Stephen Silber writes (a paraphrase): I Know the countries of origin
(Russia and Romania), but not the cities >from which my relatives came
to the US.

Dear Stephen,
Are you familiar with the scholarly tomes by Alexander Beider
that give the origins of Jewish surnames?

A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames >from the Russian Empire:
Revised Edition (2008)
A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames >from the Kingdom of Poland (1996)
A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames >from Galicia (2004)
A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names (2001)

The books are available in good libraries. The names Abramson
and Silberman are not uncommon, but perhaps a city/cities of origin
will resonate with you and at least with Beider's help you can
narrow down cities so you can do an immigration search by city of
origin on the Steven Morse site (www.stevenmorse.org) as well as
using Jewish Gen's databases. Collins does sound Irish, but perhaps
the name was something like Collins. Don't worry too much about exact
spelling, for example, Silberman could be Zilberman; Collins could be
something that began with a K.

As to Romania, there is the Romania SIG which has a digest. There
is also a membership group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/botosani-gen/.
Sorin who heads the discussion may have some ideas for you. You could also
check the names in the Family Finder on Jewish Gen to see where others are
researching the names.

Good Luck in your research,
Susan Goldsmith
San Francisco Bay Area, CA USA

Jonava Lithuania Yizkor Book Translation Coordinator
Schwabe Gymnasium (Kaunas, Lithuania) Yizkor Book Translation Coordinator

Researching GOLDSHMIDT, GITTES (GADIE, GDUT), FILVINSKY (PILVINSKY),
SHLIOMOVICH Lithuania; TOBIAS (TOBES), ROZANSKY, DRASNIN, HOROWICZ Belarus;
WAXMAN (WAKSMAN) Sandomierz, Poland; SONNENBLIK Lancut, Poland (Galicia);
DAVIS (DAVID...), HAFNER Botosani, Romania