Thursday, May 28, 2020

Morris Stern's Immigration

Morris Stern, the man that my husband's grandfather, Josef Handler, indicated on his passenger list as his cousin, himself had arrived in America about 15 months before Josef. The 1910 census reported that he had immigrated in 1909.

I easily found the passenger manifest for Moritz Stern, arriving in January 1909, and this handwriting is much better than most!

Moritz Stern Passenger List
Manifest for Moritz Stern, age 34 (line 7), arriving in New York 9 January 1909 on the S. S. La Savoie; "New York, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1957," Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 13 May 2020).

Detail from line 7 for Moritz Stern:


Moritz Stern, age 34 [born about 1875], was married, and his occupation was baker. He was able to read and write and he was from "Ungary" [Hungary] and of the "Hebrew" race. His last permanent residence was Ilok, Hungary. His closest relative in Hungary was his wife, Sidonia Stern, and his final destination was New York.

Moritz didn't appear to be traveling with anyone: there are no others from Hungary on this list.

And since this is after September 1906, when much more information was required, there is a next page and here is the information for Moritz from the following page:


Moritz had a ticket to his final destination and paid for his own passage. He was in possession of $12 (though $50 was crossed out). He had never been in the U.S. before and was on his way to join a friend, Simon Broder, at 105 E. 3rd Street, New York. The remaining columns full of ditto marks basically indicate that he was a responsible person and in good health. He was 5'4" with brown hair and brown eyes.

He reported that he was born in Ilok, Hungary, where Josef Handler was from.

Another interesting observation is that on his passenger list, Josef reported that his occupation was baker. The family story is that he was a delivery driver for a bakery, so perhaps he did that for his cousin Moritz before he immigrated to America.

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