Tonight's topic from Randy Seaver for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun applies to several of my ancestors.
Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission: Impossible! music, please!):
1. The life of every person has events and decisions that have risk factors that can significantly affect that life.
2. Describe a risk that one of your ancestors made that affected that person's life. How did it all turn out?
Share your information about an ancestor's risk in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system. Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.
Every ancestor (and collateral relative) on my mother's side of the family (my Jewish side) who made the momentous decision to immigrate to the United States took a risk when doing so, because none of them knew how it would turn out. I'm sure they all heard stories about the wonderful opportunities available in the Goldene Medina, the "golden country", but they probably also heard stories about how the move didn't work out as well as expected for some. Probably the ones who took the biggest risks were the first ones in each family to do so.
My great-grandfather Joyne Gorodetsky, who chose the name Joe Gordon after he immigrated, was the first member of my Gorodetsky family to cross the pond. The chain migration of the family from the Russian Empire began after the death of my great-great-grandmother Esther Leah (Schneiderman) Gorodetsky on December 10, 1908; eventually all eight children and my great-great-grandfather came to North America. Joyne arrived July 5, 1909 (right after Independence Day!) at Ellis Island, traveling to meet his uncle Shmuel Schneiderman (Sam Schneiderman here), his mother's brother.
Joe found work in the garment industry in New York City. A few years after arriving, he was a boarder at the home of Mendel Hertz (Morris) and Ruchel Dvojre (Rose Dorothy) Brainin in Manhattan, which is where he met my great-grandmother, Sore Leibe (Sarah Libby) Brainin. Soon they married and had three children: my granduncles, Alexander and Sidney, and my grandmother, Esther Lillian (who later changed her name to Lillyan E.).
From everything I have been told, Joe was successful in the garment industry. In 1930 the family was in Baltimore, Maryland, possibly having moved there for better opportunities after the Depression had hit. But soon they moved back to New York, where Joe bought a house in Brooklyn. The extended family, including many aunts, uncles, and cousins, got together (almost?) every Saturday to socialize, with Joe and Sarah's house the center of the activities. My grandmother told me how her father loved to host these events. My mother remembered how he used to bounce her and her cousin Harriet on his lap and sing "Buttons and Bows" to them.
For many years Joe did not become a U.S. citizen. He finally did so after World War II began, naturalizing on August 3, 1943 in New York.
Joe died May 2, 1955 (yahrzeit 10 Iyar) in Brooklyn. He is buried in Wellwood Cemetery, Pinelawn, Suffolk County, New York.
Overall, I'd say his taking a risk turned out well.
He was the brave one, coming first, and likely helping the rest to come. Aren't you glad he took the risk?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! Otherwise I wouldn't be here!
DeleteI agree, all our immigrant ancestors took a big risk leaving home for an unknown future.
ReplyDeleteI think it was a huge risk in particular for those of our ancestors who did not speak English. That had to have been very scary for them.
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