26 August, 2023 by Sherri Mastrangelo
One of the interesting questions I received this week was from someone looking at a “Record of Detained Aliens” form from the 10th of July, 1907 found in a collection of New York passenger arrival records on Ancestry.com.
Under the “Disposition” column, several of the immigrants had a phrase that appears to be “Polish Soe” - what could that mean?
Excerpt from the “New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820 - 1957”, July 10th, 1907; page 160. As found on Ancestry.com.
The cursive is a bit hard to read. First word is definitely ‘Polish”, but the second word could start with an “L” or “S”, have an “A” or “O” in the middle, and end with an “E”, “C”, or “S”.
Before I share my findings, let’s go over the meaning of this column and the form. This particular “Record of Detained Aliens” was for immigrants to the U.S. who arrived to New York on the U.S.S. Batavia and were held at the port for various reasons. They may have been waiting for a relative or spouse to pick them up, or they telegraphed someone to send them money if they arrived with not enough - so they could afford a railroad ticket or other transportation. You’ll also notice some on this record were discharged to immigrant care homes, like the United Hebrew Charities. I’m pretty sure that’s what we’re dealing with here in our example, a care home for Polish immigrants. Perhaps “Loc” for location or “Soc” for society?
I browsed all the pages of this record with the same handwriting, and found an example with an address:
Though a quick Google Maps search of “117 Broad, New York, New York” only turned up modern skyscrapers, I found a hit in Google Books, shown below:
An excerpt from “The Official Catholic Directory and Clergy List, Volume 20”, The M.H. Wiltzius Company; 1906. As found on Google Books.
In this directory we find the “St. Joseph’s Home for Polish and Lithuanian Immigrants” at 117 Broad St, run by the Felician Sisters. I’d say that’s a match, and I’d wager our phrase stands for “Polish Society”.
My next steps would involve researching the name of this aid group, as well as the Felician Sisters and the specific names mentioned, in local records and especially newspapers of the time. What else would you do?
If you have any questions during your research, feel free to reach out anytime!