Untitled Document

CHANA SORA CZARNOLASKI

Anna and Isidore Schneider: Chana Sora and Yitzrak

My mother’s parents were known in the United States as “Isidore and Anna Schneider.” However, my mother, Ruth, knew her mother’s name to be “Chana Sora” since Yiddish was the only language spoken at home. She heard stories about how young Chana Sora “Charnolefski” had been born in ”Grieva”(Grajewo, Lomza Gubernia), Poland, and came to the United States alone at a very young age. Ruth learned that her mother had lived with a brother, Joseph Feldman in Boston until Chana Sora’s father died in Grajewo. Upon learning of the death of her father, Chana Sora returned to Poland where she met my grandfather, young Ick (Yitzrak) Bendet Sznejder, who had just been discharged from of the Russian army. The couple married and Yitzhak agreed to go with his bride to the United States.

My father found their ship manifest, discovering they had arrived at Ellis Island on August 15, 1906 on the SS Barbarosa. Chana Sora was just 20 years old, eight years younger than her husband. When the Ellis Island records were first made available on the internet, I attempted in vain to find evidence

of my grandmother’s first trip to the United States. However, wheevidencen the indexing system to the Ellis Island database developed by Steven Morse became available I was able to search for the town “Grajewo” where my grandmother began her journey.

I found a 14-year-old female, traveling from Grajewo, who had been indexed as “Chana Love Charmelewsky traveling on July 12, 1900 on the SS Rotterdam. Unfortunately, this page of the manifest had been damaged and repaired with tape. The tape may have been transparent at one time but had darkened over the years, making much of the information on the page illegible. Fortunately the entry I was interested in was just below the major damage. However, some of the tape ran vertically down through the portion of the entry describing the person she was to live with in the United States.

Young Chana Sora

When I looked carefully at the middle name that the transcribers of the data base had listed as “Love,” I noticed that the first letter that was read as a capitol “L” was identical to capitol “S”s used by the same census taker on other portions of the page.

Note the similarity between the “L” in Love	“Love” or “Sora”?
and the “S” in Syracuse.	Note “S” in “Syracuse”

If the “L” is actually an “S” then Love could be “Sore” or Sora.

Most genealogists I have discussed this with feel there is a high degree of likeliness that Chane Sore Charmelewsky of Grajewo and Chana Sora Czarnoloski (or Charnelefsky as my mother pronounced it) are one and the same person. The age, and the town are correct according to the stories of my mother. The difference in ages between this manifest and the 1906 manifest correspond appropriately.

THE SYRACUSE CONNECTION

But the young lady traveling on the SS Rotterdam was, according to the manifest, going to meet an uncle in Syracuse, not a brother in Boston. None of the surviving Schneider relatives recall any stories about relatives from Syracuse.

Because of the tape damage to the manifest, the name of the uncle cannot be read with certainty. What can be deciphered is that his first initial seems to be an “S.” (Again, compare that letter to the ”S” in Syracuse.) The last name appears to be a short name ending with the letter “i.” What is clear from the manifest is the uncle’s address, at “605 Almond Drive”, in Syracuse.

1900 Census Records for 605 Almond Drive

The 1910 United States Census Records, dated on June 7, 1900 (one month prior to the arrival of the SS Rotterdam) shows a Samuel and Enny (Anny?) Levi living at 605 Almond Drive in Syracuse along with a grandson named Joseph Cohen. The “S. ---i from the manifest could have been this Samuel Levi.

This Samuel Levi was 55 years old at the time of the 1910 Census. Samuel, his wife and the grandson are listed as having been born in “Poland, Russia.” (It would imply that both parents of the grandson were Russian immigrants.

A SEARCH FOR UNCLE SAMUEL

Martin Miller, a friend and fellow genealogist from Syracuse, provided additional information on the Samuel Levi family. Marty’s, extensive studies of his Jewish links in the Syracuse area have convinced him that there are many links between Jewish families that found their way to Syracuse in the late 19th and early 20th century from parts of Russia that now constitute Poland and Lithuania. Chana’s family was from Grajewo (Lomza Gubernia). Marty tells me that there are other families that settled in Syracuse during this time period from Grajewo.

Marty has provided me with much information about the family of Samuel Levi and its descendants that he found from local and other sources. With the help of Marty’s information, his extensive knowledge of the Jewish Community of Syracuse and information from the “Family Tree of the Jewish People,” I have put together the following:

The Levi’s had the one daughter, Rachel who married an Isaac Cohen who was born in Russia. The marriage license has not been found yet but other findings document this union.
Isaac and Rachel Cohen had five children. Harry, Mortimer Rosalind, Samuel, Anna Leona, Jennie (Jean), Joseph and Madeline.
Rachel died, apparently in Syracuse, February 6, 1923
Jennie (Jean) Cohen married David S. Altfield and they had four children, Samuel William, Bernard Lee and Selma Rhea.
Selma married Elmer Segal. Selma is a family friend of Marty Miller’s family. She currently lives in Ohio, and I have been able to communicate with her. Unfortunately she knows little about her grandparents, yet alone of her great grandparents.

Was this Samuel Levi Chana’s Uncle? Earlier Schneider genealogy records did not show Levi as a family name. We believe that his wife that was Chana Mirmensztejn as shown in the pedigree below.

Pedigree of Selma Rhea Altfield Segal: Chana Mirmensztejn (in green) is the sister of Chana Soro's mother, Chawa Leah Mirmensztejn

Eve Feldman, the sole surviving daughter of Joseph Feldman, (Chana’s brother from Boston) has perhaps provided some corroboratory information. Eve's father had originally left Grajewo for England, where he changed his name to Feldman. Eve recalled that her father had decided to leave Poland because of his infatuation with "Roselia", a cousin who came to America with her family. Could Roselia be Rachael Levi (a cousin of Joseph Feldman, according to the Pedigree above)? We believe that is the case. Roselia's affection for young Joseph Feldman was apparently not mutual. Joseph told Eve that he followed Roselia to The United States hoping that she would reconsider him as a suitor. According to the story, she did not.

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Last Update April 14, 2004