Monday, June 1, 2015

Benjamin Ratzlaff Family immigration

Recently I was lucky enough to find the passenger list for the SS Belgenland which sailed from Antwerp, Belgium, to New York City, arriving on January 3, 1881.   The names of Benjamin Ratzlaff’s widow, Eva, and her 7 children, are easy to make out.  Immediately following the Ratzlaffs are families with typical Volhynian Mennonite names, listing no fathers: the widow Maria Köhn, age 44, with 5 children; the widow Anna Koehn, age 43, with perhaps her sister and 2 children; Magdalene Koehn, age 63, with 2 children; and Caroline Schmidt, age 39, with 3 children.  Also listed is the Jacob Ratzlaff Family; Jacob, age 43, with his wife Eva, age 44, and 4 children. 

So are these the six families who traveled together from Volhynia and became stranded in Turkey?  Only one husband, a Jacob Ratzlaff, is listed.  The other five families, as Minnie Unruh indicated, were led by widows – the husbands having died of disease in Turkey.

Names from the SS Belgenland; Antwerp-New York; 1881



Presumably these families were bound for central Kansas.  Benjamin Ratzlaff’s widow, Eva (Schmidt) Ratzlaff, is buried in Halstead, Kansas.  However, I cannot identify any of these other five families at this time.

1 comment:

  1. I would like to find out more about the documents listed above. My wife's great-grandma is one of those listed. rlevings@pldi.net

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