Henry hits the seas

Today I came one step closer to figuring out how, when, and where Henry Staker immigrated to the US.

Previously, I thought he came in September 1870 on the steamship Italy. His obituary and Census records always claimed he came in 1869, but since I couldn't find anything in that year I made the (incorrect) assumption that 1870 was the actual date.

This week when I uncovered Henry's passport application from 1910, I found he claimed to immigrate "on or about" Dec. 2, 1869. The application didn't specify if that was the date of departure or arrival. Under the steamship name he wrote "don't know". Super.

So, it was back to the drawing board. This morning I undertook the tedious effort of going through German passenger lists, combing through records in the hopes of finding something close to Henry Staker in the rolls. I searched Henry, Henrich, Heinr, and Staker, Stacker, Stecker, and everything in between. After about an hour, I found a promising hit on Heinrich Stäcker.

Heinrich Stäcker was listed as 24 in 1869, which is a few years older than Henry Staker, but not an automatic rule-out. I've seen ages on documents vary 3-5 years depending on the record. I also know from Henry's naturalization paper that in 1883 he still spelled his name Stäker.

The next big clue was his home: Bramstedt. In Henry's obituary it says he was born in Harmstedt, Holstein. To date, I have no been able to find a Harmstedt. I have found in researching other German ancestors like Henry Sienknecht and Henry Kuhse that families often approximated the names of hometowns according to what they could remember. Freida (Krambeck) Sienknecht's home town of Lindhöft was spelled Linahoft, Linden, Lindenhof and Linahof depending on the record. A quick Google of Bramstedt came up with Bad Bramstedt in Schleswig-Holstein.

Heinrich Stäcker was also listed as a farmhand, which also makes sense, as he came to Iowa to become a farmer.

The only problem is there's no corresponding passenger list for the steamship Roland in New York in November or December 1869. The Hamburg departure list says the ship was destined for New York via Liverpool. Did the ship never make it? A search or records shows the Roland was still crossing the Atlantic into the 1890s, so it didn't go out of commission. Heinrich Stäcker doesn't appear on any New York passenger lists in 1869 - at least not that I've found yet.

I still have to go through the 5,000 records for the Roland that come up in an Ancestry search, but there is another possibility...

My father once told me that his grandfather (Henry's eldest son) used to say his father came to the US as a stowaway. The passenger list for the Roland leaving Hamburg was short, only a scant dozen names. Heinrich isn't listed as traveling first class, second class, or steerage on the Roland. In fact, it isn't specified. Is there something below steerage? Did he somehow finagle a ticket just sitting on deck or working his way to Liverpool? Once in England, did his ride on the Roland end? Did he find a way to the US on another ship, perhaps illegally hiding aboard another steamship? Since the Roland left Hamburg on Nov. 5, 1869, you would expect it to arrive in New York within two weeks. If Henry didn't arrive until Dec.2 as he specified on his passport, perhaps his trip was delayed by lack of funds, or lack of a legal ticket across the water.

There are still a lot of questions, some that may never have answers. But I feel like I'm getting closer, especially with the knowledge that Henry was almost certainly from Bad Bramstedt instead of Harmstedt. I have wanted to find a way to do research in Germany for a long time, but was not certain where to start. Now, I'm ready for the next step.