2

A passenger arrived in the port of New York on the ship Philadelphia in 1910. His residence, as listed on the Ellis Island manifest, is transcribed as "Ruistikovicz, Russia". The passenger is said to be 'Hebrew', and the town name appears on both pages of the manifest, in column 10 (Last Residence), 11 (nearest relative), and 29 (birthplace).

Looking for the current and historical names of this town or location.

2
  • Hi, Mimi -- welcome to G&FH.SE! I've edited your question to include the information that the town appears on the manifest more than once, and that the manifest was transcribed (it is a handwritten document). Comparing the three instances on the image might give us some clues.
    – Jan Murphy
    Apr 3, 2014 at 15:11
  • While you are waiting for an answer, see the related questions: Where do I find a 1910 map of Russia genealogy.stackexchange.com/questions/1698/… and What is the town in this census listing? genealogy.stackexchange.com/questions/1436/…
    – Jan Murphy
    Apr 3, 2014 at 15:17

1 Answer 1

4

The ending of the word seems to be clearer than the beginning. Picking up on the 'cz' as a clue that this might be a Polish name, I tried the Online Gazetteer at JewishGen.org. The FamilySearch Research wiki's article on Poland Gazetteers says:

The biggest advantage of this search is that it uses a specialized soundex system to find places. This can be very helpful if your spelling is not quite accurate. Keep in mind that not all the results will be of value. A soundex result is not intended to provide sounds-like results. You have to be judicious in selecting the correct place from the display page.

Using the Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex gives five possible matches, three in Poland, one in Moldova, and one in Lithuania. One possible match is Rostkowice, Poland. The search form returns these fields:

  • Location (Native names in BOLD)
  • Feature Type
  • Coordinates (Click for JewishGen Resource Map)
  • links to Maps
  • Country
  • Distance/Direction from reference point
  • 10 mile radius (clicking this returns the names of other places within that distance)

Do you have any records (like manifests belonging to other family members, friends or associates) that might hold other clues?

2
  • Note that I haven't had time to carefully examine the handwriting on the image, and I was working off the transliteration that the Ellis Island indexers made.
    – Jan Murphy
    Apr 5, 2014 at 14:56
  • 1
    Oh no, the EIDB indexers were not great with the names. Please check the original image, make a screenshot of the two locations where the town name appears, and post it, and we can go from there.
    – Asparagirl
    Aug 7, 2014 at 20:22

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.