52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #8 - Vilma what? Feher? Schmidt? Furez?

This is #8 in a Genealogy Blog Challenge issued by Amy Johnson Crow over on her blog "No Story Too Small." The challenge is to write 52 blog posts on 52 ancestors throughout 2014.

Graf Waldersee Hamburg Passenger List

 Vilma? Wilma? Wilhelmina?

She went by a few names in her life, but we don't know her birth name, or the name she died with.

Whoever she was, she was the father of Josef Schmidt (profiled here) and was born in approximately 1874 in Pankota, Austrio-Hungary.

The earliest record that we have of her is a passenger list.  Thirty-three year old Vilma was traveling from Hamburg to New York with her two children; Josef, aged 15, and Vilma, aged 11.  Departing on the 27th of April 1907, they were third class passengers and their ethnicity was listed as "Hungarian."

The Schmidt family arrived in New York two weeks later on the 11th of May, 1907. The New York Passenger list includes much more detail. She was listed as being married and her "calling or occupation" was listed as "wife."  She was able to read and write, and her final destination was Philadelphia. She already had the ticket to the final destination and her ticket was paid for by her "brother-in-law."  She had $8.00 to her name. Her brother-in-law is listed as "Johann Feher, Philadelphia PA., N Amerikaan St 8." She was in good health, not crippled, 5 feet, 1 inch tall, fair complexion, fair hair, brown eyes, and no "Marks of Identification". Her birthplace is listed as Pankota. I have not been able to locate this Johann Feher and have no idea whether he was married to her sister, or if he was related to her husband.

The Graf Waldersee

My grandmother, who was Vilma's grand-daughter, wrote to me once that:

"Any time I would ask my grandmother about my grandfather, she would mutter something in Hungarian and then spit." 

Needless to say, we don't have any information about her husband.

Vilma and her children did make it to Philadelphia, PA.  Sometime in 1910, prior to the census (so before April) Vilma married a man named Joseph Furesz. On the marriage index, her name is listed as "Wilhelmina." I have not obtained the marriage license yet so I do not know the exact date. According to the 1910 census taken in April, he was seven years younger than Wilhelmina. Listed with the newlywed Joseph and Wilhelmina is their 4 month old daughter, Margaret H. The census indicates that this was Wilhelmina's 2nd marriage and that by this time, she spoke English as well as German.

The next time that Vilma / Wilhelmina shows up is in the 1930 census - with the name "Wilma". She had moved to Chicago and was living with her 19 year old daughter, Margaret at 5724 Drexel Avenue. By 1930, Wilma was widowed. The 1930 census shows that she had naturalized, but I have never even found an index card for her, much less any other documents. She was working as a cook in a Steel Plant's restaurant and just so happened to have one of the Steel Plant's Foremen (and wife) rooming with her. She owned a Radio.

The last time Vilma / Wilhelmina / Wilma shows up in any documents, it is the 1940 census when she was 66 years old.  She was living at 6315 Harper Ave, in Chicago. She was living alone and still working as a cook in the Steel Mills making $1025 that year.  She had a 6th grade education.

We don't know when she died or where she was buried. I have not been able to find her death records anywhere in Illinois or even back in Pennsylvania. I have searched under Vilma Furez, Vilma Schmidt, Vilma Feher, Wilhelmina Furez, Wilhelmina Schmidt, Wilhelmina Feher, Wilma Furez, Wilma Schmidt, and Wilma Feher. (The Feher last name is based off the "brother-in-law" mentioned earlier.)

Vilma, Wilma, Wilhelmina is my 2nd great-grandmother on my mother's side.