Shmuel and Channa Goldner settled in north-east Romania,
in the town of Bivolari, on the banks of the river Prut. They may have
come from Russia, attracted to the area in the mid 19th century with the
promise of greater freedom for Jews, such as the ability to farm or own
land. Shmuel and Channa had five sons: Moshe, Meyer (b. 1868), Hershel,
Leizer, and Abram.
The Goldner's were a merchant family, and Meyer may have
worked as a peddler of dry goods. In 1889, Meyer married Ciornia Mindla
(Minna) Faibish, the daughter of Leib ben Faives, from the nearby town
of Sculeni. Over the next 20 years, Meyer and Minna had 10 children: Sarah,
Lena, Alex, David, Morris, Aaron, Bessie, Leon, Marian, and Edward.
Meyer's children began slowly to immigrate to the United
States. Sarah and Lena came to New York in 1911, followed by David in
1912. They sent money home so that in April of 1914, Meyer and Minna came
with most of the rest of the family on the S. S. Kaiser Wilhelm II (on
right). The final sibling to come to the US was Aaron in July of 1914.
The Goldner family had a family millenary business in
New York for many years. The family moved to Brooklyn in the 1920's. Sarah
married Joel Primer in 1918, Lena married Benjamin Turner in 1922, Marian
married Jack Weil in 1928, and Bessie married Harry Rabin in 1929. Minna
passed away in 1934, and Meyer in 1950.
Meyer's grand-children and great-grandchildren now live
all over the US, from New York and Florida to Massachusetts and Virginia.
Most of Meyer's brother's families remained in Bivolari and Iasi for several
decades. After WWII, the family immigrated to Brazil, Israel, and the
US.
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The Goldner Name - Family lore suggests
that the name Goldner was not the original name of the family. At
some point, their was a woman named "Goldie" in the family.
When Jews were required to take a surname, one sibling took their
mother's name because she was very "strong willed."
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Family Documents - Several Goldner
family documents from the late 19th and early 20th century have survived
to today, including Meyer Golder's army exemption and Marian and Sarah
Goldner's birth certificate extracts. Click
here to see the documents and translations.
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What happened to Minna's Family?
Minna had family in the United States: Baruch Faibisch Leibowitz and
Faibisch Faibisch. We have long since lost track of these families
- where are they now?
-
When did Lena and Sarah come to the US?.
Sarah and Lena Goldner were the first of the Goldner siblings to come
to US, and according to census records the came in 1911. However,
I have not been able to find their records at the Ellis
Island Database. Naturalization records might note the name of
the ship on which they sailed. However, the National
Archives could not find their naturalization records.
Below is a list of many of the surnames associated with
the Goldner family. I've included the surnames of the descendents of Meyer
and Minna Goldner, as well as other members of:
First Generation: |
Goldner, Faibish |
Second Generation: |
Primer, Turner, Rabin, Weil |
Third Generation: |
Levinson, Rand, Schockett, Jaworowski, Harris, Teitler, Sinclair,
Bluestone, Shepp, Goldstein, Hemenway, Iovieno |
Fourth Generation |
Manning, Jewell, Tanner, Hartog, Warner, Hamerschlag, Wilcox,
Diaz, Kay, Zeltzer, Brush, Coviello |
Fifth Generation |
Mauch |
Other names |
Leibowitz, Leib, Siegel, Sonenfeld, Schimaria, Moskowitz, Schwimmer,
Muskat |
To find out about the Goldner family, I used a variety of sources - both
on-line and real world.
JewishGen.org
- an invaluable resource for Jewish Genealogy. Please support
them.
Ancestry.com is
a pay service that provides actually census images. They also have an
index of individuals who Petitioned
for Citizenship in New York between 1907 and 1924. Several Goldner
family members are listed there.
Passenger records were found at the Ellis
Island Database.
Very special thanks to Ohio State Professor (emeritus) Rodica
Botoman for her generous help in translating documents.
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