Zobati/Zubata to Zoupcoff? A New Trail....

Last month, I wrote a post about the Zoupcoff family, in which the patriarch (Max) had been named as an uncle to my great grandmother's first cousins, the Supcoff brothers.  I mentioned how I hadn't been able to find this branch's ship manifests.  I challenged readers to find them--and took the challenge up myself to look again.  So I guess I win the genealogy points I advertised, since I found them.

Instead of searching under various spellings of Supkoff and Zubkis, I decided to try searching by first names.  From her gravestone, I know that daughter Sophia's Hebrew name was Shifra (the least common of the 3 Zoupcoff children born in Europe).  Looking for matches to the first name S*hifr* which arrived in 1906 (based on the 1910 census) and who were born between 1902 & 1904 (given her 1903 birth year) gave only 23 results.  I looked through each and found one which precisely matched the Zoupcoff family:

Zubata Family Ship Manifest; 1906

Rochel Zubata (matching Rachel Zoupcoff) arrived at the Port of Baltimore in September 1906 with 3 children:  David Jossel (matching David Joseph Zoupcoff), Reisi (matching Rose Zoupcoff) and Schifre (matching Sophia Zoupcoff).  Just as their husband and father Max had said on his naturalization papers, they were from Buki, and they were joining their husband/father Mayer (Max's Hebrew name) in Pittsburgh.

What was with this new name?  And could it be used to find Max's manifest as well?

Canadian Passenger Lists; Meier Zubati; December 1904

 Meier Zubati, a cooper from Russia, arrived in Montreal in December 1904.  Could this be Max?

Meier (later Max) Zobati (later Zoupcoff) Ship Manifest; 1905

It seems it was.  After a Canadian winter, Meir Zobati from Bouke (similar to the Buki mentioned on his naturalization papers) arrived in Buffalo on his way to Pittsburgh to a cousin, Louis Croiden (new name for me to investigate).

I know that my Supkoff family was formerly Zubkis.  But what's with this Zubata/Zobati family?  I'm working on figuring this one out!