26 May 1852                                                                                  Morristown, Rice County, Minnesota Territory

Dear sister Elizabeth,
How my heart is full as I share my thoughts with you! It was heartbreaking when Mother decided that we were leaving the comforts of New York to come west five years ago after Father’s death. I often wondered what made her choose this place for us. Being among the few women in this territory, life has been harsh and at times unbearable. Now I have to make a hard choice for myself.

As you recall, our brother has taken employment at the brickyard. Mother and I have helped out there on occasion. The man who is our foreman is called Andrew Storer, a Mainer who has traveled these western territories. He has wanderlust in his blood. His wife Abigail died in childbirth several years ago. He has told me that he wishes to marry again to have company as he moves on, possibly to Wisconsin. He asked me to marry him. Now I have to make a hard choice for myself.

I have asked for time to consider his proposal. Accepting it would mean that I might never see Mother and Brother again. Also, I am 19 while he is 35. He is much set in his ways. Now I have to make a hard choice for myself.

My next letter to you may come from Miss Mary Etta Soule or Mrs. Andrew Storer. What will I choose?

Affectionally your sister,
Mary Etta

Note: Mary Etta Soule was my 2nd great grandmother. She did become Mrs. Andew Storer in July, 1852. After moving to several more places, their final move and home was in Osborne County, Kansas, where they would be successful farmers and the parents of 9 children. They were married for 35 years when Mary Etta passed on in 1887. Andrew would pass 8 years later. So…Mary Etta in making that hard choice would be the mother, grandmother, and great grandmother to many. 

 

 

She had been with me from the start…kind of like a guardian angel. She and her husband were the first of my people I looked for when I got a subscription to Ancesty. I have been following the bread crumbs of clues she left behind for 20 years now. Little by little I have fleshed out her story.

When I first found her in records based on a clue from my aunt, I was in awe. Here she was…a Polish girl who came to the United States on her own. My aunt stated she came in 1911. I found her on a ship’s manifest from that year. Her name, her age, it had to be her. Looking for her in Census’ records was difficult as I could not find her and her new family. Finally, I had a breakthrough…someone suggested that I just put the first names of the members of her family and the city in which they lived. Bingo…I found her…her new surname was misspelled in the 1920 and 1930 Census. Lo and behold, in the 1920 Census she listed her arrival date to this country as 1906…so for several years, I had the wrong girl. When I requested her naturalization papers, it confirmed 1906 as the year of immigration.

Through census records, city directories, marriage records, and a ship’s manifest, I have been able to glean much about her.  The records unveiled her parents’ names, her brother’s and sister’s names, physical addresses, occupation, children’s names, parish registration, and other little bread crumbs in piecing her story together.

Her naturalization record included her photo. It is the first clear photo of her that I have found. Also this document revealed her physical make-up.

So for the past 20 years, I have been looking for her. She has stayed with me in the search…kind of like a guardian angel. Who is she to me that she stays so close? She is my babcia, Polish for grandmother. She is my dad’s mother. She is my grandmother. Part of my first name comes from her.  She is Anna Mroz (Polish for frost). She married my grandfather, Franciszek Slabik. I have never met her…but I plan on it one day.

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.