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by DOROTHY SAUL ROSENBLUM
This story begins with the
year 1803 in a small town—
Yonova, Province of Kovna.
which is in the southwestern
section of Lithuania.
Here lived Shlame Yitzhok
Sulsky and his good wife Riva
Gittel, with their seven sons.
Shlame Yitzhok lived in Yo-
r.ova from 1803 until 1895. He
and his sons were engaged in
trading of grain, buying and
shipping to Germany.
He must have wondered
\ hat would be in store for his
children, especially in those
years when young men in
small towns became restless
and eyed the outside world
and the opportunities that were
there. He and Gittel must have
thought and planned, as par
ents do; but they couldn’t poss
ibly have envisioned that 159
years later their descendants
would be scattered over the
four corners of the globe, and
that these descendants would
number in the hundreds.
The Southern Israelite
Years later, their grandchil
dren and great grandchildren
living in America translated
their names to Solomon Isaac
and Rebecca Gertrude, and
named their children those
names. Their great, great
grand-daughter, Mildred (Mrs.
All Hershberg, spent months
arranging a family tree and of
course Solomon Isaac and Ger
trude occupy the places due
them on the trunk. The tree
has seven branches, one branch
for each of the seven sons.
There are charts for each of
the seven branches giving the
name of every member of the
family and include offspring
through the seventh genera
tion.
Each of the seven sons mar
ried and had children, num
bering 42. The sons felt the
urge to go out into the world,
and some left Yonova, five re
maining however in Kovna or
that vicinity. One son, Jacob
Leb, went to Palestine to make
The
Saul
Family
his home. Another son, David
and his wife Gittel, went to
America in about 1876, going
from New York to Washington,
where they made their home
for many years, and coming to
Atlanta after retiring. He was
the first of the family to come
to America.
Of the grandchildren, many
remained in Lithuania, others
went to Africa, where they and
their children have lived these
many years. But many found
their way to America, where it
was rumored that the streets
were paved with gold. If this
was exaggerated, true it is that
this was the land of opportuni
ty.
The first member of the
family to reach the United
States Americanized his name
by adopting the name “Saul,”
SHLAME YITZHOK SULSKY
The only known picture of the Saul Family ancestor—
Shlame Yitzhok Sulsky. The photograph is reproduced
untouched without retouching in order not to alter its
authenticity.
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