lost name upon arrival to the U.S.

[sivie]

i don't know if anyone can help me with this but my family came from Kaminka in the early 1900's. the last name that we used to get here was Suckerman however this is not our real last name. as the story goes my great grandfather was drafted and got out of service and wanted to bring his family to america but out of fear of being drafted again he took the name of a cousin. i'm hoping for some help in finding out what my real last name is and where to start my search. i've found some information on the ellis island website but of course that only has the name that my family used to get here. any suggestions?

[Hannia]

Keep in mind that although family oral history does have merit and value, but over several generations, these stories inherit an aura of mythology. These hypotheses can become so firmly entrenched in the family oral history, that it becomes difficult to separate fact from fiction. So, review family stories with the notion that portions of the family history may or may not be correct.

You mentioned the arrival of the Suckerman family thru Ellis Island.

Was Frime Suckerman your GGrandmother? If so, on the ORIGINAL SHIP MANIFEST/handwritten copy, she lists leaving behind in Kaminke, Russia, a brother - Vussew? Tv/rsovslawski. (Stay very flexible w/any surname transliterations.) This would be her maiden name!!! It looks to be a Polish surname. She was 35 in 1911, giving her a birthyr of appx 1875/1876. Her children traveling w/her could possibly help you in your search as well. If you could ascertain which Kaminke, Russia they emigrated, you could either do an archival search for GGrandmother or any of her children? Documents would show the name of her husband or the name of the childrens' father. When doing any genealogy research, never be surprised by a surprise.

Using Metasearch you might be able to locate some of the children that enrolled in Social Security. There you can get birth dates.

RootsWeb MetaSearch
http://resources.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/metasearch

The difficult part will be in ascertaining which Kaminke they came from. In any of the Slavic languages the word mean "rock/s". This is a very common town/village name in Eastern Europe.

There are transliteration variations of the town/village name in current day Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Ukraine. In the time frame you are researching, these countries/or parts of were under the Old Russian Empire.

In any immigration documentation immigrants from these countries/or parts of, would be listed as coming from Russia.

Locating Kami/e/nke (as posted in Ellis Island documents).
Leave country - ALL.
JewishGen ShtetlSeeker - Town Search
http://www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/loctown.htm

PS> There might be some clues locally where the family settled. Most immigrants settled close to their own, whether by ethnic backgd, religion or old country town/village affiliations. I am assuming that they settled in North Dakota. Is this correct?












[Edited by Hannia on 30th January 2002 at 00:42]

[Hannia]

In 1902 a list of Jews who avoided military service (e.g. because of emigration to the USA) was published in the Latvian newspaper "Kurlandskiye gubernskiye vedomosti" [KGV]. The relatives who remained in Russia were forced to pay "the enormous pain in 300 rubles." In KGV the authorities announced they were searching for the members of the family of the person who had avoided military service (in 1901), and published the names of the relatives and their ages, including the draft avoider's parents and brother; and searched their property, asking for payment in the amount of 300 rubles. So it would seem that 300 rubles was the standard fine to be paid by the family for draft evasion for the early part of the 20th Century at least. This applied to families within the entire Pale of Settlement****.

Some families were able to buy their son▓s way out of the conscription, but most were extremely poor. The cost of buying one's self out of the army was even greater than the cost of a steerage ticket to England or the USA. When the emigrant attempted to send money ⌠back home■ to help pay these fines, the letters were frequently opened by the post office authorities to search for money orders or cash, and the money seldom reached the families most in need of it.

excerpt:
LitvakSIG - Revision List
http://www.jewishgen.org/Litvak/revision.htm

*** BEYOND THE PALE: Jews in the Russian Empire
http://www.friends-partners.org/part...nglish/28.html

Beyond the Pale: Life in the Pale of Settlement
http://www.friends-partners.org/part...nglish/30.html