In Part 1 of this post, we learned that the great-grandchildren of Anna and Wasyl Warcaba believed that Anna was of Ukrainian descent and immigrated to the United States, as a teenager alone. They would later reside in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. The family found a ship manifest for the Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm that arrived at Ellis Island on 31 March 1913 included a single twenty-year-old woman with this name. However, Warcaba was Anna’s married name. The manifest said that the final destination for the passenger on the Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm was Boston, Massachusetts.

A declaration of intent for Annie Ransow (nee Warcaba) was filed on 30 August 1941. In her application, she stated that she was born on 10 October 1895 in Molodicy, Jaroslow, Austria. Her residence at the time of application was in Norfolk, Massachusetts. She was married on 31 May 1914 to Walter Ransow at Roxbury, Mass. Walter was born in Russia in October 1888 and entered the United States at New York in 1912. Annie and Walter had 5 children. Anna left Bremen, Germany under the name Anna Warcaba and entered the country on the Prince Friedrich Wilhelm on 31 Mar 1913. 

The information on this document matches that of the passenger located on the manifest previously found by client’s family, however it is certain that this same Annie Warcaba is not the great grandmother who later lived in Ohio.

I was able to find Anna and Wacyl Warcaba in the 1940 U.S. census, living in Lakewood, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio. Both Anna and Wacyl indicated their places of birth as being Austria, and both said they were naturalized citizens. This information matched what the family knew about their great-grandmother, so further research was done to trace this family into earlier years.

According to the 1930 U.S. census, Charles, an Americanized version of the name Wacyl, and Anna Warcaba were in Lakewood. Charles was 38 years old and Anna was 35; both claimed to be born in Poland. The census record said that the couple married when Charles was 22 and Anna was 19. Both spoke Ukrainian at home but were able to speak English. Both arrived in the United States in 1913 and were naturalized citizens by 1930. This record provided a reference for the year that Charles and Anna were married, because their age at marriage were recorded as 22 and 19 respectively. Charles was born around 1892 and Anna around 1895, meaning they would have been married about 1914. Since their recorded birthplaces were listed in different countries between the 1930 and 1940 census, it’s likely it was a town in a part of the world which had changed from Poland to Austria between 1930-1940.

A marriage license was issued in Cuyahoga County on 4 May 1916 to Wasyl Warcaba, age 24, and Anna Kocinch, age 19. The license said that Anna was born in Austria to Michale Kocinch and Anna Truszak. These were the great-great-grandparents' names that the family knew, so it was clear this was the correct family.

So we found the right Anna Warcaba, and she was born in Poland or Austria, depending on the record, and she probably arrived in the United States around 1913, the same year as the Anna Warcaba who went to Boston. So when did OUR Anna Warcaba actually arrive? And was she Ukrainian??

Read Part 3 to find out! Are you wondering about your ancestor’s immigration records? Contact me to discuss how I can help you!