Monday, October 18, 2010
Declaration of Intention of Grandmother Addie Goldfoot
I'm looking at my grandmother's Declaration of Intention again. She signed it at age 31 when she was already a widow with 4 little children. Addie, whom I thought was named Hattie, was only 4'6" tall and weighed 107 pounds with black hair. She was so short because she had been injured in "Suwalki, Russia, (Poland) probably in some form of pogram. I believe her legs had been broken.
On it she said she was born in Zuwalta, Russia on the 11th day of January 1886. At the time she was living in Portland, Oregon at 265 Arthur Street. This was in South Portland, a predominately Jewish-Italian neighborhood. She went to the Mead Street Shul, and my father attended the Neighborhood House for different events.
She came from Hamburg, Germany's port through the port of New York, NY about on 6 May 1903, but filled out the Declaration on the 17th of May 1917, so had to rely on her memory. She said the name of the ship was "Altverten", but I've never found it. My father, her 2nd child, was only 9 years old. Someone helped her to get to the court and to understand, as she only spoke Yiddish. My uncle Charlie, her 1st, was only 11.
I haven't found her coming through NY yet, even with the help of Steven Morse's help, but will keep trying. She would have been only 17 years old. Was she alone or with any of her sisters? These are things I'd love to know. On the paper was written, "I was married" under her last foreign residence, but I know she wasn't. How such things get misconscrewed, I'll never know.
Maybe she was supposed to marry someone and ran away to America to avoid it. Now that would be a story.
On it she said she was born in Zuwalta, Russia on the 11th day of January 1886. At the time she was living in Portland, Oregon at 265 Arthur Street. This was in South Portland, a predominately Jewish-Italian neighborhood. She went to the Mead Street Shul, and my father attended the Neighborhood House for different events.
She came from Hamburg, Germany's port through the port of New York, NY about on 6 May 1903, but filled out the Declaration on the 17th of May 1917, so had to rely on her memory. She said the name of the ship was "Altverten", but I've never found it. My father, her 2nd child, was only 9 years old. Someone helped her to get to the court and to understand, as she only spoke Yiddish. My uncle Charlie, her 1st, was only 11.
I haven't found her coming through NY yet, even with the help of Steven Morse's help, but will keep trying. She would have been only 17 years old. Was she alone or with any of her sisters? These are things I'd love to know. On the paper was written, "I was married" under her last foreign residence, but I know she wasn't. How such things get misconscrewed, I'll never know.
Maybe she was supposed to marry someone and ran away to America to avoid it. Now that would be a story.
Labels: Addie Goldfoot, Declaration of Intention
