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SZEJNA RAJCHEL KOWALSKA
IMMIGRATION
DOCUMENTS
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Szejna Rajchel Kowalska
New York, 1921
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Szejna Rajchel Kowalska was
born in Radzilow around 1898, the youngest of five children to Izrael
Moszk Kowalski and Leja Linenberg. Her father died when she was about
two, and her mother remarried about five years later. In 1905, her
sister, Brajna, moved to London and, in 1917, their eldest sister died
tragically young. In March 1921, she decided to follow in the footsteps
of various cousins and emigrate to America, along with her first cousin,
Pesza Kowalska. The girls, aged about 23 and 17, made the trip together,
along with some members of the unrelated Litauer family, also from
Radzilow.
Having sailed from Danzig to
Boston, MA and made the journey from there to New York, the two girls
both married that same year. Szejna Rajchel married her first cousin,
Moszk Kowalski, who had come to New York in 1912, and Pesza married
Irving Rogoff (formerly Rogowski), who was also an immigrant from the
Bialystok region of Poland, not far from Radzilow.
Sadly, Szejna Rajchel died
in 1933, aged about 35, having lost two children in the 1920s, neither
of whom lived more than a few days. However, her third child, Herbert,
survived and kept all her travel documents, which are reproduced here.
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INSPECTION
CARD
The
stamps on the top of this Inspection Card show that
Szejna Rajchel left the port of Danzig, on Poland's
north coast, on the Susquehanna on 12 March
1921. The abbreviation used for March is "Mrz",
which is short for the German "März",
as Danzig was in the former Kingdom of Prussia.
Szejna Rajchel's name is spelt in its original
Polish form, including the feminine form of her
surname. Her last residence is given clearly as
Radzilow.
The card
was stamped again at her port of arrival, Boston,
MA, on 13 April, obviously some time after she had
arrived.
The
figures 40 and 30 relate to her entry on the ship's
manifest of passengers.
See photos of Szejna Rajchel
and her family in New York
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Inspection card donated by Robin Kavall |
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STEAMSHIP TICKET
Today,
most travel tickets pertain only to the single
person buying them, but this was not usual in times
gone by. At the time our ancestors made the
often-perilous journey from the heim to the West,
most tickets themselves had a facility to include
more than one person. Thus, whole families could
travel on the same ticket. This explains why this
ticket belonging to Szejna Rajchel is so large.
The
ticket again gives her name in its Polish form and
her last residence as Radzilow. It also gives her
age as 22 and her marital status as single. The
rubber stamps confirm she sailed on the
Susquehanna on 12 March 1921, and paid $128 for
the ticket.
See photos of Szejna Rajchel
and her family in New York
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Steamship ticket donated by Robin Kavall |
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USS
SUSQUEHANNA
The
Susquehanna was built by Blohm & Voss
Shipbuilders of Hamburg in 1899, and named the
Rhein. Its weight was 10,058 gross tons, and was
520 feet long and 58 feet wide. It had
steam quadruple expansion engines, of the twin screw
type. Its service speed was 14.5 knots (16.7 mph). It could
carry 3,451 passengers, of whom 369 would travel
Second Class and 3,082 would travel Third Class.
The
Rhein sailed under the German flag of North
German Lloyd out of Bremerhaven to New York,
Baltimore, Philadelphia and Australia. It was laid
up at Baltimore from 1914-17 due to World War I. In
1917, it was transferred to the ownership of the US
Government and renamed the USS Susquehanna.
It carried troops to Europe towards the end of the
war. In 1920, it was chartered by United States
Mail Lines, and served as a passenger liner. It
was during this short period that Szejna Rajchel
used it to travel to the US. The Susquehanna
was laid up from 1922-28, and was finally scrapped
in Japan in 1929.
See photos of Szejna Rajchel
and her family in New York
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Source: American Family Immigration
History Center |
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