M y grandfather used to tell a story of how he was a babe in arms when his parents left Poland in search of a new life.

They’d been planning to go to America, but his dad was suffering from an eye infection so severe that they were forced to abort their journey in the UK to seek medical attention. Once here they decided they liked it well enough to stay.

I’ve never been sure of the exact dates or names, but I was aware that siblings of my great-grandparents were travelling around the same time and did make it all the way to the New World.

They settled in Maryland and, from time to time since I was born, descendants of that family have come to visit us in London. I’ve always referred to them as “my American cousins”.

Passenger manifest from Holland America 1909 sailing - There-s a -Nudel- a few lines down

Passenger manifest from Holland America 1909 sailing - there's a Nudel a few lines down

This story isn’t unique — it is how so many Jewish families who fled persecution in eastern Europe ended up dispersing to different corners of the world.

I accepted it for what it was, without questioning how they came or what it was like to make that journey and to leave behind everything they knew. Thanks to a chance work assignment, however, all that was about to change.

That work assignment — I’m a travel writer — was a transatlantic crossing to the US with cruise line Holland America.

This year sees the line’s 150th anniversary and to celebrate it has scheduled a year of commemorative sailings. Mine was to be the first — a recreation of its maiden voyage, which sailed from Rotterdam to New York via Le Havre and Plymouth.

The ship that sailed was called the SS Rotterdam and on it were thousands of emigrants from Europe in search of a new life. Over the subsequent decades millions more would make that very same journey to the Promised Land.

Jo at the top of New York-s newest attraction The Edge

Jo at the top of New York-s newest attraction The Edge

The day before I left, an email popped into my inbox from my trip organiser. I was due to join the ship in Plymouth, but other journalists had hopped aboard earlier in Rotterdam, where they were taken to visit the city’s archives.

Here they’d learned how archivists had recently gone to great lengths to digitise Holland America Line’s passenger lists for much of the 1900s. The email read as follows:

Dear Jo
This came up at dinner last night. There’s a new link which allows people to look up information about their relatives’ immigration to the New World…

The link had become active a few months ago and listed on it were some astonishing household names: Albert Einstein was a Holland America Line immigrant, as was the writer Thomas Mann.

The link kept staring at me. I was dumbstruck. While so many records and archives were destroyed during the two World Wars, here was a key one that remained. Better still, it had been updated.

I needed to pack and prepare for this trip — rummaging around on this site would delay me. Then again, finding my own ancestors was just a click away. The pull proved irresistible and my fingers returned to the keyboard.

Jos grandfather Maurice Needle age 12 years

Jos grandfather Maurice Needle age 12

First up, the name! While my maternal grandfather was known as Maurice Needle (which seems fitting given that he was a tailor) this was not his real name. His father was born a Nudel and had, like so many others, anglicised it on their arrival in the UK.

With excitement I clicked on the link, typed in “Nudel” and waited. Soon afterwards a word flashed on the screen: “MATCHED”.

As I browsed through lists of names, the Nudels were highlighted in yellow. There was a Lieb Nudel who’d sailed in 1902. Then a Srul Nudel who’d travelled a couple of years later. There were Goldbergs and Schwarzmans. Weintsteins and Kleins, but there weren’t many Nudels.

The dates, however, needed to match. My grandfather was born in 1907. To still be a “babe in arms” my great-grandparents needed to be sailing while he was small enough to not be considered a child.

Jo-s Mama and Papa (Hannah and Maurice) engaged

Jo's mama and papa, Hannah and Maurice

There was a Sure Nudel in 1906 — too early; there was a Motel Nudel in July 1909 — too late. I was running out of time and realised that more detailed searching would have to wait until after I returned home from the trip.

The brand-new, 2,700-passenger cruise ship the MS Rotterdam awaited me in Plymouth. It’s the newest in Holland America Line’s fleet and looks very different to its namesake that sailed 150 years ago. It’s classy, arty and elegant, as was my deluxe cabin, which had Elemis toiletries in the bathroom and a private balcony.

The crossing was to take seven days — this would be the longest period of time I had ever been at sea without stepping onto land.

One hundred and fifty years ago it would have taken twice as long, if not more. The days soon settled into a rhythm with daily exercise classes as well as lectures by a brilliant American historian called Bill Miller.

Jo on the wraparound Promenade Deck on MS Rotterdam

Jo on the wraparound Promenade Deck on MS Rotterdam

I learned how immigrants paid $10 each to travel in steerage, which bought them basic accommodation, three meals a day (nothing fancy) and the right to be allowed out for only one hour in every 24.

I, on the other hand, enjoyed getting as much fresh air as possible either by the pools, in the hot tubs or on the promenade deck.

Here I’d gaze at the ever-changing faces of the Atlantic. For 48 hours it became a frothing monster of 15-foot waves and I wondered how those who travelled in steerage would have fared on a ship without stabilisers. They’d have needed cast-iron stomachs.

Many passengers chose my historic sailing due to a personal connection with the liner. Fred Piellusch, 80, from Florida told me how his grandparents left Germany and boarded a Holland America ship in 1912 and how he and his wife have now cruised with the liner 37 times.

“We’ve loved every one of those cruises,” he said, “though we didn’t sail steerage!”

Throwback Happy Hour - where the cocktails and their prices are from 150 years ago

Jo at Throwback Happy Hour - where the cocktails and their prices are from 150 years ago

Also on my voyage was Marianne Adams,75, whose Jewish parents hid in Amsterdam during the war. They got married in 1946 and, nearly a decade later (when Marianne was eight years old), they emigrated to America on a Holland America ship.

“I still remember that journey well,” she recalled.

To mark this historic anniversary there were special offerings on my sailing.

The main dining room served dishes from the 150-year-old menu (think chopped sirloin steak with brown mustard sauce and Dutch apple pie) and there were “classic cruise games” (such as beer pong and cornhole) held poolside daily.

Best of all, however, was what was billed as a “Throwback Happy Hour” — drinks from 150 years ago served at 1873 prices. G&T: 50 cents; A Dutch 150 (sparkling wine, gin, lemon): 25 cents; a 150th Martini: 75 cents.

This was a really lovely touch and, as I ordered some of these bargain cocktails (20p a pop!), I wondered if any of them had ever been bought by any of my ancestors in the 1900s.

MS Rotterdam-s main central pool during jos craibean trip

MS Rotterdam's main central pool

They’ll be served again on a repeat historic transatlantic sailing departing April 6.
Our arrival in New York required a 5am wake-up and felt especially symbolic. Like us, the immigrants would have sailed past the Statue of Liberty, which signalled that they’d finally reached the land of the free.

Next we passed Ellis Island. This is where my ancestors (along with all immigrant passengers, even Einstein) would have disembarked. Medics would have ascertained their fitness — those in bad health weren’t necessarily admitted.

Officials would have checked their paperwork. If it wasn’t in order they risked being sent back. Entrance was likely, but not guaranteed.

Finally we docked in Manhattan. Of course the Big Apple would have looked very different 150 years ago — the skyscrapers soaring from the sea and twinkling in the dark wouldn’t have existed.

But the city’s energy and sense of possibility would have felt the same. I felt it as I walked around Times Square, Central Park and down Fifth Avenue. And I saw it when I stepped onto the city’s newest attraction “The Edge” — a cantilevered viewing platform 100 storeys high.

Back at home it’s time to pull an old, dusty suitcase out from under my bed. It’s full of photos and memorabilia belonging to my grandfather Maurice Needle, who I called “Papa”.

Jo US Cousins L to R Jos hubby Marc Cousin Selene Nudel from Maryland with her husband Harvey

Family reunion: Jo Kessel, second left, and her husband Marc, left, with her cousin in Maryland Selene Nudel and her husband Harvey

I find a picture of my Papa aged 12; there’s a beautiful old engagement photo of my Papa Maurice to my Mama Hannah; there’s an even older photo of my great-grandfather and I learn that his first name was Barnet. There was also a copy of his extremely old and disintegrating identity card, from when he arrived in the UK. He’d clearly considered himself a “Russian Pole”.

I spend hours poring over everything, looking for clues — dates and names to input into the Rotterdam archive link. I try again and find several Nudels on a crossing that departed from the Netherlands in February 1909.

I can even see the official handwritten manifest with their names on it and it is goose-bump-inducing stuff. One of the Nudels was travelling with a wife and baby. Could this have been Barnet with his family and siblings? The likelihood is high.

Perhaps I’ll never know for sure, but it’s been fun and rewarding trying to fit the pieces of the jigsaw together and to experience the same transatlantic journey that so many of my forefathers embarked upon.

It took four years and a large team of volunteers for Rotterdam to compile this all-important database. I’m eternally grateful to them for giving up their time for this cause — the fruit of their labour will undoubtedly help many Jewish descendants fill in gaps on their family trees.

TIPS FOR USING THE SITE
The link: stadsarchief.rotterdam.nl/apps/stadsarchief.nl/zoek-en-ontdek/themas/holland-amerika-lijn/

Use the Google translate function at the top to flip the page to English

Be as accurate with spellings as possible

Not all passengers who made the crossing are listed — just the person who bought the tickets. After the name it states how many people they paid for.
l Different columns show if it was an adult, child or baby who travelled.

MAKE THAT HISTORIC JOURNEY
A 13-day Holland America Line 150th anniversary transatlantic crossing from Rotterdam to New York (with stops in Dover and Plymouth) costs from £1,399pp. Price includes full board, drinks, excursions, wi-fi and dinner in a speciality restaurant. hollandamerica.com