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Photo title:
Lejb
Olszewski, age 4
Young Lejb is pictured on left; boy on right is unknown.
place of residence: KOLNO
date of photograph: cir 1906
Lejb was just four years old when he left Kolno, so we can
assume that the photo on the left was perhaps taken not too long
before he and his mother Ester nee Eisenberg (from Lomza) left
Russian Poland for the United States.
Lejb and mother Ester left in early Jun 1906 aboard the S.S.
Finland out of Antwerp, arriving at Ellis Island on 19 Jun 1906.
Ester's husband Chaim (Hyman) had left less than four years
earlier, in Aug 1902, aboard the S.S. Friesland, again out of
Antwerp. Like so many fathers back then, it can be surmised that
he came to the U.S. first, in order to find a place to live and
begin working in a job to save some money so that his wife and
young son (born the year he left for the States) could join him.
Chaim and Ester would have five more boys, all born in New York
City. Both Chaim and Ester were devout Jews.
It was told to Chaim's grandson that Chaim was a "horse trader"
back in the old country. While living in New York, Chaim worked
as a house painter, a paper hanger and a decorator, and even
owned a pet shop in Brooklyn called "Painter's Pet Shop." |