Bertha Benson Stowaway

Bertha Benson and her brother John Benson were taken to Sweden with their mother after father John Benson died. The three of them made a trip back to the United States and then returned to Sweden. Bertha and John were born in Worcester, Massachusetts and they wanted to return to this country. So they were stowaways on the Shortsville, Gothenburg, Sweden. They arrived at Ellis Island on December 18, 1919. Bertha was 15 and John was listed as William J. Benson, age 15 (actually he was 13).

There were newspaper articles written about them. They had hoped to live with their uncle Carl Benson in Providence, Rhode Island, who died in June 18, 1919. His son Ernest A. is listed as 19.

Another uncle living in Providence, Rhode Island, is Aaron Calin. Mrs. Calin is quoted as saying her husband is the half-brother of the children’s father.

No one wants to take the children. They were separated and to make a long story short, my grandmother married my grandfather and was hanging out the laundry when the milkman was going by. This milkman was her brother John and they were reunited after many years of separation.

Next I write the Rhode State Archives for Carl Benson’s death certificate and I start looking at the census records for these two families in Rhode Island.

Getting John Benson's Death Certificate

As a beginning genealogist I begin by sending for birth, marriage, and death certificates. I know Bertha’s father, John Peter Benson, was a painter and fell from scaffolding. He also lived in Worcester, Massachusetts.

I send a letter to the Massachusetts archives to obtain his death certificate. I had been told he died in 1915. On the death certificate lists his birthplace as Sweden, father is John Benson born in Sweden, and his mother is unknown but born in Sweden.