Antonia Heinz Barney – Early Life and Journey to America

Birth and Family Origins in Bohemia (1902)

Antonia Heinz was born on May 25, 1902, in Buchau, a small town near Karlsbad in the German-speaking region of Bohemia. Though her birth was recorded in Buchau, her family roots lay in the nearby village of Langlammitz, where her father, Sigmund von Heinz, was the youngest of five children raised on the family farm. Life in this corner of the Sudetenland was shaped by the land, the seasons, and the traditions of rural German communities.

Raised by Her Maternal Grandparents

Shortly after her birth, Antonia was sent to live with her maternal grandparents, Joseph and Marie Ulbert. She never knew exactly why she spent her earliest years with them, but she believed it was because life on the farm was demanding and her mother needed to work. Caring for a newborn while managing the constant labor of a farm may simply have been too much.
Antonia’s earliest memories were formed in her grandparents’ home. She remembered the geese they raised and how her grandmother used the feathers for bedding. She remembered the quiet routines of farm life — and she remembered being homesick. Even as a small child, she longed for home, dreaming at night of returning to her parents.
During one visit, her younger brother Joseph told her gently, “Antonia, you’ll be able to come home soon.” But her Aunt Emma Ulbert, her mother’s sister, had a different view. “What do you want to go home for?” she asked. “There’s nothing there.”
Returning Home and Beginning School
At age six, Antonia returned to her parents to begin school. The years with her grandparents left a deep imprint — a mixture of love, longing, and the early understanding that life could be both tender and difficult.

Leaving Bohemia at Eighteen (1920)

By the time she reached eighteen, the world around her was changing. The First World War had ended, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had collapsed, and the new state of Czechoslovakia was reshaping the lives of German-speaking families like hers. In 1920, Antonia made a decision that would define the rest of her life: she left Bohemia.
She traveled with her cousin Freida Heinz carrying only a few personal belongings. Among them was a porcelain dish painted with two scenes of Karlsbad — the famous spring waters and a view of the city. It was a small piece of home she could hold in her hands.

The Journey to Rotterdam and the T.S.S. Rotterdam

The two young women traveled first to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where they boarded the T.S.S. Rotterdam of the Holland America Line on November 23, 1920, bound for Brooklyn, New York. They had third-class passage, and Antonia later recalled how she and Freida once ventured up on deck, only to be startled by a pair of young men trying to flirt with them. The encounter frightened them so much that they spent most of the rest of the voyage in their compartment.

Ellis Island and the Flu Quarantine

When they reached New York Harbor, they arrived alongside eleven other ships. A flu epidemic forced all passengers to remain onboard an extra night before being allowed to disembark. Afterward, Antonia and Freida spent three days on Ellis Island, waiting for their interviews. Their sponsors — Frank and Emily Massaput of 326 Harmann Street in Brooklyn — worried endlessly about what had become of the girls.

Early Employment in America

Once admitted to the United States, Antonia found work as a chambermaid for Judge Clarence G. Glastow, a wealthy Long Island judge. She earned $50 a month, a respectable wage for a young immigrant woman. She remembered one evening when the household staff sat together in the kitchen, enjoying coffee and cream after their work was done. The next morning, the judge came downstairs wanting his coffee and cream — and was furious to find none left. It was a small moment, but one that stayed with her.

Eventually, her Aunt Emily persuaded her to leave the judge’s household for better opportunities. Antonia moved north to Garnet Lake in upstate New York, and later worked at Blue Mountain Lake, where she met Lee Barney, the man she would marry.

Building a Life in America

Antonia became a U.S. citizen in 1938, fully embracing the country she had crossed an ocean to reach. After Lee’s death in 1962, she continued living in their home on Feeder Dam Road, maintaining her independence with quiet determination. She even continued driving until she was 89 years old.

Later Years

In 1994, after a series of illnesses, she sold her home and moved in with her daughter, Eda Van Lew. Two years later, in 1996, she entered a nursing home in Saratoga Springs, where she formed a close companionship with a gentleman resident — a final reminder that even in her nineties, Antonia still sought connection, warmth, and human closeness.

A Life Remembered

Her life stretched from a small Bohemian village to the Adirondack foothills of New York, from a childhood of homesickness to a long adulthood of resilience. She carried her memories with her — the geese, the porcelain dish, the long voyage, the kitchen table in the judge’s house — and she shared them with you in 1992, leaving behind a story that now becomes part of your family’s history.