By TAMARA HARTMAN

Andrew Rabikauskas, 22, and Anna Moscinska, 19, arrived at Ellis Island, New York City less than one year apart. They had never met, but Andrew was sponsored by his brother in Maspeth whose wife was Anna’s sister – and her sponsor.

Wedding of Andrew Roberts (Rabikauskas) and Anna Moscinska (center, front) on Oct. 18, 1909. They would raise their family in Maspeth.

Someone had to sponsor you if you wanted to journey to a new life in America in 1904 and 1905. Andrew’s last name was shortened to "Roberts" and in 1909 it was Roberts that Anna took as her last name. Andrew worked at a paper box company and together they save their money until they could buy a candy store and they lived in the back room with their children. They served Maspeth’s "Polack Alley," and later could afford a home within sight of P.S. 72.

Andrew filled out his initial paperwork to become a United States citizen, but when he returned for the final papers, a clerk poked at a fellow clerk behind the counter while Andrew was writing. One of Andrew’s fingers never did bend correctly, and as he work the clerk laughed "look, they’re letting anyone in the country these days, even cripples." Andrew turned, walked away, and never finished the paperwork because life got too busy.

For 20 years, Andrew worked for the Albert Paper Box Co. in Brooklyn, stripping cardboard and supporting his three daughters.

Andrew’s ticket to America from Lithuania aboard the Steamship Pennsylvania.

Two of his daughters met their husbands while skating at the World’s Fair Skating Rink in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park . . . skating and marriage seemed to go hand in hand for their cousins as well.

His eldest daughter died in 1943, leaving behind a son-in-law in grief and a granddaughter. Andrew and Anna raised their granddaughter and in the early morning hours of 1946 he would get up at about 4 a.m. and sit down for a cup of coffee. Theodora, just about six then, would join him for her three-quarters-milk coffee, and then he was off by public transportation to International Folding Box Co. in North Bergen, New Jersey for the day’s work.

And somedays, Theodora would meet her father Theodore on the Triboro Coach bus route he drove from Ridgewood to Long Island City for fifty years. She would sit behind the money machine and push the button to count the coins . . .that was her job.

Theodore’s family had owned a farm in Maspeth and the love of the land and growing things never left him or his borthers. His brother, Stanley Szachacz, bought the greenhouses on College Point Boulevard (next to what would later be Western Beef) with a partner in 1953 and his wife, Ruth, was "dying a thousand deaths," worried about the expense. "All I saw was an empty bank book," she said, but Stanley saw what he could grow. After his partner passed away, Stanley operated the Maple Crest Greenhouses himself until he sold them in 1988. He worked out in the greenhouses everyday, then came home to his house next door and worked growing vegetables in the garden for Ruth because, she explained, "that was his relaxation, he said."