52 Ancestors In 52 Weeks: Boats

24 May 1906 Ellis Island, New York City

This all started with a dream. This all started with letters. This all started when my brother Antoni set it in motion. This all started when I left my village with four companions. This all started when we walked and took trains from Poland to Italy. This all started…

At the beginning of this dream, letters came from Antoni in America. He begged me to join him. He had sent a ticket in a letter for my older sister Katarzyna in 1902. Now it was my turn to meet them. I had to memorize the contents of the letters since I could not read nor write…my parish priest read them to me. A ticket and American money came for me…for me!

In the letter’s instructions, I was to walk and take a train to Trieste, Italy. I knew nothing of this place. Where was it? I would be accompanied by four others from my village. I was told to pack my possessions in a blanket and bind it up so I could carry it. Actually, I had so little. I made a packet of food. I was ready to start my journey to the unknown.

When we arrived in Trieste, I had never seen such activity of big ships and so many people. I heard all kinds of spoken tongues. I noted people of all ages. My companions and I held hands so we would not be separated from one another. We had to answer many questions so that our answers could be written down. I was told by my brother to state my age as 16…I was actually 14. Our ship’s name was the Georgia. We were to be in a part of the ship called the steerage. The golden day to start our journey was 30 April 1906.

In steerage, we were given food rations and were expected to prepare our own food. We crowded into bunks for sleeping and kept an eye open on our bundles. When we cried, we comforted one another. All these strange people, all these strange tongues, all these strange smells. We looked forward to the times we could go on deck and breathe the air. In just 25 days we would be in this place called New York City.

In his letters, my brother had told me to look for the Lady in the harbor. When I saw her, I would know that I was in America. I would soon be able to depart the ship and take a ferry with other passengers to a place called Ellis Island. There we would be examined by doctors, prodded by officials, questioned by workers. If I passed all these stations, I would be released to my waiting brother. I would walk down the Stairs of Separation, and I would take the aisle to the left for those going to New York and New England. We would be going to a place called Connecticut where I would be employed as a scrubwoman at a residence.

As I sit here on a bench in the Great Hall at Ellis Island, I am waiting to hear my name called. My companions and I are shedding tears since we will be soon parted. We are all headed to different places from one another…Philadelphia and Jersey City. Will we ever see each other again?

Here I sit on 24 May 1906…a day that I will forever remember…on a bench waiting. Finally, I hear it…”Anna Mroz”. I have been called forward…and so the rest of my dream begins.

Note: Anna Mroz is my paternal grandmother. So young…so brave. How long she resided in Connecticut with her brother is unknown to me. A few years later, she would relocate to Philadelphia. There she would become sweethearts with her Polish neighbor, Franciszek. They would be married on 3 October 1914.