My grandfather August Gutzat arrived at Ellis Island around 1908. I have his personal copy of his US military record. His place of birth is always Russia. My best translation of his writing in Golbne, Russia. His father, also August Gutzat, listed his place of birth as Russia. His mother, Anna Obereiner, listed her place of birth as Gryzbina, Poland; Gumbinnen East Prussia, Gryzbina, Poland, Prussia. Based on info from my aunt the family(s) may also have lived near Swalki.

I could not find any Gutzat arrivals at Ellis Island, even using a variety of possible spellings.

With a GOOGLE search I found another posting of yours suggesting that Gryzbina was close to Wiżajny. To find places, spelling is rather important. In this case, the correct spelling is Grzybina and you can find it and Wiżajny readily on GOOGLE Maps. Grzybina is a km or so west of Wizajny and was literally right on the Russian side (less than 0.5 km) of the border with East Prussia so it is easy to understand the confusion regarding location.

If you go to http://www.sggee.org/research/parishes/church_parishes/Luthe... you will find a link to microfilmed Lutheran Church records for Wizajny which are available for the years 1844-1931. At the very least this will give you your Obereiner thread to follow and may also reveal details about Gutzat. Note also that this was in Suwalki (not Swalki) province.

I could not find Gulbne anywhere. However, on the main road heading north from Suwalki to Lithuania is the town of Gulbieniszki. It seems to me that there must be a connection but further research will be required to see what it is. Since this is closer to Suwalki, you may also have to search those church records. It is not a known Germanic village but is close to others that are.

Jerry Frank

Best to post the year of birth in the future... just makes it more of a challenge to help.

Needed to look twice... they are off to Jersey City - to join father August (info matches census record)...

Passenger lists match siblings on census record...

http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=Ha...

and

http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=ny...

Hope this is the correct family! We could use Jerry Frank's help further at this point :)

LostQuays

Good news..

They were detained! (Just another record for you)... along with an address...

http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=ny...

Thanks, I'll check this out.

Thank you for taking the time to research, I appreciate your help. Sorry I left the birth dates off, I'm so use to them being the only ones in the U.S. Still today, most of the Gutzat's are my kin, in NJ and DE. My mother always said her father came in through Ellis Island. She and her cousins bought a plaque through the Ellis Island Foundation years ago, but I don't know if any documentation was required.

G-grandfather - August (b. 1860, Russia - d. 1910 NJ)
grandmother - Anna Obereiner (b. 1867 Gryzbina - d. 1953 Brooklyn, NY)

Grandfather - August (b. 1896, Russia - d. 1952 MD)
Grandmother - Naomi Hobbs (b. 1902 MD - d. 1967, FL)

Grandfather August had two brothers, Frederick and Gustav(e), and a sister Anna (who was born here).

I've found reference in ship records of g-grandmother with Gustav(e) indicating she may have returned to Germany and come back to the U.S.

I have a photo of my Grandfather in the doorway of the Gutzat Bros. Grocery. The only clues on it are Long Island 649 on the window. I'm not well versed in NY/NJ. I need to look for business directories between 1908 and 1919 when he married my Grandmother.

Again, many thanks for your efforts.

Cindy

I'll run to the library later today to check that out! Thanks, Cindy

Was disappointed to find I can not access the message board from the library and was unable to view the links. I could not find a way to drill down to detainee lists, though I could see passenger lists. I did, however, find my grandfather Gutzat's Certificate of Furlough (1919) identifying Grebne, Russia as his place of birth.

Not to worry...

Contact me at my personal email addy...

Here's the second link info...

You can easily view it through here....

http://stevemorse.org/ellis2/ellisgold.html?

First Name: AUGUST
Last Name: GUSTAT
Ethnicity: Russia, German
Last Place of Residence: WARTETE
Date of Arrival: May 19, 1905
Age at Arrival: 9 Gender: M Marital Status: S
Ship of Travel: GRAF WALDERSEE
Port of Departure: HAMBURG
Manifest Line Number: 0005

His detained sheet can also be found... but you'll have to pass a few pages to view it... not sure if you can view it though from the SteveMorse site...

But again, contact me and I will give you the rest of the info.

.•:*¨¨*:•..•:*¨¨*:•.LostQuays.•:*¨¨*:•..•:*¨¨*:•.