I doubt that your great grandmother was the only person in the Palace
who could read and write.  All the nobility and the gentry, and all
medical people would have been literate in 2 or 3 languages, or more.
The best doctors--and those in a hospital in the St Petersburg area
would be the best--had medical degrees from German universities. In
fact many Jewish boys went to Germany to become doctors and then
returned to Russia.  But what Palace was that?  It was possible to work
on Kronshtadt and live in Tsarskoe Selo, where the Summer Palace was
located, or in St. Pete itself: there was a regularly scheduled
ferry/sleigh between Tsarskoe Selo and Kronshtadt, and the first
commuter train ran between St. Pete and Tsarskoe Selo.  The latter was
the first fully electrified city in the world.  My grandmother, educated
in Tsarskoe Selo, arrived in America at the age of 15 speaking perfect
English in 1891 and the family settled in Chicago, which she considered
a primitive frontier town compared to her beloved Petrograd.  The
family's military supply store on Kronshtadt, and birth records for them
and my greatgrandmother's two brothers' families are recorded in the
Kronshtadt Jewish synagogue.  I would imagine that records for a
hospital located there might still exist.  A newspaper existed in
Kronshtadt and a researcher might well find your family mentioned in
some article.  My ggf ran ads and I have a photocopy of one, so I know
how much an officer paid for a kortik (the dagger worn on the belt) in
1878, when they were bound for the Russo-Turkish War.

Jules Levin


On 10/15/2020 6:00 PM, GRSN@... wrote:

My Great Grandfather, Alexander Borisovich Shneyer was said to be in
Charge of the Hospital in Kronstadt (Dentist) and whose wife, Anna
Alterman Shneyer was in charge of the communication system in the
Palace because she could read and write.
I remember my Great Aunt Sara, my Grandfather’s sister-in-law telling
me that my Grandfather's childhood was one of privilege because of
his
father’s stature with the czar.

Gail Roberta Shneyer  Nussbaum

My Great Grandfather, Alexander Borisovich Shneyer was said to be in
Charge of the Hospital in Kronstadt (Dentist) and whose wife, Anna
Alterman Shneyer was in charge of the communication system in the
Palace because she could read and write.
I remember my Great Aunt Sara, my Grandfather’s sister-in-law telling
me that my Grandfather's childhood was one of privilege because of his
father’s stature with the czar.

Gail Roberta Shneyer  Nussbaum