The Journey to America

Life in Galicia at the turn of the last century was difficult. Between the 1880s and the 1920s, hundreds of thousands of Galician Jews emigrated to the United States, seeking both better economic opportunities and relief from persecution and pogroms.

Given its small size, there are limited published accounts of pre-war Jewish life in Zhuravno. Sam Jonas --whose family also came from the town -- put together an informative website on it in 2013. See here.

Grandpa arrived at Ellis Island on October 10, 1921 via the White Star liner R.M.S. Celtic, which had sailed from Liverpool. (Some trivia: just 5 months earlier, Albert Einstein — following his first visit to the U.S. — returned home on the Celtic, on May 30, 1921)

Click here for pictures and to learn more about the ship and its history. Prior to boarding the crowded vessel (it held 2,350 third-class passengers), Grandpa faced an arduous journey from Galicia to the British port, a distance of almost 1,500 miles. The transatlantic crossing would have probably taken around 8 to 9 days.

Here is the "passenger record" on file at www.ellisislandrecords.org for Grandpa:

And here is a copy (2 parts -- it's a wide ledger) of the actual passenger manifest for the 10/10/1921 crossing. As noted above, the entry for "Natan Prinz" is at Line No. 25.  Part 1  Part 2 

Looking at the manifest, you can see that Grandpa arrived accompanied by his mother Lea, his father Leib, his sister Keila (Clara) and his younger brother Ire (Irving). Leib's brother P. (Pinkas) Prinz and his family remained in Zurawno, and Leib and his family met another brother -- Sam Prinz -- in New York. (Grandpa's other sister Evelyn was apparently not traveling with them; I don't know how or when she arrived.)

Below are pages from the Polish passport Leib Prinz obtained to emigrate to America. As you can see from the middle page, he was born in 1870 and was a resident of Zhuravno when the passport was issued. In the back of the passport (not pictured) is written "to Samuel Prince, 137 W. 116th St., NY" -- consistent with column 19 of the manifest.