Henrietta Moses Remembers

Morty Jacobs sent me a tape recording of his aunt Henrietta. I will copy it to a CD and upload it to this blog.

She identifies Jonah's mother as Yenta, and observes that all three sisters (Frumma, Shayndle, and Leah) named their first daughter after their mother. She identifies Leah's father as Evchef (Eddie). She gives no surnames. She does not name Jonah's father.

She lists all the children of Frumma (8), Jonah (8), Shayndle (8), and Leah (3). She indicates who was born in Russia and who in the U.S. One child, Shayndle's Henrietta, was born in England. Shayndle's husband Moishe had three children from an earlier marriage.

Most of Leah's descendants have been added to Geni. There likely are over 100 descendants of Frumma and Shayndle not yet on the tree. In due time they will be.

Henrietta refers to Jonah as a widower when he married Ida. Perhaps that was a cover story she was told, or a blind spot in her recall. She was born 1899 and emigrated in 1909. Jonah and Ida emigrated in 1897 so by the time she met them Izzy, Dora, and Minnie were young adults.

She tells fascinating vignettes of life in the shtetl. Moishe was well off, had a barber shop patronized by Russian army officers who tipped him off about impending pogroms.