Family History Page 5

My Grandfather was the last of four Paktorovics siblings to make his way to the New World. An Ellis Island record (reproduced in part above) shows that one "Paktorovics, Daniel" (Line 1), a 19 year old Hungarian "Hebrew" last residing in Minaj, Hungary, left Bremen, Germany aboard the Friedrich der Grosse on 31 December 1910 and arrived at the Port of New York on 11 January 1911. On the left hand page, Daniel Paktorovics is listed as a farm laborer by profession, single, and able to read and write; his final destination is given as NY. In the space for the nearest relative in his country of origin, his father is named clearly as "Izsak Paktorovics" of Minaj, Hungary; so there can't be any doubt that this was my grandfather's younger brother Daniel, eighth of the nine children of Izsák Paktorovics and Hana Moskovics. His birth date is given elsewhere as 31 December 1892; it seems that he sailed on his birthday and, unless the birth year is incorrect, arrived in New York having just turned 18, not 19. On the right hand page is recorded that he paid for his own passage, had $60 on him, had never been to the US before, and that he had a relative living here already, his brother-in-law ("br i l") "Orszag Alex". This would have been his older sister Regina's first husband, Alex Orszag (married 07 June 1908). Daniel Paktorovics is further described as being 5' 4", not deformed or crippled, in good mental and physical health, of fair complexion, having brown hair, brown eyes, and no distinguishing marks, and being neither a polygamist nor an anarchist.

Nine years later, the 1920 US Census (see record reproduced below, lines 20-23), shows him living (on 10 January) with his wife, Mary (Mary Friedman, also born in Hungary), their first child, Samuel, aged 3 years 3 months, and Mary's mother, Rae Friedman, at 54 Hollander Street in the Roxbury section of Boston, MA (oddly, some form of misunderstanding led the census taker to inscribe Daniel's surname as "Bactovis" instead of Pactovis, a mistake that incidentally made the record rather difficult to find*). The record shows his age as 29, which would be consistent with a birth date in December 1891, rather than 1892. It shows the year of his immigration to the US as 1910, which is consistent if one counts from the day he sailed from Bremen, and certainly correct if one considers the earlier day when he must have left his home in Hungary. Mary is also listed as 29 years old, and that she immigrated to the US in 1904, well before Daniel arrived. The record further shows that they both became naturalized US citizens in 1915, and that Daniel worked as a "Shoemaker [in a] Repair Shop".

*I don't think there is any doubt this is a record of the family of Daniel Pactovis, given the address, identical to that recorded in the 1930 Census, and the listing of Mary's mother, Rae Friedman, as "Mother-in-Law".

Top sections of two facing pages of Ellis Island immigration lists, recording the 11 January 1911 arrival of "alien passengers" on the ship Friedrich der Grosse, which sailed from Bremen, Germany on 31 December 1910 (upper, left page; lower, right page). On Line 1 is entered the record for Daniel Paktorovics, a 19 year old Hungarian "Hebrew" last residing in Minaj, Hungary. In the space for the nearest relative in his country of origin, his father is named clearly as "Izsak Paktorovics" of Minaj, Hungary. The image of the original document is available for viewing at the website of The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.

World War I and the Draft. As recounted on Family Page 3, my grandfather, Salamon Pactorovics, served as a Reserve Feldwebel in the Austro-Hungarian K.u.k. infantry during World War I (as described on Family Page 3). By a distinct irony of family migration, this brought him, at least in principle, into potential armed conflict with his brothers once the United States entered the conflict, declaring war on Germany on 6 April 1917, and on Austria-Hungary in December 1917. American Expeditionary Force troops began arriving in Europe during the Summer of 1918, and the war was over before the year was out. The document below, although in poor shape and not well reproduced, shows that Daniel H. Pactovis, my grandfather's younger brother, registered for the draft about 3 months after the US declarated war on Germany. It is stamped with the date 5 June 1917, the town of registration as Watertown, MA, and gives his birth date as 28 [Dec?] 1890. It is not known to me whether Daniel was actually called up for service. My thanks to Jacqueline Waldstein Schwab for bringing this document to my attention.

A final point I find significant is that the family considered Yiddish its "mother tongue". This suggests an interesting "language divide" among the Paktorovics/Pactovis siblings, with Daniel and Mary, along with his brother Morris and Morris' wife Bertha, claiming to be primarily Yiddish speakers, while my grandfather and his sister Regina, along with my grandmother and both of Regina's husbands, claimed Hungarian as their mother tongue (see their census records elsewhere on the site). I have little doubt they were all more or less competent in both languages (and in my grandmother's case, several others—including English of course).

Ten years later, the 1930 US Census (see record reproduced below, lines 29-35) shows the family still living (on 07 April) at 54 Hollander Street in Roxbury, MA. There are five children now, Samuel, Julian (photo right and below), Mildred (photo below), "Rosaline" (Rosalind, photo right), and Beulah. The record correctly shows the change of surname to Pactovis. Their years of immigration and naturalization are consistent with the previous record, but here Daniel's age is listed as 40, which suggests again that his year of birth might not have been 1892, or that perhaps his memory of it wasn't terribly precise. His wife is also listed as 40 years old, and it is recorded that both Daniel and Mary were 23 when married (a statistic not included in the previous census), so one can conclude that their wedding took place in 1917. Daniel's occupation is now listed as "Presser [of] Neckties".