52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 28

Elsie Metz 1902

The writing prompt for this week is Travel. While most of my ancestors traveled great distances to emigrate to the United States, and many more migrated across this country after they arrived, I have found no one in the family who traveled as extensively as my 2nd cousin, twice removed, Elsie Lauretta Metz. I wrote about Elsie, who was born in Cincinnati in 1880, and the wild weather she experienced while on a ship in 1912 earlier this year when the writing prompt was Storms. You can find that post here. I also had written about her family and attendance at the University of Cincinnati back in 2013, and the link for that post is here.

in December of 1911, Elsie applied for a passport at the age of 30 in preparation for some travel she was planning to do the next year. While I knew a lot about her 1912 trip due to a journal that was returned to our family, I had no idea of the extensiveness of her adventures until I was preparing for this post. Through a list tucked into her journal and also searches on ancestry.com I was able to find the following travel and passenger information about Elsie. I suspect that the list is missing some entries as well.

1889 traveled to Rome, Italy, according to her journal.

1893 traveled to the Chicago World’s Fair, according to her journal.

1899 and 1905 traveled to Atlantic City, New Jersey, according to her journal.

1906 traveled to Quebec and Saguenay, Canada, according to her journal.

1907 traveled to Europe, according to her journal.

1908 traveled to Cairo, according to her journal.

27 August 1909 sailed on the SS Kaiserin Augusta Victoria from Cherbourg, France to New York, New York, arriving on 3 September 1909. She spent the summer touring Europe with friends.

1910 and 1911 traveled to the Adirondacks in New York, according to her journal.

9 May 1912 sailed on the SS Cincinnati from Hamburg, Germany to New York, New York, arriving on 20 May 1912. (Her diary indicates that she left on the trip 30 January, 1912, so this ship’s list is only from the last leg of her journey.)

7 July 1914 sailed to Europe for extensive trip.

5 August 1914 applied for an emergency passport at the American Embassy in Berlin to immediately return to the U.S due to the outbreak of WWI.

22 August 1914 sailed on the SS St. Paul from Liverpool, England, arriving in New York, New York on 30 August 1914.

3 October 1914 sailed on the SS Lusitania from Liverpool, England, arriving in New York, New York on 8 October 1914. (This trip is puzzling to me - in light of the war, why would she have gone back to Europe that fall?)

1916 traveled to Lake Placid, New York, according to her journal.

1918 traveled to Chillicothe (Illinois? Missouri?), according to her journal.

1920 traveled to Luddington (England? Michigan?), according to her journal.

8 March 1921 sailed on the SS Fort Victoria from Hamilton, Bermuda to New York, New York, arriving on 10 March 1921.

1922 traveled to Ogunquit, Maine, according to her journal.

5 March 1923 sailed on the SS Fort Hamilton from Hamilton, Bermuda to New York, New York, arriving on 7 March 1923.

1923 traveled to Colorado, according to her journal.

1924 traveled to Alaska, according to her journal.

26 August 1925 sailed on the SS Paris from Plymouth, England to New York, New York.

1926 traveled to Ocean City, New Jersey, according to her journal.

27 August 1927 sailed on the SS Paris from Plymouth, England to New York, New York, arriving on 1 September 1925.

29 July 1930 sailed on the SS St. Louis from New York, New York to Cherbourg, France.

2 October 1930 sailed on the SS Milwaukee from Boulogne, France to New York, New York, arriving on 11 October 1930.

22 March 1932 sailed on the SS Florida from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida, arriving on 22 March 1932.

15 August 1938 traveled the Flanders Hotel in Ocean City, New Jersey with a friend.

1939 traveled to New York City for the World’s Fair.

16 March 1949 sailed on the SS Lurline from Los Angeles, California to Honolulu, Hawaii, arriving on 21 March 1949. On 10 April 1949 flew on United Airlines from Honolulu, Hawaii to San Francisco, California.

30 March 1952 flew Trans World Airlines from New York, New York to Lisbon, Portugal. On 30 April 1952 flew on Trans World Airlines from Madrid, Spain to New York, New York.

27 March 1953, travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and received a temporary immigration card there.

25 September 1954 flew on Royal Dutch Airlines from Amsterdam, Netherlands to New York, New York.

5 July 1955 flew on British Airways from New York to London, England, where she spent a month touring Scotland with a friend. From there they went to London to meet up with some friends before touring Ireland. She returned 19 August 1955 on British Airways from London, England to New York, New York.

17 June 1956 flew on Scandinavian Airlines from New York, New York to Stockholm, Sweden.

29 July 1956 flew on Pan American Airways from London, England to New York, New York.

31 March 1957 sailed on the SS Homeric from Havana, Cuba, arriving in New York, New York on 2 April 1957.

27 April 1958 flew from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

8 September 1958 flew on British Airways from London, England to New York, New York.

July 1959 flew Pan American Airlines from Nassau, Bahamas to New York, New York.

29 August 1960 flew on American Airlines from place unknown to San Antonio, Texas.

8 October 1959 flew on SR Airline from place unknown to New York, New York.

13 June 1962 sailed on SS Italia from Nassau, Bahamas to New York, New York, arriving on 16 June 1962.

one of Elsie's travel talks

Elsie never married, so much of the time she had traveling companions with her. In the early years it was her mother and her unmarried brother, though the extended trip she took in 1912 was done in the company of family friends. She was a woman of many interests, with both bachelor and masters degrees from the University of Cincinnati. She was extremely active in the Cincinnati social scene, and was a patron of the arts as well as an amateur actor and director of community plays. She frequently appeared in the Society Page of The Enquirer, Cincinnati’s daily newspaper, and on several occasions gave presentations about her travels. With at least 40 trips spanning 73 years, she certainly would have had a lot to talk about!

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 16

The writing prompt Storms had me a little stumped this week. I don’t know of any storm survival stories or storm chasers in my family, nor does anyone have a name that has anything to do with bad weather. But then I remembered my 2nd cousin, twice removed, Elsie Lauretta Metz.

Elsie Metz 1902

Born in Cincinnati on 24 May 1880, Elsie was the second and final child born to John and Isabella (Drescher) Metz. Their son Daniel was born in 1873. Elsie entered the University of Cincinnati (UC) in 1899, one of the 141 entering freshmen at a university of 1,145 students. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1902. She received a teaching fellowship in Modern Languages at the university for the 1903-1904 school year. She would later be awarded a Master of Arts degree from UC.

In December of 1911, 30-year-old Elsie applied for a U.S. passport, which was granted on 3 January 1912. This was in preparation for a 78 day cruise to the Orient aboard the steamship Cincinnati. As a single woman, she traveled with family friends Caroline Moerlein and her son William Moerlein. The Moerleins were part of the Christian Moerlein Brewing Company dynasty. Elsie kept a diary of her adventure, which surfaced a couple years ago and was donated to the Cincinnati History Museum. I was able to scan the pages of the diary before it passed on to the museum.

Cincinnati Enquirer article January 31, 1912

Vanderbilt Hotel

The beginning of the trip had a series of weather-related mishaps. The group first experienced ice and sleet on 28 January as they boarded a train in Cincinnati bound for New York City. There was more sleet when they arrived in New York on 29 January, and the Hudson River was frozen over as they made their way to the Vanderbilt Hotel. Newly opened on 10 January 1912, the hotel was built by Alfred Vanderbilt, great-grandson of railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt. The sleet of the day turned into a blizzard by that night.

The Cincinnati left New York on 30 January, 1912. Elsie notes that they had “a rough stormy passage to Lisbon”, and that her female traveling companion was never able to appear on deck as she had “every disease known.” I’m sure that as First Class passengers, they were well taken care of, however. The ongoing storm was so bad that the ship was unable to land at Lisbon on 8 February, arriving the next day instead.

The ship traveled through more storms on its way to Cadiz, Spain. When they were finally able to dock, they found that their arranged trip to Seville was canceled because the railroads were washed away. Elsie records that “Spain suffering from worst floods known in sixty years.”

Eventually they made their way to more temperate weather, and she does not mention any other bad weather before returning to New York on 20 May 1912. But, at least at the beginning of the trip,  Elsie must have been wondering, what in the world have I gotten myself into?

Denver Post Story
April 17, 1912

On a side note, Captain Schulke of the Cincinnati reported that at midnight on 14 April he received a call for help from the ill-fated Titanic. While on the way to offer aid, the Captain was told that his help was not needed so he turned his ship back to its original course.

Elsie had many more traveling adventures in her life, including one where she had to get an emergency passport at the US Embassy in Berlin when WWI broke out in 1914 and she needed to get back to America. She died a spinster at the age of 93 on 21 March 1974.

Elsie Metz ~1954

More on Elsie Metz

Elsie Metz 1902

Continuing with my research on Elsie Metz, I turned to Google Books as a resource. It is amazing what you can find on this site. It has a search bar just like google.com, but it looks for your search terms within the context of books and magazines. I have suggested to house researchers that they enter their address, street and town to see what results they might find. But the same approach works for genealogy as well. When I searched for Elsie I was able to find references to her in a number of publications, including the yearbooks from the University of Cincinnati. If the scanned images are in the public domain, you can download them onto your computer. If they are not in the public domain, you can still do a screen capture to save the information to your computer. This photograph is Elsie's senior picture at the University of Cincinnati in 1902.

As I looked at each of the four yearbooks in which she appeared, I was struck by the fact that while there were 141 students in her freshman class, only 48 graduated in 1902. I guess the drop out rate for college students was high even in the early 1900's! But the bigger surprise to me was that 26 of the graduates were female - over half the graduating class! In the year 1900 only 2.8% of the female population went to college, and women obtained 19% of all undergraduate degrees in the United States. So what made this graduating class different? It would be interesting to know, but I am not sure I will have the time to seek out the answers to that question.

The Story of Elsie Metz

In a previous post I mentioned that my cousin had come into possession of a 1912 travel journal that belonged to Elsie Metz. Elsie is my second cousin, twice removed for those who are interested in the connection. Since scanning the journal, which covers a cruise she took from January 30, 1912 through May 20, 1912, I have been doing a bit of research on Elsie. Today I was excited to find a photo of Elsie from a 1953 trip she took to Rio de Janiero, Brazil. She would have been 73, though I can't say for certain that the photo used on the passport was taken that year. It was a thrill for me to finally put a face on the woman who has begun to truly fascinate me. The document also included her signature, which is a find as well.

Elsie Lauretta Metz

Elsie was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to John and Isabella (Drescher) Metz in 1880. She had an older brother Daniel who was born in 1873. Neither she nor Daniel ever married, and they lived with their mother and father. When the parents passed away, Daniel and Elsie stayed in the family home on Melrose Avenue. Elsie went on to get not only a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1902, but also became a Teaching Fellow in Modern Languages there in 1903. She received a Master's of Arts degree in 1913. It was fairly unusual for a woman to obtain a college degree in the early 1900s, particularly from a university that was not exclusively for women. You can see why I am captivated by this woman.

In 1912 she began to travel, or at least that is the earliest I know that she traveled due to the existence of the journal. It makes me wonder if the cruise she took in 1912 was part of her thesis for her master's degree? Additionally I have found records of her traveling by ship in 1914 (she requested an emergency passport to return home from Berlin, Germany on August 5, 1915 - WWI began in 1914), in 1921 from Hamilton, Bermuda to New York, in 1925 from Plymouth to New York, in 1930 from Boulogne, France to New York and in 1953 from Rio de Janiero to New York. I want to do a little research on the ships she traveled on to see if I can determine what the itinerary might have been.

Another thing I am curious about is where did the money come from? Her father died in 1921 and I do not yet know what he did for a living. Elsie herself may have continued teaching, so I need to check that out. Her travels always took place during what would be the school year however. I have quite a bit of research to do, complicated as usual by the fact that many of the records are in Cincinnati while I am in St. Louis. Time for another road trip!