David:Well, I looked over the links you sent and was very impressed.  I’m pretty certain that this is a real connection.   Here’s the story:

Meyer is one of 5 children from Czestochowa.  (Spellings vary with documents.)

1.    Harry Gershanowitz 2.    Meyer (Max) Gershenowitz 3.    David Gershanowitz 4.    Chaje  Gershanowitz 5.    [...]]]> Meyer Gershenowitz married Toba Besser, my grandmother’s sister.  Email from Howard Mirsky:

David:Well, I looked over the links you sent and was very impressed.  I’m pretty certain that this is a real connection.   Here’s the story:

Meyer is one of 5 children from Czestochowa.  (Spellings vary with documents.)

1.    Harry Gershanowitz
2.    Meyer (Max) Gershenowitz
3.    David Gershanowitz
4.    Chaje  Gershanowitz
5.    Ida Gershanowitz

Harrry is my grandfather.  He immigrated in 1907.  He and Perl Rand had 3 children, Helen, Irving, and Gertrude (Gigi). Gigi is named after her grandmother, Gittl.   I’m Helen’s son.  (Harry also had 2 prior children by his first wife, Esther Rothman.  She died and left him with the 2 children to raise.)

Meyer as you already know had 4 children.  He arrived with his sister, Chaje, also in 1907, and they went to his brother, David Gershanowitz, already here at Metropolitan Ave.  You also know that on the ship manifest he gives his mother’s name as Gittl, back home.

David is the mystery brother.  Just tonight (12/11) I called Gigi in Fla.  She said David had a candy store in Brownsville, and that he had 2 children, Irene and Lou.  Irene lived in N.Y. and went into the hat business.  The family saw her.  David moved to the Washington area sometime after the war.  I can find no trace of him.

Chaje Gershanowitz.  She married Louis Pearlman.  They had several children.

Ida Gershanowitz married Max Friedman.  He was in the umbrella business.  They had 3 children, Gilbert, Irving, and Sam.

Below are the graves at Mt. Judah  You can see that the dates may vary a little from the ones you have.  On Toby’s stone the translation of the first line is:  “Here lies Tova, daughter of Yitchok.”  Similarly on the other it says: “Israel Meyer, son of Yitchok Moshe”

Would it be O.K. if I showed the wedding picture of Meyer to my  aunt, since she remembers them?  By the way, she could remember no one from Toby’s (Toba’s) side.

He also looks very much like my grandfather.  Take a look below:

Harry Gershanowitz sometime between 1907 and 1914

Attached to this in my mother’s handwriting is: “Max Gershanowitz, papa’s brother”

FYI: My mother Helen married Bernard Mirsky.  Two children, Jay and Howard.  Each have 2 girls.

RE: Family story, found here.  Yes, I saw that.  I know that story, too.  Meyer took custody of the children, a boy and a girl, my aunt remembered.  He already had 4 children and couldn’t keep them.  They went to David Gershanowitz’s son, Lou (my aunt isn’t 100% sure of the name).  There, as your aunt remembered, too, they couldn’t fit in and were lost to the family.  This probably occurred in the Washington / VA area, since that’s where David’s son, Lou had lived since the war.

Best regards,  Howard

Home of the Besser family before 1910. A tropical paradise it wasn’t!

Here’s the rest of what I learned from my cousin Florence Paul nee Besser, now 95. The Besser Family originated in Germany, probably lived in Zaloshin (Dzialoszyn) and Kloback. Sheine Besser nee Mandt probably came from Kalisz, near the German border. Her sister’s son was Jack Izbitsky and his sister was Helen . [...]]]>

Ev Blustein 10/2001

Here’s the rest of what I learned from my cousin Florence Paul nee Besser, now 95. The Besser Family originated in Germany, probably lived in Zaloshin (Dzialoszyn) and Kloback. Sheine Besser nee Mandt probably came from Kalisz, near the German border. Her sister’s son was Jack Izbitsky and his sister was Helen . I don’t know the name of this sister of Sheine (the mother of Jack and Helen) Sheine’s brother (name unknown) had a daughter named Hilda Mandt . I did access the Ellis Island Records and found out that Schiene Besser (my grandmother) and Itzik Beset (my grandfather) both arrived from Chinstachow, Pietzkow (Czestochowa) on Sept. 29, 1913.

She was 46 and he was 50. They came on the Noordam from Rotterdam. I was also able to locate all but one of their children on passenger lists. (Note: see the Toba Besser story, below, for an interesting twist) The spelling of the Polish names leaves a lot to be desired and from my research, the places of origin are approximations. They never lived anywhere but NY, mainly in Brooklyn. (Regarding a note from a possible relation:) The dates for Isador Besser in Pamela’s and this Itzig Besser could indicate a common ancestor (though not in a Darwinian sense!) I’ve never heard anyone in my family speak of any contact with other Bessers in the US and I’m certain no one knew anyone in Little Rock, so I doubt this is the same individual. I did speak with Joe Besser, the actor, when I ushered on Broadway in the l940’s. He was not responsive to my inquiries and didn’t seem at all interested in family history!

Addendum 12/2004 from Ev Blustein and Iris Paul:

David:  It is possible that the three males listed at same address as other Besers were the children of Jacob and Ruchla (Toll).  They had three other children in addition to Florence and Helen who died during World War I before the family emigrated.  I know they were sons.  Florence and Helen were born so close to one another that their years of birth are often listed as identical , variously as l907or l908, so it would be possible that Leib listed as born in 1908 was also born soon after them.  Dates of death would substantiate or refute the theory that these were siblings of Florence and Helen.

I really know very little about Hilda.  I think that she came to the U.S. in 1938, before the invasion of Poland.  Since Harold & I made the arrangements for her burial, I have a copy of her death certificate.  Her father is listed as Samuel Mont.  She was born in Poland on May 1, 1896 and died on Nov. 2nd or 5th, 1980.

Helen Besser remains a mystery; Ellis Island records show her age at arrival in 1909 to be 19 but it is believed she was 17 while the 1920 census record shows her to be 27. This brings her DOB somewhere between 1890 and 1893, probably 1892 and , since the records from Poland were for c 1913 she may have been omitted because she was already in the USA, although Toba  is listed   even though she arrived in the USA in 1907.  Helen did live somewhare other than with her family for a while (working on a farm) but I don’t know where or when and this may be the most plausible explanation for her absence in the Klobuck record.

***Florence was born in Jan, 1906.  When Jacob went to town in the Spring to register her he would have had to pay a fine because of the delay, so he waited until Helen was born & registered them as twins.

Mom would never talk about the deceased siblings or tell me their names.  There was another daughter born after the 3 sons; the only thing she told me about her was that she had eyes like her father.

Added 12/2010: For details on Toba Besser and husband’s family Gershonowitz, go here.

It is known by the family that Toba Besser was the first of the Bessers to come to America but no records of her trip are to be found from Ellis Island.

Other stories passed down give us some clues:

Toba’s husband, Meyer Gershonowitz, was a suitor in Czestochowa whom Toba appearently [...]]]> David Semmel and Ev Blustein12/2001:

It is known by the family that Toba Besser was the first of the Bessers to come to America but no records of her trip are to be found from Ellis Island.

Other stories passed down give us some clues:

Toba’s husband, Meyer Gershonowitz, was a suitor in Czestochowa whom Toba appearently rejected. She then came to America with a family whose name was Weisskopf and lived with them as their “housekeeper”.   I suspect she was more of an indentured servant, though I couldn’t prove it.

Meyer came to New York, was a more successful suitor the second time and they were married. Toba must have come before 1909 since she was the first of the Bessers to arrive and the second, Helen, came in 1909. The wedding picture we have of Toba and Meyer is dated1909-1910 but I don’t know the source or its accuracy.

From the Ellis Island data base we found:

Schoel (11) and Sure (19) Weisskopf, both female and traveling alone, came in 7/7/07 on the Noordham from Rotterdam. Czestochowa.

Conjectures and Questions

Sure Weiskopf is Toba Besser. She was sent with the Weiskopf’s 11 yr old. We know Toba was born in 1889 so the age is very close or correct. I just wonder how they managed the paperwork, but money has been known to grease the wheels of bureaucracy, and the Weisskopfs were well-off.

Meyer Gerschenowitz (sic) came to the US on 8/8/1907 with sister Chaja born 1894. Their mother was Gittle, all from Czestochowa. Going to brother (?) D (hard to read) Gerchenowitz who lived at 238 Metropolitan St in Brooklyn.

There is a Mordehc Gershonowitz arriving on Kroonland from Antwerp on 12/21/1911 age 20. Father was Leib and all are from Neustadt, the home of the Semmels?!? I cant connect Mordehc Gershonowitz or his father Lieb to our clan, though the Neustadt thing is very curious and they were there at the same time..

From Ev Blustein:

No, I never heard (or do not recall hearing) about Meyer’s siblings or parents. I do think there was niece whose name I do not know but who adopted a pair of orphans from Poland after the war who were the sole survivors of a relative. They had been saved by a Gentile woman who had claimed them as her own, raised them as Catholics in Holland, and had to give them up when Meyer’s relatives here wanted them. I remember when they came and how unhappy they were to have been separated from their “mother” in Holland. I don’t know what their names are (were) and don’t know what became of them. I believe Meyer sponsored their entry to the US.