Back to Family Story outcomes, S22
by Olivia Hennessy
Ellis Island, also known as the Isle of Hope, was an open doorway to a land of promise and opportunity. It was a symbol of hope and new beginnings for nearly 12 million immigrants, including my Irish ancestors. Located at the mouth of the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, many immigrants passed through its doors to start a new life. Ellis Island was open and running from 1892-1964, and millions of immigrants were processed there under federal law. Arriving on land had to have been a relief for passengers after traveling long distances in crowded and unsanitary conditions. However, they still had to undergo the inspection process. It was most likely very intimidating and frightening for immigrants as they waited in long lines for medical and legal inspections to determine if they were “fit” for entry into the United States, after they had made a long journey to start new lives for themselves. If the immigrant’s papers were in order and they were in reasonably good health, the inspection process would last anywhere from 3 to 5 hours.
My 2nd great grandmother, Anna Dabek, later Anna Szewcyk, who was my mother’s great grandmother, immigrated from Poland to Ellis Island in New York, and arrived on January 8th, 1921. She was born in Sokolue, Poland, on July 26th, 1894. She died in Baltimore on June 30th, 1973. When she was 27 years old, she decided to leave Poland to start a new life for herself, with just $40 to her name. She traveled on a ship called the S.S. Celtic. I learned through Ancestry that this ship was historic because it was the first ship in history to exceed 20,000 tons.
Some troubles I experienced when researching this information was the mismatch of dates, as they were off by a year or two. On the manifest, it says that the year they traveled to Ellis Island was 1921. However, my grandmother is very proud of this story and when I asked her if she knew any details besides the ones that Ancestry gave, she was very firm in the fact that Anna had arrived here in 1919. I was confused by this, thinking maybe I had the wrong person’s information, but after doing more research and seeing that the birth and death dates line up, I knew it had to be the same person. Another interesting aspect of the manifest was that Anna is labeled as “Anna Szewcyk” instead of Anna Dabek, even though she was only engaged at the time and not officially married. I believe this is because her husband was already in America, and she wanted to have her name aligned with his, since it was helpful for passengers to have a person, they knew already in the United States.
In building my family tree, I learned and uncovered documentation of my 2nd great grandmother traveling through Ellis Island from Poland. I have decided to focus on this part of my ancestry because it is of the most interest to me. I have been curious about my ancestors’ immigration ever since 5th grade, when I was supposed to travel to Ellis Island on a field trip; however, it was canceled due to weather. From then on, I have wanted to learn more about the journey to America and find records of their arrival.
After not being able to visit Ellis Island physically, I enjoyed finding documentation and learning a little bit of what it was like to travel through Ellis Island. Migrating from Poland by boat, arriving at a new place, having to proceed through Ellis Island with little to no money, barely knowing anyone, and having to start all over in a different country must have been very challenging, to say the least. I am forever grateful that they went on this voyage, and that I was able to find a record of it and learn more about it.