JENKINTOWN, Pennsylvania (GBT) — A Lipschutz Bank passage order available through Temple University's Special Research Collection Center has revealed details of the Snyder family's 1922 voyage to America. The document, unavailable on the center's web site, was delivered through email correspondence last week.
According to the passage order, Herman Snyder, brother of Minnie Snyder Anflick, purchased four tickets on December 14, 1920 for his family's passage from eastern Europe to America. Herman was living at 911 N. 6th Street, Philadelphia, at the time. The tickets were delivered care of a Frideric Vainerman of Briceva, Bessarabia, which is 53 kilometers (33 miles) south of the Snyders' birthplace in Mogilev-Podolski. Briceva is in present-day Moldova. Mr. Vainerman's relationship to the Snyder family is still unknown, and the Snyders' eventual passenger list of 1922 reported the family to have been living in Bucharest, Romania, by the time of their departure.
The original passage order was to carry four passengers from Le Havre, France, to America aboard an American Line steamship. The four passengers listed on the document were Herman's mother, Chava, also known as Eva, his sister, Leika, also known as Lillian, a brother, Motel, and another family member named Moise. Moise may have been a sibling, but the precise relationship to Herman remains unclear. Moise's fare was eventually cancelled, leaving only Eva, Lillian, and Motel to complete the voyage. The passage order offers no precise reason for the cancellation of Moise's fare. Herman's sister, Minnie Snyder Anflick, mother of Morris Anflick, had already been in America for thirteen years by the time of the order.
The voyage's itinerary seems to have been revised between the purchase of the tickets in December of 1920 and Snyders' eventual departure in March of 1922. The family departed Liverpool on the 18th of March, 1922, aboard the R.M.S. Celtic of the White Star Line, and arrived in New York on the 27th of that month. A note of the family's 1922 arrival appears on the passage order.
The price of each ticket included a $5 railroad fare, a $95 ocean fare, an $8 head tax. The total fare paid for all four prospective passengers was $432. Adjusting for inflation, this would have been the equivalent of about $6,000 U.S. dollars in 2021. The passage order does not state whether Moise's fare was refunded.
For more information about Temple University's Special Collections Research Center, email scrc@temple.edu, or call 215-204-8257. ⬮
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