Meixner Family History #6 - The Journey

Once Frank and Theresa made the decision to go, how did they get to America?  How long did it take for them to actually be on their way?

By 1881 Frank's father was deceased.  I do not know about his mother or Theresa's parents.  Frank had at least one sister living at that time.  I have records of her marriage and the births of her children after 1881.

How hard it must have been to say good-bye to family and friends knowing you would most likely never see them again.  Also to leave behind most of their belongings, their old life, country, and language and head for an all new beginning.

The 1871 marriage record of Franz (Frank) and Theresa stated he was an innkeeper.  This was basically a house where they rented rooms to workers of the town that did not have homes of their own.  Did he sell this place to raise the money to pay for their trip to America?  

The next step would have been to get their train tickets and head to Bremerhaven.  This would be their port of departure for America.  I am certain they rode the train to Bremerhaven.  There were thousands of miles of train track in Europe by 1881.

Here are some pictures of trains I found on Wikipedia that would have been in operation in the 1880s.

   

I don't know the route they took from Abtsdorf.  Below is a google map of the route you might take today.  I don't think the route was too much different then but obviously it would have been along the rail lines in use at the time.

This route shows to be about 850 kilometers or 530 miles.  Probably longer and certainly a lot slower back then.

All that is left is for the 33 year old Frank and Theresa is to take their suitcases and trunks and cram them as full as they can with their belongings, take the hands of Herman (Harmon in the U.S.) aged 2, Herminia (5), Theresia (6), Antonia (7), Alvisa (8), and Franz (Frank) (10), and head to the train station to travel some 4300 miles to America.  WOW!!  That took some courage.  I've never lived outside the state of Texas.

So they headed out on the several days journey by train.  I can't imagine this was a very comfortable trip to Bremerhaven.

Next:  The Journey (part 2)