And as soon as I know them I attach.
Or maybe I've always been attached, I mean I have been no doubt, they are roots. But for some reason they are particularly meaningful to me. I want to live them, and explore them and discover every detail. I can't sit back and go, so we are from Poland, well thats cool...now whats for breakfast? I must go there.
I feel like part of me is there, and I need to go find it. This has lead me to Germany, to Poland, to England, to France, to China and Japan...and then lead me back again. And there are still more places to go, trips to make, people to meet, there are definitely some people to meet...
Years ago I had exhausted all my family members for stories, information, documents and pictures. They seemed tired of telling. And digging can hurt sometimes, really hurt. So finally I took it to Ancestry.com, why not give it a try...
And I just found one thing so far. And its late, and I have to work tomorrow and I'm sick but..this is so cool, i cant stop...
It's a list from the US Department of Labor, from 1940. It's a passenger list, of all alien passengers arriving to the United States. The ship was named the Empress of Asia, and it had set sail from Shanghai, China. My grandfather was only 24 years old.
There are only 5 passengers on the list, maybe there werent many on the ship..he worked in shipping, it even says so as his profession.
All of the other passengers are stamped "non-immigrant." He is not. He was an immigrant
His name is crossed out with a black pen, luckily all can still be read though. But written above in the same pen, is "Left ship at Victoria." I guess he didnt go all the way to St. Alvans, Vermont. He got off in Victoria. The only Victoria I know is on the West Coast in Canada. Exactly how did they sail from China anyways? Maybe there is another Victoria near Vermont? Did they go around Africa, or SOuth America? Or through the Suez Canal? Ah, I want to know!!
But there is still more information here..He could read, he could write. His "race" was English, his nationality was Great Britain.
He was still single, and his last permanent residence was the same as his birthplace....Shanghai.
He left May 14 and arrived on June 3, 1940. Perhaps the USA was the safest place to go that year.
this is fun...cant wait to see whats to come...
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