“The ties that bind”

Abstract

This article investigates the different adaptive strategies migrants used to cope with their new surroundings. These strategies have proven to be useful in studying the behavior of migrants in the new country, as they focus on migrants' own actions and their way to play within the structures. Migrants' networks, such as family, friends, and ethnic organizations, were crucial in this. The article focuses on Polish migrants and their networks that supplied support and self-help which were a way of coping, although not to the same degree for every Polish migrant. Networks could also have a conservative and restrictive effect, particularly on women and children. The actions of the migrants were guided by a set of social and normative rules, but these were dynamic and changed according to the needs of the migrants in the new country. Over the generations, traditional values were adapted to the new environment. New ideas were taken from the American culture and modified to the Polish norm (Americanization and feminism in a Polish way).

“Let us become acquainted and know our strength” (from Album Szescdziesiatej [Anonymous 1954, p. 9]).

Acknowledgements

This article has been made possible by fellowships of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in Harrisburg. I would like to thank Priscilla Clement, Theo Engelen, Caroline Golab, Randall Miller, and Silvia Pedraza for their valuable comments.

Notes

1 The census of 1900 listed 710,156 Poles in the United States. According to the census of 1940 this number had increased to 2,905,859 Poles.

2 The sample consisted of 65 Polish migrants (arbitrarily chosen) (in Index to Philadelphia Passenger Lists 1883–1948. The cards were on microfilm in alphabetic order. All Poles from the section Be-Bro and Cap-Ci were selected. Most of these Polish migrants came at the turn of the century.

3 Of all tickets, 73 percent were paid by family members.

4 In this case, it was a German miner who was sent back in order to bring more laborers from his homeland. His name indicates a Polish origin.

5 For instance, five Polish miners were involved in an accident on April 9, 1895 in the mine shaft No. 2, eight Polish miners were involved in an accident July 18, 1912, in the Langcliffe mine, and all four miners who were involved in an accident on April 30, 1914, in the Woodward mine, were Polish.

6 Eleven percent of the sample joined friends (from Index to Philadelphia Passenger Lists 1883–1948; see also Bodnar n. d.a, pp. 1–2, n. d.c, p. 2; Romanek n. d., p. 2).

7 Unless reported otherwise, this and the next two paragraphs are based on Lopata (1994).

8 The Poles in the United States called those parts of America in which they settled Polonia: the Polish community in the United States.

9 This school was settled in Pittsburgh: St. Mary's Polish Church on Versailles Avenue.

10 In 1890, 25 percent of these mixed marriages were between a Pole and someone from another migrant group and 75 percent between a Pole and an American (from “Marriage License Dockets, 1890,” in State Archives Harrisburg, Luzerne County, Register of Wills and Clerk of the Orphan's Court, Vital Statistics, Marriage License Dockets, 1885–1906, Vol. 15, 1890–1891, role 4390). Of an arbitrarily chosen sample of 112 marriages that involved a Pole, two marriages were between a Pole and someone of another migrant group, seven between a Pole and an American and 103 between two Poles. Most records indicated the migrants' origin as Polish, although mainly as Russian-Polish, German-Polish, and Austrian-Polish. In few cases, only the name could give an indication of the origin. Most Poles married with someone who came from the same part of Poland, like Russia-Poland. Americans were defined as people with an “American” name, and who were born in the United States. Unfortunately, Poles who had changed their name could not be excluded from this group. Still, the overall picture is that Poles showed an endogamous marriage pattern. In 1905, 82 percent of all mixed marriages was with an American and 18 percent with someone from another migrant group (from “Marriage License Dockets, 1905,” in State Archives Harrisburg, Luzerne County, Register of Wills and Clerk of the Orphan's Court, Vital Statistics, Marriage License Dockets, 1885–1906, Vol. 28, 1904–1906, role 4397). The total sample (arbitrarily chosen) contained 81 marriages.

11 Most of these migrants came from Eastern Europe (from State Archives Harrisburg, Washington County, Register of Wills and Clerk of the Orphans' Court, Vital Statistics, Marriage records, Marriage licenses, 1885–1932).

12 Two interviews in the Eckley Oral History Project were hindered because of the poor English of the Polish informant. These informants had lived more than 50 years in Eckley. “Interview with J. Banas” (Verasano n. d.f), and “Interview with Mr. and Mrs. Banas” (Verasano n. d.g). It is not clear if these people are related.

13 According to the range of residential and organizational subunits, Lopata makes a distinction between ethnic neighbourhood, settlement, and community. The regional Polish community was the most complexly organized as it was too large to operate on the basis of face-to-face contact alone and needed more intricate forms of communication, organization, and institutions.

14 The P.N.A. Story. On the Path of Service (1970, p. 11). The insurance of men varied between $500 and $1,000. The insurance of women varied between $250 and $500 (from Death Claim Records, in Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, Balch Collection, Polish Union of the U.S. of N.A. Records, MSS 57).

15 This distinction should not be handled too strictly. Nationalistic organizations had a religious message as well, and religious institutions a nationalistic one, but those messages were not the main theme of the organizations.

16 Sometimes the transition was not that drastic as many Poles had already worked in urban settings in Western Europe.

17 Not only in the miners' village Eckley did the miners keep gardens, also in cities such as Scranton and Pittsburgh. See, for instance, Earl n. d.b, pp. 3–4; Gottleib, Peter, n.d.b. “Interview with Joe Rudiak,” p. 10.

18 Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, Balch Collection, Polish Union of the U.S. of N.A. Records, Death Claim Records 1933, 1935, 1940, 1959, MSS 57, 5/1/A-E (M89-36), Box 21; Bodnar (n .d.a, pp. 5, 20); Golab (1977)(p. 152); Verasano (n. d.i, p. 1).

19 Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, Balch Collection, Polish Union of the U.S. of N.A. Records, Death Claim Records, July 1938—March 1939, MSS 57, 5/19/A-E, Box 10.

20 Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, Balch Collection, Polish Union of the U.S. of N.A. Records, MSS 57.

21 Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, Balch Collection, Polish Union of the U.S. of N.A. Records, Death Claim Records 1907–1915, MSS 57, 5/1/A-E (M89-36), Box 2-4.

22 The rest of this group had the following professions: two children worked in the household, one was employed as a shoemaker and five had unknown professions.

23 Balch Collection, Polish Union of the U.S. of N.A. Records, Juvenile Death Certificates 1928–1936, 1939–1941, MSS 57, 5/1/A-E (M89-36), Box 72.

24 It should be noted that working children had a higher risk of dying. It is, therefore, likely that more children went to school than these figures show us.

25 Only three divorces were recorded in the period of 1885–1932. State Archives Harrisburg, Washington County, Register of Wills and Clerk of the Orphans' Court, Vital Statistics, Marriage records, Marriage licenses, 1885–1932.

26 Decree of divorce between John Rudovsky, libellant, and Hazel Rudovsky, respondent, in State Archives Harrisburg, Washington County, Register of Wills and Clerk of the Orphans' Court, Vital Statistics, Marriage records, 1930.

27 Decree of divorce between Franke Burke, libellant, and Dorothy Burke (in State Archives Harrisburg, Washington County, Register of Wills and Clerk of the Orphans' Court, Vital Statistics, Marriage records, 1930).

28 Young women were advised to love God, to honor their parents, to trust their own judgement, to be realistic, to guard their reputation (“good reputation is man's dearest possession”), to respect themselves, to confine not too much to their friends, not to pursue “glamorous” professions, to be a good and helpful person, but not at their own expense, to be proud of themselves and their capabilities/talents, to be a good wife and mother, but not to lose their identity as a thinking woman, to be ambitious and to pursue goals (from Halina Louise Paluszek, `Rady Starszej Kolezanki on the Well-Ordering of Woman's Life,' in Glos Polek June 13, 1940, p. 6).

29 Poland did not exist in the period of 1795–1918 because it had been divided between Germany, Austria, and Russia.

30 It was established in 1902. From 1917, English articles appeared in the Glos Polek.

31 Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, Cash Surrender Records 1939, 1955, 1954, 1956.

32 These were the names as they were recorded in the doctor's certificate of death. The sample holds all (83) Polish members who lived in Pennsylvania and died in the period 1891–1907, Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, Balch Collection, Polish Union of the U.S. of N.A. Records, Death Claim Records 1891–1907, MSS 57, 5/1/A-E (M89-36), Box 1.

33 These were the names as recorded in the doctor's certificates. The sample (arbitrarily chosen) holds 153 Polish members who lived in Pennsylvania and died in the period 1939–1940 (in Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, Balch Collection, Polish Union of the U.S. of N.A. Records, Death Claim Records 1917, 1919, 1939–1941, MSS 57, 5/1/A-E (M89-36), Box 8; Death Claim Records 1940–1942, MSS 57, 5/1/A-E (M89-36), Box 23; Death Claim Records July 1938–March 1939, MSS 57, 5/19/A-E, Box 11; and Death Claim Records 1916, 1917, 1940, 1941, MSS 57, 5/1/A-E (M89-36), Box 7. These records contained more individuals so the research period is shorter.

34 Vauter (n. d.b, pp. 9–10). (She was a first generation migrant.) Vauter (n. d.e, pp. 5–6). (This second generation migrant described how her son-in-law loved the Polish customs.)

35 Examples of nationwide organizations with local lodges are: the PNA, the PRCU, the PWA, and the Polish Union. Local organizations are: the John Sobieski Fraternal Association (Philadelphia, PA), the Polish-American Citizens Club of Frankford (PA) and the Polish Intercollegiate Club of Philadelphia (PA). Most of these societies had only a few hundred members.

36 During the strike of 1933, eight percent of the mineworkers who wanted to work in the Ronco Mine (H.C. Frick Coke Company) were Polish (determined by their name), from “Letter from the Sheriff of Fayette County Pa,” Historical Collections and Labor Archives, Pattee Library, Penn State, State College, Ruttenberg Collection, Box 4, Coal Strike Hearings 1934, Folder 14.