Nine documented generations: from Herszko of Włodawa on the River Bug, through two steamship crossings out of Libau, a Milwaukee shoe store, sixty-five wig franchises, to three children born at Cedars-Sinai — the fourth generation of the family born there.
Tap any generation. Confidence ratings reflect the actual documents in the family research corpus — not wishful linking. The chain is anchored at primary-source level from Manel (1811) forward.
A border town in the Lublin region where the Bug River bends — Crown Poland, then Austria (1795–1809), then Russia. The family name comes from Szuminka, a timber-staging village 5 km north (51°35′N 23°33′E); "szum" is Polish for the rush of water. The surname was adopted under the Congress-Kingdom surname mandate, and the Jewish registries of Włodawa carry it from the first surviving book.
The surviving Włodawa Jewish civil registers sit in the State Archive in Lublin (fond 35/1785). The family appears across every decade that survives: deaths 1827–33, births 1844–1908, marriages 1848–93. Sixteen indexed Szumiński records — every one now mapped.
Death registers for 1837–1883 did not survive — a hard gap that probably swallowed Aizyk's own death act.
Death act #16 of 1833: Rayzla Szumińska, eighteen months old. Her father Manel, day-laborer, age 22, declared the death; the second declarant was a 44-year-old trader recorded as her grandfather — Aizyk, born 1789. One paragraph of Polish cursive, read in the original scan, locks Aizyk → Manel → Rayzla in a single primary source.
The 1827–28 child-death acts surface three more young Szumiński couples in Włodawa — Jankiel & Resla, Ezryl & Frejda, Hercyk(?) & Sorka — Aizyk's generation, all candidate brothers, all candidate sons of Herszko. Ashkenazi families named children for the dead, and the Hersz-names that bloom in the grandchildren's generation point back at a Herszko already gone.
Family legend made the Szumińskis timber merchants on the Bug. The documents say otherwise: Manel was a wyrobnik — a day-laborer — and the Włodawa Yizkor book's wood-trade chapter names not a single Szumiński. The village link to Szuminka is real; the timber fortune is not. This history keeps the corrections as visibly as the discoveries.
The family story said "Ellis Island." The records say something better: two separate voyages, thirteen months apart, from the Baltic emigration port of Libau (Liepāja, Latvia) — and only one of them ended at Ellis Island.
"Manis Schuminsky, age 28, married, Hebrew, last residence Wlodawo, Russia." A Russian-American Line steamer out of Libau in the dead of winter. He traveled alone — the classic pattern: the father goes first, earns the passage money, sends for the family. Manifest T715-2001-703, line 7.
The "missing" family manifest was never missing — it was never at Ellis Island. Gitte (Gertrude), 31, with Ysrail (Sam), 8, Schlioma, 6, and Fairvel, 3, sailed from Libau on the S.S. Russia on 20 Feb 1914, landed in Canada, and crossed into the United States by rail at St. Albans, Vermont (border manifest M1464-247-104 — all four on one sheet, sequential lines).
The manifest's small print carries two facts no one in the family knew: their last permanent residence was Ruda, Chełm gubernia — not Włodawa town — and the relative they left behind was "an uncle… Nankin": Gertrude's own family, still in the old country. Months later the Great War closed the route behind them.
And one puzzle the manifest opened rather than closed: the boys' names and ages don't map cleanly onto Jacob (b. 1904), Sam (b. 1906) and Phillip (b. 1909). Jacob — who should have been ten — isn't on the sheet at all. See Open Mysteries.
Libau was the Russian Empire's sanctioned emigration port — direct Russian-American Line service to New York, no border-smuggling required, police emigration permits issued on the spot. Both family voyages used it. The Latvian State Historical Archives hold the 1913–14 police emigration permit files, undigitized; a request is in flight.
Milwaukee first: the 8th Avenue storefront, naturalization by 1920, a family of working retailers. Then the leap.
Four branches feed the family besides the patriline — each with its own port, its own trade, its own unsolved page.
Sam Gedanke (Szmul, 1899–1978), sheitel-maker of the Pułtusk district; wife Anna (Chana Liba); daughter Helen Chaja (1919–2014). Sailed Southampton → Ellis Island on the S.S. Ausonia, landing 20 Dec 1925 — five days before Christmas, Helen age six. Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin by 1930; Minneapolis by 1940; Helen to Milwaukee and Phillip by 1942; Sam to Los Angeles and the Cloverfield building by 1971.
Gertrude "Gitl" Nankin (1879–1971) — Max's wife, née Nankin (not Finkel; her headstone settles a long-standing family confusion). Parents Aaron Urish Nankin (Aharon HaKohen, 1858–1933) and Jennie Gella Handelman (1869–1941). The HaKohen priestly designation runs through this line — a separate, Y-DNA-testable lineage marker. The 1914 manifest's "uncle Nankin" left behind near Chełm is her family.
Edla Dweyra Weisbrode (b. 1830) married Manel in 1848 and is Moszko Aizyk's mother. Her line runs back through Szmul Leib Weisbrode (1798–1841) and Ester Herszkowna (1761–1836) to Hersz & Ryfka, born around 1735 — Jay's 6th-great-grandparents and the oldest named ancestors in the entire tree (maternal side).
Jay's mother Leslie Joan Finkel (b. 1949, Council Bluffs, Iowa) descends from Jacob Finkel (1853–1941), an Omaha grocer ("Finkel & Son," 834 N. 27th St.), son of Shneur; through Morris Finkel and Jennie Eisen; to Harold Finkel (1921–1993) and Lillian Loeb (1924–2006) of Las Vegas. The line's European hometown is still listed only as "Russia."
This history is built from primary documents read in the original — Polish civil-registry cursive, ship manifests, draft cards, censuses, headstones — with every claim graded. Corrections are kept on the record alongside discoveries.
| Document | What it proves | Where | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Death act #16, 1833, Włodawa | Aizyk (b.1789) is Manel's father — grandfather clause; first wife; daughter Rayzla | AP Lublin 35/1785, deaths 1826–36, scan 138 | HIGH |
| Birth act #109, 1857, Włodawa | Moszko Aizyk b. 8 Oct 1857; father Manel, 45; mother Edla Dweyra, 30 | AP Lublin 35/1785 — scan verified | HIGH |
| Marriage act, 1848, Włodawa | Manel (widower) m. Edla Dweyra Weisbrode; patronymic "Ajzykowicz" | AP Lublin 35/1785 | HIGH |
| S.S. Kursk manifest, 9 Jan 1913 | Max's arrival, age 28 → b. 1885; "Wlodawo, Russia" | Ellis Island T715-2001-703 line 7 | HIGH |
| St. Albans border manifest, 1914 | Gitte + three sons via Canada; S.S. Russia ex-Libau; "Ruda, Chełm gub."; uncle Nankin | NARA M1464-247-104 | HIGH |
| WWII draft card, 1942 | Max b. 15 Feb 1885 — self-signed; supersedes posthumous "1883" | FamilySearch S3HY-6Q7S-XL6 | HIGH |
| 1950 US Census, Milwaukee | Phillip born Poland (not Wisconsin) | Sheet 71, FS 3QHK-SQHW-2DN9 | HIGH |
| Phillip's obituary, 1995 | Real-estate career; brother Howard; Beth David burial | Baird-Case clipping | HIGH |
| S.S. Ausonia manifest, 20 Dec 1925 | Gedanke arrival — Szmul, Chana Liba, Chaja (Helen, 6) | Ellis Island coll. 7488 | HIGH |
| Headstones, four states | Hebrew patronymics: "Yitzkok Isaac," "Aharon HaKohen," "Shneur," "Avraham Abba HaKohen" | FindAGrave #50998501, #179334449, #94485478… | HIGH |
| "Timber merchant" legend | Disproven — Manel a day-laborer; no Szumiński in Yizkor wood-trade chapter | Yizkor pp. 357–396 vs. akt #109 | RETRACTED |
| "S.S. Umbria 1904" claim | Disproven — misattribution; Max came 1913 on the Kursk | Manifest comparison | RETRACTED |
| Herszko Szumiński, c. 1760 | Patriline founder — Geni only, no source; the active frontier | Geni (curator-added, 2019) | LOW |
FULL RESEARCH CORPUS: 220+ SESSIONS · 90+ FACT FILES · A SOURCE LOG OF EVERY ARCHIVE TOUCHED — MAINTAINED PRIVATELY.
A living history. These are the questions still being worked, each with the next document identified.
The line's deepest documented man is still Herszko, c. 1760. The death registers that would have named his father (1837–83) are lost. Live channels: the 1764/65 Crown poll-tax census of ziemia chełmska (AGAD Warsaw), the 1805 Austrian surname-adoption register (AP Lublin/Chełm), Czartoryski estate lease papers (Kraków), the surviving 1846–68 marriage books, and a Y-DNA program — no Szumiński tester exists anywhere yet.
The 1914 border manifest lists Schlioma (6) and Fairvel (3) — names and ages that don't map onto the three known sons. And Jacob, who should have been ten, isn't on the sheet despite census records saying he immigrated in 1914. Either a separate crossing, or a fourth brother who died young in Milwaukee. Next: Milwaukee child deaths 1914–25, Agudas Achim child burials, Jacob's own crossing record.
Jacob Finkel's hometown is recorded everywhere as just "Russia." Two documents can break it: his 1902 Ellis Island manifest, and his Omaha World-Herald obituary of 28 June 1941, page 14.
The family's last address in the old country wasn't Włodawa town — the 1914 manifest says Ruda, Chełm gubernia (likely Ruda-Huta or Ruda-Opalin, south of Włodawa). When did they move, and why? The Chełm-area records and the Nankin uncle's trail are the way in.