Yeshaya/Josiah/Joshua/John/J. Supkoff's Permit Appeal Results!

A few weeks ago, I talked about how my great-great grandfather applied for a permit to build an extension to his home in Pittsburgh--but how the various papers gave him a different given name when mentioning his permit application.  There was a hearing to discuss if the permit would be granted, and it was denied.  And then one newspaper mentioned that he was appealing the denial.

But he didn't seem to appear again.  I wondered what happened--and some readers asked on Facebook and Twitter if I knew what happened.  Initially I was thinking that I'd need to wait for local Pittsburgh repositories to re-open post-COVID.  But I also realized that the OCR technology used to allow old newspapers to be searchable isn't perfect, so perhaps there was another mention of this case where Supkoff wasn't captured?  So I searched by the address of the home, narrowing search results to 1925 newspapers in Pennsylvania.  And there it was.

Joseph Supkoff Building Permit Appeal Decision; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; June 12, 1925

A Yeshaya by Any Other Name....

My great-great grandfather was Yeshaya Supkoff.  He was inconsistent with what name he used once in the United States.  But some of it wasn't his fault--it seems that even for one event, the newspapers used different names for him.

On March 1, 1925, three separate Pittsburgh newspapers reported on Yeshaya's application for a building permit.  But the three newspapers called him three different things.

J. Supkoff Building Permit Application; Pittsburgh Daily Post; March 1, 1925

Zubkis Family, 1858 Style

I've been researching my Zubkis family for years (although when I started, I was researching the Supkoff family--which turns out to be an Americanization of the original name).  My branch of the family lived in Kuna for multiple years, and I thought I'd exhausted all Kuna resources.  When Alex Krakovsky posted the 1903 Kuna census which referenced an 1858 revision list, I was excited, since no one seemed to know where the 1858 revision was--and in fact, it had possibly burnt up in the Kamenets-Podolsk archives fire.

But it turns out the 1858 revision (which is a Russian Empire type of census) is still around.  And it may have found a new ancestor for me.

Header of a page of the Kuna 1858 Revision

Enumerated....Three Times

Every genealogist knows the frustration of not finding a specific family member enumerated in a census.  A lucky genealogist will find family members enumerated in two places because they in school (and enumerated there as well as at home) or had moved right in time to be enumerated at an old and new home.  But have you ever found someone enumerated THREE times in one census?

Meet someone who has: Srul son of Mordechai Zubkis, my second cousin four times removed.

Zubkis Family, 1875 Russian Empire Conscription Census, Kuna, Gaysin Uezd

Movement Between Russian Empire Towns

Many people assume that Jews in the Russian Empire lived in the same village for generations.  While sometimes that was the case, often it wasn't.  As an example, we can look at my own Zubkis family to see their movement, generation by generation.  And this is only what I've found so far!  (I'll be posting something similar for Hungarian Jews, so stay tuned!)

Places Within Modern-Day Ukraine Zubkis Descendants Lived

The Zuboks of Radomyshl - My Relatives?

Thanks to Alex Krakovsky putting more and more Ukrainian records online (check out what he has here if you haven't yet), I've spent quite a bit of time going down many rabbit holes.  Some have paid off, some haven't, and some are still in progress.

These records have helped me to track my Zubkis family to areas across Podolia Guberniya and eastern Volhynia Guberniya, as they migrated to other towns from their 1795 location in Uman.  And some of the branches' surnames--proven to descend from my Zubkis family--morphed over the years to Zubko and Zubkov.  So I've been looking into any family name of the form Z*b*k* and Z*p*k*, and trying to see if they are connected to my family.  And that is how I ended up reconstructing the Zubok family of Radomyshl.

Avrum son of Yankel Zubok, Radomyshl, 1850 Revision List

Definitely Something to Speak Of/Shpikov--An Incredible 20th Century Document

I've found lots of Russian Empire documents on my Zubkis family.  I'd even found (thank you, Alex Krakovsky and his awesome wiki filled with Ukrainian documents) a 1903 family list from Kuna that updated what had happened in the extended family since the 1858 revision--at least as far as the Kuna administrators knew, since my family had left Kuna at least 30 years earlier.  But because they didn't know what had been happening in the family, some information was incorrect or dated.

But this new record, which seems to be a similar sort of early 20th century update to what had happened to the family since 1858, is awesome, since my family was actually living in the town in which the document was created, when it was created.

Shpikov 1902 Family List, Zubkis Family (Page 1)

Someday I've found it, the Bessarabian Connection

I've been trying for years to link together my Supkoff family to two other families in Pittsburgh's Jewish community--the Soupcoffs and the Zoupcoffs.  My grandfather had been told that they were related but didn't know how.  So I've researched the Soupcoffs and Zoupcoffs extensively.  Earlier this year, I discovered via both documentation and DNA that the Soupcoffs are related to my Supkoff family, as I wrote about here.

In researching the Soupcoffs, I found many individuals with colorful pasts.  One of those was Dr. Jacob Soupcoff, who later legally changed his name to Jacob Lorenz.  And in that legal name change petition, he made an interesting assertion.

From Jacob Soupcoff/Lorenz Name Change Petition

Three New (To Me) Ancestors

I always smile when I hear people say that their family tree is "done."  Perhaps they have exhausted some major online resources.  But it's likely that they're not aware of some obscure site that has information and that they haven't looked in every archive or repository that has information about their family.  There's almost surely at least one more nugget out there waiting to be found.

I've been researching my family for 30 years, and I still find more information.  And the latest was three new direct ancestors!

Zyubkis Family, 1806, Uman

Russian WWI Records

Our ancestors and other relatives fought for the countries in which they lived.  As some of those military records come online and are more accessible, we can sometimes learn more about our family members who served.  Some of my family members fought for the Russian Empire in prior wars--and I didn't realize that until I found some of their military records online.

Meir Zubkis WWI Record,
Russian State Military Historical Archive, Fund No. 16196, Particular record keeping on the collection and registration of information about those who left after death or behind wounds, as well as missing military ranks, acting against enemy armies (1914 - 1918); Inventory №1, Nominal li

A Tulchin Boy, Who Befriended Presidents, Governors and More!

I've been trying to track Samuel Soupcoff and his family for years.  My grandfather had told me that the Pittsburgh Soupcoffs were related to his Pittsburgh Supkoffs, but he didn't know how.  The Soupcoffs had come to America earlier than my Supkoffs, and I was trying to find the Soupcoff town of origin.  But in most cases, they simply stated "Russia," although one of Samuel's brothers, in his name change application, said that he had been born in Bessarabia--and in other places he stated Germany.  And Samuel's father went back to visit family and said he had been in "Podolian," which would be the Podolia Guberniya where my Supkoff (then Zubkis) family was living.  But I wanted to narrow it down to a specific town to see its proximity to my family.

Because Samuel was famous, I thought that perhaps there would be more recorded about his origins.  But he either claimed he was born in Russia or Pennsylvania.  I looked in many (many) places.  Since he lived in Salt Lake City for much of his adult life, I spoke to local experts at the Family History Library, but they couldn't think of resources beyond those I'd already checked.

• Back in 2015, I wrote this post which shows that Samuel was a world-renowned mining engineer.
• In March 2016, I wrote about how Samuel's passport application had a letter of reference from the governor of Utah and and that his obituary mentioned his being a personal friend of President Hoover.  Samuel's passport application had a scrawled place of birth, and I had thought that perhaps I had identified his place of birth.

Nothing in the US gave his place of birth except for that one passport application, which was pretty much illegible.  It seemed like the Soupcoffs, despite being covered in news stories across America, didn't want their Russian Empire origins to be found.

Well, I found him.  And whatever was scrawled on that passport application was a lie.

Samuel Soupcoff Birth, 1884

Supcoff/Soupcoff - DNA Proof

I've been trying for years to connect the Soupcoff family who ended up in Pittsburgh with my Supkoff family, who also ended up in Pittsburgh.  My grandfather had been told that they were some kind of cousins, but he didn't know how.  I've extensively researched both lines but never found that link, although it did appear that both lines had originally been Zubkis.  Recently, with records that Alex Krakovsky has been putting online, I found references to various Zubkis families.  In September, I wrote about a document I found enumerating a Zubko family in Gaysin in 1850, adjacent to the town of Kuna where my Zubkis family lived.  I was pretty sure that the Gershko who headed this household was the brother of my 4th great grandfather.

Zubka Family, 1850, Gaysin

The Name-Changing, Town-Moving Zibkis/Zubkis/Zubko/Zubkov/Soupcoffs!

Many people talk about surname changes that happened after their ancestors emigrated to America (not at Ellis Island!).  But most assume that the family name was relatively stable in Europe and that the town from which their ancestors emigrated from was the family town for generations.  While that might be true, sometimes it's not.  As an example, let's look at my 5th great uncle Hirsh Zubkis and some of his descendants.

The first mention I have of Hirsch is in 1811, when he was a 15-year-old living with his father and brothers (no women were mentioned in this revision list) in Uman.

Zibkis Family, 1811, Uman

Zubkis Family to 1755; Another Bit of Evidence

A few years ago I found what looked like my Zubkis family living in Uman in 1811.  This fall, I found another piece of evidence demonstrating that the 1811 family was, indeed, my great-great-great-great-great (yes, 5 greats) grandfather, listed with his five sons in Uman (the census was of males only).  If I could prove that this family was actually mine, then I would have traced the Zubkis family back to 1755, the approximate year of birth for my presumed 5th great grandfather.

And now I have another piece of evidence still that points to this being my family.  And this, like many recent successes, has been due to having Alex Krakovsky's wiki with scans from Ukrainian archives being consistently added.

1903 Kuna Households List, Zubkis Family #29 (males)

New Ancestor, New Birthdate, New Relatives, and New Questions

I've mentioned the awesomeness that is Alex Krakovsky's wiki before.  If you have ancestors from Ukraine, check it out if you haven't yet.  And if you've already visited, go again--he's constantly adding more documents.  I checked this week and found that a document from my ancestral town of Kuna had been added (which you can see here).  Since the document was from 1903, I wasn't too optimistic about my finding my direct ancestors, since by 1875 they were living in Shpikov, but I thought that perhaps I'd find some relatives.  Well, this document ended up having way more information than I anticipated.  Spoiler alert:  I've gone back another generation and verified another ancestor's name, among other things.

1903 Kuna Households List, Zubkis Family #21 (males)

Bringing it back to Uman

Last December, I wrote about how Alex Krakovsky was working to open up Ukraine's archives.  In addition to suing (and winning), he's also made a page to put scanned documents from the archives online.  No, they're not in English.  But yes, they are awesome.  More are being added all the time, so keep checking to see if your family's towns are represented.

But in any case, I was looking through the list of scanned documents when I saw revision lists (censuses) from Haisyn/Gaisyn.  My Zubkis family was registered in Kuna, just outside Haisyn, so I went through these.  First I reviewed 158 pages of the 1851 census--and there was not a Zubkis to be found.  So then I started on the the 92 pages in the 1850 census--and on pages 29-31, I hit the jackpot.

Zubko Family 1850 Cover Sheet

Library Success--Soupcoff Origins

Nearly a year ago, I wrote about Samuel Soupcoff, and my quest to find his town of origin, as it may help track my Supkoffs further back.  Samuel was quite prominent in Salt Lake City, with his 1919 passport application including an affidavit from the then-governor of Utah, attesting to his good character.  The passport actually mentioned a town, but I couldn't figure out where it was located--and scrawled handwriting didn't help matters.

Samuel Soupcoff. Town of Origin

The "Beautiful Jewess" and the End of Her Storybook Romance

This time last year I blogged about Anna Soupcoff who made national headlines when she eloped with a wealthy heir, Carlton O. Lewis.  (Details here.)  Newspapers talked about the "beautiful Jewess" who won the heir's heart, to the despair of both families.

Oakland (CA) Tribune; July 1, 1908

When I originally wrote that post, I mentioned that by the 1910 census, less than two years after her Phoenix marriage, Anna was back living with her family.  I assumed that perhaps their different backgrounds clashed or that married life wasn't what they'd expected.  I was wrong.

The Soupcoff Town of Origin--Kind of--and Major Political Connections

(If you're in the Baltimore area, I'm giving a talk on Sunday at JGSMD.)

Earlier, I wrote about Samuel Soupcoff, a world-renowned mining engineer.  I looked in multiple sources to try to find where this branch of the family lived, only to find either "Russia" or him lying and saying he was born in Pittsburgh.

Recently, FamilySearch added some new passport applications.  So I searched the collection for different families I'm researching and found some very interesting information.

Samuel Soupcoff Passport Application, 1919, Page 1

Zubaty Family Overview

In multiple earlier posts, I've showed various revision lists with Zubaty families in Buki and Uman.  It seems like there are five distinct families here (likely all stemming from one couple 1-2 generations further back), with some of the notations on the census giving mention to connections between some of the families.  The following is what I've extracted from these records.  Information is from the revision lists of 1795, 1818, 1851 and 1858.

Zubaty Families from Buki & Uman areas