From: David Laskin <laskin.david@...>
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:24:40 -0700

I have a distant relative whose name was Yishayahu (various
spellings). Is this the Yiddish form of Isaiah? I have tried to
research this on Google, but have come up with conflicting results.

From: David Laskin <laskin.david@...>
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:24:40 -0700

I have a distant relative whose name was Yishayahu (various
spellings). Is this the Yiddish form of Isaiah? I have tried to
research this on Google, but have come up with conflicting results.

I've been taking advantage of the free access on Ancestry.com to
the 1920 US census to look for a POMERANZ family that lived at or
near 120 east 8 street, New York, NY. (the street no. may be in doubt)
The known family are
Elias b Aug 1907
Samuel b May 1911
Ruth b Dec 1912
Esther b Nov 1919
Annie (mother) b 1888
The father, Max or Mendel, was b 1879

I've done a search and I can't find a family that fits. Members of the
family have told me that Esther was born in, and grew up on, 8th street,
so I would expect to find them there. Samuel, Ruth and Esther's
birthdates I've confirmed using the Social Security Death Index. I tried
all the variants of Pomeranz I could think of and even tried entering
the names without a surname - no luck. My last shot would be to find the
page that covers 8th Street, but the census seems to be broken into
Assembly Districts and Districts and I have no idea which district east
8th street would be in.

I've been taking advantage of the free access on Ancestry.com to
the 1920 US census to look for a POMERANZ family that lived at or
near 120 east 8 street, New York, NY. (the street no. may be in doubt)
The known family are
Elias b Aug 1907
Samuel b May 1911
Ruth b Dec 1912
Esther b Nov 1919
Annie (mother) b 1888
The father, Max or Mendel, was b 1879

I've done a search and I can't find a family that fits. Members of the
family have told me that Esther was born in, and grew up on, 8th street,
so I would expect to find them there. Samuel, Ruth and Esther's
birthdates I've confirmed using the Social Security Death Index. I tried
all the variants of Pomeranz I could think of and even tried entering
the names without a surname - no luck. My last shot would be to find the
page that covers 8th Street, but the census seems to be broken into
Assembly Districts and Districts and I have no idea which district east
8th street would be in.

I have been watching this discussion of rejected immigrants with
interest, but I have something to contribute at this point. The
assumption is made that a returning child would have a parent
return with him/her, even the whole family if another parent could
not stay in the US with other children. Well, there is a big
difference between a 3 year old and a 16 year old, as well as
between the 19th century and the 21st.

Children of very young ages travelled alone, routinely, in the
19th century. My ggrandmother came to the US alone at age 8, first
class, travelling to people she never met, probably, as they had
been in the US a lot more than 8 years. Her mother had died and
father remarried, and I assume that she was sent to an uncle -
although the surname is different than either of her parents' - and
his wife.

I also know someone whose ancestral family was on a ship that had
just sailed when measles broke out. The ship went back to port and
put the sick kids off. This person's family felt bad for the 4 or 5
year old child left at the port alone, without knowing whatever
happened to him/her, but the family couldn't afford to give up the
many tickets for their large family in order to take care of the sick
child with no money and no help at that port. He was writing a story
of the situation, as the family still felt bad about it several
generations later.

So my thought is that a rejected child might end up being returned to
Europe alone, even at an 'elementary school' age. The family would
probably send a letter to family back home, perhaps with the child,
hoping that the child would make it back home - a horrible situation,
but there would be no easy solution for a poor family. The ship would
have been nearly empty, and it had an obligation to return rejected
immigrants, so the child would have been fed and kept safe (as much as
people did in the 19th century), at least while on ship. Hopefully one
of the emigration societies that helped on the way to port in Europe
would help the child there. In the case I mentioned, the family never
knew what happened to the sick child.

Sally Bruckheimer
Piscataway, NJ

I have been watching this discussion of rejected immigrants with
interest, but I have something to contribute at this point. The
assumption is made that a returning child would have a parent
return with him/her, even the whole family if another parent could
not stay in the US with other children. Well, there is a big
difference between a 3 year old and a 16 year old, as well as
between the 19th century and the 21st.

Children of very young ages travelled alone, routinely, in the
19th century. My ggrandmother came to the US alone at age 8, first
class, travelling to people she never met, probably, as they had
been in the US a lot more than 8 years. Her mother had died and
father remarried, and I assume that she was sent to an uncle -
although the surname is different than either of her parents' - and
his wife.

I also know someone whose ancestral family was on a ship that had
just sailed when measles broke out. The ship went back to port and
put the sick kids off. This person's family felt bad for the 4 or 5
year old child left at the port alone, without knowing whatever
happened to him/her, but the family couldn't afford to give up the
many tickets for their large family in order to take care of the sick
child with no money and no help at that port. He was writing a story
of the situation, as the family still felt bad about it several
generations later.

So my thought is that a rejected child might end up being returned to
Europe alone, even at an 'elementary school' age. The family would
probably send a letter to family back home, perhaps with the child,
hoping that the child would make it back home - a horrible situation,
but there would be no easy solution for a poor family. The ship would
have been nearly empty, and it had an obligation to return rejected
immigrants, so the child would have been fed and kept safe (as much as
people did in the 19th century), at least while on ship. Hopefully one
of the emigration societies that helped on the way to port in Europe
would help the child there. In the case I mentioned, the family never
knew what happened to the sick child.

Sally Bruckheimer
Piscataway, NJ