Broida Family (Click for Family Tree)

We only have one US Federal Census for Sarah Gittel Frank (later Broida), and it states that she was born in Russia. The passenger list we have recently found states in some of the ‘transcriptions’ that her birthplace was Austria, but if one actually looks at the heading on the page, it doesn’t say, “Birthplace”- the heading is “The country in which they severally belong.” (One ‘transcription’ even states her ethnicity is Austrian- yet more junk genealogy, so read things carefully from the original image if possible.) Of course, we have already discussed that this person may not be “our” Gittel, but the names of the persons on the list before and after do not sound like they were from Austria, although that is the country that is listed for them. The young boy accompanying – or possibly just listed with- is named “Jankel Cohen” so while he may have lived in Austria, that likely was not his deeper origins.

All this basically means that we do not know where this Gittel started her journey. Did she travel from Lithuania or Russia to Austria, then to Hamburg, Germany or Le Havre, France before taking the SS Cimbria? That isn’t really a logical pathway, but one does not know the particulars of the situation, and whether she was fleeing the over 200 anti-Semitic pogroms of Russia that took place in 1881. We can only hope that someone in the family has heard a story that has been passed down, so that we may learn more about Gittel’s years before coming to America.

Just like today, whether a passenger liner or cruise ship, there was probably a large building for passengers to gather and purchase tickets. The advertisement above states that the fare for steerage passengers was $28 for a one-way ticket from Europe, which is about $650 today (2018). That may have been her life savings, or that of her family, lovingly provided to give her a better life in America. It would be interesting to know Gittel’s thoughts as she counted out her money, and as she took a huge step into the unknown, and a new life.

Boarding the SS Cimbria, if Gittel was indeed traveling in steerage, she would have made her way below deck with the majority of the other passengers. The Cimbria carried passengers regularly to the US, about every two weeks. The steamer was also a mail carrier, and it is very possible that the very ship she was on had also brought letters to her from America, encouraging her to make the trip west- maybe even a letter from John Broida, her husband-to-be, or a matchmaker or family already in the States.

Finding a comfortable place to sleep for the next nine nights or so may have been challenging in the stuffy and cramped quarters of steerage. She would be taking her meals in that space, spending her waking hours as well as sleeping, and daily bodily functions would have taken place there as well. By the end of the trip, especially if seas were rough and many were seasick, or if the weather was very hot, it would have been a miserable place to be.

Passengers would have been allowed above decks depending on the weather and the patience of the ship’s crew. Even then, breathing the clean salt air would have been done in a crowd.

When Gittel came to America, there was no statue of Liberty in New York Harbor to greet her and the other immigrants. (The US poet Emma Lazarus had been assisting Jewish refugees from the pogroms, and hearing their stories inspired her poem at the base of the statue that includes the lines, “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” The statue was not completed until 1886.) Gittel would have slowly walked with the crowd off the ship and into her new country.

1878 engraving of immigrants arriving at Castle Garden, via NorwayHeritage.com.

She could not just go wherever she pleased, however- immigrants were “processed” as soon as they left the ship.

Gittel Frank would not have entered the great hall of Ellis Island, as it did not open until 1892. Instead, she would have gone through Castle Garden. Unfortunately, her name has not yet been found on the Castle Garden website- there are a number of persons named “Gittel” who were processed there in 1881, but no transcribed surnames and ages that would seem to fit. (Only the transcriptions are available, currently, and there may be errors in the transcriptions.)

Castle Garden was at the tip of Lower Manhattan, and designed for efficient processing of all the new immigrants to America. The passenger list at the time was handwritten, and was used for statistical documentation of immigration, but also used in a legal cross-examination and inspection of the new immigrant before they would be allowed to live in the United States. About 98% of the immigrants passed. Sometimes, however, inaccurate information was recorded, whether ‘misheard,’ given wrong purposefully, or just ‘misremembered.’

It must have been a very stressful time for the new immigrants, especially if they spoke no English. It would be wonderful to know if there was someone waiting to greet her and take Gitel to her new life in America, but we do not have any information about what happened next. We do not know if she knew John Broida in “the old country”, whether it was an arranged marriage, or if they just met in New York and decided to marry. We have not been able to find John Broida in the 1880 census, so he may have been living in New York City then, as his granddaughter, Gertrude Belle (Broida) Cooper stated that the family members were ‘rag-pickers’ in NYC when they first immigrated. John’s naturalization papers state that he entered the US in Pennsylvania, so that would imply a different scenario. We have no marriage record for John and Gitel either, and have searched in New York as well as Pennsylvania. (There were no requirements back then to record a marriage with either state government.) We do know that their son Joseph Jacob Broida was born in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania on 15 May 1882.

If anyone has more information on this early period of John Zelig or Gitel Frank Broida, please let us know!

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. SS Cimbria in port image posted with kind permission of the website owners of “Theodore Gegoux” at gegoux.com, and https://www.maritimequest.com/daily_event_archive/2006/jan/19_ss_cimbria.htm
2. Information concerning the NY Passenger lists–https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/New_York,_Passenger_Lists_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)
3. Castle Garden- search for “Gittel” in 1881–http://www.castlegarden.org/search_02.php?m_ship=&po_port=&p_first_name=gittel&p_last_name=&o_occ=&co_country=&province=&town=&m_arr_date_start=1880&m_arr_date_end=1881&submit=Search+Now
4. Wikipedia article on the Statue of Liberty– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty
5. Heritage Ships/NorwayHeritage.com has graciously allowed use of their collected images as long as the watermark is retained and attribution provided. If you are interested in higher quality images, they can be purchased on their website, which benefits NorwayHeritage.

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Broida Family (Click for Family Tree)

Finding when our immigrant ancestors came to America is one of the chief goals of most family historians. We can now share one more record that indicates when an ancestor arrived- Sarah Gittel (Frank) Broida.

The above ship’s passenger list was for the SS Cimbria, a Hamburg America steamship with sails that was built in 1867 in Scotland. (More about the ship itself in another post.) The ship arrived in New York City from Hamburg, Germany, by way of Le Havre, France.

(While we cannot be certain that this is our Gitel Frank, there is information here that makes it highly likely this is the Gitel Frank who later married John Zelig Broida. We have found another “Gitel Frank” who immigrated later and with persons appearing to be her husband and children, so can rule out that person as a possibility.)

The SS Cimbria arrived on 13 July 1881, which is consistent with the information in the 1900 US Federal Census which states that “our” Gitel arrived in 1881, and had been here 19 years.

“Gittel Frank” was number 717 on this passenger list, and it states she was 20 years old and female. (There were not 717 persons on board but this appears to be the list kept in New York City, and added to as immigrants were processed.) The 1900 census states that Gitel was born in November of 1859, which would have made her 21 in July when she stepped foot in America for the first time. Folks did not always know exactly when they were born as it was not a big celebration like today, or there may have been a reason for changing the age, as maybe there was a lower fare if less than 21, so an inaccurate age does not always use out a possibility.

Under “Occupation” are ditto marks for “Single.” (Some passengers are listed as “woman” or “baby” under “Occupation.”)  If this is the correct person, this document also answers our question as to whether Gitel and John were married in Lithuania or the US- Gitel was single and using her maiden name when she crossed.

Interestingly, it states that Gittel was from Austria. This could mean that this not “our” Gitel, but could also mean that she did not want to state that she was from Lithuania and Jewish. The ship left from Hamburg, Germany, and we do not know what route she would have taken to get there from her home, although Austria is not exactly on the way to Germany from Lithuania. Others on the ship’s list were from Austria, with a few from Russia. The SS Cimbria did take immigrants from Lithuania per one of the sources listed below, as well as Austria, Russia, and Hungary.

There are persons listed as from Austria on the line above and the line below Gittel’s name. A 20 year-old single woman indexed as “Ruske Granek” is passenger 716, and passenger 718 was “Yankel Cohen”, and listed as a 7 year-old boy. Perhaps they knew each other and traveled together? Those do not really sound like ‘Austrian” names.

Please do let us know if you have any further information as to whether we have the correct Gittel Frank or not.

More to come…

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. FamilySearch New York Passenger list of vessels arriving at New York 1820-1897, lists 25 Jun 1881-18 Jul 1881, NARA Series M237, Roll 439.– https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939V-RM9Z-T2?i=859&cc=1849782

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McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

!!! NEWS FLASH !!!

A recent small family get-together has made the McMurray clan pretty sentimental, and we have decided to plan a McMurray Reunion!

The reunion is for descendants of Henderson McMurray (1819-1906) and Mary Ann (Horn) McMurray (1824-1891). (We do not have pictures of their family.) This McMurray family lived in Pennsylvania before their migration to Cedar County, Iowa, and then Jasper County, Iowa by 1870.

The current plan is for family to meet along the Mississippi River in Dubuque, Iowa, on Saturday, June 15, 2019.

We hope that people can arrive in Dubuque on Friday, June 14. We will reserve a block of hotel rooms, or you can make your own arrangements. The reunion festivities will take place on Saturday, and there will be food, entertainment, family history, and fun, including special activities for the little ones. Sunday we will have some additional activities available, such as a boat ride on the Mississippi River, lunch in the revitalized Old Millwork section of Dubuque, or ??? We could possibly have a trip on Monday to Newton, Iowa (about 2½ hours away) to see some of the McMurray home places in Jasper County, if  there is interest.

If you are sentimental and want to get together with other McMurrays at this reunion, please use our Contact Form and let us know so that we can put you on our mailing list. Our Contact Form is not published on the blog, and we will not share your information other than with the family planning this event. Let us know what family line you are from, the activities you might be interested in, how many would most likely attend, and what your travel plans may be.

More details to come…

We look forward to a wonderful McMurray family reunion on June 15, 2019 in Dubuque, Iowa!

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(Click for Family Tree)

Edward B. Payne is that ancestor that engenders obsession in at least one family historian known to this author. Accordingly, his name is frequently put into search boxes when there are a few idle moments, when it really is time for sleep, or at those moments when the yearning to know more about him just won’t quit. Since he was a minister, writer, lecturer, founder of a Utopian colony, close friend of Jack and Charmian London, etc., there are probably close to 1,000 known mentions of him in print found online.

The above booklet was one of the results from a recent online search. But why would this show up in a Google search for “Edward B. Payne”? About to move on among the hits, a slight pause brought this to mind:

Tuesday’s Tip: Don’t discount Google hits too quickly

Painful as it is to admit, Google is smarter than humans in so many ways (not all ways, thankfully). At least, Google can ‘read’ SO much faster than I can, whizzing through books and websites in seconds to bring me just the choicest morsels I am searching for, or didn’t even know I was in need of. This is one prime example.

Google had a reason to choose this link, so it was important to not pass it up, and figure out a connection.  To find that connection, first a look at the Table of Contents was in order, but no Edward B. Payne (lovingly called EBP in our household) there. Next, a quick skim through the book, thinking my eyes would pick his name out of hundreds, but really, the booklet was mostly about why cremation was a good option, the process, etc. No EBP jumped out. At the back of the book, however, were testimonials with a name attached- this might be the answer. Sure enough, a page-by-page search pulled up his name, and this quote:

 

Thus it turns out that “Edward B. Payne” actually did fit in with a cremation search result for a number of reasons, so it was a good to follow and analyze in greater detail. Here are a few things we already knew, which should have tipped us off that this was a good search result:

1. Edward B. Payne was a close friend of Jack London, who was cremated and his ashes placed at the rock now in Jack London State Park; Jack’s wife Charmian was cremated and ashes placed there as well.
2. EBP’s first wife, Nanie M. (Burnell) Payne was likely cremated, as she is listed on a funeral card at Cypress Lawn Cemetery & Crematorium, but under “Interment Location” are the letters, “N/A.” This card was created in 2011 after our research request, and we have been unable to get any earlier paperwork from the cemetery. She is not listed in the genealogy section of the Cypress Lawn website, either, and has not been found on Find A Grave. . This lack of burial evidence suggests she may have been cremated and her ashes scattered, or kept in an urn on a mantel.
3. Russ Kingman, author of “A Pictorial Life of Jack London,” was the founder of The World of Jack London Museum and Bookstore, in Glen Ellen, California, and a noted Jack London researcher. In a personal phone call around 1991, he told me
   that he thought Edward’s ashes had been spread at the same rock as were the ashes of Jack and Charmian (Kittredge) London.

   The moral of the story? Follow our Tuesday’s Tip, and don’t quickly discount Google search results until you have eliminated them through other knowledge of time or place, or until you have checked out the result thoroughly!

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. https://archive.org/details/cremation00oddf

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McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

President William McKinley signed the proclamation declaring war on Spain on 23 April 1898. What we know as the Spanish-American War officially began as this demand by the US that Spain give up all authority and its government in Cuba, withdraw its land and naval forces, and allow the people of that small island nation their full independence. The war really began earlier in the year though, when the US sent the USS Maine to Cuba to protect our citizens and interests from the civil unrest that was happening. There was an explosion on the Maine on the evening of 15 Feb 1898 while it was anchored in Havana Harbor, and the ship sunk, killing 250 of 355 American soldiers on board. There is still no proof that the explosion was caused by outside sources, and no definitive proof that it wasn’t, but the incident ignited public opinion in the US against Spain in 1898.

Of course, one cannot have a war without soldiers, so the day before, 22 Apr 1898, Congress had authorized a temporary act to increase military forces. The President then issued his proclamation for volunteers to serve a term of two years.

Newton, Iowa, already had a National Guard unit that included three of our family members. Twenty-three years old and unmarried in 1898, William Elmer McMurray (1874-1957), would later became the father of Dr. Edward A. McMurray. Will was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Guard.

Harry James McMurray (1876-1962) was just 21 years old, and the brother of Will McMurray. He was not married.

Roland E. Benjamin (1868-1950?) was the nephew of our ancestor Sylvanus Rufus “S.R.” Benjamin; S.R. was the grandfather of Will and Harry, so they were all three cousins of some complicated degree. Roland was married, but did not have children in 1898.

Some of those who served in the Iowa National Guard did go off to the Spanish-American War, but none of these family members, and not a very large number from Newton. The official war only lasted ten weeks, and helped to bring our post-Civil War citizens together to fight a common foe. The US became a world power as it interceded in this war, and gained the Spanish colonies of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

Life in Newton, Iowa, likely went on as it had for many years. But we do need to reflect on the potential sacrifice our ancestors knew they might make when they signed up as part of the Iowa National Guard.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. “Past and Present of Jasper County, Iowa,” 1912, page 224, via archive.org.
2. “Spanish-American War,” wikipedia– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish–American_War

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