they leave?  Political? Financial?
• Did they leave alone? With family? Friends?
• How did they leave?
• What do you think their feelings and concerns were?

During the journey:

• What paperwork did they need? Could they get the paperwork?
• Would they get tossed off?
• Would the port close before their ship could leave?
• Would they get refused entry onboard if they thought they were sick?
• Would they be safe onboard?
• Would they have enough food for the trip?
• Would the ship be attacked or lost at sea?

Upon arrival at the new country:

• Where would they go once they got to the new country?
• Would there be someone to meet them?
• Did they have enough money for their ongoing trip? To survive until they got a job?
• Would they get refused entry upon arrival?

If they were refused entry:

• Would they be killed once they returned to their home country?
• Would they be imprisoned?
• Were they too sick to make it back?

 All of these questions are things you must ask yourself and go looking for as most of the time there are no concrete stories or reasons why they left but you can see what you can find by looking at the newspapers, history of the countries and what information you have on your ancestors. By doing this you can state you have reasons why you think they came to the new country. Unfortunately, you cannot have complete certainty unless they left a journal behind detailing their reasons.

In fact, one of my cousins asked me not too long ago, if I knew why our ancestors left and I told her I exactly what I put here – I can’t say for definite, but some good reasons are… and listed them. I’ll detail a few of the countries my ancestors came from and what I think are the reasons why they left.

Poland

As many of my ancestors came from Poland, you really need to sit back and study the history of this heart of Europe nation. I’m going to start this post after World War 1. Believe me most of what’s already happened to the Poles had happened between 1700-1918 when they had their lands, homes and livelihoods burnt, their language, Catholic religion and education and even in some cases lives taken away from them. Where my grandmother lived they called this Russification.

Article Snip fro JewishGen

Article taken from Trove. The full article is here.

Then came World War 1, which made everything worse and any food the Polish people had were taken by the soldiers – usually the Germans, Russians and  Bolsheviks. Then came the raping, murdering, and burning of homes. This is along with the soldiers taking food for anyone they could.

By the end of the war and the reemergence of Poland in 1918, things weren’t better because the when the Treaty of Versailles was put into place, one of the things they didn’t decide on what where each country ended with Poland. The people who signed this figured the individual fighting will decide the boarders of Poland. So while everyone else was happy about the Treaty, there was still fighting and struggles happening because each of the countries wanted as much land as they could get and this included Poland. To put it bluntly, nothing really changed for people who lived there except they were living back in Poland.

Adam Wojtkowski is on line 16. Taken from Ellis Island website although if looking under different last name.

My great grandfather had left Poland in 1913 or 1914 for the US to save up enough money to send for my great grandmother and grandmother. He needed to have everything stable before they could come over. My great grandmother and grandmother were staying with family in Malkinia, near Warsaw. However, I believe they heard about the soldiers making a march towards Warsaw and knew if they were to get out they had to get ASAP. So they decided to head towards Gdansk or Danzig where it was a free area due to the Treaty, but they knew it was going to be tricky.

Line 6 & 7 showing where my grandmother and great grandmother lived and where they were going. 

I found their Manifest of when they left for the US, so I could backtrack this towards the town. I now had a date when I could see where the fighting was in this time and what they had to endure to get there.

I believe there would have been fighting all around and they probably traveled at night where they wouldn’t be easily spotted. It would have taken them probably over a week to get there, and I’m thinking they either had friends or family to stay with along the way, along with riding along in the horse and buggy and if they had enough sometimes on the train. My great grandfather paid for the passage as it says on the documents as you can see from the above manifest in the 3rd filled out column. 

My grandmother always told us over and over again they were the last boat to leave port before it closed. However, according to the documents I found they were probably the first boat to leave after the ports reopened.

Taken from Daily Examiner on 27 July 1920. Page 5.

 And then 2 days later...

Taken from The Sydney Morning Herald on 29 July 1920. Page 8.

The ship manifest for my grandmother and great grandmother say one date but if they were delayed at all, they wouldn't have been able to leave before the 19 July. 

According to the paperwork they had a room, which my great grandfather probably did this for safety of both of them due to them being females. The steerage is really rough from what I’ve been told, so this would have been a protection for them.

Then when they got to Ellis Island, they wouldn’t have just pulled the boat up right next to the pier and got off either. Usually they were transferred to a barge and then the barge to the pier. Then unless they were US citizens usually they had to go into the building carrying their belongings. They were looked over by doctors while they were walking and if someone was questionable then they were usually pulled aside and sent to the hospital to be checked. Read more about the journey here.

Then my great grandmother would have had been tested for her language skills. This can be found on the ship manifest as the numbers. 

On line 6 it shows numbers in column 8 about the tests for language skills for my great grandmother. The date next to it is the date someone checked her file.

My grandmother's health sheet in her naturalization file

After all of that, they would have been led to the side and asked to sit down and wait. Why? Because they were female and they needed to be ‘released’ to a male. This way they can be taken care of. It might have been a few minutes or it could have been hours. There is no way of knowing, but they would have had to wait for Adam, my great grandfather, to collect them before being allowed into the USA.

Then they would have had to make it to where their new home was and there they could relax and have a sleep. However, over the next months, they would have had to get used to money, the new and strange community, new language, new money, schooling and it the list went on and on.

Belgium

Belgium is a very small country really. They had multiple take overs just like Poland. Then when they were unhappy they held revolts. Many people don’t realize the amount of times France pushed into West Belgium over the years.

Belgium was captured by Spain until 1714. Then Austria had its turn at the area.

I have been able to find, with a help of a cousin, an ancestors record from 1727! It’s in an area where France and Belgium meet basically. It’s always a huge place for many wars due to the advantage of being able to see out over the valley. Its name is Wytschaete or Wijtschate

From Wikipedia

Then France in 1746 captured it until 1749 when it was handed back to Austria. Then it was stable until 1795 when France was headed by Napoleon and he took over Belgium and Southern Netherlands. In 1798 a peasant’s war broke out in East Flanders and Ardennes. Then in 1815 Holland decided to rule the area for a bit. There were a few more take overs and mergers before 1830 when the Belgium people revolt and gain independence.

Then in 1865 there was another there was another revolution. This one occurred for many reasons mainly it was because people came to not like King Leopold. However after the revolution, there were problems. There were Dutch and French parts of the country and they could not agree on which language should be the official language. They fought over this.

There were conservative and progressive parts of the country. Again another area for people to fight over. Catholic and liberal parts of the country. As religion was a huge part of people back then, it would have caused many fights as well.

However, they still had a king ruling the country. King Leopold II. He was nicknamed the butcher of the Congo because he found the area and then exploited it for its rubber. While his country and the area he founded started to crumble, he ended being forced to relinquish his crown.

During 1847-1857 they had many different things hit the country – Economic destabilization with exporters having increasing competition from the British. Then there were the radical publications which were founded and this fueled a rebellion to go to the main government area to overthrow the monarchy to establish a republic only to be stopped/captured by soldiers. Then they had the epidemics of cholera which gave everyone a difficult time to survive.

Then in 1847 until 1880 the liberals ran Belgium and things settled down. People were starting to have a positive attitude, arts flourished as in music, theater, visual arts types of things. The economic side of things started to expand at a fast rate and had a good trade understanding with the Netherlands.

Take from FamilySearch.org

During this time is when my great grandfather Jules is born (1871). His father was away serving in the military due to the draft.

Taken from Familysearch.org

By the end of 1871, my great grandparents were married.

Taken from Family Search

In 1878, my 2x great grandmother Florentina Van Rompaye Gauquie, had died. As you can see if you understand the language, my 2x great grandfather is actually an entertainer!

Found here

I believe this spurred my 2x great grandfather to bring himself and his children to the US in about 1884 according to his statement in his Intention for US Citizenship he filed.

Came from Orange County NY Registrars office

In 1909, King Leopold II died and people still did not like him. He loved his Africa, where he was getting/selling the rubber from but they were not as good as he thought they were and things started to fail for him. The Belgian people booed him at his own funeral.

During this time, my great father met my great grandmother and in 1900 bought a property which has been known as the king’s highway, meets up to it. If you look into the history of the area, then you can see many people who fought against and for America’s independence are all around the area.

Got from here

I believe the whole reason why they came, was because they were afraid of the trade going too fast and being given very little for their food as many were farmers. If you add to this, the many cousins already in the US – in New York and Minnesota – I think they went to see if they can get whatever they could.

I have ancestors from Denmark and Germany as well, so it’s a timely thing to look up history and understand it.

As you can see, putting history of a country with what’s going on in your family is a huge thing. By doing this it brings about understanding of the times and your ancestors mind set as well!