A View from the Ship

The day of April 5, 1912,  began early with the sun rise at 5:31 am.  Remember that Daylight Savings Time had not yet been enacted.  Quickly the temperature rose to nearly 70 degrees. The air carried a brisk breeze. The sun was shining. It was a beautiful spring day in New York City!

The SS Pennsylvania, finally finished its journey and arrived at the harbor in New York. Matyas Farkas had arrived at his destination.  Ellis Island was finally a reality. There was a buzz on the ship, everyone had heard so much about this large city. However, the imagination could not have prepared them for the sight that greeted them upon arrival. A bright sun shiny day allowed them to perfectly see the large metropolitan city of New York off in the distance. There must have been a mix of excitement and trepidation among the passengers. Their new life was about to begin. A cacophony of various languages are heard and all are asking the same questions. What would this new world bring? Would they be able to pass the upcoming inspection at Ellis Island?  Would they be sent home? Would they be able to move around this big city without the ability to speak and understand the English language? Would they be able to get a job that was promised them? A job that would allow them the extra funds to send home to their families in Mezőkövesd?

What would have been the thoughts that ran through your mind if that was you? Your entire life you spent in a rural, agricultural and impoverished country. Now, the sights that are in front of you must blow you away.

 

 

 

 

All photos: Library of Congress
These photos were taken between 1910-1920

 

 

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."  - Benjamin Franklin

Arriving at Ellis Island

Matyas departed for the United States of America on the 23rd of March in 1912 from Hamburg, Germany. They made a stopover in Cuxhaven, before taking the  journey to Ellis Island in New York.

The ship manifest shows that the ship arrived on Easter Sunday, April 7, 1912.  However, the New York newspapers show that the SS Pennsylvania actually arrived on April 5, 1912. That makes the journey only 13 days. Yes, I agree, that is still a long time on an extremely overcrowded ship, in steerage, no less. They might have had to stay on the ship for 2 days until the ship inspections could be accomplished and then they had to wait their turn in line to debark since there were 15 ships that had arrived at the harbour on the 5th that had to be processed. It took a long time to inspect and process each ship and its passengers, with all of the thousands of people involved. I would only know that was the true reason if the passport and the personal travel documents for Matyas still survived. They would tell the date that he had undergone inspection and claimed his luggage. This would be my guess as to why there is a 2 day discrepencey in the arrival dates. Imagine having to spend an extra 2 days on board the ship knowing that you had arrived, looking at your new life from afar and not being able to do anything about it. There must have been some rare nerves on that ship.

The Sun (New York);  Friday; April 5, 1912;  pg 15

Leaving Home

At 22 years of age, a newly married father, left his country, home and family to come to America to make a better life for himself and his family. Times were rough in Mezökóvesd. Work was hard to come by and food was a rare commodity. The alternative that most young men chose, was to go to America and work in the factories or mines, where work was plentiful and pay was 2-3 times better than at home. This amount of money would allow for a savings that could put food on the table, firewood in the fireplace and hopefully, enough leftover to purchase some land from the landlords. This would allow for a much improved standard of living for his family in Mezökóvesd.

Matyas Farkas left Mezökóvesd for the port of Hamburg, Germany in March of 1912. He traveled with a few friends and neighbors from his village. He departed from Hamburg on the 23rd of March in 1912 on the ship named the SS Pennsylvania.

Photo from the Library of Congress depicting emigrants leaving the port of Hamburg on a steamship

 

Photo of the SS Pennsylvania from Wikipedia
 



The officials for the Hamburg-Amerika Line kept records of those departing from their port. Some of these German records still exist today. The record for Matyas still exists. It lists him as a 25 year old (even though he is only 22 years old), married, male from Mezökóvesd, Hungary. His ethnicity was Magyar and he was a day laborer. He traveled in steerage with his friends, Josef Szabo, Ferencz Csirmar and Josef Kalo. I believe, further research will show that these three other gentlemen are related. They all carry the surname of our ancestors.

They traveled down the river to Cuxhaven and then on to New York's Ellis Island. They arrived
April 7, 1912. The trip took a total of 15 days.






"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."  -Benjamin Franklin

The Family Surnames

Everyone has 4 sets of great-grandparents. How many people can claim 6 of the 8 are coincidentally from Hungary. The 4 family lines that are handled here on this blog were all from Hungary, inside of the Austria-Hungarian Empire, and Hungary before and after the governmental merger. During that time period, if your were a true Hungarian, within the boundaries of the country of Hungary (not Austria-Hungary) you were called Magyar. All others were not given that distinction. It is used as an ethnicity. The people who were Magyar were very proud of it.

My mother's family were all considered Magyar. The paternal line came from Mezőkövesd, in Borsod megye and the maternal line came from Veszprém megye in the village of Dudar. These 2 locations always have been and are still located in Hungary.

Within the limits of Mezőkövesd, we will be following the family lines of Farkas, Papp, Varga, Vamos, Sipeki, Czirmaz, Parmadi, Balog, Biro, Adám, Fugedi, and Demeter among others. Spellings of these names would vary depending on the document and who was writing it.

In Dudar, in Veszprém county, we will be following the family names of Simon, Szam, Béd, Jakab, Veiland, Kiss, Baumann, and Szabo. Here we will travel to several other small villages within Veszprém county. Once again, spellings of these names would vary depending on the document and who was writing it.

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."  - Benjamin Franklin

Mezőkövesd, Hungary

Now that I have made up my mind to do this, I don't know where to start. There is so much to share. I guess the best place to start is where I started.

My very first clue, long before we found the treasure box, was my mother's birth certificate.(This, by the way, is rule #1 in genealogy...Start with the known, close to home, then work your way backwards.  From the known to the unknown.) It listed her parents' names and places of birth. My Grandmother was born in a nearby town in Ohio. That was pretty easy!  But my Grandfather's birthplace was a mumble-jumble of letters that made no sense to me, followed by, Hungary. Then I plugged those letters into Google to see what it could tell me. They had never heard of the place either. So next, I played around with the lettering alittle and Googled it again. Still nothing. But this time, Google asked me if I meant

Mezőkövesd, Borsod megye, Hungary

 



So I told Google..."You bet, that's what I meant" with a snicker to my computer screen. "That's exactly what I meant."

I began my quest to find everything I could about this town. I had never heard of it or knew where it was. But, I'll be honest, my education only taught me that there was a city named Budapest in the country of Hungary and that was all. So anything that I learned would be "a first" for me. So here comes the geography lesson.

Country:  Hungary
County: Borsod
Village:  Mezőkövesd
Location: east of Budapest, 30 miles from Miskolc and 9 miles from Eger.

Before WWI, Hungary was part of a much larger entity, called Austria Hungary. This name was used interchangeably with Hungry, although there was a country, among others, called Hungary.

After WWII, Borsod county merged with other counties and is now called Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen County. It is now the northeastern county in Hungary.  The river Tisza forms the southeastern border and the river Sajo flows through the county.I will explain the history at a later date in another post. I wouldn't want to overwhelm you with all this schooling.

1)  Here is a current map of Hungary:

2)  Below is a map of the old county of Borsod in the year of 1910. Can you find the village? I'll give you a hint. It is down in the yellow section.

3)  Here is a current map of the area from Google maps. Use the controls and take a look around. Scroll in real far to street view and drive around or scroll back to see where it is in relation to the other towns. It's okay to play with it. You can't do anything wrong to hurt Google maps. If something happens, go back to the beginning and start playing again.







"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." -Benjamin Franklin

Grandpa's Treasure Chest

My journey started when my oldest son came to me one day a few years ago and asked me what ship my Grandpa came to the United States on. He was exploring the Ellis Island website and he wanted  to find the ship manifest for me. That was a puzzle. I didn't know the answer to that question.  How could I not know that. That seemed like something that I should have known. But I didn't. I was a little embarrassed that I didn't know. So, I began asking the family questions to see what they knew, but they did not know either. How could the family not know that answer? I was told that Grandpa never talked about it and no one ever asked. Heck, I never asked him either, even when I was studying about Ellis Island and the immigrants when I was in school. Hmmmm! Why not? I asked myself. (In my later research, I found this to be a common scenerio in many immigrant households across the county.)

SO MY QUEST BEGAN!

To make a long story short, I eventually ran across an old metal security box that held the papers that were needed for his probate after he had passed away. It was assumed that the only thing that was in that box was those papers and nobody ever looked at the rest of the contents. When I found out about its existence, I wanted to look at it. I was still on the hunt for some information about when he came to the United States. I knew that sometime back in the late seventies, Grandma and Grandpa went back to Hungary to visit.  There had to be passports or something that showed whether he was even a citizen or not. Surely those documents would not have been thrown away after his passing. I needed a clue. So that evening my parents and I, opened that box and began opening the envelopes.

UREKA! We had hit paydirt. I got goosebumps.We had finally found the TREASURE BOX!

Inside these envelopes were land papers, mortgage papers, loan papers, their U.S. passports from the seventies, his Hungarian birth certificate, his wedding certificate and his Hungarian passport from when he came over in 1926 on the RMS Olympic. This  document was nearly a hundred years old and was still in excellent condition. It had probably not been touched since he filed it away after he arrived in the United States.

Now...my curiousity was piqued... I wanted to learn about the ship, why he came over, did he come alone, did he acquire U.S. citizenship, what was his life in Hungary like, did his parents come from the same village, when did they come over, etc?

AND SO THE JOURNEY CONTINUES...

Follow along with me and see how I am learning about my Hungarian ancestors, how I am learning the "art" of genealogy, the associated history lessons and how they are all entwined.We will be following the surnames of Farkas, Szam, Jakab, Simon, Papp, Suto and others from towns with names like Mezokovesd, Dudar, Hetyen, Akron, Barberton and others, as well. . It will be an interesting ride. So strap in and off we go to learn what else may come from the Family Treasure Box.



"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."   -Benjamin Franklin