This is the start of an online resource for the Kaplan and Brodinsky families that emigrated to the United States of America from Yelisavetgrad, Russia (now Kirovograd, Ukraina).
Kaplan
reunion, Jul. 15, 2007 in Gloucester, Mass.
Kaplan
reunion, Aug.
12,
2001 at Boston Harbor, NH
Kaplan
reunion, Aug. 5,
1990 in Worcester, Mass.
Old
Kaplan pictures
Elisavetgrad,
1910
(Photographs,
History and Maps)
Ben
and Dee (Diana Kaplan) MillerLouis
BrodyKaplan
reunion,
Sunday,
July 15th, 2007:
Reunion
at the home of Jerry and Sandy Kaplan in Gloucester,
Massachusetts.
2007 Kaplan-Brodinsky Reunion
Kaplan
reunion,
Sunday,
August 12th, 2001:
Over
forty relatives met at the home of Caroline French
and Gordon Millar at the other Boston Harbor, by Great Bay in Dover,
New
Hampshire. Here are some photographs from that reunion.
(They
should all display well at 800x600 resolution;
opening the window to full-screen may help).
The
entire reunion group
Close-up, left
Close-up,
center
Close-up,
right
Kaplan cousins
Gert Kaplan
Maier, Lew Kaplan, Sam (Bae) Kaplan
Kaplan
reunion,
Sunday,
August 5th, 1990:
Reunion
at the home of Avis (Kaplan) and Nick Pilson
in Worcester, Massachusetts.
1990 Kaplan-Brodinsky Reunion
handed-down family paintings and photographs.
Ethel
Budnichankov Brodinsky (1854-1920),
mother
of Solomon, Louis, Ida and Rebecca;
painting
from Russia?, ca. 1900?
Rebecca
and Lewis Brodinsky (Russia, ca. 1884?).
Rebecca
Brodinsky Kaplan (1884-1967), daughter of Ethel;
mother
of Bill, Diana, Sarah, Gert, Lew and Sam;
painting
from Russia?, ca. ?.
Rebecca
(Brodinsky) and Abraham Kaplan (married 1901
in Yelisavetgrad, Russia).
Abraham
Kaplan children (Worcester, Massachusetts, ca.
1910?): Diana, Sarah, William
Abraham
Kaplan family (4 Columbia St., Worcester,
Massachusetts,
ca. 1913?)
Top:
Rebecca (Brodinsky), Abraham, Ethel (Brodinsky).
Bottom:
Bill, Gertrude, Sarah, Diana.
March 30th, 2002: Esther Golub shared this old Brodinsky family photograph:
(Russia,
circa 1904)
Chaika
Brodinsky (later Ida, to marry Aaron Golub), her
first child
William
Austin Budin-Schenko Brodie, and her mother
Ethel
Budnichankov Brodinsky.
September, 1990 (online April 7, 2002): David Slater shared this Slotopolsky family photograph:
(Russia,
perhaps 1900)
Wulf
Slotopolsky, the father of Freya Slotopolsky Kaplan
who
was the mother of my grandfather, Abraham Kaplan.
A. Richard Miller wrote to
relatives on Sept. 28, 1990: Meet
your
ancestor!
We are grateful to David Slater of NYC for providing this rare
"Berlin-style
Photograph" of Wulf Slotopolsky (FHS RID=577), made by I.Brill of
Yelisavetgrad
(Kiev oblast, Ukraine, Russia). For now, we are guessing that Wulf was
born about 1840, and that this portrait was from about 1900.
Wulf Slotopolsky owned a horse farm, probably in Novo-Ukrainka 36 miles
west-southwest of Kirovograd. His daughter Freya/Freda married
Simon/Shmuel
Kaplan; the Kaplan and Brodinsky/Brodie/Brody families lived in the
same
area. The name is pronounced Schlotopolsky here, Zhlatopolsky there,
and
probably comes from Zlatopol, a small town immediately to the north of
Novo-Mirgorod (35 miles west-northwest of Kirovograd). David and other
descendants still pronounce their shortened version, "Shlater".
Elisavetgrad, 1910 (Photographs, History and Map)
For the many of us that are descended from Brodinskys, Kaplans, Kriesfelds, Slotopolskys and Utchitels from Yelisavetgrad (did I miss any family names?), here is a treat from Ukraina -- a gift from Kirovograd City Hall and the Internet!
Our thanks go to Kirovograd for these Web pages about old Elisavetgrad/Yelisavetgrad/Kirovograd.
Photo
Gallery of Elisavetgrad, circa
1910.
From
that gallery, I particularly like the following
photographs. Although I can't tell you more about them, they are the
views
our ancestors saw, the streets where they walked and worked, in
photographs
from their era.
Dvorzovaya
(later, Lenin) Street (Photo#1,
Photo#2,
Photo#3).
Main
Synagogue.
Checherskaya
Gully.
The History
of Elisavetgrad:
Elisavetgrad
wasn't founded until 1754 (over a century
later than my small town of Natick, Massachusetts), and it was a
military
fortress on Russia's expanding frontier until 1784.
Elisavetgrad
grew quickly; its number of factories doubled in the 1890s and business
boomed. Its population grew to 63,000 in 1897, and 273,000 in
2000.
1913 Map of Elisavetgrad, and enlarged. (You can further enlarge details and footnotes.)
Modern regional map of Kirovograd (Elisavetgrad). Some of our relatives were from Rovner (Rovnoye) and Novo-Ukrainka, to the WSW of Elisavetgrad.
On September 30th, 1941, the German Army rounded up and shot nearly all the Jews of Kirovograd. (Search for "Kirovograd" at Vad Hashem, and read about Maria Heinson.)