Toba Besser and Meyer Gershonowitz

David Semmel and Ev Blustein12/2001:

It is known by the family that Toba Besser was the first of the Bessers to come to America but no records of her trip are to be found from Ellis Island.

Other stories passed down give us some clues:

Toba’s husband, Meyer Gershonowitz, was a suitor in Czestochowa whom Toba appearently rejected. She then came to America with a family whose name was Weisskopf and lived with them as their “housekeeper”.   I suspect she was more of an indentured servant, though I couldn’t prove it.

Meyer came to New York, was a more successful suitor the second time and they were married. Toba must have come before 1909 since she was the first of the Bessers to arrive and the second, Helen, came in 1909. The wedding picture we have of Toba and Meyer is dated1909-1910 but I don’t know the source or its accuracy.

From the Ellis Island data base we found:

Schoel (11) and Sure (19) Weisskopf, both female and traveling alone, came in 7/7/07 on the Noordham from Rotterdam. Czestochowa.

Conjectures and Questions

Sure Weiskopf is Toba Besser. She was sent with the Weiskopf’s 11 yr old. We know Toba was born in 1889 so the age is very close or correct. I just wonder how they managed the paperwork, but money has been known to grease the wheels of bureaucracy, and the Weisskopfs were well-off.

Meyer Gerschenowitz (sic) came to the US on 8/8/1907 with sister Chaja born 1894. Their mother was Gittle, all from Czestochowa. Going to brother (?) D (hard to read) Gerchenowitz who lived at 238 Metropolitan St in Brooklyn.

There is a Mordehc Gershonowitz arriving on Kroonland from Antwerp on 12/21/1911 age 20. Father was Leib and all are from Neustadt, the home of the Semmels?!? I cant connect Mordehc Gershonowitz or his father Lieb to our clan, though the Neustadt thing is very curious and they were there at the same time..

From Ev Blustein:

No, I never heard (or do not recall hearing) about Meyer’s siblings or parents. I do think there was niece whose name I do not know but who adopted a pair of orphans from Poland after the war who were the sole survivors of a relative. They had been saved by a Gentile woman who had claimed them as her own, raised them as Catholics in Holland, and had to give them up when Meyer’s relatives here wanted them. I remember when they came and how unhappy they were to have been separated from their “mother” in Holland. I don’t know what their names are (were) and don’t know what became of them. I believe Meyer sponsored their entry to the US.