This is the manifest that show Anna Hinterhauser arriving in the United States. Anna is my Great Grandmother and one of our immigrant ancestors. This is what the manifest tells me:
Ship: She traveled aboard the SS Mexico of the French Line and rode in second cabin. This wasn’t the worst accommodations for her sea trip so we know she may have had a little more comfort than most who traveled as steerage passengers.
Departure and Arrival Information: She departed the port of Havre, France on August 7, 1909 and arrived in New York on August 20, 1909. This was a long trip for Anna if you include her travel to the port. I’m not sure how she got from her home village of Miletitsch (present day Srpski Miletic, Serbia) to the port of Le Havre in France but I would make a guess that it was a combination of carriage and train. The distance is almost 2000 kilometers and would take almost 19 hours by car today.
Personal Information: Anna was 19 years old, female, single and worked as a servant. She was able to read and write. Her country of citizenship was Austria and her race was Magyar (Hungarian). Her last permanent residence was in the village of Militic in Austria. Her mother, Rosalia was her closest relative in the village she came from.
Final Destination: Her final destination was Trenton, NJ. She had a ticket to her destination and she paid for it herself. She had $15 on her and had never been in the United States before. She was going to join her male cousin Jakal Darjark at 1010 Anderson St in Trenton, NJ.
Other Information: She was never in the hospital or other institution for reason of insanity or unstable mind, she was not a polygamist or an anarchist, and she was not coaxed or paid to come to the US for reasons to work as labor.
Health and Description: She was in good health and was not deformed or crippled. She was 5 ft 2 in tall with a fair complexion, flaxon hair, auburn eyes and no distinguishable marks.
Place of Birth: She was born in the village of Militic, Hungary.
My Observations from all the Information on the list: Anna did not travel alone. There are three other passengers that surround her on the list that have the same last permanent home; Magdelana Rohrbacher, Franz Dorjack, and Peter Welchner, It would seem that Franz may have been a cousin to Anna because she said she was joining a cousin by the name of Darjack. However, I’ve looked through the Miletitsch Family book and cannot find this family but I can find the other two passengers traveling with Anna. I would assume that the Dorjack name is misspelled so I’ll have to look closer at the families and see if I can make any matches with the little information that I know. Anyway, it is good to know that Anna was not traveling alone on such a long journey.
With all of that said, how trustworthy is the information given? This list could be considered a primary source by some researchers since we can assume Anna was right there giving the information to the clerk who was recording it. However, I think this is more of a secondary source as Anna was not filling out the paperwork on her own and the clerk was probably in a hurry and the accuracy was secondary to the speed of processing the passengers. So, the information has to be in question until it can be proven.
In my next Tuesday Tip post I will present some additional information which makes me distrust some of this record.
Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ up that family.
Chris
Citation for this record: "Original Ship Manifests," online images, Ellis Island Online (http://www.ellisisland.org/default.asp : accessed 28 Jul 2014), manifest, S.S. Mexico, 20 August 1909, Anna Hinterhauser.
© 2014 Copyright, Christopher Shaw, All Rights Reserved.
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