[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] How to find passenger lists returning to europe

[albertmuth at aol.com]

To my knowledge, there are no passenger lists going in the reverse direction,
from North America back to Europe.  At least, none seem to have 

been made available for genealogical purposes.



In my own family, like yours, there are two such cases.




In 1906, I believe, my grandfather Michael Muth's first wife Juliane Eichhorst

returned to the old country, presumably to visit family, perhaps her father

who may still have been living in Godziembow or in Zezulin, where he was

to die (per EWZ records).  Since she had been in Detroit since the late

1880's and was now an American citizen, I was able to get a copy of her

passport application from the National Archives in Washington, DC.




The second case took place a few short years later, after the death of Juliane.

My grandfather married my grandmother Emma Minnie Panzlau 29 May 1911

and chose to use the family savings to take her on a honeymoon back to

the old country.  This did not go over so well with his adult children, for any number

of reasons that you can readily imagine.  Again, I was able to get a copy

of my grandfather's application for a passport.  In his case, it was particularly

important to him to carry this document, since he had emigrated to

avoid military service in the Russian Army and he had not left the Russian

empire legally (he crossed the border with Germany hidden in a hay 

wagon with first wife Juliane and two infants).




My grandfather's passport ap
plication turned out to be a crucial piece

of evidence for my genealogical research.  It is the only document at all

that bears the (misspelled) name of his birth village in Central Poland 

(Rybno, spelled "Ribno"), in the area of Przedecz Lutheran Church.  

My oldest two aunts knew they were born in Malinówka in the 

1880's (in the Lubllin region), but no one remembered where 

the family had lived previously.




So, while I do not know the date on which Michael and Emma 

left for their honeymoon, I am able to pinpoint the date of their return

to New York since they are on a passenger manifest, such as what

you have found.




Every time I tell the story, I feel the need to mention, oh yes, by

the way, my grandfather would have been 96 when I was born. I am

the youngest grandchild, etc etc.  I am not getting any younger,

but I am not THAT old.




Al Muth

Livonia, MI












-----Original Message-----
From: daryl <sofasurferlinux at charter.net>
To: ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
Sent: Sat, 16 May 2009 12:33 am
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] How to find passenger lists returning to europe








In searching for immigrate relative I came across to strange manifests. 
On April 19, 1905 Karoline Harke came to the U.S. with 2 children, 
Emelie and Emma. On May ?, 1905 Karoline Harke came to the U.S. with 2 
children, Friedrick and Emma.

This confused me bacause of the similarities especially when, on both=2
0
manifests, they were listed on lines 4, 5 and 6. And on both manifests 
they were traveling to the same address.

Turns out that their husbands were brothers. Both brothers were married 
to a Karoline. The families were previously living in U.S. and the wives 
apparently traveled back to their original homelands of Plock and 
Bobrowniki, I assume to show the children to their Grandfathers. After 
what I assume was a month or two visit (because they listed there 
previous residences as Bobrowniki and Plock) they returned to the U.S.

I found this to be very interesting and a bit of a mystery for a time.
My question is, how do I find the ship list from when they left America 
to return to Poland?

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