[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Voyage costs and immigrant finances

[Mauricio Norenberg]

Just to add
What cost $45 in 1890 would cost $1109.06 in 2011.
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/


On 15 December 2012 04:28, Edith McKelvy <edies_hook at msn.com> wrote:

> Here is correspondence betwn Allyn Brosz and myself dtd Feb 2010 re
> immigrant finances.  Start at the bottom....Edith Rimple McKelvy
>
>
>
> From: allyn.brosz at gmail.com on behalf of Allyn Brosz [zsorba99 at yahoo.com]
> Sent: Saturday, February 06, 2010 10:26 AM
> To: Edith McKelvy
> Subject: Re: The rest of the story -- RIMPEL passenger lists
> Dear Edith,
>
>
> Thank you. I'm always interested to know what Paul Harvey called "the rest
> of the story." I'm glad I could be of some assistance to you.
>
>
> I have been doing a lot of research on the methods by which German
> immigrants from Russia carried money to North America. I am not so sure
> that
> the financial situation for your Rempel/Rimpel ancestors was quite as dire
> as the passenger manifest indicates. The historians at the U.S. Immigration
> and Naturalization agency tell me that immigrants were only asked to
> declare
> the cash money that they were carrying. Many immigrants carried the bulk of
> their monetary assets abroad by means of a warrant issued by a Russian
> bank.
> This could be redeemed at the current exchange rate at a U.S. or Canadian
> bank. I have newspaper accounts of immigrants (Mennonites, in particular)
> arriving in New York, walking in a group to Wall Street, exchanging their
> warrants for cash money and then returning immediately to the train station
> to depart for the West.
>
>
> My grandfather in Bessarabia sold his farm and disposed of his tools,
> implements, livestock, and most household goods, converted the proceeds
> into
> a warrant and then redeemed it when he arrived in America.
>
>
> I don't mean to imply that every immigrant who arrived in North America was
> well-off. I simply want to suggest that the money declared on the passenger
> manifest may not be the entire story.
>
>
> Best Wishes from a very snowy Washington, DC (20 inches and still snowing)
>
>
> Allyn
> Besser a Glatze als gar kein Hoor!
>
>
>
> On Sat, Feb 6, 2010 at 12:54, Edith McKelvy <edies_hook at msn.com> wrote:
>
> Thought you might be interested in the human details found on U.S. Border
> Crossings from Canada that you kindly forwarded to me this week.  I sent
> the
> msg below to family members.
>
> Baby Fred lived to be 62 years old!  And mother Anna (Schiller) gave birth
> to two more children in U.S., including my father Ernest Carl Rimple.
>
> Thank you for your support....Keep warm!!!
>
> Edith Rimple McKelvy
> Silverdale WA
>
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
>
>
> I accomplished a big genealogical breakthru today, thanks to help from
> SGGEE, whose convention I attended in Kelowna BC in Summer 2008.   Read the
> bottom correspondence first.  Great fun for a rainy day!
>
> The List or Manifest of Alien Immigrants showing Rimpel data from 1896
> arrival in Halifax has some heartbreaking info hidden between the lines.
> Baby Fred, born at sea to Friedrich/Anna (my grandparents), was baptized
> immediately upon arrival by a Lutheran minister at Immigrations.  This
> could
> have easily been delayed until later. Wonder if baby or mother were
> expected
> to live.
>
> Another entry:  "Mother and child proceeded to Montreal by steamship.
> Ship's physician objected to mother's removal."
>
> Another entry:  August, wife, and two children arrived at Halifax with only
> $26.00
>                       Friedrich, wife, two children and newborn infant,
> arrived at Halifax with only $6.00
>
> With so little money remaining, it would have been impossible for
> mother/baby to stop/rest in hospital.  They had to keep going..
>
> What brave and desperate people they must have been.....edie
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
>
>
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jerry Frank
> Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2012 8:56 PM
> To: Randy Svenson
> Cc: ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
> Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Voyage costs
>
> Randy,
>
> Here is an example of a passenger ticket from 1883 covering steerage
> passage
> for a family of 4 for $70.
>
>
> http://www.gjenvick.com/HistoricalImages/PassageContracts/NorddeutscherLloyd/PrepaidPassage/1883-02-17/SteerageContract/BealleNutchenParty-Front.jpg
>
> I think I have seen others quote amounts in the range of $45 for an adult
> which included ship and rail travel from Hamburg to Winnipeg.  I'm not sure
> if it covered Volhynia to Hamburg.
>
> For context, my wife's grandparents migrated to Alberta in 1912 from the
> Volga region of Russia and entered the country with $55 cash.  Friends on
> the same ship had $100 cash.
>
> Keep in mind that some came under the sponsorship of immigration companies
> (such as Canadian Pacific Railways) or of others who had arrived here in
> the
> years before them.  For example, my Lutheran grandparents came in the mid
> 1890s under the sponsorship of a Mennonite family living near Gretna, MB.
> They worked for the Mennonites for several years to pay off the fare before
> establishing themselves with their own land.  These families did not know
> each other.  It was simply a contract somehow arranged over that long
> distance, again probably with the assistance of either government
> authorities who were encouraging the migration or through immigration
> companies.
>
> I don't know if similar arrangements existed in the States.
>
>
> Jerry
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Randy Svenson" <randy_svenson at yahoo.com>
> To: ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
> Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2012 8:23:47 AM
> Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Voyage costs
>
> Does anyone know the approximate cost of the voyage from Volhynia to North
> America in the late 1800s?  That would include ship and other travel, food
> and lodging, documentation....  To me, this sounds like it could be very
> expansive and times for some families in this area could have been very
> difficult.
>
> Randy Svenson
>
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