Finding My Great-Grandmother's Real Maiden Name

My family loved to tell stories and I loved hearing them. I remember listening to my grandmother Emma Cohen Gilbert talk about her mother, Sophie Kaplan Cohen's family. She said Sophie's father was Joseph Kaplan, who owned a tavern in Shafarnia, Russia (perhaps Sviryany, Novogrudok uyezd, Minsk gubernia, Russia). Joseph had been married twice and his second wife was Sarah. Sophie was his first daughter after six sons. He was so delighted to have a daughter at last that he insisted on naming her Shanaleba which means beautiful love. My mom wanted me to have the Hebrew name Shanaleba after my great-grandmother Sophie but a rabbi insisted it wasn't a proper Hebrew name. I ended up named Zeitel for another great-grandmother, Sophie Feldman Schwartzberg. Ironically Zeitel is apparently Yiddish for Sophie. Still grumbling about that! Here's a picture of Sophie taken about 1903 in Philadelphia.

So, Sophie's much older half brothers were Lipelaid, Menachem and Zwanya and perhaps one other unknown brother, since Sarah had David and Harry before Sophie was finally born, the first girl after six boys. After her were Celia, Boris, Elke, Lil, and Becky. I actually met Becky who lived to be 96 years old! My grandmother didn't know much about her uncles, the half-brothers, but Lipelaid and Menachem supposedly came to the US as did most of their siblings. Zwanya was a red-haired inventor whose inventions never worked and stayed in Russia. [There has been at least one red-haired male in every generation of this family]. Granny Emma said the last name was Kaplan so that was what I had in my records. We kept in touch with great-great-aunt Becky Kaplan Miller and her husband Nathan (Turetzky) Miller and their descendants, and great-great-uncle David Kaplan married my great-great-aunt Bella Kantorowitz, sister to Sophie's husband Joseph J. Cohen, so I knew their descendants.

In 1983 I was in New Jersey looking at colleges with my parents, and we visited Atlantic City so I could meet my great-great-aunt Becky and great-great-uncle Nathan. Here we are from left to right: Ethel Miller Fortess, Joe Miller, Nathan Miller, Joanne Gilbert Schwartzberg, Jenny Schwartzberg, Florence Miller Drossin Bellans, and Becky Miller. Thanks to cousin Janet Fortess, I was able to identify which was which since Ethel and Florence were identical twins. The twins and their brother Joe shared a house in Atlantic City and visited their parents in the nursing home nearly every day. Becky and Nathan were very sweet and loving, like cooing turtle doves and I treasure the memory of meeting them. Nathan died on their 73rd wedding anniversary (21 October 1984) and Becky died four days later.

I've spent years tracking down Harry and Boris Kaplan's descendants, as well as other cousins on that side. The people I could not ever find were Lipelaid and Menachem even though they had come to the US and Lipelaid's son Louis Kaplan had been the family dentist for the NYC cousins as had his son Ben Kaplan. Supposedly Lipelaid was very religious and his half-sister Becky had dishes just for him when he visited (meaning he kept Kosher).

Finally some folks on the JewishGen listserv pointed out that Lipelaid was probably a mistake for the double name Lipe Leib. I hunted online databases for more years yet and finally found on FamilySearch the newly indexed database, the New York City Municipal Deaths Index, 1795-1949, which had the indexed death record for Lipo Lieb Kaplan.

Name: Lipo Lieb Kaplan
Event Type: Death
Event Date: 13 Dec 1934
Event Place: Bronx, New York, New York, United States
Address: 550 Barley St
Residence Place: Bronx, New York
Gender: Male
Age: 79
Marital Status: Widowed
Race: White
Occupation: Business Man
Birth Date: 1855
Birthplace: Russia
Burial Date: 13 Dec 1934
Burial Place: Bronx, New York
Cemetery: Beth David Cemetery
Father's Name: Joseph Kaplan
Father's Birthplace: Russia
Mother's Name: Sishe Kolpenitzky
Mother's Birthplace: Russia
Frame Number: 1135

This had to be great-great-uncle Lipelaid! I now had a name for his mother, Joseph's first wife. Yay! I ordered a copy of the death certificate and it stated he died in the Home of Daughters of Jacob, Bronx, NY. I think one of his sons gave the information but I can't lay my hands on it to show here. I started hunting to see if I could find more records for Lipe Leib and when he came to the US. FamilySearch's New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940, listed his son Louis Kaplan's marriage to Eva Weinstein.

Name: Louis Kaplan
Event Type: Marriage
Event Date: 06 Jun 1918
Event Place: Manhattan, New York, New York, United States
Event Place (Original): Manhattan, New York
Gender: Male
Age: 25
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Birth Year (Estimated): 1893
Birthplace: Russia
Father's Name: Leon
Mother's Name: Mina Galensky
Spouse's Name: Eva Weinstein
Spouse's Gender: Female
Spouse's Age: 23
Spouse's Marital Status: Single
Spouse's Race: White
Spouse's Birth Year (Estimated): 1895
Spouse's Birthplace: Russia
Spouse's Father's Name: Simon
Spouse's Mother's Name: Ruth Glucoselsky

This gave me the English version of Lipe Leib's name as Leon Kaplan and his wife as Mina Galensky.

There was a Lippe Kaplan in the 1915 New York State Census, age 55, born in Russia, boarding with a Max Kaplan and his family in New York City. I knew Lipe Leib had a son Max but I didn't know his wife's name or descendants so I was dubious about this record but this Lippe was listed as having been in the US 2 years, i.e. arriving around 1913. I turned my attention to searching passenger lists with no success. Finally I thought to search for Kolpenitzkys. In Russia, Jews were married by their rabbis, but for their marriages to be recognized as legal by the Czarist government, they had to be registered civilly and the fee was so large many did not bother. Only if there were issues of inheritance might they register, often many years afterwards. That meant the children were legally considered bastards and carried their mothers' names not their fathers' names in the official records. I've seen quite a number of passenger manifests with people coming in under their mothers' family names and switching to the fathers' family name when they settled in America.

I searched Ancestry.com for Leib* Kolp*ky b. 1855, plus/minus 10 years and found Leibu Kolpenitxky, age 50, a merchant from Baranowitz (a family town), going to his daughter Miss I. Kaplan in Philadelphia. He arrived on 8 October 1912 on the SS Finland into the port of New York. I knew Lipe Leib's daughter Ida lived in Philadelphia at this point and other family members had gone to her.

I found other Kolpenitzkys that were Lipe Leib's descendants on other manifests, and played around with wildcard searching to see what I could find since the name keeps getting misspelled and misindexed and so many appeared to be related to me. I found a Tore Kolpinicky, and took a closer look. It actually read Sore Kolpanicky (c can be s in Russian and Polish), age 55, from Baranowicze (Baranavichy, Novogrudok uyezd, Minsk gubernia, Russia), and she was going to her son Harry Kaplan in Philadelphia, at an address I knew my great-great-uncle Harry had lived at in that same year, 1910. Wait a minute, this had to be my own great-great-grandmother Sarah Kaplan, Joseph's second wife. What was she doing, using Joseph's first wife's maiden name?

I had already found Sarah's death certificate in Ancestry's Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966:

So I knew her parents' names and I didn't think she could be a Kolpenitzky by birth. Now I started to wonder if great-great-grandfather Joseph Kaplan had actually been Joseph Kolpenitzky? That would mean that Sarah's married name was actually Kolpenitzky not Kaplan. The name change might have started taking place in Russia since I had some of Sarah's children's passenger manifests under the name Kaplan. I still wasn't sure....

I hunted for more information and found a Kolpenitzky family tree at Ancestry.com. It was private but it appeared to show Leibe Kolpenitzky so I messaged the owner through Ancestry.com on December 11, 2016.

"Can we exchange information? The Leibe Kolpenitzky who arrived on the SS Finland on 8 Oct 1912 into the port of New York from Baranowitz, Russia was my half great-great-uncle Lipelaid/Lipe Labe/Leon Kaplan, and I am tracing the Kolpenitzky/Kaplan family. Lipelaid's parents were Joseph Kaplan and Shoshe Kolpenitzky. Joseph married twice and I descend from the second marriage. I'm trying to find all Joseph's descendants. I found your tree with a lot of names that echo my family names."

A few days later I sent the following message:

"I've found various relatives coming to the US under the Kolpenitzky name and now think my great-great-grandfather Joseph Kaplan was originally Joseph Kolpenitzky. I can provide a fair amount of information about his descendants. Please contact me."

Jack Kolpen replied promptly:

"Jenny, nice to hear from you. I will give you access to my tree. Moe Kolpen told me his uncle Joe returned to Europe in 1939 and was feared murdered. Did you do a DNA test?"

I replied:

"I think the connection is earlier than that.
My great-great-grandfather Joseph Kaplan or Kolpenitzky was born about 1835 and died before 1890 in Russia probably in Sviryany, Novogrudok uyezd, Minsk gubernia. His parents were Mutke and Etke. He was married twice first to Soshe Kolpenitzky and had five sons, Lipe Labe b. 1885, Menachem b. ca. 1858, Unknown male, Zwanya b. Ca. 1864, and David Kaplan, b. 1868. His wife died and he remarried to a younger woman, Sarah Karofsky or Turetetsky, and had Harry Kaplan b. 1874, Sophie b. 1881, Celia b. 1882, Boris b. 1884, Elke and Lil who died young, and Becky b. 1888. All of the children except the unknown male and Zwanya came to the US. I've found passenger manifests for them and their families under both Kolpenitzky and variant spellings and Kaplan.
I'm hoping some of this will sound familiar to you.
I can send a Gedcom and family tree of what I have."

After looking at his family tree, much of which was based on research a Russian researcher had done for him which Jack warned was unreliable and incomplete, I saw a Iosel Kolpenitzky with two sons, Leibe and Tsfaniya. Tsfaniya was so close phonetically to Zwanya which was the name my grandmother had remembered for my great-great-uncle Zwanya, that this had to be the same person. Zwanya/Tsfaniya is a very unusual Jewish name and is probably a Yiddishized version of a Russian name.

I wrote back:

"Groan. I just lost a long reply but to make a long explanation short, I think Iosel Kolpenitzky b. 1849 is my great-great-grandfather Joseph Kaplan/Kolpenitzky. His sons, Leibe and Tsfaniya match with my great-great-uncles Lipa Labe and Zwanya. Can I have an email address where I can send a detailed descendancy narrative and family tree chart? I can link some of your floating Kolpenitzkys into my family tree.
I will finish downloading my Mom's and brother's DNA into Gedmatch and send you the codes.
So according to my calculations we are 4th cousins. Welcome to the family!"

Jack Kolpen and I ran our DNA and my mother's and brother's DNA and it showed that we matched at the 3rd-4th cousin level, as the family tree had indicated. Jack's Russian researchers had worked out our ancestors back through the 1816 census and JewishGen added records from the 1806 census. I can now go back in a direct line from my great-great-grandfather Joseph Kolpenitzky to my 7x grandfather, Movsha Kolpenitzky, born in the 1720s. All of a sudden I had seven additional generations to add to my family tree along with many new cousins.

Jack's great-great-grandfather was Osher, brother to my great-great-grandfather Joseph, and Osher's son Jacob L. Kolpen and his family settled in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where they were dairy farmers.

We shake our head at this because the distance between Elizabeth, NJ and Stelton, NJ, is 16 miles. My great-grandparents Joseph J. and Sophie (Kolpenitzky) Cohen lived at the Ferrer Colony in Stelton, NJ from 1914 to the 1930s, and we don't think Sophie ever knew her first cousins lived so close by!

I also now know the name of the Kolpenitzky home town was Stolovichi, Novogrudok uyezd, Minsk gubernia, Russia. According to the Russian researchers, all Kolpenitzkys in the Minsk gubernia descended from the family in Stolovichi. This picture shown above is from Jack's family and is of a house that belonged to his relatives, maybe in Stolovichi (or maybe it's from another side of the family). It does look like other houses that still exist in that region. This all led to my finally finding the passenger manifest for my great-great-uncle David Kaplan, Sophie's older brother, under the name David Kopontzky/Koponicky from Stolovichi, arriving in New York City, 1 April 1901 on the SS Bulgaria. I've now come to the conclusion based on his birthdate of 11 April 1868, that he was actually Sophie's half-brother, not full brother. Another assumption upended!

I'm still looking for great-great-uncle Menachem who supposedly died while visiting his stepmother Sarah. Becky Kaplan Miller's twin daughters Ethel and Florence remembered seeing him laid out in preparation for burial. Pennsylvania's death certificate database is not showing a Menachem Kaplan of any spelling so I suspect he changed his name here too. Still digging away. Plus I haven't traced all of Lipe Leib's descendants or proved that the Max Kaplan and his family on the 1915 NY census belong to my family.

One final note. In June 2017, I was in New York City, and arranged to meet up with Jack Kolpen, his sister Jana Kolpen, and Jack's daughter, Lindsey and her husband, Jack Long for dinner. We sat and talked for hours, sharing stories and laughter. Here is a picture of us after dinner.

This screenshot shows how we are related, all descendants of Leiba Kolpenitzky and his wife Ita.

Jack and Jana are my generation age-wise, due to their grandfather Benjamin Harry Kolpen being the youngest child in his family (born 1921) and closer in age to my own parents (born 1933). However, tree-wise, they are my mother's third cousins, and my third cousins once removed. Jack's daughter Lindsay is my fourth cousin.

Another note: I emailed some of my cousins about my discoveries and Becky Kaplan Miller's granddaughter, June Fortess, wrote back that she remembered hearing from Becky that the family name had originally been something like Kaplanitsky. If only my grandmother or another relative had told me that when I first started asking questions, I might have been saved a lot of frustration!!!

So as the title of this blog says, after 40+ years of listening to family stories, asking questions of many relatives, and so many brick walls, I finally know my great-grandmother, Sophie Cohen's real maiden name was Kolpenitzky.