Polish Immigration to America

By Stephen Szabados

When did your Polish ancestors immigrate, where did they leave, why did they leave, how did they get here? Steve Szabados is a wonderful resource. He hopes you find the answer to some of these questions in this book. This book discusses the history of Poland and gives some insights to possible answers to the questions about your ancestors' immigration. All three Polish partitions are covered, and the material will hopefully clear up your confusion why your Polish ancestors listed that they were born in other countries on early U.S. documents.

 

The book also presents brief histories of most of the ports that were used by Polish immigrants for departure from Europe and the ports where they arrived. Also covered are details of life in steerage during the voyage and the process of examination of the immigrants to gain admittance to the United States.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephen Szabados
• Release date: Jun 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393936923

Stephen Szabados

Steve Szabados grew up in Central Illinois and is a retired project manager living in the Chicago Suburbs. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and a Masters in Business Administration from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. Steve Szabados is an author and lecturer on genealogy. He has been researching his ancestors since 2000 and has traced ancestors back to the 1600s in New England, Virgina, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and the 1730’s in Poland, Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia. He has given numerous presentations to genealogical groups and libraries in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. His mission is to share his passion for Family History with as many people as he can. He is a former board member of Polish Genealogical Society of America, and he is a genealogy volunteer at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library. Steve also is the genealogy columnist for the Polish American Journal.

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Introduction

When did your Polish ancestors immigrate, where did they leave, why did they leave, how did they get here? These are questions we all hope to find the answers. This book discusses the history of Polish immigration and gives some insights to possible answers to the questions about your ancestors' immigration. The material covers all three Polish partitions, and the material will hopefully clear up your confusion why your Polish ancestors listed that they were born in other countries on early U.S. documents.

Remember that each immigrant has a unique story and it is our challenge to dig out as many details as we can with our research. This search includes matching some of the reasons listed in this book and then including our family oral history that may add other facts.

My Polish grandparents came from neighboring parishes, but different circumstances caused their immigration.

My grandfather, Stefan, had ancestors who were nobility, but their lands were subdivided so many times that their farm could only support one family. His oldest brother Stanislaw would inherit the land. Stefan, his second brother, Boleslaw, and his sister, Maryanna, would have to leave once their father died. The area was a farming area with only a few factories, and jobs were scarce for Boleslaw and Stefan.  Maryanna had to be married, and her father and oldest brother had to find a suitable husband for her. With poor economic conditions surrounding them, all of the Zuchowski children except Stanislaw immigrated between 1907 and 1912.

Boleslaw immigrated in 1907, married a Polish woman in 1909, returned to Poland after WW I, and purchased a farm with the money he had earned in America.

Maryanna immigrated in 1910, married a Polish coal miner in 1911, returned to Poland in 1921, and then immigrated to the United States again in 1965.

Stefan immigrated in 1912, worked as a coal miner before he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1918, was naturalized in 1918 while in the army and fought in France in 1918. After the war, he was hired by the railroad to work in their repair shops; he married my grandmother in 1923, and they had three children, he retired from the railroad in 1949.

My grandmother, Anna, came from the same area as Stefan and also had ancestors who were nobles. Her family farm was also very small and could only support one family. However, her life in Poland and immigration story is different from Stefan.

Anna was the youngest daughter and very small physically. However, the small Polish grandmother that I knew was always in command when she was in the room. My research of her life in Poland and early life in America shows why her character was so strong.

Her father and three of her brothers died when Anna was very young.

During WWI, she was homeless, experienced starvation and sickness.

Her grandfather, mother, and oldest brother died during the war.

She could not find a suitable husband in Poland, and she immigrated to a brother in America in 1921. However, her brother wanted to return to Poland, and he arranged a marriage for Anna to my grandfather in 1923.

Anna met my grandfather only once before the marriage, and they married in a city where Anna had no friends and was 900 miles away from her brother who did not attend.

Somehow, Anna overcame these challenges and found the strength to build a new family without the support of any her of Polish family being near. I believe that she gained her strength from the tragedy of her early life in Poland and the challenges she overcame to start her new life in America. She worked hard each day but still had time to be happy from her garden and her family. Her strength of character had a significant influence on me.

Our immigrant ancestors are the foundation of our roots in the United States. Our lives would be much different if they did not endure the challenges of emigration from Poland. Do not underestimate their contributions. They may have left us some material wealth, but the most important contribution they left is their descendants and their role in the factories and farms of the United States. Their lives were building blocks in the growth of their new country.

This book also presents brief histories of most of the ports used by Polish immigrants for departure from Europe and the ports where they arrived. Each port has a unique history, and hopefully, you may be able to see why your ancestor arrived at the port that they did. Also covered are details of life in steerage during the voyage and the process of examination of the immigrants to gain admittance to the United States. The voyage and arrival process was a tremendous challenge to our ancestors and understanding what our ancestors overcame, should give more insight and respect for their lives.

CHAPTER One – Emigration from Poland – When and Why they left

Can you believe that Polish craftsmen were at Jamestown in 1608?

Polish workmen were among the craftsmen who were recruited to produce materials such as glass needed to build the Jamestown colony and to manufacture tar and resins needed to repair the ships.

A book written by Zbigniew Stefanski offered some fascinating information about Polish craftsmen who were part of the early Jamestown settlement. Stefanski's book was titled Pamietnik Handlowca (A Merchant's Memoir) It was published in Amsterdam in 1624. A copy of the book was found in war-torn France and was offered for sale in 1947 to Mieczyslaw Haiman. He was the director of the Polish Museum in Chicago. However, Mr. Haiman could not raise the asking price of $5000. Unfortunately, the copy of the book then disappeared and had since not been found.  Arthur Waldo published information from fragments that had been dictated by Mr. Haiman from his memory of what he had seen in the book.  This fact and then the death of Mieczyslaw Haiman in 1949 make it difficult to verify Waldo's information.

Although Stefanski's book has been lost, other documents mention the Polish craftsmen. I found the following facts about the Polish workmen from these other documents:

The Polish workman first arrived in America in October 1608 on the ship Mary and Margaret. They were Michal Lowicki a merchant, Zbigniew Stefanski a glass blower, Jan Mala a soap maker, Stanislaw Sadowski a water-mill builder and Jan Bogdan, a shipwright. The London Company hired them to created glass, pitch, and potash that were the first exports of Jamestown colony.

Capt. John Smith commented favorably on the Poles' work ethic in his journals.

Later two Poles were with Capt. Smith as the colonists fought off an attack by the Paspahegh tribe.

More Poles landed in 1619 to increase the production of the export products along with the manufacture of tar and resin that were used to repair the ships that arrived in Jamestown.

Also in 1619, the Polish workmen staged a work stoppage which was considered the first labor strike in America. The Poles began the work stoppage in an attempt to obtain their rights as fully enfranchised members of the community. The other settlers then recognized the value of the Polish worker to the Colony and the Virginia Company of London gave these men the same rights as any other inhabitant.

In 2012, the American Council for Polish Culture dedicated a historical marker at the Jamestown Settlement Visitor Center. The plaque lists the names of the five early Polish craftsmen.

Historical Marker at Jamestown

Settlement Visitor's Center

Small numbers of Polish workmen, intellectuals, and sons of Polish noblemen probably continue to immigrate to America before the American Revolution. The promise of opportunities in America attracted adventurers from many countries. Some of the sons of Polish nobles and intellectuals may have been part of this trend. Also, the success of the early Polish craftsmen may have encouraged the recruitment of more Polish workers.

However, I could not find any estimates or statistics to identify how large this number was. Note that these figures included only the Poles that were free to leave Poland. The peasants of Poland did not immigrate because they were tied to the land and could not leave.

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Partitions of Poland

The first significant series of events that affected Polish immigration were the three partitions of Poland that occurred between 1772 and 1795.

The emigration that occurred as a direct result of the Partitions was very small and included only those who could afford to leave. The peasants, who would make up the later major wave of Polish immigration, could not leave until the nobles freed the serfs from the land. However, the effects of the partitions increased the reasons to leave Poland and immigrate. The new rulers of Poland did not treat the Polish subjects as full citizens and enacted policies that had major negative effects on the lives of the Polish peasants in the 1800s and helped build the Polish national unity that we see today.

In 1772, the First Partition of Poland by the neighboring countries of Prussia, Austria, and Russia caused the next period in Polish immigration to begin. Two more partitions occurred in 1792 and 1795. Each of the partitions saw small numbers of Polish landed gentry, nobles and intellectuals flee to escape punishment because they fought on the losing side against the partitioning powers. More fled for political reasons because they would not submit to their new rulers and they left Poland in search of freedoms they had lost by the takeover by their neighbors.

The First Partition of Poland occurred due to the fears of the Austrian and Prussian rulers that the rise in power of the Russian Empire was destroying the balance of power in Europe. The power and prestige of Russia grew as their military had just defeated the Ottoman Empire and the weakened Polish nobles allowed the Russian Tsar to treat Poland as his protectorate. To resolve the tension between Russia and the two powers surrounding Poland, the leaders of the three countries reached an agreement to annex the borderlands of Poland in an attempt to rebalance the power between them.

Russian, Prussian, and Austrian troops invaded Poland in August 1772. Polish forces tried to resist these foreign armies but lost major battles at Tyniec, Częstochowa, and