Family History
Our family history is quite important. It teaches us of the challenges our ancestors had to live with every day -- to provide housing for their loved ones, to put food on the table, to face oppression and hate in Europe and in America. It teaches us the importance of resilience and perseverance. Think carefully about how we would not be here today without the mass efforts of every one of our ancestors. Remember them. You owe it to them to honor their legacy, which is now your legacy.
Original Family Name:
KAGAN
Name Changes:
As far as we know, the name was KAGAN in Europe, but when some family members emigrated to the United States, the name was changed to COHEN. There is also one branch that changed the name to KAHGAN to prevent Americans from mispronouncing it.
Country of Origin :
Belarus
City/Town of Origin:
Lahishyn,
52°20' N 25°59' E
127 miles SSW of Minsk
Other Names: Lahishyn [Bel], Łohiszyn [Pol], Logishin [Rus], Lohishin [Yid], Łahišyn [Bel], Logishyn, Logichin, Logashin, Łahiszyn, Luhiszyn
Telekhany, Belarus
52°31' N 25°51' E
119 miles SW of Minsk
Other Names: Telekhany [Rus], Telchan [Yid], Telechany [Pol], Cielachany [Bel], Telechon, Telekani, Telekhan, Telechan, Tselyakhani, Celjachany
Earliest Ancestor:
Abram KAGAN, born circa 1732 in Lahishyn
The New World:
Govsey “Yehoshua” KAGAN and Tsivia GOLDBERG Kagan had 9 children: Itke Freidle, Khonya, Aaron, Chaim, Anna, Ethel, Esther, Shimen-Leyb and Feigel.
Itke Freidle, Aaron, Chaim, Anna and Ethel emigrated to the United States.
Description:
The KAGAN family lived in the shtetl of Lahishyn near Pinsk in the Russian Empire during the late 19th Century. The earliest record found in our research is the Revision List taken in December 1811 with the entry "Movsha son of Avram KAGAN, arrived in 1795, 61 year old in 1811. Revision Lists were censuses conducted in territories ruled by the Russian Czar in the 18th and 19th centuries. The lists enumerated only those individuals subject to taxation, and data was also utilized for identifying men to draft into the army. There were ten known major Reviska Skazka taken.
In 1880, Chaim KAGAN moved to the shtetl of Telekhany. We don't have any information as to why he moved there, but it was likely for work. Other members of his family soon followed him (his Uncle Shimshel KAGAN and his cousin Volf KAGAN moved there in 1880, his cousin Govsey KAGAN in 1883).
In the late 19th century, three Chernichov brothers arrived in Telekhany to build a glassworks factory (called the "Hutte"). This factory employed 5,000 people. Many members of the KAGAN family worked at this factory, and there are a few glass pieces that made their way to the United States.
Original Family Name:
SHALKINSKY
Name Changes:
SHALKINSKY, also seen as SHELKUSKY, SILKINSKY, SALINSKY.
Country of Origin :
Kaunas, Lithuania
City/Town of Origin:
Kaunas, Lithuania
54°54' N 23°54' E
58 miles WNW of Vilnius
Other Names: Kaunas [Lith], Kovno [Rus], Kovne [Yid], Kovna [Heb], Kowno [Pol], Kauen [Ger]
Earliest Ancestor:
Leyzer SHALKINSKY, born circa 1824, possibly in Kaunas
The New World:
Gershin SHALKINSKY and Nese/Pese (?) SHALKINSKY had at least 6 children: Rochel Leah, Sarah Gittel, Sam, Berel Leib, Girsh Yankee and Abram Itska.
Sarah Gittel SHALKINSKY married Chaim KAGAN. They had 6 children, all who emigrated to the New York City. Sarah Gittel died a few months before the trip.
Sam SALINSKY and his wife Eva (ALPERT) SALINSKY emigrated through Canada and settled in Chicago, Ill. They had 4 children.
Description:
The SHALKINSKY family came from a small shtetl called Babtai which was located in Kaunas, Lithuania (originally called Kovno). We don’t know much about them yet as my connection was my great-grandmother, Sarah Gittel SHALKINSKY KAGAN who died from an illness in October 1919 in Telechan, Belarus. We know that Babtai was established around 1344 A.D. The shtetl was called Green Hills of Kovno for about 400 years. In 1900, the population of Babtai was fewer than 800 people.
Between July and August 15, 1941, the Germans concentrated about 29,000 Jews in a Ghetto established in Vilijampolė (also known as Slobodka), Kaunas. It was an area of small primitive houses and no running water which had been cleared of its mainly Jewish population in pogroms by Lithuanian activists.
In the autumn of 1943, the SS assumed control of the ghetto and converted it into the Kovno concentration camp. The Nazis dispersed more than 3,500 Jews to subcamps where strict discipline governed all aspects of daily life. On October 26, 1943, the SS deported more than 2,700 people from the main camp. The SS sent those deemed fit to work to labor camps in Estonia, and deported surviving children and the elderly to Auschwitz. (Source: Israel Klain, researcher)
Original Family Name:
GOROCHOD
Name Changes:
GOROCHOD variations: GORDON, GREEN, GORDORSKY and COHEN.
Country of Origin :
Zhashkiv, Ukraine
City/Town of Origin:
49°15' N 30°06' E
84 miles SSW of Kyyiv
Other Names: Zhashkiv [Ukr], Zhashkov [Rus], Zashkov [Yid], Żaszków [Pol], Zasashkhov, Dzhashkev
Earliest Ancestor:
Hirschel GOROCHOD, born circa 1830 in Ukraine
The New World:
The GOROCHOD family were carpenters and coopers (barrel makers). They mostly came from a town called Zashkov, but there was another branch in known to live in Odessa. One cousin was rumored to be the Mayor or Odessa, but no records have been found.
David GOROCHOD was the oldest and the first to emigrate to the United States in 1904. Initially he settled in Ohio, but when his wife died shortly after the birth of their first son, he went back to Zashkov to find a new wife and mother to his son. David is one of 9 children born to Israel and Riva GOROCHOD. Morris, Rose, Masha, Harry, Lena and Isidore all emigrated to the United States.
Description:
The GOROCHOD family comes from the shtetl of Zashkov which is in present day Ukraine. Israel GOROCHOD born circa 1852 and he sold supplies for horses, and occasionally a horse. Israel married Esther Rachel GOOTMAID and together they had 9 children. Once when Israel contracted tuberculosis, his oldest son David took him to Odessa to see a doctor.
Later, while David was serving a five-year term in the cavalry of the Czar's army, Israel's thumb was bitten off by one of the horses. He developed gangrene and became very sick. David was summoned to return home. When he came in, his father was in bed. Israel saw his son and then turned toward the wall and died. Esther Ruchel is rumored to have been murdered by the Bolsheviks along with her young grandson, Yosef ZEIDMAN. There are no records of this, only family lore.
Original Family Name:
SOROKSHABEL
Name Changes:
The surname SOROKSHABEL translates to “forty sabres”.We don’t know the origins of the name, but it’s a nice fantasy to think that it comes from a long line of silver-smiths. Chaya Eta SOROKSHABEL fled Grodno in 1905 as a result of being an active member of a political organization which attempted to assassinate the Governor or the town for his role in not stopping the many pogroms. She traveled to New York, age 15, on her own under the name Ita LANDINSKY, sponsored by her older brother, Israel LADINSKY.
Country of Origin :
Poland (now Belarus)
City/Town of Origin:
Hrodna
53°41' N 23°50' E
153 miles W of Minsk
Other Names: Grodno [Pol, Rus], Grodne [Yid], Hrodna [Bel], Gardinas [Lith], Garten [Ger], Hurodno [Yid], Horodne
Source: JewishGen.org
Earliest Ancestor:
Shlyoma SOROKSHABEL, born circa 1715 in Grodno.
The New World:
The SOROKSHABEL family that we know came to New York in the early 20th Century. Some of the children of two of the brothers emigrated, but the parents did not. Itzko SOROKSHABEL had four children: Ida, Yenta, Celia and Shlyoma. Ida and Celia were prosperous in the U.S., but sadly, Yenta and her family stayed behind and were murdered in the Holocaust. Shlyoma was a doctor who was arrested in Leningrad in 1937 and sent to Siberia for 8 years. He was a head of the military courses for the training of sanitary instructors. At the beginning of the war he was amnestied and sent to the front. He was discharged from the army in 1944 for health reasons.He became a communist. The family in the U.S. lost touch with him after World War II. They don’t know if he died or if he just stopped writing due to his views in Communism (often times the party instructed their members to cut ties to the United States.
Description:
SOROKSHABEL translates to “forty sabres”. We don’t know if that related to the family trade, but I was always told that Yitzhak SOROKSHABEL was a klezmer (a violinist). He would play at weddings and even wrote lots and lots of music. One evening, he played at a wedding, and went outside to rest. He lied on the grass and was bitten by an insect that killed him. It’s possible it was a bee, and perhaps he was allergic. We don’t have any more information other than the fact that he died. He had a trunk full of music that he wrote but it disappeared.
Yitzhak had four children with Mollie Lena SHABOLSKY: Chaya eta, Yenta, Celia and Shlyoma. Mollie had been married before to another Yitzhak, a man named Yitzhak LADINSKY. They had one son named Israel, and another son whose name we do not know. This other son died at the age of 9 year old from diphtheria. This disease was very deadly at that time, and quite contagious, and as a result, none of the undertakers in the village would bury him. Mollie took her son’s body, wrapped him in a white sheet, and she dug a grave and buried him herself.
Original Family Name:
WEINER
Name Changes:
The surname WEINER means “from Vienna”, which was the cultural capital of the world in the 19th Century. However, our WEINER family was far from cultural. The family trade was making whisky out of prunes and raisins, hence the original family name was WISKE or WISKA (which translates to “whisky”. We believe the name was changed to make the family sound more prominent.
Country of Origin :
Poland (now Belarus)
City/Town of Origin:
Ostrów Mazowiecka, Poland
52°48' N 21°54' E
54 miles NE of Warszawa
Other Names: Ostrów Mazowiecka [Pol], Ostrov-Mazovyetsk [Yid], Ostrova [Yid], Ostrów, Ostrov, Ostrova, Ostrove, Ostreve, Mazovyetska, Ostrov-Mazovetskiy, Ostrów Mazowiecki
Ostrołęka, Poland
53°05' N 21°34' E
62 miles NNE of Warszawa
Ostrołęka [Pol], Ostrolenka [Yid, Rus]
Source: JewishGen.org
Earliest Ancestor:
Hersz WISKE, born circa 1781 in Poland.
The New World:
The WEINER family produced a long line of blacksmiths and farmers. The family lived at the territory of the Jewish Community in Śniadowo, and later in Ostroleka, Ostrow which was a suburb of Lomza. The WEINER family began emigrating to the United States in the late 19th Century. Some had to wait up to 7 years during World War I when ships could not cross the Atlantic for fears of being torpedoed by a German U-Boat.
Description:
We have done extensive research on the WEINER family, and have learned that the original name was WISKE. The family trade was making whisky out of prunes and raisins and selling it by the road-side. Not the most noble profession, but rumor has it that they changed the name from WISKE to WEINER in the late 19th century to sound more prominent, as WEINER translates to “from Vienna”. At that time, Vienna was the cultural capital of the world, with notable names like Mozart to Haydn to Beethoven!
The oldest ancestor of record was Hersz WISKE, born circa 1785 in Poland. We don’t know the exact city, but his descendants came from Konopki, Sniadowo, Lomza, Ostrow and Ostrolenka. The family trade was blacksmithing, but also farming.
Original Family Name:
PAZUR
Name Changes:
ROSENFELD
Country of Origin :
Poland (now Belarus)
City/Town of Origin:
Ostrów Mazowiecka, Poland
52°48' N 21°54' E
54 miles NE of Warszawa
Other Names: Ostrów Mazowiecka [Pol], Ostrov-Mazovyetsk [Yid], Ostrova [Yid], Ostrów, Ostrov, Ostrova, Ostrove, Ostreve, Mazovyetska, Ostrov-Mazovetskiy, Ostrów Mazowiecki
Earliest Ancestor:
Kelman PAZUR born circa 1785 in Poland.
The New World:
The PAZUR family comes from Ostrow, Poland. Wolf PAZUR married Chana Pesha IGLARZ and they had 9 children: Joseph, Mnucha, Jacob, Szaja, Esther Malka, Ike, Mnucha-Rywka, Harry and Goldie. The family name was changed from PAZUR to ROSENFELD, but we don’t have much information about when or why. Joe WEINER told the story told to him by his grandmother Chana Pesha that a German soldier was stationed in their home in the late 19th Century (as we common in this time). His name was ROSENFELD. He was a very nice man and they liked him very much. When they emigrated to the US, they took his name. Again, no factual basis on this, only here-say.
Description:
The PAZUR family was from Ostrolenka. Wolf FROIMOWICZ PAZUR married Chana Pesha SENDROWNA IGLARZ in the 1850s. Together, they had 9 children between 1857 and 1885. Their surname was changed to ROSENFELD. Joseph WEINER told the story told to him by his grandmother Goldie that a German soldier was stationed in their home in the late 19th Century (as we common in this time). His name was ROSENFELD. He was a very nice man and they liked him very much. When they emigrated to the US, they took his name. Again, no factual basis on this, only here-say.
Earliest known ancestor was Kalman PAZUR. He was born circa 1785 in Poland.
Original Family Name:
HEIFFERMAN
Name Changes:
HEIFERMAN, possibly EIFERMAN
Country of Origin :
Ukraine
City/Town of Origin:
48°44' N 24°51' E
280 miles WSW of Kyyiv
Other Names: Otyniya [Ukr], Ottynia [Pol], Otinya [Yid], Otynya [Rus], Ottunia, Otynya, Ottynya, Otyniia, Otynja, Otyn'a
Earliest Ancestor:
Sana HEIFERMAN, born circa 1851 in Ukraine.
The New World:
The HEIFERMAN family comes from Otyniya, a shtetl near Ivano-Frankivsk (formerly Stayslaviv). Over the centuries, Otyniya was part of the Austrian Empire in Poland, then Polish, then claimed by the Soviet Union. Now, the town is considered to be part of Ukraine.
The HEIFERMAN family began their emigration to the United States in the early 20th century. Sam HEIFERMAN was the first to arrive in New York in 1910. He was followed by Lena HEIFERMAN HIPSCHMAN in 1914, Isidore HEIFERMAN & Molly HEIFERMAN SCHER in 1921, Chaim HEIFERMAN & Sophie HIPSCHMAN HEIFERMAN in 1928, and finally Rose HEIFERMAN BANDEL and ANNE HEIFERMAN WEINER in 1930.
Description:
Sana HEIFERMAN married Lifsha ADELMAN, possibly in the late 1860s. We only know that they had two children: Chaim and Leah. We don’t know how or when Sana died, but Lifsha was murdered in the Holocaust, according to her great-granddaughter Zviya SOFER.
Chaim married Sophie HUSCHMANN and together they had 6 children. All of the children, including Chaim and Sophie emigrated to New York City in the early 20th century.
Leah HEIFERMAN married her cousin Hersh Tsvi HEIFERMAN and they had four children: Shalom, Sani, Gittel and Haya-Clara. They lived in Ottynia but with so much oppression, Gittel and Haya-Clara decided it was time to leave, and they emigrated to what would eventually become Israel. Their brothers stayed behind and sadly were both murdered along with their parents when the Nazis invaded Ottynia in 1942.
Original Family Name:
HIPSCHMAN
Name Changes:
HUBSCHMAN, HUBSCHMANN, HIBSCHMAN
Country of Origin :
Stanisławów, Poland
City/Town of Origin:
52°18' N 21°33' E
24 miles E of Warszawa
Other Names: Stanisławów [Pol], Stanislavov [Rus], Stanislov [Yid], Stanislav, Stanislavava
Earliest Ancestor:
Israel HUBSCHMANN, born circa 1840 in Poland.
The New World:
We do not know much about the HUBSCHMANN family in Europe. Israel and Malka HUBSCHMANN had 5 children: Rebecca, Sophie, Lena, Avrum Moishe and Schmuel. The first three children emigrated to the United States in the early 20th century. Avrum Moishe’s wife and children emigrated, but he died in Europe around age 47. Schmuel did not go to the US, but his three oldest children did. Many of the others and their families perished in the Holocaust.
Description:
Originally HUBSCHMANN, the family name changed to HIPSCHMAN, possibly in the United States, and possibly to sound less German, as Germany was a common enemy of the country in the 20th century. Israel HUBSCHMANN married Malka PERLMAN and had five children: Rebecca, Sophie, Lena, Avrum Moishe and Shmuel. Rebecca’s oldest son, Simon PFEFFER was one of the earlier emigrants to the United States and he facilitated passage for many of his siblings and his cousins.
We don’t know much about the HUBSCHMANN family, but we’re still researching.
Join our mailing list and we will let you know when we have updates or events you will want to know about. Check off the family names you are interested in.