Anna (Oriljrhook) Norgran

The search for my great-great-grandmother Anna Norgran's immigration records was the event that set me off on this journey to discover the family history. My grandmother, Priscilla, had always been able to tell me that her grandmother came through Ellis Island, but there were no details. Last year on a whim I searched for her name in the Ellis Island Foundation Database, which has transcribed, digitized, and cataloged all of the manifests of ships that brought immigrants to its shores. 

Nothing.

I was perplexed, because I knew she had to be there somewhere, but her name turned up nothing. So I began searching manually through records, looking for Dutch women named Anna who were born in the late 1870's. 

Then I found something. Anna Vargras, aged 29, Dutch, arrived with three children. I excitedly loaded the image and studied the manifest. It was quite a thrill to see her name there, above Katarina, Amelia, and Emil's, stamped "ADMITTED" on the side. I could see right away why the volunteer who entered the data for this document misread the name as "Vargras."

Excerpt from the Ship's Manifest of the S.S. Potsdam, arrived from 
Rotterdam at Ellis Island on May 17, 1905

The fruit of that search was so rewarding, especially when I was able to surprise my grandmother with the new information and a copy of the manifest itself, that I couldn't stop trying to discover more and more about my ancestry. To be hampered by a mistake in the database (which has since been corrected) and then overcome that challenge made it even more fun. I strive for a breakthrough like that one every time I run up against a dead end.

Date of Birth

Anna Oriljrhook was born on April 5, 1876 in Holland. 

Three sources assure me of this:

1. Joseph Norgran's Bible gives the specific date.
2. The 1910 United States Federal Census states that she was 34 years old on the 26th of April of that year, meaning that she had recently had a birthday.
3. Ship manifest shows that she was 29 at her arrival in Ellis Island in May of 1905.

Place of Birth

Every official document relating to Anna that I have seen indicates that she was Dutch. This is well-known among the family and not at all in question. I am less sure of the exact locale. My contact on the Burke side suggested Pernis, a district of Rotterdam, but I don't know what evidence they have of that.  

Marriage to Joseph Norgran

Anna married Joseph, a Finn, sometime around 1898. She was 22 years old. My contact on the Burke side has November 23, 1898 as the date and Rotterdam as the place. I assume this comes from the Bible that went down through that branch of the family. A couple of things support that date:

1. The 1910 Federal Census says that Joseph and Anna had been married 11 years. That would have been 1899, but...
2. Katarina was born in Holland in 1899, so I think it reasonable to assume that they were just shy of their 12th anniversary at the time of the census.

Children

Anna bore 9 children to Joseph: three before coming to America and the rest in Baltimore. Their names were:

Katarina

Amelia

Emil

Olivia

Madelina

Liley

Albert

Joseph (died in childhood)

Virginia

Arrival in the United States

Anna came to America with three children and two dollars on May 17, 1905; the voyage took 11 days. She was in good health and literate, though not in English, according to the 1910 Census. Rotterdam had been her home, and now that she was in New York she needed to find the train to Baltimore. The ticket was in hand, sent ahead by her husband, and she must have been comforted to know that Joseph was waiting there for her to arrive.

They asked her all of the routine questions:

Was she an Anarchist? A Polygamist? Had she ever been in prison? A madhouse? A poorhouse? Had she been supported by charity? Was she coming for a job? Had she ever been to the United States before?

The answers were no, no, no, no, no, no, no, and no.

This document speaks volumes. You can see the whole thing for yourself at The Ellis Island Foundation. Sign up for a free account and enter her name (Anna Norgran) and birth year (1876). 

The S.S. Potsdam, c. 1900-1915

The S.S. Potsdam, the ship that brought Anna and the children to America, has a bit of interesting history itself. It was German-built, part of the Holland-America line. At the time of Anna's crossing it had been in use for five years and already carried several thousands of passengers across the Atlantic. It was renamed twice and converted to use as a whale ship before it was captured by the German raider Pinguin during World War II and taken to occupied France. It was later sunk at Cherbourg during the course of the war. 

(Passenger Ships and Images, Ancestry.com)

Residence: 1905-1939

Anna lived in Baltimore from the time of her arrival in the U.S. to the time of her death, and on Hull Street for the vast majority, if not all, of that time. 

Anna's name highlighted in the Baltimore City Directory, 1929, alongside Joseph's and next to 
other family, including son Albert, son Emil and daughter-in-law Emma, and daughter Liley.

Death

Anna died on the 16th of September, 1939 at the age of 63. I do not know the cause of death. This date is taken from Joseph's Bible.

Remembrances

Mom Mom does not remember her grandmother, because she was only a toddler when Anna died, but she does say this:

I don’t remember my grandmother, but we did have relatives visit once from Holland. There were some relatives here in the States too.

I would love to know more! 

Source Citations

Year: 1910; Census Place: Baltimore Ward 24, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: T624_561; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 0393; FHL microfilm: 1374574.

Year: 1905; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715; Microfilm Roll: 574; Line: 1; Page Number: 89.

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.