Whenever I watch “Finding Your Roots” with Henry Louis Gates I always start to think about my family tree. Tonight the show focused on immigrant ancestors.
One of Jeff Goldblum’s ancestors left Ukraine, traveled to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Then he sailed to Halifax Nova Scotia He finally entered the United States from Canada.
Both of my father’s family lines immigrated to the United Stares. His paternal line came from Hesse Germany and Switzerland. While his maternal line came from Dresden,Germany.
My great-grandfather Henry Karn arrived in the US in 1882. He was 15 years old and by himself.
My paternal greatgrandmother Pauline Hechler immigrated with her parents Daniel and Susanna and brother Gustav.
My paternal grandfather was born in Delran, New Jersey.
The Meyers and Doellings Come to America…
My paternal grandmother Charlotte Meyer though, along with her mother and sister arrived in Philadelphia from Dresden Germany in September 8th in 1912. My great-grandfather Herman had arrived a year earlier. At the time of their arrival, my great-grandmother Helene was 32 Years old. My grandmother was 10 and her sister Irmagard was 13.
Their trip was made about four months after the sinking of the Titanic. I have always heard that my greatgrandmother spent much of the trip trying to check the water temperature!
On the episode of Finding Your Roots we watched, Henry Louis Gates showed Jeff Goldblum a picture of the ship his ancestors sailed on. In doing a Google search tonight I found this picture of the Graf Waldersee the ship on which my ancestors sailed to America. Here is a picture of the ship….
The ship made its maiden voyage from Hamburg in 1899. In 1910 it was rebuilt to accommodate 408 passengers in 2nd class and 2,310 passengers in steerage. The ship made first voyage from Hamburg to Philadelphia on October 28, 1910.
A Surprising Discovery
After finding the above information about the Graf Waldersee, I was looking back it my family tree. I saw a hint from Ancestry regarding my great-grandmother’s sister Frieda.Frieda was married to Hugo Doelling.
The hint led me to the passenger list for the Graf Waldersee on which they sailed to America in 1910. Frieda is listed with her two sons Alvin and George. Her mother-in-law Rosemunda also sailed with her.
When I looked at the date, I couldn’t believe it they set sail from Hamburg on October 28, 1910. They sailed on the maiden voyage of the Graf Waldersee!!
At the time of their voyage, Frieda was 23 years old, Alvin was 4 and George was 1! Ok It’s hard to imagine uprooting your family and travelling 230 plus miles from Dresden to Hamburg. Then getting on a ship to sail across the Atlantic. But your doing it with a four year-old, a 1 year old and your mother-in-law!! Oh my!
At least my grandmother and her sister were 10 and 13 years old respectively, that’s slightly better than what Frieda had to cope with!
….On the Graf Waldersee
My grandmother, her sister and mother traveled first class on the Graf Waldersee. I believe my cousin has the original menu from the ship, but here are examples of the ship’s menus.
I also found a pictures of a program for a concert on the Graf Waldersee. They may well have gone to one just like it!
While I don’t think Doelling and Meyer trips were easy ones to make. Based on the above I done think their trips were as arduous as others had to make. I bet the trips made by the immigrant families on my mother’s side, particularly the McCloskey’s had a trip that was not quite as mie as the Meyer family. But those are stories for another day.
