Family member name: Veleska Staverinsky Neumann
Lifetime: 1854 - 1907
Places lived: Prussia; Iowa
Tree branch: Newman
Relation: Dru's 2x great grandmother (Dru's dad's mom's mom's mom)
Wilhelm and Veleska Neumann lived on the southern border between Germany and Poland. That may explain Veleska's maiden name sounding Polish and her married name being German. At the time, the area was known as Prussia.
Question #1 - Were Veleska and Wilhelm from different areas? (All of their documents just say Germany, which through time could have meant different places as borders shifted.) Were they a bilingual family? Were there any objections from family members to them getting married?
Two children, Hugo and Bertha, came along in the next few years after their marriage.
Wilhelm emigrated to the United States alone in 1887, leaving his wife and two young children behind. People from Prussia emigrated at this time in history for different reasons. Some came for religious tolerance, some because they were hungry, some for economic opportunity.
Veleska stayed in Prussia for three years until she made the trip to the United States with her children. They traveled first to Liverpool, England, then sailed on the SS Nevada to finally reach New York City on May 22, 1890. Ellis Island was not open yet, so they sailed by the Statue of Liberty and arrived at Castle Clinton immigration center.
As a side note, Veleska was five months pregnant on the voyage. Her son Paul Newman was born four months after her arrival. This would obviously bring about question #2....
Question #2 - Did her husband Wilhelm visit her in Germany shortly before she journeyed to America? If not, who is the father of Paul?
The family settled just south of Iowa City, Iowa. She lived there the rest of her life.
The 1900 US Census was taken ten years after her arrival in 1890. The 1900 Census had some interesting questions on it. There are columns titled "Mother of how many children" and "Number of these children living".
In case the chart is difficult to read, here are Valeska's answers:
Tree branch: Newman
Relation: Dru's 2x great grandmother (Dru's dad's mom's mom's mom)
Wilhelm and Veleska Neumann lived on the southern border between Germany and Poland. That may explain Veleska's maiden name sounding Polish and her married name being German. At the time, the area was known as Prussia.
Question #1 - Were Veleska and Wilhelm from different areas? (All of their documents just say Germany, which through time could have meant different places as borders shifted.) Were they a bilingual family? Were there any objections from family members to them getting married?
Two children, Hugo and Bertha, came along in the next few years after their marriage.
Wilhelm emigrated to the United States alone in 1887, leaving his wife and two young children behind. People from Prussia emigrated at this time in history for different reasons. Some came for religious tolerance, some because they were hungry, some for economic opportunity. Veleska stayed in Prussia for three years until she made the trip to the United States with her children. They traveled first to Liverpool, England, then sailed on the SS Nevada to finally reach New York City on May 22, 1890. Ellis Island was not open yet, so they sailed by the Statue of Liberty and arrived at Castle Clinton immigration center.
As a side note, Veleska was five months pregnant on the voyage. Her son Paul Newman was born four months after her arrival. This would obviously bring about question #2....
Question #2 - Did her husband Wilhelm visit her in Germany shortly before she journeyed to America? If not, who is the father of Paul?
The family settled just south of Iowa City, Iowa. She lived there the rest of her life.
The 1900 US Census was taken ten years after her arrival in 1890. The 1900 Census had some interesting questions on it. There are columns titled "Mother of how many children" and "Number of these children living".
In case the chart is difficult to read, here are Valeska's answers:
Mother of how many children: 13
Number of these children living: 3
Question #3 - How in the world did she endure the heartache?
Question #4 - Who are these children? What are their names?
Wow, Veleska was only 46 years old, yet she had lost 10 children.
Question #3 - How in the world did she endure the heartache?
Question #4 - Who are these children? What are their names?
To date, there are no other records of these children besides this census. There are no birth certificates, birth records, baptism records, census records or headstones that I can find.
More questions - Did all of these deaths happen during the years she was married to Wilhelm? How did these babies die?
These two numbers on a piece of paper can reveal so much about a family member's life. There is so much left unsaid. I'm heartbroken.
More questions - Did all of these deaths happen during the years she was married to Wilhelm? How did these babies die?
These two numbers on a piece of paper can reveal so much about a family member's life. There is so much left unsaid. I'm heartbroken.
