As immigrants, they had very little. They left their possessions in their homeland and traveled by train and boat to come to America. The land they thought would give them an opportunity for a new life. They came with very little, hoping to build their family in their new country. They ran away from what they saw beginning to happen in Warsaw. They had family that was drafted into the Russian Army. They needed to flee before that happened. They had family who were concerned that their religion could cost them their lives, they had to flee before that.
He chose to leave a few months before by steerage class to get to New York City first and get them established. She left a few months later with her mother and her baby boy. They all landed in Ellis Island within a few hours of each other. They were met by the brother who came first and had an apartment for all to share while they tried to find work and begin their new life in this wonderful land of opportunity.
Their baby boy became ill the following year of scarlet fever. He didn’t make it. They didn’t have money to bury him. We were always told that they didn’t know where he was buried, that he was taken from them since they were immigrants. We never saw a picture of him, we never knew anything more.
When my grandmother passed away, my mom packed up her apartment and brought all the cases, pictures and things to our house. In her grief, she just packed them all away and left them. She never went through most of the things she brought.
As we have been going through everything in our childhood home, we have come across pictures that we never saw before. The most fun is taking them to our Aunt who then looks at them, cries tears of joy and relief and shares stories about who some of the people are in these very old black and white photos. Pictures of her grandmother, the woman who our Family Circle has been named after. Most of us have seen pictures of her as an old woman, but finding pictures of her younger has been fascinating for us. Seeing pictures of our Grandfather at a young age as well as our Grandmother have allowed us to see incredible resemblances within our family.
There are three items found that have been the highlight of these pictures and documents. The first is a picture of my mom as a baby. Never seeing one before I immediately saw one of my great nieces in her face. I have always said this particular niece looks like our family, but it wasn’t until this baby picture that the resemblance to my mom hit me. I may be the only one who sees it, that doesn’t matter. What I see though is a beautiful baby who grew up into an incredibly gorgeous woman and a wonderful mom. She was stunning throughout her life and this baby picture didn’t disappoint.
The second document we found was in a beautiful brown leather bifold. It was my grandfather’s passport from Poland. Finding and seeing his signature, his Hebrew name and a document that old and in pristine condition reminded us of this lineage we tend to forget. That we come from this very strong stock of people who at young ages, in their 20’s, left everything they knew to come to a place where they didn’t really fit at first to start anew. The resolve and resilience that they displayed at these ages seem to be a far cry from what we may have been able to do at those ages and even more so for the next generations.
The last item that was fascinating for us was a very old picture of a baby. When our Aunt looked at, tears rolled down her face as she shared that this was the only picture she had ever seen as a child of her brother David. She reiterated the story that she was told, that they never knew where he was buried. He died before mom was born, but he was talked about enough that we all knew he existed. My brother’s middle name was after this uncle we didn’t know. We all thought it was very sad that we didn’t know where he was buried.
About a week after we found this beautiful baby picture, our oldest niece reached out to us. She had been using Ancestry.com along with other websites over the years to create a tree for our family and find documents and manifests from ships to really tell our familial story. She found where David was buried.
The Hebrew Federation had a cemetery in Staten Island that was free burial, without markers; probably mass graves. She found the document that we believe was the death certificate that gave his birth date, date of death, and this cemetery. She called our Aunt to let her know what she found. In Aunt Kit’s excitement, she shared that once a year our Grandmother would be gone for the day. Their dad would say it was the anniversary of the baby’s death and she needed to be alone. We now wonder if she knew he was in that cemetery. Perhaps she went there even though there was no marker. We don’t know but we do know that he and all our family will be able to rest in peace knowing that we have a resting place for him. How we wish mom had been alive to find out, it was something that I think tortured them all in some way, at least that is how mom seemed.
Finding these treasures and being able to continue to build the story of these amazing, strong people has helped ease the grief and pain of clearing out a home that you have known as your home for your entire life. Imagine being 60 years old and still having your childhood home to go to. Walking in and still smelling your parents, finding things that you remember playing with as a child, seeing pictures of vacations from 50 years ago that you may have forgotten, memories flood back. Stories flood back.
This is a treasure trove that I am relishing as we do this. Yes, the house needs to be emptied and sold. The process, although sometimes exhausting, has always allowed for these memories and new stories to take hold within us and our next generation.
The legacy of these strong and incredible people lives on in each of us; the stories these pictures could tell. It has been a healing experience.
Beatiful story….