[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Seeking further information on Volhynian emigrants Adam Kalbes (sometimes Kabassa) and Charlotte Samsell (fwd)

[Stephen H Karlson]

The individuals named in the subject line are two of my great-grandparents. 

Adam's citizenship petition indicates that he was born in "Prussia, Germany" in 1857.  He emigrated from Bremen in 1902 and petitioned for citizenship in 1911.  His petition indicates that his wife Charlotte, born Samsell or Samsel, was also born in "Prussia, Germany."

Both Adam and Charlotte were Baptists, they spoke Polish, and they are listed in Anuta's East Prussians from Russia.

Their daughter, Minnie or Norimin, my grandmother, said her hometown was "Yewodinka" (pretty close in pronunciation to Jagodinka on Stumpp's map) which had a Catholic church (she used the Ukrainian word "tserkva" to refer to that church) and that her family were tenant farmers for a landlord called Struhl.

Adam and Charlotte's son Gustav filed a separate naturalization petition somewhat later giving his place of birth as "Walki, Russia" (is this the Wulka not far from Neudorf on Stumpp's map?) and an arrival date of 1903 on the emigrant steamer _Cassel_.

My questions:

1.   What alternatives to the Ellis Island website would you suggest for verifying the arrival of members of the Kalbes family?  (Oral tradition has Adam and one son emigrating first, to save enough money to send for the others.)  The website does not give any good hits on Kalbes -- are there good alternative spellings to try? -- and it does not show arrival records for _Cassel_ in January of 1903.  Suggestions for alternate sources of U.S. immigration records are welcome.

2.  Supposing I wanted to continue my search for official documents in Volhynia and then in Germany, where would the logical place to start be?  I do know that Adam and Charlotte married near "Yewodinka" (Thanks, Grandma, for the tape.)

Thanks in advance,

Stephen Hopkins Karlson