Constantine’s last European crossing — and one of the last neutral-Europe-to-America emigrations before the war fully closed the Atlantic routes. The List of United States Citizens for the SS Excalibur, sailing from Lisbon, Portugal on August 15, 1941 and arriving at the Port of New York on August 25, 1941. Form 432 of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service, image 144, NARA Image Group Number 004879875.
Constantine appears on line 26 of the manifest:
| Family name | Given name | Age | Sex | Status | Date / Place of birth | Naturalization | US Address |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JEANNOPOULOS | Constantine | 25 | M | S (Single) | June 21, 1916 — Metelyna, Greece | Nat. by father’s Citizenship Sept. 10, 1929 at NYC Superior Court | 29 W. 69th St., NYC |
Why this manifest is significant
-
Documentary proof of Constantine’s 1941 emigration to the US. He sailed from Lisbon — one of the few neutral ports still operating in wartime Europe — eight weeks after his Roma medical diploma was issued on July 9, 1941, and ten weeks after his June 11, 1941 marriage to Sophie in Rome. Sophie followed him on the SS Serpa Pinto in June 1942.
-
Single (S) at arrival — listed as unmarried by the inspector despite the June 1941 Rome wedding. This was consistent with how the US system treated marriages contracted overseas where the spouse had not yet immigrated; the formal US marital-status update would come once Sophie arrived in 1942.
-
Birth recorded as June 21, 1916 — Metelyna, Greece. The “June 21” US-records date (six days off from the 1923 baptismal certificate’s June 15) was already in operation in 1941. “Metelyna” is the contemporary Italian/English transliteration of Mytilene used in the era.
-
★ The 1929 naturalization date — and why July 9, 1931 is the correct one. The manifest records Constantine’s derivative US citizenship as having been acquired “by father’s Citizenship Sept. 10, 1929 at NYC Superior Court.” This conflicts with two other primary-source documents:
- Lazaros’s own 1937 sworn affidavit gives the naturalization as July 9, 1931 (Certificate #3421529)
- Constantine’s 1947 derivative US Certificate of Citizenship No. A-165551 gives July 9, 1931
The resolution: the September 10, 1929 entry on the manifest is most likely the date of Lazaros’s filed petition for naturalization — an intermediate step in the naturalization process — not the date of citizenship issuance. Lazaros filed his petition in 1929 and was admitted to citizenship in 1931. The Excalibur clerk recorded the earlier date by mistake or shorthand. The operative date for Constantine’s derivative US citizenship is July 9, 1931 as documented in both Lazaros’s 1937 affidavit and Constantine’s 1947 certificate.
- Address: 29 W. 69th Street, NYC — the address Constantine gave on arrival. He took a position at Flower-Fifth Avenue Hospital (105th Street and 5th Avenue, Manhattan) — his first US medical post. By the late 1940s he had moved to 2540 Cambreleng Avenue in the Bronx; by 1951 he was practicing on East 74th Street.
Constantine’s WWII timing
The August 25, 1941 arrival placed Constantine in the US just three months before Pearl Harbor. Within a year he had been granted his NY State medical license (November 16, 1942); within fifteen months he had entered the US Army Medical Corps (April 7, 1943). The Lisbon-to-New-York crossing was, in effect, the final pre-war emigration window for someone returning from fascist Italy with a fresh Italian MD.
