ANNA FINKELSTEIN AND SARAH FINKELSTEIN - IMMIGRATION - JULY 8, 1904

DOCUMENT: finkelstein-anna-and-sara-finkelstein-immigration-1904.jpg (look especially at rows 27-28)

CLOSE-UP VIEW OF ROWS 27-28:
   finkelstein-anna-and-sarah-finkelstein-immigration-1904-zoomed-1.png
   finkelstein-anna-and-sarah-finkelstein-immigration-1904-zoomed-2.png
   finkelstein-anna-and-sarah-finkelstein-immigration-1904-zoomed-3.png

NOTES:

• This ship's manifest shows the voyage of Anna Finkelstein (later to be Joseph Black's mother), age 10, with her widowed mother Sarah Finkelstein, age 41, on the Carpathia, from Liverpool.
• Here's a copy of the modern transcription, copied from ancestry.ca:

  Name: Surd Finkelstein
  Arrival Date: 8 Jul 1904
  Birth Date: abt 1863
  Age: 41
  Gender: Female
  Ethnicity/ Nationality: Hebrew
  Port of Departure: Liverpool, England
  Port of Arrival: New York, New York
  Ship Name: Carpathia
  
  Name: Anna Finkelstein
  Arrival Date: 8 Jul 1904
  Birth Date: abt 1894
  Age: 10
  Gender: Female
  Ethnicity/ Nationality: Hebrew
  Port of Departure: Liverpool, England
  Port of Arrival: New York, New York
  Ship Name: Carpathia
  Source Citation: Year: 1904; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 0474; Line: 28; Page Number: 64.
  

• Although Sarah's name was transcribed as Surd, it looks like it actually says Sura. According to the Given Name Data Bases (GNDBs) available on the JewishGen website, Sura is a Yiddish version of Sara that was in use in Romania.
• Married or single: for Sara it says Widow.
• Able to read and write: it says no for both.
• Nationality = Romanian.
• Race or People = Hebrew.
• Last residence = Bucharest.
• By whom was passage paid = Sarah's son / Anna's brother.
• Whether in possession of $50, and if less, how much = $11 for Sarah, blank for Anna.
• Whether going to join a relative or friend is listed for Sarah as: Son, Bernard (?) Finkelstein, 177 East Houston (see this address today in Google Maps).
• It looks as though one person (presumably the employee of the shipping line responsible for listing passengers) originally wrote:

  Son   B   Finkelstein
  Chelsea str 215 East Boston Mass

  and then another person with different, smaller handwriting (presumably an immigration officer at Ellis Island) edited "B" to "Bernard", crossed out the Boston address, and wrote "177 E. Houston St." (Immigration officials at Ellis Island often annotated or corrected ship manifests.)
• See 215 Chelsea St., East Boston today in Google Maps.
• So it's possible that Anna's brother moved from Boston to New York between the time he bought steamship tickets for his mother and sister and the time they arrived. If so, Sarah must not have been aware when departing from Liverpool on June 28 that he had moved, and presumably she only found out when her son came to meet them at Ellis Island.
• The fact that an unused portion of the steamship ticket (the portion from New York to Boston) was kept by the family and passed on to Anna's grandson seems to indicate that the original intent was for Sarah and Anna to go to Boston but that in fact they only went as far as New York.
• The fact that Sarah and Anna were released from Ellis Island (where they had briefly been detained as "likely public charges"), and the fact that "Bernard" and "177 E. Houston" were added to the ship manifest, seem to indicate that Anna's brother did come to meet them at Ellis Island.
• I checked the 1905 New York State Census, which shows that as of June 1, 1905 (about a month before Sarah and Anna immigrated), there were no Finkelsteins living at 177 East Houston: 177-east-houston-new-york-state-census-1905.jpg But that would make sense if Anna's brother had only just moved there (or was staying with someone there?).
• Evidence in Boston city directories showed that Anna's brother was living in Boston in 1903 and 1904.
• A search of the 1910 federal census for Sarah's and Anna's names (and for Bernard/Barnard/Bennett Finkelstein) did not find any record of them. After Sarah's and Anna's immigration in 1904, the next record I've found related to them is Anna's 1914 marriage certificate.
• I also looked at the three pages about 177 East Houston in the 1910 federal census and there were no Finkelsteins living there: 177-east-houston-census-1910a.jpg    177-east-houston-census-1910b.jpg    177-east-houston-census-1910c.jpg
• I have not found any further information about Anna's brother, Bernard/Barnard/Bennett Finkelstein.
• In the 1915, 1920, and 1925 censuses, Samuel and Anna Black are shown as living at 246 East Houston, which is not far from 177 East Houston. Both #177 and #246 are near the famous Katz's Delicatessen at 205 East Houston St. -- see the Wikipedia article about Katz's).
• The ship, RMS Carpathia, has an interesting history -- in 1912 it was used to rescue passengers of the Titanic -- see RMS Carpathia in Wikipedia.