Sunday, June 28, 2015

An Unusual Name, Many Spellings - Zoupcoff/Zypkoff Branch

Earlier, I'd tracked my cousins (1st cousins, 3 times removed) Ben Supkoff and Irving/Isidore and Max Supcoff.  On their manifests, they all had mentioned that they were joining their uncle, Max Zupkoff/Zypkoff who lived on Webster Avenue in Pittsburgh.  So who was Max and how is he related?  This is the second in the Supkoff Spellings series.

Max Zoupcoff (sometimes Zypkoff) was born in 1872.  On his naturalization papers, he said that he was born in Buke, Russia.  This is possibly Buki, Ukraine to the northeast of Uman.  This town is about as equidistant to Kuna as Kuna is to Shpikov where my Supkoff family lived before emigrating.  Max also states that he came to Canada first, passing through Montreal before taking a train to Buffalo.  I have not been able to find either a manifest taking him or his family to Canada or a train manifest to Buffalo.  Bonus genealogy points and a mention in a future post if you can find one of those!  (Update:  Found them here--but under an unexpected surname!)
Max Zoupcoff Naturalization Documents; 1908 & 1912
What were Max's parents names?
Max Zoupcoff's Grave--Max's Hebrew name was Meir and his father was Michel Yehudah; Pittsburgh, PA
On Max's grave, his father is given as Michel Yehudah. On his wedding license (he remarried after his first wife's death), he states that his mother's name was "Marian Slusky."

Max Zypkoff Marriage License (2nd marriage); 1941--note mother's name
Likely his mother was actually Miriam.

Max and his wife Rachel (nee Slavsky) had four children:
  • David, born in "Russia" around 1898; died November 1955 in Pittsburgh.  David had 3 children:
    • Bernard, June 1925-September 1925 in Pittsburgh
    • Elaine, 1927-1942 in Pittsburgh
    • Charlotte (the only to live to adulthood) married Marvin Fiedler, and they had 3 children.  Charlotte lived 1931-1991.
  • Rose, born in "Russia" around 1901; I haven't tracked down Rose's married name.
  • Sophia, born in "Russia" around 1903; died age 23 in Pittsburgh
  • Baby Boy (born and died December 4, 1909 in Pittsburgh)
Other than the allusion to living in "Buke," I've not been able to find anything connecting Max to Europe.  I've found no connection between Michel Yehudah and my Supkoff/Zubkis family.  I've tried to find the ship manifest of the family coming to Canada without luck.  Max is definitely connected since my relatives were traveling to him (and they had my great-great grandparents, their aunt & uncle who had lived in the same town, living in Pittsburgh).  But it's still an open question.  Do any readers have an idea of where else to look?

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