On 4 March 1910, the SS Amerika left Hamburg for New York. Among her steerage passengers were four men from two neighboring villages in Rohatyn district, Galicia: Pukiv (Puków, Пуків) and Putyatyntsi (Putiatynce, Путятинці). The ship’s clerk wrote them on consecutive lines, 27 to 30 of List 40, and all four gave the same final destination: Rochester, New York. They landed at Ellis Island on 15 March 1910.
Consecutive lines, matching entries and a shared destination are the usual signs on a manifest of people travelling as a group. Each man was also going to someone already settled in Rochester, and several of those names belong to families that went on to found the city’s Ukrainian institutions.
Who they were
| Line | Name as written | Ukrainian spelling | Age | Village | Left at home |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | Szwec, Antoni | Shvets, Antin (Швець Антін) | 32 | Pukiv | wife, Teśka Szwec |
| 28 | Jejna, Andruch | Yeyna, Andrukh (Єйна Андрух) | 43 | Putyatyntsi | wife, Tekla Jejna |
| 29 | Kucyj, Fedko | Kutsyi, Fedko (Куций Федько) | 32 | Putyatyntsi | wife, Paranka Kucyj |
| 30 | Mucha, Hryńko | Mukha, Hrynko (Муха Гринько) | 19, single | Pukiv | father, Iwaśko Mucha |
Whom they joined in Rochester
| Line | Passenger | Joining | Rochester address | Height | Born |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | Antoni Szwec | brother, Stefan Szwec | 596 Clinton Ave. | 5 ft 2 in | Pukiv |
| 28 | Andruch Jejna | cousin, Jan (Ivan) Hołowka | 16 Catharine St. | 5 ft 4 in | Putyatyntsi |
| 29 | Fedko Kucyj | brother-in-law, Michael Pakula | 111 Hudson Ave. | 5 ft 2 in | Putyatyntsi |
| 30 | Hryńko Mucha | friend, Pawło Sweryda | 1148 Hudson Ave. | 5 ft 4 in | Pukiv |
Like most Galician Ukrainians of the time, the four are recorded as Austrian subjects, and the clerk marked their “race or people” with a ditto from the Polish passengers above them. Manifests often mislabelled Ruthenians this way; see Who are Ruthenians?
Familiar Rochester names
The people these men were joining connect directly to the Rochester community documented elsewhere on this site. The connections below are based on matching names and should be treated as leads, not confirmed identifications.
- Hołowka (Holowka, Головка). Andruch Jejna’s cousin “Jan” Hołowka is very likely Ivan Holowka of Putyatyntsi, a charter member of St. Josaphat’s Ukrainian Catholic Church and one of the first residents of the proposed Ukrainian Village. Nicholas Holowka was a founding member of the Knights of St. George, formed in Rochester in August 1909, seven months before the Amerika arrived.
- Pakula (Пакула). Wasyl Pakula of Putyatyntsi was also a St. Josaphat’s charter member.
- Sweryda (Sveryda, Сверида). Stephen Sveryda of Putyatyntsi was a St. Josaphat’s charter member, John (Ivan) Swereda co-founded the Rochester Ukrainian Federal Credit Union, and Walter Sweryda served on the Putyatyntsi Committee in 1962.
- Szwec (Shvets, Shwetz, Швець). Ivan and Yatzko Shwetz of Putyatyntsi were early residents of the Ukrainian Village. Antoni and Stefan Szwec came from Pukiv.
- Mucha (Mukha, Муха). Theodore Mucha was a St. Josaphat’s charter member. This manifest points to Pukiv as one home of the family.
- Jejna and Kucyj (Yeyna, Kutsyi). Both surnames appear among the Putyatyntsi schoolchildren who signed a 1926 greeting to the United States.
Two of the four were heading to Hudson Avenue, the street where St. Josaphat’s parish hall at 303 Hudson later hosted meetings of Putyatyntsi immigrants. Newcomers like these often lodged with relatives or in immigrant boarding houses until they could bring their families over.
The full manifest pages
Source: U.S. National Archives, passenger lists of vessels arriving at New York, SS Amerika, 15 March 1910, List 40, lines 27–30. Arrival record also available from the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation.
Are you descended from the Szwec, Jejna, Kucyj, Mucha, Hołowka, Pakula or Sweryda families of Pukiv or Putyatyntsi? Please share what you know in the comments.
Leave a Reply