Treasure Chest Thursday: The Wilson Family

Selig Wilensky arrived in the United States in November 1891.[1] In his new land he became Saul Wilson. It was more than five years before his family joined him from Kasan, Russian Empire (today Kozyany, Belarus).[2] From 1898 through 1904 they lived in Hudson, New York. Their youngest daughter, Esther, was born in September 1898 in Hudson - their only child born in the United States.

Saul Wilson, Nina Wilson Herman, Benjamin Wilson, Esther Wilson Marwit Wasmflash, Joseph Wilson, Hoda Wilson (circa 1903); family collection.

I have a copy of this photograph and, therefore, have no information about the studio in which it was taken. I do not know if any family members have the original.

Hudson city directories for 1901 and 1902 list four photography studios:

Charles Booth, 551 Warren
Sullivan Brothers, 425 Warren
Nelson E. Weeks, 609 Warren
Volkert Whitbeck, Forshew's Photograph Gallery, 441 Warren [3]

Weeks' studio is no longer listed in 1903 and 1904 Hudson directories.[4]

Notes:

1."New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 20 October 2008), manifest, Polaria, Stettin to New York, arriving 23 November 1891, passenger number 196, Selig Wilenski; citing National Archives Microfilm Serial M237, Microfilm Roll 579.
2. "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 7 September 2009), manifest, Pisa, Hamburg to New York, arriving 1 June 1897, list 7, Hode, Nachame, Josef and Benjamin Wilensky; citing National Archives Microfilm Serial M237, Microfilm Roll 579.
3. J.H. Lant, Hudson City, Claverack and Stottville Directory (Hudson: J.H. Lant, 1901), 176; also 1902, 179; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 August 2014). 
4. J.H. Lant, Hudson City, Claverack and Stottville Directory (Hudson: J.H. Lant, 1903), 174; also 1904, 170; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 August 2014).