More Distant Dunns Discovered!

Transcript of email dialogue between Stanley Hartog and myself between 19th and 24th August 2011 with photographs later added on for illustrative purposes:

Hi Benjamin.

Ruth gave me your e-mail address.

My wife, B was a Dunn .... a third or fourth cousin to Ruth ..... never been able to work out the exact relationship !

Ruth tells me you have a Dunn family tree. Perhaps we can help each other.

B's father was David Dunn (siblings ... Milly, Nathan and Gelson (Gus)). Her grandfather was Harris Dunn (married to Betsy Levene).
Harris had 2 brothers .... Jacob & Lazarus. Their father was Moses Isaac Dunn (married to Fanny Sefton). Moses's father was David Dunn.

The gravestone inscription reads: In Memory of our dear father

  Morris Isaac Dunn who died 18th April 1896, aged 63. May his soul rest in peace.

Hopefully you can fit this into your tree.

Yours 'expectantly'

Stanley

Hello Stanley,
It is so lovely to hear from you! I was hoping Ruth had passed on my info to you.
When I read an old letter to my dad, which was written by Mary Horne (nee Dunn) around 1987, I came across the names Harris and Lazerus Dunn, a grocer and a master tailor. That was in September 2008. I have been wondering what became of them both since.

So your wife is one of descendants of Harris? Wow! I am a great grandson of Simon Dunn, originally Don.





He was a cousin of Harris, Lazarus and Jacob.
My grandfather was David Dunn, who was born in Punta Arenas, Chile in 1911. He married Yetta Hurst (Herscovich) back in 1938.







Yetta and David Dunn, 1938.
(Bridesmaid: Lillian Lonsdale,
Flower girl Dianne Jacobs)

Until now, the furthest back I had managed to go back with my Dunn ancestors was Simons father, Emanuel Don. But now it would appear that Emanuels father was the same David Dunn (Don) that you have in your records, father of Moses Isaac. That would make Moses and Emanuel brothers, would it not?

This is quite incredible that I now know who my great-great--great grandfather on the Dunn side was!

Thanks for getting in touch!

I also run a blog on Dunn family history, The Dunn Saga, which contains the letter from my dads Aunty Mary, Ruth and Stephens mum.

If you are on facebook, you are welcome to join our group, Descendants of Emanuel Don, as honourary members! I may have to changeu it's name now, as I have gone back one more antescendant!

Take care,

Benjamin Dunn

www.thedunnsaga.blogspot.com

On Aug 21, 2011, at 10:26 AM, STANLEY HARTOG

Benjamin

Thank you for replying so quickly.

Although you are obviously related to my wife, the relationship itself may not be so clear.

You jump to the conclusion that Emanuel (your great great grandfather) and Moses were brothers. This may be true ..... BUT, Moses may have been Emanuel's uncle, as Emanuel seems to have been born in mid 1850's, and Moses in about 1834. This is the problem I have been having all along. Do you have any more information that could clarify this, please ?

Hopefully

Stanley

Hi Stanley
I have done some calculations, from what you deduce that Emanuel was born in the 1850's, I would suggest he was born by at least 1842. He married for the 3rd time, aged 45 to a bride of 19, according to the letter below. My great grandfather Simon came to London from Vilna around 1895 however, not as the letter states in 1865/75. He was most likely born about 1875.
Emanuel and his wife, known so far only as S. Dunn had the first of four children, Harry E Dunn by January. 1888. Therefore they probably married in 1887 or late 1886. He was 45 by then, so 1842 seems a likely birth year.
His first wife is not named. His second, my great great grandmother was Riva Don nee Abelsson. This I know from the research of Las Vegas based distant cousin Jackie Shrout. She did lots of research around 1999. My great grandparents (included on three pictures below in various phases of their life) Simon Dunn and his wife Rebecca/Rivella were first cousins. Therefore Riva Abelsson was the daughter of an Epstein woman, I think Zlotta, without checking my chart. Either way Emanuel appears to have also married his cousin, as both are shown on my 36 page family tree (which goes back to Chaim and Golda Epstein, circa 1780) as cousins too.

So Emanuels 3rd wife, would have been born around 1868, give or take a year, if she was 19 in 1886/87. Meaning Simon was about 12 when his dad remarried, to the step-mother he did not get on with, and later ran away from.

Moses and Emanuel, if they were brothers had a closer age gap than you first reckoned, if Moses was born circa 1834, and Emanuel some 8 or 9 years later in 1842/43. But then again the possibilty of them being nephew and uncle is there, considering women could have a 25-30 year "career" bearing children, from say 18 to 48, when the oldest is 30 and the youngest a babe in arms!

I'll leave you to mull it over, in the meantime have you seen the website which is run by Jose Gutstein, from Cuba? It's atwww.gutstein.net and he has a section on Dons/Dunns etc including Lithuanian census transcripts and New York Ellis Island Immigration records. I did see an Isaac Dunn/Don and a Moshe Dun there earlier. Maybe these were your wife's ancestors?

Hope it helps

Ben

Ben

Thanks for detailed reply. Where did you get the information on Emanuel Dunn's marriages ..... do you know where they took place ?
Morris (Moses) and Emanuel were probably brothers .... but it's still not conclusive. Simon was definitely born 1874/5... he died in 1943 at age 68.
He was Emanuel's OLDEST son. If Emanuel was born in 1842, he would have been 32 when his fist child was born ..... very unusual in those days, but possible.

I've attached a picture of Morris (Moses) Isaac Dunn's gravestone ....... at Edmonton Federation Cemetery.


It seems that your great granparents, Simon & Rebecca, are buried at East Ham Cemetery. I'll take pictures next time I am there, and send them on to you.






Rebecca and Simon with their youngest son David and his nephew Warner, their first Grandchild.

Still puzzling !!!

Stanley

The Pale of Settlement

This map gives some indication as to the expanse of the region known to us as 'The Pale of Settlement'.


In 1791, Catherine the Great, Czarina of Russia created a zone of residence - some called it a zone of containment for the Jews.
This territory comprised more than 38,000 square miles (more than 1 million square kilometres), west of Russia stretching between the Baltic and Black Seas. The Jews called it "the Pale," and most were restricted to this area until after the Russian Revelolution of 1917.
This region, east of Berlin and west of Moscow, was disputed territory for many years and included lands that today are known as Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belorussia, and Ukraine. But names of countries hardly mattered to the Jews.

ONE COULD BE BORN IN CZARIST RUSSIA, THEN LIVE IN GERMAN TERRITORY, BECOME A POLISH CITIZEN , THEN BECOME LITHUANIAN, MOVE BACK TO GERMAN CONTROL, AND FINALLY BECOME A CITIZEN OF A SOVIET REPUBLIC - AND NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE WHERE YOU WERE BORN!

It was home to nearly all the world's Jews - in 1880 around 4 million Jews lived in the Pale, out of a world population of 7.7 million (another 2 million Jews lived outside the Pale but in Eastern Europe).
They lived in "nameless" Shtetls (small villages) such as Jagielnica, Kaisiadorys and Trakai, as well as Dorphs (larger towns) like Zasliai, Landau and Brody, and cities such as Lodz, Warsaw, Minsk, Bialystok, Vilna and Lvov. They shared a rich culture and a relgion, and a language - Yiddish....

From the book, 'Jewish Americans' by Robert Stein, published by Barrons/ Ivy Press Ltd, 2002.



http://rights.ivypress.co.uk/resource/?pid=1755

Location:Huddersfield Rd,Dewsbury,United Kingdom

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...

Coming to America: Statue of Liberty Poem...

Also known as the Statue of Liberty poem, New Colossus and its famous last lines have become part of American history. Here is the sonnet originally written by Emma Lazarus, in its unedited entirety:



New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Location:New York City

Could this be the Dunn's or Poirier's curio shop?

Below is a passage from a travelogue, detailing an American tourist's visit to Punta Arenas nearly a century ago, when Simon and Rebecca and their family were running their business there.

1913 Excerpt from "To hell and back; my trip to South America", G J Morrill, Chicago, 1914:

"The electric lights of the city lured our launch through the shipping to the pier and we made a hurried hike by warehouses and dingy broad ways to the Plaza. The band concert was over, but the South wind-instruments blew music. The church was closed and the only person around was a statue. The "Sarah Brown" mansion was dark. Like moths we were attracted by the light of a curio store. As we entered a little lady left the supper table and came to meet us. She spoke English and when we did with an American accent she tried to sell us a sample of every souvenir she had in stock. The place was packed with vicuna, guanaco, otter and silver fox skins and stuffed pigeons, penguins, albatross and armadillos. Two traders came in with a big rawhide bundle of skins. The natives catch the game with a boleta. It is a long leather thong with a stone at each end, a kind of sling or lariat, which they throw at the feet of the animal. I picked one up, but it was over an English pound and I threw it at her feet, and bought a long bone spearhead which some Tierra del Fuegian used to catch a fish or to crack a bonehead enemy's skull. I use this savage weapon to cut the leaves of magazines and newspaper articles written by ossified and thick-skulled editors. I paid for this and the postcards with my last Chilean pesos."

Thanks to historian Duncan Campbell of www.patbrit.org for referring me to this piece.

Location:Punta Arenas

The British In Patagonia

May I express my gratitude and praise to historian Duncan Campbell who researches and runs a website about the historical presence of the British emigres who settled in Patagonia and especially Punta Arenas for a new life.

His site http://patbrit.org/bil/supp/c0304.htm gives an excellent and in depth historical insight into the lives and social history of the ordinary people who inhabited the icy climes of the most southernmost city on the face of the earth.

He has recently included the families of Joseph (Jose) Levy, Simon Dunn, and Henry Poirier in his vast list of people who lived and worked in the port.






Main site: http://patbrit.org







The Dunn-Romanofsky entry

Location:Punta Arenas

The Poirier's, the Levy's and the Dunn's somewhere in Punta Arenas, about 1909. Herman Poirier, his wife Sarah (nee Romanofsky) Joseph Leszerovich Levy, his wife Golda, and her sister Rebecca Dunn with her husband Simon, Emanuel's oldest son. The children are Arturo (Arthur) and Carmelita Poirier, Mary (Maria), Rebecca and Anita Levy, and Millie (Amelia), Robert (Roberto), Mary (Ana Maria) and baby Sophie (Sofia) Dunn. Frances (Fanny) and David are not in the picture, so one has to assume they are merely twinkle's in their father, Simon (Shimon ben Yaoshua Lieb's) eye...

Location:The Family Portrait a century ago

A better quality image of the photo which is shown on the introductory page to this blog. Here are the three youngest Dunn siblings Sophia, David and Mary, with their Uncle Charlie.


It would be suggested the photo was taken around 1918-19 while Charles Jacob Dunn, Simon's half brother was visiting the family in East London, while returning from military action in France or Germany.

Charles was a G.I. in the United States Army, enlisting in 1917. He lived in Manhatten, New York, emigrating there in 1906, from Lithuania then part of Russia, via the port of Liverpool in England. It is likely he stayed in London for a while before leaving.

He worked as a store keeper dealing in stationary, on the Lower East Side of N.Y. City. He later lived in the Forest Hills area of Queens, New York at 66-78 Selfridge Street, as shown on his WW2 registration card, when he was called up for "the draft" in 1942, after the destruction of Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, when America entered the war. He was by this point middle aged, at 53. His date of birth was March 23rd 1889.

Living with Charles at this time was his sister Rose Dunn, who was by now about 49 years old.

Charles' employer is given as a Mr Aaron H. Rubin, of 484 Madison Avenue, New York.

Lithuanian District Map

A map of the districts between Kovno (Kaunus) and Vilno (Vilnius) where the Dunn's, Epsteins and Romanofsky's amongst others hailed from.

A railway line from Kovno-Vilna was laid down during the second half of the 19th century which rapidly sped up migration and settlement patterns, leading to increased commerce, wealth and prosperity for some Landsmen.







More information can be gleaned by reading an article about Koshedar (Kaisiadorys) which can found at http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Koshedar/koshedar1.html

The Noble Savage

One of the portraits of Native Indigineous Chlilean people which Henry Poirier produced in his curiosity shop.

People of Punta Arenas, a cenury ago.

Town and Country, Magellan Life...

More from a selection of early 20th Century photographic postcards, from Punta Arenas Tierra Del Fuego, Chile. Some actually bear the name of Henry Poirier, the man who produced them in his curiosity shop and photographic postcard studio shop.

Postcards from Punta Arenas

A selection of early 20th Century photographic postcards, from Punta Arenas Tierra Del Fuego, Chile. Some actually bear the name of Henry Poirier, the man who produced them in his curiosity shop and photographic postcard studio shop.

Old Punta Arenas Postcards

Chilean Native Tribes-people, of the Punta Areanas Tierra Del Fuego region, circa 1910.

Family Reunion Booked for end of July

A family reunion has been booked in a central London venue near Marble Arch, for Sunday 24th July 2011. It is for several first cousins, whose parents were all born a Dunn, (the sons and daughters of Simon and Rebecca) their partners as well as honoury Romanofsky-Poirier descendants. Other family members are of course welcome but I need to know numbers in advance to plan for catering.

For more details email me personally.

Klezmer Klub: Yiddish songs from London's East End

London based Yiddish song revivalists Klezmer Klub perfectly encapsulate the lost life and spirit of a time and place long since passed. Their second album "Whitechapel Mayn Vaytshepel" cuts a cross section through the musical back alleys and main streets of a Whitechapel in London's Jewish East End, rich with the aroma of freshly cooked bagels and fetid with the stench of rancid, rotting fish. A world of bustling cobbled streets, heaving with optimistic, yet poor and lowly Eastern European immigrants. Hopes and aspirations dashed by the harsh realities of life in the sly and often sordid big city. Tales of a vanished streetscape abound on this collection of songs, sung by Yiddish language revivalist Vivi Lachs, while backed by an energetic ensemble of technically proficient Klezmatists.

It turns out that Vivi's grandfather who worked for the London shechita board, koshering cows and chickens, lived over the road to Simon and Rebecca Dunn, at number 13 Dunk Street, though not necessarily at the same time.


http://www.myspace.com/klezmerklub

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?xl=xl_blazer&v=wbFN9txT1AI

About the town of Kaisiadorys

Kaisiadorys (Koshedar)

Written by Yosef Rosin

English edited by Sarah and Mordechai Kopfstein

Koshedar (in Yiddish), 24 km south-east of Kovno, developed in the second half of the 19th century when the Kovno-Vilna railway line was constructed and a station was built there. Later, when the Koshedar- Siauliai railway line was built, the town became an important and busy railway junction.

Until 1795 Koshedar was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom, when the third division of Poland by the three superpowers of those times - Russia, Prussia and Austria - caused Lithuania to become partly Russian or Prussian. The part of Lithuania which included Koshedar fell under the rule of Czarist Russia. From 1802 it was part of the Vilna province (Gubernia) as a county center.

During independent Lithuania (1918-1940) Koshedar continued to be a county center, and as a result of Poland’s occupation of Vilna and its region, which included the town Trok (Trakai), Koshedar also served as the center of the Trakai district. During this period the importance of Koshedar decreased because, according to the new border with Poland, the railway connection to Poland and Russia ceased to exist.

Jewish Settlement till World War II

Jews settled in Koshedar while the railway station was being built. The first Jewish families - David Tekatch, Shemuel Morgenshtern, Khayim Strashun and Yakov Khayuth (Khayes) - settled near the station and made their living in timber, while their wives kept hotels, restaurants and bars. Jews who arrived later built their houses in the town itself, some 2 km from the station.

By 1897 there were 833 residents in Koshedar, of them 317 Jews (38%).

About 60 Jewish families, whose economic situation was solid, lived in Koshedar before WW1. They had a Beth-Midrash and employed a Rabbi, a Shokhet and a Mohel. The children studied in a "Kheder Metukan" (Improved Kheder). There was also a library.

Zionism gained support in Koshedar, and at the regional conference of the "Zionist Associations" of the Kovno and Vilna Gubernias, which took place in Vilna in 1898 with the participation of 71 delegates from 51 cities and towns, the delegate from Koshedar was the local Rabbi Tsevi Hurvitz. The list of donors for the settlement of Eretz-Yisrael, published in the Hebrew newspaper "HaMeilitz" in the years 1893-1899, contains 74 names of Koshedar Jews. The fund raisers were Rabbi Tsevi Hurvitz, Mosheh Gelvan and Shelomoh Tekatch. The correspondents for "HaMeilitz" were Yosef Fraker and D.Zak.

After the establishment of independent Lithuania in 1918, and following the autonomy law for minorities issued by the new Lithuanian government, the Minister for Jewish Affairs, Dr. Menachem (Max) Soloveitshik, ordered elections to be held for community committees (Va'ad Kehilah) in the summer of 1919. In Koshedar the elections took place in autumn 1919 and a committee of 9 members was elected: 2 General Zionists, 3 from the artisans, 4 undefined. This committee was active in almost all fields of Jewish life until the end of 1925, after which the autonomy was annulled.

At the elections for the first Lithuanian Seimas (Parliament) in October 1922, the Zionist list in Koshedar received 139 votes, the Democrats-23 and "Akhduth"-16.

According to the first census performed by the government in 1923, Koshedar had 1929 residents, of them 596 Jews (31%).

During this period the local Jews made their living from commerce, crafts and light industry. According to the government survey of 1931 there were 20 businesses, including 15 owned by Jews (75%).

Details according to the type of business are given in the table below:


Type of the business
Total
Owned by Jews

Groceries
1
1

Butcher's shops and Cattle Trade
4
1

Restaurants and Taverns
7
6

Beverages
1
1

Textile Products and Furs
2
2

Medicine and Cosmetics
1
1

Radio, Sewing Machines and Electric Equipment
1
1

Timber and Heating Material
1
1


Machines and Transportation 1
0

Miscellaneous
1
1



According to the same survey, Koshedar had 11 light industry factories, 9 of them owned by Jews (82%), as can be seen in the following table:



Type of the Factory Total
Jewish owned

Metal Workshops, Power Plants
1
0

Chemical Industry: Lubrication Ointment
1
1

Textile: Wool, Flax, Knitting
1
1

Food: Flour Mills, Bakeries
3
3

Sawmills, Furniture
1
1

Furs, Hats
4
3

By 1937 there were 27 Jewish artisans: 6 tailors, 5 butchers, 3 bakers,

3 barbers, 2 shoemakers, 2 stitchers, 1 glazier, 1 book binder, 1 blacksmith, 1 tinsmith, 1 painter, 1 saddler.

The Jewish Folksbank played an important role in the economic life of Koshedar’s Jews. In 1927 it had 170 members, but in the thirties the number of its members decreased to 110. In 1939 there were 64 phones in town, 7 of them belonging to Jews.

The deterioration of Koshedar as a railway junction to Vilna and eastwards and the economic crisis in Lithuania caused many Koshedar Jews to immigrate to America, South Africa and Uruguay. Some immigrated to Eretz-Yisrael. At the end of the thirties only about 60 Jewish families were left in Koshedar, who subsisted mainly from the two weekly market days.

Koshedar Hebrew Elementary School 1936

Jewish children, numbering a yearly average of about 40 pupils, studied in the Hebrew school of the "Tarbuth" chain. Several graduates of this school continued their studies in the Hebrew High Schools in Kovno. There was a "Kheder" with 15 boys, and also a Yiddish library of the "Libhober fun Vissen" (Seekers of Knowledge) association.

Many belonged to the Zionist movement, and all Zionist parties had representatives in town.

Zionist youth organizations in Koshedar included "HaShomer HaTsair", "Beitar" etc. Sports activities took place in the "Maccabi" branch with about 40 members, while there was also the "Tifereth-Bakhurim" organization for religious boys.

Religious life in Koshedar concentrated around the Beth-Midrash where lessons were given by the Tehilim society, the Mishnah society and the Shas (Talmud) society.

Among the Rabbis who served in Koshedar were:

Binyamin Meizel (from 1881)

Tsevi-Hirsh Hurvitz (in Koshedar 1890-1902)

Yisrael-Aba Kriger (from 1903)

Shalom-Yitskhak Shtchupak, (served 1922-1929)

Aharon-David Yafe, its last Rabbi (served 1934-1941), was murdered in 1941.

Among the personalities born in Koshedar were: Moris Gest (Gershonovitz 1881-1942), who immigrated to America at the age of 12. He was an impresario who brought famous artists from Europe to America and cooperated with Reinhardt in the direction of the play "The Miracle"; Rabbi Yosef Kanovitz (1878-?), who served in several towns in Lithuania, and lived in America from 1915, where he served as Rabbi in several cities in N.J. and N.Y. states.

Rose Dunn, Ellis Island entry, 1913

Showing Rose Dunn on a list of Jewish Dunn immigrants to Ellis Island, the processing point before official entry to New York City.

Rose Dunn's Last Will and Testament

This is the will or probate record of Rose Dunn, from May 1956, New York. It names various family members in New York and London, including her brothers Harry and Charles Dunn.

A wealth of information on Lithuanian Jewish Dunn origins...

The website of Jose Gutstein, in Cuba gives a great abundance of useful information about the origins of Jewish Dunn's from Lithuania.
The following is from his page on the surname Don, which is a variation of Dunn...

"DON was the second most common surname in Zasliai (trailing only KATS). There are literally hundreds of records, from various sources, bearing the surname in this town. Below is a sample of them, including those found in the 1854 Revision List, as well as the 1878 Trakai District Alphabetical List of Male Names. Many DON's from Zasliai and nearby towns immigrated to America and went through Ellis Island, and that list is included below. Also, included is the list of Pages of Testimony filed at Yad Vashem for persons memorializing a DON from Zasliai and environs.


NOTE: If you are a DON from Zasliai, or anywhere nearby, including Kaisiadorys (Koshedar), Ziezmariai (Zezmer), Rumsiskes (Rumshishok), Trakai (Troki), or even Kovno or Vilna, please contact me so I can try to figure out how we'd be related. The vast majority of DON families in the region between Kovno and Vilna have connections to Zasliai, and, given the extraordinary amount of DON's in Zasliai compared to other towns, they likely originated in Zasliai."