Treasure Chest Thursday: Michael Mikelbank, FLPBA 25th Anniversary publication

Insurance broker Meyer Mikelbank purchased an advertisement in the First Lubiner Progressive Benevolent Association 25th Anniversary publication. I do not believe he was a member of the FLPBA, but perhaps a friend.

Records indicate that Meyer Mikelbank arrived in the United States in 1910.[1] 

Mikelbank left Starokonstyantyniv, Ukraine (20 miles SSW of Labun) to join his father Peretz in New York City. In my research I have noted several Labun/Lubin families with ties to both Lubin and Starokonstyantyniv. It is possible that the larger community of Starokonstyantyniv was seen as offering greater opportunities for successful livelihood than the surrounding smaller villages.

In the 1930 U.S. Census, Meyer (enumerated as Michael) lived with his family (wife Sarah and children Helen and Murray) on East 3rd Street in Brooklyn.[2] In an earlier record from his naturalization in 1923, he and his family resided at 309 Houston Street, Manhattan.[3]

Meyer, his parents, his wife and other family members are buried in the United Old Konstantin Benevolent Society, Inc. landsmanshaft plot in Montefiore Cemetery. I recorded that plot a few years ago because my great great aunt Rebecca Myers Sotskess' husband Abraham was, for some reason, buried there (she, who died a few years earlier is buried in the one of the Lubiner plots in Montefiore). The photographs are online in the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry. Montefiore Cemetery is one of the NYC cemeteries that includes a burial inventory on its website.

Meyer's stone (Block 20, Gate 397N, Row 5L, Grave 9) reads: 

Meyer son of Peretz

MEYER MIKELBANK

DIED NOV. 16, 1976  AGE 84 YEARS

BELOVED HUSBAND

FATHER - GRANDFATHER

GREAT GRANDFATHER

Notes:
1.  "New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com ; accessed 25 February 2015), manifest, S.S. Nieuw Amsterdam, Rotterdam to New York, arriving 6 June 1910, p. 51, passenger 9, Meyer Mikelband; citing NARA microfilm publicationT715, roll 1494.
2. 1930 U.S. Census, Kings County, New York, population schedule, Brooklyn, enumeration district 24-1350, sheet 13B, dwelling 148, family 249, Michael Mikelbank; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 25 February 2015), citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1521.
3. Meyer Mickelbank petition of naturalization (February 1923), vol. 584, p. 198, Supreme Court, New York County.