Dear friends: 
 
I have been stymied in a number of respects and I hope you can help me out. I will give some background, and then pose two questions. Any suggestions that you offer with respect to either of them would be immensely appreciated. 

Yehuda Leyb Schreibmann (later Leon Shreibman or Shrybman the new world) and his wife Ida (né Champouvetski) raised a large family in Zhitomir, Ukraine. We know of four children with certainty: Avraham Schmuel (later Samuel), b.1870; Bernard, b. 1871; Rachel, b. 1886; and Charles b. app. 1890. Note that there is about 20 years difference in ages between the youngest and oldest. In spite of that, there is quite strong evidence that they had a common mother. There was probably a fifth sibling, probably named Fannie, who will be the subject of one of my questions. 
 
Bernard emigrated to France in 1896, married at about that time, and had the first of three children with his wife in 1897 when she was 20. They were naturalized in 1907.  
 

Younger sister Rachel also emigrated to France, probably around 1910. 

Samuel’s wife Jennie Dora (né Shaindel Luminski) and their seven children docked in Quebec City in 1907 and settled in Brockville, Ontario. (Samuel was not on that ship and had probably arrived earlier.) The family subsequently emigrated to the USA in 1915, crossing at Niagara Falls and settling in Buffalo. Although Samuel’s father, Yehuda Leyb, had not accompanied the family to Canada, he joined them there later, and then to the United States (also in 1915). His documents on crossing the border indicated that he was 70 years old, a widow, exhibiting some dementia. 

At about the same time, youngest brother Charles (and wife Elka) emigrated to France, and then to Canada in 1912/1913 settling in Montreal. 
 
Question #1: I have not been able to find Leon’s gravesite. Although he accompanied Samuel’s family to the United States in 1915, he does not appear in the 1920 census, when he would have been 75 years old. Does anyone have a suggestion on how I could find where he is buried, almost certainly in the Buffalo area? Seeing a gravestone (or related record) might confirm his birth data, and perhaps allow me to go back one more generation. 
Note: With regard to naming, in Ukraine, he was Yehuda Leyb Schreibmann. When he crossed into the United States, he was Leon Schreibman. I believe that over the subsequent years, Samuel and his family spelled their family name Shrybman. 

Question #2: An old family tree indicates that there was one other sibling. It states “Fannie Shrybman and Michael Luminsky migrated to England had large family.” (sic) This family tree does not cite any sources, and although it has some gaps, it is extremely accurate in the information it does provide. I find the specificity of the "Michael Luminski” entry is compelling.  

Partial corroboration is provided in Bernard’s 1907 application for French naturalization, in which he states that he has a brother and two sisters in Ukraine. This is plausible in terms of the timeline. Charles was then only 17 or 18, and Rachel was 21 or 22. Another sister could have been born at a similar time, say between 1887 and 1891 or a bit earlier, and still have had time (after Bernard’s naturalization) to marry, emigrate to England, and have a large family. 

 
You may have noticed that the wife of Samuel had the maiden name Luminski, and the husband of the elusive sister Fannie allegedly had the family name Luminski, a relatively uncommon name. Although these two Luminskis certainly could have been cousins, it seems more likely that a Shrybman brother and sister married a Luminski sister and brother. 

There are difficulties in locating Fannie or any of her descendants. First of all, to my knowledge, there are no passenger manifests for ships arriving in England from Europe in the early 20th century. Secondly, there is a good chance that the family informally adopted an anglicized name, as many Jewish immigrants to England did in the early 20th century.  

I have found no phone numbers linked to any Luminski in the London area, ever. I found no London area synagogue record for a Luminski. I also searched the Jewish Chronicle Archives and found no references to Luminski, Leminski, or Shrybman.  

In the Jewish Gen UK database, I found only one Luminski, then in Scotland, and her descendant and I could find no connection between our families. Searching UK BMD, I found a few births of Lyminski and Leminski children – almost certainly Jewish - in the first decade of the 20th century, but who knows whether Fannie was in her 30s then, like Samuel, or a young teen, like Charles, or something in between. Also, as far as I know, those on-line British birth data do not identify the parents. Some of them may have been Fannie’s children, but I don’t know. 

My genealogical skills are limited. (That’s probably obvious from what I’ve written.) If any of you have suggestions on how I might get more information on the elusive Fannie or her progeny, I would be so grateful. 

Marty Thomas 

Schreibmann, Schreibman, Shrybman (UKR, CAN, USA); Luminski, Leminski, Lyminski (UKR, CAN, USA, UK) 

Tomashevitsky, Domaszewicki, Tomashevski (BELARUS, RUS, POL) 
--