The Story of the Skolnik Siblings

It all started with a single photo. I have been working with a client whose maternal grandparents were born in the Ukraine, and—independently of one another—immigrated to the US and settled in Chicago, Illinois. My client’s grandmother, Rose Skolnik, eventually moved to California in the 1940s with her husband and daughters. She died in 1981 in Oakland. 

My client had a photo of Rose as a young woman. In the photo, she was with a man and two women. As the man and women did not look old enough to be her parents it seemed likely that everyone in the photo could be a sibling.

I had set up a good profile of Rose on Ancestry. I had her birth and death dates, and information on her parent’s names, but no information on the identities of any siblings.

I was searching census records when I found information that a Samuel Skolnik lived with Rose in Chicago. Could he be the man in the picture? I visited Find a Grave and found a photo of his gravestone with his death date listed, but the rest was in Hebrew. I decided to use my connections on LinkedIn to find someone who could translate the Hebrew. I had learned that name of the decedent’s father is always listed on Jewish gravestones. The father’s name on that headstone matched the Skolnik father’s name I already had ascertained, Benzion. I had found a brother! (Image 1)

I soon discovered Samuel’s naturalization papers, which included the date he arrived in the United States (January 1908) and the ship he arrived on. I sought out the passenger list for the S.S. Friesland. It turned out that Samuel arrived in the US in the company of his sister Pearl. (Image 2)

I then went back to Find a Grave to see if Pearl was buried in the same cemetery as Samuel. Her gravestone was indeed listed on Find a Grave, and the stone contained an embedded photograph of Pearl. The image of her face matched one of the women in the original family photo. I had found Rose’s sister Pearl! (Image 3 and 4)

The Friesland passenger list revealed something else: Samuel and Pearl were coming to Chicago from the Ukraine to “live with their brother Mottel”. A second brother? So I began trying to track down information on Mottel. Census information revealed nothing about him, but knowing that many immigrants Americanized their names when they came to the US (or had it done for them by agents at the port of entry), I searched for other men’s names beginning with M and came upon a Max Skolnik. He was listed as living on the same street as Samuel and Pearl (and eventually Rose).

Now I could go back to Find a Grave seeking Max Skolnik. I was drawn to one grave that did not have an associated photo, and I asked the Find a Grave community for a photo of the stone. And they delivered! The stone had an embedded photo of a middle-aged man. (Image 5 and 6)

Studying the stone closely, I recognized that the Hebrew characters were the same as those on Samuel’s and Pearl’s gravestones. I asked my connection to translate, just to be sure. It turned out that Mottel— now Max—had the same father as Rose, Pearl, and Samuel. That meant I’d now identified a sister and two brothers. (I’m not entirely certain whether the man in the original family photo is Max or Samuel, but it seems possible, even likely, that he is one or the other.)

What about the second woman in the photo—could she be another sister? None of my research had revealed any hint of another sister for Rose. I decided to go back to Find a Grave and search the same cemetery where the other family members were buried. I scoured the site for any grave that had an embedded photo, hoping to see a face I recognized… and after searching for an hour, there she was! The face was older, but she was completely recognizable as the women in the photo. The name on the stone was Chaya Barkin. (Image 7) And in Hebrew on the stone, a different father’s name appeared. Who is she? I have confirmed that she is not a wife of either brother. A cousin? A friend? As long as my client seeks to fill in the pieces of her past, I will continue to search.