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I found the passenger list for Jacob Smit and Ankje Alberda’s journey across the Atlantic and their marriage certificate! It’s so amazing to see their signatures right there on the page!

Jacob and Agnes were married June 8 1889 and arrived on US soil six months later, December 10, with their infant son, Agnes’ mother Jantje and two younger sisters Henrietta and Jennie. Klaas, their first child (named for Jacob’s father), was born 17 Aug 1889. This means Agnes was seven months pregnant when they were married and Klaas was four months old when they landed in New York. The passenger list says Klaas was two months old but perhaps ages were recorded at the beginning of the journey.

The ship Edam that carried them to the new world was built in 1883 by Nederlandsch Stoomvart Maats, Rotterdam. It weighed 3130 gross tons and was 328 feet long and 41 feet wide. Driven by a compound engine, single screw, its service speed was 12 knots. The Edam held 474 passengers (50 first class and 424 third class) and provided Rotterdam/Amsterdam to New York service.

As family lore goes, the couple emigrated because work was scarce and wages were low back home. According to Jeanette Douma Hine’s memory, they may also have fled Holland to escape ridicule from Jacob’s family for marrying beneath his social class. We can now wonder if they also faced persecution for conceiving a child out of wedlock.

During the journey, baby Klaas became ill. “Agnes was so afraid he would die and have to be buried at sea,” recalled Jeanette. “They had a few more days until their arrival in New York. You can imagine how they prayed and cried. The baby died while they went through Customs. The the immigrants from many countries collected a little money for them. The baby was buried on Ellis Island, no doubt in an unmarked grave.”

Janet (Hine) McNabb remembers her grandmother, Jennie, saying that Klaas was buried at sea.

Glenn Hine remembers that Agnes always felt God was punishing her because all her sons died. The only one that lived to adulthood was Nick. Twins Henry and John died at 18 months of age. Peter was killed on the railroad tracks at age 12 while picking up coal from passing trains to heat the family home. Nick died right after WWI.

Since I heard this story, I always wondered what Agnes thought God might be punishing her for. Now I wonder if she never got over the guilt of conceiving her first child out of wedlock. The family was deeply religious, and I can only imagine the traumatic and unnecessary shame this grief-stricken woman must have felt as her first-born son died in her arms — shame that was revisited with the deaths of four out of five of her subsequent sons.

**NOTE: In looking into Ellis Island burial info, I found an official response to another person’s inquiry about a similar story. It seems the likelihood of a grave for Klaas (marked or otherwise) on Ellis Island is very low.

According to the response, Ellis Island did not open until 1892. Between 1855 and 1892, immigrants would have been processed at Castle Garden. This explains why I couldn’t find the ship manifest (The Edam) on the Ellis Island Website. I did locate our Smiths and Alberdas on the Castle Garden website, but no new information.