[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Passports or identity papers

[Carolyn Schott]

Not sure if this will help, but I'll relate my own experience looking for my
grandfather's ship info. 

I had the shipping line, date and port information from my grandfather's
naturalization papers, and with that located the correct ship.  But looking
in the National Archive indexes, could not find Johann Peter Schott.  Since
we had the family rumor that he'd used his brother-in-law's passport (which
frankly, I had been scoffing at a bit), I thought, just for fun, I'd try the
brother-in-law's name, Jakob Schuldheisz.  Sure enough, I found him in the
index, and looked at the actual passenger list.  

On the actual passenger list, the name "Schudheisz, Jakob" is on the
original line.  In different handwriting, parts of the name are scratched
out and other stuff written in until it becomees "Schott, Joh. Peter."  On
the original, he is going to his "friends Friedrich and Christ Schott" in
North Dakota.  Again, in the other handwriting, "friends" becomes
"brothers."  

My theory on this - he needed the passport to get out of Russia.  He either
needed identification to get on the ship, or simply thought he should be
consistent in traveling under the brother-in-law's name as long as he was in
Europe and might somehow run afoul of Russian authorities (although he left
from Bremen.)

I'm assuming that arriving in America he DIDN'T need identification - I know
that passports weren't required for entry to the US at that time.  He
wouldn't have had a passport in his real name, and if he'd needed ID (for
any reason) he would have had to stick with the brother-in-law's name.
Instead, he apparently decided that he wanted to enter the country using his
real name, or wanted the passenger list to be right if the ship went down or
something.

Obviously, much of this is speculation, but it seems to fit.

Carolyn


 
>
>Message: 2
>Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 12:48:04 EST
>From: GVLESS at aol.com
>Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Passports or Identity Papers
>To: ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
>Message-ID: <bd7.99b8bd2.329495d4 at aol.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
>I was wondering if my husband's father (who immigrated to U.S. 
>1903) might have had something else besides his Confirmation 
>certificate for identification  when he went through Ellis 
>Island.  We have always assumed this as his only identity 
>paper as nothing had ever been found in the family's records 
>after his  death.  Family story has it he was "escaping" out 
>of Volhynia because he was of draft age and didn't want to 
>serve in the Russian  military.  His brother, Erdmann who was 
>in the military, and home  on leave also made his "escape" 
>the year before.  Could these brothers have  arrived here 
>without papers - except for what we know of my husband's Dad 
>having  his Confirmation paper?  So far also I have not been 
>able to locate a  record of immigration for Fred Less thru 
>Ellis Island either.  A lot of  Less names are there but none 
>of a Fred (or Friedrich) Less.  I found a  record of Erdmann 
>and his family arriving in 
>America through Halifax.   I have the naturalization papers 
>that does say that 
>Fred Less  came thru Ellis Island and gives the date and even 
>a ship name (but  undoubtably not spelled right).  Fred Less 
>could have forgotten some of the  details perhaps when he 
>filed out his naturalization papers a few years  
>later.  Did one have to have identity papers for 
>naturalization?   These are some 
>questions I have had as I researched for more proof of my  
>husband's father's existence in those early years.  Fred Less 
>was born in  1884 and confirmed at the Warwarowka church in 
>Volhynia in 1899, according to  the Confirmation paper.
> 
>Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
> 
>Virginia Less
>
>