Aunt Margaret

We got a phone call from Aunt Margaret today thanking Penny for sending her pictures of the Memorial and family gathering. At 95 her mind is clear, but her legs are bad. She sounded good, but frail. Her voice and intonation reminded me of my Mom.

I asked her about when she came over from Europe. Here is what she told me.

She came over in 1921 when she was 11 years old. She traveled with her mother. Her father was already here and had been for 10 years. She had to wait because of the war. She left from Trieste. She had to wait there for 3 weeks because the boat’s coal supply was on fire and smoldering. I’m not sure if they got another boat or waited for the fire to burn itself out. She can remember buying oranges from the people on shore while they were waiting. She came over on the Belvedere (at least that’s what it sounded like), an Italian ship and came through Ellis Island. She was in 3rd class, which means they slept on bunk beds. I asked what she did on the voyage and she said just talk to people. She said it was a slow boat and took 30 days. She remembered she ordered chicken soup and it came with the chicken head, feathers and all, in the soup. She was laughing at this, so it was funny to her. She had long hair and was afraid that it would be cut off at Ellis Island if they found lice. Since she was 3rd class she had to pay to have her hair washed so they would not cut it. Her hair was not cut.

They went right to Bridgeport to live, in the ‘West End’ section. Nine months later my Mom (Helen) and Uncle George were born. (Since they were born Dec 31st, that makes her arrival in the March 1921 timeframe.
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So we followed up on the Ellis Island site and found that she actually arrived here on March 30th 1921. Her passenger record shows her name as Margit. The best we can figure her mother was named Mihaly. The site gives the history of the ship they came on also.

In addition I copied records for her Father, my Grandfather, my Grandmother Siverina and my Aunt Ersillia.

Family tree stuff doesn’t fascinate me, but I do find it interesting learning the circumstances that led to me.