[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Journey to Canada via Liepaja, Latvia, then Liverpool, England, and finally Montreal, Canada

[Nelson Itterman]

Hello Kyle: 
My family had a similar journey. It was perhaps St. John, New Brunswick
where they landed in Canada. St John's Newfoundland was not part of Canada
then.
Nelson

-----Original Message-----
From: ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org
[mailto:ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org] On Behalf Of Kyle
Sattler
Sent: February-09-08 4:53 PM
To: ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org; LydiaEm at shaw.ca
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Journey to Canada via Liepaja, Latvia,
then Liverpool, England, and finally Montreal, Canada

Hi Wilma,

My great-grandfather, Bernhard Zietz, made a similar journey from the
province of Ekaterinoslav, Ukraine. He recorded it in his autobiography of
which I have recorded an excerpt below:

"So, I turned to my cousin Martin Gerlinsky, who lived in Canada and asked
him to help us emigrate. Right away he started getting us immigration
permits and boat tickets. In the spring of 1923, I received notice from the
Canadian Pacific Company that my entry permits, plus the paid boat tickets
for my family were waiting for us at their office in Moscow.

Our joy was great to be finally released from misery and I started work
right away on our emigration papers. Since the Communist regime was new and
the newly hired staff didn't know the laws, I had many difficulties.
I had started in February 1923 and in May, the papers were ready for as far
as Bachmut, the county seat. There I had to present the papers and receive
our passports. In the meantime, the laws had been changed, and I had to
start all over again. I would have been unable to shoulder all the expenses
for this if it hadn't been for two other families from our village who had
received their immigration permits for Canada too. They were Nicolaus
Gerlinsky and Bernard Forlowsky. We shared the expenses among ourselves and
my dear cousin (from Canada) had sent me $150.
Luckily I was able to exchange this money into American dollars which was my
deliverance, because I had to start from scratch to get our papers and was
sent from one place to the next.

Finally in November we had all the necessary papers in hand and we left on
December 2, 1923 by train and arrived December 4 in Moscow. (The Sietz
family was one of the last families allowed out of the country.) We could
have continued on our journey the next day, but we encountered difficulties
with our daughter Aloysia. She had turned 10 in the meantime and that meant
that her photo had to be in the passport too.
This didn't take long because I met a photographer on the street and the
picture was done in 5 minutes. But that was not enough for the government
officials who said I had to wait 4 days for them to give the okay stamp for
my passport. The question was: Why? The Canadian Pacific officials went with
me to the Russian office to help me, but were told it was none of their
business. So, we and Nick Gerlinsky, with his family had to stay at a hotel
until we received our stamps in the passports.

On the 5th day, we could finally leave Moscow and traveled to the border
station of Sebesk where we had to go into the stationhouse where they combed
through all our belongings. Had they found any forbidden items, we would
have been sent back, where to, we can only imagine. (Before the family left,
they had torn up all their family photos because the men would have been
dressed in military uniforms and identified as the elite and therefore
targets.)

We were very glad to board the train again and instead of Russian personnel
we were greeted by Latvian officials. They too asked if we had anything to
declare, but we were not searched and were treated like human beings. After
that we arrived at the city of Riga, and from there we went to Libawa
(present-day Liepaja, Latvia), where we boarded a small steamship which took
us through the Wilhelm Channel to Germany, and after 4 days on the North Sea
to London, England. From there, we went to Liverpool where we arrived on
Christmas Eve. We were given nice, warm quarters, and in the dining room a
real Christmas dinner and presents for the children. This was the first
Christmas in many years for us.

On December 28, 1923 we boarded the 19 thousand ton steamship Montcalm and
were on the Atlantic Ocean with high seas until January 6, 1924, when we
landed in St. John's Newfoundland. We were examined by a doctor, and
continued our journey to Montreal and from there to Winnipeg, then on a
flyer (train) to our destination Cavell, Saskatchewan where we were picked
up by Martin Gerlinsky in his model T.

It is really quite interesting to see the troubles that the family had to go
through to immigrate. This is all I have for proof of immigration.
I have not yet found immigration records as their is a gap in the Canadian
ones during the period which they immigrated.

Greetings,

Kyle Sattler


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Hi all, I was wondering if you could give me some direction with the
following. 

I guess I have had the following information for years, tucked away in some
old typed documents about my Stege family's journey to Canada, but only just
today, did I read it in detail, only to realize that my Stege family, did
not journey through Hamburg, but rather left a port in Liepaja, Latvia, for
Liverpool, England, and then on to Montreal Canada in 1899. They originated
from Tomaszow, near Anielweka, Vohlynia, Russia. Was this commonly done? to
travel from this port? Does anyone have any idea if I can find ship records?
leaving Liepaja?
Thanks for your help.
Wilma.

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