Ship Arrival Search Plan

James and Katherine Filipek

Background

It is believed that Katerina Nemec's 1882 arrival vessel has been found. It is possible that James Filipek's 1889 arrival vessel has also been found and it appears that Katherine Filipek may have arrived again in 1889.

  1. Katernia Nemec's Ship Arrival Records - 22 July 1882
  2. Possible Katherine Filipek's Ship Arrival Records - 18 June 1889
  3. Possible James Filipek's Ship Arrival Records - 18 June 1889

Some followup should still be done to confirm these are the correct records. In particular.

  1. Leo Baca's Czech Immigration Passenger Lists, Volume VII: New York 1887-1896 indicates that a Kathe. Filipek, age 25 and an Anastasie Filipek, age 11 arrived on 18 June 1889 in New York on 18 June 1889 on the Ems. Our Katerina Filipek would have been age 26 on the date. This ship record has been obtained and it is very possible this is or Katherine Filipek. Howver, we need to understand the relationship to Anastasie to be sure.
  2. All ships that arrived in May 1889 should be searched passenger-by-passenger. Dave and Terry have each done some. May 1889 is the date of arrival that James and Katerina keep referring to in their Passport Applications.
  3. It appears that to leave Bohemia, the applicant needed to write a letter to officials requesting permission to leave. It would be useful to find out more about this as it would firm the date when various individuals left.
  4. It still would be useful to determine where James Filipek and Katerina Nemec were married as it would help us sort out if there were other ship arrivals.
  5. It would be useful to obtain John J. Filipek's 1929 Passport Application to determine if there was any information suggesting he had left the country and re-entered about 1889.
  6. In a 2008 look at Ancestry Passport Applications for Filipek, a Jakub Filipek who lived He lived at 966-970 W. 18th Street in Chicago in 1914 was born 10 July 1864 in Kolenec and arrived on the Ethiopian from Hamburg on 4 October 1883. This had to be a cousin of Vaclav as the town Kolence and Kolenec are thought to be interchangeable. Our Vaclav was born 10 September 1863 in Kolence, Bohemia. Kolence was a very small town and farming community. There is a chance that our Vaclav came to Chicago with him. It is worth checking.

A Review of the Records

From census, passport applications, and death records along with family stories, the search for the year of arrivals for James and Katerina has been narrowed to the years between 1882 and 1889. A synopsis of the data from various records and other sources is as follows:

  1. 1900 Census: The 1900 Filipek Census record indicates that James, Katherine, and son John arrived in 1889 and were in the United States for 11 years (that is from 1889 to 1900). The 1900 Census was taken on June 7, 1900, thus this matches well with the "on or about May 1, 1889" date from James Filipek's Passport Application. However, this same 1900 Census record indicates that John Filipek was born in Illinois in 1883 and was 16 years old instead of "1882 and 17 years old" which he was.
  2. John Filipek's Baptismal Record: John Filipek's baptismal Record indicates that he was born on December 13, 1882 in Chicago so we know at least his mother was in Chicago in December 1882, although it is possible she did return to Bohemia.
  3. 1910 Census: The 1910 Filipek Census record indicate that James and Katherine arrived in 1883; however, there is no immigration date for their son John. The data indicate that John was 26 years old and born in Illinois, thus suggesting he did not immigrate and was here all the time. It is known that John was born in Illinois in December 13, 1882, so perhaps they were only off by one year in their recollections. Also shown in the Filipek household was a boarder, James Teycha, railroad inspector, who immigrated in 1883. Since James Teycha is shown as 35 years old, he would have been about 8 years old in 1883. It might be useful to check to see if theTeychas are on the same ship as the Filipeks.
  4. 1920 Census: Katherine indicated a year of immigration of 1882 for the 1920 Census. This is thougth to be correct as John was born in December 1882 in Chicago.
  5. 1930 Census: Katherine indicated a year of immigration of 1882 for the 1930 Census. John J. Filipek listed no year of immigration.
  6. James Filipek Passport Application: This records states that James Filipek immigrated on or about May 1, 1889 from the port of Hamburg. James did not recall the name of his vessel.
  7. James Filipek 1911 Ship Record: This record seems to imply he came in 1888.
  8. James Filipek Death Record: The date can be interpreted as arriving in 1889.
  9. Family Recollections: From notes by Marge O'Dette after talking with Rose Filipek in November 1977, Marge wrote "James ran away Bohemia (Kolenec) so he wouldn't be inducted into the army-about a year after Grandma Katherine". Marge also stated in a January 1977 letter to Dave Jordan that Katherine came to America first in 1883 and that she had Nemec relatives in Chicago. Rose Marie Larson guessed that James didn't come to America for several years.
  10. Vaclav's Journals: Terry has a copy of Vaclav's journal from the agronomics school. The initial entry is for September 26, 1884 which proves that he was in Bohemia at that time.
  11. Katherine's 1914 Passport Application: The data implies that she arrived in 1889 and if so it suggest she went back in 1883, got married, stayed and then came back again to Chicago in 1889.
  12. Katherine's 1929 Passport Application: The data only mentions her husbands arrival information.

Interpretation

There is significant conflicting data in the records and recollections concerning the Filipek immigration date. However, by substituting 1882 for 1883 in the above data since the 1883 comes from an error in the year John was born, one can explain most of it with the following working hypothesis or a variant.

  1. Katherine came over July 1882 when she was pregnant with John. James (Vaclav) may have arrived a year later as suggested in Marge's letter to avoid the draft. Katherine and son John and possibly James (Vaclav) then returned to Bohemia. Recent data suggests a marriage date of January 29, 1884 which might be in Bohemia since a marriage record couldn't be located in Illinois for the 1880s.
  2. In 1889, James decided his future was in Chicago and the family immigrated. It is unclear if Katherine and John had returned to Chicago already or not.

Available Indexes

The available indexes for immigration information for this period and the status of our search are as follows:

  1. Immigrant Ship Transcriber Guild - periodically searched for Filipek and Nemec
  2. Index of Immigration and Passenger Ship Arrivals - searched all volumes and indexes through 1995 for Filipek and Nemec on June 30, 2000. There were no matches that made sense.
  3. Leo Baca Czech Passenger Lists - Found Katerina Nemec for July 1882 and possibly our James Filipek for June 1889. These are periodically added to with updates and new volumes for additional ports.
  4. Hamburg Emigration Lists - There is a process taking place that is adding an on-line index. A few years around 1890 are on-line. More will should be added with time.

Ship Arrival Records

  1. The Ship Arrival Records are on microfilm at the National Archives and also at the Regional Archives. Key Regional Archives include: New York City (Verich Street), Philadelphia, and Chicago. The records are also at key Genealogy Libraries, including the Newberry in Chicago and at the Allen County Library in Fort Wayne. They also can be rented from various organizations.

 

Filipek Research Planning Index

  1. Filipek Research Planning Index