My great grandfather, Francisco George (Jorge) immigrated from the Azores in
1889 and entered the US through Boston. Today we think that Ellis Island and
NYC was the typical entrance to the US from the Atlantic, but it wasn't always
so. Ellis Island began as the main East immigrant entrance point on January 1,
1892. Francisco returned to the Azores around 1905 to bring his bride,
Lepoldina (Lena) Freitas, to the US. Lepoldina's entry is listed in the Ellis
Island records. Family stories are that Lena was also accompanied by another
female because it wasn't proper for a woman to travel alone, assuming she
needed supervision. Francisco and Lepoldina were married in Fresno, CA within
a few weeks of arriving on the West Coast by train. Then they settled and
built up a farm in Merced, CA.
The train route to California was on a northern route because there is no
complete southern passenger route to California. The way to travel west by
train still uses the scenic northern route. Many eastern cities connect to the
huge Chicago hub, where you can continue west, or travel down to the southern
states. From Chicago you travel west to Martinez, CA on the California Zephyr.
Then you have to catch the San Joaquin train south to Stockton, Modesto,
Denair/Turlock, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Hanford, Corcoran, Wasco and
Bakersfield. Many Portuguese settled in these cities along the San Joaquin
train route. There is a southern train route to California which takes you to
Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. To get to the San Joaquin Valley, you
have to board an Amtrak bus from Los Angeles, over the Grapevine (mountain
range), and to Bakersfield. In Bakersfield, you then get on the San Joaquin
train to all points north. When our ancestors immigrated from the East Coast
there wasn't a bus line from LA to Bakersfield, so they definitely used the
northern route. It currently takes 3 days of train travel from Boston, MA to
Bakersfield, CA. With potentially slower train routes 100 years ago, I wonder
how many days it took to travel from the East to West Coasts? The only thing I
could find online was that it took 1 week to travel from Omaha, NE to San
Francisco @ $65 for an adult. Based on this, perhaps it took 2 weeks to travel
from Boston to California? Also, the northern route (California Zephyr) uses
most of the train lines laid by the 1st Transcontinential Railroad that we all
learned about in elementary history.
Debbie Wolgemuth
Researching Azoreans: Jorge (Flores), Freitas (Flores), Enos (San Miguel),
Silveira Matos (Faial), Rodrigues (unknown island)
Immigrated to: Merced, CA
> Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:07:45 -0700
> Subject: [AZORES-Genealogy] Travel to California
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
>
> Does anyone have any idea how most of the Azoreans traveled to
> California? I assume they took a boat from the Azores (there was no
> other way off before air planes LOL), but did they complete the trip
> around So. America and up to California by boat or did they disembark
> in New York/Boston and travel by land to California? I've been trying
> to find a passenger list with my grandfather/great-grandmother on it
> but haven't had any success.
>
> Lorinda Baker Sevenans (my grand-father Joseph Lewis (Luiz) grew up in
> Fairfield, CA)
>
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