SS FURNESSIA
In 1887 Albert Mathea left Glasgow on this ship and arrived in New York Harbor on December 27 1887. We don't know how he traveled from Eperjes (now Presov) in Slovakia to Glasgow or how long that leg of his journey took. We do know that there was a Slavic neighborhood in Glasgow at the time, Bellshill, and that many who lived there were metal workers. A few years later on his Naturalization Application in the US Albert reported his occupation as "metalworker." Eventually he became a cobbler.
HAJ comments: Albert Mathea was always a master tanner (Gerbermeister) per all his documents (like his father). My guess is he worked in the mines and/or in foundaries in Scotland, most likely because someone wrote/told him he would get a job easily with some experience in that field when he got to the states, which we see he did. Note that the family had many friends (maybe some relatives) in Pennsylvania in mining and mills, as we saw at a couple of funerals. Bellshill was known as a Slavic (as opposed to Slovak) neighborhood.
In the old country they all spoke Hungarian because it was the law. Slovak was not permitted, was not a written language and not taught in the schools at the time.
Feedback: D.F.Jensen
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