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I was dreaming to come to America : memories from the Ellis Island Oral History Project
In their own words, coupled with hand-painted collage illustrations, immigrants recall their arrival in the United States.ں Includes brief biographies and facts about the Ellis Island Oral History Project.
Book
AMERICA, AMERICA Relieved to Start . . . a New Life' Series: A HISTORY OF NEW BEGINNINGS
Peggy Dell, who lives on Roosevelt Island, was born in a small Hungarian village in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in 1910. She emigrated with her mother and aunt in 1921. In the 13 years since she retired, she has spent a good deal of time traveling. Before that she did many types of work: she danced, modeled, wired mine detectors in Astoria and worked in advertising agencies. She graduated from college at the age of 44. PEGGY DELL
Newspaper Article
AMERICA, AMERICAWork Began at 15 In Garment ShopSeries: AMERICA, AMERICA. A HISTORY OF NEW BEGINNINGS
Josephine Saitta Germi, 88, of Brooklyn, emigrated from Palermo, Italy, at the age of 8 and went back when she was 11 to live with a married sister. She then returned to the United States at age 14 when her sister felt that life would be better here because she could `go out to a show' with her brothers and, perhaps, find a job. Her other siblings were living in New Jersey at the time. Josephine Saitta Germi \" . . . I learned when I was 15 how to run the machine. . . . Then we had overlock machine. I learned that one too. . . . On handkerchiefs, too. The machine overlocked and you just do it with your hands . . . it went around. The other ones was hem stitch and you had to push it under the machine and make the corners. All the girls I knew that's the kind of job we were doing at that time. Then I learned how to sew on dresses and later on blouses.
Newspaper Article
AMERICA, AMERICA This Was a Land Of Opportunity' Series: A HISTORY OF NEW BEGINNINGS
Dr. Robert L. Leslie was born 100 years ago on Hester Street on the Lower East Side, the son of a Russian immigrant mother and the English sailor who saved her life aboard the ship that brought her to New York. From 1912-1914, Leslie worked with the Public Health Service as a volunteer on Ellis Island - not as a physician, though he had completed medical school, but as a translator for the arriving immigrants who spoke Russian, Polish, German, Yiddish and English. He made a career with the Public Health Service. He lives in Brooklyn. Robert L. Leslie \" . . . Every person . . . I had to go right on. I said, `Gavoritti Porusky, Russian. Polski. Deutsche.' I would relax them. `Sit down, take it easy. Don't worry. I'm a doctor but I'm not working yet. I want to know are you all right? Do you feel okay? Have you coughing? Have you seen a doctor while you were in the old country?' I had to check all these things and I filled out the forms. Photo - Leslie in old days. Photo by Daniel Dutka - Leslie recently in his home in Brooklyn
Newspaper Article
AMERICA, AMERICA A HISTORY OF NEW BEGINNINGS At Last, Free Of Hardships' Series: AMERICA, AMERICA. A HISTORY OF NEW BEGINNINGS
there is some uncertainty about the matter, Ellen Mernoff and her family long ago settled on July 4, 1896, as the date she was born in Slonim, in Russia. But as a naturalized American who passed through Ellis Island in 1905, she is proud of the date. Like many Russian Jews at that time, the family was fleeing from the pogroms that were devastating their lives. At age 21 she married an American whose business was mirrors, and she devoted most of her time to raising two children in the metropolitan New York area. Ellen Mernoff \"My mother worked very, very hard, because my father had gone to this country, left for America, trying to earn enough money to bring his family across . . . My mother did sewing for the peasants. . . . I remember my mother undressing to go to bed only once a week, that was Friday night. That was for the Sabbath. She never worked Friday night or the Sabbath. She did sewing during the night so that she had her days free to do dyeing or yarn for spinning for the peasants.
Newspaper Article
AMERICA, AMERICA From Italy, An Eventful Passage Series: A HISTORY OF NEW BEGINNINGS
Anna Menichini, 75, emigrated from San Giorgio, a southern Italian village, in 1919 with her mother and brother. Her father had died before she was born and her mother, after eight years as a widow, married a widower who had moved to the United States and returned to Italy to find a wife. At 14, she went to work in this country as a milliner. Anna Menichini
Newspaper Article
AMERICA, AMERICAA HISTORY OF NEW BEGINNINGSeasickness Along the Way Victor Ritz was born in Dwinsk, Latvia, around 1900, by his own description. He emigrated to the United States from Palestine on July 4, 1923, having spent time in Paris earning money beforehand. He was the youngest of six children whose father died when he was very young. Some of his siblings emigrated earlier. In this country, Ritz owned and ran several restaurants before retiring. Series: AMERICA, AMERICA A HISTORY OF NEW BEG
\"So my aunt takes me home. I don't know how I got to the Third Avenue elevator. And I had to walk up all those stairs. In France, I was riding around in taxis, I had money. Here, I said to myself, `Is this America? This is New York?' Climbing, all over town. Then she takes out a bundle with peaches that I should eat on the train. I says, `I'm sorry, where I come from we eat home. We don't eat on the train.' I tried to show myself off, that I'm an intellectual, whatever. Photo - 1) Victor Ritz in Europe at about 20, left, 2) Photo by Tom Kitts-and at 85. The current photo was taken in the garden behind his apartment in Manhattan. Ritz arrived at Ellis Island from Palestine on July 4, 1923.
Newspaper Article
AMERICA, AMERICAA HISTORY OF NEW BEGINNINGS`I Prayed to The Statue of Liberty' Series: AMERICA, AMERICA. A HISTORY OF NEW BEGINNINGS
A HISTORY OF NEW BEGINNINGS Barbara Barondess, 78, was born in Brooklyn but taken by her parents back to their native Russia for a visit. But World War I and the Russian Revolution complicated the stay, which ended up lasting seven years. She lives in Manhattan; she had a long Broadway stage and Hollywood Barbara Barondess
Newspaper Article
AMERICA, AMERICAA HISTORY OF NEW BEGINNINGSNew York: `You Land in Heaven' Felice Taldone was born on Jan. 8, 1906, in southern Italy, where the family owned a farm that produced olives, almonds and vegetables. His father had earlier come to America, and died here in 1909. Felice's mother urged him to follow in his father's footsteps. He arrived here in October, 1924; he became a contractor. Taldone now lives in Oakdale. Series: AMERICA, AMERICA. A HISTORY OF NEW BEGINNINGS
[Felice Taldone] \"I wanted to come here, to see where my father was buried. . . . They permit to come here, because Italy was allowed 2,000 people per year, to go to the United States. So I was selected on a quota to come out, and I was lucky . . . It's maybe better, maybe worse, but I had to try . . . \"Now, before I left Italy, one uncle of mine, he was here before, he want to come again. He gave me an envelope to see an agent on Grand Street, Brooklyn . . . Somehow the military authority looked up the names and they called this man. This man said, `Sure, I knew his father, I know his uncle.' Sure enough, this man call my uncle, says, `Hey, your nephew is here, your sister's son, you better go and get him, he's there three days.' . . . 1) Photo-Felice Taldone as a young man, left, 2) Newsday Photo by Jim Peppler-and now
Newspaper Article
AMERICA, AMERICA A Grand Dream, A Humble Reality Series: A History of New Beginnings Rose Krawetz live in Manhattan. She emigrated from Poland in 1920, having started life on a huge agricultural estate. The family had fallen on hard times during World War I and left to seek a better life in America
\" . . . When we got visas, we had to go to Warsaw. So we stayed in Warsaw with our aunt and from there we were going to Danzig. The trains were full of soldiers, Polish soldiers. Onthe way to Danzig, they took us off the train. Among us was an elderly Jew with a white beard, with his daughter. With their baggage, you know, sitting there. One of the soldiers jumps off the train, took out his sword. All the other soldiers formed a line and each one took out a sword. And they went to that Jew and everyone needed a chance to do it. So the first one took a little bit, a piece of the Jew and he cut it (she makes the motion of cutting off a lock of a long beard). . . . All of them had a chance till the whole beard was gone. So the Jew, the old man and his daughter, fell on their knees and they were kissing their knees not to do it. But they did it. A Jewish policeman came over to them and pleaded with them not to do it. A commandant jumped off the train and ran over to him because he interfered and he took off everything that he had on him as a policeman . . . and the man stood there like naked. And this was anti-Semitism in Poland.
Newspaper Article