ABOUT
Maps, along with photographs, and other contemporary historical source materials can be used to illustrate oral histories and family history narratives that engage with the reader.
For instance, let’s take an oral history from Passages to America : oral histories of child immigrants from Ellis Island and Angel Island by Emmy E. Werner and illustrate a fascinating story with maps, photographs, and other documents available from collections at the New York Public Library.
PASSAGES TO AMERICA: MARION DA RONCA'S STORY
Vigo di Fasso: Trient 29:46, K.u.K. Militärgeographisches Institut, 1918 [detail]
In 1920, Marion Da Ronca, age 9, came to the United States from Vigo in Northern Italy with his mother Regina, 50, and his older sisters, Giovanna, 23, and Lina, 15. They were going to stay with Marion's oldest sister, Lena Gotta, who lived with her husband and their children in Iron Belt, Wisconsin.
The journey took approximately 15 days by horse-drawn carriage, four steam trains, two ferries, one ocean liner, and at least one bus. Marion described his journey in an interview conducted in 1992:
"The only thing we packed was our clothes. That’s all there was to pack. We travelled ten to fifteen miles on a horse-drawn carriage, then boarded a train to Padua [...] in Italy.[...] Then we boarded a train to Cherbourg, France."
![Town Plan of Cherbourg / U.S. Army Map Service, 1943 [detail] NYPL Map Division](https://libapps.s3.amazonaws.com/accounts/174558/images/Town_Plan_of_Cherbourg__U.S._Army_Map_Service_1943_NYPL_Map_Division.jpeg)
Town Plan of Cherbourg / U.S. Army Map Service, 1943 [detail]
The map included here, drawn by the U.S. Army Map Service in 1943, gives the viewer an idea what Cherbourg Harbour may have been like in 1921. The railroad line runs right down to the quayside, where ferry boats are waiting to take passengers to their steamship. Marion describes arriving...
"The following evening the tide came in and they ferried us to the boat."
R.M.S. Adriatic / NYPL Picture Collection
That boat was the RMS Adriatic, a steam passenger ship of the White Star Line, launched in 1907. It sailed from Southampton, England, to New York City, picking up passengers up at Cherbourg. The ship weighed 25,000 tons and held 2,825 passengers—1,900 in steerage, where Marion and his family would have been.
A 1921 deck scene on the R.M.S. Adriatic / NYPL Picture Collection
The NYPL Picture Collection includes thousands of images of sail and steam passenger ships not available online, including photographs of the R.M.S. Adriatic shown in this post. Marion and his family are described in the manifest below: note that Marion's mother is traveling under her maiden name, Martini, something married Italian women commonly did at this time.
New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1957: Regina Martini, June 25, 1920 (Ancestry Library Edition)
Marion describes the journey, his family suffering from seasickness, venturing out onto the third-class deck, and watching dolphins swim behind the ship. After nine days, the R.M.S. Adriatic arrives at the Port of New York.
Third Class Cabin / NYPL Picture Collection
Statue of Liberty / Brown Brothers (NYPL Digital Collections)
"As we entered the harbor in New York, I saw the Statue of Liberty. We stood on the side of the ship, and my mother told me, 'Remember her. For years to come, you will be thinking about her." And she was right. Everyone stood up and took their hats off when she went by."
Many researchers wonder how their ancestors got to and from the immigration receiving station at Ellis Island once they had arrived at the Port of New York. Did steamships dock at Ellis Island? Or did ferries take immigrants there? How did immigrants get back to the mainland? And then on to their final destination?
Hagstrom's Map of Lower New York City, House Number and Subway Guide of 1920 identifies the names of the piers where the ocean liners of the various steamship companies docked, carriers like the White Star Line, Cunard, and the Hamburg-Amerikka Line (as shown). It also describes the routes of the ferries to and from Ellis Island (as shown), the locations of subways and trams that would take immigrants to relatives or to their new homes in Manhattan, Brooklyn, or New Jersey, for instance, and the location of railroad stations that would have transported passengers all over the United States.
Hagstrom's Map of lower New York City, House Number and Subway Guide, 1920: showing Ellis Island and Ellis Island Ferry route
Marion's story continues…
Immigrant Station, Ellis Island, with ferry docked at adjacent pier (NYPL Digital Collections)
"And the tugboats were waiting for us. They pulled alongside, and they pushed the boat right into port. Then they ferried us to Ellis Island."
Immigrants undergoing medical examination (NYPL Digital Collections)
"We were all examined, and then we stayed overnight. We had four bunk beds. There was one for my mother, one for me, then one for each of my sisters, all in one room. And they were hard, covered with just a couple of blankets."
Dining hall on Ellis Island (NYPL Digital Collections)
"We ate in the big dining room. My mother held me by the hand all the while. She never let go as long as we were there."
"When we left Ellis Island, we went back to the ferry and then took a train out from New York City to Detroit."
Penn. Station, Interior / Berenice Abbott (NYPL Digital Collections)
"We changed trains in Detroit and went to Chicago. In Chicago, they bussed us around the lake to the Northwestern Station…"
First double-deck coach for Chicago, 1923 (NYPL Digital Collections)
"… and from there we went to Hurley, Wisconsin. We stayed over at my sister’s. I went to school the following fall, and in about five to six months I was talking pretty good English."
The map featured, Plate 11 of the Sanborn Map of Hurley, Iron County, Wisconsin, published in 1922, describes the final destination of Marion and his family, the home of his Aunt Lena. Inset on the plate are two schools, possibly including the school that Marion attended.
FURTHER READING
- Historical Travels: About Reconstructing journeys from the pastWhether researching details for historical fiction writing, trying to understand the life experiences of your ancestors, or uncovering mysteries and filling holes in the timelines of other people from the past, you might have a need or curiosity to figure out how a trip was made from one place to another in a different era.