Czernichow Family Group Photo taken about 1903

This is one of the few photographs that Abraham Czernichow (Albert Shernick) brought with him from Russia to New York in 1914: A group portrait of the Czernichow family, taken about 1903 at the Levitzky Photo Studio, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Back Row (standing left to right): 1. "Jakob" Czernichow wearing the uniform of a cornette officer in a rifle regiment of the Czar's Life Guard; 2. "David" or Itsko Azrael David Czernichow; 3. "Mark" or Mordtke Movshe Czernichow, a lawyer, and reportedly a member of the Czar's Okhrana or secret service; 4. Liebe or "Lucille" Czernichow, a cousin born in Nashville, Tennesee, later called Lucille Rogers. Liebe was a classically trained soprano who was "just visiting" family in Russia in 1903. Lucille sang with the New York Metropolitan Opera and travelled all over America with her band, the Bon Ton Burlesquers. During the 1920s, she worked daily as a New York street busker and nightly as a cafe concert hostess, singing Ukrainian and Romanian folk songs at local nightclubs. She often put New York City to bed with hauntingly beautiful goodnight lullabies sung on WOR-Radio "The Voice of New York" (broadcast from Newark, New Jersey). She also worked as a Broadway actress, appearing in many movies and classic TV shows of the 1950s.

Middle Row (seated): 1. Liebe-Biela "Bluma' Czernichowa, sometimes called Luba or "Luby," the wife of "Harry ShernicK" (Naftali Hersz Czernichow, not pictured here because he is possibly the photographer taking the photo); 2. "Ida" or Itke (Czernichow) Altsitzer Gluck, daughter of Harry and Bluma, born in 1887. Ida was a jeweler and a skilled diamond cutter who came to New York in 1906 with her husband Harry Altsitzer (not shown), a watch repairman. They were the proud parents of three children and before the war they lived above their watch repair shop in Trenton, New Jersey, just across the river from Philadelphia, where they often paid visits to Ida's maternal relatives, the Savransky family.

Front Row: 1. "Albert" or Avram-Isai Czernichow, aka Abraham Itske Czernichow or Albert Harry Shernick, age 3 or 4 (born 20 May 1899); 2. his sister "Bertha" Shernick or Bruche Czernichowa, born October 1896, the youngest daughter of Bluma and "Harry." Bertha studied at Vienna to become one of Russia's first doctors. She died 1921 in Connecticut, while nursing patients during the great flu epidemic.

Scanned photograph from Shernick family history collection, Date: ca. 1903.