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2/12/02 COHEN FAMILY HISTORY

Here's some of the background on the Kookes/Kukes family , later to be the Cohen family. Some of the information comes from Aunt Lena (Milton interviewed her and captured the facts below) and some I obtained from the Ellis Island Records. I think Milton wrote this up for Aunt Lena's 100th birthday, in 1988.

The verbatim account from Aunt Lena , with bracketed comments from me, is as follows:
Laike Kookes was the 7th and now sole survivor of 14 children born to Nochem and Rochel Axelrod Kookes. Available records show the year to be 1888. Her first 14 years were spent in Haradok, Vilna Guberneh [that means Greater Vilna, now Vilnius, Lithuania], where her father was a blacksmith.

As was standard procedure just before the turn of the century, one or two at a time, five older siblings emigrated to American. In 1902 Nochem brought his son Arke and daughters, Laike [Lena], Mushke [Mary], and Liebe [don't know this one] to Gardiner, Maine, where an older sister had started to raise a family. Rochel came the following year with five year old Maishe [Maurice]. Four boys had not survived their first year or two.

Somewhere between the port of debarkation, Bremen, and the exit from Ellis Island, the family name was anglicized to Cohen, and Americanized first names were also adopted. Laike became Lena. For the next 21 years she sewed in the sweat shops of new England and helped her prolific older sisters raise their families. She went where her sisters needed her: Providence, R.I., Bennington, VT. Skowhegan, ME, Roxbury, MA, wherever.

In 1922, her youngest brother, Maishe, introduced her to Harry Braveman, a house painter, who also was from Vilna. they married the following year. Maishe warrants more than a footnote! Although as Morris Cohen he graduated at or near the top of his class at the prestigious Boston Public Latin School, he was denied college admission. When his school records were altered to reflect an alias, he was made welcome with full scholarship to the college of his choice. A summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Maurice Coburn taught English literature at his Alma Mater, Bowdoin College. In Dec. 1925, where on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin, he drowned while ice skating in Madison.

Milton arrived in 1924. Knowing they couldn't improve on perfection, Lena and Harry chose to channel all their parenting efforts for their first born whom they spoiled rotten. [Milton always did have a great sense of humor!]

After Rochel ( the Bubbe) dies in 1933, Nochem (the Zaide) lived with several of his daughters, primarily Mary. He died in 1944.
After checking the Ellis Island records, there are a few discrepancies in facts. I did find records that Rochel Kukes, whose ethnicity is listed as Russia, Hebrew, and was from Karodok, arrived in the US on August 10, 1903. She was 44 years old and came from the ship Finland, from Antwerp Belgium. [An odd side note is that my Father and his sister Mary also came to the US on the ship Finland, from Antwerp Belgium, but in the year1919] With her were Liebe Kukes (Lena), age 10, and Moische Kukes, age 5.

I cannot find any record of Nochem Kukes' arrival; it is possible that he arrived via a port other than New York. [But there is an Ellis Island is a record of an Ester Kukes arriving in 1900, and I wonder if that is Esther...??.]

Notes re name changes: according the officials at the Ellis Island visitors' center, it is a myth that the immigration officials made arbitrary changes in people's surnames when they arrived in the U.S. Also, the ship manifest documents were very important because the person's identity and health had to be attested to by the ship owners; if an immigrant was rejected for entry into the U.S. they had to transport that person back to Europe at their own expense.

I am just guessing, but since the family members did not speak much if any English before they got to the U.S., I think the name changes must have occurred after they arrived. While onboard ship they may have discussed the needed changes. Also, some Yiddish names translated easily. The name Mushke (both on the Fine side and the Rubin side) became Mary in the U.S.

As of 2/10/02, I am still having trouble documenting all of the Cohen cousins. I may have missed one or two in the family charts so far.

Claire B. Rubin
2/10/02




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