Thompson Family Overview

(NOTE: This text was written about ten years ago - I have since found a lot of updates for the people listed here and will write about them in a later post) .

The origins of the Thompson family are shrouded in mystery, all written European records before 1900 having been lost, misplaced, destroyed, or never having existed in the first place. But we can assume an ancestor and his wife who lived sometime between 1820 and 1860, and who had two sons that we know of: Mendel (1840-1880) and Lazur (1846-1900). Even their last name is not certain: some have it as Tomshinsk, others as Tomshinski. And when the family adopted that name is also unknown, as well as the reasons for its adoption.
Mendel and Lazur lived in or near Vitebsk, in White Russia, in a town (shtetl?) called Shebezh. Present-day Vitebsk is in Belarus, a former Soviet republic. Belarus means “White Russia”. Shebsh was north of the so-called Pale of Settlement, an area to which Russian Jews were confined by laws of 1795 and 1835. By 1885, there were over 4 million Jews living in the Pale.



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In The Course of Modern Jewish History (1958) Howard Morley Sachar describes the Pale as a “tightly quarantined territory”, and writes that
[i]t is doubtful if any decree in history, even the
Spanish expulsion edict of 1492 or the establishment
of the Western ghetto in the sixteenth century,
imposed a more burdensome political, economic,
or intellectual strait jacket on an entire people. (82)
It is within the political and economic context that Mendel and his wife Rivka and his brother Lazur and his wife Sarah (1848-1882) lived. One can only imagine the difficulties of their daily lives. Mendel and perhaps Lazur as well made a living by trading; how their wives conducted their daily lives, their myriad chores in winters which rivaled Winnipeg for their cold and summers which were most likely hot and stifling, cannot have been easy. These women probably witnessed their own mothers, aunts and friends experiencing childbirth on an annual basis, under superstitious and primitive medical conditions.
We know that Mendel and Rivka had at least one child, a son Meyer (1862-1925). It is perhaps likely that other children were born, or that Rivka died shortly after the birth of this child, or that the other children died, or were girls and took their husbands’ names upon marriage; in any case, no family members have yet been located who are the siblings of Meyer. Further research will be necessary to locate them, if they do indeed exist.
Meyer married twice. His first wife and entire family died in 1885 in a typhoid fever epidemic. Meyer was 23 at the time. Sometime before 1889 he married his second wife was Chaske (Rachel), the daughter of his uncle Lazur. She was one of four children (of which we have information) of Lazur and Sarah Tomshinsk. There was a brother Wolfe (1882-1976), Feitel (Moshe?) (dates unknown), and a sister Anna (1870-1965). The many branches of the Thompson family are descended from these four children of Lazur and Sarah.
Chaske and Meyer had a large family: Phil (Feitel) (1889-1964), Sarah (1890-1975) and David Isaac (1896-1961) were born in White Russia. After the birth of David, around 1897, the family moved to London, England, and it was there that the name was anglicized to Thompson. Other children followed: Millie, Solly, Tillie, Edith, Joe, Sophie, Benny and Dora. A daughter, Ethel, died at the age of three years (1904-1907). In London, Meyer was a glazer by trade.
Wolfe, meanwhile, also moved to London, where his children Sarah (1901-1980) and Samuel (1902-1961) were born. Then Wolfe and his wife Rachel Adelberg moved -- or more correctly voyaged-- to South Africa. Rachel was probably pregnant at the time, her daughter Edith having being born in South Africa in 1903. Two other daughters followed: Elizabeth (1909-1974) and Ida (1912-).
The third child of Lazur and Sarah, Anna (1870-1965) married a Mr. Cutler and lived in Philadelphia. More details are to follow about her life. Her daughter, Deborah Cutler Freeman is still living in Florida. She 93 years old (in 1999) and in good health. (2009: I am sorry to report that Debbie has since passed away)
Anna Cutler had a daughter Hazel, of which there are photographs taken on a visit to Winnipeg in 1936. (Update - Hazel was not a daughter of Anna - more on this another time) Her mother also appears in these photos, taken in the backyard of Wolfe Thompson’s home at 686 Flora Avenue. A son, David, has a daughter Maxine Lapin, who is living in Houston, Texas. I hope to gather more information about the Anna Cutler family from her.
The youngest (I assume) brother was Feitel (Moshe?) whose two children, David (1918-1990) and Luba (1916-1998) Tomshinski, moved to Israel in the 1930’s. David’s two daughters are married and have children. Luba had one daughter, Hanita, who died prematurely. Hanita had three sons, two of which are married with children. Hanita’s son Alon married his distant cousin Marcie, a granddaughter of Joe Thompson (son of Chaske and Meyer).

My Father's Manuel 's Grandparents

This is probably the earliest photo I have: Meyer Thomshinski, Manuel’s grandfather, and his wife, Chashka (Rachel) Thomshinski, who was a cousin. It may have been a passport photo, or a photo for some other travel document. It was probably taken around the turn of the century, or in the first decade of the twentieth century. Meyer was the son of Mendel (1840s? – 1880s?) and Rivka, who lived in Shebezh, near Vitebsk, in White Russia, north of the Pale. Chashka was the daughter of Mendel’s brother Lazur (Eliezer)(1846?-1900?) and Sarah (1848?-1882?). Mendel, Lazur, and a brother David, were the sons of Lusik (1820?-1880?) and Essie. They may have had other siblings, but I have no information about them as of yet.
Manuel’s grandfather Meyer was married twice. His first wife and their entire family perished in Russia in a typhoid fever epidemic. Chashka, his first cousin, became his second wife. Their children were Phil, Sarah (m. Goldstein), David, Tillie (m. Levant), Millie/Minnie (m. Silver), Solly, Ethel (1904-1907), Edith (m. Schwartz), Joe, Sophie (m.Chudnow), Ben, and Dora (m. Seligman).
In Russia, Meyer made his living by trading. Between 1897 and 1900, he and his entire family moved to London, England, where he was a glazer by trade. I have a photograph of Manuel’s father David in a London school group which reads “Lower Chapman Street, 1906.” He would have been about ten years old.
In 1906 or 1907, Meyer and the family moved to Winnipeg. In 1912, they moved to Pine Ridge, Manitoba, where the family made a living by delivering wood, farming, buying cattle and dealing in horses. Manuel used to tell a story about his father’s family’s immigration to Canada. It seems that, as a young boy, Zaida Thompson (David) sustained an eye injury in England while playing with firecrackers on Guy Fawkes Day. At Halifax, while the rest of his family was admitted to Canada, the immigration authorities threatened to send young David back to England alone, because of his eye. A kindly Halifax doctor took David into his home and treated him until he recovered, and then sent him on to his family in Winnipeg. For many years, my grandfather (and my father) contributed to the Jewish Institute for the Blind in Jerusalem.

My mother's mother's mother's family

This is what I know. These are my mother's parents: This is my Babbie, Raichel Globerman, with my Zaida Maishel.

Babbie and Zaida were both born in Pinsk (now Belarus) and came to Canada in the 1920s (Zaida first and then Babbie). This is a photo of Raichel's mother:



In this photo, you can see Chaya Laya (Sapochnik)with her second husband Perlov and their children. My Babbie and her brother Abraham Weiner were the children of Chaya Laya and her first husband.

In the following photo, you can see my Babbie's cousin Bunia-Bella (Sapochnick)Furman and her family. In fact, in the corner, in my Zaida's handwriting, you see "Ma's cousins".



I learned about this family fairly recently. In 1992 or 1993, I went to a family Bat Mitzvah in Edmonton. There I met the Furman family (and learned that I had cousins in Montreal as well!). When I asked how the Furmans were related, my mother's uncle Dov Perlov (Babbie's half-brother) explained the following:

He said that Chaya Laya's father, Dov Sapochnik, had been married twice. First to Chaya Laya's mother (name unknown) and then, to a sister (Feigel) of Chaya Laya's mother! (Apparently this was not uncommon...). This would mean that Bunia (Feigel's daughter) and Chaya Laya (my great-grandmother) were both half-sisters (having the same father) and first cousins (as their mothers were sisters). My Babbie considered Bunia her aunt (sister of her mother), but Bunia was younger than my Babbie.

This week, I met Bunia's grand-daughter, who is a grandmother of four! So I met Bunia's great-great-great grandchildren!

AMAZING EMAIL I RECEIVED JUST NOW!

Hello Sorel,

I am mom of -----. Excuse my for my English,we moved from Israel less than 3 years ago,so my English is not very well. I know that you are looking for Tomshinsky families from Shebez. I found information on the site of Shebez city where Arkady Tomshinsky is looking relatives of his great-grandparents Berl and Dvoyra who had sons Israel(tentatively 1978 of generation) and Yakov (1869) emigrated to the USA.They also had five daughters- Sarah,Eta,Sonya,Mind and Khaska. I sent him your e-mail but not shure if he has received it. Here is a link to this web-site (but it is written in Russian) :

http://sebezh.borda.ru/?1-2-0-00000084-000-0-1-1271809649
You wrote that you have an information about Tomshinsky families in Argentina and Brazil.

My family originally came from Ukraine, city Gullay Pole. My husband's grandfather Zinovy had a sister Sonya (her daughter Ilda and grandchildren Eliana, Beatrice and Leo), brothers Ilia (his sons David, Solomon and Bernardo; grandchildren Sergio, Olginya and Ester), Israel (had sons Roberto, Fabio, Hose, Bernardo), Nahum (a daughter Shela and a son Bernardo), Aron (a daughter Sarita). Admittedly, Sonya's family lived in Brazil, Israel's family lived in Argentina, Ilia' family emigrated to the north America (it might be Canada).

We have a lot of photos are dated at 1960th.My mother-in-low will be happy to figure out any information about her father's relatives. Please help us.


Sincerely, ------ Tomshinsky

I think that if I investigate further, I may be able to see how the three families (USA, Argentina and mine) are related. This is a VERY important letter!

Winnipeg, late 1950s

Key to photo:

Left to right (on left side of door): Maishel Globerman, my maternal grandfather; Pearl (Thompson) Waldman (seated, my father's sister; Mike Kaufmann, my father's brother-in-law; Morley Waldman, husband of Pearl; Mrs. Antonia Kaufmann, Mike's mother; Nina (Globerman) Thompson (now Chisvin), my mother ... and incidentally, the only living person in the photo); Mrs. Resnick and Mrs. Ross, twin sisters; Manuel Thompson, my father (no hat); Joe Resnick, husband of one of the twins and son of my grandmother CLara's sister Becky (Myerovitch, Resnick, Thompson) from her first marriage).

Right side of door:
My paternal grandfather, David Isaac Thompson; Unknown woman and man; My paternal grandmother, Clara (Meyerovitch) Thompson; my maternal grandmother Raichel Globerman; "Auntie" Rosie (Ashkenazie) Meyers (seated), wife of Clara's brother Hymie (Meyerovitch) Myers; My father's sister Celia Kaufmann (in white coat); Hymie Meyers, my grandmother Clara's brother.


The photograph was taken on the occasion of the dedication of this classroom at the Talmud Torah Winnipeg Hebrew School 123 Matheson Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba (late 1950s). My grandfather, Maishel Globerman, dedicated this room as a memorial to his family members who perished in the Holocaust. He said that since there was no gravestone or marker, this room would be a memorial to them.

From the Montreal Jewish Genealogical Society's LISTSERV

"Posted on JewishGen:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Group

Because we were involved in a loss of power last week we were not able to
get a look at the original airing of "Who do You Think You Are? -
Lisa Kudrow ?" We did get to watch a rebroadcast on HuLu.

The show itself was touching but expanded with little information about
how those of us who don't have thousands of dollars to hire multiple
researchers to accompany us on our journeys can do research. Of course,
it was sponsored by Ancestry.

This is especially true when a lot of information is available to us
right here on Jewishgen.

When Lisa got to Ilya, the local archivist showed her a list of the
Holocaust victims of the community, with the description of the death
of Lisa's ggrandmother. The archivist told her that they had copied
the list from a list in Moscow. You don't have to be a local Belarusan
Archive to get a copy of your community's comparable list. Immediately
after the end of WW II, Russia sent teams into every community that that
Nazis had occupied which had then been liberated by the Russians.
These teams made up what was called the Russian Extraordinary Commission
Report based on evidence supplied by the local inhabitants. Originally,
only Yad Vashem had a copy. I got a copy of the portion of the report for
Voronova from Yad Vashem simply for the cost of copying and mailing..

Now, a master copy has been sent to the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
in Washington D.C. and copies of the section listing victims in your
community can be obtained from them. Or you can ask for copies of just
your families surnames.

Furthermore, the archivist read her a two page note about Ilya about
the destruction of the town. It was obviously copied from the Yizkor
Book of Ilya; Kehilyet Illya Pirkei Hayim veShammad. (The Community of
Illya, Chapters of the Lives and Destruction.) Again, Lisa did not
have to travel to Illya to read that. What she did get by her visit
was an introduction to the town and the environs of her family's lives and
murders.

For those who are starting and have not done so. checking on both
of these documents for their community is a must. Many of the Yizkor
Books have been translated, and are on line (at Jewishgen.)
If this hasn't been done, you can get this going by making a contribution
into the translation fund for this purpose. In almost all of the
Yizkor Books, there is a Necrology List and virtually all of these have
been translated.

Also note, comparison of the Extraordinary Commission Report List and
the Yizkor Book Necrology list is worthwhile since both are based on
personal memories and may these may vary with different information on them.
Also remember that since these are based on memories the information might
not be accurate.

There are quantities of stuff right here supplied by our own community
efforts."

Interesting Link

Take a look at this article.