Seeking ship arriving from Breman, Germany in 1912

Hi Thomas, have you tried Familysearch.org (free after registration)? It lists a number of individuals by the name of Jan Kopec arriving to New York. Once you search for an individual's name, you can filter the results by collection (including NY arrivals).

One ship manifest, arriving in NY in 1912 from Bremen, was for the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. The manifest is a bit difficult to read but it looks like the ship departed Bremen in Sept 1912. There is a Jan Kopec listed (age 16) from what looks like Turze (Galicia, Austria) with a destination of Dubois, PA. Another Jan Kopec (age 18) possibly from Huta Komorowska (Galicia) with a destination of Elisabeth NJ arriving from Bremen in Oct 1912 is listed on the manifest for the Kaiser Wilhelm II. 

There were more individuals by the name of Jan Kopec listed, arriving 1912-1913 from various European ports.

Not sure if either of the two I found are your grandfather, but the site is worth searching if you have not already. Hope this is of some help. joan

Dear Mr. Kopec,

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

We searched the National Archives Catalog and located the series Records of Foreign Arrivals, 1860 - 1919 in the Records of the U.S. Customs Service (Record Group 36) that may include the ship you seek. For access to these records, please contact the National Archives at New York (RE-NY) via email at newyork.archives@nara.gov.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to guidance received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of NARA staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgement as well as a substantive response to your reference request from RE-NY. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and patience.

If he came through Ellis Island, he may be listed in the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Foundation database at https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger-result.

We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your family research!