Emanuel and Ellen Levine Don (Dunn) of Vilna

Jimmy Dunn of Boulder, Colorado has shared these pictures of what are believed to be Emanuel Don (Dunn) and his third wife, Ellen Levine.

Jimmy is a grandson of Charles Jacob Dunn, who emigrated to New York in 1906, from Vilna, Lithuania. Emanuel would be Jimmy and his brother Bobby's Great Grandfather. Bobby is from Carlsbad in California.

The photograph of Emanuel, believed to be taken in the 1890s shows him with a full long flowing Orthodox style beard, which looks to be grey and black or dark brown.

Emanuel Don (Dunn) Vilna circa 1890s. Courtesy of Jimmy Dunn, Boulder, Colorado

Upon his head is a large black Kippar or Yamulke. He wears a dark coloured overcoat or jacket, and has a rather sleepy expression in his eyes. At the bottom of the photograph is the photographic studio's text, which is in an ornately styled flowing script, saying what appears to read 'Cryz Frères, Vilna'.

In a big to find out a little more about the photo graphic studio where the portrait was either taken or printed by, I posted a question on the Facebook genealogy group page 'Tracing the Tribe'. Once of the responses was from a man called Chaim Freedman. He wote that:

"The coat buttoned right to left was a Kabbalistic custom usually adopted by Chassidim. Likewise the Kippah is rounded and not folded so avoid the possibility of it appearing as a cross, another Chassidic custom. The Chasidim called their opponents the Misnagdim who did fold their Kippot with a derogatory term "Tseilem Kop" meaning a head with a cross. He has earlocks usually common with Chasidic men, to this day, but also some Misnagdim.

I do not see any significance of the eyes. He may have been tired. Comments about various genetic diseases or Middle East demeanour are in my opinion far fetched.

The back of the photo has no genealogically relevant information. It is simply the standard blurb of the photographer common on most such photos. That the photographer functioned in Vilna does not necessarily mean that the person photographed lived in Vilna. He may have gone to Vilna to be photographed or the photographer mat have travelled around various towns. If it is known that the man lived in Vilna then my comment is superfluous.

Note that he did not wear a tie, also avoided for its appearance like a cross. It was common for men of his apparent tradition to regard a tie as a non Jewish item of clothing."

Many thanks to Mr Freedman for this background information.

The second photograph is thought to be of Emanuel's third wife, Ellen Don, née Levine. Emanuel is said by one family source (Mary Horne) to have married Ellen when when he was 45 and she was 19. This would have been around 1887, a while before their son Harry E was born. The couple would have four more children, Charles Jacob, David, Ada and Rose.

Ellen Levine Don (Dunn) circa 1930s. Courtesy of Jimmy Dunn, Boulder, Colorado

The photograph of Ellen looks to be from perhaps the 1920s or 1930s, by her hairstyle and dress. If it is from this time, she look to be in her 60s. She is said to have lived to be nearly 100, so may have died as late as 1950.

Ellen is said to be born in 1851. The story handed down from one of Simon's, daughter's my dad's Aunty Mary says the girl Emanuel married was 19 and he was 45. There is 19 years between them so perhaps this a mixing up of information. Emanuels year of birth has been given as 1832.

Of Emanuel and Ellen, Mary Horn recorded in 1988 four years before her death that...

"My fathers father was married 3 times. First he got a "GET", because of no children. 2nd time my father was born and a sister who died young and when his wife died at 27, he married again. He was 45 years old and the girl was 19. As the story goes. He then has 2 sons, 2 daughters".

Mary then states that Emanuel's third wife lived to be close to 100.

So it is very possible the photo is of Ellen Levine. As Mary also mentions, "I remember my father telling me the stepmother did not treat him very well so he ran away from home, but apparently connected up years later." Mary then adds that "I met my aunts and uncles when I was in America, also the stepmother who lived to be close on 100."

Charles Dunn is then mentioned in the next paragraph...

  "My uncle Charles was over here a couple of times. Remember he made an awful fuss of your Dad as a boy". 

She is referring to my Grandfather David, one of Simon's sons, who is shown aged about 8 in the picture on the front of this blog, with his uncle Charles, who is dressed in WW1 uniform, and with his other sisters Mary and Sofia.

Mary then revealed that...

  "Uncle Charles had 1 son who is of course a Dunn. He has 3 sons, He has 3 sons but had married out and we did not keep up correspondence, though Ruth (Langdorf, Mary's daughter) and I did meet him in New York State. One brother lived in England, London. He was the youngest. He had 3 sons and one daughter. He died very young and the sons were brought up in the Jewish orphanage. The daughter Debbie (Hartshorn?) lives not far from me here. Though she married out we still keep very close. In fact she was here last week. Her mother died about 2 years ago, 98 years old. I did not keep in close touch with the brothers, Lou, Morry and Woofe (Will). Debbie is not very friendly with the 2 older ones. The youngest visits me occasionally."

The following text is a transcription of a potted family biography written up by the descendants of the Dunn's which went to New York. It mentions Simon's family, who in-fact was larger than this, his first born son was in-fact called Robert and not James.

Emmanuel Dunn b. 1832  married

Ellen Levine b. 1851

Son: Charles Jacob Dunn

1884 - 1983

Charles Jacob Dunn was born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1884.

In 1916 Charles and two other fellows rented a small room in New York, one was a writer named Frank

Harris, who wrote a book calied 'My Life and Loves', which was banned in the United States. He was good

friends with Guy de Mauppesant, a French writer. The other guy was an Italian law student, who In 1917 enlisted in the Army Air corps and became a fighter pilot, he came back in 1918 and went into politics, and eventually became the Mayor of New York Fiorello LaGuardia.

Charles owned a tobacco and stationary shop and bookstore on 81st Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan. Among the authors, who would   sometimes come in to sign books were Trueman Capote, Dale Carnagie, F.

Scott Fitzgerald, and Alan Dunn (no relation) author of East of 5th and cartoonist for the New Yorker.)

In 1941 Charles sold his store and went to Vancouver to work for Henry J. Kaiser as a steamfitter, building

Liberty Ships for use in WW2. After the war he went to work managing real estate until he retired at age of 85.

Brother: Harry married Molly and had three children.

1.) Lee (Leo / Leonore) married Barbara and lives New York. They have one son, Peter, and a daughter, Robin, who is married with one child.

2.) Sarah was the head librarian for the New York Public Library. She passed away back in the 1980s. She married Marc Lipsky and had two Children. David, who married Lynn and has a son named Matthew and a daughter, and Ellen, who is an elementary teacher in Richardson,

Texas, and is married to Mark Sidweber, who has a Ford dealership in Dallas. Their two daughters are Holli and Mara.

3.) Mildred married Martin Shulman. They had two daughters, Beth and Joan. They also had a son, Paul, who died when he was 5 1/2 years old. Beth married John Ment. They had two children, Jake Shulman-Ment and Maya Shulman-Ment. Jake is married to Eleonore Weill.  He is also a professional violinist, specialising in Klezmer, as well as other Eastern European folk styles such as Gypsy, Hungarian, Romanian and Balkan. He has lived in Hungary, Romania and France but is now based in Brooklyn. He speaks fluent Yiddish. John and Beth live in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. Their children all live in Brooklyn, New York.

Joan Shulman married Bob Mayerson. They have two children, Molly Mayerson and Caleb Mayerson. Molly is married to Joseph Moen. They all live in the Boston, Massachusetts area.

Brother: David married and had four children;

1.) Lou had three children; the oldest is Michael who married Bella and after several robberies of their jewellery store in England they moved to Lismore Australia, where they owned a macademia nut farm. They have three children and at least one grandchild.

2.) Maurice

3.) WiII (Will was drafted in the British Army in 1941 and received his infantry training aboard ship; he got off ship and three  days later was captured and spent the next 5 years as a prisoner of war in

Singapore.

4.) Deborah

Brother: Simon married and had three children,

1.) Mary

2.) James

3.) Francis

Sister: Ada married Alfred Epstein and had two cluldren, 1.) Florence, who married Rudy Meyersfeld and had no children and

2.) Melton who married and had two chlidren; one was named Mary and she married a colonel in the British Army whose last name was Horn.

Sister: Rose never married

Emmanuel Dunn died in Lithuania, David and Simon had moved to London, England, and Harry, Ada, and

Charles had moved to the U.S.

In 1918 Rose, the youngest sister -. and Ellen Levine Dunn were living in Lithuania. The guys in Charles' Infantry unit, who were stationed in France chipped in and supplied the money to pay the  fare to send Charles sister Rose and mother to the States.

Potted biography of the US Dunn's by Thomas Edward Dunn, courtesy of Erin Dunn-Franklin