Hungarian Kifli at Christmas: A long legacy of motherly love

I've shared our family's Kifli recipe several times already here at 100 Years in America, telling the story of how I finally learned the Hungarian name of this traditional favorite. (By the time I came along my family was calling them "Gramma's Christmas Cakes". This European treat had Americanized its name along with the names of my immigrant ancestors!)

This year I'd like to share this delicious family treasure again within my series of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories articles, giving a little more attention to our family's special legacy with regard to this delicious traditional favorite.

This is the first Christmas that our family will celebrate without a very special family member, my dear Aunt Barbara. She passed away last January. It has been almost a year now, yet the passing of the first Christmas without a loved one is probably one of the most difficult milestones when grieving a loss. So it is with dear Barbara, for myself and the rest of the family, but particularly for her children and grandchildren, I'm sure.

One of 100 Years in America's most faithful readers, one of Barbara's daughters, faithfully bakes these family Christmas cakes each year (and provided me with the beautiful photograph above). One of the sad moments she experienced this month was not being able to call her Mom and say, "Guess what I'm making?" My cousin was taught by her mother, Barbara, who was taught by her mother, our dear grandmother Mitzi. A young bride at age 18, Mitzi had gone to live with her new husband in the household of his mother (and many siblings) several states away from her home. There she was trained to cook and bake as her mother-in-law did, using her recipes from northeastern Hungary. One of the recipes Mitzi mastered: Hungarian Kifli.

Mitzi's mother-in-law, Maria (Németh) Tóth (known as Mary in America), was a 34-year-old mother of four when she emigrated from Hungary's Borsod county to join her husband. Along with transporting four children (one a baby!) on that journey, Maria carried with her a wealth of Hungarian family recipes that would be treasured by many generations of our family over the next century (and hopefully more!).

I like to imagine Maria as a young girl within her mother's kitchen, learning to cook the Hungarian Gulyás (goulash), Töltött káposzta (stuffed cabbage), Csirke paprikás (chicken paprika), and Kifli that would become our family's favorites. Maria and her mother could not possibly have imagined that a century later and a world away, their descendants would remember them and their recipes fondly, having received the legacy of nourishing love produced by the hands of their daughters, daughters-in-law, and grand-daughters.

As I once again share this Kifli recipe, I do so in honor of these women who came before us: my dear Aunt Barbara, my grandmother Mitzi, my great-grandmother Mary (Maria), and her mother (another Barbara): Borbála* (Nagy) Németh.

*Borbála is the Hungarian version of the name Barbara

100 Years in America's Family Kifli Recipe

Otherwise known as "Gramma's Christmas Cakes"


Apricot Jelly Filling

3 lbs. apricots
1 1/2 cups sugar
Cinnamon

• Put them in a pot with enough water to cover them plus about 1 inch more
• Cook for about 45 minutes until soft, stirring frequently
• Mash the apricots
• Add sugar
• Cook about 1 1/2 to 2 hours until very thick (the longer the better), stirring frequently
• Sprinkle the jelly with cinnamon

Christmas Cakes

4 cups flour
1/2 lb. sweet butter at room temperature
6 eggs - separated - at room temperature
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 oz. sour cream at room temperature
4 tablespoons sugar
1 packet of yeast (prepared by mixing with 1 teaspoon sugar & about 1/4 cup milk)
Homemade apricot jelly
1 lb. walnuts (add 4 teaspoons sugar to each lb. when chopped)
Confectioner's sugar

• Mix flour with butter and then salt and sugar
• Make a well in the middle - add egg yolks, vanilla and sour cream gradually
• Mix and kneed until smooth (keep working the dough until ready)
• Use flour to make it not too sticky (can freeze - wrap in freezer paper and cover with flour)
• Roll out dough
• Cut the dough into 4 pieces
• Chop walnuts and whip egg whites
• Roll out one of the 4 pieces of dough
• Cut into individual 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 squares and fill with a heaping teaspoon of homemade apricot jelly
• Roll each into a horn (crescent)
• Top each with egg whites and nuts
• Bake in the oven at 350 degrees until light brown (about 30-35 minutes)

Kifli may also be served with a prune filling (prepared similarly to the apricot filling) or a walnut filling, although the apricot kind has always been the favorite in my family. If using walnut filling, add boiled milk to the nuts until pasty, then grated lemon rind.

~

This article is part of a series written in celebration of the Advent and Christmas seasons. It will be included as part of the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2013, Day 4: Christmas Recipes. For more Advent and Christmas memories here at 100 Years in America (going back to 2007), scroll through these articles or stop by my Pinterest page. Visit this preview for more details about the GeneaBloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories and to get some inspiration to get yourself in the holiday spirit!

Note: Our family's Kifli recipe has also appeared previously as part of the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories here at 100 Years in America several times (once in 2007 and then twice in 2009 - here and here). Over the past six years, these have continued to be among the most frequently viewed articles here at 100 Years in America. If you took the time to try out our family Kifli recipe, please leave a comment and let us know!

H is for Hamburg and the Hopes of Emigrants

Little Pista Tóth (Pista means "little Stephen" in Hungarian) was just shy of 2 1/2 years of age when he, his siblings, and his mother boarded the S.S. Pennsylvania in Hamburg, Germany on May 4, 1907. The family had left their home in northeastern Hungary to make a new life in America, where their father had already spent some time. István Tóth had been in Trenton, New Jersey during 1902 and 1903 and then returned to his wife Mária (Németh) Tóth and his two young daughters, Mária and Ilonka. István's young son and namesake, had arrived in 1904. István had then returned to America and awaited the arrival of his family, including the final child born into the family in Hungary: baby Lajos. (You can read more of this family's story here.)

This list of passengers departing Hamburg on May 4, 1907 lists Maria Tóth
of Gelej, Hungary with her children Maria, Ilonka, Pista and baby Lajos.
Father Istvan awaited them in Trenton, New Jersey. (Click to enlarge)

It is quite a picture to imagine this young family from the little village of Gelej, Hungary staying at the Auswandererhallen (Emigrants’ Halls) in Hamburg, Germany awaiting their ocean voyage to America.

Image of Hamburg's Emigrants' Halls thanks to
Ballinstadt Emigration Museum.

The BallinStadt, otherwise known as the Emigrants' City, was a multiple-building facility designed so that passengers arriving by rail from Eastern European countries could be directed straight to the port and avoid passage through the city of Hamburg. According to the Ballinstadt Emigration Museum website, "In the year 1907 alone, a total of nearly 190,000 emigrants departed from Hamburg into an uncertain future. Hamburg had become Germany’s number one emigration port."

The young Tóth family arrived at Ellis Island in New York via the S.S. Pennsylvania of the Hamburg-Amerika line fifteen days after departure from Hamburg. What a trip it must have been for a wiggly 2-year-old little boy, his older sisters, his baby brother, and his poor mother!

The Tóth family arrived in New York on the S.S. Pennsylvania on May 19, 1907. 

Thanks to the Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York City and the Ballinstadt Emigration Museum in Hamburg, I can visit museums at both little Pista Tóth's port of arrival in America and his port of departure in Germany. What an amazing chance to get a personal glimpse into what this little boy might have experienced just over 100 years ago on his trip to a new world with his family.

Image of the S.S. Pennsylvania of the Hamburg-Amerika Line 
from the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives: The Future of our Past.

Note: The Staatsarchiv Hamburg has digitized passenger lists for those departing from the port during the years 1850-1934. These Hamburg passenger lists and their handwritten indexes are available through Ancestry.com.



This article was originally published here at 100 Years in America in 2008 as "A little boy, a big ship, and a brand new world". I've reposted it as part of the Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge.  Follow me here at 100 Years in America as I try to keep up with the challenge to work through the alphabet while writing my family history.

On babies and transatlantic crossings

It was just a few short years ago that my husband and I took a very memorable trip to Europe. We traveled accompanied by our children, including the newest addition to the family: our baby daughter just shy of five months old.

The trip was challenging in many ways. Long plane flights, long walks, luggage-toting, frequent adjustments to new sleeping arrangements in hotels and guest houses...

The trip was not for the faint-hearted. Each child was tasked with toting their own suitcase and/or carrying a backpack, etc. I carried my baby almost continuously for two straight weeks. Time strapped into her car seat was very limited (only a couple of taxi rides and one rental car trip required it). We traveled almost exclusively by train through France, Switzerland and Germany, baby in my arms. We didn't even consider taking a stroller. It was hard enough to get on and off the Paris metro with a baby and her siblings not to mention a bulky stroller!

Our littlest one loved the trip. She constantly had new things to look at. It was the dream vacation for a baby who has not yet had the inclination to crawl.

Some friends with similar-aged children thought we were crazy to attempt such an adventure. One, whose baby was the same age as ours, said, "I can barely make it to the grocery store. How did you make that trip to Europe?"

During some of the more difficult moments of our trip, when things seemed momentarily overwhelming for this traveling mother and her young family, I found inspiration in the memory of my great-grandmother's journey from Europe with her toddler to meet her husband in America, who had left several years before. Ilona (Bence) Ujlaki, known to me as Grammy Ulaky, had faced her trip alone with her young son. His illness and his resultant stay at Ellis Island had to be a trial extraordinaire for a young mother, only age 24. Surely, if she could make it through that ordeal, I could make it through my journey. I pressed on knowing that my struggles were not half as difficult as hers.

Now, several years later, I have additional inspiration in the perseverance of motherhood: my great-grandmother Maria (Németh) Tóth. Like Ilona, Maria had crossed the Atlantic alone on her way to join her husband in a new country. She, however, had three young children with her - plus a baby!

You may have read the post about my discovery of baby Lajos' name on the U.S.S. Pennsylvania passenger list originating in Hamburg and then again on the list at Ellis Island. I was amazed to find the name of a family member who I had never heard existed. After further contemplation, I am even more amazed at the fact that this poor mother, my great-grandmother, survived such a trip with her young children and baby and made it to America with her sanity intact.

Imagine this: one adult with four young children ages six, four, two and five months. No disposable diapers. Not even a toilet, for goodness sake. No bag full of extra cookies, snacks and juice boxes. Probably not even decent meals or clean water, if enough water was even available. Fifteen straight days in the steerage section of a ship after a cross-continent trip by train from Hungary to Germany.

Ughhhh.

Don't forget to consider the fact that along the way Maria faced difficulty in communicating with fellow passengers, train and ship employees, and workers at the ports of Hamburg and Ellis Island. I wonder how many Hungarian speakers she actually encountered along the way. It must have been a relief to speak with someone in her native tongue.

I know from traveling with young children that no trip is easy. But what I know about the journey of my great-grandmother Maria (Németh) Tóth is almost unthinkable to me as a mother. In pondering the struggles that she must have faced on her journey to America, I can only hope that somehow she received special grace from God during her trial and met a few kind and helpful strangers on her way.

I never had a chance to meet my great-grandmother, known to her family as Grammy Toth. If I could do so today I would thank her as a great-granddaughter and a fellow mother: with thanksgiving for her perseverance during what was possibly one of the greatest trials of her life. Her courage and sacrifice made it possible for our family to begin a new life in America.

This article was originally published on March 10, 2008.  It has been reposted here in honor of women's history month.

István Tóth: The elusive "John Smith" of my Hungarian family tree

In the world of the Hungarian people, a man named István Tóth is as common as an American named John Smith. Take that Hungarian and transplant him to America, and he becomes Stephen Toth - not quite as common as the John Smiths who have become his new neighbors, but still just as difficult for his great-granddaughter to distinguish from the many other Hungarian-Americans named Stephen Toth.

My genealogical search for my great-grandfather has been (and continues to be) a challenge for me. His common Hungarian name has sometimes made it difficult for me to track him down. Born in 1874 in the village of Mezőkeresztes in what was then the district of Mezőkövesdi in Borsod County, Hungary, István Tóth was one of two babies born of the same name to appear in the Roman Catholic Church records of that locality during a period of several years. A few clues such as his birth month (as listed on later records), his family's residence, and the name of one of his siblings helped me to narrow my search down to the right István Tóth. Here he is listed in the Roman Catholic parish registry for Mezőkeresztes in 1874:

As an adult, my great-grandfather traveled back and forth from his home and family in Gelej, Hungary (a village very near to his birthplace of Mezőkeresztes) across the Atlantic several times before finally settling in America with his family.

Here listed within one of his daughters' birth records in 1903 as a törvényes atya (the legal father), it is interesting to note István's lakóhelye (place of residence): "jelenleg Trenton Amerika", meaning "currently Trenton, America".


As far as I have determined, István usually traveled alone - his wife and children made their voyage to America separately on another ship after what I assume was István's last visit back to Hungary. My great-grandfather's common name has made it difficult for me to narrow down his passenger lists from the many other István Tóths that made similar trips during the years that he traveled. Thanks to his children's birth records, I know that he made at least two trips to America before finally settling in Trenton. I have unfortunately not been able to confirm even one ship passenger manifest for him yet.

His wife and children, however, were easy to recognize once I found them. (Read more of their story at A little boy, a big ship and a brand new world, Lajos long forgotten: An immigrant baby's story, Update on baby Lajos: His arrival at Ellis Island, and On babies and trans-Atlantic crossings).

István, who became Steven/Stephen in America, first settled with his family in the U.S. in Trenton, New Jersey. He is one of five Stephen Toths that resided in the city during the year 1908, according to the city directory. Another instance with too many possibilities to narrow down easily thanks to Stephen Toth's common Hungarian name!

My real dilemma with my great-grandfather has been my search for records that tell the story of the end of his life. Various records in the early 20th-century (censuses and city directories) indicate his wife as a "widow". Interestingly enough, these records alternate between other records in intervening years where he is listed with his family or where new children were born into the family.

Note the 1908 and 1909 city directory listings for what may be my Stephen Toth and his family in Trenton, New Jersey. Stephen is with the family in 1908, but Mary, a "widow", appears at the same address in the 1909 directory.

1908 Trenton city directory listings for Toth

1909 Trenton city directory listings for Toth

A year later what is clearly my Toth family appears residing in Trenton, father included, in the 1910 U.S. Census.

This pattern occurred later within city directories for the Toth family in Massachusetts. Mary appears to have sometimes labeled herself a "widow" when questioned about her family, although her husband was probably just absent.

It appears that Stephen Toth was not always "around", although he appears to have remained a presence in his family's lives for many years. He is conspicuously missing from this formal family portrait taken of the Toths about 1929.

I have word, however, from one of his daughter-in-laws that Stephen Toth was alive and well in New Jersey at some point during the 1930s. Although the rest of his family was living in Massachusetts at the time, she remembered visiting him there in New Jersey with her husband, Stephen's son.

My questions: Where did my great-grandfather Stephen Toth spend the rest of his life after he apparently left his family in Massachusetts? How long did he live? Where and when did he die, and where is he buried?

These questions have troubled me for some time. There does not seem to be a Social Security record for him. Because of this and because of his birthdate, I assume that he may not have lived past the 1930s or 1940s.

Did Stephen Toth resettle in Trenton, his first American city of residence, after leaving his family in Massachusetts? I may never know the reasons why he made the choices that he did, but it would be nice to at least finally know the genealogical facts regarding the end of his life.

Great-Grandpa, whom so many of your family members never knew: here's hoping that I'll finally find your whereabouts and learn a little more about the missing story of your life.

Sources:

Hungary. Borsod. Mezőkeresztes. Anyakönyvek, 1769-1895. Római Katólikus Egyház, Keresztespüspöki. FHL 623394, page 95. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Hungary. Borsod. Gelej. Állami anyakönyvek, születtek [births], 1895-1908. Gelej (Borsod) Anyakönyvi Hivatal. FHL 2227088, item 5, page 628. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.
City Directory (Trenton, New Jersey: The city, 1908), Toth listings.
City Directory (Trenton, New Jersey: The city, 1909), Toth listings.
1910 U.S. census, Mercer County, New Jersey population schedule, City of Trenton, enumeration district (ED) 59, sheet 13B, Stephen Toth; digital images, ProQuest (http://www.heritagequestonline.com/hqoweb/library/do/index: accessed March 2009); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T624, roll 674.
Toth family portrait. Photograph ca 1929. Digital image. Privately held by the author, United States. 2009

Author's Note:

Thanks to Amy Lenertz Coffin of We Tree for the suggestion of Weekly Genealogy Blogging Prompt #12: to post a genealogy "brick wall" problem to share with others. This genealogist would be very grateful to anyone who might be able to provide any further clues on the life of Stephen Toth (1874-?) of Mezőkeresztes and Gelej, Hungary; Trenton, New Jersey; and various towns in Massachusetts (including Wilmington, Malden and Cambridge).

On the hunt for Hungarians in Trenton, New Jersey

In the process of looking for information about ancestors residing in Trenton, New Jersey in the early 20th-century, I found a helpful resource: the Trenton Historical Society. With help from the Trenton Public Library's Local History & Genealogy Trentoniana section, the Trenton Historical Society has placed data from seven of its city directories online, spanning the years 1844 to 1920.

I am particularly interested in István & Maria (Németh) Tóth and their family who arrived in Trenton in the early 20th-century from Gelej and Mezőkeresztes, Hungary. I looked up their surname in the 1900 and 1920 directories. It seems that Toths didn't arrive until after 1900, but when they came they did so in large numbers. Thirty-three listings for Toths occur in the 1920 Trenton directory. Unfortunately, my family members had come after 1900 and had already moved on to Massachusetts by 1920 so they were not listed.

I found interesting reading in the historical society's 1929 history, including an overview of the Magyar population of the city at the time. A History of Trenton: 1679-1929 has a chapter entitled Trenton Citizens of Foreign Origin. It includes a section on Hungarians, stating the following statistics on the number of Magyars in Trenton:

1900 - 1,494
1910 - 4, 980
1920 - 4,042

It looks like my family was one of the more nomadic Hungarian immigrant families. They arrived in Trenton when most other Hungarian families did, and left a few short years afterward.

The rest of the 1929 history includes a description of the character of the Hungarian people and the Hungarian neighborhood of the city.

According to the Trenton Historical Society authors in 1929, "The Hungarian makes a valuable workman and is quiet, thrifty, industrious, home-loving and sturdy. By nature he is sociable and finds company necessary in his scheme of life. This accounts for the courtesy and politeness of the people."

I hope these glowing words applied to all of my family members!

It was helpful for me to read the overview of the Hungarian neighborhood in Trenton circa 1929. According to the book, "In Trenton the Hungarians occupy more than thirty-five different streets in whole or in part. All that section of Trenton lying south of Bridge Street, extending many blocks east and west, all the way down to what was formerly Wharton Street, now merged in South Clinton Avenue, is populated by Hungarians".

Now to find the home of István & Maria (Németh) Tóth, and the final resting place of their little Lajos...

Interested in getting a peek back at Trenton, New Jersey one-hundred years ago? View these local WZBN-TV videos for a look back (though not great video-quality, they provide a little bit of interesting history): Trenton Makes, The World Takes and Trenton 100 Years Ago.

On babies and trans-Atlantic crossings

It was just a few short years ago that my husband and I took a very memorable trip to Europe. We traveled accompanied by our children, including the newest addition to the family: our baby daughter just shy of five months old.

The trip was challenging in many ways. Long plane flights, long walks, luggage-toting, frequent adjustments to new sleeping arrangements in hotels and guest houses...

The trip was not for the faint-hearted. Each child was tasked with toting their own suitcase and/or carrying a backpack, etc. I carried my baby almost continuously for two straight weeks. Time strapped into her car seat was very limited (only a couple of taxi rides and one rental car trip required it). We traveled almost exclusively by train through France, Switzerland and Germany, baby in my arms. We didn't even consider taking a stroller. It was hard enough to get on and off the Paris metro with a baby and her siblings not to mention a bulky stroller!

Our littlest one loved the trip. She constantly had new things to look at. It was the dream vacation for a baby who has not yet had the inclination to crawl.

Some friends with similar-aged children thought we were crazy to attempt such an adventure. One, whose baby was the same age as ours, said, "I can barely make it to the grocery store. How did you make that trip to Europe?"

During some of the more difficult moments of our trip, when things seemed momentarily overwhelming for this traveling mother and her young family, I found inspiration in the memory of my great-grandmother's journey from Europe with her toddler to meet her husband in America, who had left several years before. Ilona (Bence) Ujlaki, known to me as Grammy Ulaky, had faced her trip alone with her young son. His illness and his resultant stay at Ellis Island had to be a trial extraordinaire for a young mother, only age 24. Surely, if she could make it through that ordeal, I could make it through my journey. I pressed on knowing that my struggles were not half as difficult as hers.

Now, several years later, I have additional inspiration in the perseverance of motherhood: my great-grandmother Maria (Németh) Tóth. Like Ilona, Maria had crossed the Atlantic alone on her way to join her husband in a new country. She, however, had three young children with her - plus a baby!

You may have read the post about my discovery of baby Lajos' name on the U.S.S. Pennsylvania passenger list originating in Hamburg and then again on the list at Ellis Island. I was amazed to find the name of a family member who I had never heard existed. After further contemplation, I am even more amazed at the fact that this poor mother, my great-grandmother, survived such a trip with her young children and baby and made it to America with her sanity intact.

Imagine this: one adult with four young children ages six, four, two and five months. No disposable diapers. Not even a toilet, for goodness sake. No bag full of extra cookies, snacks and juice boxes. Probably not even decent meals or clean water, if enough water was even available. Fifteen straight days in the steerage section of a ship after a cross-continent trip by train from Hungary to Germany.

Ughhhh.

Don't forget to consider the fact that along the way Maria faced difficulty in communicating with fellow passengers, train and ship employees, and workers at the ports of Hamburg and Ellis Island. I wonder how many Hungarian speakers she actually encountered along the way. It must have been a relief to speak with someone in her native tongue.

I know from traveling with young children that no trip is easy. But what I know about the journey of my great-grandmother Maria (Németh) Tóth is almost unthinkable to me as a mother. In pondering the struggles that she must have faced on her journey to America, I can only hope that somehow she received special grace from God during her trial and met a few kind and helpful strangers on her way.

I never had a chance to meet my great-grandmother, known to her family as Grammy Toth. If I could do so today I would thank her as a great-granddaughter and a fellow mother: with thanksgiving for her perseverance during what was possibly one of the greatest trials of her life. Her courage and sacrifice made it possible for our family to begin a new life in America.

Update on baby Lajos: his arrival at Ellis Island

With much surprise I read the comment that Donna Pointkouski of What's Past is Prologue had added to my previous post entitled Lajos long forgotten: an immigrant baby's story.

Donna had read the story of little Lajos and was intrigued as I was, wanting to determine the conclusion of the Tóth family's trip - so she did.

I was overwhelmed when I read her message, posted as a comment on my previous post. She wrote:

What a great post! Sad in a way, but nice to find that name and speak it once again. But, I hate mysteries... especially since I just named Steve Morse's site as my favorite for the COG. So, let me put you at ease. Little Lajos survived the trip and did NOT die at sea...you should be able to find his death record in Trenton. How do I know this? I found them. I'll email you the Ellis Island record. I tried Steve's site for the ship name, month/year, age 23-25, and a Hungarian Maria with no last name. Ellis Island has them indexed as Foth.

What joy to know that baby Lajos had made it across the Atlantic along with his family on the fifteen day trip from Hamburg, arriving on May 19, 1907. The ship manifest lists each family members' name, and even indicates their father's address in Trenton, New Jersey which was their final destination (although it is hard to read).

Now I can take the next step and look for the family in Trenton and hopefully someday visit little Lajos' grave.

Thank-you, Donna, for the best blog comment I've ever received. You made my day. Thanks for taking an interest in this "mystery" along with me. I appreciate and admire the way that you cleverly solved it so quickly!

Lajos long forgotten: an immigrant baby's story

"Lajos." (Pronounced lah-yos).

"Lajos."

The name is Hungarian for Louis.

I can't help but wonder when the name "Lajos" was last spoken by someone in my family.

I spoke the name "Lajos" with amazement when I found the May 4, 1907 ship passenger list that showed my Tóth family ancestors coming to America from Hungary via Hamburg and the ship U.S.S. Pennsylvania. The names of the Tóth family members traveling on the ship were listed as follows:
Maria, age 25 (my great-grandmother, actually age 23)

Maria, age 7 (her eldest daughter, actually age 6)

Ilona, age 3 (the second daughter, actually age 4 - whom I knew to be Aunt Helen: she had made some beautiful quilts that I remember fondly from my childhood, and I had recently visited with her daughter)

Pista, age 2 (little Stephen, not yet 2 1/2 years old - my grandfather, the last child known to have been born to the family while they lived in Hungary - he was mistakenly listed as female on this passenger list)

But listed below was another name: Lajos.

I had never heard anyone mention his name. A baby aged 6 months, the passenger list stated. He was an infant among the travelers on the trip to America. What had become of him?

Thanks to my local Family History Library, I had access to the civil birth records from the village of Gelej, Borsod County, Hungary where the family was from. I had recently searched for the records of each of the children of István & Maria (Németh) Tóth - from 1900 through 1904. I had found Maria Tóth, born November 3, 1900.

The next child was Ilona Tóth, born January 23, 1903.
It was a thrill to find my grandfather's name and date of birth, which was actually a few days different from the date we had always celebrated. Baby István Tóth, his father's namesake, was born on December 13, 1904.
I had stopped after finding my grandfather's record because I knew him to be last child born in Europe. That was a mistake on my part.

In a matter of days after finding Lajos' name on the passenger list of the U.S.S. Pennsylvania I was able to go back to the microfilms of the village registry and, sure enough, there was the name of baby Lajos: born December 2, 1906.

I spoke his name tenderly and my mind filled with questions. What must it have been like for my great-grandmother on that trip from Hungary to Germany and then on to the United States? She had traveled not only with three children, as I had thought, but without her husband and with a young baby. I had always been inspired by the thought of my great-grandmother Ilona Ujlaky's trip with her ill toddler who arrived at Ellis Island in 1909. Now, here was another great-grandmother whose trip posed even more of a challenge. How did she make it through such a difficult trial? And what had become of her baby, Lajos?

Last month I posted a twenty-five minute Ancestors episode about Ellis Island immigration here at 100 Years in America within my article entitled: The "isle of hope and tears" revisited. Along with other stories of Ellis Island and its immigrants, the video tells the touching story of a woman's discovery of her great-aunt's baby's name on the passenger list (who had been unknown to family members of the current generation) and her resulting search for the baby's final resting place.

I had watched the video with interest, touched by the story, with no idea that I would find myself in the same type of search for my unknown great-great-uncle: baby Lajos Tóth.

Did Lajos make it through the trip, or was he buried at sea? If he did make it to America, how long did he live, and where is he buried? In New York, where the family arrived, or in New Jersey where they first settled?

Unfortunately I cannot seem to find the family's arrival passenger list at Ellis Island. I have searched using various fields within Steve Morse's One-Step Ellis Island webpages, but still to no avail. But I will continue to do so. I feel compelled to learn the full story of baby Lajos and his short life.

In the meantime, I can't help but wonder when the name "Lajos" was last spoken in my family. Did his father, having arrived in America before his family, ever even see his young son? Did his siblings remember him years later as they spent their childhoods in America? Did his mother avoid mention of his name because of the painful memories that it brought to the surface for her?

"Lajos."

Born over one-hundred years ago, he lived such a short life, but he is a part of my family and its history forever.

Author's notes:
For the continuation of baby Lajos Tóth's story, see Update on baby Lajos: his arrival at Ellis Island.
I had originally written the post entitled A little boy, a big ship and a brand new world, also about this family's trip to America, with a few errors. Because of Stephen Tóth's naturalization records I had understood that he had arrived via the ship Amerika. I had made the assumption that his family had traveled with his father, and I was unaware at that time of the existence of baby Lajos. My discovery of the passenger list for the family's trip on the ship U.S.S. Pennsylvania of the Hamburg-Amerika line gave me more accurate information and I have corrected my original post to reflect this change.

Sources:

Hungary. Borsod. Gelej. Állami anyakönyvek, születtek [births], 1895-1908. Gelej (Borsod) Anyakönyvi Hivatal. FHL 2,227,088, item 5, pages 583, 628, 660, 704. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934 [database online]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc. 2006. Original data: Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Bestand: 373-7 I, VIII (Auswanderungsamt I). Mikrofilmrollen K 1701 - K 2008, S 17363 - S 17383, 13116 - 13183.

A little boy, a big ship, and a brand new world

Little Pista Tóth (Pista means "little Stephen" in Hungarian) was just shy of 2 1/2 years of age when he, his siblings, and his mother boarded the S.S. Pennsylvania in Hamburg, Germany on May 4, 1907. The family had left their home in northeastern Hungary to make a new life in America, where their father had already spent some time. István Tóth had been in Trenton, New Jersey during 1902 and 1903 and then returned to his wife Mária (Németh) Tóth and his two young daughters, Mária and Ilonka. István's young son and namesake, had arrived in 1904. István had then returned to America and awaited the arrival of his family, including the final child born into the family in Hungary: baby Lajos. (You can read more of this family's story here.)

This list of passengers departing Hamburg on May 4, 1907 lists Maria Tóth
of Gelej, Hungary with her children Maria, Ilonka, Pista and baby Lajos.
Father Istvan awaited them in Trenton, New Jersey. (Click to enlarge)

It is quite a picture to imagine this young family from the little village of Gelej, Hungary staying at the Auswandererhallen (Emigrants’ Halls) in Hamburg, Germany awaiting their ocean voyage to America.

Image of Hamburg's Emigrants' Halls thanks to
Ballinstadt Emigration Museum.

The BallinStadt, otherwise known as the Emigrants' City, was a multiple-building facility designed so that passengers arriving by rail from Eastern European countries could be directed straight to the port and avoid passage through the city of Hamburg. According to the Ballinstadt Emigration Museum website, "In the year 1907 alone, a total of nearly 190,000 emigrants departed from Hamburg into an uncertain future. Hamburg had become Germany’s number one emigration port."

The young Tóth family arrived at Ellis Island in New York via the S.S. Pennsylvania of the Hamburg-Amerika line fifteen days after departure from Hamburg. What a trip it must have been for a wiggly 2-year-old little boy, his older sisters, his baby brother, and his poor mother!

The Tóth family arrived in New York on the S.S. Pennsylvania on May 19, 1907. 

Thanks to the Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York City and the Ballinstadt Emigration Museum in Hamburg, I can visit museums at both little Pista Tóth's port of arrival in America and his port of departure in Germany. What an amazing chance to get a personal glimpse into what this little boy might have experienced just over 100 years ago on his trip to a new world with his family.

Image of the S.S. Pennsylvania of the Hamburg-Amerika Line 
from the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives: The Future of our Past.

Note: The Staatsarchiv Hamburg has digitized passenger lists for those departing from the port during the years 1850-1934. These Hamburg passenger lists and their handwritten indexes are available through Ancestry.com.