Silver Family » The Genealogy Gals

The Hundred Year Old Pony

Photography has been a vital element of family history since its earliest days. We cherish the oldest photographs taken when photography was an art practiced by a knowledgeable few. Now we live in an age where every moment of our children’s lives is recorded, photographed, videotaped.

The photos I have been looking at lately were taken by a bygone class of photographers, itinerant street photographers. These photographers would come to the neighborhood and take pictures of the children. The pictures could then be sold to the proud parents. In the neighborhood where my family lived when I was young the photographer came with a prop, a pony and sometimes cowboy or girl costumes. No urban kid could resist climbing on the pony and it was a hardhearted parent who wouldn’t scrape together the money for a photo.

I believe I must have some of the earliest of these “pony” photos.

The first photo I have of our neighborhood pony is one of my mother’s cousins taken around 1906.

Ida and Belle

Here is my father about 1916.

My Father 1916

My mother’s twin brothers were not far behind in 1924 and my cousin Danny in 1928

Herb and Syd

Danny 1928

The later era of pony photography included costumes.

My brother about 1947

Two of my cousin Hank.

Cousin Hank

There is a picture of me on that pony, but I cannot lay my hands on it. So, here is a picture of me at the age of three.

Me--No Pony

Please imagine me sitting on that pony in full cowgirl regalia imagining a life in the wide open spaces.

Finally, any of you who have looked at these pictures can plainly see that there is more than one pony involved between 1906 an 1954. Yet in my mind and my heart there was one pony and I loved that pony in the way that only a small girl can love a pony. I love him to this day. In my mind’s eye I see him romping in pony heaven, munching on whatever ponies like to munch on, perhaps accompanied by a lovely female pony and surrounded by adoring little ponies. That’s the way I see it. Please don’t mess it up with reality, there’s way more than enough reality to go around.

Silvers in Philadelphia

This is the final part of four of the story of my grandfather, Alexander Silver. Follow the links for Parts I, II, and III.

My grandparents settled in Philadelphia by 1920.

They lived first in the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadlephia where we all lived when I was born.

My grandfather, my brother and me

Later we all moved to West Oak Lane where my grandparents and my father lived until they passed away.

Over their 66 years of marriage there were many births and celebrations. I am putting up some photos.

My Grandmother Pauline

Sixtieth Anniversary

I will expand on this story at a later date.

The Silvermans Come to America–Part III

This is the third part of a series about my grandfather, Alexander Silver. You can read Parts I and II by following the links.

Alexander Silver married Pauline Bublick in November of 1896. He was twenty years old and she was eighteen. In 1900 the young couple and their first child, Ethel, were living with his parents on the Lower East Side of New York.

Pauline and Alex about 1896

Alex and Ethel

At the turn of the twentieth century the Lower East Side was a neighborhood teeming with newly arrived immigrants, half of them were Jewish, upwards of 350,000 people and they were all crammed into two square miles at the tip of Manhattan. The Silvermans were living at 31 Forsyth Street, a typical tenement building.

Hester Street 1903

Forsyth Street

Many of the women in the tenements worked in the garment industry. Conditions in the factories were difficult, long hours, low wages and terribly unsafe working conditions. Even with the brutal conditions these jobs were sought after. Many women and children did piecework if they couldn’t get a factory job or needed to be home with young children. I found an interesting photo of an unknown female relative from this period. I don’t know who this woman is, but the back of the photo holds a typical list of piece work either to be done or already finished.

Unknown Woman

Piece work list

By 1902 my grandfather was involved in the growing labor union movement in the United States. He became a recruiter for the Capmaker’s Union and spent at least ten years traveling the country working for the union. Although his citizenship papers say that his second child, Sylvia, was born in New York my grandparents and my aunt always said that she was born in New Orleans while he was working for the union. By 1907 they would be living in Detroit where my father was born in 1909.

Pauline, Alex, Ethel, and Sylvia

Alex, Pauline, and Stanley with family friends

Grandpa and Grandma never spoke much about this period in their life. By 1920 they would be settled in Philadelphia where Grandma’s family was already established. They would spend the rest of their lives there.

I’ll say more about their years in Philadelphia in my next post.

Genealogy to Family History Part Two—The Silvermans Come to America

In Part I of this series I listed some of the facts I know about my grandfather’s life. In this post I have turned those facts into a story

My grandfather’s story is in many ways an ordinary story. Grandpa’s is the Eastern European Jewish version of the story, but there is an Irish version, an Italian version, a German version, a Japanese version, a version for every ethnicity. If you are African-American it is a different story. Lack of choice changes the story, but mine is the ethnic story. You know this story, briefly, oppression in the homeland, leave everything and take a boat to a new country, arrive somewhere where you don’t speak the language, live in harsh, soul-crushing poverty, survive and thrive. These stories are common, yet I find them extraordinary. A million people or more arrived in this country every year between 1890 and 1910. These were primarily Eastern Europeans and my grandfather was one of them.

Why did he come? At the end of the 18th century Catherine the Great, Czar of Russia, created the Pale of Settlement where the Jews of Russia would be forced to live. The Pale included what is now the Ukraine, Poland and other areas. The laws became more and more restrictive over time. Even within the Pale Jews could not own land, paid extra taxes and could not attend university. Eventually Russian law demanded that large numbers of Jews between the ages of 12 and 25 serve 25 years in the Russian army. Any community that failed to provide its quota would be punished. The Silvers or Silvermans, as they were known then, left Russia forever when their oldest son was twelve. In light of the alternatives emigration to America looked good, even if the streets weren’t paved with gold.

In August of 1891 the Silverman family arrived in New York on the S.S. La Champagne having left Le Havre, France eight days earlier.

My grandfather traveled with his parents, Mendel and Lina and his brother Sam. I have no idea how they got to Le Havre, most likely by rail. They may have stayed in France for a while, my father recalls his father speaking of time in France. My cousin remembers being told they spent time in Ireland. Whatever their route and whatever the delays they came through the Barge Office in New York and started a new life.

The Barge Office New York---- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

First Photo in America Mendel, Lina, Alex and Sam

There is much more to this story and there will be a Part III.

Genealogy to Family History–How I Do It–Part One

I am in the process of switching to a new genealogy database. Rather than importing the data I am entering it by hand and taking this opportunity to review material, assess what I know and yes, clean up those source citations we have all heard WAY too much about recently. While I enjoy some of the OCD aspects of this project, it is a bit dull because it consists only of facts and not the story behind the facts.

The intersection of facts and stories struck my fancy, so I thought I would show anyone who is interested how I move from the bare facts to the story of my family. This will probably be a multi-part adventure.

I started with my grandfather, Alexander Silver.

What I Have

1. The 1900 U.S. Census

Some facts from this census

1. The name is Silverman, not Silver.

2. The Silverman family is living on Forsyth Street in Manhattan.

3. Alex is living with his parents, Mendel and Lena, his wife Pauline and his

daughter, Hatti–my Aunt Ethel

4.Alex was born in November of 1876 and was 23 years old.

5. Pauline was born in December of 1878 and was 21.

6. Ethel was born in July of 1897 and was 2 years old.

7. Ethel was born in New York, everyone else was born in Russia.

8. Alex and his parents emigrated in 1891, Pauline in 1888.

9. Alex had petitioned for naturalization

10. He was in the novelties business.

11. Alex and Pauline could read, write an speak English

2. Alexander Silver’s Declaration of Intention and Petition for citizenship

Some facts from the Declaration and Petition

1. The declaration of intention was made in 1907.

2. Alex and family were living in Detroit in 1907

3.They were living on South 7th St. in Philadelphia, PA. in 1911 .

4. Alex came to the U.S. from Russia via Havre on the S.S. Campagnia.

5. He arrived in New York an Aug. 20, 1891

6. He had three children, Ethel, born July 10, 1898 in New York, Sylvia, born

Nov. 25, 1902 in New York and Stanley born May 10, 1909 in Detroit

There’s much more of interest in these documents, but I’ll keep that for later.

The story as I like to tell it will be Part Two. Some facts may get bent, but not broken and some things will be implied from the facts. Context will be added to truly tell the story.

The Hundred Year Old Pony

Silvers in Philadelphia

The Silvermans Come to America–Part III

Genealogy to Family History Part Two—The Silvermans Come to America

Genealogy to Family History–How I Do It–Part One

Pages

Categories

Tags

Meta

May 2013
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
« Apr
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31