Albert (Schernick) Shernick
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Abraham Harry (Schernick) Shernick (1899 - 1961)

Abraham Harry (Albert) "Al" Shernick formerly Schernick aka Czernichow
Born in Vyshgorod, Kiev, Kiev, Russian Empiremap
Ancestors ancestors
Son of and
Brother of , , , , [half], , [half], [half], , , [half], and [half]
Husband of — married 13 Sep 1926 in Lockport, Niagara County, New York, USAmap
Descendants descendants
Father of and [private son (1930s - unknown)]
Died at age 62 in Lakewood, Colorado, USAmap
Problems/Questions Profile manager: Mark Shernick private message [send private message]
Profile last modified | Created 28 Jan 2020
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Albert (Schernick) Shernick has Jewish Roots.
Albert (Schernick) Shernick has Ukrainian Roots.

Contents

Biography

Albert Harry Shernick (Avram Itzke Czernichow) was born 20 May 1899 in Russia. A privately held family photo shows his birth date tattooed to his left arm.

This birthdate has been confirmed by his death certificate, which says that he was born at New York and says that he died 15 August 1961 at Lakewood, a suburb of Denver, Colorado. One may also see these birth and death dates on a photograph of his gravestone at Find A Grave.

The informant on the death certificate was Albert's wife, Mildred Belle Shaw. They were married 13 September 1926 at Lockport. Niagara County, New York, and had two sons: David, born in 1928, and Robert, born in 1931.

According to the Shernick family legend, as told by Albert's older sister Ida (Shernick) Altsitzer, Albert was the youngest son of Harry Chernikov and Bluma (Savransky) Chernikov. Ida, a resident of New York City, told this story to Mildred Shernick during her summer holiday visits to Denver in the 1940s and 1950s. Mildred dutifully recorded everything Ida said in handwritten notes.

Ida repeated this family history when Albert's son, David, interviewed her at Miami Beach in December 1955. The typed transcript is attached here in the images section, and it names Albert's siblings as Ida, Mark. Jacob, David, Lucille and Bertha Chernikov.

They are allegedly shown in the 1903 Shernick family group photo, attached.

The problem with this family legend is that much of it is false. It's a fairytale. When checked against marriage certificates, death certificates and immigration records, Ida's claims don't add up. The corresponding records cannot be found, they do not match, or they appear to be deliberately falsified.

The problem with the family photograph is that the people in the photo do not match the names in the family legend. Careful matching with other photographs suggests:

1. The gentleman standing in the back row, on the far left, called "Jacob Shernick" by Albert, may in fact be Duke Peter of Oldenburg -- he is certainly wearing the uniform of an unterofficer in a rifle brigade of the Tsar's Life Guard. Duke Peter was the first cousin of the three counts and three countesses von Zarnekau.

2. The dark-haired gentleman standing next to him, second from left, called "David" Shernick, has not been identified.

3. The tallest gentleman standing, third from the left, called "Mark," appears to match photos of Peter Petrovich Durnovo, who was also a member of the Tsar's Life Guard and the Tsar's secret service -- the Okhrana.

4. The young lady standing, fourth from the left and third from the right, called "Lucille Schernick," came to New York and was later called Lucille Rogers (a stage name) which she claimed was the name of a doctor she met and married while serving as a Red Cross nurse in World War I. Lucille became a well-known singer in Vaudeville and played small roles in several Hollywood movies of the 1950s and 1960s. No record of her marriage has been found. Her death certificate indicates she was born in Tennessee. No record of her birth in Tennessee has been found.

5. The woman seated next to Lucille, second from the right, called Ida Shernick, came to America, lived for many years at Trenton, New Jersey, and married to Harry Altsitzer. After her first husband's death, she married secondly to Louis Gluck, and passed away in 1957 near Miami Beach, Florida. When compared to old photographs of the counts and countessas von Zarnekau, she bears a striking resemblance to Countess Ekaterina von Zarnekau.

6. The young girl on the far right, called "Bertha Shernick," age about 7 in 1903 (born about 1896), supposedly became a doctor and died of influenza during the flu pandemic of 1919-1922. In fact there is a record of one Bertha Shaernick who died at New Haven, Connecticut on 23 November 1921. But there is also a newspaper record for one Bertha Shernick who was not a doctor and did not die of the flu: Born 1901, she married to a gentleman named Isidore Gurtovnick and died at New York in November 1994.

7. The old and bearded man seated at the center of the photo, called "Harry Chernick," has not been satisfactorily identified. He allegedly died 1905 or 1906 in Ukraine -- the same year that Duke Constantine Petrovich of Oldenburg, the father of the counts and countesses von Zarnekau, died at Nice, France.

8. The older matron seated next to the old man at the center of the photo, called "Bluma," definitely came to New York in 1914 aboard the S.S. Czar, and she died at 433 Central Park West in December 1936. Her death certificate gives her maiden name as Bluma Safronsky. Yet her photo appears to match old photos of Agrippina Djaparidze, the first Countess von Zarnekau.

9. The little boy in a sailor suit, called Albert Shernick, standing next to Bluma, has not been satisfactorily identified. No birth records have been found. He appears to have entered the United States on 29 July 1914 under a false or stolen identity, that of Aaron Cherniack, the son of Gedalia Cherniack.

When Aaron Harry Cherniak filed for citizenship in 1934, he gave as his birthdate the very same day that Albert calls his birthday: May 20, 1899. Aaron Chernjack entered the United States 23 December 1913 on board the very same steamship that Albert took to the United States seven months later: The S.S. Czar. They left from the same port: Libau, Latvia.

One may speculate that Albert's passport was stolen from Aaron, or a copy of Aaron's slightly altered passport was supplied to Albert by the Okhrana. Or one may speculate that Albert was the twin brother of Aaron, following exactly the same route, with the same father. Or one may speculate that Aaron went all the way back to Ukraine in the spring of 1914 and returned with Bluma Schernick in July of 1914, using a slightly altered passport.

Rather than spin conspiracy theories, the assumption has been made here that they were twin brothers, with the same parents. But as Albert's son, Robert, is fond of saying: Albert never, ever mentioned having a twin brother named Aaron, and nowhere in Ida's telling of the family legend does she mention a brother named Aaron. Neither does one find them side-by-side on any U.S. census record.

Aaron Cherniak filed for U.S. citizenship. Albert Shernick did not. Aaron Cherniack appears with his family on the U.S. census for 1920. Albert Shernick does not.

When we find Bluma and Ida on the 1925 New York state census, living in the Bronx, they have a gentleman boarding with them who gives his name as Arthur Freedman, 34. The problem with Arthur Freedman is that Arthur Freedman is dead. He may be found in a graveyard at Buffalo, New York, and he was not living in 1925.

Albert dissapears for five years and first reappears on the official record when he marries Mildred Shaw at Lockport, New York, in 1926, and on his application for a marriage license he gives the name of his mother as Bluma Davis. The maiden name given by Bluma Chernick on her December 1936 death certificate is Bluma Safronski.

Clearly, there is some serious misrepresentation going on. Neither Albert nor Ida can be fully trusted to tell the truth.

For what it is worth, however, here is the official legend surrounding the birth and life of Albert Shernick. His family tree, based on the family tree of Aaron Cherniak (who may be a twin brother or may be a cousin) is a work in progress.

How to read the tea leaves is a very good question indeed.


The Official Family History

Albert Harry Shernick, age 15, arrived at Ellis Island, New York, on 29 July 1914 aboard the S.S. Czar under the name Avram Itzke Czernichow. He was accompanied by Bluma Czernichow, and the ship's passenger list indicates that their destination was an address on State Street in Trenton New Jersey, a small apartment above a jewelry shop run by Bluma's daughter, Ida Shernick Altsitzer.

The passenger list for the Czar indicates that their point of origin was Alexandrovsk, Dnieperpetrovsk, Ukraine, a city now called Zaporizhzhye. They had travelled more than a thousand miles by train to reach Libau, Latvia, a port city on the Baltic Sea, boarded a Russian Amerika Line steamship, and travelled another 4,116 miles to cross the Atlantic ocean.

Yet Albert maintained for the rest of his life that he was born 20 May 1899 in New York City. Despite a complete lack of documentation, that was his story and he stuck to it.

Having arrived safely at Ellis Island, Albert and Bluma joined Ida (Shernick) Altsitzer's family in Trenton, New Jersey. Ida's husband, Harry Altsitzer, had died only a few month's earlier, in December of 1913. The unofficial cause given for Harry's death was cyanide poisoning. According to the family legend told by Ida to her sister-in-law, Mildred, Harry was trying to avoid the draft by smelling cyanide salts, with the intention of giving himself a weak heart.

The problem with this story: There was no Russian draft in December 1913. The first World War did not get under way until July, 1914. Another inconsistency in the legend told by Ida to Mildred: Ida said that Albert arrived on Christmas Eve. It was not Albert Shernick but Aaron Cherniak who arrived on Christmas Eve. Albert and Bluma arrived in July, 1914.

Why is the name Aaron left out of this story? Because if Aaron Harry Cherniack and Albert Harry Shernick are one in the same person, there's a little problem called bigamy: Aaron Cherniak married a nice Jewish girl named Esther Rittoff in December 1923, and they had their first child, Theodore, only a month before Albert married to Mildred Shaw in 1926.

This would explain why Ida failed to mention Aaron to Mildred: "Albert" may have been kicking her shins under the table and staring at Ida pretty hard.

So Ida told an awkward and heavily edited version of Albert's arrival in the United States in 1914.

By July, Ida was trying to settle Harry Altsitzer's estate and raise her three children alone. The arrival of her mother and young Albert was reportedly a welcome addition. The front page of the local newspaper tells a less happy story: A preacher's wife, the owner of the jewelry shop building, was suing Ida for refusing to vacate. The agreement to vacate was made by Harry before he died, and now that he was dead Ida denied that they had any legal obligation to leave the premises of the shop on State street.

Putting their story on the front page must have won the widow some local sympathy: She got to stay.

Al Shernick lived in the New York and New Jersey area between July 1914 and 1925, keeping his head low because he himself did not want to be drafted into the Russian army. He helped Ida pay for rent and groceries by working at odd jobs.

One of the best records of people named Czernichow living in the Mogilev region during this period is the long list of draft dodgers kept by the Russian government. More than a dozen men named Czernichow from the city of Mogilev went missing. "Albert Shernick" was right to keep his head down and change the spelling of his name: The Russian government was very actively seeking the location and whereabouts of all Russian males over the age of 16 who might be hiding out in the United States. They were constantly bugging the United States department of state about it: They wanted their male citizens back.

But the U.S. was officially "neutral" during this period. It had a policy of locking both Russians and Germans into place. Thousands of German sailors stranded on the docks of New York -- men who wanted to fight -- were refused permission to go home.

This made for some very awkward relations between the United States, Germany and Russia.

The 1915 state census for New Jersey shows Albert "Shernick" working as a clerk behind the counter of a local candy store. After school he helped Ida with cleaning chores in her jewelry shop. She trained him to run the cash register and to repair watches.

When America actively entered the war in 1917, Ida closed her shop and the entire family moved from Trenton to Yonkers. They set up house right next door to her relatives, the Altsitzer family, on Nepperhan Avenue.

In early 1917, when revolution broke out in Russia, it soon became clear to Albert and Bluma that they would never be able to go back home again. Since they had entered the United States under false or altered identity papers, Albert and Bluma were genuinely stuck between a rock and a hard place when it came to filing for citizenship.

They never filed, and remained unregistered aliens. On the 1930 U.S. Census, Bluma is still listed as an alien.

Al certainly filled out a World War I draft form, as required by law, and on that form he clearly indicates he was born in Russia. Because he was afraid of being deported and drafted into the Russian army, he decided to make himself useful. He did "war work" from 1915 to 1917.

REMINGTON ARMS

To avoid the Russian draft, Al found work as a machinist at the Remington Arms munitions factory in Hoboken, N.J. This dangerous work producing rifles, mortar shells and bullets that were sent to the Russian front qualified the factory workers at Remington for an exemption from service in the Russian armed forces.

A Prudential Life Insurance policy made out to the name Abraham Shernick indicates Al was still using the name Abraham or Abram in 1917.

Munitions work had an added benefit: It kept the American Bureau of Investigations (a pre-cursor of the FBI) off his back. During the Red Scares of 1917 - 1919 they sifted records very carefully for illegals from Russia who might be dodging the Russian draft or engaging in sabotage.

Al somehow survived with all his fingers in tact. But he told his sons that he had a steel plate in the back of his head -- the result of an accident at the plant. Whether that "accident" was the infamous Black Tom explosion of 30 July 1916 is unclear. What is clear: Al was lucky to survive. The explosion killed four people, destroyed $20 million in equipment and military material, and was "one of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions in history."

Al's honesty on his draft form and his war work for Remington Arms probably got special attention, and, when the managers at the plant cleared him, it saved his neck.

Al certainly owed a debt of gratitude to the manager of the Remington Arms plant, Samuel P. Bush (the grandfather of president George Herbert Walker Bush) and he certainly enjoyed some strangely generous patronage from people in high places after 1918.

His photo album contains an old Christmas card from Capt. Henri Walters, A.R.E.F., wishing him a Merry X-mas. Henry Walters was a railroad millionaire, the owner of the B&O Railroad, and he sat across the table from Jacob Schiff at B&O board meetings.

Both of these millionaires financed the American Russian Expeditionary Force -- the United States Army invasion of Russia in 1919, better known as the "Polar Bear Expedition." One of the main goals of this invasion was to retrieve rolling stock (railroad cars) that had been used by Russia to deliver gold (via the Trans Siberian Railway) to Wall Street bankers as payment for rifles made by Remington Arms (Al's employer).

It's very possible that Al Shernick, as a Russian-speaking employee of Remington Arms and a young man who knew northern Russia quite well, participated in the Polar Bear Expedition of 1919, under the special command of Maj. Gen. William S. Graves (1865 - 1940) of Denver.

But no official military record of Al's participation has ever been found.

What is known for certain is that after 1919 Al Shernick had a good friend in Capt. Henri Walters (1848 - 1931), who not only sat on the board of the Museum of Modern Art, but also maintained a large art collection of his own (today displayed at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland).

Prior to the war, Walters had paid a visit to Princess Julia (Grant) Catacuzene, the daughter of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, who was living in St. Petersburg from 1900 to 1920. In 1913 they had paid a visit to the Faberge works, and Walters became very interested in acquiring Faberge Eggs and other objects of priceless Romanov art.

Since Al's sister Ida knew jewelry well, and was in fact well placed within the Jewish community of New York's "Diamond District," there was a fairly obvious convergence of interests. Al's family may have helped Walters to acquire and evaluate Romanov art objects that were suddenly made available on the international market between 1919 and 1925.

In any event, Al certainly made friends in New York's art world. After the war, he took art lessons at the New School of Fine and Applied Arts in Greenwich Village. He soon became an accomplished painter.

He also became an accomplished boxer, practicing often at the local gym. Al claimed later that he had been a sparring partner for Benny Leonard, a local hero of the Jewish kids living on the Lower East Side. Leonard became the lightweight champion of the world in 1917. He was a model of good sportsmanship.

Al said he helped the champ train for a Golden Gloves bout. Benny must have been pretty good, because Al's teeth were a mess ever afterward.

Al's broken English and crooked smile certainly hid the fact that he was a well-educated man. According to his sons, he never spoke in Russian, but his sister Ida later insisted that he had been given an extremely good education as a youth in Russia -- more than people realized.

This was also true of his sisters: Albert's sister Lucille (Shernick) Rogers was classically trained in opera, and an old tin-type photo (which has been lost) showed her outside the opera house in Vienna. sitting in a carriage and wearing a picture hat.

Lucille reportedly sang from time to time at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, but that never brought in enough to pay the rent. Consequently, she turned to Vaudeville and became a popular singer at the Minsky Brothers' Burlesque theatre, where theatre reviewers were impressed and praised her for adding a touch of class.

Because his sister was well known on the Vaudeville circuit, Al had great connections in the theatre world.

Between 1920 and 1925, Al Shernick worked as a muralist and scene designer for Flo Ziegfeld at the New Amsterdam Theatre. There he met many of the most beautiful Ziegfeld Girls of the flapper era -- including Billie Burke and Fanny Brice -- and a few of the ugliest mobsters too.

Al probably had a nodding acquaintance with comedian David Daniel Kaminsky (better known as Danny Kaye) because Kaminsky was also from Alexandrovsk. Like Lucille Shernick, Danny Kaye also worked at Minsky's for a spell, and the Kaminsky family's burial records at the Mt. Moriah cemetery sometimes appear right next to those of the Shernick family.

Al certainly met Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson at Ziegfeld's. Jolson invited him to paint scenes for the musical "Bombo" (1921), which became a big hit.

In 1922, having established himself a solid reputation in New York theatre circles as an able scenic designer, Al won a commission to work as an assistant to Maxfield Parrish and other painters who were decorating the new Kodak theatre at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. The murals there were commissioned by George Eastman, the well-known inventor of Kodak film.

About 1923, Al was allegedly invited by one of his teachers at the New School, Thomas Hart Benton (1889 - 1975), to assist him with a commission to create a set of murals at the Niagara Power Plant (Schoellkopf Station No. 3) at Niagara Falls, New York.

When the Schoellkopf plant collapsed in June 1956, Benton was invited back, and he created the famous "Mural of Father Hennepin at Niagara Falls," which was newly renovated in 1999.

Whether Al created some lost murals at the power station in 1923 or not, he certainly travelled from Rochester to the Niagara area during this period and liked it so much he decided to settle in Lockport, NY.

It should be noted that Lockport's location near Toronto put him within easy travel and shouting distance of his relatives living in Canada, notably his father Harry Shernick (1869 - 1921) of Toronto, whose family had grown to include sisters that Albert hardly knew; and a relative of Albert's aunt Ida (Shernick) Altsitzer, Selman Altsitzer, whose family had moved with Harry and some Cherniack cousins from New York City to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1908. (Selman's daughter Rebecca is listed with Ida Altsitzer and her kids on the 1920 U.S. Census -- Rebecca was making a summer visit).

In Lockport, Al took an apartment and got a job at the local Maytag dealership. He began to attend local ballrooms and soon made himself a reputation as a talented tango dancer. This has been confirmed by an advertisement found in a local Lockport newspaper.

In the summer of 1926, he began flirting with a local Scotch-Irish girl named Mildred Belle Shaw. She was the cute beautician who owned "Midge's Beauty Shoppe," the hair salon just above the Conway Maytag Company, Al's employer on Locust Street.

Whenever Mildred went upstairs, Al made compliments that set all the other salesmen to laughing and Midge to blushing. She swore loudly to the other girls in the shop she wouldn't touch that rascally Russian with a ten foot pole.

How Al talked her into their first date is one of the great mysteries of the 1920s.

They were married on September 13, 1926, and honeymooned on board one of Conway's Ford Model A trucks.

On their 13 September 1926 marriage license, filed in Lockport, Niagara County, New York, Albert claims that his mother's maiden name was Bluma Davis -- a claim that completely contradicts Bluma's 1936 death certificate, which clearly says her maiden name was Savransky.

He was hiding his Jewish heritage.

Midge preserved in her own scrap book a letter from Albert's sister, Lucille, who congratulates Albert on his marriage and asks, rather awkwardly, whether the girl is Jewish?

Lucille got no reply.

The subject was awkward for Al. But not for Midge.

Mildred (Shaw) Shernick, Albert's newly minted wife, lovingly wrote down Al's family history by hand. Her notes say basically the same thing that Albert's sister Ida told his son David in 1955: Albert had three brothers, whom he called Jacob, Mark and David Shernick, and three sisters, whom he called Ida, Lucille and Bertha Shernick.

Midge did her best to preserve Albert's family history -- what little he told her.

In 1927 Al and Midge had their first son, David. They lived for a short time in comfortable two-storey house in Buffalo. But the stock market crash of 1929 put an end to their halcyon days, and put Al out of work.

In 1930, Mildred moved to Denver, Colorado, to live with her Aunt Sadie (Sarah McGill Shaw) and Uncle Harry Haskins while Al looked for work. Flat broke, Al finally threw in the towel, hopped a train and joined Midge in Denver.

Uncle Harry helped Al to find odd jobs around Denver, and after a year they had scraped together enough to buy a very small WPA house on York Street.

In December of 1931, they had another boy, whom they named Robert in memory of Mildred's father. His crib was the upper drawer of their dresser. Their new baby very nearly died because he wasn't digesting properly. The doctors were stumped. He was finally saved by a home remedy which his grandmother Stoddard sent by telegram: the whites from goose eggs coated his small stomach properly, he settled down, stopped crying and the whole family finally got a good night's sleep.

This small family survived the Great Depression, the Dustbowl and the troubling days that led to World War II through sheer gumption and ingenuity: They grew Victory gardens, raised rabbits and chickens, invented new recipes for potatoes and rhubarb pie, patched old clothes, pinched pennies, rationed their food and gasoline carefully, and whenever possible pitched in to help and comfort neighbors who were suffering the loss of loved ones during the war.

Blessed with two parents who had a talent for telling stories, the Shernick boys never lacked entertaining conversation around the dinner table. Dave and Rob grew up listening to radio dramas, practicing their Boy Scout knots and archery, inventing their own games and building their own toys. Rob became especially fond of building his own model airplanes out of balsa wood -- a hobby he kept his entire life.

During the late 1930s, Al spent his days painting clever and very carefully lettered signs for local businesses. He made a little extra money during the Christmas seasons by taking dangerous jobs that no one else wanted or could do. Standing on an icy ledge, he hung holiday decorations at the top of the Daniels and Fisher tower in downtown Denver (another workman holding him above a twelve storey drop by nothing but his belt).

One of the few local craftsmen with experience in the application of gold leaf (a skill he picked up at his sister's jewelry store) he also landed a job adding gold leaf to the Denver Capitol dome.

According to family legend, Al was moonlighting during this period with some of Denver's best-known artists: Allen True and Herndon Davis. Like Allen True, Al Shernick helped to decorate the Brown Palace Hotel (a Denver landmark), and he claimed that he was working as an assistant to Herndon Davis when Davis painted the famous "Face on the Barroom Floor" at the Teller House in Central City.

During the second World War, Al worked, once again, for Remington Arms. They opened a new ammunition plant near Denver, the Denver Federal Center, and Al joined the large mob of formerly unemployed workmen seeking a patriotic paycheck.

By talking with the plant managers, he also won himself a spot on the crew that gave the entire plant a new coat of paint.

After the war, Al started his own house painting company. Eventually, by working overtime, he earned enough money to hire his own crew and buy a new house in Lakewood.

By the late 1940s, as his sons were completing their studies at Lakewood High, the family had enough to own two cars.

Unfortunately, a serious fall from high scaffolding put Al in the hospital, and after a difficult surgery he was forced to slow down.

Sobered by this experience, the loss of parents, the beginning of the nuclear age and the onset of the Korean War, the entire family joined the Catholic Church on the same day in 1955. They soldiered forward.

Al and Midge celebrated the marriages of their sons (both veterans) in the late 1950s. They soon became grandparents.

Left with an empty nest, their job as parents done, Al and Midge faced the end of the 1950s, the election of John F. Kennedy and the beginning of the Space Age in quiet retirement.

Al met his end suddenly on a hot day in mid-August 1961, felled by a heart attack. One cannot say that it was unexpected: Like many men of his age, he had been a hard-drinking man and a heavy smoker his entire adult life. God knows how many gallons of turpentine and solvents he had inhaled during his career as a painter.

Given how many deadly ingredients his wife added to her annual Christmas fruitcakes (which ought to have been classified as a Cold War weapon system) it's truly amazing that he lasted as long as he did.

Al was not a perfect man, but on the whole he left a good rep. His wife certainly loved him with a devotion not found often amongst women of the following generation: Midge sincerely mourned his loss for two decades and wore his wedding ring until her dying day.

Al's most lasting contribution to the Denver art community, perhaps, was the series of vivid and highly realistic nature scenes he painted for the Denver Nature and Science Museum . . . wildlife dioramas that continue to fascinate visiting school children.

After a long and rewarding career as a muralist, fine artist, and house painter, Al Shernick was laid to rest on the burial grounds of the Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Wheatridge, Jefferson County, CO.

More than 25 years later, he was joined there by Midge -- whose heart was always with him

Their Find-A-Grave Memorial may be viewed by clicking on the link here.

A Hidden Lineage: Descent from the Counts Chernyshev?

With a tendency by Ida to contradict the official record in mind, we read the following narrative, which was told to David Shernick, the son of Albert Shernick, by Ida (Shernick) Altsitzer Gluck at Miami Beach, Florida, during the second week of December 1955:

"Albert Harry Shernick (Russian Equiv: Abraham Chernikov) born May 20, 1899 in Alexandrovska, Russia, in the Ukraine, [was] the 7th of 8 children. Other children were Ida, Mark, Jacob, David, Lucille, Bertha, Albert (dad), and unnamed child who died at birth.

"Mother was Russian, father an importer, exporter of hay to Turkey, watermelons to England, Administrator of Tolstoy estate and also varied managerial capacities in several businesses. He inherited this business from his father.

"Grandfather [Harry] Shernick [Senior] died in 1905, and the grave is still in evidence in Alexandrovska at report of immigrant in 1948.

"During the war of Russia and Turkey (the Crimean War of 1853 - 1856}, our grandfather's brother was a General, in charge of the campaign. This position was obtained thru the ranks from a conscription at the age of 3. The campaign was so successful that the Czar gave the general the Christian (or Russian Orthodox Catholic) name of Chernikov and title of Count, and rights, privileges, etc. for all relatives. This was a great deal, as the General and our grandfather were half Jewish (makes us 1/8th), and during that time in Russia, no Jew had any rights at all."

The reference to a famous general in charge of Russia's campaign during the Crimean War of 1853-1856 is a fairly clear and straightforward reference to Count Alexander Ivanovich Chernyshev (1786 - 1857), the commander in chief of the entire Russian army during the Crimean War. The last name Chernyshev is sometimes Englished as Chernyshov, Czernichow or Chernikhov.

It must be noted that the famous Counts Chernyshev were indeed descendants of the Czarniecki family of Posen, and as officers in the Russian military they were enlisted in Guard units as early as the age of 3. This was not made up. It was a tradition, within the Russian nobility, to show their loyalty to the Czar by enlisting their children as infants into honor guard units like the Preobrazhensky Life Guards regiment.


Ida was clearly telling David Shernick that her father, Hersz Czerniakhowski or Tchernichovsky, Senior, somehow descended from one of the famous Counts Chernyshev, perhaps a little known and unlisted brother of Gen. Alexander I. Chernyshev, who certainly married and had a son named Lev Alexandrovich Chernyshev (1837 - 1864).

The exact lineage is muddled.

What is crystal clear is the great favor the Counts Chernyshev enjoyed during the reigns of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. Count Zakhar Grigorievich Chernyshev (1722 - 1784) is even rumored to have been a lover of Catherine the Great. After the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Catherine appointed Count Zakhar Chernyshev to be the governor of Poland, and he lived the final decade of his life on a huge estate near Mogilev.

Albert Shernick's Jewish relatives, the Czernichow and Tchernichovsky families, appear very clearly on the census records for Mogilev.

With regard to administration of the Tolstoy family's estate, one may confirm that the manager for the estate of the famous Count Leo Tolstoy was Vladimir G. Chertkov (1854 - 1936), who was indeed a descendant of the Chernyshev family on his mother's side.

Specifically, Chertkov's mother, Elizaveta Chernysheva-Kruglikova (1832 - 1922), was a descendant (through her mother) of Count Gregory Ivanovich Chernyshev (1762 - 1831), whom one might mistake for a brother of Gen. Alexander Ivanovich Chernyshev (1786 - 1857), if one believed that they were both the sons of Gregory's father, Count Ivan Gregorievich Chernyshev (1726 - 1797).

Chertkov and the Tolstoyans were strong supporters for a group of Russian peacniks and pacifists called Doukhobors. From their base in England, the Tolstoyans had sponsored and overseen the emigration of a large number of Doukhobors from farms in Russia to farms in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Canada.

We have found a very clear record of members of the Czernichow-Czernichowsky family living in England, notably in London, under variant spellings of their last name. They seem to be strongly connected to the Jewish College of London and the Galveston Movement, a plan to help Jewish immigrants enter America through the southern port of Galveston, Texas, where railway connections could easily take them to cities in the Midwest.

The Galveston Movement was largely financed by Baron Horace Gunzburg, of Kiev, whose maternal relatives, the Rawsky family, intermarried with the Czernichowsky family of Tarascha. During the early 20th century, the Galveston Movement was being led by Rabbi Henry Cohen (1863 - 1952), whose family originated in Tarascha, Ukraine.

The S.S. Czar, on which Aaron or Abram Czernichow arrived at New York in 1913, was in fact a Doukhobor ship. Large numbers of Russian peaceniks were on board, trying to escape the war.

Overall, then, Ida would seem to be saying that their Jewish branch of the Tchernichovsky or Czernichow-Czernichowsky family were peacenik descendants of the much-more-famous Counts Chernyshev, via an unclear and unnamed brother of Gen. Alexander Ivanovich Chernyshev, whom (she claimed) was half Jewish.

Conclusion: Those interested in pursuing the history of the Czernichow family and its lineage may want to look for Czernichows in Ukrainian census and Polish census records. They may enjoy more success if they concentrate on places strongly associated with the Chernyshev family and their noble relatives, the Bobrinsky family. The Chernyshev family estates at Mogilev and the Bobrinsky family estates near Tarascha, Kiev deserve special attention.

Was Jakob a member of the Tsar's Guard?

Ida's claim of relationship to Russian nobility is a tall tale, and one might dismiss it out of hand. Their family were Jewish.

Yet if one examines carefully the Shernick family group photo (attached), taken about 1903, which Albert preserved, it shows his older "brother" Jakob wearing a Russian army uniform.

Specifically, Jakob is wearing the uniform of an unterofficer in His Majesty's 1st Life Guards Rifle Battalion -- an elite unit of the Tsar's Guard which Jewish commoners could not possibly join. To join a unit of the Tsar's guard required one to provide proof of three generations of nobility. One also had to provide a letter of recommendation from a Russian general vouching for one's character and loyalty.

There were only two well-known Jewish families who were ever allowed to join the Tsar's Life Guard regiments: The Davydov family and the Chernyshev family. In fact both of those families ran into serious political trouble after the death of Tsar Alexander I on 1 December 1825 and the Decembrist Revolt of late December 1825, an attempt by the Tsar's guard to depose the new Tsar Nicholas I in favor of his older brother, the Grand Duke Constantine.

Tsar Nicholas I put Gen. Alexander Ivanovich Chernyshev in charge of rooting out the rebellious guardsmen, and Alexander did so with zeal, showing zero mercy to members of his own family. As a result of his fierce loyalty to Tsar Nicholas, Chernyshev was rewarded with the title of Count.

When Vasily Davidov (1780 - 1855) was convicted of participating in the revolt, and exiled to Siberia, two of Davidov's daughters were sent to live with the family of Countess Sofia Gregorievna Chernysheva-Kruglikova (1799 - 1847) -- the very family from which Vladimir Chertkov, administrator of the Tolstoy estate, descends.

It was said at the time that Gen. Alexander Chernyshev, who was the descendant of a "down-market" (read: Jewish) branch of the Chernyshevs, was quite eager to depose his Orthodox cousins, the descendants of Count Gregory Chernyshev, in an effort to grab up the estates of the elder branch of the Chernyshev family.

The comments made by Russian historians on General Chernyshev's behavior and motivations during this period very specifically refer to him as a dis-inherited or illegitimate cousin of the better known Counts Chernyshev.

If Ida Shernick was lying and telling tall tales, and if her little-known "illegitimate" branch of the Czernichow or Chernikov family were not in some way related to the famous Counts Chernyshev, the "Chernyshev majorat" or senior branch, then it is awfully difficult to explain how Jakob managed to join such an elite Guard unit at all. Why was Jakob allowed to join the Tsar's Guard?

The answer seems to be that Ida's branch of the family truly were related to Gen. Alexander Ivanovich Chernyshev, who (according to Wikipedia) became a general of the Light Division of the Tsar's Guard in 1821, and who accelerated to the rank of Count (1826) and then Minister of War (1832) for showing fierce loyalty to Tsar Nicholas I.

Albert's older "brother" (uncle) Mark (aka Moishe, Mordtke or "Max" Sharnick) certainly seems to have served briefly in elite units of the Tsar's Guard, prior to the 1905 revolution. An examination of old guard unit photos has turned up at least three photographs of men who strongly resemble Max.

As a child, Albert Shernick was definitely photographed wearing little military caps and Buster Brown sailor suits -- a cute fashion for military children that was popular in 1900. Whether Albert was enlisted in a cadet school as a young boy is unknown.

Albert told his sons that he remembered seeing the "beginnings of the Russian Revolution" (the Pogroms of 1905) while growing up as a boy in Russia. Albert's father (grandfather) Harry Senior was a wealthy merchant, and they lived quite comfortably. Al said he remembered his family's large mansion in Moscow, which had chandeliers, and their winter sleigh, which was drawn by beautiful horses.

Albert attended local schools and was given additional training by his older sister Ida, who worked as a tutor and governess.

After the Pogroms of 1905, this Jewish branch of the famous Czernichow family clearly lost their enthusiasm for participation in Russian military operations.

Ida and her husband, Harry Altsitzer, left for the United States in 1907.

In 1913, as World War I approached, Albert and his male cousins were in serious danger of being drafted into the Russian army and killed. The Czernichow (Tchernichovsky) family (peaceniks by association with Tolstoy and the Doukhobor movement) therefore made quick arrangements for their children and teenagers to be sent to America, a neutral country where they had many relatives who could look after them.

Chief among these relatives were ida's father in Canada and cousins in New York. Ida's father, Gedalia or Gertzel-Al Czerniakhovsky ("Harry Shernick Jr.") had emigrated to New York during the 1890s and settled in Philadelphia. For many years he lived in Philadelphia, aiding the local Jewish families in their effort to help Tolstoyan Christians and Jews find refuge in America. Harry was very proud of a written certificate that he had received from Tsar Nicholas II, signed by the Tsar himself, which named Harry as an official representative of Russia's emigration service.

Naftali Hersz "Harry" Cherniack (1869 - 1951) certainly offered assistance. He was living part-time in Philadelphia in 1913, just across the river from Trenton, New Jersey, where Ida Shernick Altsitzer had landed when she immigrated to America in 1907. They both attended the Chabad-Lubavich Temple in Philadelphia, and probably put their heads together on weekends.

Nathan-Harry bought the steamship tickets required at the Rosenbaum bank in Philadelphia during the spring of 1913. This we know because the records of those banks are now a searchable database.

The fact that Ida's Uncle Max and cousin Nathan-Harry Cherniack bought the ticket for Albert Harry Shernick certainly suggests that either Max or Harry could be Albert's true father. Ida's family certainly cared about Albert. We also have a written and official request for passports by Hershko M. Czerniakow, written in the Russian language, and notorized by an attorney in Philadelphia.

But the record is not entirely clear. About Albert's actual parentage, people were hush-hush.

Albert and Bluma were also helped by Abraham M. Shornick (1871 - 1922), Nathan Harry's brother, who offered to help financially. To appreciate how generous this was, you have to realize Abraham was then surviving as a clothing factory "cutter" in the garment district of New York, supporting a large family of his own. The fact that Abraham was mighty generous to little Abraham leads us to suspect that Abraham M. was Albert's dad.

But where is the proof?

No birth records have been found to prove Albert's parentage or place of birth. The registrar of the City of New York has confirmed that they have no birth record for Albert H. Shernick in New York City in 1899.

After lots of digging, we are left once again stumped.


Falsified Records: A Red Spy Network at Work?

Efforts to verify the Shernick family legend have been extraordinarily difficult.

For example, when one examines the Social Security death record for Ida Shernick Altsitzer Gluck, it says she was born 19 December 1887, which means she cannot possibly be the sister of Lucille Shernick. Why? Because the death certificate for Lucille (Schernick) Rogers says she was born 18 April 1888 in Tennessee. For two sisters to be born four months apart on opposite sides of the Earth does not make sense. Either they are half-sisters, with different birth mothers, and the story of Harry Chernick's second wife has been erased entirely, or the informants who gave the information for the two death certificates lied.

Their stories don't match.

There's another problem with Ida: Her birth records. A search turns up nothing but a close match to the 25 December 1887 birth record of Albertine Ida Antonie Scherneck, who was born in Berlin.

The problem with this match: Little Albertine Ida Scherneck died on 12 June 1888, at age 5 months. Ida has a dead double. This suggests that the woman who calls herself Ida Schernick may have come from Berlin, may have stolen Albertine Ida's identity to create a fake passport, and may have entered the United States under false identity papers. Ida Schernick might not be who she says she is.

Ida's death record names her mother as Bluma Loransky. Lucille's death certificate gives no maiden name for Bluma at all, and it says she was the daughter of Mark Schernick, not Harry Chernikov. Ida and Lucille don't match or agree on the name of their mother or their father.

When one finds Albert's 1926 License to marry Mildred Shaw, Albert swears that his mother's maiden name was Bluma Davis. Yet Bluma's official 1936 death certificate gives her maiden name as Sobronski and her father's family appears in U.S. census records under variant spellings: Safronski, Szafranski, Savransky.

Bluma's 1936 death certificate was found in New York (after a great deal of difficulty) under the spelling Chernick, not Shernick. It says that Bluma was buried at the Mt. Moriah Cemetery in Fairview, New Jersey (across the river from Central Park). But on the gates of the Mt. Moriah Cemetery she is listed as B. Schernick (a third spelling). She lived in New York for 20 years (1914 to 1936) but never filed for citizenship, so there are no naturalization papers to clarify her place of birth or confirm the name of her spouse. When one finally finds her amongst passenger lists for the year 1914, she appears as Bluma Czernichow (a fourth name spelling),

In none of these documents has she been confirmed as the birth mother for Albert Shernick. Albert appears with Bluma in three or four photos, but only once on the U.S. Census: in the 1915 New Jersey State census for Trenton, which lists Bluma as the mother of Ida and which lists Albert as the brother of Ida. That does not necessarily mean that Bluma was Albert's birth mother.

THE SEARCH FOR ALBERT'S TRUE MOTHER

Why not trust Ida's family legend and trust the New Jersey census when it says that Bluma is Albert's mother? Why be skeptical and paranoid?

Simple:


1. Albert does not know his own mother's maiden name. Either he's the kind of guy who gets the name of his own mother wrong or he's the kind of guy who would lie on his own wedding license. Scary.

2. Ida and Lucille also got Bluma's maiden name wrong. Scarier and scarier. What are they hiding?

3. Right next to Bluma Schernick's name on the Mt. Moriah cemetery gate is that of Mr. and Mrs. B.M. Morros -- Boris Michael Morros, a Hollywood music composer and notorious Cold War spy who was arrested by the FBI in 1947 after serving the Soviet Union for three years. Code name: FROST. The FBI caught Morros after counterintelligence experts working for the Venona Project found his name among coded messages being sent from the Russian embassy in New York to Moscow


Bluma came from the very same immigration group as Boris -- an immigration group that included the Rosenberg family. This can be confirmed by travelling to New York and reviewing the records for the Friends of Alexandrovsk Benevolent Association at the YIVO Institute. The name of Boris Morros very definitely appears among the Membership List, right next to the names of J. Rosenberg and Lucille Rogers, Albert's sister.

This is cause for concern.

Finally: When it comes to spies, the Cherniaks are nearly as famous in Russia as James Bond in England. Yehven Cherniak is sometimes called the James Bond of Russia, and Yan Chernyak is one of the greatest espionage heroes of World War II.

While guilt by association is never fair, we are talking about Atomic spies here, and Russian superspy Yan Cherniak was part of the very same Atomic spy ring. The Wikipedia on Yan Cherniak says Chernyak was "instrumental in developing the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons program," which means he was very much in league with Boris Morros, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Morris and Lona Cohen and Soviet hero Atomic spy George Koval when it came to ripping off America's blueprints for building an Atomic bomb.

This certainly raises a red flag.

It means at the very least that when dealing with the immigration records of the Chernick or Cherniak family in the United States, we must be prepared to find the fingerprints of the GRU and the FBI all over their files -- that is, what is left of their immigration files after the FBI got done going ape all over them.

It means also that one must not be too surprised to find members of the Cherniak family who arrived in America during World War I or World War II wearing wigs and mustaches and giving out false names -- or forgetting the names of their own mothers.

Albert Shernick and Ida Shernick are, apparently, wearing wigs and behaving like artful dodgers. What they are forgetting to tell us is a lot. All of their immigration documents and identity papers must therefore be double- and triple-checked.

We want as much paperwork as we can get to prove Albert's identity. When it comes to something even as simple as finding his Last Name at Birth, Albert Schernick Shernick Chernick Cherniak Czernik Czernichow Czernichowsky is a real piece of work.

Obviously one way to confirm that Bluma was Albert's mother and also get her maiden name would be to find Albert's birth record or birth certificate -- preferrably a document that Albert has not filled out himself. Albert's death certificate says he was born in New York City, New York, so a birth certificate from 1899 ought to be available.

But a formal request to the city's recorder produces no birth certificate, and a search of the city's birth records database at Ancestry yields no results for Albert Harry Shernick. Nothing found under that spelling.

The ship's passenger list for the S.S. Czar showing Albert's arrival with Bluma on 29 July 1914 indicates they originated in Alexandrovsk, Ukraine, but a search of Ukrainian records depends on an exact spelling of the name and the correct birth location. So far, a search for Abraham Czernichow (the name listed on the passenger list) has produced no Ukrainian birth record matches.

On Albert's 1917 World War I draft card (attached), which certainly can be found, Albert says he is living at 275 Nepperhan Avenue in Yonkers. He also says he was born in Ekaterinoslav, Russia, which means the claim that he was born in New York was a lie. In fact on all U.S. Census records prior to 1940, Albert gives his birth place as Russia. Only on the 1940 U.S. Census does he begin to claim that he was born in New York.

On his WWI Draft registration, Albert names his nearest relative as Mrs. Luby Shernick (mother, underscored twice). In other words, the "name of mother" he put on his 1926 application for a marriage license, Bluma Davis, does not agree with the name he gave for his mother on his 1917 draft registration card, "Luby."

A search of Yonkers City Directories does in fact list one Luby Schernick, a widow, living in Yonkers. But it gives no age.

If we assume this listing is for Bluma, then it means Bluma's real name was Liebe -- but that name is not used on her immigration forms or her death records.

If we assume that "Luby" refers to Lucille Schernick, Albert's sister "Lucille" whose maiden might be Liuba Schernick in Russian, that means Lucille is actually Albert's mother. But Lucille was born 1888 and too young to be the mother of a child born in 1899. In fact, Lucille's social security records give her actual birth date as 19 April 1890. She couldn't possibly be Albert's mom.

DARK INVADERS

Why does identifying Albert's mom correctly really matter? For national security reasons. Albert and Bluma arrived in the United States in July 1914, in the middle of what is known as the July Crisis that preceded the world war.

They were German-Russians, and this was the last chance for Germany or Russia to slip some of its agents into the United States. The possibility that members of Albert's family were sent to the U.S. as illegal agents or spies under false identities cannot be dismissed entirely. As we shall see, Albert's family certainly had close connections to the intelligence services of Russia, Germany, and England.

They were truly international travellers, and as such they were ideal agents.

The story of how Germany in particular set up elaborate spy networks in preparation for World War I has been told by German spy chief Franz von Rintelen in his 1933 book The Dark Invader: Wartime Reminiscences of a German Naval Intelligence Officer.

it appears that Albert and his family, in ways still not fully understood, did participate in a German spy ring of some kind. Based on his war time history, Albert seems to have been serving as a German saboteur.

In his World War I draft card, Albert lists his employer as the Remington Arms manufacturing plant in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was working there as a machinist.

This was in fact a very important arms manufacturing plant, one that churned out millions of bullets and mortar rounds that were being shipped to Europe to support the allied war effort against Germany. For exactly this reason, the Remington Arms factory in Hoboken, New Jersey was targeted by German saboteurs.

Was Albert Schernick a German agent? Well if he was, he was a good one.

In fact German saboteurs successfully destroyed the Remington Arms plant at Hoboken in what is now known as the Black Tom Explosion of July 30, 1916. According to Wikipedia, the explosion "killed at least four people and destroyed some $20,000,000 ($540 million in 2024 dollars) worth of military goods. This incident, which happened prior to U.S. entry into World War I, also damaged the Statue of Liberty. It was one of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions in history."

It would be nice to make sure that Albert Schernick was not one of the German saboteurs who were responsible for this explosion. But, unfortunately, the very large number of spies in his immigration group and the multiple lies told in his immigration documents point in the opposite direction.

ALBERT'S DISAPPEARANCE LEADS TO A DISCOVERY

Where was Albert during the war and the Russian Revolution? It's difficult to say. He disappears from the radar.

The 1920 U.S. Census does not help. Albert does not appear to be anywhere on the 1920 census -- although Ida and Bluma are clearly listed, he is not in their household.

This puzzle of Albert's disappearance in 1920 was solved when it was discovered that Albert Shernick has a double, named Aaron Cherniack, who also was born on May 20, 1899.

Aaron appears as "Harry Cherniak" on the 1920 U.S. Census, the son of Harry and Lena (Gelles) Cherniak. Lena Cherniak was also called Leiba on some of her official records. If we assume that Albert and Aron are one and the same person, then this not only explains why Albert lists his mother as Luby on his draft registration, but also explains why he disappears on the 1920 U.S. Census: He is living with his dad, Harry Cherniak and his mom Lena "Luby" Cherniak under the name Harry Cherniak.

Lena Gelles (Luby) was not a widow in 1919, rather she was alone or "widowed" because her husband Harry was overseas and serving in the military. By 1920 Harry has returned, and he did not go to live with Bluma and Ida because either a) He divorced Bluma, or b) He is a disconnected relative who never was her husband. For example, he might be Bluma's brother-in-law, or the brother of Bluma's husband. Bluma could be Ida's mother but Albert's aunt.

At this point, the claim that "Bluma Davis" is Albert's mother begins to look like 100 percent fiction. Why would Albert lie to his wife and sons about his birth family? Did he lie about the name of his birth father as well?

WHY ALBERT NEVER INTRODUCED MILDRED TO HIS FAMILY

The puzzle over Albert's parentage leads to an even bigger puzzle: Why was Mildred never introduced to Albert's mother and father personally, when they were living nearby?

What was Albert hiding?

The answer: Cherchez la femme.

Albert Harry Shernick, under his alternate identity as Aaron Harry Cherniack, already had a wife. Aron Cherniak married on 11 December 1923 to a nice Jewish girl named Esther Rittoff. Their first child, Theodore, was born 23 June 1925, a year before Albert married Mildred Shaw.

If Albert and Aaron are one and the same person, then this is a problem. Albert was a bigamist.

An examination of the circumstances surrounding Albert's marriage in 1926 indicates they "married in a fever." They eloped. Mildred kept a very complete photo album of her family, and the photos of the days surrounding her wedding show group photos with her own family: Shaws, Perrys, Longs, Stoddards, aunts, uncles, cousins, grouped happily around her at a honeymoon wedding picnic and a family feast.

But there is not a single photo of Albert's family. Not one. For some reason not a single member of Albert's huge Jewish family was invited to the wedding feast.

The group photo of Albert's family, taken about 1903, is the only one that he ever provided to Mildred. He provided that and some tall tales, told around the dinner table to his sons. The only other contact with his family in New York City was Ida and her son, Will Altsitzer, Mildred's notes indicate she met with Albert's "sister" Lucille, but Lucille's family history stories were very different from Ida's version, and they left Mildred very confused.

ALBERT'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE: THE MISSING PIECE

To confirm Albert's true identity, we need his real birth date and his real birth place and the name of his true mother. How do we get these?

A good place to start would be his Naturalization papers. If he was born in Russia, he was legally required to file for citizenship. But he never did. That is, he did not file for citizenship under the name "Albert Shernick."

When one tries to find Albert's naturalization papers at Ancestry.com, one finds no citizenship papers for Albert at all. But look under the name Aaron Cherniak, and bingo! One finds the papers for one Aaron Czerniak, who was born May 20, 1899. Aaron departed from the same port as Albert, Libau, Latvia, and he arrived at the same port, Ellis Island, aboard the same ship, the S.S. Czar, but he arrives seven months earlier, on 23 December 1913, while Albert and Bluma arrive 29 July 1914 aboard the Czar.

Albert's son, Robert, insists that Albert never, ever mentioned having a twin brother named Aaron. Yet here is a man with exactly the same birth date as Albert, arriving on exactly the same ship as Albert, and arriving on Christmas Eve, not in the summer. When one goes back to Mildred Shernick's handwritten notes, they mention a story by Ida Shernick in which she remembers Albert first arriving in New York "on Christmas Eve."

Given the arrival of Avram Itzke Czernichow at Ellis Island on board the S.S. Czar with Bluma Czrnichow 29 July 1914, that story that Ida told about Albert arriving on Christmas Eve makes absolutely no sense whatever unless Aaron Czerniak and Avram Czernichow are one and the same person. The person who arrived on Christmas Eve was Aaron.

THE OTHER ALBERT

It appears at first glance that Aaron Czerniak was a twin brother whom Albert and Ida never ever mentioned, which throws their honesty and their entire family legend into question. If one treats Aaron and Albert as two different people, then it means Albert was somebody who stole or recycled Aron's passport, subtly changing the name Aaron Czernjak to Avram Czernichow.

But if one accepts that Aaron and Albert are the very same person, there is no contradiction at all. Aaron arrived December 13, 1913, then went back to get Bluma (a genuinely heroic deed, because it was an extremely long journey). He Just re-entered the United States under a different spelling of the name, Avram Itzke Czernichow on 29 July 1914.

Accept that they are one and the same person, and we have found the next best thing to a birth certificate; Aaron's petition to become a U.S. citizen and naturalization papers, including his signed loyalty oath.

On these, he confirms his birth date as 20 May 1899 and his birthplace as Ekaterinoslav, but does not specify a city of origin. He also names his wife, Esther, and their two children, and gives birth dates for his kids.

These travel records, combined with Aaron's Naturalization records, point us toward the Holy Grail we've been seeking: The true name of Albert mother, the city of his birth, and the date of his birth. Find these, and we have a chance of finding "Albert's" official birth records, census records, and military records in Russia.

Problem: When we pursue the records of Albert's "twin brother," Aaron, we encounter not one but several children with similar names and birth dates.

The records of Aaron Harry Cherniak of New York must also be disentangled from those of a cousin, Aron Israel Cherniak of Chicago, whose papers indicate that Aaron Israel was born 1896 at Kiev. Aaron Israel Cherniak first arrived in New York in 1908, and the ship's passenger list indicates that in that year his family were living at Zbaraz, Ukraine.

This Aaron from Chicago was born at Vyshgorod, a suburb of Kiev, Ukraine. Since Aaron from Chicago is a first cousin, his records may be sitting right next to those of Aaron from New York. What we want are the records for Aaron of New York, and we expect his mom to be either Lena Gelles or Bluma Savransky.

The records of the Savransky family in Ukraine show a large group of them living at a shtetl near Tarascha, Ukraine, just south of Kiev, and working on the estates of the Russian counts Bobrinsky, founders of the Russian sugar industry.

Here at least is a fairly good fix on the right birth place: Kiev, Ukraine. But where specifically do we go to hunt for birth records? Tarascha looks like the right place to start digging, because there are so many Savranskys living there.

The Czerniachowsky family also show up on the records of Tarascha.

DIGGING UP SCARY SKELETONS

When we start digging in local Ukrainian records, we start turning up some really scary skeletons.

The problem is this: The Wikipedia for Tarascha says it is strongly associated with the politician Oleksander Moroz - a noted leader of the Socialist Party. That means we are right back in the orbit of Oleksander's relative, the notorious spy Boris Moroz.

Perhaps the thing to do is Google spies from Tarascha, to get a better overview of the communist network that were at work there and sent agents to the United States.

If you look at the history of Russian spies and the Wikipedia list of notable Atomic Spies (Russian agents who stole the blueprints for the Atomic Bomb), number one on the list of notables is Morris Cohen. The family of Morris Cohen are also from Tarascha, Ukraine, according to the History of Jewish Cities in Ukraine, a webpage that gives many photos of Tarashcha and its families. This claim is backed up by the FBI Files on Morris and Lona Cohen and Barnes Carr's 2016 book Operation Whisper.

Do the Shernicks have any connections to the Cohen family? Yup.

When one searches further for Aaron's father, Harry Shernick or Chernick, one finds a Harry Shernick of the right age living in Toronto, Ontario, on the 1921 Canada Census. He is listed in Toronto City Directories as a horseshoe maker and blacksmith. More importantly, one Toronto directory indicates he sometimes uses the name Harry Cohen.

When one researches the name Harry Cohen, one finds a match with Harry Cohen of Galveston, Texas, on of the rabbis who led the Galveston Movement -- a subject of great interest to Anne Hagedorn, the author of Sleeper Agent, a book about Atomic spy George Koval. It seems that Russian-Jewish immigration from Ukraine was funded largely by Baron Horace Gunzburg and Baron Maurice de Hirsch, both of Kiev. Both wanted to avoid U.S. legislation that might place caps or strict quotas on the immigration of Russian Jews, so they sent Rabbi Harry Cohen to Galveston to help organize a major effort to use the port of Galveston more often.

It was this port through which the family of Atomic spy George Koval passed in the early 1900s, with the result that George was communist in politics but brought up in Iowa City, with perfect English. He loved baseball and seemed to be an All-American kid, hence his ability to move with ease into a position of trust within the Manhattan Project in 1943.

Identifying Cohen, Hirsch and Gunzburg as the leaders of the Galveston movement also explains another puzzle: How did the Savransky family and the Ida Shernick Altsitzer family get their training in a fancy trade like diamond cutting and watch repair? This is an expensive hobby.

GINZBURG, HIRSCH AND THE GOLDEN KEY CLUB

Turns out that Baron Maurice de Hirsch was a very big fan of trade school education for the Jewish people, and Count Bobrinsky, of Tarascha, trained many of his local serfs and Jewish peasants in arts and crafts. Bobrinsky wanted expert jewelers in order to manage his own jewelry collection: So he trained people at his own expense. They received an excellent education in tradecraft.

Bobrinsky apparently trained members of the Savransky and Shernick family to work as skilled jewelers, painters and engravers. They made jewelry for Count Bobrinsky and also became silversmiths. By no small coincidence, the largest Soviet spy ring in the United States was called the Silvermaster Spy Ring. As journalist Anne Hagedorn points out in her book on Atomic spy George Koval, Sleeper Agent (2021),George Koval and many Soviet spies came to the United States in the 1920s and 1930s using false passports, and they raised money by using New York jewelry stores in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Jewelry stores like Ida's were being used as communist fronts, according to Hagedorn's book. They played a key role in financing socialist spy networks, and financing Jewish immigration to the United States through the Galveston network.

When you look at the records of George Koval, his father was a leader of the Workmen's Circle or Arbeiter Ring, a labor movement to which Ida Shernick Altsitzer definitely belonged. The Kovals lived in the Bronx, and the family of Morris Cohen are liviing only a couple blocks away from Ida's residence on the Grand Concourse in 1925.

Like a flock of migrating sparrows, the community of Tarashcha, Ukraine stuck together. Which explains why one finds the family of three major Atomic spies all from the same neighborhood: They were from the very same immigration community.

THE ARBEITER RING: THE WORKMEN'S CIRCLE

When one searches the name Altsitzer on newspaper databases, the results show that the family of Ida's husband, Harry Altsitzer, were certainly strong supporters of the Workmen's Circle and "the Bund" -- that is the General Jewish Workers' Union, or the Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Lite, Poyln un Rusland, a Jewish socialist party founded in Russia in 1897.

This was a labor union that attempted to protect Russian garment factory workers from harsh exploitation and seriously dangerous work conditions. Those New York shirt factories certainly employed several members of the Chernick and Czernichowsky family living in the Bronx, Yonkers, and New York's Lower East Side, according to the 1910 and 1920 U.S. Census records.

The Czernichowsky family were trained by Count Bobrinsky in Russia as tailors, iron miners, metal workers and blacksmiths. When they moved to America, they were often listed as harness makers and horseshoe makers on U.S. records. They also had a tendency to migrate to mining towns in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. Because some of them used the port of Galveston, they, like the Kovals, landed in Iowa City and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

FINDING AARON's BIRTH FAMILY

Aaron Chernjak appears on the 23 December 1913 passenger list for the S.S. Czar with a fellow passenger named Itzke Czerniak and a young lady named Sonja Ostrowsky, who later married Aaron's brother Julius (also on board). This helps one pin down Aaron's family in the 1920 U. S. Census for New York: He is living under his middle name, Harry, in the household of Harry and Lena Cherniak, and there is a brother named Julius on board.

Even if Aaron Harry Czerniak is only the twin brother for Albert Shernick, this still leads us to Albert's true birth parents: Harry Charniak and Lena Gelles.

They married in New York in 1887. Both of them have family in England, which means that Aaron's missing records may be found in England.

Because Aaron Harry has exactly the same birthday as Albert Harry (May 20, 1899), we can reasonably deduce that the Harry Cherniak on the 1920 census must be the Harry Chernick named as Albert's father on his 1961 death certificate.

Problem: The wife really is named Lena, not Bluma, and she has a New York death record very different from that of Bluma Szafranski Chernick, who died in 1937. But that is not really a problem, as explained above. Harry is a brother of Ida and a son of Bluma. Bluma is "Albert's" grandmother. The Shernick family group photo of 1903 therefore makes sense. Albert is only three or four, and standing next to his grandma, who has her hand placed gently on his shoulder.

Albert, Aunt Ida and Grandma B. would naturally appear in family photos together. The photos were not faked. When sharing photos with Mildred and his sons, Albert simply left out an honest naming of his relationship to all those present. We are left to deduce their relationships ourselves.

Why, for example, was Albert named Abram Itzke Czernichow on the 1914 passenger list for the Czar? Who was Itzke?

We note with interest the Itzke Czerniak who arrived on board the Czar with Aron in December 1913, because Albert arrives seven months later under the name Avraham Itzke Czernichow.

In Russian, the middle name tends to be a patronymic, that is the middle name Itzke could mean Abraham son of Itzke.

Does Bluma have a son named Itzke Czerniak? Could Itzke actually be Albert's father?

Yup. The Itzke "Israel' Cherniak who hopped off the S.S. Czar in 1913 shows up on census records and he is exactly the right age to be the young father of Avram (Albert). As a son of Harry, he would be a brother to Ida, whose name is sometimes spelled Itke.

We find a mysterious Isadore Shernick (not mentioned in Ida's familyl legends) appearing on the Trenton. New Jersey, city directory records, helping Albert's "sister" Ida run her jewelry store in Trenton right after the death of Ida Shernick's husband, Harry Altsitzer, in early December 1913.

In other words, the sudden arrival of Itzke (Israel or Isadore) Czelniak and Aaron Itzke Czernjak on board the S.S. Czar on Christmas Eve 1913 was a direct response to the news of Harry Altsitzer's death in early December.

They immediately came to Ida's rescue. This is Ida's brother, Itzke "Isadore" Gershanowitch Schernick or Czerniak (son of Harry Czerniak) coming to Ida's rescue, and bringing along his son Aaron Itzkowich Schernick or Czernichowsky.

A few months later, when World War I broke out in summer 1914, Aaron Czernjak was sent from Trenton, New Jersey, all the way back to Alexandrovsk, Ukraine to rescue Bluma, his grandma. He probably did not travel entirely alone: Itzke may have been called back to duty in Europe after his visit with Ida's family was complete.

Hence the tattoos: They were not entirely sure that Albert aka Avram was going to come back from such a long journey alive, and their family, friends and agents along the way needed some assurance that, if Avram was killed, or called into the Army and not seen for five years, the much-changed lad who returned was him.

The tattoos were a sort of "family passport." As for his real U.S. passport, it did not have to be doctored or faked, because Aaron was the same person taking the same trip twice. It may have been a nearsighted clerk on board the S.S. Czar who decided his name was Avram Czernichow, non Aaron Czerniak.


AARON'S HOMETOWN: ZBARAZ

Aaron Czernjak appears as Avram (Albert) Itzke Czernichow arrivng with Bluma Czernichow on the July passenger list for the Czar. Nowhere on the July 1914 passenger list does it necessarily say that Bluma is Avram's mother. There is no deception involved or intended: If the name spellings on the ships passenger lists differed, that may be nothing more than sloppy translation and sloppy transcription at work by the ship bursars.

There is also no proof of deception on the 1917 World War I draft card, which names Abram's mother as Lena. Aron is the son of Lena, and possibly the grandson of Bluma. The deception only begins later, in 1926, when Abram wants to marry Mildred Shernick, and to erase his earlier family record.

Albert always said that he was born in New York and taken back to Ukraine as a child. Under his identity as Aaron Czerniak, this is true. When we look at the earliest American records for Aaron we find him living with his family on Long Island in 1900, He then went back to Ukraine, probably in 1904 when his grandfather became ill, and returned to New York in 1908. The passenger list says he came from Zbaraz, Austria (today part of Ukraine).

Look at Zbaraz on Google maps and it has a suburb called Czernichow, apparently named after the family of Albert or Aaron. They were the wealthy Jewish owners of a local sugar refinery that extracted sugar from sugar beets.

Zbaraz lists among its notable people a rabbi named "Zev Wolf of Zbaraz." Albert's grandmother Bluma Savransky was a daughter of Rabbi Zev Wolf Savransky of Tarascha, Ukraine, a small settlement near Kiev. Bluma probably went home to her family when she gave birth to Albert, which is why he was born at Vyshgorod, Kiev.

Grandfather Zev Wolf Savransky's name implies some descent from Zev Wolf of Zbaraz, Ukraine. Wikipedia tells us that Zev Wolf of Zbarazh, who died 1822, was the third son of Yechiel Michel of Zlotoshov (1725 - 1781).

Put it all together and it seems that Albert's family were proud disciples and descendants of Yechiel Michel of Zlotshov, the "Maggid of Zlotshov," who in turn was a disciple of the well-known Jewish mystic Baal Shem Tov (1698 - 1760) who founded five major Hassidic dynasties.

This means we know the family's stomping grounds back to about the year 1700. Baal Shem Tov lived near Kamianets in the region of Ternopil, Ukraine, and we do indeed find several immigration records and ships passenger lists showing the Shernick family's connections to the region of Zbaraz and Ternopil, Ukraine.

Gesher Galicia provides a nifty website with maps and a list of the well-known families from Zbarazh. You will find the Gesher Galicia Map Room here.


Albert preserved a group photo of his family (attached). His son, David Shernick, interviewed Albert's foster sister, Ida, and made a typed transcript (attached) of Ida's version of the family history. Ida said simply (and truthfully) that her own father, Abram Hersz "Harry" Czernikowski, worked as a merchant and the family of her mother, Bluma (the Savransky family) ran a large jewelry store in downtown Alexandrovsk, Dnieperpetrovsk, Ukraine.

Under the Soviets, Alexandrovsk was renamed Zaporizhzhia.

Ida's testimony asserts that Albert (also known as Avram or Aron) was her brother and she refers to Albert as the youngest son, not the grandson, of Bluma Savransky. However, Bluma's age and the 1920 census listing of Harry and Lena Cherniak as Albert's (Aaron's) parents suggests that Bluma was actually Albert's grandmother, and that Ida was actually his aunt.

The question is: Does the 1920 U.S. census correctly represent Aaron Cherniak as the son of Harry and Lena Cherniak, and is the Aaron Chernick shown in this census identical to the Albert Shernick of this profile? If they were twins, they must have been born in the same place.

Were they born in Zgierz, Zbaraz, Kiev, Tarascha or Alexandrovsk? Could they perhaps have been born as far afield as Bender, Moldova?

Narrowing the search for birth records would help enormously, and perhaps a review of Ida's family legend is in order. We need to pay close attention to where the family was living in 1899.



SOURCES

  • Shernick, Mark A. Family history records and first-hand knowledge of Albert Shernick's sons, David and Robert Shernick.
  • Shernick, Mildred Belle (1905 - 1988). Shernick Family Album, a privately held collection of photographs, documents, handwritten notes and papers collected by the wife of Albert Shernick.

Y-DNA Test Results and Y-DNA Surname Matching

Y-DNA tests recently performed by Albert's son, Robert, and his grandson, Mark, confirm that Albert is in the same Y-DNA haplotype (R1b) as the Romanov and Oldenburg families. But surname matching suggests he certainly was of Ashkenazic Jewish heritage. His Y-DNA matched to a wide variety of Jewish surnames, which is typical of the Jewish people in Eastern Europe.

Many Jews did not have surnames prior to 1820, when they were required by Russian law to adopt surnames. Consequently, Jewish families who are very definitely related through their Y-DNA may nevertheless have a wide variety of surnames, because entire branches of the same Y-DNA family adopted a wide variety of made-up or invented surnames.

Albert's Y-DNA map strongly suggests his family originated near Chernigov, Ukraine, and travelled northward into Lithuania and westward into Poland and Prussia.

On the Spelling of Shernick and Czernichow

Through the Ukrainian Tchernichovsky family, Albert is quite probably the descendant from an old and ancient dynasty of Polish-Lithuanian nobility, the Counts Czarnkov-Czarnkowski, who are an excellent example of Eastern European Crytpo-Judaism. That is, the Czarnkow-Czarnkowski family outwardly belonged to the Orthodox Church but they also intermarried with Jewish families and they proudly advertise their ancient Jewish heritage on the family shield in the form of a Star of David.

Their name has been Englished in many ways, and they are closely connected to the noble families of Czarniecki (Poland) and Tchernychov (Russia). Based on spelling alone, it is difficult to distinguish the difference between the census records of the Czarniak, Czarniecki, Czarnikow, Chernikov, Czernichow and Chernyshov or Tchernychov families.

Albert told his sons that his father was named "Harry Shernick" and he referred to his mother as Bluma Shernick. This pronunciation implies a close relationship to the Cherniack or Czarniak family of Mogilev, who also emigrated to New York.

The use of the Sh- spelling seems to be entirely whimsical. For example, Bluma presented her name as Czernichow on the ship's passenger list of the S.S. Czar, but she is buried at the Mt. Moriah Cemetery (a Jewish cemetery) under the spelling Schernick, and her death certificate is under the name Bluma Chernick. On her gravestone, the name is spelled in Hebrew.

In her 1955 interview with David Shernick, Al's sister Ida said the name was pronounced Chernitzkoff, which David typed up as Chernikov.

The problem with the "Sh" part of the Shernick name is the original letter in Cyrillic, a Y-shaped letter that is translated "Sh" or "Ch" or "Tch" or even "Tsch." This is why the famous Russian musician Tchaikovsky is sometimes called Chaikovsky, and why the Russian playwright Chekov is sometimes called Tchekhov. There are several ways to translate.

The problem with the "ck" in the name Shernick is the original letter in Cyrillic, which is an X-shape. Imagine trying to pronounce the letter X, and you can see why it is spelled in several different ways as well.

Clearly the Shernick family were trying to translate a sound, and they didn't care much about the choice of letters in English, so long as the English spelling approximated the sound of their name. Because they were multi-lingual, speaking in Russian, Ukrainian, Hebrew, Yiddish and German, there really is no official spelling of the family's last name.

The spelling Tchernichovsky has been adopted here simply to reflect the most popular English spelling of the family's name -- a spelling used often by biographers of the Hebrew poet Saul Tchernichovsky (1873 -1945), who is Albert Shernick's first cousin and one of Harry Shernick or Hersz Czernichowsky's nephews.

When one goes through the papers and letters of the poet Saul Tchernichovsky, who was a medical doctor, one finds letterhead that indicates the family sometimes used the English spelling Czernichow.

That is exactly the spelling used by Albert and Bluma Shernick on the passenger list of the S.S. Czar, and it appears to be the best possible example of the English spelling used by this family ca. 1914.

Denver Post Profile

Anonymous. "Lakewood Decorator Exposed as Being in reality An Artist" Denver Post, February 1948, pg. 12.

"Among the hundreds who patronized Taylor's restaurant, 7000 West Colfax avenue, at the grand opening of this modern eating house last week-end were many who were heard to exclaim with pleasure over the mural paintings in dining room and bar.

"Who was the artist that did these stunning dancing figures?" was the query of one fur-coated woman to the manager F. Faughn Shelly. "They're perfect for their setting." Shelly told her. "They were done by a Lakewood artist."

And that's the 'who' of this story. A Lakewood man who is a craftsman in the fine arts but earns his livlihood as a painter, decorator and paperhanger.

Back in 1920 this artist was a theatrical decorator in New York City. He worked on scenery and decorating for the Florenz Ziegfeld Follies. He plied his artistic brush for Eddie Cantor's musical comedy "Jumbo."

This man is a graduate of the School of Fine and Applied Arts in New York City worked with some of the country's finest artists in decorating the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. His work took him to other parts of the country in a 25-year period.

Fifteen years ago the artist located in Lakewood and has been here ever since, now operates a painting and decorating service whose compelling slogan is "The best doesn't cost, it pays."

The artist's name is Al Shernick, who lives at 2130 Bell Court.

Although Mr. Shernick also designed the abstract decorations in the new Taylor's restaurant, it is the paintings which excited the most comment.

"Where did you get the inspiration for the paintings?" Artist Shernick was asked.

"Out of my theatrical experience, I suppose," he smiled. "They just sorta took form in my mind while my crew was doing the painting. Seemed like a good idea to have dancing figures in a place as congenial as Taylor's. And Mr. Taylor liked the idea too."

So Mr. Shernick set to work and produced a series of dancing scenes which depict various eras from the stately minuet to the buffoonery of a masquerade ball. The latter appropriately enough adorns a wall alongside the bar.

When it is suggested to Mr. Shernick that he had been hiding his light under a bushel by majoring in the painting trade rather than in mural art, he reminded the reporter of the economic uncertainties of picture painting as compared with the constant demand for painting and decorating.

However, it may be interesting for his fellow-Lakewoodites to know that the compelling murals in the Denargo market were done by Al Shernick of Lakewood. Other notable examples of his decorative art are the murals in the Brown Palace Ship's tavern, decorations in porte-chochere at Fitzsimmons General hospital, the Senator Lawrence Phipps home and the John Morey residence in Denver.

[END]

For a nice summary of the the history of Taylor's Supper Club, 7000 W. Colfax, see Studley, Jessica Colfax Restaurateur Re-Opens Sammy's Doors," Denver Business Journal, 17 July 1999.

Books

Birmingham, Stephen. The Rest of Us: The Rise of America's Eastern European Jews (Boston: Little Brown, 1984).

  • For Meyer Lansky's early history as Meyer Suchowljansky, see pp. 78-80.
  • For Meyer Lansky of Grodno as a crime figure in New York, see pp. 141 - 149.
  • For Lansky's connections to Samuel Bronfman of Toronto, see pp. 149 - 156.
  • For the Seagrams liquor business in Toronto and Buffalo, New York during Prohibition, see Bronfrman, Samuel, pp. 149 - 156.
  • For Baron Alain de Gunzburg and Minda Bronfman de Gunzburg, see pp. 317-318.
  • For descriptions of mobsters Mickey Cohen and Benny Siegel, see pp. 264 - 265, pp. 287 - 292.
  • For Samuel Goldwyn (Shmuel Gelbfisz) and his start in the movie business, see pp. 183 - 191.

Clarke, William. The Lost Fortune of the Tsars (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994)

Huitfeldt, H.J. Efterretninger om familien v. Zernichow (Czernichow) i Norge (Kjøbenhavn : Hoffensberg & Traps Etabl., 1882).

Null, Gary. The Conspirator Who Saved The Romanovs (New York: Pinnacle Books, 1973).

Richards, Guy. The Hunt for the Czar (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1970).

Smythe, James P. Rescuing the Czar (San Francisco: California Printing Co., 1920)

Tarsaidze, Alexandre. Czars and Presidents (New York: McDowell Obolensky, Inc., 1958)


20 May 1899 Birth Records Not Found

According to the stories that Albert told his wife, Mildred Belle Shaw, he was born in New York but brought up as a child in Russia and Europe. His World War I draft registration form, however, says that he was born in Russia.

A formal request for his birth records from the city and county of New York City resulted in a letter indicating his birth record could not be found. A search of the New York, New York Birth Index 1878 - 1909 at Ancestry.com also produces no record of birth in New York City.

Identification Tattooed on His Arm

Al Shernick's death certificate (based on the 1961 testimony of Mildred Shaw) gives his birth date as 20 May 1899 -- a date that he actually had tattooed on his forearm. A photograph, in his famiy's privately held collection, shows the tattoo clearly.

When asked why his birthdate was tatooed on his arm, Al replied that his brothers had given him the tattoo before he left Russia in 1914 -- so they could be sure of his identity after the war.

They were quite literally concerned that his ship might be sunk by U-boats during his effort to reach America or he might return to them from the Russian war front in a body bag or pine box. They knew from bitter experience that to identify a body requires a tattoo. So they gave him one.

On his left arm, Albert had the tattoo "May 20 1899" and an anchor.

Family photographs, census records, the tattoo on Albert's forearm (photographed) and ship's passenger list records all support the same birth year: May 20, 1899.

In addition, his twin brother Aaron's first immigration record, 23 December 1908 on board the S.S. Noordam, indicates that Aaron himself had a tattoo on his right forearm that reads: Nanu V 1869.

Nanu is a Hebrew form of the name Nathan'El or Nathaniel. V may stand for Vader or Father in German. 1869 seems to indicate that Aaron is the son of a father named Nathaniel who was born in 1869.

In their reconstructed family tree, Albert and Aaron do indeed match very nicely with Naftali Hersz (Nathaniel) Cherniack, who is listed in American census records with a birth year of 1869 or 1870.

Nathaniel married to Ann Shenk in the year 1899, the year of Albert's birth.

Possible 1899 Polish Birth Record

Abram Mordka Czerniak in the Poland, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, Births, 1550-1993

  • Name: Abram Mordka Czerniak
  • Birth Date: 1899
  • Father's Name: Wolf
  • Father's Age: 25
  • Mother's Name: Liba Chojnacka
  • Mother's Age: 21
  • Film: 530225
  • Line: 2

Source Information JRI-Poland Shtetl CO-OP Volunteers, comp. Poland, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, Births, 1550-1993 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.

Original data: Specific source information is provided with each record. This JRI-Poland data is provided in partnership with JewishGen.org. JRI-Poland is an independent organization and its database is hosted by JewishGen.

Place of brother's birth identified as "Wysorod" Ukraine in 1908 Immigration Record

Aron Czerniak in the New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

  • Name: Aron Czerniak
  • Gender: Male
  • Ethnicity/ Nationality: Hebrew
  • Marital status: Single
  • Age: 9
  • Birth Date: abt 1899
  • Birth Place: Russia
  • Other Birth Place: Wysorod City: Vyshhorod, Kiev, Ukraine
  • Last Known Residence: Zbarnez, Austria [Zbaraz, Ukraine]
  • Departure Port: Rotterdam
  • Arrival Date: 23 Dec 1908
  • Arrival Port: New York, New York, USA
  • Final Destination: New York, New York
  • Hair Color: Brown
  • Eye Color: Brown
  • Complexion: Fair
  • Identifying Marks: Tattoo on Rt. Arm (Nanu V 1869)
  • Person in Old Country: B Altstotten
  • Person in Old Country Residence: Zboray Gal Zbarazh, Galicia
  • Person in US: S Czerniak
  • Person in US Relationship: Father

Father: S Czerniak

  • Ship Name: Noordam

Source Citation Year: 1908; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 27; Page Number: 125


Place of origin: Alexandrovsk, Dnieperpetrovsk, Ukraine

The passenger list for the S.S. Czar on 29 July 1914 very clearly indicates that Abram Isai Czernichow and his guardian, Bluma Czernichowa, originated in Alexandrovsk. The passenger list also indicates that their contact in New York is Ida Altsitzer of Trenton, New Jersey, and it gives an address that matches Ida (Shernick) Altsitzer's address in the Trenton City Directory.

Abram Czernichow in the New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

  • Name: Abram Czernichowa
  • Gender: Male
  • Age: 14
  • Birth Date: abt 1900
  • Arrival Date: 29 Jul 1914
  • Arrival Port: New York, New York, USA
  • Ship Name: Czar


Source Citation Year: 1914; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 2; Page Number: 198

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Original data:

Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897. Microfilm Publication M237, 675 rolls. NAI: 6256867. Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36. National Archives at Washington, D.C.

Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957. Microfilm Publication T715, 8892 rolls. NAI: 300346. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.

Search for Records from Alexandrovsk

Family notes made by Al's wife, Mildred B. Shaw, and his son, David A. Shernick, indicate that Al was brought up by a fairly typical German-Russian family of the middle class (jewelry shop keepers) from Alexandrovsk, Dnieperpetrovsk, in the district of Ekaterinoslav, Ukraine.

There was certainly a large Jewish community living in Alexandrovsk ca. 1914. See the following page from JewishGen.org with a map of old Alexandrovsk (today called Zaporozhe): [1]

Mildred Shernick's family history notes indicate Albert's father was named Harry Shernick, his mother was named Bluma, and he had three brothers (Jacob, Mark and David) and three sisters (Ida, Lucille and Bertha).

Unfortunately, no official census records of his family cluster have been found in Alexandrovsk.

A thorough search requires better access to distant and hard-to-reach archives and records in Ukraine. To get results, one must also perform searches based on a proper spelling of the family's name in Russian and Ukrainian. In the case of the Schernikow family (which translates its name in many different ways) the problem of overseas research is very difficult.

YIVO Landsmannshaftn Archives in New York

Fortunately, as it turns out, one does not have to travel all the way to Ukraine to find out how the family once spelled its name in Russian, Ukrainian, Yiddish or Hebrew.

One only needs to view the gravestone of Albert's aunt (his adopted mother), Bluma, at the Mt. Moriah Cemetery (see photo attached to Bluma's profile).

Bluma's grave and death records were successfully located with the kind assistance of the staff at the YIVO Institute, 15 W. 16th Street, New York, NY. See YIVO's website at this link: https://www.yivo.org/

Death Records for Bluma Shernick Give Clues

The death records for Al's mother, Bluma Shernick (also spelled Schernick or Chernick) may be found at the archives of the YIVO Institute in New York City amongst the records of the Alexandrovsk Benevolent Association.

This association was a "landsmannschaft" or mutual aid society that helped fellow-citizens from Alexandrovsk to immigrate to America. The association arranged for passports, passage, employment, insurance and even burial plots in a community graveyard.

The records at YIVO indicate Bluma died at 433 Central Park West in 1936 and is buried on the grounds of the Alexandrovsk Benevolent Association at the Mt. Moriah cemetery across the river from Central Park.

The family's first names all sound Germanic, and Alexandrovsk was known to have a large community of German Jews and German Mennonites (the Chortitza or Khortitza Colony) who established important industrial factories during the late 19th century.

Alexandrovsk (Zaporozhe) became a closed city under the Soviets, because its industries were so vital to Soviet war efforts. It was also invaded by the Germans during World War II. Many records were destroyed.

Unfortunately, the records of the Shernick, Schornick or Czernichow family in Alexandrovsk were among those that have vanished.

Only the records of their American cousins have survived.


Father, Brothers and Sisters Named in Mildred's Notes

When we refer to the family history notes (attached) made by Al Shernick's wife, Mildred Belle Shaw, they are very confused and confusing: It is unclear whether the family lived in Kovno (Lithuania), Vienna (Austria), St. Petersburg or Moscow (Russia), Alexandrovsk, Kiev or Odessa (Ukraine), Tiflis (Tbilsi, the capital of Georgia) or all of the above.

How does one begin to find records? Obviously by making a global search based on names. Despite great confusion surrounding the exact location of Al's birth and childhood, a few names keep shining through the fog.

Albert allegedly had three brothers: Jacob, Mark and David Shernick, and three sisters, Ida, Lucille and Bertha Shernick. Mildred's notes sometimes mention a sister named Ella, but this appears to be a second name used by Bertha: her full name may have been Ella Bertha Shernick.

Family Group Photograph as Time Peg

While we don't have exact birth and death locations and dates for Albert's brothers and sisters, a Shernick family group photo, taken about 1903, helps to establish approximate ages for each and an approximate time line. The photo has been attached.

Al appears front and center in the Shernick family group photo (taken ca. 1903) as a little boy in a sailor suit -- with the hand of his mother Bluma placed gently on his shoulder. Buster Brown sailor suits were all the rage in children's fashions during the early 1900s, and many children wore them -- they imply no connection whatever to the navy.

Using Al's birth in 1899 as an anchor, one can guesstimate the ages of his entire family. Albert looks about three or four years old, which means the photo was taken 1902 or 1903.

  • His father looks over 40 and was born about 1859
  • His mother was born about 1860 (confirmed by census records)
  • They married ca 1880.
  • His brother Mark looks about 23 (born 1880);
  • His sister Ida looks about 21 and was born about 1882
  • His brother Jacob looks about 20 (born about 1883);
  • His brother David about 18 (born about 1885);
  • His sister Lucille looks about 16 (she was born 18 April 1888 according to her death certificate);
  • His sister Bertha is about age 11 (born 1892)

1900 U.S. Census [Babylon, New York] under name Aaron Charmak

Aaron Charmak in the 1900 United States Federal Census

  • Name Aaron Charmak [Aaron Cherniak]
  • Age 0
  • Birth Date May 1900
  • Birthplace New York, USA
  • Home in 1900 Babylon, Suffolk, New York
  • Sheet Number 4
  • Number of Dwelling in Order of Visitation 75
  • Family Number 75
  • Race White
  • Gender Male
  • Relation to Head of House Son
  • Marital Status Single
  • Father's Name Isidor Charmak
  • Father's Birthplace Germany
  • Mother's Name Natalia Charmak
  • Mother's Birthplace Germany

Household Members:

  • Isidor Charmak 36 Head [b. 1864]
  • Natalia Charmak 31 Wife [b. 1869]
  • Hannah Charmak 13 Daughter [b. 1887]
  • Max Charmak 8 Son [b. 1892]
  • Hattie Charmak 7 Daughter
  • Mollie Charmak 7 Daughter
  • Ida Charmak 4 Daughter
  • Jennie Charmak 1 Daughter
  • Aaron Charmak 0 Son

Source Citation Year: 1900; Census Place: Babylon, Suffolk, New York; Roll: 1165; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0737

Source Information Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.

"United States Census, 1900", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSGF-7LS : Thu Oct 05 13:03:47 UTC 2023), Entry for Isidor Charmak and Natalia Charmak, 1900.

April 1902 Steamship ticket account opened at Rosenbaum Bank, Philadelphia, PA

Abram Czernichewsky in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., Jewish Immigrant Banks Passage Book Records, 1890-1949

  • Name Abram Czernichewsky
  • Account Open Date 17 Apr 1902
  • Account Open Place Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
  • Purchaser's Name M Becker
  • Bank Rosenbaum Bank

Source Information Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center and Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Philadelphia, comp. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., Jewish Immigrant Banks Passage Book Records, 1890-1949 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.

Original data:

People's Bank. Prepaid steamship ticket record, 1906-1948. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Blitzstein Steamship Company. Ticket purchase books and index, 1899-1930. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Rosenbaum Steamship Company. Ticket purchase books, 1890-1934. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

This data is provided in partnership with JewishGen.org.

JewishGen

Description In the port cities on the east coast of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century, many charitable organizations aided immigrants arriving from Europe.


August 1904 Abram Czernikow arrives in Baltimore, MD

When making a global search for records of any Abraham Czernichow born ca. 1899, we get an unexpected hit on passenger lists. This seems to be Albert travelling to America in the company of his older sister, Liuba (Lieb), who was later called Lucille.

"Abrom Czernikow" appears in the Baltimore, Passenger Lists, 1820-1964:

  • Name: Abrom Czernikow
  • Gender: Male
  • Race: Hebrew
  • Birthdate: 1901
  • Age: 3
  • Arrival Date: Aug 1904
  • Port of Departure: Bremen, Germany
  • Ship Name: Cassel
  • Port of Arrival: Baltimore, Maryland
  • Destination: Baltimore, Maryland
  • Friend's Name: Leib Czernikow [listed as father and resident of Cleveland, Ohio]
  • Last Residence: Russia
  • Page: 184

Source Citation:

The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Records of the US Customs Service, RG36; NAI Number: 2655153; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85

Source Information: Ancestry.com. Baltimore, Passenger Lists, 1820-1964 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Selected Passenger and Crew Lists and Manifests. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Description::

This database is an index to the passenger lists of ships and airplanes arriving at the port of Baltimore, Maryland, USA, from 1820 to 1964. The names found in the index are linked to actual images of the passenger lists and airplane manifests, digitized from National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm. Information contained in the index includes given name, surname, age, gender, ethnicity, nationality or last country of permanent residence, destination, arrival date, port of arrival, port of departure, ship name, and microfilm roll and page number.

This record suggests that further research in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. records are in order, if only to identify Leib Czernichow, whose name resembles that of Lucille Shernick (Luba Czernichowa).

To date, however, this lead is a dead end.

Brother Jakob in Czar's Guard?

Another avenue for teasing information from the Shernick family photo of 1903 is a search on military uniforms. At least one of the brothers shown is clearly wearing a military uniform.

According to a long-held family legend amongst the Shernick family of Colorado, Al's oldest "brother" in the family photo was a Cossack guard to Czar Nicholas II. That doesn't sound very likely for a Jewish family, does it?

But what if the uniformed gentleman called "Jakob" in the family photo is not Albert's brother? What if he is Albert's birth father?

A search of the internet certainly produces a match: Jakob appears to be wearing the uniform of an unterofficer in a rifle brigade of the Czar's Life Guard.

The Life Guard regiment was reserved exclusively for members of the Russian Imperial Family -- the Romanov family. In other words, this is not the kind of unit to which a Jewish merchant's son might have belonged. You don't get into a Guard unit by passing a civil service exam! It required proof of three generations of nobility and the written recommendation of a Russian general.

Is it possible the Czernichow or Tchernichowsky family had somehow intermarried with the Romanovs? No, not likely.

It is not very likely that the Czernichows intermarried with the Romanovs. It is not even likely that they moved in the same social circles -- marriages between members of the Russian Orthodox church and members of the Jewish faith were very strongly discouraged by the leaders of both religions.

But the Tchernichowskys were a very talented and clever family, and exactly the kind of men that a Russian nobleman might want to employ as his estate managers. It is perfectly possible that members of the Tchernichowsky family were employed as estate managers by the local nobility - the Counts Bobrinsky, the Counts Chernyshev, or The Counts von Zarnekau.

And it is certainly possible that Chana Tchernichovwsky might have fallen for one of the local landlord's dashing young sons in uniform. Guardsmen were notorious as ladykillers.

The Life Guard is exactly the sort of unit to which one of the Counts von Zarnekau might have belonged, because they certainly were members of the Imperial Family (albeit a cadet branch). Their father was a general of the Kuban Cossacks based at Tiflis and a former member of the Life Guard.

Indeed Nicholas von Zarnekau [2], one of the sons of Duke Constantine Petrovich, was a member of the Tsar's Horse Guard, and Nicholas (b. 1885) does bear a vague resemblance to Jakob Shernick (b. ca. 1883).

Another clue may be found in the details of Mildred's notes.

Al certainly liked to tell stories at the supper table, and one of his favorite family history stories centered on his "brother" Jacob, a member of the Czar's guard, saving the entire Czernichow family by fending off an angry mob with nothing but his sword.

Childhood Memory of 1905 Pogrom?

As the legend goes, just before Easter in 1905, the family were warned that they must place a cross in their front window as a sign that they were Christians. Those who did not have a cross in their window would be attacked.

The Czernichow family refused to comply. As a family of mixed religion, they may have done this out of principle. But they also probably realized that their religion made no difference: They were living above a jewelry store, and the temptation for a mob to rob their store clearly outweighed the presence or absence of any sign in the window.

It seems that the gentleman named "Jacob," alarmed by these warnings, stood guard over the Czernichow family. At passover, said Al, exactly as warned, a mob of thugs (black hundreds) came down the street and began to throw rocks through the windows of Jewish houses and shops.

Spying no Cross in the window of the Czernichow family's jewelry shop, they smashed their windows and began to break down the front door.

Jacob sounded the alarm and put up a stout defense on the stairwell as the family ran into an upper room and barred the door behind them.

Al, who was present, said he could hear the shouts and screams of men and the sounds of heads going bump, bump, bump down the stairs as Jacob roared and decapitated the intruders with his sword.

Meanwhile, his adopted parents, his uncle Hersz and Aunt Bluma, had desperately thrown all of their silver onto a dining room table cloth, escaped out a back window. They ran to the stables and were quickly hidden under a wagon of hay by a faithful servant, who calmly drove the wagon out a back gate.

How Jacob himself escaped is a mystery never explained. The mob reportedly chased him to a nearby river and were shooting at him as he dove into the water. He was not seen again for many years.

When one searches the newspapers of this period in an effort to find a noble family with a name like Czernichow who had a similar experience of being attacked, one discovers that Ramona, the chateau of the Grand Duke Alexander von Oldenburg [3] at Voronezh, was attacked by peasants in 1907.

This grand duke was the uncle of the Counts and Countesses von Zarnekau, and he became their guardian after their father's death in 1906. By no small coincidence, Alexander Petrovich Oldenburg was also a former commander (1880 - 1884) of the 1st Guards Infantry Division, which contained among its units His Majesty the Tsar's 1st Life Guards Rifle Regiment.

A 1909 photograph of the officers of this Rifle regiment, posted at Wikimedia Commons here, includes a gentleman in the front row (far right) who looks strikingly like the Jacob Shernick shown in my grandfather's family photo.

In fact this man, who is facially identical to the man called "Jakob" in Albert's family photo, strongly resembles the Grand Duke Peter Oldenburg, son of the Grand Duke Alexander Petrovich Oldenburg, former commander of this unit.

The Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg (1868 - 1924), as a member of the royal family, has a very clear history at Wikipedia here. He is notable for having married to the Tsar's sister, the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Romanov (1868 - 1960), who lived for many years at Toronto, Ontario, with her second husband.

Al's family legend may therefore be a mangled version of events that actually occured at Voronezh in 1907. If the Counts and Countesses von Zarnekau were present at dinner with their uncle Duke Alexander Petrovich Oldenburg when the 1907 attack took place, it would have been very much as described.

The von Zarnekau family's father, Duke Constantine Petrovich Oldenburg, had been a commander of a Kuban Cossack regiment stationed near Tiflis, and also stationed near Alexandrovsk, Ukraine (not far from Voronezh).

Because Constantine Petrovich's family and estates were placed under the care of Duke Alexander Petrovich in 1903, three years before Constantine's death in 1906, the counts and countesses may have been sent to live with their uncle Alexander Petrovich at Voronezh.

There's only one problem: This explanation assumes that the Czernichow or Tchernichowsky family and the Counts von Zarnekau were on very chummy terms, if not one and the same family.

Were they? Therein lies a tale: an interesting set of uncanny matches between the garbled details of Mildred's notes and the published history of the Counts von Zarnekau.

Brother Mark in the Czar's Okhrana?

Albert's son, Robert, recalls that Al once said his brother Mark [4] was a lawyer, and a member of the Czar's secret police, the Okhrana. [5]

This may not be as sinister as it sounds: The Okhrana were the F.B.I. of their day. The Reds may have hated them, but many people amongst the aristocracy admired them. Also, they had thousands of informants spread all over Russia.

It is unclear whether Mark was a senior officer, or a low-level informant. There is almost no other information on Mark, except that he, too, was either shot or became a political prisoner.

If he was a genuine officer of the Okhrana, then this history for Mark Czernichow (who was born about 1886) roughly parallels the history of Count Alexis von Zarnekau [6], who was born in 1887.

There is another oddity: Mark's photo strongly resembles that of Count Alexis.

When we examine the records of the Counts von Zarnekau, we discover that Count Alexis was alleged to be a member of the Bolo Club, the group who participated with Sidney Reilly ("ace of spies") [7] in the Lockhart Plot [8] to assassinate Moses Ouritzky [9] and Vladimir Lenin. He was either captured by Bolsheviks and made a political prisoner or shot in late 1918. [10]

Sources conflict.

Put simply: He disappeared.


1905 Death of Harry Shernick?

According to the notes of Mildred Shernick and her son David, Al's father, Harry Shernick, died "broken-hearted over a forbidden marriage." In 1905 he allegedly traveled to Vienna, where he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He went home to die.

Mildred's notes say he died 15 August 1905. His place of burial was unknown to Mildred.

This story roughly parallels the death of Duke Constantine Petrovich of Oldenburg, who was the father of the Counts and Countesses von Zarnekau and a member of the Russian Imperial Family.

Duke Constantine Petrovich of Oldenburg died in 1906. He died after being banished from the Czar's court -- a banishment based, essentially, on a forbidden marriage. In 1893, Duke Constantine Petrovich arranged a forbidden marriage between one of his wife's cousins and one of his neighbors: HSH George Alexandrovich Romanov, the brother of Czar Nicholas II and Czarevich of All the Russias (George was the heir to the Russian throne until Czar Nicholas had his first and only son, Alexei, on 12 August 1904).

Maria Feodorovna (the dowager empress and mother of Nicholas II), was very angry with Duke Constantine Petrovich for making this forbidden match. Any marriage of the Czarevich was a matter of great diplomatic importance, and had to be approved by the Czar.

More importantly, George was a family favorite, very much loved by his mother Maria and by his brother Nicholas. The forbidden marriage caused a serious rupture in the Imperial family, and hurt them deeply.

Marie Feodorovna bitterly blamed Constantine Petrovich for having interfered with their once happy family. By arranging the match Duke Constantine Petrovich had meddled not only with the happiness of the Imperial Family itself but also with the royal line of succession.

Indeed, to make matters worse, the Grand Duke George Romanov and his wife, Princess Nakachidze, produced at least three children between 1893 and 1899, before George died of consumption near Tiflis (modern-day Tibilsi, the capital of Georgia) on 10 July 1899.

The royal heir's obituary in the New York Times very clearly indicates George was married, but for diplomatic reasons it does not name his wife or children. The Czar had only daughters at this time, and the line of succession was a very touchy issue. Everyone in St. Petersburg wanted the Grand Duke Michael (the youngest brother of Nicholas and George) to become the heir, not these Georgian brats.

In 1904, several English-language newspapers reported that Duke Constantine Petrovich of Oldenburg had been banished from Russia for promoting the "Nakachidze claimants" (a boy named Cyril and two other children of Grand Duke George) at court.

In other words, he had not left the issue alone. Claiming to represent the children, he had raised the issue of succession at court, embarrassed everyone, and circulated a letter to all the royalty in Europe claiming that George's children were legitimate heirs to the Russian throne.

Maria Feodorovna was furious, and banned Constantine Petrovich from court. He was not only banned from St. Petersburg, but also declared insane and stripped of all his ranks, titles and possessions, then told to leave Russia.

He retired in utter disgrace.

Broken-hearted, Duke Constantine died only a year later at Nice (the south of France) in 1906, His entire fortune and family were left in the care of his brother, the Grand Duke Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg, the owner of the estate at Voronezh that was attacked in 1907.

26 March 1905 Abraham, b. 1894, arrives New York from London aboard the S.S. Philadelphia with mother

Abram Czernichowski in the New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

  • Name Abram Czernichowski
  • Gender Male
  • Ethnicity/ Nationality Hebrew
  • Age 11
  • Birth Date abt 1894
  • Departure Port Southampton, England
  • Arrival Date 26 Mar 1905
  • Arrival Port New York, New York, USA
  • Residence Place London
  • Ship Name Philadelphia

Destination: "Sam Czernichowski, Husband, 82 Orchard St., New York"

Source Citation The National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, D.C.; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at and Departing from Ogdensburg, New York, 5/27/1948 - 11/28/1972; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715, 1897-1957

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

1906 to 1907: Al's sisters move to America

After the attack on their home ca. 1905 - 1907 and the death of their father about the same year, Al's sister Ida and her husband Harry Altsitzer decided to leave Russia and move to the United States. They settled in Trenton, Mercer county, New Jersey and opened a jewelry store there on State Street.

Later the next year, in 1907, Lucille (Liuba or Libe) Czernichow followed her sister and landed in New York City, where she began a long career as a talented actress and singer on the Vaudeville stage. Lucille later told a newspaper that she had once worked with a gypsy street-singing group in Moscow, and received her training in the cafe-concert circuit there. Family legend also indicates Lucille was formally trained in opera at Vienna.

3 June 1906 Abram Czernjak arrives New York aboard S.S. Lucania

Abram Chernjak in the New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

  • Name: Abram Chernjak
  • Arrival Date: 3 Jun 1906
  • Arrival Port: New York, New York, USA
  • Ship Name: Lucania

Wikipedia: RMS Lucania (Cunard Line)

Source Citation Year: 1906; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 13; Page Number: 51

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Original data:

Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897. Microfilm Publication M237, 675 rolls. NAI: 6256867. Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36. National Archives at Washington, D.C.

Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957. Microfilm Publication T715, 8892 rolls. NAI: 300346. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.


23 Dec 1908 Aaron Czerniak arrives New York aboard S.S. Noordam

Aron Czerniak New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924

Name: Aron Czerniak

  • Event Type: Immigration
  • Event Date: 23 Dec 1908
  • Event Place: Ellis Island, New York City, New York, United States
  • Residence Place: Zbaraz, Austria
  • Gender: Male
  • Age: 9
  • Marital Status: Single
  • Nationality: Russia, Hebrew
  • Birth Year: 1899
  • Departure Port: Rotterdam, Holland
  • Ship Name: Noordam
  • Additional Name: B Ste???
  • Arrival Contact Name: S Czerniak
  • Arrival Contact Name Relationship: Father
  • Page Number: 125
  • Affiliate Line Number: 0027

Record Collection: New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924

  • Document Information: Affiliate Film Number T715-1180
  • GS Film Number 1399864
  • Digital Folder Number 007659130
  • Image Number 01037

Citing this Record "New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JXR7-96T : 20 August 2019), Aron Czerniak, 1908.

23 March 1909 Aron Czerniak Arrives New York with Relatives from Zbarazh

Aron Czerniak in the New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

  • Name: Aron Czerniak
  • Gender: Male
  • Ethnicity/ Nationality: Hebrew
  • Marital status: Single
  • Age: 9
  • Birth Date: abt 1899
  • Birth Place: Russia
  • Other Birth Place: Wysorod
  • Last Known Residence: Zbarnez, Austria
  • Departure Port: Rotterdam
  • Arrival Date: 23 Dec 1908
  • Arrival Port: New York, New York, USA
  • Final Destination: New York, New York
  • Hair Color: Brown
  • Eye Color: Brown
  • Complexion: Fair
  • Identifying Marks: Tattoo on Rt. Arm (Nanu V 1869)
  • Person in Old Country: B Altstotten
  • Person in Old Country Residence: Zboray Gal
  • Person in US: S Czerniak
  • Person in US Relationship: Father
  • Father: S Czerniak
  • Ship Name: Noordam

Source Citation Year: 1908; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 27; Page Number: 125

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Original data:

Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897. Microfilm Publication M237, 675 rolls. NAI: 6256867. Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36. National Archives at Washington, D.C.

Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957. Microfilm Publication T715, 8892 rolls. NAI: 300346. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.

... Czerniak New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924

  • Name: ... Czerniak
  • Event Type: Immigration
  • Event Date: 23 Mar 1909
  • Event Place: Ellis Island, New York City, New York, United States
  • Residence Place: Zbaraz, Austria
  • Gender: Female
  • Age: 11
  • Marital Status: Single
  • Nationality: Austria, Hebrew
  • Birth Year: 1898
  • Departure Port: Rotterdam, Holland
  • Ship Name: Nieuw Amsterdam
  • Additional Name: B Altstatter
  • Arrival Contact Name: S Czerniak
  • Arrival Contact Name Relationship: Husband
  • Page Number: 54
  • Affiliate Line Number: 0011

Record Collection: New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924

Document Information: Affiliate Film Number T715-1223 GS Film Number 1399907 Digital Folder Number 007673030 Image Number 00427

Citing this Record "New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JXT2-Y48 : 20 August 2019), ... Czerniak, 1909.


1909 Abram Czernichow arrives New York aboard the S.S. Vaderland with sister Itke Shornikova and her children

It seems the arrival of the SS Czar in 1914 was not Al's first trip to America. Someone named Abram Czernichow had already paid a visit to America in 1909. He appears on the passenger list of the S.S. Vaderland, arriving in New York with his sister Itke Shornikova and her children.

3 January 1912 Four Czernichows arrive New York aboard S.S. Vaderland

The very same ship. the SS Vaderland, brought four Czernichows to America in January of 1912.

See for example Feigl Czernichow in the New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957

  • Name: Feigi Czernichow
  • Arrival Date: 3 Jan 1912
  • Birth Date: abt 1899
  • Birth Location: Russia
  • Birth Location Other: Kosowe
  • Age: 13
  • Gender: Female
  • Ethnicity/ Nationality: Hebrew
  • Port of Departure: Antwerp, Belgium
  • Port of Arrival: New York, New York
  • Ship Name: Vaderland

Source Citation Year: 1912; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 1793; Line: 2; Page Number: 38

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Original data:

Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957. Microfilm Publication T715, 8892 rolls. NAI: 300346. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.

Supplemental Manifests of Alien Passengers and Crew Members Who Arrived on Vessels at New York, New York, Who Were Inspected for Admission, and Related Index, compiled 1887-1952. Microfilm Publication A3461, 21 rolls. NAI: 3887372. RG 85, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

1912: Harry Altsitzer in Trenton, NJ City Directory

Ida Shernick's husband, Harry Altsitzer is listed in the Trenton, NJ city directory for 1912, according to "The U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995"

  • Name: Harry Altsitzer
  • Residence Year: 1912
  • Street address: 228 E State and 214 S Broad
  • Residence Place: Trenton, New Jersey, USA
  • Publication Title: Trenton, New Jersey, City Directory, 1912

Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data: Original sources vary according to directory. The title of the specific directory being viewed is listed at the top of the image viewer page. Check the directory title page image for full title and publication information.

David Czerniak, son of Abram, arrives New York 20 March 1912 aboard S.S. Potsdam

Dawid Czerniak in the New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957


  • Name: Dawid Czerniak
  • Gender: Male
  • Ethnicity/ Nationality: Hebrew
  • Marital status: Single
  • Age: 17
  • Birth Date: abt 1895
  • Birth Place: Austria
  • Other Birth Place: Nahatzow
  • Last Known Residence: Nahatzor, Austria
  • Departure Port: Rotterdam
  • Arrival Date: 20 Mar 1912
  • Arrival Port: New York, New York, USA
  • Final Destination: New York, New York
  • Height: 5 Feet, 2 Inches
  • Hair Color: Brown
  • Eye Color: Brown
  • Complexion: Fair
  • Money in Possession: 3
  • Person in Old Country: Abram Czerniak
  • Person in Old Country Relationship: Father
  • Person in Old Country Residence: Nahatzor Gal
  • Person in US: Jacob L Rothberger
  • Person in US Relationship: Uncle
  • Father: Abram Czerniak
  • Ship Name: Potsdam
  • Search Ship Database: Search for the Potsdam in the 'Passenger Ships and Images' database

Source Citation Year: 1912; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 14; Page Number: 140

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Original data:

Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897. Microfilm Publication M237, 675 rolls. NAI: 6256867. Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36. National Archives at Washington, D.C.

Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957. Microfilm Publication T715, 8892 rolls. NAI: 300346. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.

26 June 1912, Abram Czernjak, age 16, Arrives New York City from Libau aboard S.S. Russia

The ship's passenger list indicates four members of the Czerniak family from Mogilev travelling from Libau to New Haven, Connecticut aboard the S.S. Russia.

The father, age 46 [b. 1866], is "Chaitzke" Czernichow, a smith, whose wife Sura remains at home in Russia. Three children are also listed: Liba, a tailoress, age 20 [born 1882]; Freida, a tailoress, age 18 [born 1884], and Abram, 16 [born 1896], a joiner.

Abram Czernjak in the New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

  • Name: Abram Czernjak
  • Gender: Male
  • Ethnicity/ Nationality: Hebrew
  • Marital status: Single
  • Age: 16
  • Birth Date: abt 1896
  • Birth Place: Russia
  • Other Birth Place: Dribi
  • Last Known Residence: Mogilew, Russia
  • Departure Port: Libau, Latvia
  • Arrival Date: 26 Jun 1912
  • Arrival Port: New York, New York, USA
  • Final Destination: New Haven, Connecticut
  • Height: 5 Feet
  • Hair Color: Dark
  • Eye Color: Brown
  • Complexion: Dark
  • Money in Possession: $100
  • Person in Old Country: Sora Czernjak
  • Person in Old Country Relationship: Wife
  • Person in Old Country Residence: Mogilew Magil God.
  • Person in US: S Konick
  • Spouse [Mother]: Sora Czernjak
  • Ship Name: Russia


Source Citation Year: 1912; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 4; Page Number: 184

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Original data:

Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897. Microfilm Publication M237, 675 rolls. NAI: 6256867. Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36. National Archives at Washington, D.C.

Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957. Microfilm Publication T715, 8892 rolls. NAI: 300346. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.

Source Citation: Click here for image [11] Year: 1912; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 1888; Line: 4; Page Number: 184

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Original data:

Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957. Microfilm Publication T715, 8892 rolls. NAI: 300346. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.


1913 Requests for Russian Passports

According to Mildred Shernick's notes, Ida Shernick was also known as Etta or Etka (Itke). When searching for her passport in the index to Russian Consular Records (the microfilmed records of Russian consulates in America, now available through any LDS family history center), this writer found copies of passports requested by Harry Czernichow of Philadelphia, right across the river from Trenton).

Abram Czernickow Steamship Ticket Purchase Account April 19, 1913

The Philadelphia Bank Immigrant Passage Records collection indicate that one Max Shernekoff of Philadelphia opened an account at the Rosenbaum Bank on 19 April 1913 in order to purchase a steamship ticket for Abram Czernickow.

Abram Czernickow in the Philadelphia Bank Immigrant Passage Records, 1890-1949

  • Passenger's Name: Abram Czernickow
  • Account Open Date: 19 Apr 1913
  • Purchaser's Name: Max Shernekoff
  • Bank: Rosenbaum Bank

Source Information Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center and Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Philadelphia, comp. Philadelphia Bank Immigrant Passage Records, 1890-1949 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.

Original data: People's Bank. Prepaid steamship ticket record, 1906-1948. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Blitzstein Steamship Company. Ticket purchase books and index, 1899-1930. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Rosenbaum Steamship Company. Ticket purchase books, 1890-1934. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

This data is provided in partnership with JewishGen.org.


27 October 1913 Joseph Czernichow and Friend Arrive in New York

Joseph Czernichow in the Pennsylvania, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1800-1962. Click here to see image: [12]

  • Name: Joseph Czernichow
  • Gender: Male
  • Race: Hebrew
  • Nationality: Hebrew
  • Birth Date: abt 1904
  • Birth Place: Nowasybkow, Russia
  • Last Residence: Russia
  • Port of Departure: Liverpool, England
  • Arrival Date: 27 Oct 1913
  • Port of Arrival: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
  • Age on Arrival: 9
  • Ship: Haverford
  • Friend's Name: Gilie Czerniakoha

Source Citation:

The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Number: 4492386; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series: T840; Roll: 121

Source Information:

Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1800-1962 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Selected Passenger and Crew Lists and Manifests. The National Archives at Washington, D.C.

December 1913 Death of Ida's Husband, Harry Altsitzer

In December 1913, Ida Shernick Altsitzer's husband, Harry Altsitzer, died suddenly under strange circumstances. He died of cyanide poisoning.

According to family legend, Harry tried, deliberately and voluntarily, to inhale the fumes from poisoned salts in order to give himself a weak heart and thus avoid conscription in the Russian Army.

Thereafter, Harry Altsitzer disappears from the record and Ida takes over business at the jewelry shop. We know this because she was sued by the jewelry shop's landlord in Trenton, for refusing to keep a promise that Harry Altsizer had made to vacate the building.

The story of the landlord's dispute with the young widow made the front page of the local papers. This may be confirmed by going to fultonhistory.com and searching on the name Altsitzer.


13 December 1913 Probate Records for Harry Altsitzer

Harry Altsitzer in the New Jersey, Wills and Probate Records, 1785-1924

  • Name: Harry Altsitzer
  • Probate Date: 13 Dec 1913
  • Probate Place: Mercer, New Jersey, USA
  • Inferred Death Year: Abt 1913
  • Inferred Death Place: New Jersey, USA
  • Item Description: Appointment of Administrators, Vol 1-2, 1899-1915

Source Citation Appointment of Administrators, 1899-1920; Author: Mercer County (New Jersey). Surrogate; Probate Place: Mercer, New Jersey

Source Information Ancestry.com. New Jersey, Wills and Probate Records, 1785-1924 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: New Jersey County, District and Probate Courts.

Description: These probates from the state of New Jersey, 1785-1924, can bequeath a wealth of personal details on the decedent and other family members

23 Dec 1913 Aron Czernjak Arrives New York aboard S.S. Czar

Aron Czernjak in the New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

  • Name: Aron Czernjak
  • Gender: Male
  • Ethnicity/ Nationality: Hebrew
  • Marital status: Single
  • Age: 16
  • Birth Date: abt 1897
  • Birth Place: Russia
  • Other Birth Place: Ekaterinoslan
  • Last Known Residence: Ehaterinoslaw, Russia
  • Departure Port: Libau, Latvia
  • Arrival Date: 23 Dec 1913
  • Arrival Port: New York, New York, USA
  • Final Destination: New York, New York
  • Height: 5 Feet, 6 Inches
  • Hair Color: Dark
  • Eye Color: Brown
  • Complexion: Light
  • Person in US: H. Czerniack
  • Person in US Relationship: Husband
  • Spouse: H. Czerniack
  • Ship Name: Czar

Source Citation Year: 1913; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 8; Page Number: 71

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Original data:

Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897. Microfilm Publication M237, 675 rolls. NAI: 6256867. Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36. National Archives at Washington, D.C.

Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957. Microfilm Publication T715, 8892 rolls. NAI: 300346. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.

Supplemental Manifests of Alien Passengers and Crew Members Who Arrived on Vessels at New York, New York, Who Were Inspected for Admission, and Related Index, compiled 1887-1952. Microfilm Publication A3461, 21 rolls. NAI: 3887372. RG 85, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Index to Alien Crewmen Who Were Discharged or Who Deserted at New York, New York, May 1917-Nov. 1957. Microfilm Publication A3417. NAI: 4497925. National Archives at Washington, D.C.

Passenger Lists, 1962-1972, and Crew Lists, 1943-1972, of Vessels Arriving at Oswego, New York. Microfilm Publication A3426. NAI: 4441521. National Archives at Washington, D.C.

Description This database is an index to the passenger lists of ships arriving from foreign ports at the port of New York from 1820-1957.


20 March 1914: Bruche Czernichow arrives New York aboard S.S. Imperator

Bruche Czernichow in the New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957

  • Name: Bruche Czernichow
  • Arrival Date: 20 Mar 1914
  • Birth Date: abt 1895
  • Birth Location: Russia
  • Birth Location Other: Odessa, Ukraine
  • Age: 19 [b. 1895]
  • Gender: Female
  • Ethnicity/ Nationality: Hebrew
  • Port of Departure: Hamburg
  • Port of Arrival: New York, New York
  • Ship Name: Imperator

Source Citation:

Year: 1914; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 2277; Line: 21; Page Number: 163

Source Information:

Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Original data:

Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897. Microfilm Publication M237, 675 rolls. NAI: 6256867. Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36. National Archives at Washington, D.C.

Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957. Microfilm Publication T715, 8892 rolls. NAI: 300346. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.


20 June 1914 Ontario Wedding of Becky Mildred Shernick, daughter of Henry Shernick

Beckie Mildred Shernick in the Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1801-1928

  • Name: Beckie Mildred Shernick
  • Age: 19
  • Birth Date: abt 1895
  • Birth Place: Nickolife Russia
  • Marriage Date: 20 Jun 1914
  • Marriage County or District: York
  • Father: Henry Shernick
  • Mother: Mary Kauffman
  • Spouse: Sam Ferman
  • Spouse's Age: 22
  • Spouse Birth Date: abt 1892
  • Spouse Birth Place: Novo Odess Russia
  • Spouse Father: Ralph Ferman
  • Spouse Mother: Bessie Kauffman

Source Citation Archives of Ontario; Series: MS932; Reel: 295

Source Information Ancestry.com and Genealogical Research Library (Brampton, Ontario, Canada). Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1801-1928 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Original data: Ontario, Canada, Select Marriages. Archives of Ontario, Toronto

Description

This database is an index to approximately 3.2 million marriages recorded in Ontario, Canada between 1801 and 1928. Each entry includes the names of each spouse, the marriage date, the marriage county, and for marriages recorded between 1858 and July 1869, the age and residence of each spouse, the birthplace of each spouse, and the names of both spouses’ parents.


29 July 1914: Immigration of Bluma and Abram Czernichow on Board the S.S. Czar

When war broke out in summer 1914, Ida quickly sent passages to the family back in Russia. Al and his mother, Bluma, came over on the S.S. Czar, but Al's brother David stayed behind, reportedly to look after a contract that had to be completed for the family business.

Al's youngest sister, Bertha (Bella or Biela) was allegedly one of the first women allowed to graduate from a Russian medical school, and she too chose to stay behind and work in Russia's hospitals.

Bluma and Abram Czernichow arrived at Ellis Island 29 July 1914 on board the SS Czar, a Russian American Line ship.

The passenger list for the SS Czar, available through EllisIsland.org, indicates that Al, age 14, arrived under the name Abram Czernichow and he arrived with his mother, whose name is given as Bluma Czernichow.

The Czernichows are listed as Jewish -- like almost all of the other passengers on board. Here is their listing as shown by FamilySearch.org:

Abram Isai Czernichow Migration • New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924

  • Name Abram Isai Czernichow
  • Sex Male
  • Age 19 years [14 years]
  • Birth Date 1895 [1899]
  • Residence Place Alexandrowok, Russia [Alexandrowsk, Ukraine]
  • Marital Status Single
  • Nationality Russia, Hebrew
  • Additional Person's Name D Czernichor
  • Second Additional Person's Name K Altwiszer
  • Event Type Immigration
  • Event Date 1914
  • Event Place Ellis Island, New York City, New York, United States
  • Page Number 163
  • Series Number T715
  • Affiliate Publication Title Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York , NY, 1897-1957
  • Departure Port Libau, Russia
  • Ship Name Czar

Other People on This Record:

  • D Czernichor (David Czernichow)
  • K Altwiszer (Ida Altsitzer)

Collection Information New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924 Learn more about this collection through the FamilySearch Wiki.

Cite This Record "New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JJ77-RNT : Sat Mar 09 09:58:08 UTC 2024), Entry for Abram Isai Czernichow and D Czernichor, 1914.


Images of the S.S. Czar and its Crew

In October of 1913, the captain and crew of the Russian-Amerikan Line steamship S.S. Czar became heroes by sailing to the rescue of a sinking ship, the S.S. Volturno, which caught fire in mid sea during a storm. At extreme risk to their own lives, the Czar's crew manned a row boat and rowed through very high waves to get to the Volturno. They made the trip several times.

For their gallantry at sea, they were awarded several medals, including a medal from Czar Nicholas II of Russia, who presented the award himself.

A webpage with many images of the Czar and its crew may be found at this link: [13]

Other pages devoted to the history of the S.S. Czar may be found at these links: [14], [15]


  • Ship Name: Czar
  • Years in service: 1912-1921
  • Funnels: 2
  • Masts: 2
  • Aliases: Estonia (1921), Pulaski (1930), Empire Penryn (1946)
  • Shipping line: Russian-American
  • Ship description: Built by Barclay, Curle & Co., Glasgow, Scotland. *Tonnage: 6,503. Dimensions: 426' x 53'. Twin-screw, 16 knots. Quadruple expansion engines. Two masts and two funnels.

History: Renamed: (a) Estonia (1921), (b) Pulaski (1930), (c) Empire Penryn (1946). Scrapped in 1949.

Source Information:

Ancestry.com. Passenger Ships and Images [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.

Original data: Various maritime reference sources.

Description: This collection contains images and descriptions of passenger ships


Point of Origin: Alexandrovsk

Bluma Czernichow's point of origin in July 1914 was listed as Alexandrovsk, Dnieperpetrovsk, Ekaterinoslav, Ukraine (modern day Zaporozhe, Ukraine) -- which means she and Al probably took a train north from Alexandrovsk to St. Petersburg, then another long train ride from St. Petersburg to Libau, LIthuania before they boarded the ship. Libau was a northern port on the Baltic Ocean and one of the few escape routes to America.

Because no birth record for Albert Shernick (Abram Czernichow) has ever been found for the state or city of New York, one may assume Albert was born in the city listed as his origin on the ships passenger list for the SS Czar, the Russian-American Line ship that brought him to New York harbor on 29 July 1914.

Certainly it was the home town of Albert's mother, Bluma. Many of Bluma Shernick's burial records appear amongst the files of the Alexandrovsk Benevolent Association at the YIVO Institute (see below).

Final Destination: Trenton, New Jersey

After crossing the Atlantic and passing through Ellis Island, Albert and Bluma were met at the New York dock by Ida Shernick Altsitzer, Bluma's eldest daughter and Al's older sister. Harry Altsitzer having died, Ida now had room for her mother and brother in her apartment above the jewelry shop on Broad Street.

Trenton city directories indicate that Albert and Bluma lived in Trenton, NJ until about 1917, when the entire family left Trenton and moved to the greater New York area to begin war work.

What Al or his brothers did during the war was never told. In fact, he said very little about the years between 1914 and his marriage in 1926.


1914 Ship's Passenger List spelling of Name: Czernichow

While we have no birth records for Albert Shernick, the 1914 passenger list for the SS Czar does give us a very early spelling of his name: Abram Isai Czernichow.

This is the earliest spelling we have, and it is found later in some 1917 insurance records in which Albert calls himself Abraham.

Albert also lists himself as Abraham Shernick on his 1918 WWI Draft Registration card.

What his first name was at birth remains a mystery. Certainly, when given a choice, he preferred Albert Shernick, an Americanized spelling almost immediately adopted (it appears exactly that way in the 1915 city directories for Trenton, New Jersey).

1915 Gertzel or Harry Chernick, age 21, Crosses Border at St. Albans, VT

Getzel Al Or Harry Czevinkow Or Chernick Vermont, St. Albans Canadian Border Crossings, 1895-1954

  • Name: Getzel Al Or Harry Czevinkow Or Chernick
  • Sex: Male
  • Age: 21
  • Immigration Date: 1915
  • Immigration Place: Vermont, United States
  • Birth Year (Estimated): 1894

Image of Getzel Al Or Harry Czevinkow Or Chernick, Vermont, St. Albans Canadian Border Crossings, 1895-1954

Record Collection: Vermont, St. Albans Canadian Border Crossings, 1895-1954

Document Information:

  • Affiliate Film Number 286
  • Affiliate Publication Number M1464
  • Affiliate Publication Title Soundex Index to Canadian Border Entries through the St. Albans, Vermont, District, 1895-1924
  • Digital Folder Number 007545567
  • Microfilm Number 001561372

Image Number 01209

Citing this Record

"Vermont, St. Albans Canadian Border Crossings, 1895-1954," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKQS-MBZZ : 23 February 2021), Getzel Al Or Harry Czevinkow Or Chernick, 1915; citing M1464, Soundex Index to Canadian Border Entries through the St. Albans, Vermont, District, 1895-1924, 286, NARA microfilm publications M1461, M1463, M1464, and M1465 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, publication year); FHL microfilm 1,561,372.

Similar Historical Records No similar records were found.


1917: Ida Altsitzer Listed in Trenton City Directory

Ida Altsitzer in the U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995

  • Name: Ida Altsitzer
  • Residence Year: 1917
  • Street address: 186 S Broad
  • Residence Place: Trenton, New Jersey, USA
  • Publication Title: Trenton, New Jersey, City Directory, 1917

Source Information

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Description

This database is a collection of city directories for various years and cities in the U.S. Generally a city directory will contain an alphabetical list of its citizens, listing the names of the heads of households, their addresses, and occupational information

War Years and Military Records

Eventually, as the war got under way in 1915 and 1916, we see on local census records visits from Altsitzer relatives living in Canada.

The Shernick and Altsitzer families finally left Trenton in 1917. As America mobilized for war, so did the Shernick family.

Al's oldest sister, Lucille, allegedly trained as a Red Cross nurse and shipped out for Europe. She let the family use her apartment in Yonkers during the year of her absence.

At the end of the war, Ida and her children moved to Morrisania, a Jewish neighborhood in the Bronx, and continued working in the jewelry trade.

1917: Al Employed by Remington Arms

Although too young to be drafted, Albert Shernick almost immediately found war work at the Remington Arms plant in Hoboken, NJ. In order to fulfill his duties as a machinist on the shop room floor, he moved in with his sister Lucille (Lubova) who was then living in Yonkers.

During this period, the Remington plant at Hoboken was run by Samuel P. Bush (1863 - 1948) [16], grandfather of the U.S. president. Remington was a key producer of rifle and small arms being sold to all sides in the great European conflagration. [17]

1918 WWI Draft Registration Card for Harry Chermack [Brooklyn, NY]

Harry Chermack in the U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

  • Name: Harry Chermack [Harry Cherniack]
  • Race: White
  • Birth Date: 19 Sep 1899 (Note: 19 Sept = 3 Tishrei = Fast of Gedalia, a Jewish male born on this day might be named Gedaliah
  • Residence Date: 1917-1918
  • Street Address: 59 Bartlett St
  • Residence Place: Brooklyn, Kings, New York, USA
  • Draft Board: 75
  • Physical Build: Medium
  • Height: Medium
  • Hair Color: Black
  • Eye Color: Light Black
  • Relative: Mrs. Lena Chermack

Source Citation Registration State: New York; Registration County: Kings

Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.

Original data: United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm.

1918 WWI Draft Registration Card for Abraham Shernick [Yonkers, Westchester, New York]

Abraham Shernick in the U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

  • Name Abraham Shernick
  • Race White
  • Birth Date 20 May 1899
  • Residence Date 1917-1918
  • Street Address 215 Nefferhan Ave
  • Residence Place Yonkers, Westchester, New York, USA
  • Draft Board 3
  • Physical Build Medium
  • Height Medium
  • Hair Color Brown
  • Eye Color Brown
  • Mother Mrs Luba Shernick

Source Citation Registration State: New York; Registration County: Westchester

Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.

Original data: United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm.


Abraham Shernick United States World War I Draft Registration Cards

  • Name Abraham Shernick
  • Event Type Draft Registration
  • Event Date 1917-1918
  • Event Place Yonkers City no 3, New York, United States
  • Gender Male
  • Nationality Russia
  • Birth Date 20 May 1899
  • Birthplace , , Russia

Citing this Record

"United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KXBL-VVC : accessed 18 December 2015), Abraham Shernick, 1917-1918; citing Yonkers City no 3, New York, United States, NARA microfilm publication M1509 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,819,401.

United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 Affiliate Publication Number M1509 Affiliate Publication Title World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards GS Film Number 001819401 Digital Folder Number 005266779 Image Number 04906

18 Nov 1918 Harry A Chermack [Cherniack], 17, enlists in NY National Guard

New York Records of the State National Guard, 1906-1954 Learn more about this collection through the FamilySearch Wiki.

  • Name Harry A Chermack
  • Age 17
  • Birth Year (Estimated) 1901
  • Military Unit Co A 74th Inf NYG
  • Military Service Place New York Guard
  • Event Type Military Service
  • Event Date 18 Nov 1918
  • Event Place , , New York, United States
  • Event Place (Original) , , New York, United States

Cite This Record "New York Records of the State National Guard, 1906-1954", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVJT-BVV1 : Thu Dec 14 04:13:24 UTC 2023), Entry for Harry A Chermack, 18 Nov 1918.


1918 Yonkers City Directory: Abraham Schernick Residing at 275 Nepperhan Ave

Abraham Schernick in the U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995

  • Name: Abraham Schernick
  • Residence Year: 1918
  • Street address: 275 Neperhan av
  • Residence Place: Yonkers, New York, USA
  • Occupation: Laborer
  • Publication Title: Yonkers, New York, City Directory, 1918

Source Information

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Description

This database is a collection of city directories for various years and cities in the U.S. Generally a city directory will contain an alphabetical list of its citizens, listing the names of the heads of households, their addresses, and occupational information.


1918: Ida Altsitzer and Children also Residing at 275 Nepperhan Ave

Ida Altsitzer in the U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995

  • Name: Ida Altsitzer
  • Residence Year: 1918
  • Street address: 275 Nepperhan av
  • Residence Place: Yonkers, New York, USA
  • Publication Title: Yonkers, New York, City Directory, 1918

Source Information

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data: Original sources vary according to directory. The title of the specific directory being viewed is listed at the top of the image viewer page. Check the directory title page image for full title and publication information.


1918: Mrs. Luby Shernick, mother of Abraham, living in Yonkers

Family legend says that Albert's sister Lucille served during the war years as a Red Cross nurse.

But Al's draft registration card, in 1918, indicates he is residing on Nepperhan Avenue in Yonkers with his mother "Luby" (Lucille?) Shernick.

The same "Luby Schernick" widow of Harry Schernick, is listed in the 1919 Yonkers City Directory as a resident at 229 S. Broadway.

On information and belief, this is a reference to Albert's birth mother, Leiba Chaia (Gershanowich) Shernick or Schernick, whose first name could be spelled Luby. However, in 1918 Leiba's husband Gedalia or Harry Cherniak was most certainly not dead. He is listed on later census records.

Could this be a reference to Albert's sister Lucille, whose name was also Leiba?

In a Bellevue Hospital newsletter printed in the 1960s, Lucille told the reporter that she worked as a Red Cross nurse during the war and married a doctor she met while working in the European theatre.

This meant Lucille was gone in the years 1917 to 1919, not living in New York City. Perhaps she was shipped out for Europe in late 1917, and simply left her apartment in the care of her family. Albert's sister Lucille was certainly back in New York in 1919, when she resumed her career in Vaudeville as a variety singer with the Bon Ton Burlesquers.

Lucille sang Russian songs on the radio as early as 1921, sang at a local Roumanian nightclub called "Jurins" (the last name of her sister Ella's husband), and appeared on Broadway under the stage name Lucille Rogers.

1919 Polar Bear Expedition

See Wikipedia article American Expeditionary Force, North Russia for a basic overview.


1919 Connection to Capt. Henry Walters, AREF

The U.S. sent troops into Siberia in 1918 - 1920, largely in order to retrieve the Russian gold payments owed to Remington Arms and to retrieve hundreds of railroad cars that had been loaned to the Russians.

As a Russian speaking employee of Remington Arms, Al, age 19, may have been tapped by his employer to participate in the Siberian Expedition, but few records survive from this period.

A few things are interesting to note:

  • William "Wild Bill" Donovan [18], of Buffalo, NY, participated in the operations in Siberia. He later became head of the American Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.), a precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency, in World War II.
  • The U.S. Army units active in Siberia were led by General William S. Graves [19] whose family were from Ft. Logan, Colorado (the Denver, Colorado area).
  • Al Shernick later moved to both Buffalo and Denver.

Strangely, Al's photo collection contains a Christmas card from Henry Walters [20], a corporate officer of the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) railroad who was also a director of the Museum of Modern Art and an avid collector of Russian art.

Walters signed the card "Happy X-mas, Capt. Henri Walters, A.R.E.F." (American Russian Expeditionary Force?). An image of the card has been attached in the Images section of this profile.

Walters was one of several railroad millionaires who contributed "rolling stock" (railroad cars and engines) to Russia's war effort. When the Russian Revolution overthrew the Tsar, these same railroad millionaires became very alarmed that they might lose all the equipment that they were lending.

One of the main objectives of the American incursion into Siberia between 1918 and 1922 was to recover all the railroad engines and railroad cars owned by Americans, load them onto cargo ships, and return them to the United States.

Other (secret) objectives included:

  • Grabbing Russian gold that was being shipped to J.P. Morgan and Co. via the Trans-Siberian railroad;
  • Possibly rescuing the Tsar and the Russian Royal Family, who were being held at Ekaterinburg; and
  • Rescuing wealthy White Russians (who had friends in New York) and obtaining any art treasures or jewelry that they wished to smuggle out of the country to the United States.

It is interesting to note that during his visits to Russia prior to World War I, Henri Walters was hosted in St. Petersburg by Princess Julia Cantacuzene [21] -- better known as Julia Dent Grant, the daughter of American President Ulysses S. Grant.

Walters and Grant were enthusiastic collectors of Faberge jewelry, and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD, still has one of the railroad baron's prize acquisitions -- the Rose Trellis Faberge Easter Egg of 1907 -- on display. [22], [23]

Again, as a Russian-speaking employee of Remington Arms, a relative to men who were allegedly active members of the Czar's security services, and a descendant of the Savransky family (world-famous diamond cutters), Albert Shernick was ideally placed to be of some assistance to Henri Walters during this period and throughout the 1920s, when a great deal of Czarist jewelry began to surface for sale on the international black market.


1919: Ida and Children Move to the Bronx

After 1919, Ida and her three children, Celia, Albert and William Altsitzer, moved out of Lucille's apartment in Yonkers to a new apartment in "Morrisania" (a Jewish neighborhood of the Bronx), where they lived on the Grand Concourse for many years. Their new apartment was just across the street from a popular Burlesque theatre.

Al Shernick appears as a resident at the same address on the 1920 U.S. Census.


1920 U.S. Census [Brooklyn, New York] shows Harry Cherniack, age 21, living on Barthell Street with father Harry, mother Lena

Harry Cherniack in the 1920 United States Federal Census

  • Name: Harry Cherniack
  • Age: 21
  • Birth Year: abt 1899
  • Birthplace: Russia
  • Home in 1920: Brooklyn Assembly District 13, Kings, New York
  • Street: Barthell St
  • Residence Date: 1920
  • Race: White
  • Gender: Male
  • Immigration Year: 1914
  • Relation to Head of House: Son
  • Marital status: Single
  • Father's name: Harry Cherniack
  • Father's Birthplace: Russia
  • Mother's name: Lena Cherniack
  • Mother's Birthplace: Russia
  • Native Tongue: Yiddish
  • Able to Speak English: Yes
  • Occupation: Salesman
  • Industry: Clothing Store
  • Employment Field: Wage or Salary
  • Attended School: No
  • Able to Read: Yes
  • Able to Write: Yes

Household Members:

  • Harry Cherniack 54 [b. 1866]
  • Lena Cherniack 53 [b. 1867]
  • Morris Cherniack 28 [b. 1892]
  • Jules Cherniack 26 [b. 1894]
  • Jennie Cherniack 23 [b. 1897]
  • Harry Cherniack 21 [b. 1899]
  • Ida Cherniack 18 [b. 1902]
  • Sam Cherniack 16 [b. 1904]
  • Shirley Cherniack 15 [b. 1905]

Source Citation Year: 1920; Census Place: Brooklyn Assembly District 13, Kings, New York; Roll: T625_1164; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 787

Source Information Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA. Note: Enumeration Districts 819-839 are on roll 323 (Chicago City).


1920 Al Shernick Attends New School of Art and Design

Between 1918 and 1922, Al attended the New School in Greenwich Village, which was established as a progressive, worker-friendly free school in 1919. Mildred Shernick's notes indicate that Ida financed Al's way through art school.

A biographical profile published in the Denver Post in the 1950s ("Lakewood Painter in Reality an Artist") indicates that Al attended the "New York School of Art and Design," known today as the "Parson's School of Design" on 13th Street. The school was also called the Chase School of Art or Parson's New School of Art and Design.

See the Wikipedia article on "Parson's School of Design" at this link: [24]

In addition to learning how to apply gold leaf and work with jewelry, Al became an extremely talented painter. He often chose western scenes for his designs, in the large-scale oil-painting tradition of one of the school's famous founders, Alfred Bierstadt. The Chase School was in fact originally the art studio where Bierstadt lived and worked in New York.

1920 U.S. Census Record for Abraham Shornick [Bronx]

Abraham Shornick [b. 1870] United States Census, 1920

  • Name Abraham Shornick
  • Event Type Census
  • Event Date 1920
  • Event Place Manhattan Assembly District 8, New York, New York, United States
  • Gender Male
  • Age 50
  • Marital Status Married
  • Race White
  • Race (Original) White
  • Relationship to Head of Household Head
  • Relationship to Head of Household (Original) Head
  • Birth Year (Estimated) 1870
  • Birthplace Russia
  • Immigration Year 1907
  • Father's Birthplace Russia
  • Mother's Birthplace Russia
  • Sheet Letter B
  • Sheet Number 1

Household

  • Abraham Shornick Head M 50 [b. 1870] Russia
  • Rachael Shornick Wife F 50 [b. 1870] Russia
  • Harry Shornick Son M 32 [b. 1888] Russia
  • Louis Shornick Son M 21 [b. 1899]Russia
  • Fannie Shornick Daughter F 18 [b. 1902] Russia
  • Ida Shornick Daughter F 16 [b. 1904] Russia

Citing this Record

"United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJYY-C7G : accessed 18 December 2015), Abraham Shornick, Manhattan Assembly District 8, New York, New York, United States; citing sheet 1B, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,821,200.

United States Census, 1920 District ED 641 Sheet Number and Letter 1B Household ID 10 Line Number 62 Affiliate Name The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Affiliate Publication Number T625 Affiliate Film Number 1200 GS Film Number 1821200 Digital Folder Number 004966696 Image Number 00514


1922 Death of Abraham Sam Shornick

Abraham Shornick New York, New York City Municipal Deaths

  • Name Abraham Shornick
  • Event Type Death
  • Event Date 21 Apr 1922
  • Event Place Manhattan, New York, New York, United States
  • Address 47 East 7th St.
  • Residence Place New York City
  • Gender Male
  • Age 51
  • Marital Status Married
  • Race White
  • Occupation Cutter
  • Birth Year (Estimated) 1871
  • Birthplace Russia
  • Burial Date 23 Apr 1922
  • Burial Place New York
  • Cemetery Mt. Zion Cem.
  • Father's Name Harry Shornick
  • Father's Birthplace Russia
  • Mother's Name Dora Horwitz
  • Mother's Birthplace Russia
  • Spouse's Name Rachael Leah Shornick

Citing this Record

"New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WBY-R7G : accessed 18 December 2015), Abraham Shornick, 21 Apr 1922; citing Death, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 2,028,044.

New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949 Reference ID cn 12161 GS Film Number 2028044


Early 1920s: Al Shernick Paints Scenic Designs for Vaudeville Theatres

During the early 1920s, Al's sister Lucille worked at Minsky Brother's, and she got Al work as a scenic designer for Flo Ziegfeld's New Amsterdam theatre, where he met such famous stars as Al Jolson, Georgie Jessel and Fanny Brice.

Al claimed that he was also a boxer, a sparring partner for Benny Leonard (a famous Jewish boxer and Golden Gloves champion) at one of the local gyms.

It is interesting to note here that F. Scott Fitzgerald based his 1923 Jazz-age classic The Great Gatsby on the life of a New York mobster named Larry Fay, a shady character who fell madly in love with a Ziegfeld girl named Myrna Darby.

See the story "Did real-life Daisy Gatsby fake her death?" here:

https://suite.io/mark-shernick/6m0d2s9

If Lucille Shernick was frequently appearing at Minsky brothers and if Al Shernick often reported to work at Flo Ziegfeld's New Amsterdam theatre between 1920 and 1924, then it is perfectly possible that they ran into Larry Fay, because he was the mobster who ran the taxi-cab rackets that fed both of those theatres.

Fanny Brice and many of the chorus girls at these theatres made money in their spare time as high-class hookers, and they were favorite "dolls" amongst the mobsters who populated New York's Speak Easies during the roaring Twenties.


1922 Mural Work with Maxfield Parrish

During the early 1920s, Al did mural work at several sites throughout the city and state of New York, notably working as one of several assistants who helped Maxfield Parrish with the gorgeous murals that may still be seen at the great hall of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.

Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theatre opened its doors in September, 1922. See an article and photos of the opening at this link: http://rochester.edu/pr/Review/V72N1/president.html

One of murals at the theatre, "Interlude: The Lute Players" (1922) is considered by art historians to be amongst the best pieces that Maxfield Parrish ever did. In 1999 "The Lute Players" actually went on a countrywide tour: https://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V62N2/inrev11.html

He also helped to paint murals at the new power station at Niagara Falls, a commission that led him to find an apartment and job in Lockport, NY.

11 December 1923 Brooklyn Marriage License for Harry Chernick and Esther Rittoff

Harry Chernick in the New York, New York, Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018

  • Name: Harry Chernick
  • Gender: Male
  • Marriage License Date: 11 Dec 1923
  • Marriage License Place: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
  • Spouse: Esther Rittoff
  • License Number: 20875

Source Citation New York City Municipal Archives; New York, New York; Borough: Brooklyn

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, New York, Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2017.

Original data: Index to Marriages, New York City Clerk's Office, New York, New York.

Description This database contains indexes for marriage licenses in New York City from 1907 to 2018.

30 December 1923 Harry Chernick weds Esther Rittoff [Brooklyn, NY]

Harry Cherniack in the New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943

  • Name: Harry Cherniack
  • Race: Hebrew
  • Declaration Age: 32
  • Record Type: Naturalization Declaration
  • Birth Date: 20 May 1899
  • Birth Place: Ekaterinoslovs, Russia
  • Marriage Date: 30 Dec 1923
  • Marriage Place: Brooklyn, New York
  • Departure Place: Libau Russia
  • Arrival Date: 23 Dec 1913
  • Declaration Date: 14 Oct 1931
  • Ship: Czar

Source Citation The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC; NAI Title: Index to Petitions For Naturalizations Filed in Federal, State, and Local Courts in New York City, 1792-1906; NAI Number: 5700802; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: Rg 21

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Original data:

Naturalization Records. National Archives at New York City, New York, New York.


1925 New York Census [Brooklyn, New York] for Harry Chernick, b 1898

Harry Chernick in the New York, State Census, 1925

  • Name: Harry Chernick
  • Gender: Male
  • Color or Race: White
  • Age: 27
  • Birth Date: abt 1898
  • Birth Place: Russia
  • Residence Date: 1925
  • House Number: 475
  • Residence Place: Brooklyn, Kings
  • Relationship: Brother-in-law
  • Number of years in US: 11
  • Assembly District: 22
  • Line Number: 45
  • Page Number: 5

Household Members:

  • Isadore Gurtovnick 22
  • Bertha Gurtovnick 23
  • Blare Gurtovnick 2
  • Gussie Chernick 51
  • Harry Chernick 27

Source Citation New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1925; Election District: 45; Assembly District: 22; City: Brooklyn; County: Kings; Page: 5

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, State Census, 1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Original data: State population census schedules, 1925. Albany, New York: New York State Archives.

New York State Archives Description This database contains an index and images of the 1925 New York state census.


1925 New York State Census [Brooklyn]

Abraham Cernlnick New York State Census, 1925

  • Name Abraham Cernlnick
  • Event Type Census
  • Event Date 1925
  • Event Place Brooklyn, A.D. 16, E.D. 49, Kings, New York, United States
  • Gender Male
  • Age 34 [b. 1891]
  • Nationality Russia
  • Race White
  • Relationship to Head of Household Head
  • Birth Year (Estimated) 1891
  • Years in United States 20
  • House Number 2771
  • Page 10

Citing this Record

"New York State Census, 1925," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K9BB-JQL : accessed 19 December 2015), Abraham Cernlnick, Brooklyn, A.D. 16, E.D. 49, Kings, New York, United States; records extracted by Ancestry and images digitized by FamilySearch; citing p. 10, line 10, New York State Archives, Albany.

1925 New York Census [Bronx] lists Ida Altsitzer family, Bluma Schernick and boarded "Arthur Freedman"

Ida Altsitzer in the New York, State Census, 1925

  • Name: Ida Altsitzer [Ida Schernick]
  • Birth Date: abt 1887
  • Birth Place: Russia
  • Age: 38
  • Gender: Female
  • Residence Place: New York, Bronx
  • Relationship: Head
  • Color or Race: White
  • Number of Years in US: 19
  • Assembly District: 04
  • House Number: 1155 [Boston Road, Bronx, NY]
  • Line Number: 30
  • Page Number: 22

Household Members:

  • Ida Altsitzer 38 [b. 1887]
  • Celia Altsitzer 19 [b. 1906]
  • William Altsitzer 17 [b. 1908]
  • Abraham Altsitzer 15 [b. 1910]
  • Bluma Schernick 64 [b. 1861]
  • Arthur Freedman 34 [Lodger, b. 1891]
  • Rebecca Altsitzer 16 [b. 1910] from Winnipeg, Canada

Source Citation New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1925; Election District: 14; Assembly District: 04; City: New York; County: Bronx; Page: 22

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, State Census, 1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: State population census schedules, 1925. Albany, New York: New York State Archives.

Notes:

Arthur Freedman of Buffalo, New York, born 12 July 1892, died on 5 September 1920 and he may have been used as a "dead double" in 1925 to disguise the identity of a person living with the family of Ida Altsitzer and Bluma Schernick in the Bronx census. This person was probably Albert Shernick. Albert does not appear anywhere on the 1925 New York state census, he was living and working in Buffalo prior to 1925 (running booze from liquor stores in Toronto across the border to speakeasy clubs in Manhattan), and he probably took the name from a local obituary or from a personal tour of the Ahavath Sholem Cemetery in Buffalo. Albert had family buried at the same cemetery.

For all of these reasons, it would appear that Albert Shernick, while living with his family in the Bronx, disguised his identity by giving the census taker the name of Arthur Freedman, who had passed away at Buffalo in 1920. They may have been childhood friends. In fact, based on several names in the cemetery, they shared relatives in common, and were probably cousins.

13 September 1926 Marriage to Mildred B. Shaw in Lockport

Abraham (Albert) Shernick married Mildred Shaw at Lockport, NY on 13 September 1926, and they had two sons, David and Robert Shernick.

FamilySearch.org provides a record of the marriage at this link:

[25]

Albert Shernick mentioned in the record of Albert Shernick and Mildred Shaw

  • Name Albert Shernick
  • Event Type Marriage
  • Event Date 13 Sep 1926
  • Event Place Niagara, New York, United States
  • Age 27
  • Birth Year (Estimated) 1899
  • Father's Name Harry Shernick
  • Mother's Name Bluma Davis
  • Spouse's Name Mildred Shaw
  • Spouse's Age 20
  • Spouse's Birth Year (Estimated) 1906
  • Spouse's Father's Name Robert Shaw
  • Spouse's Mother's Name Violet Perry

Citing this Record

"New York, County Marriages, 1847-1848; 1908-1936," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZ9N-XZL : accessed 28 December 2015), Albert Shernick and Mildred Shaw, 13 Sep 1926; citing Niagara, New York, United States, county offices, New York; FHL microfilm 897,564.

New York, County Marriages, 1847-1848; 1908-1936 GS Film number 0897564 Digital Folder Number 004541192 Image Number 00905


1927 City Directory for Lockport, New York

Albert H Shernick in the U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995

  • Name: Albert H Shernick
  • Residence Year: 1927
  • Street address: 398 High [Street]
  • Residence Place: Lockport, New York, USA
  • Occupation: Salesman
  • Publication Title: Lockport, New York, City Directory, 1927

Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Original sources vary according to directory. The title of the specific directory being viewed is listed at the top of the image viewer page. Check the directory title page image for full title and publication information.

1929 City Directory for Niagara Falls, New York

Albert J Shernick in the U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995

  • Name: Albert J Shernick
  • Gender: Male
  • Residence Year: 1929
  • Street address: 115-6th
  • Residence Place: Niagara Falls, New York, USA

Occupation: Salesman Spouse: Mildred Shernick Publication Title: Niagara Falls, New York, City Directory, 1929

Source Information

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Original sources vary according to directory. The title of the specific directory being viewed is listed at the top of the image viewer page. Check the directory title page image for full title and publication information. Description

1929 Harry Cherniack Petition for Naturalization [Rejected]

Harry Cherniack in the New York, State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943

  • Name: Harry Cherniack
  • Petition Age: 0
  • Record Type: Petition
  • Birth Date: 20 May 1899
  • Birth Place: Ekaterinoslova, Russia
  • Arrival Date: 23 Dec 1913
  • Arrival Place: New York, New York
  • Petition Date: 20 May 1899
  • Petition Place: New York, USA
  • Spouse: Esther

Source Citation National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, DC; NAI Title: Index to Petitions for Naturalizations Filed in Federal, State, and Local Courts in New York City, 1792-1906; NAI Number: 5700802; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: RG 21

Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1865 - 1971. Textual Records. 7 Cartons and 436 Boxes. NAID: 5700802. Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21. National Archives at New York City, New York, New York.

Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1/19/1842 - 10/29/1959. NAID: 4713410. Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21. National Archives at Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Original data:

Naturalization Records. National Archives at New York City, New York, New York.

A full list of sources can be found here.

Description This database contains naturalization records for New York filed in various federal, state, and local courts.


1930 U.S. Census [Niagara Falls, NY]

Albert H Shernick United States Census, 1930

  • Name Albert H Shernick
  • Event Type Census
  • Event Date 1930
  • Event Place Niagara Falls, Niagara, New York, United States
  • Gender Male
  • Age 30
  • Marital Status Married
  • Race White
  • Race (Original) White
  • Relationship to Head of Household Head
  • Relationship to Head of Household (Original) Head
  • Birth Year (Estimated) 1900
  • Birthplace New York
  • Father's Birthplace Russia
  • Mother's Birthplace Russia
  • Sheet Letter B
  • Sheet Number 5

Household

  • Albert H Shernick Head M 30 New York
  • Mildred B Shernick Wife F 24 New York
  • David A Shernick Son M 1 New York

Citing this Record

"United States Census, 1930", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4RQ-7VM : accessed 28 December 2015), Albert H Shernick, 1930.

United States Census, 1930 District ED 79 Sheet Number and Letter 5B Household ID 122 Line Number 93 Affiliate Name The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Affiliate Publication Number T626 Affiliate Film Number 1619 GS Film Number 2341353 Digital Folder Number 004952206 Image Number 00170

1930 U.S. Census [Brooklyn, New York]

Harry Cherniack in the 1930 United States Federal Census

Address: 674 Empire Blvd., Brooklyn, New York

  • Name: Harry Cherniack
  • Birth Year: abt 1898
  • Gender: Male
  • Race: White
  • Birthplace: Russia
  • Marital status: Married
  • Relation to Head of House: Head
  • Home in 1930: Brooklyn, Kings, New York, USA
  • Map of Home: View Map
  • Street address: Empire Blvd
  • Ward of City: New York A D 18
  • Block: E
  • House Number: 674
  • Dwelling Number: 925
  • Family Number: 1024
  • Home Owned or Rented: Rented
  • Home Value: 90
  • Radio Set: Yes
  • Lives on Farm: No
  • Age at first Marriage: 26
  • Attended School: No
  • Able to Read and Write: Yes
  • Father's Birthplace: Russia
  • Mother's Birthplace: Russia
  • Language Spoken: Yiddish
  • Immigration Year: 1910
  • Naturalization: First Papers
  • Able to Speak English: Yes
  • Occupation: Salesman
  • Industry: Clothing
  • Class of Worker: Wage or salary worker
  • Employment: Yes

Household Members:

  • Harry Cherniack 32
  • Esther Cherniack 28
  • Theodore Cherniack 4
  • Lilly Cherniack 1
  • Minnie Rittaff 60

Source Citation Year: 1930; Census Place: Brooklyn, Kings, New York; Page: 42B; Enumeration District: 0753; FHL microfilm: 2341265

Source Information Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.

Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.

Description The 1930 Census contains records for approximately 123 million Americans.


Winter 1930-1931: Mildred Loses a Baby

As Wall Street crashed and financial hardship hit small-town America, Al Shernick rapidly found it impossible to sell Maytag washing machines.

Mr. Conway began letting salesmen go.

To make matters worse, as Al and Midge struggled through the bleak Christmas season of 1930, they received the news that they were soon to have a new mouth to feed: Midge was pregnant.

The chill of panic began to set in. Then the worst situation possibly imaginable fell on their heads: After a huge blizzard that left Buffalo absolutely paralyzed, Mildred awoke to sudden sharp pains in her abdomen.

Was it appendicitis? No. Worse. Something was wrong with the baby.

Al shoveled like a maniac to get their car through the streets of Buffalo and get Mildred to the hospital. He must have shoveled three miles of snow.

They later told friends and family that she had had "an appendectomy." A caption on the back of a photo dated 1931, however, says simply: "Just after I lost the baby."

Devastated, unemployed, and now facing a heap of hospital bills, they realized they couldn't meet the mortgage payments. They had to sell the house. And the car. Midge, who was still very weak, was in no shape to mind David.

What could they do? A proud man, Al had to swallow his pride and face facts. He finally agreed with his mother-in-law: It would be best to send Mildred and little David out to Denver, to live with her "Aunt Sadie" (Sarah McGill Shaw) and her uncle Harry Haskins.

Mildred made the long and lonesome trip to Denver by train, with only David and a small suitcase. They were greeted at Union Station by Aunt Sadie, given their own room and made at home.

Al made a valiant effort to find work in Buffalo. He refused to give in. But after a few months, it was clearly not working.

His silence began to scare Midge. Knowing that he was also something of a Tom Cat, who was probably drinking, Midge sent him a telegram that gave him an ultimatum: Stop making excuses and get yourself out to Denver NOW or our marriage is over!

Al was on the next train out of Buffalo. Unable to scrape together even enough for the train fare, he hid in the Buffalo train yard, dodged the bulls, and successfully hopped a freight train south.

1931: Move to Denver, Colorado

Albert and Mildred Shernick were reunited in Denver in the spring of 1931. They lived at first with Aunt Sadie and Uncle Harry while Al looked for work, a routine he now knew quite well.

To his surprise, he actually found some.

It is a testament to his skill as a salesman and painter that, despite facing the very depths of the Depression, Al still managed to win commissions for sign painting and art work.

Eventually, by the mid 1930s, he was working closely with two of Denver's most famous muralists: Herndon Davis and Alan True.

When Davis won a commission from millionairess Helen Bonfils (owner of the Denver Post) to paint murals for the Central City Opera, he tapped Al Shernick to be on his crew.

Al later claimed that he was sitting next to Herndon Davis on a bar stool at a Central City tavern the night they decided, as a gag, to paint the "face on the barroom floor" -- one of the famous art landmarks in Central City.


1931 Denver City Directory

Albert H Shernick in the U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995

  • Name: Albert H Shernick
  • Gender: Male
  • Residence Year: 1931
  • Residence Place: Denver, Colorado, USA
  • Occupation: Salesman
  • Spouse: Mildred B Shernick
  • Publication Title: Denver, Colorado, City Directory, 1931

Source Information

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data: Original sources vary according to directory. The title of the specific directory being viewed is listed at the top of the image viewer page. Check the directory title page image for full title and publication information.

14 October 1931 Declaration of Intention to become U.S. Citizen

Harry Cherniack in the New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943

  • Name: Harry Cherniack
  • Race: Hebrew
  • Declaration Age: 32
  • Record Type: Naturalization Declaration
  • Birth Date: 20 May 1899
  • Birth Place: Ekaterinoslovs, Russia
  • Marriage Date: 30 Dec 1923
  • Marriage Place: Brooklyn, New York
  • Departure Place: Libau Russia
  • Arrival Date: 23 Dec 1913
  • Declaration Date: 14 Oct 1931
  • Ship: Czar

Source Citation The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC; NAI Title: Index to Petitions For Naturalizations Filed in Federal, State, and Local Courts in New York City, 1792-1906; NAI Number: 5700802; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: Rg 21

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Original data:

Naturalization Records. National Archives at New York City, New York, New York.


1932 Denver City Directory: Shernick family living at 2450 S. York Street

Albert H Shernick in the U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995

  • Name: Albert H Shernick
  • Gender: Male
  • Residence Year: 1932
  • Street address: 2450 S York
  • Residence Place: Denver, Colorado, USA
  • Occupation: Salesman
  • Spouse: Mildred Shernick
  • Publication Title: Denver, Colorado, City Directory, 1932

Source Information

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data: Original sources vary according to directory. The title of the specific directory being viewed is listed at the top of the image viewer page. Check the directory title page image for full title and publication information.


1934 Denver City Directory: Shernick family residing at 358 W. Belleview, Englewood

  • Name: Albert W Shernick
  • Residence Year: 1934
  • Street address: 358 W Belleview Englewood
  • Residence Place: Denver, Colorado, USA
  • Occupation: Agent
  • Publication Title: Denver, Colorado, City Directory, 1934

Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Original sources vary according to directory. The title of the specific directory being viewed is listed at the top of the image viewer page. Check the directory title page image for full title and publication information. Description

31 July 1934 Naturalization Record

Harry Cherniack in the U.S. Naturalization Records Indexes, 1794-1995

  • Name: Harry Cherniack
  • Age: 35
  • Birth Date: abt 1899
  • Issue Date: 31 Jul 1934
  • State: New York
  • Locality, Court: Eastern District of New York, District Court

Source Citation National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Index to Naturalization Petitions of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, 1865-1957; Microfilm Serial: M1164; Microfilm Roll: 43

Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S. Naturalization Records Indexes, 1794-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007.

Original data: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Microfilm Publications; Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; National Archives, Washington, D.C. Scroll down to the bottom of this page for NARA microfilm details.

Description This database contains indexes to U.S. naturalization records (primarily Declarations and Petitions) for various courts (primarily U.S. District and Circuit courts) and years.


1936 Denver City Directory: Shernick family residing at 2315 S Bannock Street

Albert H Shernick in the U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995

  • Name: Albert H Shernick
  • Gender: Male
  • Residence Year: 1936
  • Street address: 2315 S Bannock
  • Residence Place: Denver, Colorado, USA
  • Occupation: Artist
  • Spouse: Mildred B Shernick
  • Publication Title: Denver, Colorado, City Directory, 1936

Source Information

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data: Original sources vary according to directory. The title of the specific directory being viewed is listed at the top of the image viewer page. Check the directory title page image for full title and publication information.


1940 U.S. Census [1339 Lamar Street, Denver, Colorado]

Living at 1339 Lamar Street, Denver, CO

Albert H Shernick United States Census, 1940

  • Name Albert H Shernick
  • Event Type Census
  • Event Date 1940
  • Event Place Election Precinct 37, Jefferson, Colorado, United States
  • Gender Male
  • Age 40
  • Marital Status Married
  • Race (Original) White
  • Race White
  • Relationship to Head of Household (Original) Head
  • Relationship to Head of Household Head
  • Birthplace New York
  • Birth Year (Estimated) 1900
  • Last Place of Residence Denver, Denver, Colorado
  • Marital Status: Married
  • Relation to Head of House: Head
  • Home in 1940: Golf Club, Jefferson, Colorado
  • Street: Lamar
  • House Number: 1339
  • Farm: No
  • Inferred Residence in 1935: Denver, Denver, Colorado
  • Residence in 1935: Denver, Denver, Colorado
  • Resident on farm in 1935: No
  • Sheet Number: 1B
  • Number of Household in Order of Visitation: 20
  • Occupation: Painter
  • House Owned or Rented: Rented
  • Value of Home or Monthly Rental if Rented: 18
  • Attended School or College: No
  • Highest Grade Completed: Elementary school, 6th grade
  • Hours Worked Week Prior to Census: 35
  • Class of Worker: Wage or salary worker in private work
  • Weeks Worked in 1939: 42
  • Income: 1888
  • Income Other Sources: No

Household

  • Albert H Shernick Head M 40 New York
  • Mildred Shernick Wife F 34 New York
  • David Shernick Son M 11 New York
  • Robert Shernick Son M 8 Colorado

Citing this Record

"United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VR66-K9G : accessed 28 December 2015), Albert H Shernick, Election Precinct 37, Jefferson, Colorado, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 30-54, sheet 1B, family 20, NARA digital publication T627 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012), roll 465.


United States Census, 1940 District 30-54 Family Number 20 Sheet Number and Letter 1B Line Number 57 Affiliate Publication Number T627 Affiliate Film Number 465 Digital Folder Number 005449370 Image Number 00979


1940 U.S. Census [Brooklyn, New York]

Harry Chermick in the 1940 United States Federal Census

  • Name: Harry Chermick
  • Age: 40
  • Estimated birth year: abt 1900
  • Gender: Male
  • Race: White
  • Birthplace: Russia
  • Marital status: Married
  • Relation to Head of House: Head
  • Home in 1940: New York, Kings, New York
  • Map of Home in 1940: View Map
  • Street: Empire Blvd
  • Inferred Residence in 1935: New York, Kings, New York
  • Residence in 1935: Same Place
  • Citizenship: Naturalized
  • Sheet Number: 1A
  • Number of Household in Order of Visitation: 6
  • Occupation: Manager
  • Industry: Manager
  • House Owned or Rented: Rented
  • Value of Home or Monthly Rental if Rented: 62
  • Attended School or College: No
  • Highest Grade Completed: Elementary school, 8th grade
  • Hours Worked Week Prior to Census: 48
  • Weeks Worked in 1939: 52
  • Income: 3270
  • Income Other Sources: Yes

Household Members:

  • Harry Chermick 40
  • Esther Chermick 36
  • Theadore Chermick 14
  • Lillian Chermick 11
  • Minnie Rittoff 69

Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, Kings, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02601; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 24-2113B

Source Information Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.

Description The 1940 United States Federal Census is the largest census released to date and the most recent census available for public access.


16 Feb 1942 WWII Draft Registration Card

Al Shernick's draft registration card may be found at FamilySearch.org and is attached here in the image section. An important thing to note: He claims he was born 20 May 1899 in New York, information which contradicts his World War I Draft Registration, which clearly indicated he was born in Russia.

The registration card also mentions the tattoo on his left arm: The tattoo of an anchor and his birth date, 1899

Albert Harry Shernick Colorado, World War II Draft Registration Cards,1940-1945

  • Name: Albert Harry Shernick
  • Event Type: Draft Registration
  • Event Date: 16 Feb 1942
  • Event Place: Lakewood, Jefferson, Colorado, United States
  • Race: White
  • Complexion: Light
  • Occupation: Remington Arms Company
  • Birth Date: 20 May 1899
  • Birthplace: New York, New York
  • Height: 5' 9"
  • Weight: 170
  • Eye Color: Brown
  • Hair Color: Brown
  • Relative's Name: Mildred Bell Shernick

• Record Collection: Colorado, World War II Draft Registration Cards,1940-1945

Document Information: Affiliate Publication Number 923647 Affiliate Publication Title World War II Draft Cards (Fourth Registration) for the State of Colorado Digital Folder Number 101503685 Image Number 01001

Citing this Record

"Colorado, World War II Draft Registration Cards,1940-1945," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKVM-7RCY : 14 August 2019), Albert Harry Shernick, 16 Feb 1942; records extracted by (FamilySearch or Partner), images digitized by (Family Search or Partner); citing Draft Registration, Lakewood, Jefferson, Colorado, United States, citing "Draft Registration Cards for Colorado, 10/16/1940 – 3/31/1947", NAID 5833895. Records of the Selective Service System, 1926 - 1975, RG 147. National Archives at St. Louis, Missouri, n.d.


WWII Work at Denver Ordnance Plant

Between 1941 and 1943, at the beginning of World War II, Al renewed his relationship with the Remington Arms company when he helped to paint their new Denver Ordinance Plant in Jefferson County, Colorado -- a vast complex with more than 92 buildings that employed 19,500 people and churned out an amazing 6.5 million rounds of ammunition daily.

See an article on the "Denver Ordnance Plant / Remington Arms Company" at this link: http://jeffco.us/placenames/search3.cfm?ps_oid=221576&search=

Al's work at the plant has been confirmed by old paystubs and tax returns still in possession of the family.

Mid-1940s - Shernick House Painting Company

Eventually Al established his own house painting company. He completed murals at

  • The Brown Palace Hotel
  • The Denargo Market
  • Eddie Bauer's "Pig n Whistle" restaurant, and
  • The Denver Yacht Club, a downtown restaurant with a nautical theme that was once located on the 16th Street Mall.


Late-1940s Mural Work and Denver Nature and Science Museum

During the late 1940s, Al allegedly found work painting nature and wildlife murals for Denver's Nature and Science Museum. More research needs to be done to confirm this claim and to identify the murals he designed.

House at Bell Court, Lakewood, Colorado

Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Shernick family lived at Bell Court, in Lakewood, Colorado, where Al's two sons, David and Robert, attended Lakewood High School. Their high school yearbooks are now online.

1946: David Sherick joins the Navy

Albert Shernick's eldest son, David Shernick, graduated from Lakewood High in 1946 and immediately joined the U.S. Navy. He served on board the S.S. Gearing.


1950 U.S. Census [Brooklyn, Kings, New York]

Harry Cherniack in the 1950 United States Federal Census

  • Name: Harry Cherniack
  • Age: 51
  • Birth Date: abt 1899
  • Gender: Male
  • Birth Place: Russia
  • Marital Status: Married
  • Relation to Head of House: Head
  • Residence Date: 1950
  • Home in 1950: New York, Kings, New York, USA
  • Farm: No
  • Acres: No
  • Citizenship: Yes
  • Occupation Category: Working
  • Worker Class: Private

Household Members:

  • Harry Cherniack 51 Head
  • Esther Cherniack 46 Wife
  • Ted Cherniack 24 Son
  • Lillian Rosner 21 Daughter
  • Ezra Rosner 25 Son-in-law

Source Information Ancestry.com. 1950 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2022.

Original data: Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. 1913-1/1/1972. Population Schedules for the 1950 Census, 1950 - 1950. Washington, DC: National Archives at Washington, DC.


1950s: David Shernick settles in Miami Beach, FL

After leaving the Navy, David Shernick moved to Miami Beach.

He lived there at a time when Miami Beach was a playground for wealthy Russians (Czarist refugees). For example, Countess Anna von Zarnekau of New York City was often reported by the New York Times as having paid visits to luxury hotels in Miami Beach to attend gala dinner parties and visit with other wealthy White Russians.

Such celebrities as Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich [26] and his American wife Audrey Emery [27] often appeared at glittering gala dinners to help raise funds for Georgian refugees.

Note: The Grand Duke Dmitri was the step-brother of Marianne (von Pistohlkors) von Zarnekau, who participated with Dmitri in the murder of Gregory Rasputin. Marianne was the wife of Count Nicholas von Zarnekau, [28], [29], Later, in the 1980s and 1990s, the Grand Duke Dmitri's son, Paul Ilyinsky-Romanovsky, served as the three-time mayor of Palm Beach, Florida, [30]

Ida Shernick Altsitzer Gluck [31] also began to make many trips to Florida in the 1950s. She was apparently a welcome member of the White Russian community there. She appeared under the name Ida Gluck in the 1959 City Directory for Miami Beach, and died in Dade County, Florida, in 1964.

1955: The Shernick Family Join the Catholic Church

The fact that Al Shernick, his wife and two sons all joined the church on the same day is recorded in the local Catholic Register. Mildred saved a clipping from the newspaper.


December 1955: Secret Lineage Comes to Light

In December 1955, Al's eldest son David sat down with Al's sister, Ida, at a hotel near Miami Beach and began to quiz her on the Shernick family's history. He was especially interested in claims of nobility.

A photocopy of David's notes from that interview, typed up as a single sheet of paper, has been attached to the Images section of this profile.


21 Oct 1957 New York Death Record for Harry Cherniack Jr.

Harry Cherniack in the New York, New York, Death Index, 1949-1965

  • Name: Harry Cherniack
  • Age: 59
  • Birth Date: abt 1898
  • Death Date: 21 Oct 1957
  • Death Place: Brooklyn, New York, New York, USA
  • Certificate Number: 20265

Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, New York, Death Index, 1949-1965 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2017.

Original data: New York City Department of Health, courtesy of www.vitalsearch-worldwide.com. Digital Images.

Description This collection includes death records from New York, New York between the years of 1949 and 1965.

1957 Grave Memorial for Harry Cherniack Jr.

Harry Cherniack in the U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current

Go to website: Find A Grave Memorial No. 77435021

  • Name: Harry Cherniack
  • Death Date: 21 Oct 1957
  • Cemetery: Mount Hebron Cemetery
  • Burial or Cremation Place: Flushing, Queens County, New York, United States of America
  • Has Bio?: N

Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Original data: Find A Grave. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi.

Description This database contains an index to cemetery and burial details posted on Find A Grave.


1961 Albert Shernick Death Records

After a long and creative career as a painter, Al died there of a heart attack on 15 August 1961.

Albert H. Shernick died of a heart attack at his house on Bell Court in August 1961. He and his wife Mildred are buried at the Mt. Olivet Cemetery, near Lakewood.

15 August 1961 Albert Shernick Obituary

Al's obituary appeared in the Lockport Union Sun Journal for 16 August 1961 (page 8) as follows:

FORMER RESIDENT AL SHERNICK DIES IN DENVER

"A former resident of Lockport, Albert H. Shernick, 62, of Denver, Colo., died suddenly Tuesday (Aug. 15, 1961).

"Mr. Shernick had been a salesman for the Conway Maytag Sales Co. and worked as a freelance commercial artist while in Lockport.

"He is survived by his wife, two sons, David Shernick of New York City, Robert Shernick of Denver, a sister [Lucille Rogers] and two grandchildren.

"Burial will be in Denver on Thursday."


Find A Grave Memorial

Albert Shernick, Find A Grave Memorial No. 101385180

U.S., Find A Grave Index

Website: Click here to see Find A Grave website for Al Shernick: [32]

  • Name: Albert H Shernick
  • Birth Date: 1899
  • Death Date: 1961
  • Cemetery: Mount Olivet Cemetery
  • Burial or Cremation Place: Wheat Ridge, Jefferson County, Colorado, USA
  • Has Bio?: N

Source Information: Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original Data: Find A Grave. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi.

Description:

This database contains an index to cemetery and burial details posted on Find A Grave.

Claims of Nobility

The following section represents an effort to disentangle the Shernick family's strange claim to nobility.

When he arrived aboard the S.S. Czar in 1914, Al Shernick's name was "Czernichow" and he appears to have descended from an ancient German-Russian family with close ties to the Prussian imperial court and the Romanovs.

The Prussian branch of the family trace their origins to Czarnikau, Posen and to Schernikau, Germany, near Berlin. [33] A.F. Schernikau and Co. were the suppliers of bakery goods and confections to the Prussian Imperial family. [34], [35] They also held royal patents to supply cakes and candies to the imperial families of Austria and Russia, operating a chain of candy stores in New York, London, Vienna, Danzig and St. Petersburg.

Their distant cousin, Julius Caesar Czarnikow [36], was an international trader of sugar, with headquarters in Berlin, London and New York.

Descent from the Princes of Chernigov

Prior to 1800, one may trace the many European families named Chernyshev, Czernichow, Czarnikow, Schernikow or Schernikau back to a single trunk site: Chernigov, an ancient Ukrainian city established in the 9th century as a castle and stronghold of the first Czars of Kievan Rus.

See the Wikipedia article on "Principality of Chernigov" here: [37]

In fact, the first Czars and warlords of Russia (the Rurik Dynasty) once bore the titles "Prince of Kiev" and "Prince of Chernigov." One could therefore make a very strong argument that "Chernigov" or "Czernichow" was one of the last names for Russia's original royal family.

For a detailed family tree of the Rurik Dynasty, see the Wikipedia article "Rurik Dynasty" here: [38]

The Czernichows of Europe are the ancient line of Russian and Teutonic Knights who descended from the original Princes of Chernigov. Their chivalric tradition is very ancient indeed: older than that of the Romanovs. The Czarnkow-Czarnkowski family of Poland, for example, once served as the heads of the Knights Templar commandery at Posnan. They trace their history back to the first crusades. [39], [40]

To see an overview of the long lineage of the Princes of Chernigov (whose family included some of Russia's first saints), please visit the illustrated history which this writer has created at this link: [41].

The Counts Chernyshev (Czernichow)

See also the lineage of the Russian Counts of Chernyshev (a related family) at this link: [42]. In Russian, the spelling of the name Czernichow is very nearly identical to that of Chernyshev.

The many branches of this ancient tree are scattered all across the map of Eastern Europe, and they were referred to collectively as "Czarniks" -- families who claimed descent from the ancient Czars of Kiev and Chernigov.





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It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Albert by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. Y-chromosome DNA test-takers in his direct paternal line on WikiTree: It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Albert:

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Images: 27
S.S. Czar
S.S. Czar
WWI Draft Card for Abraham (Albert) Shernick
WWI Draft Card for Abraham (Albert) Shernick
Shernick family history per Ida Shernick
Shernick family history per Ida Shernick
Albert H. Shernick, 1926
Albert H. Shernick, 1926
Detail from SS Czar ship's passenger list, 29 July 1914
Detail from SS Czar ship's passenger list, 29 July 1914
view all


Comments: 1

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Rutherford-448 Dave Rutherford
Please correct the LNAB - This should be reserved for his last name as known at his birth. His name at the time of his death should be placed in the "Current Last Name" field. And all other names he was known by in the "Other Last Names" filed.

Thanks!

posted on Shernick-98 (merged) by Dave Rutherford

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