Coming to America - Simon Zweighaft and Sophia Hirschberg on the S.S. Denmark

On three different U.S. passport applications (1891, 1896 and 1910), my great grandfather, Simon Zweighaft, stated that he immigrated to the U.S. from Liverpool on the S.S. Denmark in September of 1867.  One might think that, with such specific information, it would be easy to find the family of Simon, his wife, Sophia Hirschberg, and son, Bernard on the ship manifest.  However that has not been the case.

The S.S. Denmark, originally named the Chilean, was a 2870 gross ton ship built in Stockton, England in 1865.  At a length of 343 feet, the iron ship was slightly longer than a football field.  It had three masts rigged for sail with room for 70-1st class passengers and 200-3rd class passengers, with 3rd class capacity later increased to accomodate 850.

The Chilean was acquired by National Line in 1866 and renamed Denmark, sailing primarily between Liverpool and New York.  In 1867, prior to the establishment of Ellis Island as New York's immigration center,  the S.S. Denmark would have arrived at America's first official immigration center, the Emigrant Landing Depot at Castle Garden, more commonly referred to as Castle Garden.

         S.S. Denmark, Currier & Ives, publisher, courtesy of
The Mariners' Museum and Park
Newport News, VA

Below are snippets from Simon's three passport applications, all stating the the Zweighaft family immigrated to the United States on board the S.S. Denmark from Liverpool in September, 1867.

1891 U.S. passport application, arrived on September 15, 1867

1896 U.S. passport application, arrived on S.S. Denmark, September 1, 1867

1910 U.S. Passport Application, arrived on S.S. Denmark, September 3, 1867

The Steve Morse web site (www.stevemorse.org) allows searching for ships arriving in New York by date. That web site shows only one arrival of the S.S. Denmark in New York in September, 1867 - the 26th.   Eighteen arrivals were listed for the S.S. Denmark between 1866 and 1868, but only the one in 1867 arrived in the month of September.

More than twenty years had passed since his emigration from Poland, when Simon specified three different dates of arrival into the U.S., in September, 1867 - the 1st, 3rd and the 15th. With that passage of time, it is perhaps unsurprising that Simon may not have remembered his exact date of departure from Liverpool, or his exact date of arrival into New York.  Steamship travel had reduced the Atlantic crossing time from months to weeks so a departure from Liverpool in the first half of September with an arrival in New York on the 26th seems plausible.

Having the precise date of arrival, and using the catalog search feature, I was able to browse the 13-page ship manifest on Ancestry.com ("New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (Including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957"), as well as on FamilySearch.org ("New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1891").  The digitized image on FamilySearch.org was one page longer, including the original cover page for the manifest.  That cover page stated that there were 545 passengers in steerage with an additional 41 in cabins and 288 mates, close to the capacity of around 900 persons.

The manifest begins with the statement from the ship master - "I, A. Thomson, Master of the S.S. Denmark do solemnly, sincerely and truly swear that the following List... is a full and perfect list of all the passengers taken on board of the said S.S. Denmark at L'Pool, Queenstown...".

S.S. Denmark manifest, page 1

But the Zweighaft family is nowhere to be found in those 13 pages of names.   What might be the reason?  Possibly Simon had the wrong ship name, but it seems highly unlikely that he would have incorrectly specified the S.S. Denmark in three separate passport applications. Possibly he had the date of departure or arrival wrong, but browsing several other arrival dates for the S.S. Denmark also failed to show the Zweighaft family.

However, on the September 26, 1867 manifest is this interesting entry on page 2, lines 42, 43, 44 and 45:

Zh Horschberg, age 19, laborer, from Germany
Mrs Horschberg, age 19, wife, from Germany
Berch, 8-month old male infant
Anna, 8-month old female infant

Horschberg family, S.S. Denmark

Could this possibly be Simon Zweighaft, his wife, Sophia, and their son, Bernard?  There are several observations about this record that suggest these people could indeed be my ancestors: 

• Simon Zweighaft and Sophia Hirschberg married around 1866, likely in Pilica, Russian Poland, where Sophia was born.  At that time, the use of a wife's family name was not unusual for observant Jews in the Pilica area where there was a major Hasidic presence.  They may have been married in a Jewish religious ceremony, not a civil ceremony.  As further evidence that Simon sometimes used the Hirschberg name as his surname, there is an article in a Philadelphia newspaper which refers to Simon, the male proprietor of a jewelry store as "S. Hirschberg".

• An immigrant with a thick accent, might have been understood to have said "Horschberg" rather than "Hirschberg". 

• The husband's name is written 'Zh' which could indicate 'Zweighaft', 'husband'.  

• The birth record for Bernard, the first-born son of Simon and Sophia, has not been found.  The name "Berch" on the manifest may have been a shortened version of Baruch.  Bernard, the name my grandfather used in the U.S.,  may have been an anglicized version of Baruch.  Various U.S. records place  Bernard's birthdate between 1865 and 1867, making an age of 8 months at the time of sailing from Liverpool in 1867 a plausible age. 

• Germany did not exist as a unified nation until 1871, so the fact that his family was listed as from Germany and not Russian Poland, likely simply meant that they were German-speaking.  The passengers on the ship were listed as originally from America, England, Ireland and Germany - no one listed as from Russian Poland.  It seems likely that the German-speaking passengers made their way by train to Hamburg and from there to Liverpool and were all recorded as from Germany. 

• Simon's birthdate is stated on various records as December, 1845.  If that date is correct, in September, 1867, he would have been 21.  The stated age of 19 on the manifest is only two years off, not significant for a record of that time when birth dates were not deemed to be a crucial fact.  

• Sophia was born on March 6, 1844 according to her Pilica birth record, making her 22 at the time of this manifest recording, again, not a significant difference from the stated age of 19.  Indeed, Sophia incorrectly stated her birth year as 1847 rather than 1844 in her 1896 U.S. passport application, further proof that strict attention to accurate birth dates was not a priority. 

• The 1880 U.S. census lists only two children of Simon and Sophia - Bernard, age 14 and Helena, age 6.  There is no Anna.  Infant deaths were common in that era, so it is quite possible that Bernard's twin, Anna, died in childhood. 

Thus, I feel it is quite likely that this family of four, traveling from Liverpool to New York in 1867 with the family name of Horschberg, is indeed my Zweighaft family with great grandfther, Simon Zweighaft, great grandmother, Sophia Hirschberg, paternal grandfather, Bernard Zweighaft, and his twin sister, Anna Zweighaft.  

Simon Zweighaft

Sophia Hirschberg Zweighaft

Bernard Zweighaft