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By way of information on the above image, I recently wrote the following to family members:

"Hello, All!

I have attached a note that Uncle Harry had written down for me some years ago.  According to Harry, our true family name was "Bronfamacher", and, if I am not mistaken, this is the preferred English spelling.  I had previously heard that the name was "Bronfman", and as I recall, Harry referred to that as some kind of shortened version, also valid.  The family name means "Whiskey Maker", and I am thinking that perhaps that is how the family fortune was made, because by all accounts they were wealthy and educated, a rarity for Jews in Czarist Russia. 

As I recall, Harry indicated that his father, Benjamin, was from Zinkov.  This name may be a shortened version of some longer Russian name.  Harry had tried to locate family members in recent years.  I think that the town may have been destroyed in WWII.  There were no records to search, which I think is common in Russia.  I believe that Benjamin was one of four sons.  A younger brother, Max, had emigrated to the USA, and the other two brothers stayed in Russia.  Their mother moved to the USA, and my Dad recalled going to her apartment after school.  My father always referred to her as a "real tootsie", and lit up at the thought of her.  Benjamin was a big fan of classical music and Enrico Caruso in particular.

Harry indicated that Fanny was from Poltava, perhaps from a village called Primachug, near the Dnieper River.  He mentioned once that she was a cigarette girl there, and ate a halvah sandwich at work every day.  The thought of this made him weep.

Well, they are all gone.  All we can do is hold on to the memories, and perhaps pass along some information and stories.

I hope all is well.

Love to all.

Cousin Richard"

Man Cub

This photograph is of my father, Sydney Bartell (then Bernstein), as a young man off on his own, circa 1922/23, age two.  According to Uncle Harry, this was taken by a roving street photographer.  For that reason, I have reversed the image.  To my knowledge, street photographers at the time took reversed images which allowed them to process the image on the street in a matter of minutes.  My sense is that the photographer probably called my father over and had him pose for the shot.  Later, the image would be marketed to a family member.  The reversed image looks correct to me.

It was at this age that my father went missing one day.  Family and friends searched the building and neighborhood looking for him for some time.  He was later found wandering around a train yard, thank G-d!  This was the start of some serious wanderlust that caused him to enlist in the Merchant Marines, misrepresenting his age, being only seventeen, one year shy of the requirement.  He had "shipped out", as he called it.  He signed, immediately boarded the ship as was the protocol, and wrote my grandmother a letter from Panama.  He was off to see the "watery parts of the world", as written in "Moby Dick".  He had reinvented himself.  He was wild and free.  As a poker prodigy, he had plenty of money to spend.  My father was off to explore Asia, South America, and G-d knows where else.  He shared little of these adventures.  I do know that he returned periodically with exotic gifts for my grandmother, and regularly sent money home, a lot of money.

Expect to see this photograph again, with another story to tell.

Welcome Friends and Family

Welcome, friends and family, to "Bronfamacher", a new blog, a journey into our family's history and experience.  The image posted above is of my paternal grandfather, Benjamin Bernstein.  Upon arriving to the United States of America from Russia, he was compelled to drop the family name Bronfamacher, and from then on become Bernstein.  As for the reasoning, we can only guess.  Was the name too long, too complicated, too difficult to pronounce?  It seems a shame to have lost the family name.  This name makes us whole.  This name means "Whiskey Maker."  This name, Bronfamacher, is the key to our past.   

I look forward to a sharing of information, stories and images with you.  I am glad that you stopped by.