In this episode, I continue exploring the Jewish legacy of the 1915 Eastland Disaster in Chicago.
Insights from Jewish genealogy experts, Ellen Kowitt and Rhonda R. McClure, on the unique challenges and strategies for tracing Jewish ancestry, including navigating name variations, language barriers, and historical events like pogroms and the Holocaust.
The story of Eastland victim Sam Widran , a 29-year-old Western Electric auditor, and the tragic losses endured by his Jewish immigrant family from Hungary.
Details about 24-year-old Celia Brooks (aka Rooks/Rook/Borak) Colombik, who died in the disaster, leaving behind her husband Frank, a Western Electric employee, her brothers and their families--Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire.
A moving 1915 newspaper account of Frank Colombik's grief upon identifying his wife Celia's body in the Second Regiment Armory morgue.
Selections from a 1974 memoir of Celia's niece Ruth Naiditch (shared in a 2000 article). Ruth shared how she narrowly avoided the Eastland disaster at age 11 because her "bratty" behavior led her uncle to exclude her from the trip.
I emphasize the importance of recording older relatives' stories for family history and express gratitude for the opportunity to share these stories from Chicago's Jewish community.
I hope listeners will watch the linked videos on Jewish genealogy for a deeper understanding of the complexities involved.
In this episode, I continue exploring the Jewish legacy of the 1915 Eastland Disaster in Chicago.
Insights from Jewish genealogy experts, Ellen Kowitt and Rhonda R. McClure, on the unique challenges and strategies for tracing Jewish ancestry, including navigating name variations, language barriers, and historical events like pogroms and the Holocaust.
The story of Eastland victim Sam Widran , a 29-year-old Western Electric auditor, and the tragic losses endured by his Jewish immigrant family from Hungary.
Details about 24-year-old Celia Brooks (aka Rooks/Rook/Borak) Colombik, who died in the disaster, leaving behind her husband Frank, a Western Electric employee, her brothers and their families--Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire.
A moving 1915 newspaper account of Frank Colombik's grief upon identifying his wife Celia's body in the Second Regiment Armory morgue.
Selections from a 1974 memoir of Celia's niece Ruth Naiditch (shared in a 2000 article). Ruth shared how she narrowly avoided the Eastland disaster at age 11 because her "bratty" behavior led her uncle to exclude her from the trip.
I emphasize the importance of recording older relatives' stories for family history and express gratitude for the opportunity to share these stories from Chicago's Jewish community.
I hope listeners will watch the linked videos on Jewish genealogy for a deeper understanding of the complexities involved.
Hello, I'm Natalie Zett and welcome to Flower in the River. This podcast, inspired by my book of the same name, explores the 1915 Eastland disaster in Chicago and its enduring impact, particularly on my family's history. We'll explore the intertwining narratives of others impacted by this tragedy as well, and we'll dive into writing and genealogy and uncover the surprising supernatural elements that surface in family history research. Come along with me on this journey of discovery. Hello, this is Natalie, and welcome to Episode 54 of Flower in the River podcast. Today we're continuing our journey into the Jewish legacy of the Eastland disaster, and I will share insights from some specialists in Jewish genealogy on what makes that area unique. I'm also going to introduce you to two other families whose lives were forever changed because of the Eastland disaster and, as a special bonus, we will learn how one little girl's self-described bratty behavior saved her life on that day. Stay tuned.
Speaker 1:
What's in a name that comes from the playwright William Shakespeare via his play Romeo and Juliet, and when he was asking that question in that particular context, he was referring to the idea that names in and of themselves are a convention to distinguish things or people, but they don't always have meaning of themselves. Well, bill, I'm not sure I agree with you on that one. In fact, I don't agree with you on that one because, as we're going to see, our journey through, names, as confusing and convoluted as they are, can oftentimes point us to true north. In all genealogy work, names can lead you to that Eureka moment or lead you down the wrong road completely. Hmm, been there, done that and we'll probably do that again.
Speaker 1:
In Jewish genealogy. That can be even more pronounced sometimes, and I'm going to share a few highlights from some very experienced people in the area of Jewish genealogy. The first is from a RootsTech presentation on Jewish genealogy that was given in 2023 by Ellen Cowet. In that presentation, Ellen emphasized that, while the overall approach to Jewish genealogy is similar to other ethnic groups, there are some specific cultural and traditional clues to be aware of. This includes paying close attention to names, languages and religious practices, as these elements can provide important context and connections.
Speaker 1:
And when Ellen says Jewish names, this is what she is talking about. She's talking about the given names, or first names, and the Jewish names. These are often someone's Hebrew name given by the parents at a naming ceremony. Again, I'm being very vague about this because everyone does it differently, but that's what the Jewish names mean, and these names are often invoked in different ceremonies throughout a person's life, and then surnames, so all three categories can be used at one time, or mixed around, or all sorts of combinations. That sounds easy enough, right? Well, hold on. It can be quite complicated, and the reasons vary dramatically. For example, think about how migration patterns might influence how you describe yourself or how you name yourself.
Speaker 1:
Jews were migratory, and not always of their own choosing, so they often lived in a lot of different countries with a lot of different languages and customs, and then, when many of them came to the United States and brought all those differences with them, people were recording their names, even the person themselves. They didn't know English well enough sometimes to spell their names consistently, so there were all kinds of transcriptions and indexes and online databases, and some of these were written by Jewish people themselves and others were written by government officials, for example, where their names are all spelled differently, they're all pronounced differently, and Co-it says and this is a good guideline, I think, not just for Jewish genealogy, but especially for Jewish genealogy is don't get stuck on the names. What else are you supposed to do then? Well, the answer isn't straightforward and I will tell you this, it's very paradoxical In some ways. Yes, you have to have a plan and you have to have names and things like that, standard things that you think you would need to search somebody or a group of people. However, you can't get so locked into that that you don't have other tools at your disposal, and I think what they're saying in these lectures, these various genealogists, is make sure that you have a number of methodologies, processes, tools in your toolbox to do this sort of work. And Ellen reiterated that most Jews were immigrants coming from different cultures, countries, languages, backgrounds, etc. This really affects how you look for names.
Speaker 1:
Having done this as part of my own research for these two episodes, I can say Ellen is absolutely right. Honestly, I wished I'd heard her presentation or a similar presentation, years before, when I tried tracing my own Jewish ancestry, since I don't have a lot of it and it's pretty far back in the line. It was beyond frustrating and I thought what am I doing wrong here? Thanks to these suggestions and tips, I was able to apply those to the research for these two podcast episodes and, although there are still many brick walls and brick castles for that matter I can honestly say that it really helped me know how to do this type of research and, in turn, as I get more experienced at it, I will be able to apply that to my own research plan for my own family.
Speaker 1:
Another presentation that I want to point you to. This one was sponsored by American ancestors, and they also tackled the specific challenges that you face when tracing your Jewish ancestors. The presenter, ronda R McClure, a senior genealogist with extensive experience, addressed issues such as the other conundrum of identifying ancestral towns in Central and Eastern Europe and then navigating the records in various languages, and adding to all this are things like pogroms, the Holocaust, where entire villages were wiped out or populations taken out and records eradicated things like this. It is so complicated, as you probably already know, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't persist and people do persist in tracking down this information. Ronda McClure emphasized the need to understand the historical context and immigration patterns of Jewish families, and I would say that, across the board, you have to understand context right, and Ronda provided an overview of the major waves of immigration from Europe to the United States, particularly in the late 19th and early 20th century, which is the time period that I'm investigating for this Eastland Chronicles series that I'm doing. Hopefully, when you listen to those presentations, you can get an idea of why this is so unique. And then, after these presentations, when you listen to them, perhaps you'll be inspired to go to JewishGenorg, and this is a site that has all information, anything you'd want to know about Jewish genealogy, and once you figure out how to navigate it, it's fascinating and there's so much information there. So I revisited that site with my new found learning to try to figure out what was going on with these two families that unfortunately experienced the Eastland disaster, and I want to introduce them to you.
Speaker 1:
The first person is Sam Widron, w-i-d-r-a-n. He was also known as Samuel, and he was just 29 years old and employed as an auditor by Western Electric, and he was survived by his wife. Sam, like so many other Jewish people who died on the Eastland, is buried in the Valtime Cemetery, which is in Forest Park, illinois, which is outside of Chicago. Now listen to his obituary that appeared in the Chicago Tribune WIDRON, samuel Widron, july 24, 1915. Suddenly beloved. Husband of Rose Ney Spingold, son of Frank and Anna Widdronovitz. Funeral from Chapel 3654 West 12th Street, tuesday 11am. Intermit at Free Sons of Israel Cemetery. Flowers omitted. Widron, free Sons of Israel Cemetery. That's Valtime and, if you notice, in Jewish funeral practices flowers are not included, and there are reasons for that as well, and that would take an entire other episode to discuss that.
Speaker 1:
So if you noticed in Sam's obituary his last name and his parents' last names, well, they were different Wydronovits and you can already see that the parents who came from the old country that would be Hungary. They held on to that name, sam. He was born there as well, but he was younger and he probably wanted to make it easier for himself. I really don't know why he shortened his name, but that is not an uncommon practice, not just amongst Jewish people, but having grown up in predominantly a Polish neighborhood in Cleveland, they did a lot of that as well, simply because no one could pronounce those names. So Sam's parents, ephraim, frank Wydron who later went by Frank and Anna Vertheimer, immigrated to Chicago in 1892 with Sam and another son, lewis. They came from a village in Hungary that at one point probably had a very large Jewish population Today it has none by the 1910 census, the Wydrons or Wydronovits family. Well, they had seven additional children who were born in Illinois. That is, post-immigration Frank, as the dad was known, was working as an optician, as were two of the oldest sons, and by 1910, sam was married and working at Western Electric. They spoke Yiddish at home and they were renting their home in the northern part of Chicago. Seems like they were doing really well until 1915 when Sam was killed on the Eastland.
Speaker 1:
And then the sorrows don't end for this family. Just seven years later, another daughter, rose, died at age 30. Circumstances were not described in her obituary. By then Rose had been married for nine years and was the mother of two little girls. Rose is also buried at Waldheim. Sam's parents, frank and Anna. They stayed in Chicago. Frank died in 1934, and Anna died in 1943. Again, it was a large family. So I'm sure there is more information to find out than what I was able to uncover in just a week.
Speaker 1:
Next we have another name conundrum, so prepare for this. We have Celia Brooks or Rooks or Rook or Borac, and her married name was Columbic. She was 24 when she perished in the disaster and she was survived by her husband, frank, and by several other brothers and their families. Celia did not work for Western Electric, but Frank did. Celia was a challenge Right out the gate when I was researching her, I already located some misinformation online.
Speaker 1:
One source lists her husband, frank, not Celia, as the one who died on the Eastland, and I pointed that out to them. So there was also some confusion about Celia's birthplace, which was Russia or probably the Russian Empire, but I'm not sure of the village that her family came from and there. Well, that needs a little bit more research and I'll talk about that later if I make some breakthrough on this one. But again, in the 1910 census, when Celia was 19, she was living with her brother, also named Samuel, and his wife Sadie and their children Ruth, bertha and Solomon, in the northern part of Chicago. Pay attention to the little girls names, ruth and Bertha, because they're going to make another appearance shortly. There's no mention of the parents, so I'm not sure if her parents immigrated, but it looks as if the brother, samuel, immigrated first and they came from Russia in 1892. Celia came later, also from Russia, in 1899. Sam, her brother, was working as a cap maker in a factory and Celia was doing some sort of labor in the clothing manufacturing industry. There was also this border living in the house with them. His name was Frank Columbick and he and Celia would marry on December 30th of that same year, 1910. As mentioned, frank worked for Western Electric and unfortunately they went on that picnic.
Speaker 1:
This story that I'm about to read is from the Richmond Palladium and Sun Telegram from July 26, 1915, but it was reprinted in a number of other publications of that time. Headline Searcher's line is shorter now. Hundreds of bodies of Eastland victims claimed by relatives. Pathetic scenes at Morgue, chicago July 26.
Speaker 1:
The line of searchers for relatives and friends who went to their deaths in the steamer Eastland was shorter today. Thousands had found the hundreds for whom they sought at the big second regiment armory, which had been turned into a wholesale Morgue and had been allowed to remove to their homes the frightful objects of their fearful search. All through yesterday and last night a constant stream of stretchers followed by weeping men and women had moved out of the great home of the state's soldiers. And when dawn broke this morning there remained, of the long lines of sheeted figures, only seven identified and 14 unidentified bodies. All the others, out of a total of 816, had been taken away by the relatives and friends to sorrowing homes.
Speaker 1:
Among the searchers in the Morgue early today was a big, strong man, frank Columbick. He made his way into the armory, walked straight to the center of the remaining row and found his young wife, celia. His 42-hour search was ended. Other strong men turned away as Columbick knelt beside the body of his wife and wept like a child, two friends with him sobbed in their futile efforts to console him. Despite the fact that the line of searchers had diminished, there were still hundreds at the doors of the armory this morning. The shorter row of bodies made the handling of the crowd an easier matter, and the row of seekers moved more rapidly. Grief of a terrible sort showed on the faces of those who turned away without finding the object of their quest. To them, it meant another trip through the Morgue after more bodies had been brought in, and another until the features of some loved one should be discovered On the faces of others. There was almost happiness. They passed the lines of bodies without finding the ones they sought, and there was still a slight chance that they might yet be alive.
Speaker 1:
Now I have a follow-up article that was written in the year 2000. Do you remember the little girls Ruth and Bertha? They were the daughters of Samuel, and Samuel was Celia's older brother. Well, they factor into this story, and it is told by Ruth From Sunday, august 6th year 2000 in the Daily Herald. This is Arlington Heights, illinois, which is right outside of Chicago. The headline being a brat helped girl avoid this disaster. By Mark Billings, daily Herald correspondent.
Speaker 1:
Few local residents have ties to the Eastland disaster, one of America's worst maritime disasters that occurred on the Chicago River 85 years ago, but sisters Francine Sella of Elgin and Faye Macmanon of West Dundee are remembering the tragedy through the words of their 96-year-old step-grandmother. Ruth Nadech now lives in Las Vegas, but she has captured the tragedy in a personal memoir. The following is her story, written in 1974, of how she remembers July 24, 1915, the day of the disaster when 844 men, women and children died in 20 feet of water next to the dock while preparing to leave on a sightseeing excursion to a Western Electric company picnic in Michigan City, indiana. Top-heavy and overloaded, the Eastland rolled onto its side in the Chicago River. Quote when the steamer Eastland capsized in the Chicago River in 1915, taking the lives of about 844 excursion passengers, my sister and I could have very well been two of its victims. It all goes back to when I was 11 years old and my sister, bertha, was a year and four months younger than I was.
Speaker 1:
My uncle, frank Columbick, was an employee of Western Electric Company, which was hosting the outing for its employees. Uncle Frank was the husband of my aunt, celia 24. My aunt and uncle resided with our family. We had a large three-bedroom apartment and they occupied the front bedroom. My sister, bertha, was my uncle Frank's favorite niece. She ran his errands, taking his shirts to and from the Chinese laundry and going to the store for him and so forth. I was the brat. I wasn't about to be his errand girl and I sassed him a lot. He did not like me, nor I him.
Speaker 1:
The summer of 1915 came and the Western Electric Company's excursion was planned. There was to be a charge for tickets, somewhere around $1 per person. My uncle planned to include my sister for this excursion and under no circumstances would consider taking me along. My aunt Celia kept quiet, even though she loved me, I'm sure, but she was afraid to oppose her husband. I was feeling hurt but would not let on. I really did want to go for the boat ride.
Speaker 1:
The evening before the excursion, as we were having dinner, my uncle told my sister that he would wake her up in time to be ready with them. He talked about the picnic they would have upon reaching Michigan City, and they were taking a nice lunch along At last. My mother could not bear it any longer. She kept quiet all the time and did not give vent to her feelings. Now she finally spoke up and said listen here, frank, ruth and Bertha are both my daughters, and if you do not take Ruth, then Bertha stays home too. Uncle Frank was a bit of a tightwad and to take me meant he would have to purchase another ticket, which he was not about to do. He was determined not to take me along in the first place. My sister and I both remained at home.
Speaker 1:
That Saturday morning I awoke early and heard my aunt and uncle saying goodbye to my mother and departing. I jumped out of bed and ran to the front porch and watched them walk down the street to get transportation to the dock. My uncle was carrying the lunch basket. I yelled Aunt Celia Uncle Frank, please take me with you. But they kept on walking and even though they might have heard me, they did not look back. My sister Bertha slept peacefully through all the commotion.
Speaker 1:
My piano teacher was due to come about 11 am for a weekly Saturday lesson About 8, 30 or 9 am, a call came for my parents to come immediately to the Clark Street Bridge. When my piano teacher came, I sent him away because by then we knew what had happened and I was not about to take a piano lesson. My father and his two brothers, morris and Ben Brooks, searched through the second regiment armory, which turned into a morgue for my aunt Celia's body. It took about two weeks to finally locate and identify her. A string of Unevenly shaped pearls that belong to my grandmother helped to positively identify her. My uncle could swim and he was able to save himself At one point. He managed to hold on to my aunt but lost her in the crowded panic in the river.
Speaker 1:
As I look back now, I can only say that this was one time when being a brat paid off. That newspaper article, hmm, that was quite the find. To date, I have not been able to locate the memoir that Ruth wrote. Ruth died in 2006 and all I can say is that I wish I could have met her and talked to her. Given her personality, it sounds like we were similar types of children to Finding something like this is precious, it's gold, and I'm so grateful that, although there doesn't seem right now to be an actual recording of Ruth speaking about this event or any other Previous articles.
Speaker 1:
I'm grateful to have found this, because you never know, once something is out there in form of a podcast like this, you never know who's going to hear it and who will know something, and that is one of the big reasons why I do this Eastland Chronicles series, because I hope to get the information out there and I hope that other people will hear it or read it and will circle back with me and we can continue to work together on whatever information that they have and whatever information I have. That's the fun of genealogy. I have to say that I've been very surprised at the number of people who did talk about the Eastland, not just in the year but prior to that, and I have found these little articles and interviews in various publications across the board, and I'm not done yet. I actually found another couple that I'm going to share with you next week. But here's a lesson from from genealogy if you begin to do genealogy, the first persons that you ought to be talking to are the oldest ones, because you don't know how much time they have, and Bar other problems such as dementia or Alzheimer's, what I have found by working with much older people when I was younger is that their recall of the past is Incredible people such as my Aunt Pearl and my cousin Ruthie, who also lived during the time of the Eastland. It was incredible information to have and, yes, I recorded them, I videoed them, and and now they're gone and I have this to remind me of their stories. At any rate, I'm grateful and honored to have found the stories of these various members of the Jewish community in Chicago, and of course, there are more stories, but Make sure to watch the videos that I share in the show notes if you want to get a deeper understanding of Jewish genealogy.
Speaker 1:
In this podcast, I could only scratch barely scratch the surface of all of the complexities of this, but Hopefully it intrigues you enough where you'll want to go and learn more about this, and it is an honor to share the stories of all the communities and even if you're not Jewish, even if you're not Lutheran or Catholic or anything else, I hope you can see yourself, I hope you can see your family in some of the stories that I have been sharing. It is history. It is a long time ago, but there's a way where history is timeless and there's a way where sometimes you can make a connection between yourself and somebody from the long ago past, and sometimes that can provide perspective, sometimes it provides strength, even, and it helps you move forward in your own life. So I'm happy and privileged and honored to do my part, however small, and Remember sometimes it just takes a few tiny little steps to make something really big. So keep on and I will talk to you next week.
Speaker 1:
Hey, that's it for this episode and thanks for coming along for the ride. Please subscribe or follow so you can keep up with all the episodes, and for more information, please go to my website, that's WWW. Flower in the river, comm. I hope you'll consider buying my book, available as audiobook, ebook, paperback and hardcover, because I still owe people money and that's my running joke. But the one thing I'm serious about is that this podcast and my book are dedicated to the memory of all who experienced the Eastland disaster of 1915. Goodbye for now.