Actually the Martha Washington going to Italian ownership after WWI makes perfect sense. Austria lost the war and Trieste was given to Italy. Recruiters played a very important part in immigration from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in America. In the 1850's and 60's the factories in New England heavily recruted French Canadian workers to the shoe factories and textile mills that were developing all over the area. Actually the way Robert described it is one way it happened. They got one person to come and then they got them to tell their friends there were jobs here. They even sent recruiters to Canada to go from farm to farm to sign people up to migrate. The new migrants moved in with their fellow French Canadians until they could afford places of their own. Many times these were two room tenemants with overcrowding and unsanitary water and sewerage conditions. The migrants tended to stay together into little ghetto areas creating in New England what were called "Little Canada's." Often the larger factories supplied the housing, the company store, and many times getting back all that they paid them through rents, food and credit that had to be paid back when pay day came around and was taken out of their pay. Our Croatian immigrants were often recruited but it was largely by the first ones to come over who wrote to them to tell them there were jobs here and they could get them work. Some time the claims were overstated because they didn't want to admit that they weren't doing that well in the new country. In Kenosha it was the Simmons mattress factory that employed most of the Croatians as well as other migrants. (quite a few Italians came as well). The same pattern existed. The man would come first and he would live with other male migrants in a rooming house or else a Croatian family that had established there would rent rooms out to a couple of single or married men that had come without their families. Once established the man would send for his wife or family and they would repeat the process, buying or renting a house and taking in new migrant tenants. I don't know of company recruiters going to Europe but it is certainly possible and most likely did happen. My father in law told us of his trip from Ellis Island across to Manhatten and then their trip by horse drawn trolley to the railroad station to take the train to Chicago. He and his brother kept looking fot the streets paved in gold that the letters home had talked about and were dissapointed in not seeing any. He was 12 at the time. Bill Kane

This is a website that we have found very interesting and useful. The others using this site and are very helpful. There is also one for Slovenia at slovenia@rootsweb.com. I suggest you sign up for both. -----Original Message----- From: croatia-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:croatia-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of William F Kane Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 10:15 PM To: croatia@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [CROATIA] CROATIA Digest, Vol 2, Issue 28 Actually the Martha Washington going to Italian ownership after WWI makes perfect sense. Austria lost the war and Trieste was given to Italy. Recruiters played a very important part in immigration from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in America. In the 1850's and 60's the factories in New England heavily recruted French Canadian workers to the shoe factories and textile mills that were developing all over the area. Actually the way Robert described it is one way it happened. They got one person to come and then they got them to tell their friends there were jobs here. They even sent recruiters to Canada to go from farm to farm to sign people up to migrate. The new migrants moved in with their fellow French Canadians until they could afford places of their own. Many times these were two room tenemants with overcrowding and unsanitary water and sewerage conditions. The migrants tended to stay together into little ghetto areas creating in New England what were called "Little Canada's." Often the larger factories supplied the housing, the company store, and many times getting back all that they paid them through rents, food and credit that had to be paid back when pay day came around and was taken out of their pay. Our Croatian immigrants were often recruited but it was largely by the first ones to come over who wrote to them to tell them there were jobs here and they could get them work. Some time the claims were overstated because they didn't want to admit that they weren't doing that well in the new country. In Kenosha it was the Simmons mattress factory that employed most of the Croatians as well as other migrants. (quite a few Italians came as well). The same pattern existed. The man would come first and he would live with other male migrants in a rooming house or else a Croatian family that had established there would rent rooms out to a couple of single or married men that had come without their families. Once established the man would send for his wife or family and they would repeat the process, buying or renting a house and taking in new migrant tenants. I don't know of company recruiters going to Europe but it is certainly possible and most likely did happen. My father in law told us of his trip from Ellis Island across to Manhatten and then their trip by horse drawn trolley to the railroad station to take the train to Chicago. He and his brother kept looking fot the streets paved in gold that the letters home had talked about and were dissapointed in not seeing any. He was 12 at the time. Bill Kane ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to CROATIA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message