Broida Family

John Zelig Jacob Broida was born in Eišiškės, Lithuania, around March, 1857. He was the first of the Karklinsky family to immigrate to the United States, sometime during 1874-1875. We are not sure if he arrived in New York or Pennsylvania, but he changed the family name to “Broida.” (It was not changed at Ellis Island by officials- Ellis Island had not yet been built, he is not listed at its predecessor Castle Garden, and the family story is that John chose ‘Broida’ himself.) John may have lived in New York for a while and worked as a ‘rag picker,’ collecting and possibly processing the rags before selling them to a company. He moved on and settled in the Pittsburgh PA area. We don’t know if he married his first wife, Sarah Gitel Frank, in New York or in Pittsburgh, as we have not found any marriage license, but they married sometime probably in 1881. She too was born in Lithuania (around Nov 1859), and we do not know if the two knew each other in Lithuania, if it was an arranged marriage, or if John and Gitel met in New York or Pittsburgh. We think we have found Gitel’s immigration and arrival to the US on 13 July 1881 in New York, so the marriage would have been after this time, since she traveled under her maiden name, but before the birth of their first surviving son, Joseph Jacob Broida, who was born 15 May 1882 in Pittsburgh.

John’s ‘rag’ business was stepped up in Pittsburgh, because he became a “jobber of notions” and then dry goods. He eventually sold “men’s furnishings”- including fine men’s clothing, a profession followed by a number of his sons. John and Gitel had 7 sons who survived into adulthood, plus one son and two other children who did not survive their infancy or young childhood. (If the 1890 US Federal Census had survived, we might know more about these children.)

Gitel succumbed to tuberculosis in 1901, and the children went to live with relatives, some in other cities such as St. Louis, around the time of her death. On 14 April 1904, John applied for a marriage license in Jefferson County, Ohio, (about 45 miles west of Pittsburgh) to Fannie Robinstein/Rubenstein; she had previously been married to Jacob Cohen and they had a daughter, Ethel (1892-1973). Upon the marriage the Broida household finally added a girl, this daughter Ethel, to the household, and some of the sons may have come back to live with John and Fannie, since the youngest was just seven at the marriage.

John’s granddaughter, Gertrude Broida Cooper, stated that he always spoke with a thick accent. John yearned to be a part of the new state of Palestine, to be with his own people. The last record we have of John as a resident in the US is a St. Louis, Missouri City Directory for 1917. John and Fannie emigrated to Palestine in September of 1920. John was 63 that year, and starting over- again. Fannie was 46.

We recently ‘found’ the above wonderful image of John and “Auntie”- most probably Fannie Rubenstein Cohen Broida- taken in 1927 in Tel Aviv. It suggests that she was called “Auntie” by John’s sons, although we do not know who labeled the photograph. This is a poor, older photocopy of the actual photo, so we would be very interested in getting a good scan of this photo if anyone out there reading has an actual photo, or a better photocopy. (Please contact us!)

John returned for a visit to the US on 10 June 1930, arriving from Jaffa, Palestine, on the ship Alesia. He appeared to be traveling alone, as we find no mention of Fannie on that passenger list. (Maybe they could not afford passage for two? Or was she ill so stayed in Palestine? She died on 14 Jan 1933.) The famous-within-the-family ‘seven brothers’ photo was taken on John’s U.S. visit.

John returned to Palestine and Fannie. She died in 1933, and he on 9 Nov 1938. Both are buried in Israel’s Mount of Olives Cemetery, not far from each other.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Thank you to the dear aunt who shared this treasure of an image after her pandemic cleaning unearthed it!
2. “Tombstone Tuesday: Fannie & John Broida”
    https://heritageramblings.net/2019/02/12/tombstone-tuesday-fannie-john-broida/
3. Many other Heritage Ramblings posts tell the stories of John, Gitel, and Fannie Broida and their children. You can use the search box on the left side of the website to learn more. Also, please keep in mind that older posts have not always been updated, so use the more recent posts as the most current data if some is conflicting.

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Original content copyright 2013-2020 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Broida Family

For many years the family has searched for the final earthly resting place of our immigrant ancestor, John Jacob (Zelig) Karklinsky Broida. A letter written to an (adopted) son-in-law described the death of John, and stated that he was buried beside his second wife, Fannie Rubenstein, on Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Families who have visited the cemetery in years past were unable to find his grave, and a query to the cemetery itself, after searching their database a number of years ago, resulted in a reply that there was no record of a John Broida or a Fannie Broida being buried in the cemetery. (John is not in the database today, either, however Fannie is actually listed, but challenging to find.)

We added a memorial to Find A Grave (FAG) for John in 2013, and for his second wife, Fannie Rubenstein/Robenstein [Cohen?] Broida in 2015, when we learned her maiden name. (John’s first wife, Sarah Gitel Frank Broida was buried in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after her 1901 death in Denver, Colorado.) We requested photos when each of the memorials were created (although the request for John’s was somehow deleted over the years, possibly with website changes), and just recently, a kind volunteer submitted photos for both John and Fannie, and gave us permission to use the images. He has been very helpful in sharing what he learned, and actually had to wander a bit to search out John’s grave, which he confirmed was not in the cemetery database.

Note that John’s ledger stone has been damaged, possibly from vandalism, which sadly happens in cemeteries everywhere. Thankfully John’s stone has been put back together.

John had immigrated to America around 1875 from his native Lithuania. After marrying, raising a family, and watching his first wife die of tuberculosis, he married Fannie Rubenstein/Robenstein [Cohen?] about 1904, and they emigrated to Palestine/Israel in September, 1920. He did return to the US on at least one occasion for a visit, and possibly a second visit, but both he and Fannie died in Israel. (Well, we believe Fannie died in Israel but do not have any confirmation of her actual place of death, just her burial.)

The Mount of Olives has quite a lot of folk traditions and Bible references explaining why persons wish to be buried there, including that the prophet Elijah will blow his shofar (ram’s horn) on that spot, declaring the “Day of Resurrection of the Dead.” Another tradition is that those buried on the Mount will be the first to be resurrected. Currently over 70,000 persons possibly 150,000, have been buried in this holiest- and largest- of Jewish cemeteries.

Our kind FAG photo volunteer in Israel translated the stones from the Hebrew.

Fannie R. Broida–

Here lies Feige Dina Broida, eldest daughter of R. Yitzhak Ya’akov Rubinstein

John Broida–

Here lies Yehoshua Zelig (son of Yosef) Broida

Thanks to a translation from a friend of family, we know the last two lines of John’s ledger stone:

next to the last line: deceased 18th of Heshvan 5669 (Nov. 9, 1938 according to the Gregorian calendar)

last line: May his soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life

He also provided us GPS coordinates (in decimal degrees) for the headstones, so that visiting family can more easily find the stones.

John Broida: 31.77379, 35.24417

Fannie R. Broida: 31.7738, 35.24417

These coordinates show the graves as close to each other, as stated in the letter concerning the death of John: “He had a burial lot in the cemetery in Jerusalem near his wife–may she rest in Peace!– …” (1938 letter) It is way above my genealogical pay grade to be able to tell actually how far this is distance-wise using the GPS numbers. Thankfully, the grave images show the stones right next to Fannie’s, which do not match John’s stone, so we know he is not buried on either adjacent side. Another message to our very kind FAG volunteer produced a fast reply, stating he only had the request for Fannie’s grave, but since I had mentioned that we would like a photo of John’s marker as well and that he was buried nearby, our helpful volunteer searched the surrounding area for John’s plot. He found it one row over and a couple of graves down, so very close, and he took the photo and marked the GPS coordinates. Later he realized that John’s grave was not listed in the cemetery database, so we will contact Mount of Olives so that it is easier for future visitors.

Take the time, if you can, and use the GPS-Coordinates website (https://www.gps-coordinates.net) or Google Maps to put in the latitude and longitude of the grave location (on GoogleMaps, do not use a comma between the numbers, just a space), and then look at the area on a satellite map, zooming in and out – it is amazing. (Terms of Service do not allow posting any of their images on a blog, sorry. You can make screen shots for your personal use, however.) Gethsemane is at the foot of Mount of Olives, the Old City and Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem are just to the west, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a bit northwest of the Old City. The Dead Sea is on the other side of the mountain to the east, as is Jericho; Bethlehem is to the south. New Testament places would of course had less meaning to Orthodox Jews like John Broida, and there are Islamic holy places nearby as well. This place is still an amazing and holy area to so many even today. It is very special that John and Fannie are buried there.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. A thousand thank yous to our kind FAG photo volunteer, Jared! It is hard to believe it has taken so very many years to find where John and Fannie are “quietly resting,” and his diligence is so appreciated.
2. Thank you also to the family members who helped out with translating and other information.
3. Very interesting reading about the cemetery and its history– https://mountofolives.co.il/en/כללי-en/jewish-cemetery-har-hazeitim/
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_of_Olives
   
4. John Broida memorial on FAG– https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120393993/john-zelig_karklinsky-broida
5. Fannie R. Broida memorial on FAG– https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/146082183/fannie-broida
6. Sarah Gitel “Gussie” Frank Broida, John first wife’s FAG memorial– https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120539136/sarah-gitel-broida
7. Related John Broida links–
   http://heritageramblings.net/2015/05/20/wordless-wednesday-report-of-john-broidas-death-in-israel-2/
   http://heritageramblings.net/2015/04/12/sunday-obituary-john-broida/
   http://heritageramblings.net/2015/05/19/tombstone-tuesday-john-jacob-zelig-broida/
8. Use Fannie’s name to search on HeritageRamblings.net for the many stories of the search for her maiden name and for an understanding of who Ethel Broida Pincus, John’s “8th daughter” (actually only “daughter” to his 7-really 8-sons, since one died very young and was not commonly known by the family.) There are some great photos too of her with John.

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Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Broida Family (Click for Family Tree)

It was not so long ago that genealogy mostly consisted of collecting names and dates and places, and plugging them into bland mimeographed copies of pedigree charts and boring Family Group Records.  The stories, however, were always more interesting to me, and I am very happy that many of us are now “family historians” instead of just hard data collectors.

Searching for these stories plus the internet now help us find more than we could imagine even 15-20 years ago. The above picture is a case in point. Discovering Gitel Frank’s name on a passenger list on the internet was exciting enough, then finding a picture of the ship that carried Gitel almost 4,000 miles to New York was just wonderful. Stories of the ship’s history (including its sinking) added to our knowledge, as does this beautiful model of The SS Cimbria that was made by Szeibel László and posted on the “Shipmodell” website from Hungary.

Please do click on the link so that you can view the stepped-out images of the model shipbuilding process. The craftsmanship is amazing!

And do, please, ask permission to post or use pictures taken from the internet. It is only right from a legal/copyright standpoint, plus it is just the honest and polite thing to do. Most people are thrilled to be asked, and I got a very nice note from the owner of the shipmodell website. One person I asked about posting sent me additional pictures not on his website! The few minutes it took for requests really paid off.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. The SS Cimbria model, posted with the very kind permission of the site owner– http://www.shipmodell.com/index_files/SHIPMODELL_SS_CIMBRIA.htm

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Broida Family (Click for Family Tree)

Very early in the morning of 19 January 1883, off the German Island of Borkum in the North Sea, the weather began to turn for the worse and very dense fog set in. The steamship SS Cimbria had left the day before in fairly clear weather from Hamburg, Germany, and had its usual crew of 120 (or 91 crew members, depending on source) plus 402 passengers, many of whom, like Sarah Gitel Frank (later Broida) just eighteen months before, were emmigrants to the United States. The emmigrants were from Russia, Prussia, Hungary, and Austria, plus there were French sailors headed to Le Havre, France (another common port of departure) and a group of Chippewa Indians who had performed exhibitions in Europe. There were 243 male passengers, 72 women, and 87 children on board the ship when it departed.

The SS Cimbria was built by Caird & Co. in Greenock, Scotland, in 1867 for the Hamburg America Line (now Hapag-Lloyd- you have probably seen their shipping containers on the back of an 18-wheeler). The ship was a 340 ft. steamer, about 40 ft. across the beam, built of iron and weighing 3,037 gross tons. With five boilers to create the steam to power her with a 600 horsepower engine, the two-cylinders drove one screw; gases were exhausted out the large funnel near the center of the ship. As did many of the steamers built in the 1860s, she also had two sailing masts to take advantage of the strong winds of the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

The ship could accommodate 58 first-class passengers, 120 second-class, and 500 third-class or “steerage,” – the latter most likely where the poor emmigrants lived on board.

As the fog grew thicker past the small town of Cuxhaven on the north German shore near where the Elbe River meets the North Sea, the experienced captain of the Cimbria became concerned and about midnight ordered that the speed of the passenger ship be decreased. As the passengers and off-duty crew slept, two hours later the siren of an approaching steamship was heard, but it was challenging to determine where it was with the muffled sound caused by the fog. A lookout then noted a faint green light in the dense fog. This green light showed a ship’s position to others, and belonged to the smaller British ship Sultan, which was carrying coal.

Once seen, the two ships were only about 150 ft apart.

But it was too late- ships that size are not agile in water, and as the two ships loomed out of the fog, the captains panicked. To make it even worse, they did the absolutely wrong thing- they turned toward each other. Within moments the Sultan‘s bow struck the port side of the Cimbria, and a deep gash alongside the foremast that extended below the water line allowed many thousands of gallons of cold seawater to flood the Cimbria. The Sultan reversed itself using full power, but when it backed away, it also pulled off large iron side panels of the Cimbria, worsening the flood into the hold of the ship.

By this time the passengers would have been awakened and panic resulted. The Cimbria had begun to list, making it harder to escape from below decks, and as it was taking on water so quickly, the ship was sinking fast. The crew remained focused and were able to lower three (some sources state seven) lifeboats in the short time they had. Sadly, one of the boats was overcrowded and capsized, but others were able to escape the whirlpool and suction forming as the ship sank.

The Cimbria sank in just fifteen minutes. Fifteen.

The masts of the steamship thankfully remained upright and out of the water for many hours so passengers clung to the shrouds of the masts. One lifeboat had capsized soon after leaving the Cimbria, losing many passengers to the deep, but seventeen were able to get to a mast and hold on for over ten hours- they nearly froze to death (remember, it was winter in the North Sea!) before they were rescued by the German vessel Diamant. Before sinking the crew had cut off the spars of the mast and flung them into the water so that people could cling to them, although the cold water would not have allowed the survivors to live long. Lifeboats held thirty-nine who were rescued by the ship Theta two days later and nine persons landed their lifeboat safely at Borkum. Reports vary from a total of 65-133 persons saved.

None were rescued by the crew of the Sultan, however. The Sultan’s captain had steamed off, ignoring the screams for help from the Cimbria, the lifeboats, and the people in the icy cold, winter waters of the North Sea. He reported that he had feared he would lose his own lifeboats in the fog if they had been lowered. The captain later stated, in the Maritime Court inquiry, that he thought his ship had been damaged more than the ship he rammed in the side with his pointed bow. (There are varying accounts that state there may have been more than one collision between the ships.) The Sultan’s captain also stated that the Cimbria had not used their horn in the fog even though he had, and, at one point, stated he waited at the scene five hours but heard nothing so returned to Hamburg, furious that the Cimbria had not provided aid to his ship. When he returned to port, he learned the sorrowful fate of the Cimbria.

The Sultan’s captain was somewhat vindicated when it was determined that his ship did have a large hole forward. Had his ship taken on only one more foot of water, it too probably would have foundered in the cold North Sea.

More than 389-430 souls were lost that night from the SS Cimbria, making it the largest (known) maritime disaster until the loss of the Titanic in 1912. The Cimbria is still Germany’s largest loss of life from a ship disaster.

We can only imagine the reactions of Sarah Gittel (Frank) Broida and her family when they heard the news of the sinking of the SS Cimbria. She had wisely traveled not during the cold, stormy months of winter on the North Sea. Despite that, the fear of the ship sinking was always a reality preceding and during the trip. Knowing that she had immigrated just a year and a half before her ship went down must have been chilling.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Websites and news articles vary in the number lifeboats that got away and number of souls lost and rescued.
2. “Loss of the Cimbria,” Los Angeles Daily Herald, Vol. 18, No. 132, Page 1, Column 2, 24 January 1883. The news from the disaster is somewhat contradictory.– https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH18830124.2.3
3. This website has 3 pages on The Cimbria, but you will likely need to use the search box at the bottom to get to each– http://www.gegoux.com. And yes, it is a page about an artist, mostly, but The Cimbria is included because he too traveled aboard the steamship around 1881.
4. A very talented person built a beautiful model of the SS Cimbria, and documented the facts about the ship as well as the process of creating the model– http://www.shipmodell.com/index_files/SHIPMODELL_SS_CIMBRIA.htm
5. Haag-Lloyd website, SS Cimbria page, including information about salvage efforts that include wine bottles, ivory, and the ship’s bell (which Gitel Frank would have heard on her voyage)– https://www.hapag-lloyd.com/en/news-insights/insights/2017/06/_cimbria_-catastrophe–the-story-of-the-german-titanic-began-150.html
6. One of the sources consulted by some of these websites was “Know Your Ships” Tenth Edition, 1968, Thomas Manse, Publisher.

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Broida Family (Click for Family Tree)

We only have one US Federal Census for Sarah Gittel Frank (later Broida), and it states that she was born in Russia. The passenger list we have recently found states in some of the ‘transcriptions’ that her birthplace was Austria, but if one actually looks at the heading on the page, it doesn’t say, “Birthplace”- the heading is “The country in which they severally belong.” (One ‘transcription’ even states her ethnicity is Austrian- yet more junk genealogy, so read things carefully from the original image if possible.) Of course, we have already discussed that this person may not be “our” Gittel, but the names of the persons on the list before and after do not sound like they were from Austria, although that is the country that is listed for them. The young boy accompanying – or possibly just listed with- is named “Jankel Cohen” so while he may have lived in Austria, that likely was not his deeper origins.

All this basically means that we do not know where this Gittel started her journey. Did she travel from Lithuania or Russia to Austria, then to Hamburg, Germany or Le Havre, France before taking the SS Cimbria? That isn’t really a logical pathway, but one does not know the particulars of the situation, and whether she was fleeing the over 200 anti-Semitic pogroms of Russia that took place in 1881. We can only hope that someone in the family has heard a story that has been passed down, so that we may learn more about Gittel’s years before coming to America.

Just like today, whether a passenger liner or cruise ship, there was probably a large building for passengers to gather and purchase tickets. The advertisement above states that the fare for steerage passengers was $28 for a one-way ticket from Europe, which is about $650 today (2018). That may have been her life savings, or that of her family, lovingly provided to give her a better life in America. It would be interesting to know Gittel’s thoughts as she counted out her money, and as she took a huge step into the unknown, and a new life.

Boarding the SS Cimbria, if Gittel was indeed traveling in steerage, she would have made her way below deck with the majority of the other passengers. The Cimbria carried passengers regularly to the US, about every two weeks. The steamer was also a mail carrier, and it is very possible that the very ship she was on had also brought letters to her from America, encouraging her to make the trip west- maybe even a letter from John Broida, her husband-to-be, or a matchmaker or family already in the States.

Finding a comfortable place to sleep for the next nine nights or so may have been challenging in the stuffy and cramped quarters of steerage. She would be taking her meals in that space, spending her waking hours as well as sleeping, and daily bodily functions would have taken place there as well. By the end of the trip, especially if seas were rough and many were seasick, or if the weather was very hot, it would have been a miserable place to be.

Passengers would have been allowed above decks depending on the weather and the patience of the ship’s crew. Even then, breathing the clean salt air would have been done in a crowd.

When Gittel came to America, there was no statue of Liberty in New York Harbor to greet her and the other immigrants. (The US poet Emma Lazarus had been assisting Jewish refugees from the pogroms, and hearing their stories inspired her poem at the base of the statue that includes the lines, “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” The statue was not completed until 1886.) Gittel would have slowly walked with the crowd off the ship and into her new country.

1878 engraving of immigrants arriving at Castle Garden, via NorwayHeritage.com.

She could not just go wherever she pleased, however- immigrants were “processed” as soon as they left the ship.

Gittel Frank would not have entered the great hall of Ellis Island, as it did not open until 1892. Instead, she would have gone through Castle Garden. Unfortunately, her name has not yet been found on the Castle Garden website- there are a number of persons named “Gittel” who were processed there in 1881, but no transcribed surnames and ages that would seem to fit. (Only the transcriptions are available, currently, and there may be errors in the transcriptions.)

Castle Garden was at the tip of Lower Manhattan, and designed for efficient processing of all the new immigrants to America. The passenger list at the time was handwritten, and was used for statistical documentation of immigration, but also used in a legal cross-examination and inspection of the new immigrant before they would be allowed to live in the United States. About 98% of the immigrants passed. Sometimes, however, inaccurate information was recorded, whether ‘misheard,’ given wrong purposefully, or just ‘misremembered.’

It must have been a very stressful time for the new immigrants, especially if they spoke no English. It would be wonderful to know if there was someone waiting to greet her and take Gitel to her new life in America, but we do not have any information about what happened next. We do not know if she knew John Broida in “the old country”, whether it was an arranged marriage, or if they just met in New York and decided to marry. We have not been able to find John Broida in the 1880 census, so he may have been living in New York City then, as his granddaughter, Gertrude Belle (Broida) Cooper stated that the family members were ‘rag-pickers’ in NYC when they first immigrated. John’s naturalization papers state that he entered the US in Pennsylvania, so that would imply a different scenario. We have no marriage record for John and Gitel either, and have searched in New York as well as Pennsylvania. (There were no requirements back then to record a marriage with either state government.) We do know that their son Joseph Jacob Broida was born in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania on 15 May 1882.

If anyone has more information on this early period of John Zelig or Gitel Frank Broida, please let us know!

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. SS Cimbria in port image posted with kind permission of the website owners of “Theodore Gegoux” at gegoux.com, and https://www.maritimequest.com/daily_event_archive/2006/jan/19_ss_cimbria.htm
2. Information concerning the NY Passenger lists–https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/New_York,_Passenger_Lists_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)
3. Castle Garden- search for “Gittel” in 1881–http://www.castlegarden.org/search_02.php?m_ship=&po_port=&p_first_name=gittel&p_last_name=&o_occ=&co_country=&province=&town=&m_arr_date_start=1880&m_arr_date_end=1881&submit=Search+Now
4. Wikipedia article on the Statue of Liberty– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty
5. Heritage Ships/NorwayHeritage.com has graciously allowed use of their collected images as long as the watermark is retained and attribution provided. If you are interested in higher quality images, they can be purchased on their website, which benefits NorwayHeritage.

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