"To face whatever lies before us...": New York City disasters and the prayers of young mothers

I was one of the many who witnessed the crashing of the plane into the
World Trade Center's South Tower on the morning of September 11, 2001
after turning on the television to see reports of the first crash

I was several months away from the birth of my third child - a precious daughter - on the morning of September 11, 2001. Taking a few quiet minutes before my sleeping children woke up, I was doing some inspirational reading with a book called In Conversation with God. The day's meditation read:

"It is in prayer that we learn the mystery of Christ and the wisdom of the Cross. In prayer we perceive, in all their dimensions, the real needs of our brothers and sisters throughout the world; in prayer we find the strength to face whatever lies before us..." - from a homily by Pope John Paul II, Jan. 13, 1981

The peace of my quiet morning did not last long. Soon I learned the true wisdom of those words and found out the reality of that day's trials.

"...whatever lies before us"... 

I learned the "real needs of [my] brothers and sisters throughout the world" with shocking clarity when I got a call from my Mom.

"Turn on the T.V.," she said. "A plane has crashed into the World Trade Center."

~

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
occurred in the Asch Building
(now the Brown Building)
at 23-29 Washington Place, NYC

It was only last week as I was thinking about another event in New York City's history that I made an interesting connection.

Ninety years before the World Trade Center disaster - on March 25, 1911 - another expectant mother must have been shocked to learn of a horrible tragedy that had just occurred. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire took the lives of 146 garment workers - most of them young immigrant women ages 16 to 23. It would rank as the second deadliest disaster in New York City's history (behind the burning of a passenger steamship in 1904) - that is, until the destruction of the World Trade Center eclipsed them both ninety years later.

Like the World Trade Center tragedy, the Triangle Shirtwaist fire was a catalyst that brought enormous change. In this case, the movement for worker safety and social justice was finally brought to the forefront in New York and throughout the country.

A quick bit of research led me to a startling realization: at the time of the disaster, this young mother and her family had lived only six short blocks away from the Triangle Shirtwaist factory.

The woman? My great-grandmother, Ilona Ujlaky. A new immigrant to America who had arrived only two years earlier. Knowing her, she had said many prayers since she had arrived in the crazy and wonderful world of New York City. More than likely she prayed for these victims and their families, and the struggles of the city in which she and her husband were beginning their new life.

The child she was expecting? Her third. A baby girl. My grandmother.

In 1911 my great-grandmother and her family (she is pictured here c.1913)
lived at 415 East Fifth Street on the Lower East Side,
only about six blocks from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

This article was originally published here at 100 Years in America in 2012. I have reposted it today in honor of the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy.

"To face whatever lies before us...": New York City disasters and the prayers of young mothers

I was one of the many who witnessed the crashing of the plane into the
World Trade Center's South Tower on the morning of September 11, 2001
after turning on the television to see reports of the first crash

I was several months away from the birth of my third child - a precious daughter - on the morning of September 11, 2001. Taking a few quiet minutes before my sleeping children woke up, I was doing some inspirational reading with a book called In Conversation with God. The day's meditation read:

"It is in prayer that we learn the mystery of Christ and the wisdom of the Cross. In prayer we perceive, in all their dimensions, the real needs of our brothers and sisters throughout the world; in prayer we find the strength to face whatever lies before us..." - from a homily by Pope John Paul II, Jan. 13, 1981

The peace of my quiet morning did not last long. Soon I learned the true wisdom of those words and found out the reality of that day's trials.

"...whatever lies before us"... 

I learned the "real needs of [my] brothers and sisters throughout the world" with shocking clarity when I got a call from my Mom.

"Turn on the T.V.," she said. "A plane has crashed into the World Trade Center."

~

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
occurred in the Asch Building
(now the Brown Building)
at 23-29 Washington Place, NYC

It was only last week as I was thinking about another event in New York City's history that I made an interesting connection.

Ninety years before the World Trade Center disaster - on March 25, 1911 - another expectant mother must have been shocked to learn of a horrible tragedy that had just occurred. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire took the lives of 146 garment workers - most of them young immigrant women ages 16 to 23. It would rank as the second deadliest disaster in New York City's history (behind the burning of a passenger steamship in 1904) - that is, until the destruction of the World Trade Center eclipsed them both ninety years later.

Like the World Trade Center tragedy, the Triangle Shirtwaist fire was a catalyst that brought enormous change. In this case, the movement for worker safety and social justice was finally brought to the forefront in New York and throughout the country.

A quick bit of research led me to a startling realization: at the time of the disaster, this young mother and her family had lived only six short blocks away from the Triangle Shirtwaist factory.

The woman? My great-grandmother, Ilona Ujlaky. A new immigrant to America who had arrived only two years earlier. Knowing her, she had said many prayers since she had arrived in the crazy and wonderful world of New York City. More than likely she prayed for these victims and their families, and the struggles of the city in which she and her husband were beginning their new life.

The child she was expecting? Her third. A baby girl. My grandmother.

In 1911 my great-grandmother and her family (she is pictured here c.1913)
lived at 415 East Fifth Street on the Lower East Side,
only about six blocks from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

F is for Frankie Ujlaky and a Forgotten Epidemic

Young Frankie Ujlaki and his family lived in
New York's Lower East Side when this
photograph was taken about 1915

I shared the story of Frankie Ujlaki's early life in my article F is for Frankie: Beloved Firstborn, 1906 here at 100 Years in America. Frankie's young life was off to a good start, but tragedy struck in his teen years that altered the path of his life in a dramatic and devastating way. Here is the rest of his story.

At age fourteen, Frankie was big brother to three younger sisters. Two more siblings joined the family in the 1920's: another sister, Ethel, and a younger brother, Kasmir.

In 1921, when Frankie was fifteen, the family left Manhattan and made a move to Staten Island into a home built on Nugent Avenue by father Frank with the help of friends.

Frankie had gained an interest in drawing and found success as a young artist, even creating business cards for his work as a sign painter. These are some of his early drawings:

A postcard with some sketches drawn by Frankie Ujlaki

The portrait below was taken about 1924. This is a very special photograph for several reasons. It is the only portrait I have seen of the entire family together, and it was taken shortly before Frankie's life changed dramatically.

Frank and Helen Ujlaky about 1924 with their six children:
Wilma, Ethel, Mitzi, Frankie, Kasmir and Helene
(They had changed the spelling of their surname)

According to one of Frankie's siblings, May 1925 was the month they lost Frankie - not to death, but to something just as sorrowful, and perhaps even more difficult to accept.

It was in May 1925 that Frankie turned 19. It was also that month that he was hospitalized. He had contracted Encephalitis Lethargica, a rare disease of the brain (sometimes also known as epidemic encephalitis or "Sleepy Sickness", not to be confused with "Sleeping Sickness"). This condition caused various affects in different patients, many of them being left in a statue-like condition: not able to speak or move. The disease, however, was not always easy to diagnose. According to Dr. Smith Jelliffe, an American neurologist in practice during the epidemic, "There is probably no other acute infectious disease which gives rise to, or results in so many diversified types of mental disturbance."

This 1920 New York Times article is entitled
"New Sleeping Disease Mystifies Londoners"
(Click to enlarge)

Encephalitis Lethargica spread throughout the world slowly beginning about 1917, its seriousness becoming apparent to the medical community just as the world was reeling from the crises of World War I and the 1918 Flu. The medical profession scrambled to determine the origin of this epidemic encephalitis and find its cure. Municipal health departments worked to warn the population in hopes of preventing further outbreaks.

"SLEEPING SICKNESS WARNING SENT OUT: In an effort to prevent an increase in the number of cases of encephalitis lethargica, commonly known as 'sleeping sickness,' and other respiratory diseases. Dr. Frank J. Monaghan, Health Commissioner, issued a warning yesterday against careless coughing, sneezing and spitting." - New York Times, March 11, 1923

By 1927, doctors still had few answers about this disease, yet the "Sleepy Sickness" epidemic was coming to an end.

In her 2010 book, Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries, Molly Caldwell Crosby, writes:

"This epidemic would strike as many as 5 million people throughout the world, killing a third of them and leaving thousands more institutionalized for the rest of their lives. The victims fell into a long sleep—for weeks or even months. Many never awoke. But the world soon learned that dying was not the tragedy of this disease; surviving it was."

Crosby writes that physicians' estimates indicate that a third of victims of this disease died from it, a third recovered, and another third developed permanent disabilities. I am not sure what type of recovery Frankie Ujlaki ever made from Encephalitis Lethargica. I do know that he never returned home to his family. In May 1925, he was hospitalized at the age of 19, more than likely within the Manhattan State Hospital on Ward's Island. The 1930 U.S. Census lists him there as an "inmate".

Manhattan State Hospital, Ward's Island in the 1970s

From the 1920 Handbook of the State Hospital Commission and Hospitals for the Insane come these statistics for Manhattan State Hospital on Ward's Island:

• Certified capacity: 5,230
• Number of patients: 6,045 (2,584 men and 3,461 women)

Even if the New York health department and hospital staff had the best of intentions, these crowded conditions must have made caring for these patients an impossible task. This is the world that became Frankie Ujlaky's life.

By about 1931 (according to his death certificate; at least by 1935 according to the 1940 U.S. Census), Frankie had been moved upstate into the Harlem Valley State Hospital in Dover, Dutchess County, New York. He would be attended by Dr. Charles Greenberg, who was the same age as Frankie, for over six of his eleven years there.

The 1940 U.S. Census indicates that Frank Ujlaky was a 29-year-old patient who had lived
at Harlem Valley State Hospital in Dutchess County, New York for at least five years.
He was actually 33 at the time of the census. (Click to enlarge image)

In 1936 Harlem Valley State Hospital was the site of the first demonstrations to doctors of insulin shock treatment, which would become commonly used throughout United States hospitals until the 1970s.

The empty Harlem Valley State Hospital today (photo thanks to Brian C.)

Frankie would spend the rest of his relatively short life institutionalized. He died at Harlem Valley in 1942 at the age of 36. His death certificate lists Pulmonary Tuberculosis as the cause of death.

Frankie Ujlaky was separated from his family for so many years, yet they remembered, loved and prayed for him throughout his hospitalization. I can only hope that he found comfort in happy memories of his early years with his loving family. Rest in peace, Frankie.

Frankie Ujlaky 1906-1942

More about Encephalitis Lethargica

For some reason, the early 20th century outbreak of epidemic encephalitis has fallen strangely out of the public consciousness. Molly Caldwell Crosby writes, "The 1916 outbreak of polio afflicted nine thousand people and went down in history as the most devastating polio epidemic in New York. By the time the epidemic encephalitis would suddenly and inexplicably disappear, it would infect at least five thousand New Yorkers, and it would not go down in history as anything at all." [Emphasis mine]

There has been surprisingly little written about Encephalitis Lethargica in the decades since this epidemic shocked the world of the early 20th century. We have very limited information about this illness, although a few theories have circulated as to its cause.

For further reading on the subject, I recommend Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries by Molly Caldwell Crosby and Encephalitis Lethargica: During and After the Epidemic by Joel Vilensky PhD, both published in 2010.

More about Mental Institutions of the Early 20th Century

I understand that patient records for both Manhattan State Hospital and Harlem Valley State Hospital are inaccessible to researchers at this time. If you have any further information about access to these records, please post a comment or email me and I'll share the info with readers.

For an interesting look at some of the lives of patients within mental institutions during the early 20th century, see my article An Attic, Suitcases and a Window into a Hidden World.



This article was written 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. I'm way behind getting started, but here goes!

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.

Wordless Wednesday: St. Sylvester's, Staten Island, NY

This vintage postcard of Staten Island's St. Sylvester Catholic Church is housed in the New York Public Library's Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy and is also viewable online at the NYPL Digital Gallery.  It reads:

Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto of St. Sylvester's Church Concord, S.I. Rev. B.H. Clark, [Rector]

Source:
"Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto of St. Sylvester's Church Concord, S.I. Rev. B.H. Clark, [Rector]." NYPL Digital Gallery. Web. 3 Feb 2010. http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=140234&imageID=104648&total=71&num=40&parent_id=448914&word=&s=&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&lword=&lfield=&imgs=20&pos=45&snum=&e=w#_seemore

A Hungarian boy's 1st Christmas in America, 1923 (Advent Calendar: Holiday Travel)

I enjoyed reading the beautiful memoir written by Richard Bujaki about his father, seven years old at the time, and his first Christmas in America in 1923. "This may be the greatest Christmas present you will ever receive," Bujaki's grandmother told her children. The "gift" that this little boy and his siblings received that year was to make it the most memorable Christmas of his life. You can read Bujaki's story, Twas the night before Christmas, 1923 on The Christmas Archives website.

This article is part of a series written in celebration of the Advent and Christmas seasons. It is included this year as part of the GeneaBloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2009 Day 12 Holiday Travel. Make a visit to Thomas MacEntee's GeneaBloggers website for some additional inspiration to get yourself in the holiday spirit!

The article originally appeared here at 100 Years in America and was included in Thomas MacEntee's Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2007.

Childhood memories of a Croatian winter's night (Advent Calendar: Holiday Parties)

Marija Bango wrote a charming children's book entitled Kralj Drave (King of the Drava) about the lives of two young sisters growing up near the Drava River in the village of Legrad in what is now northern Croatia. Marija was born in the village in 1917 and became friends with my great-grandmother and her family (also natives of Legrad), visiting them in New York after her immigration to Canada in 1960. Marija went on to become an accomplished poet, and divided her time each year between her home in Montreal and her stays in her native village of Legrad.

Marija's book of children's stories gives a heart-warming glimpse into her childhood and the traditional way of life that was still common in Legrad and the rest of the Međimurje area during the early 20th-century. I enjoyed reading the chapter entitled Pod snijegom (Snow Bound). Her story makes it easy to imagine myself as the little girl Marica trying to keep awake to listen to the storytelling of the grown-ups as they gather at her family's home in wintertime for feather-sorting.

Enjoy this excerpt from Kralj Drave (King of the Drava) and a nostalgic trip back to Legrad's winters past...

Darkness came early; it crept across the garden and into the stables; the chickens were dozing in the coop; the Back Room (as it was called because it faced the kitchen garden, across from the Front Room which faced the flowerbeds along the street) was already dark. Marica and Klarica's mother Agneza lit a kerosene lamp and hung it on the wall by the window. Grandma was steadily stirring corn mash on the stove, corn flour mixed with a little melted lard in the pot; a sharp hissing sound could be heard now and then as the steam rose from the water sprinkled on the cooking mash. Its aroma filled the room... The table was set. The men, five of them (Agneza's brothers), bringing with them the smells of the stable. They were quick to eat their supper because family and neighbors were coming to help sort feathers collected all year in large sacks.

The muffled sound of footsteps could be heard, snow stamped from boots at the front door. The door to the room was opened to let light into the hall. The women were the first to come in from outdoors, wrapped mummy-like in woolen shawls from head to waist. They took seats around the table while the men settled on benches along the wall, on Grandma's chest of drawers, on the edge of the bed. Since there were unwed girls among the womenfolk, there were plenty of young men. This was to be an evening of singing, storytelling, jokes and laughter until late of night. These were evenings when Marica listened, all ears, while her younger sister Klarica lay fast asleep on the bed next to her.

I'm thankful that Marija took the time to turn her childhood memories into these sweet stories about Marica and Klarica. They are a treasure to those interested in life in Legrad and similar small Croatian villages in centuries past.

If you are interested in reading more of Marija Bango's writings (both poetry and prose), here is a list of some of her works in various languages:

• Children's stories: Pinklec na panklec (English & Croatian)
• Stories for the young: Večernje pripovijetke (French)
• Poem cycles: Po naši poti (Kajkavian) & Po belem svetu (Kajkavian)
• A collection of children's games, legends and beliefs: Kre Drave (Kajkavian)
• Lyric and prose poetry: Poetska čežnja (French, English & Croatian)
• A study of poetry and prose: Les Beautés de ce Monde - The Beauty of this World (French)

This article is part of a series written in celebration of the Advent and Christmas seasons. It will be included as part of the GeneaBloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2009 Day 7: Holiday Parties. Make a visit to Thomas MacEntee's GeneaBloggers website for some additional inspiration to get yourself in the holiday spirit!

The article originally appeared here at 100 Years in America and was included in Thomas MacEntee's Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2007.

South Beach watchdogs c. 1925

Vedra and Scotty, canine guards of the Ujlaki house at

43 Nugent Avenue, South Beach, Staten Island, c. 1925

What The Dog Perhaps Hears

by Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet Lisel Mueller

If an inaudible whistle
blown between our lips
can send him home to us,
then silence is perhaps
the sound of spiders breathing
and roots mining the earth;
it may be asparagus heaving,
headfirst, into the light
and the long brown sound
of cracked cups, when it happens.
We would like to ask the dog
if there is a continuous whir
because the child in the house
keeps growing, if the snake
really stretches full length
without a click and the sun
breaks through clouds without
a decibel of effort,
whether in autumn, when the trees
dry up their wells, there isn't a shudder
too high for us to hear.

What is it like up there
above the shut-off level
of our simple ears?
For us there was no birth cry,
the newborn bird is suddenly here,
the egg broken, the nest alive,
and we heard nothing when the world changed.

Lisel Mueller's poem is from the collection The need to hold still published by Louisiana University Press, 1980.

For more animal photographs visit the 13th Edition of footnoteMaven's Smile For The Camera Carnival whose theme is "All Creatures Great and Small".

In search of Stefan/Stephanus/Stjepan S.

Browsing through the family documents that I've collected over the years I made an interesting and timely discovery. You may have read about the discoveries that I made back in February regarding my great-grandfather's trip to America thanks to a little help from some friends who discovered the passenger lists. (Ferencz Ujlaki and the trip he didn't take can be found in Part 1 and Part 2.)

One fact about Ferencz Ujlaki's trip that has stumped me is his specific intended destination in America. Listed as bound for New York, New York, both passenger lists (the one for the ship he first got on, and the one for the trip he actually took) indicate what appears to be the same friend's name and address as his intended destination.



Now, going through the copies I made of the Matična knjiga (Croatian for church records) that I found a few years back thanks to microfilm from my local Family History Library, I revisited Ferencz's birth registry. Born on March 17, 1879, Ferencz's parents' names are listed on the registry along with his godparents'. What a surprise to find that his godfather's name (listed in its Latin form because it is appearing in a Catholic church registry), is: Stephanus Štefić.


This name is very similar to the name of the man on both passenger lists of 1906. It is too unusual a coincidence and makes me wonder if this could be the same man.

According to the family story, Ferencz had grown up the only child of aged parents, his father blind. Could his godfather have taken a special interest in him throughout his life and could he have been the one to encourage him to set out for America to start a new life?

According to the Hrvatski Telekom (Croatian White Pages), there are many Štefić families still living in the area where my Ujlaki family hails from, particularly the village of Donja Dubrava. There is even currently a Štefić Stjepan living in the village, whose name may be spelled the way my Stephanus Štefić spelled his (outside of "Latinized" parish records, that is - Stjepan is the Croatian spelling of Stephen).

Now my next step is to do a little research on this new mystery man with a link to my family - to determine his history in Ferencz Ujlaki's home village, if possible, and to find his whereabouts in the United States, more specifically in New York City, where it appears my great-grandfather joined him upon his arrival as a brand new American immigrant in 1906.

America at last! Ilona's arrival at Ellis Island, 1909

It was one-hundred years ago today that my great-grandmother Ilona (Bence) Ujlaki completed her trying journey aboard the S.S. Carmania and stepped onto Ellis Island with her toddler son, Ferencz. The seventeen-day journey from the port of Fiume, Hungary (now Rijeka, Croatia) was surely a trial as she cared for her son, who became ill during the voyage. Upon arrival they were both admitted to Ellis Island's hospital before finally being released to reunite with Ilona's husband, Ferencz, who had not yet seen his first-born child.

The S.S. Carmania ship manifest for this voyage lists the following information about passenger Ferenczne Ujlaki (that's Ilona listed as "wife of Ferencz Ujlaki"):

• She was twenty-four years old
• $10 was all she had to her name
• Her ethnicity is listed as Hungarian/German
• Her father Stjepan Bence is listed as the nearest friend or relative from her home village of Legrad, Hungary

Just what did Ilona experience on her journey to America?

It is not too difficult to gain a picture of what her trip may have been like. The New York Times published an article on December 14, 1909 called Women in Steerage Grossly Ill Used reporting on conditions observed by special agents of the U.S. Immigration Commission. They had traveled as steerage passengers on various steamships for investigative purposes. Their experiences as travelers on these transatlantic voyages were presented to the U.S. Senate along with recommendations for new legislation to improve conditions on the ships.

The article distinguishes between the "old" and "new" types of steerage. Of the old, the members of the commission maintained in the introduction to their report that:

"The universal human needs of space, air, food, sleep, and privacy are recognized to the degree now made compulsory by law. Beyond that the persons carried are looked upon as so much freight, with mere transportation as their only due."

The article continues:

"The sleeping quarters are described as being in many cases dirty, inadequate, and all that is bad. The average berth is six feet long and two feet wide, with only two and one-half feet of space above it, and that is all the space to which the passenger can assert a definite right. In that space he has to sleep and find room also for his baggage, all of his extra clothing, his eating utensils, his towels and other toilet necessaries. The passageways between the berths are so narrow that none of the articles mentioned could be deposited there."

The S.S. Carmania on which Ilona traveled more than likely fit into the category of new steamships since it was built in 1905, so Ilona's trip may have been a bit better than some travelers of her time. However, with a capacity for about 1,000 steerage passengers on board, it was surely no pleasant ocean cruise.

The 1909 New York Times article about women in steerage continues, in the words of one agent of the Immigration Commission:

"No woman with the smallest degree of modesty, and with no other conveniences than a washroom, used jointly with men, and faucet of cold salt water, can keep clean amid such surroundings for a period of twelve days and more. It was forbidden to bring water for washing purposes into the sleeping compartments nor was there anything in which to bring it. On different occasions some of the women rose early, brought drinking water in their soup palls for washing, but were driven out when detected by a steward. No soap and no towels were supplied."

You can read more of the article at the New York Times online archive here or read its transcription on the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives website.

The Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives website provides additional insight into the experiences of steerage passengers traveling during the first decade of the 20th-century. See the page Steerage - The Immigrant's Journey for links to various articles that describe the experiences of third class immigrants on their steamship voyages, including Urgency of Improved Conditions (1906) and The Immigrant Journey: Fellowship of the Steerage (1905).

From the latter article comes the following look at The Day of Arrival, in the poetic words of one who had made the trip at least ten times himself by 1905:

"The [ship] is awake after its restless night and mutely awaits the disclosures of its own and the new world's secrets. The sound of a booming gun is carried across the hidden space, and faint touches of flame struggling through the gray, are the sun's answer to the salute from Governor's Island.

"The morning breeze, like a 'Dancing Psaltress', moves gently over the glassy surface of the water, lifts the fog higher and higher, tearing it into a thousand fleecy shreds, and the far things have come near and the hidden things have been revealed. The sky line straight ahead, assaulted by a thousand towering shafts, looking like a challenge to the strong, and a warning to the weak, makes all of us tremble from an unknown fear.

"The [ship] is still mute; it looks to the left at the populous shore, to the right at the green stretches of Long Island, and again straight ahead at the mighty city. Slowly the ship glides into the harbour, and when it passes under the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, the silence is broken, and a thousand hands are outstretched in greeting to this new divinity into whose keeping they now entrust themselves.

"Some day a great poet will arise among us, who, catching the inspiration of that moment will be able to put into words these surging emotions; who will be great enough to feel beating against his own soul and give utterance to, the thousand varying notes which are felt and never sounded."

As the writer states, the glory of the moment of arrival was often short-lived.

"Cabin and passengers alike, soon find the poetry of the moment disturbed; for the quarantine and custom-house officials are on board, driving away the tourist's memories of the splendour of European capitals by their inquisitiveness as to his purchases. They make him solemnly swear that he is not a smuggler, and upon landing, immediately proceed to prove that he is one.

"The passengers have before them more rigid examinations which may have vast consequences; so in spite of the joyous notes of the band, and the glad greetings shouted to and fro, they sink again into awe-struck and confused silence. When the last cabin passenger has disappeared from the dock, the immigrants with their baggage are loaded into barges and taken to Ellis Island for their final examination."

Ellis Island Registration Room

The admonishment from this writer in 1905 stood out to me as I read the account of his observations of many fellow travelers. He wrote:

"Let no one believe that landing on the shores of 'The land of the free, and the home of the brave' is a pleasant experience; it is a hard, harsh fact, surrounded by the grinding machinery of the law, which sifts, picks, and chooses; admitting the fit and excluding the weak and helpless."

Such was the day of arrival for many an immigrant to America in the early 20th-century, including Ilona Ujlaki, who stepped off of the S.S. Carmania and onto Ellis Island one-hundred years ago today and had her first real taste of America. She would make her home in this new land for the rest of her ninety-seven years.

Photograph of the Statue of Liberty in 1909 courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Photograph of Ellis Island Registration Room thanks to Greg Krenzelok's Ellis Island webpage.

For more on the history of third class steamship travel, visit the Norway Heritage website, particularly Steerage Passengers - Emigrants Between Decks.

This article has been submitted to the 68th edition of Jasia's Carnival of Genealogy, theme: Women's History Month: One Woman.

A forgotten corner of New York City: Green-Wood Cemetery

Though not an official Graveyard Rabbit, my heart is certainly with this group of cemetery dwellers. I can't seem to drive by a cemetery without having to force my steering wheel to keep the wheels straight on the road and not turn in. I often wonder about the life stories of those resting below the ground. Particularly old cemeteries and those with special character really draw my attention.

For this reason, and also because I enjoy a beautiful cultural landmark, I found one short episode of The City Concealed especially appealing. A series of online videos "exploring the unseen corners" of New York City are being produced by WNET New York. Just shy of seven minutes, their video on the Tombs & Catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetery is a must-see for any lover of New York history, not to mention anyone who might have a little bit of Graveyard Rabbit in them.

Established in 1838, the cemetery was long a tourist destination with its beautiful gardens and stately tombs. Although the public lost access in the 1970s, they are now being invited back in for tours, concerts and even film screenings. Burials in the cemetery number up to 560,000 and include famous names such as Boss Tweed and Leonard Bernstein.

Thanks to John Warren's New York History blog for mentioning this video.

This article was written for the 1st edition of the Graveyard Rabbits Carnival whose theme is "Exceptional Finds".

Ilona's emigration: The one hundred year anniversary

Exactly one hundred years ago today a twenty-four-year-old young mother and her two-year-old son boarded the S.S. Carmania in the port of Fiume, Hungary (now Rijeka, Croatia).

A segment of the S.S. Carmania list of passengers departing Fiume, Hungary on February 13, 1909

Bound for New York City, where her husband was sowing seeds for their new life after his own immigration in 1906, Ilona and young Ferencz would have a difficult seventeen-day sea voyage which culminated with their detainment at Ellis Island's hospital.

It must have been a tearful goodbye that she waved to her country after stepping onto the ship in the port of Fiume. No doubt she was troubled with concerns for her little one's safety as she left the family and country that she knew and began the trip across the Atlantic.

Below is a photograph of the little train station in Ilona's home village of Legrad where she may have said her last goodbyes to her family before her departure.

One hundred years later, Ilona's descendants are well-established in the United States. With over one hundred children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and more living in cities from coast to coast, she could not have known what impact she and her husband's decision to emigrate would have on the generations to follow.

On this one hundred year anniversary of Ilona's emigration, 100 Years in America honors Ilona (Bence) Ujlaki for the courage she exhibited throughout her life and for the love she had for her family that stills reverberates today.

Thank you, dear Grammy, for the inspiration of your life. You are loved and remembered fondly.

For more on Ilona's immigration to the United States and a glimpse into the journeys of other immigrant women who traveled as she did, see America at last! Ilona's arrival at Ellis Island, 1909. 

Sources (in order of appearance):

Manifest, S.S. Carmania, February 1909, page 250, lines 21 and 22, Ferenczne & Ferencz Ujlaki, ages 26 and 2; “Passenger Record,” digital images, Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation (http://ellisisland.org/EIFile/popup_weif_5a.asp?src=%2Fcgi%2Dbin%2Ftif2gif%2Eexe%3FT%3D%5C%5C%5C%5C192%2E168%2E4%2E227%5C%5CIMAGES%5C%5CT715%2D1209%5C%5CT715%2D12090250%2ETIF%26S%3D%2E5&pID=101530100288&name=Ferenczne%26nbsp%3BUjlaki&doa=Mar+02%2C+1909&port=Fiume&line=0021 : accessed 2007).

Ilona Ujlaki with baby son Ferencz Ujlaki, Legrad, Hungary. Black and white photographic print. Circa 1906-1907. Privately held by Lisa, [address for private use]. 2009.

Željeznicka stanica Ortiloš (Legrad, Croatia train station) photographed by Z.G. Digital image. Circa 2008. Privately held by Z.G., [address for private use]. 2008.

Helen Ulaky. Black and white photographic print. Circa 1947. Privately held by M.T., [address for private use]. 2009.

Lisa with Helen Ulaky. Polaroid color print. Circa 1970s. Privately held by Lisa, [address for private use]. 2009.

Ferencz Ujlaki and the trip he didn't take: Part 2

If you read Ferencz Ujlaki and the trip he didn't take: Part 1 you know that I had some work to do in order to solve the mystery of my great-grandfather's appearance on the passenger list for the ship S.S. Kroonland which departed Antwerp on April 2, 1906.

S.S. Kroonland list of passengers departing Antwerp, Belgium on April 2, 1906

S.S. Kroonland

 

Listed but noted as "not on board", was he on the ship, but logged somewhere else, or did he postpone his trip and take another vessel?

I had originally thought that another ship's passenger list may have had my Ferencz Ujlaki listed (the S.S. Ultonia which departed from Fiume on April 12, 1906), although it wasn't clear if this was the right man.

Just last week fellow genealogist Jennifer Trahan had kindly done a search for me and found Ferencz listed on the S.S. Kroonland. This left me with a mystery since he was clearly marked as "not on board".

Now, with a find from another fellow genealogist, Donna Pointkouski, I have one more passenger list to evaluate with Ferencz Ujlaki's name on it - and this appears to be the very ship on which he sailed to America. The S.S. Zeeland departed Antwerp on April 7: five days after the S.S. Kroonland.

Same port, five days later. 

It looks very possible from examining the facts that this is the trip that Ferencz Ujlaki actually took. It is probable that he changed plans for some reason, got off of the S.S. Kroonland, then took the trip five days later out of the same port on one of the S.S. Kroonland's sister ships: the S.S. Zeeland. 

S.S. Zeeland
 

At this point I can only wonder about his reasons, but the progression of events makes sense.

Unlike the original S.S. Ultonia passenger list that I found, both the S.S. Kroonland and the S.S. Zeeland logs indicate similar plans for their respective Ferencz Ujlakis following arrival in the United States. Both lists indicate plans to meet "friend Stefan S......" and settle in New York City . I am still working on deciphering the friend's name and address. Here it is below on the S.S. Kroonland and S.S. Zeeland manifests:




The S.S. Kroonland indicates that Ferencz had $13 in hand; the S.S. Zeeland (five days later) appears to indicate $5.70 in his possession (although this is not completely clear). If this is true, it makes sense. He had to have spent a little money in those few days that he waited to board the second ship.

1906 Red Star Line postcards of the S.S. Zeeland

 

The facts validate that the men on both passenger lists must have been my great-grandfather, leaving his native village of Legrad to begin a new life in America before his wife and soon-to-be-born baby were to join him there.

Another family history mystery appears to be partially solved, thanks to a little help from some friends.

Sources: 

Manifest, S.S. Kroonland, April 1906, microfilm roll T715_690, page 101, line 2, Ferencz Ujlaki, age 26; “Passenger Record,” digital images, Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation (http://www.ellisisland.org/EIFile/popup_weif_5a.asp?src=%2Fcgi-bin%2Ftif2gif.exe%3FT%3D%5C%5C%5C%5C192.168.4.227%5C%5CIMAGES%5C%5CT715-0690%5C%5CT715-06900492.TIF%26S%3D.5&pID=103485080152&name=Ferenz+Ujladi%26nbsp%3Bnull&doa=Apr+12%2C+1906&port=Antwerp&line=0002 : accessed 4 February 2009).

Manifest, S.S. Kroonland, April 1906, microfilm roll T715_690, line 2, Ferencz Ujlaki, age 26; "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," database, Ancestry.com (http://content.ancestrylibrary.com/iexec/default.aspx?htx=View&r=5542&dbid=7488&iid=NYT715_690-0494&fn=Ferenz&ln=Ujlaki&st=r&ssrc=&pid=4010022460 : accessed 8 February 2009). Original data from: "Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897"; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M237, 675 rolls); Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

S.S. Kroonland painting; digital image, S. S. Kroonland website (http://www.rehsgalleries.com/view_image.html?image_no=503& : accessed 8 February 2009.

Manifest, S.S. Ultonia, April 1906, page 580, line 21, Ferencz Ujlaki, age 29; “Passenger Record,” digital images, Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation (http://www.ellisisland.org/EIFile/popup_weif_5a.asp?src=%2Fcgi-bin%2Ftif2gif.exe%3FT%3D%5C%5C%5C%5C192.168.4.227%5C%5CIMAGES%5C%5CT715-0702%5C%5CT715-07020580.TIF%26S%3D.5&pID=102220070111&name=Ferencz%26nbsp%3BUjhazi&doa=May+02%2C+1906&port=Fiume&line=0021 : accessed 15 July 2007).

Manifest, S.S. Zeeland, April 1906, page 334, line 29, Uzlaki Faranz, age 27; "Passenger Record," digital images, Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation (http://www.ellisisland.org/EIFile/popup_weif_5a.asp?src=%2Fcgi-bin%2Ftif2gif.exe%3FT%3D%5C%5C%5C%5C192.168.4.227%5C%5CIMAGES%5C%5CT715-0694%5C%5CT715-06940334.TIF%26S%3D.5&pID=102212100342&name=Uzlaki%26nbsp%3BFaranz&doa=Apr+19%2C+1906&port=Antwerp&line=0029 : accessed 5 February 2009). 

S.S. Zeeland oil painting by artist Antonio Nicolo Gasparo Jacobsen, ca. 1910; digital image, Rehs Galleries website (http://www.rehsgalleries.com/view_image.html?image_no=503& : accessed 8 February 2009).

 

Red Star Line S.S. Zeeland postcard, June 25, 1906; digital image, Red Star Line website by Ian Boyle/Simplon Postcards (http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/RedStar.html : 8 February 2009).

Red Star Line S.S. Zeeland postcard, June 16, 1906; digital image, Red Star Line website by Ian Boyle/Simplon Postcards (http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/RedStar.html : 8 February 2009).

Ferencz Ujlaki and the trip he didn't take: Part 1

Ferencz Ujlaki, New York City, New York.

Sepia photographic print.
Circa 1909-1910. Privately held by Lisa,

[ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,]. 2009.

As the family story goes, my great-grandfather hurried to leave his homeland and his young wife to begin a new life in America. His plan was to leave before their expected first child was born. He was concerned that once the baby was born he would not be able to bring himself to leave, so off he went by way of ship to America in 1906.

Ilona Ujlaki with baby son Ferencz Ujlaki, Legrad, Hungary.
Black and white photographic print. Circa 1906-1907.
Privately held by Lisa, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,]. 2009.

His wife Ilona gave birth to a baby son, young Ferencz, in May 1906. She then waited until her husband was better established in the United States and her baby had reached toddlerhood before the two of them made the trip themselves in 1909. (For more on their trip, view their ship passenger list or read about their detainment at the Ellis Island hospital.)

~

Confident of the year of his departure, I had long been in search of Ferencz' ship passenger list confirming his travel from Legrad, Hungary to New York City. The record that I found most convincing within the Ellis Island online database showed promise that it was his, but I was not certain. It listed what appeared to be a Ferencz Ujlaki (although he was indexed as Ferencz Ujhazi) traveling from what might be Legrad (although it was transcribed as Veprod) in April 1906 on the S.S. Ultonia (see row number 21 on the S.S. Ultonia passenger list for that voyage). I realized that this could be my great-grandfather with his name and home village indexed wrong yet I was not certain. One reason for doubt was the fact that a village named Veprod actually does exist in Serbia/Montenegro.

~

Now just this week - a new development! Jennifer Trahan, a fellow genealogist and reader of 100 Years in America, was going through some of the older posts that I had written. She noticed my mention of the questionable ship passenger list for Ferencz and did her own search through Ancestry's New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 database. What she found has left me with more questions - another family history mystery to solve!

Jennifer discovered the passenger list for the ship S.S. Kroonland that departed from Antwerp, Belgium on April 2, 1906 and arrived in New York on April 12. There, second from the top, is my great-grandfather's name: Ferencz Ujlaki. Those transcribing the document for the Ellis Island database had unfortunately misread the spelling of his name so it was indexed wrong, which explains why I hadn't found it during my searches there.

It is clearly the right man: right name, right age, right village, right date. Interestly enough, his name is listed below a fellow passenger from the same small village in Hungary: Legrad. This is my great-grandfather's ship passenger list! (Jennifer even went so far as to find this record on the Ellis Island website - thank you, Jennifer. Ferencz' S.S. Kroonland passenger list is located within the Ellis Island database here.)

However, there is one complication. There is a suspicious thin line running through the text with Ferencz' information.


It's meaning is told at the far right of the second row: Ferencz Ujlaki was "not on board".


What could this possibly mean? I have never heard a family story indicating my great-grandfather missing his ship. I do know that he was very sick throughout his entire journey. Could he have had an aversion to seasickness and changed his plans at the last minute thinking he would go back to his wife and wait for his expected child to be born, then changed his mind again and taken another ship?

Could the passenger list that I had found first for the S.S. Ultonia be the trip that he actually did take? It departed shortly after the first one on April 12, 1906 but left from Fiume (now Trieste) instead of Antwerp - certainly a little closer to home for Ferencz. (It is interesting to note that the man on this passenger list had more money in his possession than Ferencz did on the first passenger list: $29 instead of $13. I doubt that he could have possibly had more cash on hand after spending money on two trans-Atlantic tickets, unless he went home to borrow from family or friends.)

On the other hand, could the passenger list for the S.S. Kroonland be inaccurate? Would Ferencz have actually taken the trip but for some reason avoided the passenger tally just before departure, leaving the ship's record in error?

Most probable might be the explanation suggested by Msteri of Heritage Happens within her article about Immigration Passenger Lists: Passengers Not Sailing. Based on suggestions she learned from Manifest Markings: A Guide to Interpreting Passenger List Annotations by Marian Smith, a historian with the U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service, several scenarios could be possible. My great-grandfather, the missing passenger, might have been aboard the ship but listed elsewhere on the ship's record. Suggested places to look are lists such as "Records of Detained Aliens", "Records of Aliens held for Special Inquiry", etc.

Like other intriguing genealogical discoveries, this one certainly leaves many questions unanswered. It looks like I have my work cut out for me in order to get to the bottom of the story of Ferencz' trip from Europe to America.

Who knew that instead of finding the record for a trip that I am certain that my great-grandfather took, I'd learn of one for a trip he may not have ever taken. Or did he?

You can read the rest of the story at Ferencz Ujlaki and the trip he didn't take: Part 2.


Special thanks to Jennifer Trahan for taking the time to search for this passenger list and then transcribe and send it to me. (Your efforts are greatly appreciated, Jennifer!) New to blogging but not new to genealogy, Jennifer has a particular dedication to source citation. Visit Jennifer's Genealogy Blog for inspiration on citing your own genealogy sources.


Have a mystery of your own regarding a passenger list? Visit Msteri's Heritage Happens for the full series of articles she has written about reading passenger lists. Also be sure to visit Marian Smith's excellent Manifest Markings: A Guide to Interpreting Passenger List Annotations.


Sources:
Manifest, S.S. Kroonland, April 1906, microfilm roll T715_690, page 101, line 2, Ferencz Ujlaki, age 26; “Passenger Record,” digital images, Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation (http://www.ellisisland.org/EIFile/popup_weif_5a.asp?src=%2Fcgi-bin%2Ftif2gif.exe%3FT%3D\\\\192.168.4.227\\IMAGES\\T715-0690\\T715-06900492.TIF%26S%3D.5&pID=103485080152&name=Ferenz+Ujladi%26nbsp%3Bnull&doa=Apr+12%2C+1906&port=Antwerp&line=0002 : accessed 4 February 2009).

Manifest, S.S. Ultonia, April 1906, page 580, line 21, Ferencz Ujlaki, age 29; “Passenger Record,” digital images, Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation (http://www.ellisisland.org/EIFile/popup_weif_5a.asp?src=%2Fcgi-bin%2Ftif2gif.exe%3FT%3D%5C%5C%5C%5C192.168.4.227%5C%5CIMAGES%5C%5CT715-0702%5C%5CT715-07020580.TIF%26S%3D.5&pID=102220070111&name=Ferencz%26nbsp%3BUjhazi&doa=May+02%2C+1906&port=Fiume&line=0021 : accessed 15 July 2007).