Elizabeth: Belarus to Chicago
So on to Elizabeth. We know a lot less about Elizabeth’s early life. As I translate more of her correspondence, we’ll learn more. For now, what we know is from a few documents that exist for her.
According to what she reported for the ship manifest when she came to the United States, she was born in Bobruisk which is now in Belarus. She gave her name as Marta Lea which she would change to Elizabeth Maude. Letters from that period are all addressed to “Liza.” She gave her father’s name as “Schloime Rochlin.” She arrived to Baltimore on the SS Breslau on January 7, 1911. She stated her final destination as Chicago to live with her Uncle Abram Rochlin with his address there where she later received mail…letters that she kept and are in the process of being translated. I have not found any trace of Uncle Abram when she no longer lives with him starting a year or two after arriving to the USA.
Sid maintained that she had travelled with a sister and that one of the only objects they brought with them was the samovar that he had refinished with new brass and is still in the family today. Someone else on the manifest may have been a companion, but she is the only Rochlin listed. If there is any question of whether it was her…she listed her height as 4 feet, eleven inches. That is one of things people say about her…she was quite short next to so many tall Locketz men.
We don’t know much more at this point. She corresponded with someone named Yakov Moiseevich Simkin a great deal in the 19teens. He could be a friend or a cousin. His children add notes to “Aunt Liza.” He mentions seeing others in her family which he calls, “your family” so he does not seem to be a brother. And she had a brother who was also named Yakov, but he was a different Yakov. She has correspondence with someone named Meria in Minsk from before she immigrated. Those letters are dated 1907 and 1908. She seems to be a friend who went away to Minsk for treatment for depression. There are no later letters from her, but Elizabeth brought these with her…along with the samovar…so Meria must have been someone special to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth maintained correspondence with her brother Ya’akov/Jacob Rochlin. His letters are full of requests for help as his health was poor and he was not able to maintain jobs. He mentions Shifra a number of times, who I believe may have been a sister. I found this marriage record for a Shifra with the correct father’s name, but nothing further.
Jacob lived in Gomel up until the war. Yad Vashem records say he was evacuated to Russia during the war.
But he survived the war and returned to Gomel. He wrote to Elizabeth in 1946 saying:
~~~~~~~~~~~
Gomel 10.22.1946
Dear Liza and Lyova
Many years have passed since we knew about each other. We do not know the destiny of everyone during these 5 years of the war. I am writing and thinking about who survived… I hope you will receive this letter. We hope that the children, your dear sister, your husband or at least some cousins survived.
As you can see we are alive, however due to my health I am not working. And that is why we do not do well. If I could work, life would be easier for all of us.
Liza graduated from College. She is a teacher and lives well. Shura is graduating from the trade school of technology, and of course if not for my failing health, things would be better.
My dear, please how are you and especially how is your health. Is everyone we know and related to survived? Is everyone alive?
If yes, do you have their address?
Be healthy.
Your brother, Yacov Rochlin.
Gomel, Volodardskaya Street, #7
The following photos may have also been of sisters of Elizabeth. Or nieces. Jacob keeps saying he is enclosing photos of the girls. But according to the studio information on the back of the photos, one of these was taken in Bobruisk and one is Gomel. So the one from Gomel could have been Elizabeth’s niece by Jacob…we can put this in the category of “who knows.” You open a letter and the photos don’t always stay with the envelope. So I am sorting photos, getting the inscriptions translated and then maybe we can figure out who is who. In the meantime, what I can say for sure is that there is a strong Rochlin family resemblance. I do not know whose writing is on the back of the photos.
And there are these additional photos which may be Elizabeth…or they may be of her sisters or nieces.
While no one in our family (descendants) ever met any of these people I’ve mentioned other than Elizabeth, there was a sister of hers that remained connected until the end of Elizabeth’s life, who family here in Minnesota did know. She was known as Aunt Bessie. Bessie immigrated two years after Elizabeth and married and lived in Chicago. I think of Bessie as the classic Jewish American story.
On the ship manifest, she gave her name as: Pesche Rachlin. And even though I don’t believe she ever went by it, she naturalized as Paula Smith. Pesche Rachlin to Paula Smith. Her Russian name may have been Polya as Jacob mentions a Polya a few times. Smith came from Bessie’s husband George who was Grigory Snitko in Grodno, Poland but naturalized as George Max Smith.
In all of her naturalization papers, Bessie lists Orscha as the place of her birth. Unless and until we find birth records for Bessie, Elizabeth and the others, it will remain a mystery. Bessie was only 16 when she arrived in the United States. Elizabeth put in her documents that she was from Bobruisk. Her father was living there according to her ship’s manifest. When Bessie died, George reported in the death record that Bessie was from Mogilev which would be in the area of Bobruisk, not Orscha. Elizabeth kept a few letters I have not yet translated that have return addresses in Bobruisk. Yakov the brother was in Gomel. The family was not all in one place.
