{"id":2549,"date":"2011-03-21T10:09:47","date_gmt":"2011-03-21T14:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/?p=2549"},"modified":"2011-03-21T10:09:47","modified_gmt":"2011-03-21T14:09:47","slug":"genealogy-to-family-history-part-two-the-silvermans-come-to-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/genealogy-to-family-history-part-two-the-silvermans-come-to-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Genealogy to Family History Part Two—The Silvermans Come to America"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Part I<\/a> of this series I listed some of the facts I know about my grandfather’s life.\u00a0 In this post I have turned those facts into a story
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nMy grandfather’s story is in many ways an ordinary story.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 If you are African-American it is a different story.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 A million people or more arrived in this country every year between 1890 and 1910.\u00a0 These were primarily Eastern Europeans and my grandfather was one of them.<\/p>\n

Why did he come?\u00a0 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.\u00a0\"\"<\/a> The Pale included what is now the Ukraine, Poland and other areas.\u00a0 The laws became more and more restrictive over time.\u00a0 Even within the Pale Jews could not own land, paid extra taxes and could not attend university.\u00a0\u00a0 Eventually Russian law demanded that large numbers of Jews between the ages of 12 and 25 serve 25 years in the Russian army.\u00a0 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.<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My grandfather traveled with his parents, Mendel and Lina and his brother Sam.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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The Barge Office New York---- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
First Photo in America Mendel, Lina, Alex and Sam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is much more to this story and there will be a Part III.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Part I of this series I listed some of the facts I know about my grandfather’s life.\u00a0 In this post I have turned those facts into a story My grandfather’s story is in many ways an ordinary story.\u00a0 Grandpa’s …<\/p>\n

Genealogy to Family History Part Two—The Silvermans Come to America<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[75,77,142],"class_list":["post-2549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc","tag-silver-family","tag-silver-genealogy","tag-silverman-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2549"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2593,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2549\/revisions\/2593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}