Ancestor(s) of the Week: Great-Grandfather Saul White

Dear Miriam and Sarah,

I posted a childhood photograph of your great grandfather, Saul White, a few days ago. Let me tell you a little more about him. I never met Saul, so all I have to go on is what I have heard about him and the bits I was able to piece together from research. Your dad and Grandma Linda can fill out these bits and pieces and give you a better sense of who he really was. But, let me tell you what I know.

Saul Witkievicz was born in 1908 in Kolno, Poland. Kolno is in Northeastern Poland in the the Podlaskie Province.


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You can read a bit more about the Kolno shtetl here.  Saul's father was Efraim Witkievicz and his mother was Chava Bachrach. Efraim, I think, was from Kolno (there were quite a few Witkieviczes in Kolno at the time) and his mother and father were Velvel and Sara (whose maiden name may have been Borkowski). Efraim's grandfather (Velvel's father) was named David Witkievicz.

Here is Velvel and Sara:

These are Saul's grandparents (maybe David Witkievicz and his wife):

Chava, Saul's mother, was from a town called Grajewo, which was only 50 kilometers from Kolno. I know a little about Chava, like that she came from a long line of rabbis. Chava's grandfather was Rabbi Aryeh Leib Bachrach (the Rabbi of Grajewo) and the rabbis in the family go back generations. The Bachrach genealogy is pretty interesting and well-developed and I will share that with you some other time.  

Now, Saul's father, Efraim, died young (in his late thirties). It looks like Saul was only about 3 years old when Ephraim died.  This would explain the absence of Efraim in the photograph of the Witkiewicz family.  I assume from that ages of the children that the photograph was take shortly after Efraim's death. Saul and his siblings were raised in Kolno by Chava, who, according to Saul's oral history transcript, made a living running a shop and a laundry business. Saul remembered the barrells of pickles in the family shop, but he did not seem to remember too many details of life in Kolno (or, at least, many he was willing to share in his oral history interview). I think Chava must have been a strong woman to have raised 5 kids on her own back then.

In 1915, Henrietta, Saul's oldest sister, left for America. She was sent to live with Efraim's sister, Nellie, who had come to America back in the 1890s, married Morris Diamond, and settled in Buffalo, New York. The rest of Saul's immediate family, including Saul himself, came to America in 1920-1921 and settled in Buffalo briefly before making their way to New York City.

So, that's a little about your great-grandfather. There is more to tell.  Stay tuned.

Love,

Mom