In 1909, an eighteen-year-old Slovak named George Petras boarded a ship in Bremen and crossed the Atlantic. Immigration officials spelled his name four different ways. He settled on Thomas Street in Newark, married, raised seven children, worked the docks at Port Newark, and waited thirty-five years to make his citizenship official. This documentary biography traces his journey through the primary sources that survived him.

Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Documentary Biographies From Research to Story