Family Letters
Collected Yiddish Letters
Family letters received in the US from relatives in Ukraine and Belarus were collected and handed down through multiple generations.
Over 50 collected letters, mostly sent in the 1920s and 1930s, shared news and details about family members and happy events like new births and weddings. Often tales of hardship and requests for financial help were also included.
Moisey to his family in the US
The letter at left is an example of the collected Yiddish letters. It was from Moisey Kaufman, who was living in Ovruch, Ukraine, written to his parents Abraham, Fradel and his brothers, who were living in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
At the time, around 1922, Moisey's grandmother Sarah was still living on the Kaufman Farm in Targonsky, about 25 miles northwest from Ovruch.
Jacob Kaufman's Autobiography
Jacob was the great grandson of Leib and Sarah.
He was born in 1917 in Ovruch, Ukraine, where his father Moisey was running a photography shop.
Jacob studied Geology at Kiev University and worked as a geologist in various locations in Russia.
In 2004 he published an autobiography that included stories from both sides of his family.
He recounted stories he had heard about the Kaufman Farm in Zapesochnoe, along with stories about his grandfather Abraham and Abraham's siblings and extended family.
Family Pictures
Fruma (on left) with her mother Dora (Moisey's wife)
Taken by Moisey Kaufman ~1930
Zvi with son Bernie
Playing chess on boat to Palestine in 1924.
Srul, Esther-Beila, and Shmuel
Esther-Beila (center) with her husband Shmuel Lorman (right) and her brother Srul Kaufman (left)
Picture taken by Moisey Kaufman ~1930
Moses and Rebecca's children
Louis, Mae and James
in Otis, Massachusetts,
1925
Abraham's Decendants
R to L: Israel Kaufman, Mary Kaufman, Elsie Kaufman Ginsberg, Isadore Ginsberg (Elsie’s husband), unknown couple standing behind Norma Kaufman (wife of Louis), Louis Kaufman, Arnold Kaufman (standing behind Norma and Louis), Irving Kaufman, Saul Greidinger (husband of Ruth Kaufman), Ruth Kaufman Greidinger Circa 1940
Max's children
Lon, Selma and Howie
Circa 1929
Lorman Sisters
Daughters of Esther-Beila and Shmuel Rachel, Riva and Bluma
(Left to right)
May 1, 1949
Newspaper clippings
This wedding announcement from the mid-1940s revealed that Max Kaufman and family had moved from Brooklyn to Cheviot Hills, California.
A Stuggle Among Kosher Butchers
Kosher meat production in New York City in the early 1900s was fraught with rabbinic rivalry, competing unions, gangsterism and many sources of factionalism.
The 1916 advertisement on the left was from a Yiddish newspaper and shows that Zvi’s group of kosher butchers from Downtown, Brooklyn and Brownsville was in a struggle with kosher butchers from Harlem, Bronx and Yorkville.
Abraham's Obituary
In Abraham's 1926 obituary, his four brothers living in the US are called out (Max, Harry aka Zvi, Moses and Joseph). His six other brothers still living in Russia were not mentioned
However, it does mention he left two sisters in Russia which would have been Ester-Beila and Esther who would have been his half-sister.
Real Estate Transaction
This clipping shows that Moses bought a saw mill and water rights on the Hayden Farm, in or near Otis, Massachustts in 1916.
American Documents
Petition for Naturalization
Herss (Zvi) Kaufman's Petition for Naturalization is shown on the right.
This document details Zvi's profession (Rabbi), the city of birth of his 6 oldest children (Viledniki, now in Ukraine), their ages, and the location of their residence at the time (402 E. 4th St., in New York).
Registration Card (WW I)
This Registration Card for Joseph Kaufman shows his place of birth (Targonsk, Minsk, Russia, later known as Zapesochnoe), his occupation (Farmer & Rabbi) his date of birth (1889), and his residence location at the time (West Otis, Massachusetts).
Ellis Island Manifest
This Manifest shows the arrival of Meir (Max) Kaufman at Ellis Island in 1911.
It lists his mother as Sarah Kaufman in Sapesoczny (Zapesochnoe) and his destination as Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where several of his brothers were living at the time.
Russian Documents
Document Information
Archive / Fond / Inventory / File: NHABMinsk_330_1_128
Year: 1874
An old Russian census document from the National Archives of Belarus, in Minsk, is shown at left.
It was titled "Census of the male Jewish Burghers of the Lelchitsy Jewish Community, 1874".
This document details the ages of Leib Kaufman's five oldest sons (which also allows their birth dates to be calculated).
It lists Leib's patronymic (father's name) as Faibish and lists the location of the Kaufman house as "Khutor (or small farm) Pesochnoe", in the Volost (County) of Lelchitsy.
There is also a note that Yankel is currently in Slutsk for education.
The document was certified by the seal of the Lelchitsy Volost foreman.
The "Estate of Lelchitsy" was put up for sale at public auction over several years around 1868.
The two documents below list free tenants of land in the settlements of the Lelchitsy Estate as part of the inventory of land holdings.
The document on the left was dated November 18, 1868 and the document on the right was dated February 28, 1870.
Leib Kaufman's leased land is called out in both of these documents.
Leib leased 20 tithes of land (21.8 hectares or about 50 acres) with an annual rent of 12 rubles. In 1868 the arrears of previous years amounted to 9 rubles, so 21 rubles were to be paid in 1869.
The location of Leib's leased land was in Khutor (farm) Pesochnoe. His neighbors were all listed as Targonskies which provides evidence that Pesochnoe was the precursor name of Zapesochnoe, also known as the Targonsky Farm.
Document Information
Unknown
Document Information
Archive / Fond / Inventory / File: NHABMinsk_299_2_6505_1378
Date: 02/28/1870
Russian Revision Lists (Reviska Skazka) were censuses conducted in territories ruled by the Russian Czar in the 18th and 19th centuries. The lists enumerated only those individuals subject to taxation, and data was also used for identifying men to draft into the army.
Revision Lists for the Lelchitsy Volost (county) have been preserved for 1816, 1834, 1850, and 1854. Copies of pages listing Leib Kaufman and other related Kaufmans were obtained from the National Archives of Belarus in Minsk.
Below are two pages from an 1834 Lelchitsy Revision List. The table on the right contains extracted and translated data from the Revision List.
It shows Leyba (Leib), the son of Fayka (short version of Faibish) was 6 years old in 1834, indicating he was born in 1828.
It also shows his mother's names was Zlata and he had an older brother named Srol and a younger sister named Sora.
Below are tables of additional Kaufman-related data from Lelchitsy Revision Lists from 1816, 1850, and 1854.
Of note in the 1858 Revision List Table (on the right) is Leyba (Leib) is married to Stisya (daughter of Yankel) and they have a 4 year old daughter named Ester.
These data are included in the family tree below.
