MILLING AROUND THROUGH THE ORTERIC

As the days move forward and my friend, Steven A., painstakingly transcribes the Orteric manifest going backwards, he's bringing these people back to life.  Immigrants who left so much to go so far to an unknown.  Immigrants who (mostly) never saw their Spanish soil or loved ones left behind for the rest of their lives.  Immigrants who took their love of agriculture, honed it, treasured it and taught its importance to the children that came after the Orteric's sailing in 1911. 

Deciphering the names written on the manifest, sometimes (possibly) in haste and often by ear as the manifest seaman 'heard' the names and wrote it the way he thought best.  These people all had to have legal papers to board the ship so it astounds me at times, why the names were skewed so badly in the transcription process.  Steve A. reminded me how easy it is to misinterpret Spanish words when we hear them, often pronouncing them phonetically vs. the written word.  I know I've gotten myself in trouble trying to remember a word that really means something completely different and I had a red face.....

Steve A. seems to be taking each of our ancestors and shaking loose their stories, their family members and who they left behind with a calm and curious need to make it right.  My sincere thanks for his undertaking a project I began some time ago...he is making it happen.  He is 'walking among the immigrants' on the ship, listening to them, watching them, seeing them.  He is feeling their pain and joy.  He sees names appear at Gibraltar and then disappear upon Hawaiian shores.  Did they die?  Did they not board in Gibraltar after all?  Did they skip past the name taker in Honolulu?  Then, there are the babies who were born at sea; those who died and had a watery burial.  So many stories and so many people wanting a better life.  And we are part of what they began.

This meandering through the crowds on the Orteric has snapped back my burning desire to find these people and leave the corrected names behind for others like us to follow their ancestor's path.  The full list will eventually be found on Google Docs for the public to enjoy, research and have for their own genealogy.  Thank you, Steven ~  Even though this ship and the others sailed 100 years ago, you are making it seem like the watery trip was yesterday.