Does anyone know of someone who immigrated to NYC before 1925?
My girlfriend is taking a geography course and her homework is to find someone who has personal experience with a friend or family member who can answer a handful of questions: 1. Approximate year they immigrated 2. First name 3. Where they left 4. Why did they leave the place they started at? 5. Where…
My girlfriend is taking a geography course and her homework is to find someone who has personal experience with a friend or family member who can answer a handful of questions:
1. Approximate year they immigrated
2. First name
3. Where they left
4. Why did they leave the place they started at?
5. Where they settled in NYC
6. How did they find the new place in NYC? (through friends/family?)
Thank you very much!
My father, Thomas Murphy, emigrated to America in 1922 from Ireland. He left Castleblayney, County Monaghan, but stopped first at Liverpool (port of embarcation)to visit his father. He traveled on a British passport because this was the political situation at that time. My mother and my aunt both came from Ireland but their passports were each different from my father’s and this reflected the changing political situation in Ireland in the 1920’s. My father left as many had before–for a job. I don’t think he wanted to go but there was little in the way of prospects there and then. All but one of his siblings left. One went to New Zealand and the rest came here. One returned in the 1930’s. The one hold-out came here in the 60’s when she was a widow. Living on the border of northern Ireland and what would be Free State Ulster added uncertainty to any future there.
When he arrived he went to his oldest brother, Owen, on President Street in Park Slope. My uncle had come some years before and was established here. He arrived early enough to serve in the Army in WWI in France. I have a copy of his discharge papers.
You’re welcome. Aunt Elaine looovves her history. And her hora.
OP here. Hi rh. Our messages must have passed each other. Thanks for going ahead and calling Aunt Elaine.
Wow!
This is GREAT stuff! I’m going to print it out and bring it in to class. I’ll bet very few people were able to get a story like this. My teacher’s going to love it too (his family is also of Jewish background, moving from the lower east side to the boroughs).
Maybe I can bring Aunt Elaine in for “show & tell”! And she can teach us the hora…
Thanks so much for participating (and handling that earful!)
-Johanna (& Rick)
OP here.
Dear 3:08,
Thank you for your response! Golda from Glitzia-I like it. This will be very useful for my class.
Dear 5:25,
By all means call her! I would love to know the details. This is fascinating history.
Thanks, Johanna
Hey Rick,me again. OMG, I just got off the phone with my crazy Aunt Elaine. I’m sorry I brought it up! I got an earful. You owe me.
Here’s the scoop:
1. 1908
2. My Grandpa Izzy (came after his parents)
3. Shetl in White Russia (town no longer exists, but it’s something like “Vorshist”)
4. The Tsar was “picking on” the Jews. There were pograms. I guess like “Fiddler on the Roof”.
5. LES (She wanted me to let you know that’s in New York City.
6. They were the first from the family, but she thinks they found the place either through a friend or some Jewish organization which still exists today, called “Hiyas”. That’s just the phonetic spelling.
Ok, those are the questions. Oh, but wait. There’s more. Here’s some detail you weren’t even looking for….
Izzy’s mother, Bubba Anna came first with her siblings. She left her children with remaining siblings and sent for them later. To raise $ to come over, people would sell something of value, like a cow.The land was not good. They survived mostly on fish from the nearby river. Later, Stalin took the land to make “the breadbasket”.
When they got to the LES, Zayda Froyim (that’s Anna’s husband) earned a living as a taylor. Religion was important to them because they weren’t free to practice it in Russia. They also thought it was very important to learn the English language (that was her dig at modern day immigrants). Each generation did alittle better than the next. The first to arrive just about finished elementary school. The next went on to high school, etc… As they did better and went into better careers, the family started fanning out to other boroughs (my mom, Izzy’s daughter is from the Bronx and I’m from Brooklyn) and then to other states.
In the 30’s, due to the depression, they were able to buy 100 acres of land for 1 cent. They were given a whole farm, with a barn, cows, a bull, chickens, etc. She said “Where else can you get that? Even the tsar didn’t have that!”
And she wanted you to know “In order to know geography, you gotta know history.”
I’ll be renting Aunt Elaine out for parties. She does a great hora.
None of my grandparents are alive, but my aunt knows all of the history. 3 out of 4 of my grandparents came to NYC from Russia or the Ukraine. The 4th was born here. Let me know if you would like me to call Aunt Elaine. This would make her day.
My grandmother came to New York in 1908.
Her name was Golda, and she came with her family. She was 9 years old.
She left a little town called Glitzia in Austria. I don’t think it exists anymore.
They left for a better life and settled on the lower east side. I’m not sure how they found their apartment though.