Hello, my great grandfather was Solomon Gertzovsky.

I have some documents that someone translated for me - 

 

“Looks like draft documents for Zalman Movshovich Gertzovskiy. He was drafted 1898 age 24. He resided in shtetl Dyatlovo in Slonim region Grodno municipality.”

 He married Leah and they had 4 kids including my grandmother. 

One of their children died age 16 and in the burial record it mentions he is mourned by Solomon and Leba. Not Leah. But on their own burial records she is listed as Leah.

Not sure if this is intentional or a mistake. 

Im not sure exactly when my Solomon (Zalman) married Leah and if it was before emigrating to London.

Also I am confused why his surname is Movshovich Gertsovsky on the document but went by Gertsovsky only once in London? Can anyone explain?

I would love to find out more about Leah and if her name was also Luba and what her maiden name was and where she came from. Any ideas how I can find out?

One more mystery. I have photos of a Jack Miller who is a half brother to Simon Gertzovsky - the child who died age 16 and is buried in Edmonton, London.

I have no idea who he is and how he came to be half brothers. He is alot older than Simon by the photos. 

I assume if his surname is Miller he was perhaps a child of Leah?? 

I have two photos of Jack Miller in New York and then a photo of Jack with Simon in London. My family lived in London.

So how can I track down where Jack fits in, and who his parents were?

I did try looking on the US federal census for 1920 but i have no real idea which Jack Miller is listed.

Many thanks for any advice!
Emma Field great grand daughter of Solomon Gertzovsky, UK

Emma,

If Jack MILLER was in London (you have than photo) and assuming that Jack returned to the U.S., you can search incoming passenger manifests for Jack MILLER returning from London.

Hopefully you have an approximate year that Jack sailed from London to NY (either the first time, or later if he traveled more than once.)

The biggest entry point was NY (many other ports, of course.)  Here is a good place to start searching incoming passengers to NY:
https://stevemorse.org/ellis2/ellisgold.html

You can search for Jack (or maybe Jacob?) MILLER, town name: London.  You can limit the search by approximate year of birth or year range of arrival.

If you find Jack on a manifest than you'll have more info to find him on census, etc.

Good luck in your search,

Sherri Bobish

On Sat, Dec 12, 2020 at 11:35 AM, Emma Field wrote:

his surname is Movshovich Gertsovsky

Movshovich is a male patronymic name, an indicator of his father's name, not his last name.  His father's first name was Movsha (same as Moshe, Moses, etc).  Gertsovskiy is the last (family) name.
If Zalman had a sister named Girl, her full name would have been Girl Movshovna Gertsovskaya.  Zalman's children's full names would have been Boy Zalmonovich (or Solomonovich) Gertsovskiy and Girl Zalmonovna (or Solomonovna) Gertsovskaya.

In the beginning of the post you typed "Leba", but later you typed "Luba".  I assume the first one was a typo.  Luba/Lyuba is a common Russian name, diminutive for for Lubov/Lyubov ("Love"), so likely a nickname for Leah. Just like Solomon is a Russian version of Shloyme.  Likewise, Zalman is also a kinui for Shloyme.

Mike Vayser