28 April 1906                                  Trieste, Italy

Brother Antoni,
We have finally arrived here. The journey here was long and hard and uncertain. We came by foot, by cart, and by train. I am a stranger in a strange place and will travel to an even  stranger country. I am grateful to you for sending money back to Galicia so I could join you in this new land. The possibilites for our futures are such dreams. I pray that much will bless us in America. I understand that we will be sailing on Monday, 30 April, and will arrive about 3 weeks later in New York. I am so glad that I am traveling with Franciska and her brother as being alone would make me very anxious. We were told that the name of our ship is the Georgia. I must confess I told a lie at the ticket office. I stated that I am 16 years old versus the  the truth of being 14. I am so excited that at the end of this journey, I will see The Lady in the harbor. I am told that she is most beautiful.

Until our meeting day,
Your sister Anna

 

Note: Anna Mroz is my paternal grandmother who came from what is now Poland. The address in Greenville, Connecticut, was a post office box for the Saint Joseph Polish Church there. Polish emigrants could have their mail sent there. The Catholic parish also helped the immigrants with adjusting to this new world. Anna and brother Antoni most likely worked at the Shetucket Company cotton mills for a few years. Anna would relocate to Nicetown, Philadelphia. This begins her story in America, when the Georgia finally arrived on 24 May 1906.