Hello dear Zakarins!

The origin of the unique Zakarin family name has aroused the interest of each and every one of us at one time or another.

Thanks to the discovery of immigration documents by two family members, Debbie Zakarin (Towson, Maryland), and Bob Zakarin (Livingston, New Jersey), we know with near certainty that the name Zakarin was chosen by family members, and not "assigned" to them as Ellis Island legend suggests.  Read on!

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During a conversation with Robert Zakarin (Tallahassee, Florida) in 2006, Robert mentioned to me that his daughter Debbie had made some intriguing discoveries regarding the family name.  Debbie and I started exchanging information shortly thereafter, and she told me the following story:

I was always interested in the name Zakarin and how it was created or chosen, and in what life was like for the family before they immigrated to the U.S.  In my childhood, when asked about the origins of the family name, I would offer a vague remark about something Russian/Jewish from Ellis Island, but the truth is that I really didn't know.

In recent years, I have spent quite a lot of time researching these matters on the internet, using my old-fashioned AOL dial-up connection.  Despite my best efforts, the records documenting the family's entry into the U.S. continued to elude me.

The breakthrough occurred late one night.  I found an item on the Kings (Brooklyn) County Naturalization index that documented the granting of citizenship to Harry Zakarin [Samuel's son].  In the Comments column appeared the note:

"Arrived as Ewsei Zacharewak"

I was very excited by this discovery.  Holding my breath, I went back to the Ellis Island site, and it didn't take me long to find the relevant ship's manifest of Esther & Samuel "Schoal" Zacharewok and children in the Ellis Island Archives from 1906, including the entry record of my 3-year-old grandfather Leib [Louis].  It was a very emotional moment for me!

Esther and Schoal [Note: Schoal is possibly a Hebrew acronym of Saadiya Eliezer] traveled with 5 or 6 of their youngest children.  Their destination was Max's place in New York on 535 East 13th Street.  They were 48 years old and tiny - Schoal, a baker, was only 5'5" and Esther was 4'9".  Both had dark hair and dark eyes.

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During a visit to the U.S. in the spring of 2007, I had the pleasure of meeting Bob Zakarin of Livingston, New Jersey.  Bob had a lot of stories to tell about the family, and in the midst of a discussion about his grandfather Kalman, he suddenly volunteered that he had found Kalman's Ellis Island entry record.  Startled, I asked him if he could forward the link to me.  A few weeks later, he sent me the link, along with the following narrative of his discovery:

When Ellis Island made their archive available on the web, the first thing I tried to locate was my father's entry document.  It actually took me months because the site was so overloaded with traffic and my computer was very slow.  However, when the actual passenger manifest appeared with my grandparents, as well as Charlie, Aunt Anne, and my Dad [Yekuschiel, Chaie, and Scholem] as verification of the strange spelling, I was deeply moved.

My grandparents appear in the manifest as Kalman and Itte Sacharenko, and the previous domicile is recorded as Orle-Czernigow.  Kalman is listed as a baker.  Try as I might, I was never able to obtain information on father Zackarin waiting for them at Pitt Street…

They were 28 years old, traveling with three young children, including my infant father, probably the reason that they didn't travel with the others in 1906.

Interestingly - look below them and you will see a name: Rochel Schumansky - traveling alone with her 4 children to meet her husband in New London, CT.  They came from the same town, and must have made the trip together with Kalman and the family.  As a boy I don't remember any talk of friends from the ‘old country’ outside of New York City.

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Last week, I received an e-mail from Murray Feldberg.  "I have the correct spelling of the original family name.  It was Zacharenok."  As evidence, Murray attached his mother Beckie's work permit, signed by her as at the age of fourteen in 1910, as Bluma Zacharenok.

The plot thickens…

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[Please see the original documents at http://www.geocities.com/yzakarin/documents.html]

The immigration records of Samuel's and Esther's children Max, Ida, and Isidor have yet to be discovered.

- Yosi