Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Searching for my Chicken George
Eh, not really. I’m second generation American, Jewish Nisei, so if I dig deeper than my grandparents in any direction I draw a blank: surnames of uncertain spellings (Gofman or Goffman? Grobovski, Grobosky, or Grobowski?), doubtful cities of origin, no first names and certainly no birth dates.
But I was futzing around on Ancestry.com today and actually made some progress. I found census records on my dad’s side of the family from 1930 and 1920, and I found the record of my grandmother’s reentry into the country in 1924. My paternal grandparents came over in 1914 and promptly sired my aunt and uncle (both deceased). Something happened to their marriage in the early 20s — my grandmother either got homesick, or perhaps fed up with her husband. I’m not sure anyone knows. Actually, I’ll bet my uncle Hank knew, but stupidly I never asked him about it while he was alive.
Anyway, my grandmother took her two kids back to Asia, and I don’t know if they made it as far as the USSR (they were the USSR by then, I think?) but they did have relatives in Harbin, China. Quite a big Jewish community in Harbin, I understand. She came back by way of Yokohama, to Vancouver BC and then to Seattle. They must have taken the train back to Boston, and based on the dates, I suspect my father was conceived soon after their homecoming.
It is kind of neat to see the census records . . . my grandfather was recorded as a grocer in 1920, and in the 1930 record he was again a grocer, and she was a “shop saleslady”. Since censuses were conducted house to house, their neighbors were recorded on the same page. I haven’t called my dad yet, but I figure he will probably remember some of the names.
I learned a few things which might surprise my father. I have my grandparents’ precise birth dates, or at least the ones they gave out to the Feds. I also have my grandfather’s city of origin — Nerchinsk. I’m dubious about it, though, since it’s like 200 miles east of my grandmother’s city of origin. How could they have met? Yes, I realize they had trains back then. Maybe he had relatives in Chita and he met her at the local hoe-down.
I don’t know how to proceed. Surely there were marriage records back in Siberia? Also, my grandfather’s dad was supposedly a rabbi (which would explain my grandfather’s rejection of the faith — the man kept his grocery store open on Saturdays!) You’d think that would be an important enough person to leave some mark on the records. I would love to track down those relatives in Harbin, too.
And I haven’t even touched my mom’s side of the family.
D.
Considering the fact that Polly kept a kosher house, I find it interesting that our grandfather kept his gocery open on Saturday. It also explains our father’s dislike for religion based on his hatred of the Hebrew college he was forced to attend. So maybe Polly’s trek back to the old country was due to a disagreement about religion/how to raise the kids.
All those records, marriage or otherwise,I doubt they survived the Pogroms (or were there Pogroms in Siberia?)
Ah, the almighty dollar makes many forsake religion. 🙂
I have been dabbling with Ancestry.x for a while now. I’m thinking of anteing the $$ they want for a subscription now that I’ve entered all of the relatives I know about – Ancestry has suggestive hnts for many of them.
I’m thinking Ancestry may be a very successful example of the collaborative model.
I suspect it’s worth the money. I was hoping for better international stuff — records from Poland and Siberia would be nice, or perhaps records from the Jewish community in Harbin — but the stuff I’ve found has still been interesting.