Sentimental Sunday: Finally Found My Great-Grandmother on a Passenger List!

For years I have struggled to find my Lithuanian great-grandmother, Elzbieta (Elizabeth) Banaitis / Banevičius / Boenewitch / Bonewitz Guokas (1875-1929) on a passenger list.  As you can see, part of the problem has been the multiple ways her name has been spelled, in various documents over the years (the ones given above are only a few of them).

Someone in the Lithuanian Global Genealogy Society (LGGS) on Facebook suggested trying some of Steve Morse's One-Step Webpages for searching passenger lists.  I've used Morse's forms for finding an address in various censuses with great success over the years, so this seemed worthwhile to try.

I knew my great-grandmother had to arrive sometime before January 21, 1900, because that is the date she married my great-grandfather, Kazimieras (Charles) Guokas (1863-1939), in Bremond, Texas.  I also felt it was likely she didn't arrive before the death of Charles' first wife, Stefania Jasielonis Guokas, in August 1899.  Because the arrival was definitely between 1892 and 1924, I could use the Ellis Island Gold Form to search Ellis Island arrivals (keeping in mind, of course, that she could have arrived at a different port).

On the advice of LGGS members, I entered only her first initial E and last initial B.  I did narrow the years of arrival to 1899-1900, the years of birth to 1874-1876 (other records indicated she was born in December 1875), and the gender to female.  I did enter my e-mail address at the top.

I did narrow the ethnicities to Galician, Polish, Russian, and Lithuanian, as Lithuanians could have been recorded under any of these (although Russian would be most likely for 1899-1900).

Finally, I checked off most all the fields for the results page, except for ship image (which I don't care about), passenger ID (a number assigned by the Ellis Island Foundation), and I wanted the full date of arrival, not just year or month and year, especially since there was a narrow time frame for when she could have arrived in 1900.  I do have an Ellis Island Foundation account so I did enter my username and password for that site.

I got 34 results, but the 23rd one on the list (click on the image to make it larger) looked quite promising.

Here is the passenger record from the Ellis Island Foundation for an Elsbeta Bonaiguke, arriving January 7, 1900 on the Belgravia out of Hamburg, Germany:

I don't like the viewer for the passenger manifests on the Ellis Island Foundation site, but I now had enough information to find the manifest in both Ancestry and FamilySearch.  Here's a composite image of the left side of the page she is on from FamilySearch, with the headings at the top of the page, followed by some names above hers (she is number 24) to show that her nationality was Russian:

Notice the name just below Elsbeta?  It was transcribed by the Ellis Island Foundation as Palemona Szermuke.  I'll come back to this in a bit.

Here is a composite image of the right half of the passenger list from FamilySearch, again adding the column headings, but this time just showing the rest of the information for Elsbeta and Palemona, as well as the person just above so you can see the two women also have a ticket to their final destination (column 12).  That final destination (column 11) is Houston, Texas, to meet their "cousin" Casimir Guokas (my great-grandfather, column 16).  Further proof that I've got the right people is the address given for Casimir, 1314 R.R. [Railroad] St., where he lived in Houston from 1899 to 1907 and owned until his death in 1939.

The woman who traveled with my great-grandmother was her future sister-in-law, Felicijona or Policina "Pauline" Černas Guokas (1878–1953), who married my great-great-uncle Juozapas "Joseph" Guokas (1869-1933) on January 21, 1900, in Robertson County, Texas, the same day my great-grandparents married.

ETA:  My Lithuanian cousin Osvaldas Guokas has found what we believe is the baptism record for my great-grandmother.  On December 7, 1875, Elžbieta Banaitytė was baptized in Smilgiai.  Her parents were Kazimieras Banaitis and Justina Sirevičiūtė Banaitienė of Rozalimas.


© Amanda Pape - 2019 - e-mail me!