Red Star Line Museum in Antwerp

When people from the Udbina-area traveled to America in the early 1900s, most took a very similar path.  The vast majority left from Bremen Germany and most traveled to Baltimore (though a sizable number traveled to New York).

My great-grandfather, Jandre Kljaić traveled from Bremen to New York (on his way to St. Louis).

Before the immigrants got on the boat to leave their European port they had to go through a screening and cleansing process.  The shipping lines put immigrants through this process because they wanted to be sure that the US authorities would accept the the immigrants once they arrived in America.  US authorities would check the immigrants' health when they arrived in America (hence the questions about their health on the immigration form) and if they were denied entry, they were sent back to Europe and the shipping line had to pay for that return trip.

The Red Star Line Museum in Antwerp, Belgium documents the process that immigrants went through (and also talks about other parts of the immigration journey).  The Museum is located in the very site used by the Red Start Line for this screening.  My family and I visited the museum in June 2016.  For those interested in what the immigration experience was like, I highly recommend the museum.

Based on my visit to the museum, here are the steps of the screening process.

1. Travelers were separated by gender.   
2. They then stripped and gave their clothes and luggage to the employees of the shipping line.
3. The travelers took showers and were cleansed of lice.  Meanwhile their luggage and clothes were put in larger chambers (see picture below) so they could be chemically disinfected under high pressure steam (immigrants recall that their belongings were damp when they were returned to them).
4.  A doctor checked for lice other signs of good health.  

A picture of the chambers where travelers' belongings were disinfected.