A Brief History of the Zvirin Family Name !! And a Briefer ...swirin-zvirin.org/Zvirin history.pdf · A Brief History of the Zvirin Family Name!!!!! !And a Briefer History of the

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A Brief History of the Zvirin Family Name!!

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! ! And a Briefer History of the Family!!!

! ! ! ! !! ! ! !

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by Paul Kapiloff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!! Foreword!!1. Earliest appearance of the name!!2. Derivation!!3. The ancestors !!4. Birth records and the effects of chance survival!!5. Modern families!!6. An attempt to connect the dots, part 1!!7. An attempt to connect the dots, part 2!!8. What’s in a name?!!! Footnotes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Foreword!!In the late 1980s when I picked up the genealogy bug after a dormant period of many years, I came across a newsletter of the Harry Swirin Family Circle written in 1950. It described an attempt to invite “our Brooklyn cousins”, Nathan Zvirin and family, to the family meetings.!!The Swirin family, as I knew it, consisted of many cousins, first, second, third, and so on. I had no idea where the Zvirins, whom I had not heard of before, fit in. I assumed at first that they were children of another brother of Meier and Hendel whom I knew as the progenitors of all my Swirin relatives and which would make them first cousins of my great-grandparents. Then, finding no evidence for that notion -- such as shared history, common ancestors, enough common given names -- I relegated them to second cousins, and then to third, until I started to wonder if they were real cousins or were just thought so because they had the same surname.!!At the time I worked under the assumption that all Zvirins from Minsk had to be related and that the relationship could be found amongst the ancestors whose names I was familiar with. I looked for a common ancestor, went back as far as I could, and found none. Research at the local Mormon Church and computer access to ship’s manifests and other immigration records brought more data but not earlier than the middle of the 19th Century -- when my great-grandparents were born.!!The key break was the new availability of 19th Century Minsk vital and census records which provided data points from the middle of the 18th Century. These confirmed my growing realization that any common ancestor -- for the various branches of Zvirins in the U.S. and Israel -- flourished prior to that time, at the beginning of the 18th Century, or before!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. Earliest appearance of the name!!The first appearance of the surname Zvirin in the Minsk archives is in an 1811 Revision List (census): 1a !!Yosel Zvirin, son of Nokhim, petty bourgeois, age 55. !!It references him back to the 1795/6 revision list which appears to exist but is not translated. Also listed in the 1811 revision list is Yankel Zvirin, son of Yosel, age 22, “missed during the last revision”, and Nokhim, son of Yankel, age 2. 1b !!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!We thus have the first Zvirin, the first Zvirin family, and a reference to the earliest recorded Zvirin, Nokhim, Yosel’s father. We also have the first mystery: where are all the other Zvirins who should have been living in Minsk at the time -- Yosel’s other sons, Yosel’s brothers and their sons? Why don’t they appear in the census? !!Or perhaps they do. Jewishgen.com has in its database only one of the three Minsk 1811 Revision list microfilms in the Mormon library! These other two may contain equally valuable material for our study.!!

Nokhim (Menakhim) Zvirinb. ca 1730d. ca 1800

Yosel Nokhimov Zvirinb. 1756

Yankel Yoselov Zvirinb. 1789

Nokhim Yankelov Zvirinb. 1809

What else do we know about the family? Both Yosel and Yankel are listed as “Head of Household” which means they likely are living in separate homes. The child Nokhim is named after his great-grandfather meaning that the old man -- who was likely born around 1730 -- had died within the past decade or so.!!There are, it seems, no women in the family, but this may well be a political rather than a biological or social phenomenon: all families in 1811 Czarist Russia are without women -- according to the census. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. Derivation!!Their are a few choices for the origin of the name. The most likely, according to Alexander Beider 2a, is toponymic, derived from place. !!He says (personal communication): I still continue to consider the toponymic origin as the most plausible. It is true that the villages Zhviry and Zhviriny I mentioned are distant enough from Minsk. Still it is possible that your ancestor came from one of these localities to the Minsk area at the turn of 18th-19th centuries and when forced to choose a hereditary name he (or the Jewish community authority locally responsible of the surnaming process) based the new name on that of the native village. !!How about the name derived from a profession? Another possibility, according to Ethel Swirin, arises from the meaning of the word in German or Yiddish: thread or yarn, a fine cord of twisted fibers. One surname is often taken by a tailor (Schneider). Although Ethel was an accomplished knitter and crocheter who owned a store at one time in the Bronx that specialized in yarns, she went on to describe in words and with her hands that she really meant the thread of life. !!Does that mean we have tailors in the family (many) or philosophers (certainly)? The notion of weaving could, of course, apply to almost any activity. I have no issue, however, with the toponymic derivation of the name. It could account for the absence of other Zvirins in the 1811 Revision list -- they hadn’t yet arrived in Minsk.!!Yosel may have been the first person to use the name Zvirin. There was no requirement until early in the 19th Century that Jews (or, indeed, any person in Eastern Europe) needed to have a surname. As A. Beider described the process (see above), a surname was attached to a family on the basis of some variable formula. It’s purely conjectural whether members of a family related on the male line would take the same surname. Brothers or uncles or even granduncles of Yosel could have taken other names. Or they may not yet have arrived in Minsk and, when they did, they may have acquired the Zvirin name, kept the one they had recently adopted, or taken another one.!!As we will see, in chapter 3, there are other Zvirins alive at the turn of the century. We just don’t know if or how they were related to our first family or if they or their parents were in Minsk or using the Zvirin name in 1800. !!!!!!!!!!

3. The ancestors !!Using data from 19th Century Minsk birth and census records and from family histories it’s possible to establish that there were at least eight males living in Minsk or soon to be arriving there in or around 1800 who had or would soon have or whose descendants would have the surname Zvirin. The given names we can validate are: Yosel Nokhimov, Yankel Yoselov, Meer, Mendel, a second Yosel, Leib, Girsh, and Itsuk Mendel. Three sets are father-son and the other two have no indicated ancestor. These eight names with known or suggested birth years are presented below.!! !!

! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We don’t know (except for Yosel Nokhimov and Yankel Yoselov): !! 1. what their surname is or if they have one!! 2. where they are living: in Minsk or elsewhere!! 3. if they’re related by blood!!We do know:!! 1. their children or grandchildren will have the Zvirin surname!!In presenting them this way I’ve left them unrelated because there’s no indication that there’s a link between these branches at this level of the Zvirin tree nor do I see a reason -- at this time -- for believing that Nokhim is the Zvirin patriarch. !!!!!!!



Meer b. ca 1770

Girsh Meerovb. ca 1800

Mendelb. ca 1770

Itsuk Mendelb. ca 1800

Yoselb. ca 1785

Leibb. ca 1790

4. Birth records and the effects of chance survival!!The “chance survival” referred to here describes the status of the vital records that can still be located in the Minsk archives. The records from most years in the 19th Century have been lost or destroyed. There are vital records from a mere 10 or so years of the 100! Take a play by Shakespeare and remove a random 90% of the words. How to make sense of what remains? The manual for the computer you’re using: start removing pages until you’re left with just 10% and what do you have? Ah, you have the computer and the manual was superfluous anyway. But for us the “computers” are long gone.!!The records are fascinating and revealing. It’s only when you try to draw conclusions that their scarcity becomes troubling. So let’s see what records we have and what they tell us. !!The records have been transcribed and translated from the LDS (Mormon) archives by people working through jewishgen.com . They were originally photocopied in Minsk in the 1990s. We have records of Zvirin births in the years 1837 (1), 1838 (1), 1839 (2), 1847 (4), 1852 (1), 1861 (3), 1869 (2), 1880 (3), 1882 (3). There are single death records from the years 1846 and 1861. A total of 22 records. Add to that two birth records from 1906 = 24.!!Spare but immensely valuable. Each record has the name of the child, the birth date (converted from the Hebrew to the Western Gregorian system), the names of the father and his father (PGF) and of the mother and her father (MGF). !!For example, Girsh Zvirin was born on Jun 18, 1839. His father is Itzko whose patronymic is Yankelov (Girsh son of Itzko son of Yankel), and his mother is Enta whose patronymic is Leybovna (Girsh son of Enta daughter of Leyba). !!Now for the calculation that gives us a lineage. 4a !!Let’s take 26 years as Itzko’s age (could be anywhere from 20 to 40 or so) which places his birth in 1813. With a similar calculation we have Yankel born in 1787. No matter the accuracy of our calculations, we’ve given little Nokhim Yankelov a baby brother named Itzko! !!We’ve also done a bit of construction work. There’s no way to know if this Yankel is the same as the Yankel of our first family. And there may never be a way to know. This is an example of “connecting the dots” which we will discuss later. But it’s worth noting that each vital record gives us five data points (the newborn, two in the father’s line and two in the mother’s): 24 vital records = 120 points.!!Another example: Shlioma Aron Zvirin was born July 15, 1847 to Meer Leybov and Feyga Shliomovna. Using the same formula we can postulate that Meer was born about 1820 and Leyb about 1795. As an aside we can also note that the mother’s father,

Shliomo, was no longer alive. 4b Shlioma Aron also disappears from history: he is the oldest recorded child of my great-great-grandparents and this is the only mention we have of him. We do know that Meer and Feyga had many more children than the six who were known to my parents and grandparents.!!Beyla Zvirin was born February 15, 1861. Her parents were Meer Leybov and Feyga Shliomov. She was therefore a younger sister of Shlioma Aron. !!Of the 24 records we have, twice there are three records of a single family (see children born to Itsuk and Ester Malka and to Meer and Feyga) and three times there are two. In addition, several pairs of the fathers were likely brothers and in one instance, one man (Meer Leybov) appears as a father and many years later as a grandfather. Unless all the years of lost records are much different from the existing ones it seems as if the Zvirin family in Minsk was compact.!!Here is the complete list of the Zvirin birth and death records from the Minsk archive. The spelling and format differences are a result of the information provided to the original recording staff (there are often variations of a name) or from the transcription and translation process from the Cyrillic. !!Name!! Gender! Date of birth! Father, PGF/Mother, MGF!! !Yosel! ! ! M ! Sep 04, 1837!! Itzuk Yoselov/Ester Malka!Czipa! ! ! F! Feb 05, 1838!! Abram, Yankel/Malka!Movsha! ! M! Mar 09, 1839!! Girsh, Meer/Feyga, Movsha!Girsh! ! ! M! Jun 08, 1839!! Itsko, Yankel/Enta, Leyba!Movsha ! ! M dec’d Jun 19, 1846 !! Iodel! (1year 6 mo)!Beyla Eshka !! F! Feb 12, 1847!! Itsek, Yankel/Enta, Leyba!Aba Leyba! ! M! Mar 11, 1847!! Itsek, Yosel/Ester Malka, Yankel!Itsek Yosel! ! M! May 23, 1847! Iodel, Yankel/Sora, Dovid!Shlioma Aron ! M! July 15, 1847!! Meer, Leyba/Feyga, Shliomo!Yankel!! ! M! Feb 29, 1852!! Itsek, Yosel/Ester, Yankel!Zisla! ! ! F! Jan 10, 1861! Gendel, Leyba/Gita, Leyba!Zisla! ! ! F dec’d Mar 01, 1861!! Gendel!Beyla! ! ! F ! Feb 15, 1861!! Meer, Leyba/Feyga, Shliomo!*Dovid Tevel Slpian !M ! Apr 23, 1861 ! Nokhim, Sholom/Sora Z., Girsh!Aron! ! ! M! Sep 03, 1869!! Meer, Itsko/Yolia, Movsha!Girsh! ! ! M! Sep 07, 1869!! Meer, Leyba/Feyga, Shliomo!Isaak Mandel ! M! Jun 19, 1880 Meyer, Itsko Mandel/Guta, Movsha David!*Girsh Goldin ! M! Aug 14, 1880!! Natan, Shmuil/Minya Itka Z., Meyer!*Feyga Zuperman ! F ! Nov 26, 1880 Khaim-Shlema (Vul’f), Girsh/Chernya Z., Moisey!*Ekhlia-Rokhlia Polotkin F Mar 21, 1882 !! Vul’f, Leizer/Gitlia, Nokhum!*Girsh Superman ! M ! Apr 14, 1882!! Vul’f, Girsh/Chernia Z., Meer!Gendel ! ! M ! May 27, 1882 ! Nota, Gendel/Touba, Yankel!Samuil! ! M! Feb 02, 1906!! Shimon, Yankel-Kahim/Sora, Morduch!Eta! ! ! F! Dec 29, 1906!! Girsh, Meyer/Sora, Itsko!

!* In these five birth records the mother is a Zvirin or the daughter of a Zvirin mother!!Let’s present some of these graphically. This will help us see:!1. How birth records establish early ancestors!2. What sibling relationships look like!3. Age approximations aren’t as risky as they may seem -- the generational associations are revealing even if they are often quite wide (see use of colors)!!All three birth records below have the same parents and grandparents. The starting point is the birth record (in purple). From the birth record data we are able to create a line backwards from the birthdate which includes names as well as an estimate of birthdate for parents and grandparents.! !!!!

!! !!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yosel Zvirinb. ca 1785

Itsuk Yoselov Zvirinb. ca 1810

& Ester Malka Yankelovna

Yosel Itsukov Zvirinb. 4 Sep 1837




Aba-Leiba Itsukov Zvirinb. 4 Mar 1847




Enkel Chaim Itsukov Zvirinb. 29 Feb 1852

Below, likewise, all birth records have the same parents and grandparents. !!

! !! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!In a related graphic we have the validation of another relationship: Leyba (Leib) as father of two sons and multiple grandchildren. Would we conclude that it is the same Leib who appears as paternal grandfather in all these records if we didn’t already know (see below) that Meier and Hendel were brothers? Perhaps, but with a little discomfort.!! !

Leib Zvirinb. ca 1790

Meer Leibov Zvirinb. ca 1817

& Feige Shliomovna

Shlioma-Aron Meerov Zvirinb. 8 Jul 1847



& Feige Shliomovna

Bailke (Betsy) Meerovna Swirinb. 15 Feb 1861



& Feige Shliomovna

Girsh (Harry) Meerov Swirinb. 7 Sep 1869

! ! ! !!!In this presentation we also see the only person for whom we have two vital records: Zisla (Ziese) for birth and for death. !!Let’s now combine the records from the 1811 Minsk census with vital records from the Minsk archives and see what each Zvirin branch looks like. These will be presented in five charts so you can better read the details. For context see Descendant Chart Minsk Archives: Zvirin family connections gathered from census and birth records in the Minsk archives referenced on the index page. !!!!!!!!!



& Feige Shliomovna



Girsh (Harry) Meerov Swirinb. 7 Sep 1869

Gendel Leibov Zvirinb. ca 1820

& Gutke

Ziese Gendelovna Zvirinb. 10 Jan 1861d. 1 Mar 1861

In the first chart we see Yosel Nokhimov and his descendants. I’ve included all children with the paternal grandfather Yankel -- Abram, Itsuk, and Iodel (Godel) -- because Yankel Yoselof is the only Yankel we know of in his time frame (I’ll call this “a generational imperative”). !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Nokhim Yankelov Zvirinb. 1809

Abram Yankelov Zvirinb. ca 1814

& Malka

Czipa Abramovna Zvirinb. 5 Feb 1838

Itsuk Yankelov Zvirinb. ca 1815

& Enta

Gersh Itzukov Zvirinb. 8 Jun 1839

Belya Eshka Itzukovna Zvirinb. 12 Feb 1847

Godel Yankelov Zvirin b. ca 1820

& Sora Dovidovna

Movsha Iodelov Zvirinb. Jan 1845

d. 19 Jun 1846

Itska Yosel Iodelov Zvirinb. 16 May 1847

Here are the descendants of Meer (born ca 1770). !! !!

!!!!!!!!!!!

Meer Zvirinb. ca 1770

Girsh Meerov Zvirinb. ca 1800

& Feige Movshovna

Sarah Cheve Girshovna Zvirin

b. ca 1830& Nathan (Nokhim) Slepyan

Gittel (Gertrude) Slepyanb. 28 Mar 1855& Wolf Plotkin

Rose (Rachel) Plotkinb. 21 Mar 1882

David Tevel Slepyanb. 23 Apr 1861

Movsha Girshov Zvirinb. 9 Mar 1839

& Feige

The descendants of Yosel (born ca 1785).!!Itsuk Yoselov and Ester-Malka Yankelovna are well represented in the vital records with three births. In addition, Ester Malka is the name of a daughter of Khatzkel Itskovich (gathered from a marriage record), leading us to place his name here as well. Meer Itskov is here by virtue of his son Aron, b 1869. Why this Itsuk Yoselov with this Yosel? Another generational imperative! !!! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





Meer Itskov Zvirinb. ca 1842

d. & Yolia Movshovna

Aron Meerov Zvirinb. 3 Sep 1869


Khatzkel Itskovich Zvirinb. ca 1850

Ester-Malke Khatskelovna Zvirinb. 1887

married Leiba Pozin in 1912

Enkel-Chaim Itsukov Zvirinb. 29 Feb 1852

In the Leib descendant chart the vertical connections are well corroborated. Many descendants settled in the U.S., mostly in N.Y. Intermarriage and social intimacy ensured a mutual history and there were efforts made, especially in the late 1940s, to notate that history.!! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leib Zvirinb. ca 1790d. ca 1860


& Feige Shliomovna


Cherni Meerovna Zvirinb. 1858

& Khaim (Vulf) Superman

Feyga Supermanb. 26 Nov 1880

Girsh Supermanb. 14 Apr 1882


Girsh (Harry) Meerov Swirinb. 7 Sep 1869& Sarah Golub

Eta (Ethel) Meerovna Swirinb. 29 Dec 1906


& Gutke

In Meyer Swirin’s burial registry dated Jan 7, 1916, his name appears as Meyer David Zvirin. According to this record, he was born in 1836 (recorded elsewhere as 1834), and his father’s name was Isaac Mendel. We also have the birth record of (probably) his last son, Isaak Mandel. We’ve approximated Itsuk Mendel’s birth year as 1800.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mendel Zvirinb. ca 1770

Itsuk Mendel Zvirinb. ca 1800d. ca 1880

Meyer Itsukov Swirinb. 1834

& Gute Lubalin

Minna Esther Meyerovna Zvirinb. ca 1855

& Nathan Golden

Girsh (Harry) Nokhimov Goldenb. 14 Aug 1880

Isaak Mandel Meyerov Zvirinb. 19 Jun 1880

While observing these five charts, I’d like to propose the Horizontal Concept of Descendant Relationships, which we’ve already hinted at: the multiple generations of data found in the vital records of the Minsk archive may not let us determine unequivocally ancestors or even descendants but it does allow us to see relationships at any one time.!!We don’t know exactly how the members of the purple generation are related but we know that they are (with the caveat expressed at the beginning that when the Zvirin name was taken, at the time when surnames were required, all who got it then may not have been related). The same is valid for the green and the turquoise generations and so on. They flourished in the same generation, more or less at the same time, and they would have known each other as close family. Our inability to link the branches should not blind us to the actual horizontal familiarity that is demonstrated by the vital records.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5. Modern families!!Zvirins have been arriving in the U.S. from Minsk since the 1880s. The assumption I’ve made is that all Zvirins from Minsk are related. I’ve identified five families in the US and one in Israel labeled according to where they settled or the variation of the modern name. !!The New York Swirins (many cousins) settled in New York. !!The New York Zvirins settled in Brooklyn (Nathan) and Larchmont, N.Y. (Jacob). !!The Golden family’s matriarch is Minna Zvirin Golden who settled with her family in Connecticut. !!Israel-Shlomo Zvirin emigrated to Israel in 1922 and, along with his siblings, is the progenitor of the Israeli clan. !!A branch of Zvirins (children of Yosel Zvirin) settled in and around Kansas City, Missouri. !!The Swiryn family (descendants of Sarah Cheve Zvirin Slepian and of Movsha Zvirin) can be found in New York and the midwest, particularly in and near Chicago. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6. An attempt to connect the dots, part 1!!!The New York Swirins!!My mother’s mother and father were second cousins. Their grandfathers were Meer (Meier) Zvirin and Gendel (Hendel) Zvirin, respectively. 6a This I knew when I was young thanks partly to a cousin of my grandparents, Dave Levine, who was family historian and gathered and recorded this information in the late 1940s and to my mother who was familiar with family lore from her mother.!!We had no knowledge of family names beyond that, no information of what the name of the father of Meier and Hendel might have been. I’m sure my mother had no clue and I’m not even sure my grandparents would have known the name of their great-grandfather. It wasn’t until the Zvirin Minsk vital records were translated that it became clear that their father’s name was Leyba (Leib). This family line, then, verified by birth records and family history, is one of five where the connection from the Zvirin men born around 1800 to a current family can be established with authority.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Meer (Maier, Meier) and Feyga (Feige) had six adult children: the youngest three emigrated along with children of the oldest three. According to Ethel Swirin, daughter of Girsh (Harry), Feyge had fourteen births with Harry, Feyge’s youngest, arriving when she was 52. !!Girsh! ! ! m! Sep 07, 1869!! Meer, Leyba/Feyga, Shliomo!!Feyge’s first recorded birth was Shlioma Aron born, if the age designation above is correct, when Feyge was 30.!!

Leib Zvirinb. ca 1790d. ca 1860

Maier Leibov Zvirinb. ca 1817

& Feige Shliomovna


Zender Itzchie Meerov Zvirinb. ca 1849

& Rifka Leah

Itke Meerovna Zvirinb. ca 1857

& Lazar Kapiloff

Cherni Meerovna Zvirinb. 1858

& Khaim (Vulf) Superman

Louis Meerov Levineb. 1860

& Bessie Jacobs


& 2 spouses

Girsh (Harry) Meerov Swirinb. 7 Sep 1869& Sarah Golub


& Gutke

Nosson Gendelov Zvirinb. ca 1849

& Taube Plutzik

Malke Gendelovna Zvirin

Hessl Gendelov Zvirin& Sarah

Ziese Gendelovna Zvirinb. 10 Jan 1861d. 1 Mar 1861

Shlioma Aron ! m! July 15, 1847!! Meer, Leyba/Feyga, Shliomo!!If it’s true that she had seven other births it would not be a wild assumption to place the majority of these births in the early 1840s. This would make her childbearing range about 30 years (see below for family tendencies). !!Of Feyge and Meier’s children, the oldest who can be identified as living to adulthood is Zender Itzchie (left), born about 1849. His first cousin, Nosson, son of Gendel and Gutke, was about the same age.!! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!The Swirins first emigrated in the 1880s (Louis Levine, according to the story passed down, came over using another person’s papers to escape going into the army -- then kept the name). He and his wife Bessie became Henry Street hosts to waves of siblings, cousins, and the children of siblings and cousins. Along the way Zv- was replaced with Zw- or Sw-: the bulk of the family began arriving in 1904 and some of them, on their ship’s manifest -- completed when they boarded the ship in Europe -- were already calling themselves (or were being inscribed as) Swirin or Swerin.!!!!

The New York Zvirins!!The second lineage that’s continuous from around 1800 belongs to the New York Zvirins. Nathan was born in 1873 and emigrated around 1890. He was a respected New York lawyer so there’s more information about him available. His older brother, Jacob, born in 1865, emigrated also around 1890, settled in Larchmont, just north of New York City, and was likewise prominent. Their father, Meyer Swirin (this is how his name appears on the Ship’s Manifest) came over in 1910, at age 76 (making his birth year 1834), with his grandson, Wolf Halperin, 19, as the immigration record puts it: “to join his [Meyer's] son Nathan (New York City) and also his son Jacob (Larchmont NY).! !

! !Meyer came from Kirczanor a town in Belarus which does not appear in the JewishGen Communities Database nor have I seen any other reference to it -- although it was likely within reach of Minsk (Meyer was born and lived in Minsk most of his life and even Wolf gives Minsk as his place of birth). Before emigrating, Meyer presumably lived there with daughter Beile Halperin, grandson Wolf, and the rest of their family.!!He’s described in the immigration record as having “senile debility” and along with that information there’s also an itemization of what Nathan and Jacob were worth -- no doubt with the intention of avoiding any potential obstacles to his admission into the country. Meyer died six years after he arrived and is buried in a cemetery in East Haven, Connecticut.!

!In Meyer’s burial registry dated Jan 7, 1916, his name appears as Meyer David Zvirin. According to this record, he was born in 1836 (but see above), and his father’s name was Isaac Mendel. Using our age formula, we have Isaac Mendel born near the beginning of the 19th Century. We’ve changed Isaac to Itsuk in our early ancestor examination (see Chapter 3 above) and assumed, hopefully correctly, that Mendel is the name of Itsuk’s father. !! ! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Itsuk Mendel Zvirinb. ca 1800

Meyer Itsukov Swirinb. 1834

& Gute Lubalin

Minna Esther Meyerovna Zvirinb. ca 1855

& Nathan Golden

Jacob Meerov Zvirinb. 1865

& Rose Halperin

Beile Meyerovna Zvirinb. ca 1868& Halperin

Nathan Meyerov Zvirinb. 8 Apr 1873& Ida Levine

Isaak Mandel Meyerov Zvirinb. 19 Jun 1880

Minna Zvirin Golden!!Minna Zvirin's line can be affirmed from the present back to the same source as the New York Zvirins. !!According to her descendants her father’s name was Meir Dovid Zvirin. In the Minsk archive is the record of the birth of one of her children, Girsh (Harry) in 1880. In the record her name is given as Minya Itka and her father is Meyer. As the daughter of Meyer and the older sister of Nathan and Jacob she would likewise be the granddaughter of Isaac Mendel.!!Minna emigrated with her husband, Nathan Goldin (Golden), and the oldest six of their children, around 1890. In various places she’s listed as born in years between 1851 andÌ 1856. Her oldest child was born in 1874 and her youngest in 1896. !!!!!!!!!!!!That childbearing range is broad but not unique for that era or this family. Consider her mother, Gute: let’s say Minna was born in 1853. Jacob was born in 1865. I’ve made Beile’s birth year 1868. 6b Nathan was born in 1873. If you go to the list of Minsk vital records you’ll find the one child of Meyer and Gute’s that we have a MInsk record for: Isaac Mandel Zvirin. !!Isaak Mandel ! m ! Jun 19, 1880 Meyer, Itsko Mandel/Guta, Movsha David!!Even if we assume that these births include Gute’s first and last (likely but still just an assumption) it represents a 27 year childbearing range!!!Note: the birth years for Minna, Nathan, and Jacob come from various U.S. record sources. !!!!!!!!!

The Swiryns!!The Swiryn family is descended from Sarah Cheve 6c and from Morris. Sarah was born around 1830 and married Naham (Nathan) Slepyan. All their children emigrated, typically to Wisconsin or Chicago starting in 1888. Morris’s children likewise emigrated, one settling in N.Y. and the rest in the midwest including Chicago. !!There doesn’t seem to be family lore which mentions the name of their father but our studies suggest it’s Girsh. In establishing the name of the father of Sarah Cheve and Morris we find that variants of Harry appear twice in the generation of their children (Tzvi, Girsh) and several times for their grandchildren. Our suggestion is confirmed by a birth record of her son Dovid Tevel Slpian (1861) in which her name appears as Sora and her father is, indeed, Girsh (Meerov).!

Girsh Meerov Zvirinb. ca 1800

Feige Movshovna

Sarah Cheve Zvirinb. ca 1830

& Nathan (Nokhim) Slepyan

Gittel (Gertrude) Slepyanb. 28 Mar 1855& Wolf Plotkin

Samuel (Shalom Zivi) Slepyanb. ca 1860

& Golda Hia

David Tevel Slepyanb. 23 Apr 1861

& 2 spouses

Fannie (Feige) Slepyanb. 30 May 1869

& 3 spouses

Moses (Morris) Slepyanb. 15 May 1872& Lillian Kreider

Rudolph Slepyanb. 25 Apr 1878

& Ida Mendelson

Movsha Girshov Zvirinb. 9 Mar 1839

& Feige

Rachel Swiryn& Weinberg

Harris Swirynb. 1868

& Anna Herrick

William Swirenb. 9 Jul 1875& 3 spouses

Louis Swirynb. 14 Apr 1876

Rose (Rachel) Plotkin

Meyer Swirynb. 1876

& Pauline

There’s a second good match in the Minsk birth record. Movsha (also Moshe) is the Yiddish equivalents of Moses or, in the U.S., of Morris. !!Movsha! ! m! Mar 09, 1839!! Girsh, Meer/Feyga, Movsha!!Morris and Feige’s second child, Harris, was born in 1868 (there is no known birth date for Rachel, the first) which would be consistent with Movsha’s birth year. If, indeed, Morris Swiryn and Movsha Girshov Zvirin are the same person then we have a lineage for the Swiryn branch. Short of having a family history that validates the placement here, this is a satisfying match.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7. An attempt to connect the dots, part 2!!Vital records contain much information but they’re not the only records available in the Minsk archive. Zvirins are noted in several “application for the Certificate of his belonging to the Minsk community” in 1894 and one “application for the document certifying his good behavior” in 1897. Homeowners in 1889 and 1911, taxpayers in 1902, the 1906 Minsk Uyezd Duma List (the registration lists of those eligible to vote for indirect representatives to the last constitutional body in Russia before the fall of the old regime in 1917), voter lists in 1907, passport applicants in 1907, a marriage listing of 1912 -- all contain Zvirin names.!!Sometimes there’s just the surname, other times a given name, and often given name and patronymic. In some cases a street address appears, as in the case of homeowners. The marriage record is for a Zvirin woman who has her profession listed: dentist. In several cases a person is listed as official witness to a marriage.!!Often, especially when all three names are included, it’s possible to identify the person as someone who we’ve come across before or who may belong to one of the family lines we’ve investigated. !!For example, in the marriage listing, the bride’s name is Ester-Malka Khatzkeleva Zvirin. The compound Ester-Malka is not a common given name and since we came across it as the mother in some of our birth records we can assume that this bride is a descendant of that birth mother. According to the marriage record Ester-Malke is 25 in 1912, therefore born in 1887. Her father is Khatzkel (Ezekiel) and he would have been born around 1850 or so. Khatskel with the patronymic Itskov likewise appears a number of times in these records leading us to conclude that he is indeed a son of the earlier Ester Malke and Itsuk. Ester Malke and her husband Itsuk had recorded births in the years 1837, 1847, and 1852. We can with some confidence enter Khatskel Itskov as a child born in the early 1850s and there’s a good chance Ester-Malke the dentist is a granddaughter of the earlier one.!!Other names in these lists which look familiar even though there’s no additional evidence that they are the same Zvirins as those whose context we’ve already established include Sender Meerov and Meyer Itskovitch.!!Many of the names, though, are outside a comfortable context. We’re allowed to just leave them hanging. We can also do that when we try to position the other two Zvirin families in our tree -- if the evidence is insufficient to place them convincingly. !!The Israeli Zvirins and the midwest Zvirins can, according to their family lore, trace their ancestry back to Zvirins born in the mid 19th century but not before. There are, in each case, one or two generations missing which would keep us from doing what we’ve done for the earlier four Zvirin families -- make an indubitable connection to an ancestor born around 1800. With that caveat, however, we’ll still make an attempt.!

The Israeli Zvirins! !!!!!! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!The earliest identifiable ancestors of the Israeli Zvirins are Yaacov (Yankel) and Rakhel who would have been born around 1850. 7a Their son, Shimon, was born in Minsk in 1879 (according to a Page of Testimony written by his son, Israel-Shlomo, or ca. 1873 according to his grandson, Yoram). Shimon Iankelevich is listed in the 1906 Duma in the category “apartment leaser” and this could very well be the same Shimon. Son Israel-Shlomo emigrated in 1922. Some of his siblings also emigrated; others remained and were caught in the Holocaust.!!

Yankel Kahim (Yaacov) Itsukov Zvirin

b. 29 Feb 1852& Rakhel

Shimon Zvirinb. ca 1873

& Sara (Sipa) Gordon

Israel-Shlomo Zvirinb. 1901

Itsuk (Isaac) Zvirinb. 1903

Shmuel Zvirinb. 1906

Rachel Zvirin

Moshe Zvirinb. 1911

Mordekhai (Meir) Zvirin

Shaya (Yeshayahu) Zvirin

b. 7 Feb 1915

Mina Zvirin

Although we can’t be certain, the likely choice for father of Shimon is the Yankel for whom we have a birth record, child of Itsek and Ester, born Feb 29, 1852. Further confirmation comes from the birth record of Shimon’s third child, Samuil, where the grandfather’s name is given as Yankel Kahim. There are two references to Yankel-Chaim Itskovich Zvirin -- in 1889 as a homeowner, and in 1907 on the voter list. The fact that Itskov/Itsek is the father of Yankel and of Yankel Chaim is good evidence that they are the same person and that this is the correct lineage for the Israeli branch.!!We’ve placed this branch in “An attempt to connect the dots, part 2”, as being less than certain, solely because the “Chaim” part of Yankel’s name is in the birth certificate for grandson Samuil but not in the 1852 birth record for Yankel. In other words, the connection is likely but not certain, and there is no known family lore to back it up.!!!The Midwest Zvirins!!The midwest Zvirins arrived in the US with their families from the mid 1890s to about 1915. They settled in Kansas City, Missouri and adjacent areas although some made stops along the way in Belgium and New York to have babies. This family is descended from Yosel Zvirin, born in Minsk in the 1830s or 1840s. !!Yosel is not an uncommon name in the Zvirin records and there is one born in 1837 who would be about the right age, Yosel Itsukov, grandson of Yosel (born ca 1785, of our original Minsk Zvirins), and in a family we’re already familiar with. There’s no evidence other than an approximate birth date that this Yosel is any more likely the right one than some as yet unidentified Yosel.!!If from Yosel’s side there’s a question of derivation from this Itzuk, that’s not the case when considering his mother, Ester Malke. Among Yosel’s children is one Mollie (the U.S. equivalent of Malke) born ca 1880. In the following generation, there’s one Mollie (born 1909, daughter of Fannie Burdoo) and one Esther Mollie! (born 1904, daughter of Celia Tanhof).!!This is significant evidence that the Yosel the Midwest Zvirins are descended from is Yosel Itsukov (born 4 Sep 1837). You’ll notice, of course, that the Midwest Zvirins and the Israeli Zvirins descend from the same branch of the Zvirin tree. !! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!!!!!!!

! !! ! !! ! !! ! !! ! !! ! !! ! !! ! !! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yosel Zvirinb. ca 1785 d. ca 1835




& Sonia-Sora (Stephanie)

Max Zvirinb. ca 1870

Celia Zvirinb. ca 1874

Minnie Zvirinb. ca 1878

Mollie Zvirinb. ca 1880

Rachel Zvirinb. ca 1881

Fannie Zvirinb. ca 1882

Manuel Zvirinb. ca 1884

Meer Itskov Zvirinb. ca 1842

& Yolia Movshovna

Aron Meerov Zvirinb. 3 Sep 1869


Khatzkel Itskovich Zvirinb. ca 1850

Ester-Malke Khatskelovna Zvirin

b. 1887

Yankel Kahim (Yaacov) Itsukov Zvirin

b. 29 Feb 1852& Rakhel

Shimon Zvirinb. ca 1873

& Sara (Sipa) Gordon

8. What’s in a name!!The Zvirin name has exhibited changes: Swirin, Swiren, Swiryn are some of the more modest alterations. Zvirin has been replaced by some Americanized alternates: Severin (by one of the New York Zvirins and some of his sons; by one of the New York Swirins and his family) and Zane (several others of the New York Zvirins). In some families a preponderance of and marriage of daughters for one or more successive generations has eliminated the name from that branch.!!In the New York Swirin family in 2012 there are a lot fewer members with the Swirin surname than there were enumerated in the early 20th Century immigration records (there were 15 then). It’s the same for the New York Zvirins -- in fact, there may be none left from that branch with the Zvirin name.!!In correspondence with Michael Zvirin (of the Midwest Zvirins) in 1998, he wrote this: “...until I received your letter I didn’t know there were any Zvirins other than my wife, my son, and myself living in the U.S.”.!!But what can we find when we go to Google or Facebook. The names are alive and well. Zvirin, especially among the Israeli branch, is found multiple times with many different given names. In the U.S. Swirin, Swiryn, and Zvirin can be found associated with different owners.!!I would like to imagine that, in Minsk, in the 19th Century, Zvirin family members all knew each other well and were aware of their common ancestors. In the early 20th Century our grandparents and great-grandparents were familiar with the people belonging to the names even though the common ancestors may have slipped from prominence. When the editor of the Harry Swirin Family Circle newsletter -- in 1950 -- calls the Nathan Zvirins “cousins”, she may not have known their common ancestry but she knew that they had some.!!Recently I’ve been exchanging emails with Marge Lustig, a Swiryn, who I’ve been corresponding with, off and on, for many years, about our genealogical roots. We still wonder what’s our abstract connection: are we sixth cousins or seventh? -- at least now we know we’re not long hidden first or second or third.!!We also realize that there is a link and it’s not abstract. It’s mainly a link of mutual genealogical interest although the family connection and the familiarity of names — and even the faces in old photos of people we’ve never met — is part of it.!!Like all things, names are cyclical. A name identifies someone. He or she dies and the name fades. Then it returns in a new form. If we wanted to name this story we would call it “Yosel”, the earliest person associated with the surname Zvirin. Yosel, from the Hebrew Yoseph means that God gives, and then God gives again: manifest creation is never-ending. !

Footnotes!!1a ! The Reviska Skazka (Revision Lists) were conducted in territories ruled by the Russian Czar in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Revision Lists enumerated only those individuals subject to taxation. The data was also utilized for identifying men to draft into the army.!!1b ! Given names will generally be the Yiddish equivalent. In the Ashkenazi Jewish tradition a child is named after a deceased family member, usually a grandparent or great-grandparent or a beloved family member and often although not always, a boy after a male deceased and a girl after a female deceased.!!2a ! A Dictionary of Surnames from the Russian Empire by Alexander Beider!!3a! Often the person is identified by a given name and a patronymic, a form of the name of his/her father. For men the father’s name is followed by a suffix -ov or -ovitch, for women the father’s name is followed by the suffix -ovna. So, Yosel Nokhimov = Yosel, son of Nokhim and Ester Malke Yankelovna = Ester Malke, daughter of Yankel.!!4a! A typical age for a first birth is 26 for the father and 23 for the mother. The range is, of course, broad and, while we often use these or close to these figures for convenience, we often approximate the results, sometimes wildly. Remember, we’re trying for a taste that reveals rather than measures.!!6a! The first form of the name is the one standardized by the transcribers/translators of the various Minsk records. The parenthesized form is the name more commonly used in the family.!!6b! This would make her 23 when Wolf was born. I’ve plucked this year out of the air. But even if it’s 10 or 12 years earlier, for example, that doesn’t change the point of the narrative.!!6c! Cheve and Czipa (see second Minsk birth record) are both nicknames for Bathsheba!!7a! I’ve used the Hebrew form here because that’s the way it came from the Israeli sources. It would be Yankel in the Yiddish (also found as Enkel).!

Documents

A Brief History of the Zvirin Family Name !! And a Briefer ...swirin-zvirin.org/Zvirin history.pdf · A Brief History of the Zvirin Family Name!!!!! !And a Briefer History of the