Asturian-American Migration Forum

I searched the EllisIsland website and found my great grandparents (Etelvina Galan Lopez, born 1889 and Joseph Granada Menendez de Aviles, born 1877--his age of 19 had to be listed incorrectly on the manifest), they immigrated to USA on April 5, 1914 on the SS Baltic from Liverpool--but there is no listing of their 4 children on the manifest. I tried searching using the children's first initial and surname Menendez to no avail, thinking they must have came to the US on a different date. I know they arrived in the US because I met them and they have families here in St. Louis. Their children's names are Frank Menendez, born June 29, 1907; Ben Menendez, born July 21, 1908; Josephine Menendez, born 1911 and Louis Menendez, born July 18, 1913. She was 7 months pregnant with my grandfather, Arturo Menedez, born November 22, 1914. Children were included on the manifest, correct? They traveled with Edwardo and Eterina Menendez. Any help is appreciated.

I'm no expert on this, but my story might be useful.

My search in the Ellis Island and census records showed several people with the same names as our ancestors. A cousin assumed that one of those was our grandfather, but that would have been unlikely because his wife wasn't mentioned and he was listed as working in the mill, which we're sure he didn't.

My grandparents are not in Ellis Island. There were other routes into the US, so your ancestors may not be listed there.

Of course, it is quite possible that the person recording the data didn't understand what our relatives said. It's also possible that our relatives didn't understand the question or that they lied.

My main conclusion would be that if some of the data doesn't fit, you might be looking at someone else. People with the same names were fairly common.

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No soy un experto sobre este tema, pero mi historia podría ser útil.

Mi búsqueda en el registro de la Isla Ellis y registros de censo mostró a varias personas con los mismos nombres que tenían nuestros antepasados. Un primo asumió que uno de aquellos era nuestro abuelo, pero habría sido improbable porque su esposa no fue mencionada y él fue catalogado como un trabajador en la fábrica, que estamos seguros que no hizo.

Mis abuelos no están en los datos de la Isla Ellis. Había otras rutas a los EE.UU., entonces sus antepasados no pueden ser catalogados allí.

Desde luego, es bastante posible que la persona que registró los datos no entendió lo que nuestros parientes dijeron. Es también posible que nuestros parientes no entendieran las preguntas o que mintieron.

Mi conclusión principal sería que si algunos datos no caben, podría estar mirando a alguien distinto. Personas con los mismos nombres eran muy común.

Art,

You might be right with your hunch that Kathi is looking at the wrong name. The first clue might be the the age was off considerably. Kathi, I'd keep searching for information through family stories, etc. about how your family actually got to the U.S. and if they indeed came through Ellis Island.

Hi Kathi,

You might also want to search for Mendez and Melendez, as well as Menendez, and look for transpositions of first and second surnames.

Bob Martínez

Welcome back, Doctor Suronda!

Does anyone know what ports of entry were used by those who came from Havana?

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¡Bienvenida otra vez, Doctora Suronda!

¿Sabe alguien cuales puertos de entrada usaban los que llegaron de Habana?

Art,

The INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), now known as the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Servies) has a list of all the ports of entry for the United States. Among these are sites in Florida. These might have been the obvious point of entry for Cubans. The list of ports can be found at http://uscis.gov/text/aboutus/history/poelist/poe.htm

I also found this website http://www.cubagenweb.org/pass.htm that is the CubaGenWeb site with much information about travel to and from Cuba. You'll see some National Archives material listed here (at the very bottom of the page) that might be helpful. It looks like Cubans were coming in to Ellis Island as well as through Key West. This last one looks like some fun digging, but I think nothing is in electronic format.

I see that part of this information has already been "discovered" under another thread and posted by Robert. He has specific information on Asturian immigration to Cuba. See thread (under this same topic) titled:
Asturias to Cuba Passenger Lists.

Our family legend was the Sabino Menendez family had all come to the US together, however, I found Sabino Menendez on a ship in 1905. I found his wife, Josefa Artimez on another ship in 1907, along with all their children including my "0" age grandfather, all under the mother's name, Arrtimez. I don't know why this was done but all the names and ages matched. Hope this helps.