GOLDMAN FAMILY GENEOLOGY
I’ve know for a long time that the name “Jacob Goldman” was chosen by my grandfather when he arrived at Ellis Island very early in the twentieth century, but I knew very little else about how or when the family arrived in the United States or what the original family name was. All I knew for sure was that my grandfather’s Hebrew name was Baruch Schneur. This, in itself is significant, since the name of the Alter Rebbe who was the founder of Chabad Hasidut was Schneur Zalman of Liadi, also known as Schneur Zalman Baruchovitch and many people in Russia at the time of my grandfather’s birth named their children Schneur or Baruch Schneur in his memory. Shortly after my arrival in Israel in September 2007 my cousin Carol Ashman discovered three “Inspection Cards” from a voyage on the Friesland from Liverpool to Philadelphia in 1909. (click on the image above for a full size image) To save a copy on your computer, click the image above to go to the high resolution image, then right click on the high resolution image and select “save picture as” or “save image as”. These cards show that three people named Surah, Scheindel and Nachum Warsawski traveled from Liverpool in July 1909. Further checking uncovered the Friesland ship manifest, which shows four people traveling together from Liverpool to Philadelphia. Surah, Scheindel, Rivkah and Nachum. These are my grandmother Sarah and her three oldest children who were born in Russia, Sadie, Reba and Nathan. Check lines 9-12 on the left hand image below for their names. If you look on line 9 of the right hand image, you’ll see that Surah was coming to join her husband, Jacob Goldman, who is listed as the father of the three children and as a shoemaker living in Philadelphia. This is my grandfather! (click on the images above for full size images) To save a copy on your computer, click the image above to go to the high resolution image, then right click on the high resolution image and select “save picture as” or “save image as”. Jacob Goldman’s Certificate of Naturalization, which I recently acquired shows that he attained citizenship in 1928 and that the six youngest children, Nathan, Herman, Morris (my father), Julius, David and Lillian were still living with him. The dates and the age of Nathan, the only one of the children listed on this certificate who came over from Russia agree with the information on the ship manifest from the Friesland in 1909. (In July 1909 Nathan was 2 ¾ years old according to the Friesland manifest, and in January 1928, 18 ½ years later, he was 20). It also shows that Jacob last lived in Latvia before coming to the United States. If you look at the second page below, you’ll see that by court order, he changed his name from Burach Schayer (sic) to Jacob Goldman. (click on the images above for full size images) To save a copy on your computer, click the image above to go to the high resolution image, then right click on the high resolution image and select “save picture as” or “save image as”. Using the information on the Certificate of Naturalization, Cantor Kessler was able to obtain the entire Naturalization file, which showed that Jacob Goldman came to the U.S. on a ship, called The Amerika, on February 9, 1907 and used the name Baruch Wosowski. It also lists his occupation as shoemaker, which is correct. A picture of the ship manifest is below. Look at line 17 of the high resolution image. (click on the image above for full size image) To save a copy on your computer, click the image above to go to the high resolution image, then right click on the high resolution image and select “save picture as” or “save image as”. Now, you may ask; when did the family name get changed from Warsawski to Goldman? Figuring that out is my next task! Many thanks to cousins Carol Ashman and Connie Groll, nephew Robert Goldman and my good friend Cantor Joel Kessler for their help in this research project! If you have information that I can add to this page, please email me at cobi@bar-levi.net. Yaacov Goldman Updated November 6, 2007
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