Extract of a letter I received from Rhona SKOLNIK nee COHEN.   It provides memories of childhood family gatherings, and provides family history stories that add to our ancestors lives.

. . . .  I’m taking so long to answer you but Phil had some medical problems so we took off for Houston which is our home base.

He’s okay now. Looking at those papers you sent me, one name jumped out at me!

Barney Rosenfield.

A hundred years ago when I was about 14, my parents rented a summer cottage in Union Pier, Michigan and I got to know some kids from Chicago who were also there for the summer.

There was a Barney who liked to leap and bound a la Fred Astaire. His cousins called him the Jewish Fred Astaire. Barney decided he was going into Show biz so he named himself Barney Field. His cousins laughed and said it sounded like a name for a cemetery.

There was another young boy about the same age whose name I can’t recall. They referred to him as “Porky”. He wasn’t fat but just large —– football material.

Then there was Mignon Miller — she was called “Migs”.

There was Harold and Evelyn (Chavi) Brodsky. I kind of palled around more with her.

We were all about the same age, 13 and 14 and 15 and I think Harold was the oldest of us all. He must have been about 16.

This was in the late thirties.

I never saw any of these kids again. They didn’t come to Union Pier the next year so that was that.

If you have any information as to what happened to any of them, I would like to hear of it.

I also have some pictures that I know you will need for that book you plan on doing.

I have them framed and will gladly take them apart and send them to you. They are of your grandfather, Harry Shankman and his half sisters, Fan and Sally and Mae and of his half brothers, little Harry and of little Fyvish (Phil) and your mother when she was about 5.

I also have a picture of your great grandfather and his wife Bessie Kaplan —- and that would be our end of the family.

I wish I could have made the connection when Bernie came into the family and asked him about the kids I knew way back then. It was only just a few years from the time I knew those kids. Oh well! That’s the way it goes. We come to life and think of what we should have thought about — too late.

Well, it isn’t too late only it is making it more difficult to get all the info you need —- but take heart, you’ll get there, have patience.

Vera, your mother will really give me a “what for”. She did ask to have those pictures returned to her and of course I never did! I know she wanted them to pass along to you —– so I’ll do the honors.

When I get to “my” project again will send you a copy of the Skolnik clan report and maybe you’ll be able to use some of it. I’m sure not all of it will be of any interest to you, but then maybe it will.

What about your older brothers? Bobby is the same age as my Burt. He is older by about 2 weeks. What is he up to?

Now that I think about it, Bessie Kaplan Skolnik had some cousins that might or might not be related to you, but I’ll send that off to you when I get these ideas together and give you the job of sorting out what you need or want. It is a job and I hope you have the patience that is required to do the work.

The Mormons have “rescued” records from the government. They were about to be thrown out. The Mormon religion requires their people to hold onto their background and “baptize” any member of their family who have “gone on” before them.

Case in point. A nephew of mine decided to become a Mormon. He married a Mormon and that started it. He wanted the full name and any pertinent information we could give. him about his grandfather, my father and his mother’s father — who had died some years ago.

Why did he want the name?

So he could have MY JEWISH DAD baptized into the Mormon religion so Steve could meet up with his grandfather in heaven. In other words, if you “ain’t” a Mormon you won’t go to Heaven. Really? By then my mother had died, too. If she had caught wind of that she would have been very upset.

We like to think of our father as a great man in his own right and not needing any baptizing into another religion. But that is what they required of their people.

There just recently opened up on Ellis Island a web site that you could log onto about ship information. If we knew of the names, it would be easy, but if we know of the date, that might help.

I do believe the Skolnik’s with Harry Shankman came to this country in 1911, when Harry Shankman must have been about 16 but then I’m not too sure about that.

Signed “Take care and let me hear from you.” Rhona