Avrum's Women, Part 1: Chana

One need only look at the layout of the Garber graves in Old Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, New York to gain insight to my great grandfather Avrum Garber's Eastern European Orthodox Jewish thoughts about women: they belonged elsewhere. 

Some of the Garber men - all in a row
(photo taken by & in possession of author)

Shortly after Avrum arrived in New York from Lubin (aka Labun) in 1922, he purchased graves in the First Lubiner Progressive Benevolent Association plot for himself and all his sons: Nathan, Max, Jack (Jacob) and Eddie (Aaron). Their wives and his youngest daughter could fend for themselves. Of course, after Avrum died, the family did not follow all his wishes, but that's another story.

This family history story (to be presented in several posts) is about Avrum's women: Chana, Feigah, Norma, and Pesza.  All of whom are mysteries.

Part 1: Chana

Chana Mazewitsky (or Macevicke) was Avrum's wife and mother of their seven children. Avrum (born about January 1864 [1]) was a widower by the time he followed most of his children and emigrated to the United States, arriving on 10 Nov 1922.[2] Thus far, I have been unsuccessful in locating any records from Lubin which is in today's Ukraine. The information I have gleaned about Chana is principally from patterns identified in data regarding her children and other relatives. 

The story told in the family is that the youngest children did not emigrate until after their mother died. The emigration history of the children is as follows:

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American Name	Yiddish Name	Birth Date	US Arrival Date
Nathan	Nuchum	1884	18 Jun 1910 [3]
N/A	Perl	Ca 1888	N/A
Max	Motel	1889	30 Dec 1907 [4]
N/A	Sura	Ca 1892	N/A
Jack	Yankl	1894	2 Sep 1912 [5]
Fannie	Feigah	1901	2 Apr 1922 [6]
Eddie	Aron	1903	2 Apr 1922 [6]

Avrum: a man of the Book

It does seem odd that no one in the family has a photo of Chana. We do have a photo of Avrum, presumably taken in the old country. And, of course, we also have a photo of the family taken in New York City shortly after his arrival.

One thing we do know about Chana is that her brother was Isadore Morris (nee Itzik Mazewitsky) - my other great grandfather.  Jack Garber (my grandfather) married his first cousin (Isadore's eldest daughter) Dora (my grandmother). [7]

Isadore's death certificate indicates that his parents were "Solomon Morris" (actually probably Mazewitsky since he never came to the US) and "Sarah Klein." [8] Isadore's headstone at Montefiore Cemetery indicates that his father's Hebrew name was Schlomo. [9] Schlomo and Sarah were likely also Chana's parents, although I have no documentation to confirm that. 

Isadore was born in 1874. Since the eldest known child of Avrum and Chana, Nuchum, was born in 1884, Chana must have been older than her brother Isadore.

We can, based upon birth dates for Avrum and Chana's grandchildren, estimate a death date for Chana. In Ashkenazi Jewish tradition, children are named for close relatives who have died. Typically girls are named for female relatives and boys for male. And, typically, while the Hebrew name may be the same as the one being memorialized, the name in the local language usually starts with the same sound.  Chana's namesake granddaughters shared her Hebrew name. 

All the Garber Chanas are highlighted in the following chart of granddaughter births. The earliest Chana, Annette Garber (daughter of Max and Mary Garber), was born 26 May 1921. The last female child born before that (12 Sep 1917) was Leah Garber, daughter of Jack and Dora Garber. The best we can say, at this point, is that Chana Mazewitsky Garber died after 12 Sep 1917 and before 26 May 1921.
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Birth	Nathan	Perl	Max	Jack	Fannie	Eddie
20 Jul 1907 [10]	Rae
14 Sep 1909 [10]	Lillian
17 Aug 1915 [11]			Ruth
25 Dec 1916 [12]	Sarah
12 Jun 1917 [11]			Mildred (Minnie)
12 Sep 1917 [13]				Leah
26 May 1921 [11]			Annette
1 Aug 1926 [14]		Chana
2 Aug 1927 [15]			Harriet
11 Jun 1928 [16]					Anita
1931			Joan
1936					Sandra
1938						Annette

One more tantalizing bit of information about Chana and her family comes from the Shoah Names Database at Yad Vashem. Survivors and relatives have submitted Pages of Testimony for those who died in the Holocaust. Family lore suggests that Isadore and Chana also had two brothers, Moishe and Munyon, who stayed in Europe. A search of Yad Vashem on the town of "Labun" and "Lubin" turned up three Pages of Testimony filled out in 1999 for the Macavicke family. One of the victims was Shmulik Macavicke (born about 1915) son of Monia and Tzipa. Monia may well be a match for Munyon.

Shmulik and his wife Sonya Weisman had a son Aron.  Shmulik, Sonya and Aron were all murdered in 1941. I have yet to try to contact the person who submitted the Page of Testimony, David Weisman (obviously a relative of Sonya's), but I intend to do so.

Chana's story, like those of the others I will relate in the next few posts, is incomplete. There are several avenues yet to pursue and there may be more information forthcoming over the next months and years. If you have further information or suggestions, please share. Any recalled stories, photos, old letters and postcards from Lubin would be most welcome.

Notes
1. New York County, New York, Standard Certificate of Death no. 376 (3 January 1928), Abraham Garber, New York City Municipal Archives, New York.
2. "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 18 June 2012), manifest, Aquitania, Southampton to New York, arriving 10 November 1922, list 4, Awrum Garber; citing National Archives Microfilm Serial T715.
3. "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 18 June 2012), manifest, Uranium, Rotterdam to New York, arriving 18 June 1910, list 10, Nuchum Garber; citing National Archives Microfilm Serial T715.
4. "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 18 June 2012), manifest, Pretoria, Hamburg to New York, arriving 30 December 1907, list 10, Motel Garber; citing National Archives Microfilm Serial T715.
5. "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957,: digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 19 June 2012), manifest, Birma, Libau to New York, arriving 3 September 1912, list 26, Jankel Arber, citing National Archives Microfilm Serial T715.
6. "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957,: digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 19 June 2012), manifest, Lapland, Antwerp to New York, arriving 2 April 1922, list 7, Feiga and Aron Garber, citing National Archives Microfilm Serial T715.
7. New York County, New York, Certificate and Record of Marriage no. 19588 (12 August 1916), Jacob Garber and Dora Morris, New York City Municipal Archives, New York.
8. Bronx County, New York, Standard Certificate of Death no. 12512 (22 December 1947), Isidore Morris, New York City Municipal Archives, New York.
9. Montefiore Cemetery (Queens County, New York), Isidore Morris marker, block 89, gate 156N; personally read, 2008.
10. Nathan Garber Petition for Naturalization no. 85372 (1 July 1919), New York Supreme Court, New York County; Family History Library microfilm 1,451,074.
11. Max Garber Petition for Naturalization no. 209101 (19 May 1935), U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, National Archives and Records Administration publication M1879.
12. New York County, New York, Standard Certificate of Death no. 5897 (9 February 1919), Sarah Garber, New York City Municipal Archives, New York.
13. Jacob Garber Petition for Naturalization no. 84430 (26 June 1924), New York Supreme Court, Kings County; Family History Library microfilm 1,221,831.
14. Isseck Zabarsky, Petition for Naturalization no. 334160 (9 June 1942), U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York; Family History Library microfilm 1,783,490.
15. Kings County, New York, Standard Certificate of Death no. 20134 (5 October 1929), Harriet Garber, New York City Municipal Archives, New York.
16. "United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org : accessed 19 June 2012), Anita Stein (11 June 1928 - 4 July 2003).

The URL for this post is: http://extrayad.blogspot.com/2012/06/avrums-women-part-1-chana.html

Other Posts in this series:
Avrum's Women, Part 2: Feiga Grinfeld 
Avrum's Women, Part 3: Following Feiga (and Raya), the heartland
Avrum's Women, Part 4: The Trouble with Harry
Avrum's Women, Part 5: Finding Feiga 
Avrum's Women, Part 6: Added Confirmation
Avrum's Women, Part 7: Feiga's Family
Avrum's Women, Part 8: Fannie's Story

  

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: How popular was the name Emily through the decades?

Well, I've been away from blogging for a few weeks. Frankly, I retreat when my hobby starts becoming stressful. And working full-time, exercising, taking a Russian class, blogging, indexing the 1940 U.S. Census and trying (and flailing!) to get some of my own genealogy/family history work done was getting to be too much. So, I pulled away from blogging for a few weeks.  Now I'm refreshed and ready to start anew.

I thought I'd start with a fun (and easy post). Randy Seaver, a prolific blogger, sponsors "Saturday Night Genealogy Fun" each weekend: an opportunity and a challenge to post a blog on a topic he proposes.  Tonight's Genea-Musings prompt: "Tell us about how the popularity of your name has changed over the decades.  Were you named during the buildup, the height, or the drawdown of the popularity of your given name?"

Well, I've long considered the fact that the name "Emily" has become incredibly popular in the last twenty years as a sign that I have been an excellent caretaker and ambassador for the name.  In fact, I knew few Emilys when I was growing up (there were a couple of Emmys, but I scoffed at them for desecrating the name). Now, however, I've started to get over turning around every time I'm in a public place and a mother calls to her child, "Emily!" There are just so many!

So, following Randy's  suggestion I have checked the popular baby names website, entered the subject name and here are the results:

1880s: Rank 91; Percent with name 0.24%; number 3,368

1890s: Rank 94; Percent with name 0.23%; number 5,476

1900s: Rank 101; Percent with name 0.21%; number 6,421

1910s: Rank 102; Percent with name 0.20%; number 17,062

1920s: Rank 137; Percent with name 0.15%; number 18,743

1930s: Rank 170; Percent with name 0.11%; number 11,919

1940s: Rank 178; Percent with name 0.09% number 13,399

1950s: Rank 225; Percent with name 0.07%; number 12,836

1960s: Rank 251; Percent with name 0.07%; number 12,333

1970s: Rank 66; Percent with name 0.28%; number 46,824

1980s: Rank 25; Percent with name 0.71%; number 131,000

1990s: Rank 3; Percent with name 1.21%; number 237,000

2000s: Rank 1; Percent with name 1.14%; number 207,000 

Obviously, my parents were ahead of their times.  I was born in 1954, almost the nadir of the Emily phenomenon. But since I came into adulthood, my name has flourished among newborns.  So, I definitely take credit for this statistical tour de force.

Ashkenazi Jewish tradition is that children are named for deceased relatives of the same gender. Typically the parents use the Hebrew name of the deceased and come up with a local (in this case English) language equivalent using the same starting sound. My parents wanted to name me for my great grandfather Isidore (Yitzchak Leib) Morris.  The Yiddish equivalent of Yitchak is Itzik.  They took the starting sound and decided Emily was the name for me. I have a female cousin who was named Ilene for the same reason.

My parents apparently found out later from some rabbi that when male Hebrew names are converted into female equivalents, they may change quite a bit.  Whomever they consulted said that the female Hebrew name for Yitzchak Leib should be Gilah Gabora. Go figure. My mother used to laugh and tell me that I should have been named Gail.

While Abigail ranked 6 in the 2000s, at 0.75% and 136,000, the 1950s was the height for Gail:

Rank 44; Percent with name 0.43%; number 85,595

Imagine how popular that name would now be if I had gotten hold of it! 

The URL for this post is: http://extrayad.blogspot.com/2012/06/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how.html