Name changed in 1938

In 1938, on the initiative of Charles, your uncle Charlie, the family collectively changed their family name to Ansell.
Ansell was the family name on Fanny's side, and she was very happy to see her children carry her name on.

According to a "Decree for change of name" issued 2 May 1938 it was
"ordered, adjudged and decreed that the said petitioner's names be, and the same are hereby changed from FANNY COHN, REUBEN COHN, GERTRUDE COHN, his wife, MARSHALL COHN, HARRY COHN, GERTRUDE COHN, his wife, MITCHELL COHN, CHARLES COHN, MARYANN COHN, his wife, THEODORE COHN and YETTA COHN to
FANNY ANSELL, ROBERT ANSELL, GERTRUDE ANSELL, MARSHALL ANSELL, HARRY ANSELL, GERTRUDE ANSELL, MITCHELL ANSELL, CHARLES ANSELL, MARYANN ANSELL, THEODORE ANSELL and YETTA ANSELL"

Note then that Reuben at the same time changed his first name to Robert, and that Rose already was married Kahn at that time.

The Cohn/Ansell children

After their reunion in Chicago the family moved to settle down in Ottumwa, Iowa. We do not know when and why that move took place.
Five more children were born between 1906 and 1919. Yetta, the youngest, was born in Lamont, Ill, from where the family finally returned to Chicago.
In 1926 Mendel Cohn passed away and Fanny survived him by 19 years. She died in Chicago in 1945.

And here is the complete list

Reuben/Robert 8 Jan 1900 (26 Jul 1957)

Harry 2 Feb 1906 (20 Feb 1992)

Rose

Charles 3 Jan 1909 (11 Dec 2001)

Theodore 29 Jul 1911 (29 Sep 2004)

Yetta 4 Dec 1919 (10 Feb 2005)

Read more

Kudirkos-Naumiestis
(Lithuania)
54°46' / 22°53'
By Z. Tumpovsky
Translated by Judie Ostroff Goldstein and Dr. Sonia Kovitz

is found here:
http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/lita/Lit1589.html#Page1607

and for more about Lithuanian Jewry see
http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/lita/lita.html
and the main page
http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/translations.html

On the map

how to find this map on the net:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/main.adp?country=PL
1. enter the city name Suwalki
2.click search
3. to the left of this map click zoom level 4

For an even better map, which I can not copy into this blog, see
http://www.balticdata.info/maps/Lithuania/images/041_0101_polit_big.gif
just close to the border with Russia, on a line to the left from Kaunas (Kovno)

From where?

The Cohen/Ansell family are Litvaks, Marshall is proud to declare.
In Lithuania there are two towns with similar names, that could be the Neustot your grand father mentioned.
(see Schoenburg and Schoenburg, Lithuanian Jewish Communities)
Marshall recalls Fannies stories about how common it was to move and trade over the border with Germany and therefore we conclude that Naishtut-Shaki (Naumiestis-Sakiai) is the village where Reuben was born. And that is within the Kovno district.

Kovno, Vilna, Suwalki, Marijampole are among the important places in litvak history, and so they are in the history of the Cohn/Ansells as well as that of the Soells - Marshall's "other family"
This is a border area - here we have the historically floating border lines between Russia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany.
_____
To try and clarify a little:
Schoenburg and Schoenburg, p. 198:
Naishtut-Shaki (Naumiestis-Sakiai) Shaki District
Also known as Naishtut-Schirwint and Naishtut-Kudirka ...

A new chapter

This little family was re-united in Chicago in October 1903:
Mendel Cohn, his wife Fannie and their son Reuben.
Where did they come from? Where did they go?
What did they bring with them and what happened to their cultural "luggage"?
There are two threads to follow:
1. their cultural heritage
2. family history as it developed in the US

(Pia, still at the protocol)

Fane and Rubin

Fane was 23 years old, a housemaker able to read and write. She was of russian nationality (although her latest place of residence had been London*) and had never before been in the United States. She had $ 3 and her final destination was Chicago, where she was to join her husband Mendel Cohen of 10 Wilson St. There is also a note hard to decipher - to me it it looks like "With Uncle J??"
And Rubin was 2 years and 6 months old.

I really wonder whether one should read her name as Fane? Her yiddish name was Frumke. Is it perhaps Frume?
* Marshall has heard a lot about those couple of years in London, where she was introduced to eating kippers :-)

Saint Louis that brought them here

Rubin Cohen

Rubin Cohen, then aged "2y6m"



Fane and Rubin had embarked in Southampton, and in our next message we will tell what the ship's manifest has to say about them.

Fane Cohen's passenger record

Fane Cohen's passenger record in a modern design, and with a very recent transcription from the ship's manifest. The handwriting is not easy to understand and we will have a closer look at it later.

Fane and Rubin arrive

Two years later, on Oct 17, 1903, Abraham's wife and their firstborn son arrived in New York.
Their ship was Saint Louis and on the Ship Manifest you find the two as # 18 and 19. Recent transcriptions give their names as Fane and Rubin Cohen.

Ship manifest: Fane and Rubin Cohen