Tracking Mira's Children: Nechemia

After discovering that my great-great-great grandmother Mira Halperin Lefand Marienhoff had at least eleven children, I wanted to track down what happened to each of them.  And a bit selfishly, perhaps one of their descendents would have information about Mira's family that I didn't have.

You can see everything in this series to this point here.

This is the first in a series that tracks each of Mira's children.  Her oldest, Pesha Riva, was my great-great grandmother, so I obviously knew what happened to her.  Mira's second child was her son Nechemia.

Birth Record for Nechemia Lefand, Nezhin, Ukraine, 1875

Nechemia Lefand was born to Yehoshua (son of Ber) and Mira (daughter of Yitzchok) Lefand on May 28, 1875 in what is now Nezhin, Ukraine.


The next record I've found of him was his boat record, sailing from Liverpool to Philadelphia:

Nechemia Lefand Boat Record, 1904

Nechemia's final destination was New York, where he was joining his (younger) brother Meyer.  He was a 27-year-old tailor who had last lived in Chernigov (the province Nezhin was in).

Searching for Lefands, I found a 1905 boat record for Masse Lefandt (aged 24) and her daughters Zipre (aged 4) and Malke (aged 2), and Masse's sister-in-law Chawe (aged 18).  They were all going to join Masse's husband (and Chawe's brother) Nechemi Lefandt on Montgomery Street in Syracuse.  (This brings to mind the Rubenstein/Sugarman family on the same street--and possibly the same address.)  And they were from Nieczyen.

Hamay and Mary Laffend with daughters Celia & Molly

By 1910, the family had Americanized their names.  Hyman and Mary Leffant were living in Syracuse with children Celia and Molly and American-born sons Hyman and Isadore.  Hyman owned his own tailor shop.

The family eventually changed the spelling of their family name to Laffend, and Nechemia settled on the first name Hamay.

Hamay Laffend WWI Draft Card

Hamay did register for the World War I draft, but I don't believe he served; he was already over 40 by that point.

1930 US Census, Laffend Family, Syracuse, New York

By 1930 the older children were out of the house, but younger children Rose and Beatrice had joined the family.

Hamay Laffend (formerly Nechemia Lefand) died in 1941 in Syracuse of a heart attack at the age of 66.

Hamay Laffend Obituary, Syracuse Herald-Journal, 1941

70+ years later, I've reconnected with lots of Hamay's grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Many of them still live in the Syracuse area.