Isaiah Bramson

January 2016

My wife and I visited Saint Petersburg, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 2011 (September, I believe) in conjunction with an educational tour run by the San Francisco Jewish Community Center. At the end of the tour, I rented a car and hired a guide to visit towns that were places that my ancestors came from (Snipiskis, Ukmerge, Bagaslaviskis, and Zasliai.

As for Ukmerge, my father's mother's family came from there.  My great-great-great grandfather was David Tamor, who, according to the attached document " was judge and Rabbi in the town of Wilkomir the greater part of his life."  The document is an interesting read. I assume it is a translation / transcription from handwritten Yiddish. It appears to be incomplete and the person who sent it to me does not know of the existence of any more pages.

This document is extremely important to me because I believe that it provides the answer to the question that set me off on genealogy. That is: In my father's family, it was said that we were "direct descendants of the Vilna Gaon", and there was some muttering about it being from my father's mother's side.  Upon reading the book "Eliyahu's Branches", which lists about 30,000 descendants of the Vilna Gaon, I saw no evidence to support this, except for some naming patterns having to do with the Gaon's youngest daughter.  I have been able to trace almost all lines back to the time of the Vilna Gaon, and there is no evidence of truth to the story. (I also learned that almost everyone in New York who came from Vilna claimed to be descended from the Vilna Gaon).  I believe this document exposes the grain of truth in the story. That is: My father's mother was descended form an important rabbi who was a contemporary of the Vilna Gaon. You can just visualize the chatter among the old women going from "descended from someone who knew the Vilna Gaon" to "descended from someone who was just like the Vilna Gaon" to "descended from the Vilna Gaon".

By the way, Vilkomir means "Wolf and Girl" or something close to that, and there is a statue of the wolf & girl there.

Peter Cohen

I, Isaiah Zebi Bramson, born in Wilkomir, in the State of Kovne, Russia, in the year of 1848 [1843?] record my biography to be read by my descendants. I am beginning to record this biography Wednesday the 22nd day of Elul in the year 5662, New York, NY., (Wednesday 24th of September, 1902).

[Introduction - Read Ecclesiastes II:24 and Jeremiah XXXII:19.]

I feel that I am old and grow older each day. I feel that my physical strength is being exhausted daily. I feel that the many changed conditions in my life have drained my vigor and rendered me powerless beyond my years.

I also noticed lately that the sun of my life is setting rapidly and my sky is overcast with heavy clouds of pain and suffering.

All these events impelled me to sit down to write these words as a lesson to my children and to whoever will read the few verses which I have quoted above.

I also wish to give my biography to my children so that they may know that their father was neither the first man in this world nor a descendant from the Indians who were the original natives of America. He was a member of a Jewish family, the only family on the entire globe which can prove its direct descent from our patriarch, Abraham.

I will also write the names of my great grand-parents so that if my children meet somebody of the same name coming from the same district they may be sure that he belongs also to the same family stock. Though many incidents were so vividly and indelibly impressed on my memory that I can almost see them alive before me now I will pass over them very slightly and describe the unusual events only.

I intended to write this biography some years ago, but owing to the vicissitudes of my life and the anxieties confronting me each day, I was unable to do so up to now.

I wish to remark briefly that I was born on a Friday night, a time which ushers in a period of holiness and rest, after which work must start again. Perhaps this was to foretell that my life was to be diversified every seven years - for so it happened indeed. At the end of every seven years circumstances developed which forced radical changes in the state of my life from good to bad and from bad to good. (Dear children, you should be assured that this statement is perfectly true without any exaggeration.)

So many strange incidents occurred to me which might surprise the reader. For instance, in one day my life was endangered three times. In addition to that, I was threatened twice with prison by false accusations, and there was nobody to prove my innocence, but only G helped me and brought me peacefully to my family.

That is why I quoted the Biblical verses in the introduction of my will--to indicate that each move, each step, and each act which is performed by a human being is not of his own volition but is directed by the Almighty. About a year ago I wrote a little pamphlet which contained only the story of my leaving Russia and coming here. I was very much interested but it was lost and I cannot find it.

Since I now have the opportunity I will record the names of my maternal and paternal great grandparents for my children so that they may learn them. All the people whom I will name here were very highly respected in Jewish societies and by everyone with whom they came in contact.

Genealogical Document

In the year 1750 there lived in the town of Wilkomir (State of Kovne, Russia) a man by the name of Abraham Preiss. He had three sons, Moses, Isaiah and Micah Preiss.

Isaiah had two sons and one daughter. The sons were Zeab Wolf and Abraham. The daughter’s name was Gittel.

Abraham [the author’s father] had two sons and one daughter by his first wife Pearl who died young. The sons were Isaiah [the author] and Zebi. The daughter was Bessie.

Abraham then married his wife’s younger sister, Shayneh Fradle. Both women were the daughters of Rabbi David [Tamor] who was judge and Rabbi in the town of Wilkomir the greater part of his life.

Abraham had by his second wife Shayneh Fradle one son, Jacob Wolf and three daughters, Gneshie, Liebe Deborah and Chanen Yenteh.

Zev Wolfe [the author’s uncle], the son of Isaiah Preiss [the author’s grandfather], had three sons, Shemaraiah, Mayer, and Jacob, and three daughters, Pieyeh Rasheh, Pesheh Bessie, and Sara, by his wife Chvalesh who was the daughter of Rabbi Meyer Shalom of Karelich, State of Minsk.

Isaiah Zebi married his cousin Bessie, daughter of Rabbi Zev Wolf [Preiss] who was Judge and Rabbi in the town of Wilkomir the greater part of his life.

Isaiah Zebi had two daughters born in Wilkomir: Chvalesh and Pearl [before 1867]. These people were born in America - Sarah, Miriam, Deborah [after 1879].

(My grandfather, Rabbi David, son of Menahem Tamor, had by his wife Sara four sons - Zebi Jacob, Menachem Mendel, Aryeh Leb, and Boruch Avrum, and three daughters, Pereh, Shayneh Fradle, and Aygeh Feygeh. Boruch Avrum [Tamor] married Aydeh Mereh [Ida], daughter of Moses Reibstein of Kovno. They had one son, David, here in America [b. 1867].) [David Tamor was probably not born in the U.S., because Harris Bramson supported his application for naturalization in 1886.]

David [Tamor] married my daughter, Chvalesh [Eva] who is his cousin. They had two sons, Boruch Avrehum [Bennie, b. 1887], and Zev Wolf [William, b. 1892], and three daughters, Pereh [Pearlie or Pauline, b. 1891], Sara [Sadie or Sadye, b. 1900], and Tsirel [Celia, b. 1896].

My daughter Pereh [Pearl or Pauline] married Betaalail Friedenburg of Herstingthum, Posen. [Shayneh gave birth to a daughter?] In a short time she divorced Friedenburg and married Aaron [Sigal], son of Moses Levy of Minsk. She gave birth to three sons, Abraham [b.1900], Zev Wolf [William,b.1900], and Moses [b. 1903], and one daughter, Sylvia [b. 1905].

Isaiah Zebi Bramson departed this life the 26th of Iyar, 1903.

Photos that Peter took in Ukmerge in 2011.

includes photos are of the street just behind the Great Synagogue. The yellow and white building with the graffiti was the Bet Midrash, according to Peter’s  tour guide.

The cobblestone courtyard with the arches is probably typical of where Peter’s ancestors lived in the late 19th, early 20th century.

Photos #18 and 19 show the shop that was run by ancestors of Roy Ogus, with the name (OGUZIENE) still visible.

Shots of the synagogue and a view of what's across the street from the synagogue. The map is the layout of central Ukmerge before World War II.