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Jacobson and Garber Family

Solomon Jacobson was born in Mir around 1856. As a young man he left Mir and emigrated to the United States. He travelled on a ship called the Lizzard from Hamburg arriving the the U.S. on the 2nd day of November in 1884. It is likely that he was already married to Shoshana Davidson of Mir before he left home. He settled in Des Moines, Iowa. Many Jacobson cousins came to Iowa in the 1880s and later and lived in Des Moines. (See Jacobson family tree.)

Shoshana arrived in the US in 1886. Their daughter Lena/Elise was born in May 1888 in Des Moines. Their son David was born in April of 1890.

Solomon became a naturalized US citizen in 1890, making his wife and children citizens in the process. Records of Solomon Jacobson are found in Des Moines City Directories of Businesses in 1891 and 1892. Solomon died in 1895 and was buried in Glendale Cemetery in Des Moines Iowa. His wife, known in Des Moines as Susie Jacobson applied for a US Passport in 1896. She took Lena (age 8) and David (age 6) to live in Mir.

David Jacobson returned to the United States in 1907, at age 18. Two Ellis Island manifests indicate that he had been a clockmaker in Mir and that his mother was in Mir in 1907. He made contact with his cousin Joseph Jacobson, who was living in Brooklyn and had a fur business in New York City. David went on to Des Moines, Iowa. Some time later, he married, served in WWI and moved to Chicago. His family lost contact with other Jacobson relatives until 2014.

Elise Jacobson married Reuven Garber, a Mir rabbi who had came from Semyatitsh (now Siemiatycze, Poland [52°27' 22°53'] 164.3 miles WSW of Mir). They had three children, Zelda (born about 1910), Masha and Moshe. Both Elise and Reuven may have died in the 1919 influenza epidemic.

According to the family story, Shoshana Davidson Jacobson wanted to take her grandchildren to America after WWI. However, the Polish government would not issue permits for the children to leave with their grandmother. Shoshana stayed to raise for her grandchildren. The family lived in Mir and later in Baranovich. The girls married. Either Zelda or Masha had a son who was named after their father. Both girls, their husbands and children were murdered around 1942.

Moshe had joined the Polish army. He survived the war somewhere in Russia and eventually made his way to Israel. His children live in Israel. His grandchildren are in Israel and the United States.

Solomon Jacobson

Solomon Jacobson was born in Mir, Belarus in 1856. By 1891 he is listed in the Des Moines Iowa City Directory as having a business selling second hand goods. This photo was taken in Des Moines, Iowa
Jacobson Garber Family
Shoshana Davidson Jacobson with her grandchildren
Zelda, Moshe and Masha Garber. 1925.

Masha Garber 1933
Zelda Garber
Zelda Garber 1932
Moshe Garber
          Moshe Garber
Cousins
Zelda Garber (center) with her cousins Hannah (left) and Maska Marmor in Siemiatycze/Semiatich Poland, July 7, 1925
Garber Family Home 
                               Jacobson-Garber home 1933
Wedding Day
Masha Garber & Aaron Yakomovetcki's Wedding Day 1938 in Baranovich, Poland
Shoshana Jacobson, Moshe Garber, Zelda Garber Stoler & Moshe Stoler,
Garber Stoler
Zelda Garber and her husband Moshe Stoler, Baranovich 1936
Reuven Garber Zelda and Reuven
Reuven Stoler and his mother Zelda Garber Stoler 1938-9
Reuven
             Reuven Stoller May 5, 1939
Moshe in Polish Army
Moshe Garber in the Polish Army. He joined before June 1938. This photo is from January 1939
Garber letter
August 12, 1944. Letter from partisan to Moshe Garber
reporting that no one in his family survived.

 

All photos and most information provided by Leah Garber, daughter of Moshe Garber.
Additional details come from Pages of Testimony at Yad Vashem, a US Passport application and Ellis Island records,
obtained by Reeva Jacobson Kimble.

 

Updated April 2017

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