Tracking Mira's Children: David Marienhoff/Alpern

This is the ninth in a series tracking the children of Mira Halperin Lefand Marienhoff.  You can see everything in this series to this point here.

David Marienhoff (later David Alpern) was born in Nezhin, Russian Empire to Mira and Yitzchok Marienhoff on May 20, 1885--their first child in what was a second marriage for both Mira and Yitzchok.

David Marienhoff Birth Record; Nezhin, Russian Empire; 1885

An Unusual Name, Many Spellings - Supcoff Branch

My great grandmother Mollie Supkoff Tolchin's family name was Zubkis in Europe but her siblings and their descendents were consistent in the Supkoff spelling of their name once they came to Pittsburgh.  There were other families with a similar name but different spellings in the Pittsburgh area.  They seem to be all connected.  For some I've found the connection; for others, I've done some comprehensive research on their family to try to find their relationship to my Supkoffs--and that is still a work in progress.  These posts can all be found here.

The first family I'll be discussing spells the name "Supcoff."  Three brothers came to America:  Benjamin (born 1896), Irving/Isadore (Born 1901) and Max (born 1903).  Benjamin actually took on the Supkoff spelling (and married my great grandmother's sister Fannie--so she didn't have to change her name when she was married).

Irving/Isadore arrived first, in 1922, under the name Isidore Zupkoff.

Ship Manifest; Isidore Zupkoff; 1922 (line 11); page 1

 But what is interesting is on the second page:

Paul Diamond's C-File (Part 2/2)

I previously blogged about the documents that my grandfather, Paul Diamond, generated when he was in a DP Camp in Germany in order to come to American.  Once in America, he began the process of becoming a United States citizen.

In September 1947, just over five months after arriving in America, he filed his Declaration of Intention--and lists his name as "Pejsach Diment also known as Paul Diamond"--and attaches a photo.

Paul Diamond, Declaration of Intention, 1947

Paul Diamond's C-File (Part 1/2)

I recently received a C-File for my grandfather, Paul Diamond, via the USCIS Genealogy program which contained a lot of interesting documents as well as some photos.

While in the Neu Freimann DP camp outside Munich, he applied for a US Visa.

Paul Diamond (Pejsach Diment) Visa Application; January 1947 (page 1)

Paul Diamond (Pejsach Diment) Visa Application; January 1947 (page 2)

Mollie Supkoff Tolchin--As Remembered by Her Granddaughter

I've done multiple Ancestor Deep Dives, tracing direct ancestors through documentation.  But there are some who actually remember these people--so I've asked them to share their memories.  Here's the first of several.  Thanks to my mother's first cousin, Karen Ehrenreich Shipkovitz, for sharing her memories of my great-grandmother (her grandmother), Mollie Supkoff Tolchin.  A deep dive into Mollie's life can be found here.

Mollie lived with us as long as I can remember.  I shared a room with her for many years as we had a 3 bedroom home for 6 of us and of course in those days only one full bathroom.  Mollie was a terrific cook and made the best cookies.   After school, she would always have her soft doughy cookies waiting for me and my friends.  She never varied much from her menu and if it was Monday you knew exactly what you were having.  She always made it a point to have a hot meal ready for my father, Leonard, who generally came home late and ate around 9.  He was in the produce business and had long hours.  Rumor has it he was a gambler- cards I believe but I never knew this as a child.  

Karen Ehrenreich, Mollie Supkoff Tolchin & Linda Tolchin Diamond (my mother), January 1977

The Man With Two Last Names: Kaufman Kaufman

This week, my nieces have been hounding me for "family tree stories." One they really enjoyed was about Kaufman Kaufman, the brother of their 4th great grandmother (Amelia Kaufman Schwerin).

1860 United States Census; Baltimore, MD, Kaufman family (Kaufman Kaufman on line 24)

We Were Slaves--But Became Slaveowners

It is currently Passover, the holiday on which Jews commemorate our freedom from slavery in Egypt. As the Jewish population in the southern United States pre-1865 was minuscule, most American Jews do not have slave-owning ancestors. All of my ancestors came to the U.S. in the 20th century, so I never had to worry about finding out about their slave-owning past.  But then I started working on my nieces' and nephews' trees.

Three of my nieces have one branch of their family who have been in the United States for a very very long time, particular for Jews and particularly for a family who has kept its Jewish identity for so long. Their 6th great grandparents were Jacob and Judith Alberto Suares.

Jacob was born about 1754 in Curaçao and arrived in the United States about 1790. Judith was born about 1769 in the West Indies.  The couple lived in Charleston, South Carolina, where Jacob was a Rabbi and had at least 10 children, with the youngest Caroline (later Schwerin) born after Jacob's 1818 death.