My great-grandfather Henry (given Hebrew name Zvi Hirsch) Zucker, from Chodorow, Galicia, Austria, and now known as  Khodorov, Ukraine, immigrated to New York probably via Ellis Island  from  Hamburg, Germany.  He was born April 10, 1875 according to a passport applications obtained in 1920 and 1922 to return to Europe.  In these documents he states he sailed from Austria around July 3 1891.  He married Jennie Weisel (Hebrew given name is Sheindel), on June 11, 1895 according to their New York City marriage certificate.  His parents remained in Europe, and I believe hers did as well.

I cannot find any records such as ship manifests using the Steve Morse and Ellis Island websites, nor from Family Search.  Any other suggestions?

Alan Moskowitz
New Jersey

Hello Alan,

The passport application also says Henry Zucker was naturalized in the US District Court in Brooklyn (Eastern District) on July 24, 1902.  I found that record at Ancestry here, in which he said he had been resident in the US since July 1890.

NOTE WELL there is language in the naturalization document suggesting this was a "minor naturalization."  That language says he arrived in the US and was resident here for three years prior to his reaching age 21.  For that reason I would not expect to find any separate declaration of intention.

ALSO, the back of the naturalization document holds an important clue.  It appears Henri/Henry applied for a replacement naturalization certificate in early 1943.  Even though he naturalized before 1906, so INS never had a C-file for Henry before, his 1942/1943 application for a replacement would have created a special kind of C-file known as an "Old Law Replacement" certificate.  The prefix for those C-files is "OL."

The information on the back of the court document on Ancestry shows Henry "applied for a new certificate" and presumably the original court naturalization record was checked/verified by INS on January 16, 1943, probably by an INS examiner (Shatzman).  The file number given, "2B52123" is the INS application file used temporarily and NOT the file number needed to request records. 



The records (his application and supporting documents and correspondence) will be in his OL C-file.  The OL C-number is not found in this notation.  It would be found on the original replacement certificate issued in 1943 (assuming it was issued), and in the INS, now USCIS, index.  Sadly the only way to get to that file, if you want it, is to request it from the USCIS Genealogy Program.

This is a great example of how there can be rich records created decades later than one would expect!  

Marian Smith

Alan,

Manifests from that time frame may give you nothing more than his name and the country from which he came.  It varied by shipping line at that time.

Have you searched using soundex?  ZUCKER may be listed as ZUCHER, or something else.

The first name could be listed as various spellings of Hirsch, or Zvi.

The name could also have been transcribed incorrectly into the index.

He also may have entered through a port other than NY, including coming down through Canada.  I was surprised to see some of my family entering through Canada and then down to NY.

Regards,

Sherri Bobish

Sherri -   my G Grandfather  was found under 'Lucher' not Zucker.  I can see the handwriting on the manifest was very messy and likely caused the mixup.  I hope I find the information for my grandmother -  I think they came over separately.

Thank you for your guidance
Alan Moskowitz

Marian
I will check this out to see what information is provided - I am not certain this is the correct person.  However someone else found my G grandfather - his name was transcribed incorrectly.  
thank you for your help.    I don't have as much information on my G grandmother except she was born around 1877 in  Austria / Poland.

Alan Moskowitz