A Jewish Genealogy Journey: Jacob Reisner's Passenger List, 1905

Monday, August 11, 2014

Jacob Reisner's Passenger List, 1905

I believe I have found the passenger list that shows when Jacob Reisner arrived in the United States. At Ancestry.com, I searched in the New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957, for Jacob Reisner, born about 1888 in Austria (date and place from his marriage license). (I also have a middle initial of N from other sources.)

The result shows Jankew N. Reisner on a List of Aliens Held for Special Inquiry.

Ancestry.com, New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010), Ancestry.com, Database online. Year: 1905; Microfilm serial: T715; Microfilm roll: T715_534;
Ship: Zeeland, List: Special Inquiry, Line: 21; Image number: 180 of 990. Record for Jankew [Jacob] N. Reisner.

I have marked this image to draw your eye to certain items on this page. First of all, he arrived on the S. S. Zeeland on February 7, 1905, at 10 AM, from Antwerp.

(1) Jankew N. Reisner appears on line 21 here. To the left of the line number 21 is 16, which is his age. I am making an educated guess that this is Jacob N. Reisner who later married into the Levitt family. To the right of his name is A9, which represents that he appears on manifest A, line 9. I was able to use this information to find the original passenger list, which is NOT currently indexed. Note the young man listed below him, Uscher Sumer, also age 16. His name appears just below Jankew's on the original passenger list and he was also held for special inquiry.

(2) Cause of Detention is L.P.C. which represents "Likely Public Charge" which means he could be excluded as one who might become a burden on the public. This was part of the immigration law at the time.

(3) The scribble here is simply the initials or name of the initial inspector who made the L.P.C. determination and decided he needed to go before the board of special inquiry.

(4) 2/7 represents the date that Jankew [Jacob] had his hearing. 4 is the page number of the recorder's book where his information was recorded. (Unfortunately, most of these records have been destroyed.) It looks like his hearing was at 3:47 in the afternoon. (Uscher Sumer had his hearing at 4:00.)

(5) The numbers in the right columns indicate the number of meals provided (at a cost to the shipping company). It looks like Jankew (and his friend) got just one meal, lunch, before heading to his destination in New York City.

The man on the list above him left on the S.S. Zeeland when it left New York on February 10. This would have been at the expense of the shipping company.

Following is the passenger list which would have been prepared in Antwerp, before the ship left the port.

Ancestry.com, New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010), Ancestry.com, Database online. Year: 1905; Microfilm serial: T715; Microfilm roll: T715_534;
Ship: Zeeland, List: A, Line: 9; Image number: 4 of 52. Record for Jankew [Jacob] N. Reisner.

S. S. Zeeland left Antwerp on January 28, 1905, and arrived in New York on February 7, 1905. This handwriting is a challenge to read, so actually it's nice that I found the Special Inquiry list first.

Jankew N. Reisner, age 16, male, single, has the occupation of furrier (I think). Note the mark to the left of his name: "S.I." for Special Inquiry. Jankew can read and write and he is from Austria. His "Race or People" is Hebrew and I cannot read his last residence. I share a zoomed in image here in case anyone wants to weigh in.

Jankew's final destination is New York. His brother paid his passage and in response to "Whether in possession of $50, and if less, how much?" his answer is "no." He reports that the relative he is going to join is his brother, Moses Teitelbaum, of 26 or 36 Forsyth Street. The young man listed below, Harry or Uscher Sumer, is listed as a tailor, and is going to his uncle, also a Teitelbaum on Forsyth Street.

There is a great article at JewishGen about markings found on the Lists of Aliens Held for Special Inquiry. See it here.

Here is an image of the S.S. Zeeland from Ancestry.com's database of ship images. You've got to give our immigrant ancestors a lot of credit for traveling on ships such as these for ten days to reach America.