[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Family names question - Daniel Becker

[Jerry Frank]

Lexi:

Regarding the additional information:  When at the Ellis Island site, 
on the page with the extracted list of names (often extracted badly 
with misspellings), you will see above the list a small box that 
says, "View Original Manifest".  Click on it and you will be provided 
with a view of the original.  In this case it brings up Page 2 of the 
entry.  Click "Next" (not previous as you would expect), to view the 
first page.  In many cases, though not always, these originals 
contain much more info than is extracted.

It appears that Wilhelm was indeed the husband and not friend of 
Caroline.  Based on Rose's comment, I went back to the list and 
discovered that I mismatched the lines on the two pages.  She was 
going to be with her husband Wilhelm and the line above indicates the 
friend of the family.

So the next step is to look for Wilhelm on Ellis Island.  Since the 
youngest child is 3, we bracket the search from 1905 to 1909.  By the 
way, use http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/EIDB/ellis.html for your 
search.  It is simpler and easier to use and allows for sounds-alike 
search that helps to deal with variants or misspellings.  Here I 
found a Wilhelm Becker arriving in 1908 from Womyu, Russia.  Well 
Womyu just doesn't sound right so could it be Volhynia?  The original 
manifest tells us he was born in Pultow (?), Russia and that his last 
residence was Nowya (sounds suspiciously like it could be Nowin) in 
Wolhynien (= Volhynia), leaving behind a sister Louise Bauer.  His 
age is 34 (sounds about right) and he is going to  (??) Michigan.

So the catch here is - if the last 2 children are born in Germany, 
why is his last residence in Volhynia?  Why wouldn't his next of kin 
be his wife?  And, did he then move from Michigan to Oregon?

I am not going to say for certain that this is the right Wilhelm but, 
as a newbie, I think it shows you one more direction for making 
progress with your search.  it seems like a good fit but there are 
some strong question marks so I would suggest that you also look at 
the other Wilhelm Beckers that crossed in that time period, including 
those from Germany, to see if there is a better fit.

By the way, Nowin / Nowiny is located just south of the highway 
between Zhitomir and Nowograd Wolhynsk, roughly 48 km NW of 
Zhitomir.  Volhynian records do not show a Becker family there but 
there is at least one at Nedbajowka, only 10 km to the NW.  Spreading 
of the family to a nearby village post 1885 (when the records end) is 
certainly possible.

Now it is time to throw a little wrinkle into the equation.  As you 
are learning, this search can be a laborious process.  There was also 
a Becker family living at Gross Gluscha in the remote far 
northwestern corner of Volhynia.  Their largest nearby town was Newir 
/ Nowir.  Is it possible that the "n" at the end of your place name 
should be an "r"?  I don't want to send you on a wild goose chase but 
keep this tidbit filed until you prove otherwise as it may be 
valuable at some point in your search.

By the way, I haven't found a good match for a place like Pultow so 
at this time it remains an elusive location.



Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca




At 02:18 PM 26/08/2006, you wrote:
>Jerry:
>
>First where did you find all this additional information?  I found 
>the Ellis Island record, but it just listed names, so I assumed 
>everyone traveling together with the last name of Becker was 
>related, but not necessarily mother and children. But as to the 
>$1000 and going to Oregon and the rest, I hadn't found that. Clearly 
>there is more to the Ellis Island records than I found.
>
>I found Daniel in Kimball, NE in 1917 which is where he registered 
>for the WW1 draft (it looks like Novin, Nikolaiv, Russia on the part 
>where he signed where he was born), and saying he had a mother to 
>support. Then I found him in the 1920 census in South Dakota, which 
>made sense as he married a Rosella Schenkenberger (who had 10 -13 
>siblings!), who lived in Emmons, North Dakot, but were mostly born 
>in Bon Homme South Dakota  (her parents came from Russia also, 
>mother was born in Baliev (sp?).
>
>Daniel and Rosella were in California sometime in the 1920's as my 
>dad and oldest aunt were born there, and then in Eugene for the 
>1930's Census.  I have found Reinhard and Hermann in census and 
>registration cards, but only after they came to the US. I don't have 
>any information on Daniel's parents, but assumed Caroline was his 
>mother as a starting place. My mother remembers mention of them 
>being Lutherans, and I remember hearing that they came from a part 
>of Russia that went back and forth between Poland, but they 
>definitely spoke German. I never remembered hearing Daniel's parents 
>names, and neither does my mother.  My father is dead, and I am 
>tracking down his sisters to see what they remember.
>
>I am a newbie and have just started researching.  I have a copy of 
>Greg Rath's book Black Sea Germans in the Dakotas. I've been to 
>ancestry.com, familysearch.org, all the German-Russian heritage 
>sites I can find, and am overwhelmed with branches to search as I 
>hadn't been able to even find Daniel's city of birth.  At this point 
>I am emailing and mailing my few living aunts to see what they can remember.
>
>Any pointers to where to find additional information, such as what 
>you've provided, would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Lexi
>
>
>----------
>From: Jerry Frank [mailto:FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca]
>Sent: Sat 8/26/2006 6:40 AM
>To: Donne, Alexsana; ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
>Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Family names question
>
>Hi Lexi.  Welcome to the list.
>
>Lets review some of the clues before responding to the question.
>
>Daniel's mother, Caroline, is travelling alone on this boat with 8
>children !!!!  ranging in age from 3 to 15 - from oldest, Reinhard,
>Daniel, Albertine, Gustav, Stephan, Johann, Hermann and Auguste.  If
>they all survived to adulthood, bearing children, you have a very
>extensive family from which to obtain info.  :-)
>
>The 6 oldest children were born in Nowin, Russia.  The 2 youngest in
>Konojad / Kossojad (?), Germany.  Caroline is 37 years old (= born
>c.1872) in Draschbin (sp?), Podole, Russia.
>
>The family has $1000 with them (seems rather wealthy compared to
>others).  They are travelling to Eugene, Oregon to be with Wilhelm
>Becker.  But how does he connect?  The oldest child, Reinhard reports
>that this is his uncle.  All the other children show him as
>father.  On the other hand, he is said to be a "friend" of
>Caroline.   So is Caroline in fact the mother of these
>children?  Caroline is noted as having a pockmarked face.
>
>
>Before we make recommendations for the search, is there anything else
>you can tell us about the family?
>
>What religion were they - typically Lutheran, or Baptist?  I am
>assuming they were not Jewish as typically they would have been noted
>as such on the passenger list.
>
>What do you know about Daniel's parents if anything?
>
>
>
>Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
>FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca