What’s in a (Jewish) name? Hartford family solves a mystery at Ellis Island…

By Cindy Mindell ~

The Nassau family, taken in 1912: (l to r) Jonas, Samuel, Henrietta, Benjamin, Matilda, Louis, Aaron, Isaac, Joseph.

HARTFORD – For years, descendants of the Hartford-based Nassau family couldn’t find a record of their ancestors’ arrival at Ellis Island in 1912. And as the 100th anniversary of that milestone loomed, Lisa Koplowitz decided to take serious action.

The third-generation Nassau progeny and amateur genealogist was inspired by “Who Do You Think You Are?,” the NBC series that follows celebrities on their genealogical journeys.

When the show started two years ago, Koplowitz, who lives in Norwood, Mass., began researching her own family on Ancestry.com. In April, armed with her late grandfather’s birth-date and a family history edited by her first-cousin-once-removed, Avon resident Art Nassau, she tried to find out when the Nessitzkys-turned-Nassaus – Matilda and her eight children – had landed in New York to join Morris, who had already settled in Hartford.

Deciphering names processed at Ellis Island is no mean feat. There are transliterations and misspellings to sort through, not to mention the truncations and complete changes that take place. Even in the Nassau case, there were several variations on the original surname, as successive family members immigrated. One S or two? Was there a Z? E or I or both?

Koplowitz typed in her grandfather’s name, Aaron Nassau, to no avail. Then she tried Aaron Nessitsky; still nothing. “I sat stumped… and sad,” she says. “One more time, I prayed to my grandfather for help. Then I thought, it was Russia; the name probably wasn’t spelled the same.” She typed Aron Nessitzky. “My grandfather’s name was the first one to pop up on the list of possibilities. I knew it had to be him. I clicked on the link and opened the passenger manifest for the HMT Czar. And there they were, all nine of them in a row. I sat back, cried and called my mom.”

On June 11, 1912, Matilda Nessitzky arrived at Ellis Island with her eight children, Henrietta, Jonas, Isaac, Joseph, Samuel, Aaron, Benjamin, and Louis, ranging in age from 3 to 17.

Because of a misreading of “Nessitzky” as “Pessitzky” at Ellis Island, the family’s descendants had never been able to find the name on the passenger list.

Koplowitz says that she was able to have the spelling corrected in the Ellis Island archives.

Thanks to her detective work, more than 50 members of the Nassau family gathered at Ellis Island on June 10 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the family’s arrival.

The Nassau siblings, taken in 1975: (l to r) Henrietta, Louis, Benjamin, Aaron, Samuel, Joseph, Isaac, Jonas.

How had “Nessitzky” evolved into “Nassau?” In editing the family history, Art Nassau relied on a memoir by his Uncle Isaac, who had written, “For a long time, Father had been dreaming about going to

America, but this pogrom determined him. His younger brother, Sam, had emigrated to America a year or two previously and was living in New York. At Ellis Island, the authorities named him Nesso, but Uncle Sam later changed it to Nassau.”

Family lore has it that it was Reuven – later Robert – Nessitzky, the first son to leave Russia, who changed the name while waiting for a New York bound passenger ship in England.

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