MyHeritage thows down the Hammer and goes for the Liebross

Almost four years ago, I wrote a blog post lamenting the fact that a FamilySearch indexing project for New York passenger manifests was indexing the same fields that other organizations had indexed. While I saw the value in having access to independently indexed databases, I was hoping some entity would index some additional potentially useful fields, such as name and address of the person the immigrant was joining in the USA. At that time, no such luck.

I cannot say that all my prayers have been answered - I am still waiting for searchable addresses - but MyHeritage has raised the bar with their recently updated database, "Ellis Island and Other New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957." Now, one's name searches return not only passenger names, but also names of those to whom the passengers were headed.

I have a few uncommon surnames in my family, so I did one of my usual searches on the surname Liebross (not exact). It became immediately clear that my great great uncle Simon Liebross, husband of Ethel Hammer, was a magnet for new immigrants, especially from his wife's Hammer family. Here are a few more of my posts about the couple: Simon's first arrival and naturalization, arrival with Ethel in 1890, and 1892 NY State census.

Now, I originally did not know exactly where Ethel was from. Her 1890 Hamburg passenger manifest said "Krasno."[1] There are several Krasnos in Eastern Europe. But, years ago, I was contacted by Ava Cohn (Sherlock Cohn) who is related to the Hammers. She recalled that her family talked about a relative with the surname Liebross. When she saw that I was researching Liebrosses, she contacted me. She let me know that the Krasno on Ethel's manifest was also known as Krasnoyil's'k.[2]

These are all the Hammers (mostly from Krasnoyil's'k) I located by searching on the surname Liebross:

• Adolph Hammer, 23 years old, from Krasna Ilska, Austria; arrived on 31 March 1907 on the S.S. Graf Waldersee; heading to his uncle Simon Liebrus at 181 Melrose, Brooklyn;
• Mizi Hammer, 16, from Krasna, Austria; arrived on 29 August 1907 on the S.S. Patricia; heading to uncle, Mr. Libros at 181 Melrose St., Brooklyn;
• Pinkas Hammer, 23 years old, from Krasna, Austria (mother Sara Hammer in Krasna); arrived on 1 August 1908 on the S.S. Amerika; heading to uncle, Simon Liebross, at 181 Melrose St., Brooklyn;
• Mariem Hammer, 21 years old, from Krasna, Austria (mother Ester Hammer in Althutte, Bukovina)); arrived on 6 August 1910 on the S.S. Amerika; heading to uncle, Symon Lybros at 940 Gates St., New York; and
• Rafael Hammer, 34 years old [mother Ester Hammer from Althutte (now known as Staro Krasnoshora - 6 km northwest of Krasnoil's'k)], and Golda Hammer, 1.5 years old, from Alt Hutte; arrived on 6 August 1910 on the S.S. Amerika; heading to Symon Libros at 990 Gates St., New York.

In truth, I had acquired some of these manifests previously without the "going to" information. I have not done much research on these people. For now, I will leave that to Ava, who is researching this family. I do know, however, that Pinkas became Peter Hammer. After her husband Simon died, Ethel Hammer Liebross was enumerated living with Peter and his wife in the 1930 census. Ethel was identified as Peter's aunt.[3]

Then, there were two others identified via the MyHeritage database whom I had not previously seen. One identified as a cousin (who may or may nor have been):

• Mortko Riesenberg, 36 years old, from Galicia; arrived on 10 August 1902 on the S.S. Ryndam; identified Simon as a cousin living at 244 Boerum, Brooklyn, NY. 

And one immigrant, who identified Simon Liebross as his friend after he'd said on his manifest that he did not know anyone in the United States:

• Moses Breier, 32 years old, from Mihalen, Rumania [likely Mihaileni, Romania; 40 km SSE of Czernowitz]; arrived on 26 Jun 1898 on the S.S. Werkendam; identified Simon as a friend living at 244 Boerum, Brooklyn, NY.

Unfortunately, I have yet to zero-in on these last two in records after their arrival in the United States or find them in Bukovinan or Galician records. But, more clues! More work! Love it.

MyHeritage is to be commended for thinking outside the usual search box.

Notes:
1. Manifest, S.S. Deutschland, January 1890, p. 7, lines 190 and 191, Simon Libros (age 35) and Etel Libros (age 28); images, "Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934," Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 May 2008).
2. Krasnoyil's'k is a community that had been in Bukovina, 41 km southwest of Czernowitz. Today the community is in Ukraine. I am not entirely sure where my great uncle, Simon, was from originally. The Liebrosses were from Zaleszczyki, Galicia (now in Ukraine) in the 19th century. Sometime toward the end of the century, some of them moved from that town to Vienna and, in the case of my part of the family (my ggf Leizer Liebross, Simon's brother), to Radautz, Bukovina (now in Romania).
3. 1930 U.S. census, Kings County, New York, population schedule, Brooklyn, enumeration district 24-1668, sheet 10A, dwelling 67, family 180, Peter and Yetta Hammer and Ethel Liebross; images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 8 January 2013).