This is an excerpt from “Faith and Family,” 150 Years of History and Tales of the Ed & Irene (Lamie) Fleis Family in Leelanau County, by Ruth Ann Smith.
At the age of nineteen, Tomasz sailed across the Atlantic aboard the Bristol, a 37-foot-wide by 304-foot-long vessel. It had three masts and one funnel, as ships at that time were transitioning from wind power to steam. Among the few belongs Tomasz carried on this journey in 1873 was his treasured violin. According to the ship’s passenger list, he departed from Hamburg on March 1, then sailed to Liverpool and on to Ireland. On April 8, the Bristol docked in New York City.
Tomasz traveled alone. He was the only Fleis family member listed on the manifest. From there, he might have traveled through the Eric Canal as most immigrants to Wisconsin did at th time, and then by steamship across the Great Lakes to Milwaukee on Lake Michigan.
