Ellis Island: My Austria-Hungary Connection, Part I

Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots – Post #20

By Tonya Graham McQuade

Ellis Island in New York Harbor

Soon I’ll be returning to my Civil War focus as I prepare for another visit to Missouri in October, this time to the St. Joseph/Savannah area, to continue my research for the books I am working on: the historical novel Missouri Daughter and the non-fiction A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri. If you haven’t read about those projects, I hope you’ll take a peek back to my first blog post to learn the history of how all this got started.

 

Since I recently returned from a different trip, though, which took me to Ellis Island for one of my stops, it seems like a good time to reflect on the two great grandparents I have who passed through Ellis Island: John Wagner and Anna Halper, both from Hungary, who were the parents of my mom’s father, John Paul Wagner, who was born in Chicago. Since I know a bit more about Anna Halper, I’ll start with her. Here’s what her daughter Hermina, my mom’s Aunt Minnie, wrote about her when my mom asked her to type something up for a heritage album she was working on:

 

“My mother came to America from Austria because she heard the ‘money fell off trees.’ She learned that it was very hard to come to a new country and start anew. The language barrier was the worst obstacle. But whenever I asked her if she wanted to return, she always said she didn’t care to visit Austria. She was so proud to become a citizen, and we always had to have a replica of the Statue of Liberty at our house. She had two brothers, Paul and Frank, and a sister, Catherine, that came to America. They would visit us until their deaths, all before my mother’s death. She worked in a bakery in her younger days. I know because she told me she came home from work and a few hours later delivered me at home. We were all born at home in those days. When we grew older, she worked nights in the F.B.I. building in Chicago. She cleaned the offices there and retired at age 65.” 

– written by daughter Hermina Wagner (2001)

 

One of the first things I had to understand when I started doing research on this set of great grandparents was that when they left their hometowns, those towns were part of Hungary. With the signing of the Treaty of Trianon in Versailles on June 4, 1920, officially ending WWI, Hungary’s borders were redrawn, and their hometowns became part of the area now known as Burgenland, Austria. At first, I was very confused why some records said they were from Hungary and others from Austria – then I learned about the border change. Johan Wagner was born in Jobbagyi, Vas, Hungary – now Unterwart, Burgenland, Austria – in 1885. Anna was born in Vorosvar, Vas, Hungary – now Oberdorf, Burgenland, Austria – in 1894.

That little slice of yellow just inside the Austrian border is Burgenland.

For a long time, I couldn’t break through to find any additional information about them beyond the fact that they both arrived in New York and passed through Ellis Island, John in 1912 and Anna in 1913, before moving to Chicago, where they eventually met and married. Then, I discovered the “Emigrants from Oberdorf” family tree on Ancestry.com and connected with someone online who was part of the “Burgenland Bunch” of researchers. I gave him the names and dates I knew, and he came back with Hungarian Church Records for both families – including a slew of new names (parents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, and cousins) to add to my family tree! It also gave me another location to add to my list of places I want to visit.

Burgenland Flag

When she was only ten, Anna’s mother Maria left her behind in Orallas, Hungary, to travel to the United States to find work. Maria departed from L'Havre, France, and arrived in New York on 6 Apr 1904 with son Paul (age 26) and daughter Maria (age 19), on their way to join cousin Michael Lorenz at 5217 Loflin St., Chicago. Maria was 45 at the time. She stayed for one year, then returned to Hungary. Paul and Maria remained in Chicago, and soon they were joined by sister Katarina, who arrived 9 Apr 1905 at age 16 to begin her life in Chicago.

All Anna's family members departed from L'Havre, France

 

Though Maria listed herself as a widow in the 1904 Ellis Island records, when Anna’s brother Frank arrived at Ellis Island on 4 May 1909, he said his nearest relative back in Orallas was father Paul Halper. Since I have not found a death date for Anna’s father Paul Halper, I’m not sure which to believe. Frank said he was going to join brother Paul, but in the 1910 census, he shows up as living with sister Maria and her new husband. Mother Maria returned to the U.S. on 9 Nov. 1910, with plans to join daughter Maria and son-in-law Franz in Chicago as well. Theirs must have been a busy house!

 

I can’t help but wonder how my great grandmother Anna must have felt to have so many of her family members move so far away. There were clearly still plenty of relatives left in Orallas – perhaps she and her other remaining siblings lived with an aunt or uncle or grandparent. Still, she must have felt lonely and abandoned at times. Whatever the case, she made her own plans to get to America – and at age 19, she departed L’Havre, France, on the S.S. La Provence and arrived in New York on 7 June 1913. She listed her nearest relative in Orallas as Uncle Franz Lorenz (who was married to her mother Maria’s sister, Rosalia). She had $20 in her possession and a ticket in hand, according to the Ellis Island record, and said she was going to join mother Maria Halper at 5205 Bishop St. in Chicago. This is the residence where Anna was still living in 1920, at that time with husband John (Johan) Wagner, whom she married in December 1917, and son John Paul Wagner (1) – my grandfather.

Wedding of Anna Halper and John Wagner, 1917

In the above photo, which according to Aunt Minnie was a double wedding, Anna's mother Maria is seated to her left, with brother Paul to her mother's left. I think sister Katharine stands between Anna and her mother, with Paul's wife on her left. I really wish they labeled these photos clearly! Sadly, Aunt Minnie's notes only state those three are in the photo, without clearly stating where - and I have no idea who the other people are. I find the rug on the floor especially interesting - it seems quite startling once you notice it. 

But back to Ellis Island. The Ellis Island documentary is titled "Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears" with good reason. Many arrived with dreams of what life would be like in America, and when they first entered New York Harbor and caught sight of the Statue of Liberty on their way to Ellis Island, they were filled with hope.

The "Mother of Exiles" who offers worldwide welcome

For the two percent, however, who were "excluded" and deported back to their home countries for various reasons, it brought tears. People could be excluded if they were suspected of being unable to work or support themselves, being "contract laborers," having contagious diseases, or being "LPC's - likely to become public charges.

Others were detained, sometimes for months, for medical reasons, because they were a woman traveling alone, or because they were marked for "special inquiry" (SI) into their political beliefs, reasons for coming to the U.S., questionable pasts, etc. Anna's mother, Maria, has "S.I." written by her name in the 1910 Ellis Island record for some reason, showing that she was one of those detained - she, however, was eventually allowed to continue on to Chicago.

All who arrived had to first pass through the Registry Room, where they waited to be inspected and registered by Immigration Service officers. Many days saw 5,000 people pass through this room. On its busiest day, 12,668 people from nine ships - four from Naples - passed through this room. Sometimes, it took several days of waiting on ships before being allowed to disembark, then many hours of winding their way through lines filled with apprehension before new arrivals reached the inspectors.

The Registry Room

Temporarily Detained

The sign here reads: "During the peak years of immigration, detention on Ellis Island ran as high as 20% for all immigrants inspected. A detainee's stay could last days or even weeks. Many were women and children waiting for a relative, or for money to arrive so they could purchase tickets to their destinations. Others were waiting for a hearing before a Board of Special Inquiry or for a final decision from Washington, D.C. Perhaps the most poignant of the detainees were families waiting for a sick parents or child to be released from the Ellis Island Hospital."

By 1911, more than 15 Ellis Island buildings

were devoted to medical care.

According to Anna’s Ellis Island record, she passed through without any issues – her mental and physical health were marked “good,” her complexion “clear” (whatever that means), she was 5’2” with brown hair and eyes (almost the same as me, but I have a half inch on her – lol), and she had a ticket to her final destination. She traveled with a couple of other people from Orallas who were heading to Chicago, including one male relative, so she wouldn’t have been detained at Ellis Island as some women were until a male relative could accompany them off the island. That must have made the journey at least a little less frightening.

I wonder if she was frightened, or nervous, or just excited. That's a long journey to make at age 19 - not knowing whether she would ever see her homeland again (she never did). Maybe she couldn’t wait to get out of Orallas to start a new life! She must have been happy to see her mother, sisters, and brothers again – and to meet her new brother-in-law Franz (Maria’s husband), sister-in-law Annastasia (Frank’s wife), and nephews Frank and Charles (Maria’s two sons). On a side note, one of the things that can often make ancestry research so difficult is when so many family members give their children the same names! It makes it very difficult to know whether you have the "right" Frank or Anna or John or Maria or Paul. It's always helpful when a new name like "Charles" is introduced!

Entry to Main Building at Ellis Island

In my next post, I’ll share a bit more about Anna’s life in Chicago, her marriage to John Paul Wagner, and some insights on what I know of his early beginnings.