The Cost of Immigration

In 2007, an Israeli historian named Gur Alroey published a study about the choices and difficulties faced by Jewish immigrants from Russia. Based on published prices from that era, he estimated the actual monetary cost of getting from Russia to America, for a family that – remarkably – exactly resembled the Dubersteins when they immigrated in 1900: 

“…the cost of migration to the US for a family of ten between 1900 and 1908 (parents and eight children, four above 12 years old, and four under 12) is estimated at 600 rubles for passage on the ship, 15 rubles to obtain a passport or cross the border illegally, 120 rubles for the train fare (depending on the destination and distance), and 10 rubles for accommodations and food. Thus the total cost for the whole family is estimated at 745 rubles ($372.50, equivalent to approximately $7,600 today). For the average Jewish family, whose annual income was 500-600 rubles ($250-$300), it was a fortune.”

Like Alroey's family, the Dubersteins came over as a family of 10, as passengers on the Furst Bismarck, sailing out of Hamburg on May 17, 1900. Two of the children (Anna and Bertha) were over 12, the rest under 12. We can only wonder, given the available information, how they managed to raise the necessary funds to finance the trip. (Alroey makes the point that the high cost was typically the reason male breadwinners came first, sending for their families as they made enough to pay for their passage.) 

One important point, often forgotten: Immigrants like the Dubersteins needed passports, not to get into the U.S., but to (legally) get out of Russia. Getting a passport was a complicated and difficult process, so many elected to cross the Russian border illegally, using what we today call "coyotes," or smugglers. This was dangerous, and could involve costly bribes and fees, but was often preferable to dealing with the Russian bureaucracy. 

Consolidated Wafer

Recent internet searches turned up some tantalizing information about great-grandpa Morris Duberstein's business, the Consolidated Wafer Co. An early manufacturer of ice-cream cones, the business was in Brooklyn, but apparently had offices or manufacturing facilities in Chicago, San Francisco and elsewhere. 

It appears that Consolidated Wafer was merged in the mid-1920s with several other ice-cream cone manufacturers, and that merged entity was sold to Nabisco in 1928, a year after Morris died in Brooklyn. 

1910

By 1910, the Dubersteins had moved up -- and uptown, to the Bronx, where they resided at 408 E. 140th St. The census that year listed Morris as a "manufacturer, ice cream wafers" -- which fits nicely with the many family stories of his having invented the ice cream cone, or the ice cream sandwich, or something along those lines. Eldest daughter Anna B. (what did the B. stand for? I don't think I ever heard of her having a middle name...) was employed as an "operator, shirtwaists" while her sister Bertha ("Betsy" in the 1900 census and "Breine" on the ship manifest) was working as a milliner in a wholesale store. Jack was a bookkeeper in a coal yard, and Julius -- begininng a long history of family employment -- was keeping the books for his father. The younger children were still at home.

The 1910 census seems to settle the question of where Gerald, the youngest, had been born. In the 1900 census he was listed as having been born in the U.S., but that can't be right, if he was shown on the ship manifest when they came over from Minsk/Hamburg that year. Just another case of the government not quite getting it right ...

Early Days

The Dubersteins landed in NYC in May 1900. Less than a month later their presence was being recorded as part of the 12th decennial census of the United States. When the census takers came around, the 10 of them were living on the Lower East Side, at 203 Monroe St. (The address no longer exists: Monroe St. stops around 176 before running into one of New York's less attractive mid-century public projects just north of the Manhattan Bridge.)

Note that the records do not exactly jive; the census form gives Morris' date of immigration as 1899, not 1900 as implied by the ship's manifest. (But as we will see when we get to 1910, this may have been a one-time mistake.)

Moshe had by then become Morris; Mere (from the ship's manifest) had become Merry, and the children all had new American names. Unsurprisingly as well, they started started to work: Morris as a tailor, Merry as a "domestic" (does this mean she was employed as a housecleaner, or was she simply working at home?) Her youngest, Gerald, was only 4 months, but the older kids went up to 16 -- indeed, Annie, the eldest, was employed as a dressmaker already.

I suppose it's possible that another family of Dubersteins from Minsk could have been sailing over with the same number and gender mix of children, with names that correspond as well to ours. But not too likely...

So I'm assuming that:

Moses = Morris

Mere = Mary

Chane = Anne

Breine = Bertha

Jankno = Jacob

Judel = Julius

Dobe = Debbie

Cive = Ceil

Michle = Mabel

Gedalye = Gerald

How they got here

(Thanks to cousin Lon for finding this.) My Dubersteins evidently sailed over on the ship "Furst Bismarck", departing Hamburg and arriving in New York May 17, 1900. For reasons unknown (but intriguing) they appear on the ship's manifest on a separate page.

My Dubersteins

These are the Dubersteins I'm most interested in:

In front are Morris Duberstein and his wife, Mary. Around them are their eight children : Anne, Bertha, Jack, Julius, Debbie, Ceil, Mabel and Jerry. Those are their names as I knew them -- when Mary (my great-grandmother) was in her late 90s and the surviving children were my great-aunts and uncles. More later on their names and how they changed.