A note on names and places
A note on names and places. There is a rabbinic teaching that says we each have three names. One given by our parents, one give by God and one we claim for ourselves. In actuality, we have many more names than that. We have names given in the language of our birth country. We have names we choose for ourselves when we come to a new country and naturalize there. We have names that change with marriages and divorces and deaths and remarriages. We have nick names and names of affection. And we have names that change spelling in translation from one language to another. We have names that are remembered by those who are alive which are often different from those found on birth records etc. Names however were NOT changed by officials at Ellis Island. Names that were changed in the process of immigration were changed intentionally by the immigrant. Check out the blog at this link if you want to read more about that. We see several examples of names issues in our own family.
“Grandpa Harry” was born Hans Daniel Ostertag in 1915 in Germany. He officially changed his name on his naturalization application in the United States which he filed on February 3, 1938 where he stated that he entered the country as Hans Daniel Ostertag, “also known as Harry Oster.”
You can see his name change…and that he was “heavily freckeled”!
Many in my generation knew Annette Locketz as “Grammanette.” Her name changed many times in her almost 90 years. Born Annette Lessman, later adding Rubinger at times and finally Locketz. Sid always knew his grandparents names at Yankel Shepsil and Chai Mashi. Whenever we see Chai Mashi on a Russian record, it is recorded as Khaya Basia. This can complicate the telling of a story.
Sometimes people will get stuck on what they “know” and argue with the historical record. We have direct evidence and indirect evidence of one’s existence. I hope to find as much direct evidence (public records, cemetery records, directories, year books etc.). But much of what we know comes from indirect evidence (stories passed down and headstones etc.). When I deviate from what is “known,” I will support it with the historical record.
Places names, locations and geography also pose challenges. Borders changed many times in the last 500 years. Towns that were at one time in Russia are now located in modern day Poland or Belarus. The Polish town of Mlava that Granny Sarah (nee Bolnick, Lessman) Rubinger described in an interview as being on the border with Germany, is nowhere near the German border today. Immigrants, or at least many of our immigrants, sadly just put “Russia” for place of origin. Try finding documents for someone named “Ruben Rubenstein from Russia.” Joe Jacobs (another name which is too common for finding documentation) said he was from Minsk in an interview. Joe was young, only 8 or 9, when he immigrated. Many people from neighboring villages give the big city when stating place of birth. I live in Minnetonka but when I meet someone from another state or country, I usually say I live in Minneapolis.
Louis Locketz is a great example of all of these issues tied up together. We are lucky that he was born in a time and place where records were saved. This is not the case across the whole family. Because of wars, natural disasters, decay etc, what documentation that remains today is often hit or miss. And what does remain today isn’t all digitized, translated or even yet discovered. Here is the hand written birth record for Louis Locketz.
The Russian side says: Born 20 May/9 Sivan, Circumcised 27 May/16 Sivan by Awsyj Elia Judinson, Father: Resident of Kupishok Jankiel-Szabse Lokac, Mother Chaja-Basia, Son: Lejba. The Yiddish side is tough to read, but the column all the way to the right says, “Ben Leib/Son Leib.” The second column from the right lists parents Yakov Shabsel and Chai Basha.
So Louis’ father, Yankel Shepsil as referred to in the family, came from Kupishok, which is now Kupiskis. Today Kupiskis is in Lithuania, as it was was then too. Yankel Shepsil moved the 74.8 miles to Daugavpils/Dvinsk sometime before Louis was born. It is possible that they had moved to Dvinsk prior to all the siblings being born, but I don’t yet have those records. In the 1897 Russian Revision list, the Jewish population in Dvinsk was 32,400 people which was 44% of the overall population. This made Dvinsk one of the major Jewish centers in Latvia, with big city opportunities. In Kupiskis the Jewish population in 1897, for comparison, was 2,661 which was 71% of the population. Kupiskis was the small town and Dvinsk, the big city. The train connected Kupiskis to Daugavpils in 1873.
Yet, many in the family recall Louis as having been from Lithuania.
Louis may have considered himself a Litvack. The borders changed frequently, but the cultural identity of the people didn’t change as quickly. “Litvack” was more of a religious brand than a national identity. Within late Medieval/early Modern Judaism, “Litvack” was one of a number of Jewish “cultures” that evolved in Eastern Europe. In Northern Poland, and in the other areas where the big cities were Vilnius/Vilna, Bialystok, and Minsk the culture was Litvack in contrast to the Galizianers, who were more geographically connected to Southern Poland and Western Ukraine, between Cracow and Lwow. One of the most obvious differences today is the dialect of Yiddish spoken in those two regions. Examples like Kugel vs. Kigel tell you where someone’s family started out. The Litvacks were arguably more culturally modern. They were influenced by German Jewish Enlightenment and modernity, where as Galicia was overpopulated, far more impoverished and shtetl based. From what I have learned of Louis Locketz, it makes sense he was known as a Litvack and I would also guess that it would not have occurred to him that in calling himself a Litvack, others would take that as him being from Lithuania. He may have visited his grandparents in Kupiskis, Lithuania, but he was from D’vinsk/Daugavpils, Latvia.
