Andrew J. Dominik, circa 1915
Andrew Jędrzej Dominik is the great-grandfather and namesake of my husband, Andrew Green. I have been researching the Dominik family for many years, although I am just now starting to get more serious about the original record searches. This week, I received the Declaration of Intention and Petition for Naturalization for Andrew J. Dominik from the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. It was the best $18.44 I have spent on a genealogical record request in a long time. I would like to share the information I received by attempting to retrace his journey to the United States.
Andrew JÄ™drzej Dominik was born on July 26, 1886 in the Galacia region of Poland in a town called Gorlice while it was under the rule of Franz Joseph I of Austria. This is important to understand since his records often show “Poland” but sometimes show “Austria” as a birth location. Andrew was part of a mass emigration with several hundred thousand people who emigrated from the region for a better life in the USA from the 1880’s through the early 1900’s.
In order to get to America, Andrew had his work cut out for him. Gorlice, Poland is a long way from New York City. My best estimate as that he left his home in early May 1909. He likely would have taken a carriage from Gorlice to Kraków, Poland which is approximately 90 miles. From there, he probably boarded a railway train in Kraków to make the 550 mile journey to Hamburg Central Station in Hamburg, Germany which opened in 1907. So far, he would have been traveling for approximately 5-7 days.
The President Lincoln
Andrew bought his ticket and climbed aboard the President Lincoln on May 14, 1909. This beautiful new German steamer was built in 1907, just two years before Andrew made his trip across the Atlantic. It weighed just over 18 tons, held 3,828 passengers and had a cruising speed of 14.5 knots. It was built for transatlantic passenger travel from Germany to America. The ship was seized by the US in 1914, taken from Germany and repurposed into a US Navy Cruiser in 1917. Germany had the last laugh though, and torpedoed the ship with the submarine U-90 in May 1918. It sank quickly as a casualty of World War I.
Certificate of Marriage between Andrew Dominik and Malvina Golkowski
The trip from Hamburg, Germany to Ellis Island, New York took 21 days, stopping in the port of Cuxhaven along the way. Andrew reached America on June 4, 1909. His journey from Golice took an entire month. I have not been able to trace his whereabouts from the time he disembarked until his wedding to Malvina Golkowski on February 17, 1914 in Ramey, Minnesota. The couple settled in Chicago, Illinois and had their only known child, Raymond Dominik, in Chicago on February 10, 1915. Andrew is listed in the 1916 City Directory for Chicago as a photographer. His home address was 1055 N Wood, while his portrait photography studio was located less than half a mile away at 923 Milwaukee Avenue.
I wish I knew how long the trip from Golice actually took Andrew. I would love to know how much the ticket cost him to ride aboard the President Lincoln. I wonder what he was feeling along the way; why did he leave Gorlice? What did he do upon arrival in Ellis Island? Where did he go? Did he make any friends along the way?
If I were to journey to Gorlice from Arizona today, I would ride in a car for 30 minutes to the Phoenix International Airport. The airplane ride would cost me about $1,000 round trip and take me from Phoenix through Chicago and Munich, Germany onto Krakow, Poland in about 17 hours with layovers. From there, I would hop in a rental car and drive the remaining 2 hours to Golice. The same trip would take me approximately 24 hours of travel time.
Times sure have changed, haven’t they? 102 years makes a big difference in international travel.
Read more about Andrew J. Dominik in my Ancestry Family Tree.
See the grave of Andrew J. Dominik on Find A Grave.
Read more about the U.S.S. President Lincoln at Wikipedia and uBoat.net.
