Showing posts with label Ellis Island. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ellis Island. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Tombstone Tuesday ~ My great grandparents John Roberts and Emma Warren from Leeds, England


JOHN P. B. ROBERTS
1863 - 1925
EMMA FRANCES   WIFE
1865 - 1927


This gravestone was photographed at the North Beverly Cemetery, located at 685 Cabot Street in Beverly, Massachusetts.  It is located beside the Second Congregational Church at 35 Conant Street (on the corner of Cabot Street).  This is a municipal cemetery run by the City of Beverly.

Just as I described in last week's "Tombstone Tuesday" post, where we wandered around Central Cemetery in Beverly and couldn't find our ancestor's gravesites, this also happened to us at the North Beverly Cemetery.  I underestimated the size of the cemetery, and we couldn't find our great grandparents John Peter Bowden Roberts and Emma Frances Warren.  I contacted the Cemetery Department and Kerrin Cotter sent me these maps to find the gravesite.  This is absolutely essential in large urban cemeteries, especially for flat stones like this one.


Ms. Cotter marked the grave with #5 and purple highlighter




When I was a child, this grave was marked with a simple, wooden cross painted white, with the names painted on in black paint.  When I was about ten or twelve years old my Dad and his brother replaced the wooden marker with this gravestone.  I remember going to visit the new gravestone, and my Dad removed the cross and put it in the back seat with my little sister and me for the ride home.  We were a little scared to be riding with a grave marker!

John Peter Bowden Roberts, son of Samuel Roberts and Mary Anne Stott, was born in August 1865 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England.  He married on 24 May 1890 in St. Clement's church, Sheepscar, Leeds, to Emma Frances Warren, the daughter of Obed Warren and Betsey Hannah Stinson.  She was born about 1865 in Peterborough, Northamptonshire.  They had four children, one died young.   Their daughter Hilda, my great aunt, married a first cousin, Herbert Pogson, and came to Beverly, Massachusetts to live.  She encouraged the rest of the family to join her in the United States.

In 1915 John, Emma, and their two other children, Horace, aged 20, and Bertha, aged 18 (my grandmother),  left Liverpool on board the Orduna for New York.  They came through Ellis Island and took the train to Beverly, Massachusetts.  John worked in the United Shoe Corporation factory, and they bought a house at 7 Dearborn Avenue.  This is the same house where my father and his brothers grew up, and where I lived until I was about seven years old.

John Peter Bowden Roberts died on 23 August 1925, at home, of colon cancer. My grandmother was married at the house on Dearborn Avenue on Thanksgiving Day, 26 November 1926, to my grandfather, Donald Munroe Wilkinson.  The following year, 1927, my great grandmother, Emma Frances (Warren) Roberts, died in Lynn, Massachusetts.  John and Emma were buried in this double plot at the North Beverly Cemetery.

Beverly, Massachusetts Cemetery Department:
http://www.beverlyma.gov/departments/cemetery-department/ 

-------------------------------------
The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/10/tombstone-tuesday-my-great-grandparents.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Top Ten Stories for 2010

The coming of the New Year is always time for a few "Top Ten" lists. Here are my ten most popular stories posted this year, as calculated by the statistics page on my blog. Thank you to everyone who read my blog this year!

10. Treasure Chest Thursday- The Imprisonment Quilt, judging by the search terms I've seen lately on the statistic page of my blog, this story attracts both quilters and people researching Queen Lili'uokalani on line. There were also quite a few people searching under "Iolani Palace" and most interesting were the number of search hits for "Iolani Palace Frosted Windows". If you are curious about "why the frosted windows in Iolani Palace?", you must read this story!

9. The Value of Posting Brick Walls on Genealogy Bulletin Boards, need I say more? Isn't everyone searching for ways to break through those genealogical brick walls?

8. Baseball and Genealogy Research, was a fun story and it generated a record number of email. There is at least one baseball player in almost everyone's family tree. There were also many comments with ideas and links for good places to research old baseball records and players, so be sure to read the comments from readers if you read the story.

7. Blog Caroling - James Pierpont and Jingle Bells, this was a last minute entry for the year, and perhaps it was popular because of the Christmas theme. In looking at the search terms, "Civil War" and "abolitionist" came up quite a bit. If you are curious why, you must read about James Pierpont!

6. Internet Searches vs. A Real Library, was a surprise hit with readers and with search terms through Google, Bing and other search engines.

5. Family History Day, Concord, NH, 23 October 2010- another surprise hit, but perhaps folks were searching for directions? more information? registration links? And all I did was post some information about this upcoming event.

4. Ellis Island Oral Histories- How I Learned Something New- one of my favorite posts, and I guess a lot of readers liked it, too!

3. Beauport Mansion, this was a post I did on a historic home in Gloucester, Massachusetts, which has generated lots of hits on Google and Bing for Henry Davis Sleeper, the builder, and for his parents Jacob Henry Sleeper and Maria Wescott. There must be a lot of folks researching the SLEEPER genealogy.

2. Thanksgiving Proclamation 2010, Wow, I'm so glad to see so many people are interested in the story behind Thanksgiving, as well as interest in the Mayflower Society and New Hampshire governor John Lynch! Remember, you can't have your Thanksgiving dinner until someone signs this proclamation every year, LOL!

1. Canobie Lake, was a story I did about a local amusement park which is now well over 100 years old. I'm surprised by the number of hits on this by search engines, and I chalked it up to folks searching for directions and information during the summer. However, the hits keep on coming, even though the park closes after Halloween. I've surprised that this was the #1 story, but then again, there were a lot of surprises on this list.

Three posts tied for the most comments of all time: Treasure Chest Thursday-Publishing a Book for my Blog (a story about using Blurb book software to "slurp" your blog posts directly into book form- and I've recieved loads and loads of email from other bloggers since this was posted about their adventures into self publishing their blogs, genealogies and photo books), and Diabetes and Genealogy (another surprise, I guess diabetes runs in lots and lots of family trees), and also Vote for your Favorite Genealogy Blog, which was about the nominations for the Family Tree Magazine Top 40 Genealogical Blogs. Comments are some of my favorite things, so keep it up readers!

The most popular of all things on my blog, passing all posts and even the Canobie Lake story by double, is my page of "Surnames to 9 Generations". I'm thinking of expanding this to perhaps 12 generations, but since genealogy is exponential, this would be quite a large page! It makes me happy to think of all the hits on this page, and maybe they were made by some distant cousins!

--------------
Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Friday, September 17, 2010

Ellis Island Oral Histories- How I learned Something New!

R.M.S. Orduna

A few weeks ago I received an email from Ancestry.com advertising their new database of Ellis Island Oral Histories. Ancestry has some great passenger lists into New York Harbor, ship images and other immigration records. Personally, I had already found all my Ellis Island records for my own family records at the website http://www.ellisisland.org/ . I examined the new Ancestry database, didn’t find my Roberts family who arrived in 1915 nor any of their cousins who preceded them to America from Leeds, England, and so I carelessly dismissed the new information as “NOT FOR ME”.

What a big mistake! Just a few days ago I read Leah Allen’s post “Ellis Island Histories” at her blog, “The Internet Genealogist” at http://shbwgen.blogspot.com/2010/09/ellis-island-oral-histories.html Leah had the brilliant idea of looking up the ship Madonna on which her ancestors had arrived from Italy. She described listening to a recording from a gentleman (unrelated) who had arrived on the Madonna just two months earlier than her own ancestor. She gained a lot of information from that recorded interview, and listed all the positive things to help her understand her own great-grandparent’s arrival at Ellis Island.

I made a comment on her blog about how I also found a recording from a woman named Florence E. Norris, of Manchester, England, who arrived on the Orduna in July 1915 one month earlier than my own grandmother, Bertha Roberts, who arrived on the Orduna on 15 August 1915 from Leeds, England. Florence was only 21 years old, and Bertha was 19 that year. There were many similarities between their stories, but it was only upon re-listening to the recorded story that a huge piece of history jumped out at me.

I was very lucky to have the journal of Bertha’s father, John Peter Bowden Roberts, which he wrote during his passage to America on the Cunard steamship Orduna. I wrote a blog post about his journal here http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/07/ellis-island-immigration-journal-john.html I also had my own recording of Bertha telling her life story in the 1970’s, which I transcribed and posted here http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/05/amanuensis-monday-berthas-audio-tape_10.html These two valuable heirlooms have given me so much information about their immigration that I was complacent, thinking I knew everything there was to learn about their Ellis Island experience. Boy, was I wrong!

In re-listening very carefully to Florence’s recording, I heard her describe how the Orduna had been shadowed by a German U-boat as it passed through the Irish Sea. The passengers on board did not know about this incident until they read about it in the New York newspapers after leaving Ellis Island. The Captain had saved their lives by running the American flag up the flagpole, so the Germans thought it wasn’t a British ship. Florence’s husband had arrived earlier in America that year- taking passage on the Cunard ship Lusitania! It was the last successful trip the Lusitania would ever take to America, since it was sunk on the very next passage.

Newspapers! What a story! I immediately found a dozen stories in the on-line New York Times archives confirming my grandmother’s story and Florence’s story. When my grandmother’s family boarded the Orduna at Liverpool a month later, the crowds of people on the wharves were begging them not to board. No wonder it was a scary moment Grammy mentioned in her own recording, and no wonder Florence mentioned that she vowed never to return to England after her experience! During Grammy’s voyage everyone slept on the top deck with their life jackets on until they had left the Irish Sea. This was only three years after the Titanic incident. Can you imagine the fear?

The Roberts Family in Leeds, England
Bertha is the baby here.
She was 19 years old the year they sailed on the Orduna to America.

You will want to listen to the recordings at this valuable Ancestry resource. If you don’t’ find a family member’s recording, you just might find someone who came from your ancestor’s village, region, or who traveled at the same time as your ancestor, or like Leah and I, someone who had arrived on the same ship. Listen carefully to the stories… you might learn something new, too!

For more information:

Wikipedia’s description of the R.M.S Orduna, including the 1915 incident with the German U-boat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Orduna

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00714FD3C5C13738DDDA80994D9415B848DF1D3 A New York Times article about the SS Orduna’s first voyage to New York from Liverpool in 1914

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=EP19150719.2.108.2 Another New York Times article describing the German U-boat attack on the Orduna, dated 19 July 1915

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F4061EF93B5C13738DDDA80A94DF405B858DF1D3 Another New York Times article, dated 21 July 1915, with a passenger’s description of the U-Boat incident

---------------------------------

To Cite/Link to this post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Ellis Island Oral Histories-  How I learned Something New!", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 17, 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/09/ellis-island-oral-histories-how-i.html: accessed [access date]).

Monday, May 10, 2010

Amanuensis Monday - Bertha’s Audio Tape- Part 5

Bertha Louise (Roberts) Wilkinson
(1897-1990)
This photo was taken about the time of her arrival in America in 1915


I read about Amanuensis Monday in Randy Seaver’s blog “GeneaMusings” and Randy read about it on John Newmark’s genealogy blog “TransylvanianDutch”. Amanuensis: A person employed to take dictation or copy manuscripts.This is an ongoing series of Monday posts to transcribe an audio cassette tape my Grandmother, Bertha Louise (Roberts) Wilkinson (1897 – 1990), made in the 1970s. In this section of the tape she describes the extended family and their trip to America via Ellis Island in 1915.
--------------
“We had lots of good times with the family. I remember my grandma coming and visiting, my father's mother. She was a sweet little old lady and she wore a jet bonnet and a jet cape and she would come and visit us and when she came we used to tease her and play games with her. And then I had, I don't remember my other grandma, but she did bring me into the world. And at the time my mother said I had thick black hair when I was born and her other children were all very light, not much hair. My other grandma lived with my mother and Dad but I don't remember her because I was quite..., just a baby when she died.

My aunts and uncles would come and visit us. My father had five brothers and two sisters. One of his brothers came to this country when he was 18 years old. And he had, there was Edward, Frank, Jim and Sam were twins, and my father. The twins were Jim and Sam and one of the sisters was the mother to the one that married my sister. She was my father's sister and they had a drapery store in Armley (?) not too far away from Leeds. And I remember going over there when I was a little girl. We used to visit them. And I loved to go in the store and my uncle would let me measure the ribbons and I thought that wonderful. It was quite a nice store and they sold a lot of lovely things and they had five girls and just this one boy, Herbert.

My sister... my mother had four sisters and two brothers. The sisters were Betsy, Liza, Mary, Hetty and my mother. My mother's name was Emma Frances. The two boys left home and went to New Zealand when they were just young boys and it was very sad because my mother didn't hear from them. My grandma never heard from them for years and years and they never wrote and we never heard from them until after I was married even, and we heard from one of the widows saying that this George had passed away and was always talking about home. He was blind for quite a while and she sent news, but we never heard from Arthur the other boy.

So my father was just a young child and there was this girl taking care of him and he fell in this pond wherever it was, and this man saved his life, and brought him home to my mother and he said "Has this child been christened?" Well, he had been … He was named John, but his man's name was Peter Bowden, and he said, "Will you give him my name, too?" So my mother called him John Peter Bowden Roberts. Now this man was a very wealthy man and he lived in London. Once in a great while he would come up to Leeds and he would visit. And he would tell my father to be a good boy and to learn all he could and he would give him a gold piece. He would give all the other children a silver piece. My, I think that they thought he would take care of my Dad but he left his money without a will. So when that happens it goes to Chancellery.

Anyway, Dad started working very early because my people were just well they didn't have much to do with really. And so he started working half days when he was 10 years old. And his father was an engineer and he showed him, told him all about trade, being an engineer. Before my father married he took care of his mother for quite a while and they lived nearby. And my mother took care of her mother. My mother worked in a shoe shop and she would bring home her work so that she could stitch at home and make extra money. Many times my father would go to walk to… they worked in the same factory, and he would walk there to…. And look through the window and my mother would be asleep at the sewing machine. So she really neglected herself and didn't get enough rest. And she wasn't too well. Even when they got married she was wasn't too well. She had a cough and I remember one time she went away to the hospital for quite a while. And I remember going to visit her. But she did work hard, all her life and….

I think I told you all I can remember about my childhood. Then when we came to this country we were treated very good. Of course, we had to come third class. The captain was very nice. My mother and I shared a room and my father and brother shared another room. But we ate at the table together and I enjoyed the voyage very much, although it was really risky because it was during the war. In fact when we were booked to go on this Orduna Cunard liner and the voyage before the Germans had almost torpedoed it. The torpedo had just missed the boat. So they were yelling out the news that this had happened. So when we went to Liverpool to go on this boat, everybody was looking at me saying they didn't think it would make it. They thought that it would be torpedoed. Well, they had a life belt drill. Oh, we waited until the middle of the night. We went down the river Mersey and it stopped there and then in the middle of the night it started up. And the only ones who know which way we were going was the pilot and the Captain. And they had a life belt drill to tell us what to do if the siren sounded. We had a life belt. Each one of us had a life belt and they were looking out all the time for submarines.

My father wrote a diary and I gave it to my granddaughter. He had very little schooling but he was a wonderful writer and he was a smart man. Well, we enjoyed the voyage and we got there safely. And when we got here my sister had decided to meet us with a cousin of hers and the baby. But she missed us, so the guide put us on the train to Beverly, Mass. from Boston and we got off at Montserrat station. Now Beverly at that time was a beautiful city. It was called a garden city, and I thought it was just beautiful. We didn't know exactly where 60 Colon Street was, but we took a taxi and my mother was quite sick. Well, we got to the house and a neighbor came out and she had the key to the house and she said that my sister would be back again. And my sister had everything ready for us to have a nice dinner. And my uncle, the one who came when he was 18 lived in Beverly, Mass. And, of course, he and his wife and children came up to see us. Well, that night the older people talked all night, they had a lot to catch up with.

And this young cousin I had, the next morning we went for a lovely walk to the Beverly country lanes. Now since then it's all been built up and Beverly isn't as pretty as it used to be. It's deteriorated like lots of cities do, but it was beautiful then. [I’d love to tell her that Beverly, Massachusetts is again a beautiful seaside city!]

My father got work at the United Shoe. I worked as a ladies tailor. I didn't care for that kind of work and finally I got work in the United Shoe. And I worked there for 10 years. And we lived with my mother and father. But my father had to start work as a fireman and work his way up to be an engineer. But it wasn't too long and he started to get sick. Well, we finally found out he had a large cancer in the rectum and he was a very sick man. He had an operation and a colostomy, and was sick a long time. And my mother wasn't a bit well. So for quite a while my mother was upstairs sick and my father was downstairs sick. Well, I had an aunt come during the week to take care of them. And then weekends I stayed home and well... when I met my husband in a church in Salem through a friend, and then my father died. Don would come over all the time to see me and of course we couldn't go anywhere but he would shave my father and we would sit on the porch in the summertime like that, and then my father passed away.”

Click here to see my blog post from July 2009 with a transcription of my great grandfather’s journal during their trip from England to America via Ellis Island http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/07/ellis-island-immigration-journal-john.html

Click here to see Part One of this series on the audio tape by Bertha http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/04/amanuensis-monday-berthas-audio-tape.html


More about the SS Orduna at this link:
http://maritimemoments.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/the-ss-orduna-warrior-troop-ship-and-stage-for-human-drama/ 

-------------

To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Amanuensis Monday - Bertha’s Audio Tape- Part 5", Nutfield Genealogy, posted May 10, 2010, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/05/amanuensis-monday-berthas-audio-tape_10.html: accessed [access date]). 

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Wordless Wednesday- Ellis Island 1975


(very poor quality photos
from an old slide scanned in before it deteriorated further)
The World Trade Center was new back then in 1975

My sister and I on the ferry to Ellis Island
I was thirteen, she was about nine
I remember that it was January and we were freezing!

Dad had us pose next to the immigrant exhibit (don't we look thrilled!)
His mom had passed through Ellis Island in 1915 from Leeds, England

---------------


To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Wordless Wednesday- Ellis Island 1975", Nutfield Genealogy, posted May 5, 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/05/wordless-wednesday-ellis-island-1975.html: accessed [access date]). 

Monday, November 23, 2009

The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 6


The Steamship “Orduna”, from Liverpool to Ellis Island

Bertha Roberts at about the time of her 1915 immigration 

 I previously have blogged about the Roberts family coming from England in 1915. They came from Leeds, through Liverpool and Ellis Island, to ultimately arrive in Beverly, Massachusetts in 1915. My great grandfather, John P. B. Roberts, brought his family to America, and wrote a journal about his experience. As part of this “Other Mayflowers” series, I thought I would let my grandmother speak. She was recorded by my uncle in the 1970’s, telling her immigration story on tape! 

Bertha Louise Roberts was born on 30 September 1897 in Woodhouse, Leeds, Yorkshire, England. She emigrated with her parents, and brother, Horace, when she was only nineteen years old. They came to live with her sister, Hilda, who had come to Beverly, Massachusetts several years earlier. John Roberts had a brother living in Beverly, too. Later, Bertha met my grandfather, Donald Munroe Wilkinson, at church, and they were married on 26 November 1926 at the family home on 7 Dearborn Avenue, in Beverly. This is the house where my father grew up with his two brothers, and where I lived until I was seven years old! 

Bertha’s story, in her own words: “…. At that particular time my father was a Stationary Engineer in a brewery in Leeds. He had learned his trade from his Dad. He loved his work and he was very good at it. But at that time they had changed managements and he wasn't too happy with the new manager. So he told my sister that if she really liked it over here and if she wrote and told us all about it, he might consider the family coming out. So my sister thought it was very nice in Beverly, Massachusetts, that's where they lived and she sent postal cards and told us that she thought that we would like it over here. So my father decided that perhaps it would be good for my brother and myself and so they started selling the things gradually. “My mother was very proud of her brass fender and the shovel and poker and those things. And I remember every week she would shine them and work with them. Well, of course we had to leave these things behind and sell all of the furniture. But people were very good to us. They told us we could keep them until it was time to come away. I remember the last night we slept with different people. And the people at the church couldn't understand why we would want to come to this country. They felt quite sorry that we were coming… “Then when we came to this country we were treated very good. Of course, we had to come third class. The captain was very nice. My mother and I shared a room and my father and brother shared another room. But we ate at the table together and I enjoyed the voyage very much, although it was really risky because it was during the war. In fact when we were booked to go on this Orduna Cunard liner and the voyage before the Germans had almost torpedoed it. The torpedo had just missed the boat. So they were yelling out the news that this had happened. So when we went to Liverpool to go on this boat, everybody was looking at me saying they didn't think it would make it. They thought that it would be torpedoed . Well, they had a life belt drill. Oh, we waited until the middle of the night. We went down the river Mersey and it stopped there and then in the middle of the night it started up. And the only ones who know which way we were going was the pilot and the Captain. And they had a life belt drill to tell us what to do if the siren sounded. We had a life belt. Each one of us had a life belt and they were looking out all the time for submarines. “My father wrote a diary and I gave it to my granddaughter. He had very little schooling but he was a wonderful writer and he was a smart man. Well, we enjoyed the voyage and we got there safely. And when we got here my sister had decided to meet us with a cousin of hers and the baby. But she missed us, so the guide put us on the train to Beverly, Mass. from Boston and we got off at Montserrat station. Now Beverly at that time was a beautiful city. It was called a garden city, and I thought it was just beautiful. We didn't know exactly where 60 Colon Street was, but we took a taxi and my mother was quite sick. Well, we got to the house and a neighbor came out and she had the key to the house and she said that my sister would be back again. And my sister had everything ready for us to have a nice dinner. And my uncle, the one who came when he was 18 lived in Beverly, Mass. And, of course, he and his wife and children came up to see us. Well, that night the older people talked all night, they had a lot to catch up with…” 

Donald Wilkinson died at Long Beach, California in 1977 and Bertha died at Long Beach in 1990. Please see my blog posting on July 30, 2009 for the journal John Peter Bowden Roberts (Bertha's father) kept on his voyage to America. 

 ------------- 

To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 6", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 23, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/other-mayflowers-voyage-6.html: accessed [access date]). 

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Ellis Island Immigration Journal- John Peter Bowden Roberts 1915- Leeds, England to Beverly, Massachusetts



A scanned image of John Peter Bowden Robert's Immigration Journal

Although I have many ancestors who came from England on the Mayflower or with the Winthrop Fleet, I also have some ancestors who came to Massachusetts via Ellis Island in 1915. My grandmother, Bertha Louise Roberts, was just nineteen years old at the time, and she traveled from Leeds, Yorkshire with her parents and her older brother, Horace.

My great –grandparents were John Peter Bowden Roberts and his wife, Emma Frances Warren. John Roberts had a job as a stationary engineer in a brewery in the city of Leeds. His younger brother, Harry, had removed to Beverly, Massachusetts sometime in the early 1890s. His eldest daughter, Hilda, had married and removed to Beverly in 1911. Her letters home to her parents described Beverly as a lovely seaside town, and so they decided to sell everything they owned and join her.
Since my grandmother was a young woman during her voyage, when I was growing up she was able to tell us quite a bit about her trip. She remembered having her first romance on board, with a young man who unfortunately traveled on to settle in Seattle. She remembered the music that the band played, and the clothes she wore with vivid detail.

As a child I could almost picture her on the trip.One detail I used to love to hear was about their trip from the train station in Liverpool to the dock that held their ship, the Orduna. It had been only about two months since the Lusitania had been sunk in the Irish Sea, and only a few years since the sinking of the Titanic. Everyone they met in Liverpool told them not to board the ship. People were lined up on the sidewalks by the ship begging them not to sail. It must have taken all their courage to climb the gangplank to board the Orduna.
I recently found that John Roberts had written a journal during his voyage to America, and it was in the possession of my cousin in Maine. I was allowed to photocopy the journal and transcribe it. Written by an engineer, it describes his voyage in quite unimaginative language. Unfortunately, it does not contain all the colorful details my grandmother used to relate to her grandchildren, but it is interesting nonetheless (especially the spelling!)

- - - - - - - -

John Peter Bowden Robert’s Immigration Journal
In the possession of Susan Wilkinson Parker, his great-grandaughter, of Bradford, Maine


“My First Sea Voyage”
Commencing from Leeds on August 7th, 1915

After taking leave of our friends for Liverpool when we boarded the S.S. Orduna for U.S.A. Setting our course by the North of Ireland to escape the submarines. Started out of dock 6 p.m. we was in the danger zone until late on Sunday 8th.

Sunday 8th
After having a good nights rest we went on deck and had a good look around. We have just finished the 1st Lifeboat drill everyone on board had one and the signal blown we was informed that would be the signal each passenger had a ticket given with the number of lifeboat not a very pleasant thing to sleep against our lifebelts however we was told we was out of the danger zone.

2nd day 217 miles

Mon 3rd day
Rather rough this morning a heavy swell but the morning is fine. The boat rocks as she is lightly loaded (water ballast) there is a good deal of sea-sickness today. 336 miles

Tues 10th
5-30 I am on deck there is a great sea this morning spent some time walking just finding my sea legs went down to breakfast but was soon back on deck the sun is shining beautiful and the sea is calm and all kinds of sports are taking place later on in the evening it was cold and squally altogether a pleasant day was spent

327 miles

4th day Wed 11th
A rough sea and a stiff breeze and every appearance of a fine day the day has been spent very pleasantly plenty of amusements 5th day 377 milesAug 12th A fine morning and a calm sea promised to be a real good day most of the passengers are card playing, singing, and games a consort was held on board at night and some good songs was rendered and another good day was spent.

372 miles

6th day 13th
The morning is very dull a mist over the sea at 5-30 a.m. A large iceberg appeared at Breakfast time we had a good view there was also during the day a lot of vessels in sight one bearing the French flag we are now nearing the banks of Newfoundland the afternoon is fine and clear and lots of large fishes darting out of the water. The ship is going so steady you can hardly imagine you are on a ship. The Orduna is a most splendid ship.

14th
The early morning was very fine with a stiff breeze. Passengers coming and going on the deck. The afternoon is beautiful not a cloud to be seen the passengers seem to be having a fine and easy time a consort was arranged and a few songs was sung and a pleasant crossing was spent.

379 miles

Sun 15th
A glorious morning The sun is very powerful and the passengers are seeking shady places Discussions are taking place on various topics There was news posted daily. A very good day has been spent. Scarcely a movement a calm sea we are nearing the end of our journey The first experience of my sea life civility from the officer of highest rank to the lowest The food is excellent

370 miles.

16th
A splendid morning we are near to the coast Several vessels are seen from the deck we arrived at New York 11-30 a.m. and finished our trip on the 17th arriving at Beverly at about 9-30 am

No. of crew 350
Passengers 260
Length of the S.S. Orduna 650 feet

To read more about the S.S. Orduna, click here:
http://maritimemoments.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/the-ss-orduna-warrior-troop-ship-and-stage-for-human-drama/


---------------------

To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Ellis Island Immigration Journal- John Peter Bowden Roberts 1915- Leeds, England to Beverly, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 20, 2009,  (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/07/ellis-island-immigration-journal-john.html: accessed [access date]).