Historian here on why your female/child relatives weren't recorded: women and children were often not included on port arrival documents if they were accompanied by the male head of family. Often times the number of people accompanying the male was recorded, but no names. Their personhood was not seperate from the male head of family. As well, records often vary from port to port, some offering more info than others, as there was no official standardization of info gathering for quite a while. Common issue for geanological and feminist historians, unfortunately!
Yes. But they list everyone else in the family. All of them including a two (?) year old baby are on that list. Three of the children listed were girls – my great-aunts Ida, Bertha and Tova. (All of the Geimans, with dates of birth, are there. The only adult is my great-grandfather.) The police in Antwerp seem very careful about listing all foreigners. And my great grandmother isn’t there. I suspect she arrived at a different time… but why?
I know my Great Grandfather went on ahead of the rest of his family to prepare things. Perhaps that is why? it is easer to find lodgings for one and get your bearings, then to try and move a whole family at once.
Absolutely! That’s why I’m puzzled. If my great-grandfather had come alone, and my great-gandmother had turned up later, showing up on a list with five children aged between about 12 to 1 years old, that might make sense. But why him and the children? Truthfully, I’m not even sure how you would get from Lodz to Antwerp circa 1913 (or even if they went somewhere else first).
(Does anyone know what the number before each name represents? A date? An address? An alien ID number?)
The number before each name is an inventory #. You can search the Antwerp records here:
Some more info/resources here:
A collection of genealogical profiles related to Belgium Antwerp Police Immigration files
Looking at the immigration records, there is a wife listed. Her name is Chawa Wolkowitz.
That makes a lot more sense. She was there, but listed under her maiden name. And now I know when she was born (1876) and where (Sochaczew, Poland), and the family legend that she was older than my great-grandfather and he was married to her to stop him being wild appears to be true – at least, she was six years older than my great-grandfather, and he was 17 or 18 when they married (based on my grandfather being born in 1901 – incidentally, a year later than any other records, which all have him born on the 15th of October 1900, which makes me wonder whether he added a year to his age when he came to England in order to get a job…)
And for the curious, a very bad photo of Chava Wolkowitz Geiman with her daughters and baby Mordka…
(Thank you so much for everyone who got in there and found things out to satisfy my idle curiosity. I’m grateful.)
More details from the Antwerp documents:
Leib's passport from Petrokow was registered on Oct 1, 1913. Leib, Chawa & their 5 children arrived in Belgium on Nov 10, 1913. They registered with the police on Nov 24, 1913. Address: Somersstraat 32, Antwerp. Previous address: Północna 5, Łódź.
On Feb 10, 1917 Bella was born. Her birth certificate from London was registered on Aug 7, 1919. She arrived in Belgium on Aug 9, 1919. She has been registered with the police on Aug 31, 1919. Address: same as above. Previous address: Underwood Street 24, London.
Internal memo from Aug 28, 1919: Leib applied for a passport; a police commissioner asks a colleague whether there’s any record of misconduct; according to a scribble from Aug 30, 1919, there wasn’t, so he presumably got his passport.
