Digging for Roots

It seems to come in waves and another wave hit while my parents were here last month for Dane's wedding. The desire to find my roots.

Both my dad and father are extensive root diggers. My father has traced our roots back to (probably) the Mayflower. There is just a small gap with a question mark but other than that it's all verified. My dad, whose roots aren't actually MY roots, has enough information that nearly every Hawaiian he meets, he can find the link that connects them. Being in a small pond it's easier to find the connections.

So while my parents were visiting my dad was attempting to access certain websites with difficulty. Somehow it was determined that he could access them via a library, so Rick gave him his library information.

Once I saw what he was doing I decided to jump in. We were looking up documents that included names of our family members. Ship registers, border crossing documentations, Ellis Island ship offloading registration, censuses, etc. The easiest to access, most readily available stuff didn't help much, it only yielded information we already knew. Then I got into some more obscure documents and started to find puzzle pieces that had always been missing.

For example, we always knew that my grandparents were born in this country but both spent time in their youth living in Hungary. The story was that they'd been stuck there due to the war. In actuality my grandmother was there from 1921 - 1926, not during any war. My grandfather returned to the states in June 1929 on the ship S.S. President Roosevelt. We weren't able to find when or how he left but the return was, also, not during or immediately after the war.

Another story my mother always heard from her mother is that they traveled on the Queen Mary. Unfortunately the RSS Queen Mary took its maiden voyage in 1936, while my grandmother was having babies. So it wasn't possible for her to have traveled on that ship.

We found ship manifests listing a variety of Sziroveczes during the early 20th century, mainly 1907-1908. That would be Grampa's parents and siblings. One manifest I found listed the passengers Andras (Andrew) and Karoly (Carl) Szirovecz. We had already found Andras on a previous ship so wondered how much going back and forth was taking place. Then further on the document we saw it referring to her - this was actually Grampa's mother (Maria) and brother coming over, before Grampa was born.  Apparently married women traveled under the husband's name! This ship docked in March of 1907 and Grampa was born July of 1908.

While this is not a lot of new information it did clear up a few things.  The family came from Hungary, not Czechoslovakia.  They (likely) weren't in Europe during the war.  And Granny never sailed on the Queen Mary.

Next month the 1940 census will be available and more questions may be answered.  But it's going the wrong direction - to add to our line we need to go back further...  Maybe a trip to Hungary is in order!

3 cats hacked up hairballs:

Kathy March 25, 2012 at 12:27 PM  

Interesting. I went on Google Maps and looked at the house at 30 Joslyn Place, Buffalo. Still there! Says it was built in 1900. Not worth much, tho. Thanks for the info.

Flynn March 25, 2012 at 3:43 PM  

You go girl!!!

Maggie March 25, 2012 at 8:51 PM  

So you're waving again. Which wave is this? I forgot the President Roosevelt boat. Yeh, I was wondering who that reply was. Not me so had to be him. Go girl? Lofe, Ma

About Me

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After 2 unsuccessful marriages I spent 12 years as a divorcee, only to fall prey to another man's wiles. We had a fun 5 years together and then he decided he wanted more freedom so once again I'm single.

So I'm freshly divorced at 57 and have 5 great kids and now 7 grandkids. My kids are still a major part of my life but I'm busy helping my aging parents on Kauai.

I've lived in California, Hawaii and Oklahoma before finally settling here in Washington. I love Washington and come back to visit family, friends and take care of my garden often but will be temporarily a resident of Kauai.

I've moved 30 times in my life (no, my parents weren't in the service, at least not since I was about 2) and finally planted roots when I got my little house that I've owned since '91.

My family are Jehovah's Witnesses, I've been one since '72.