Our grandfather, Hyman (Avram Chaim) Davidovitch died one hundred years ago today, August 3rd 1925.
He was born and grew up in Poland in 1866 or 1868. There is no definitive information about his early years, but it seems likely(see below) that he was born in the village of Kraszewo near Ciechanow (about 50 miles north west of Warsaw) and his father was Leoric Davidovitch and his mother Estera Elka Katz (who came from Plonsk).
We do know from correspondence that when Avram Chaim left Poland the family was living in the village of Hordzieska, not far from Lublin. He arrived in New York in 1890 landing at Castle Garden (this was two years before Ellis Island was established as a place for processing immigrants). He found work in the rag trade where he was employed for several years, but he did not seem to be happy with the work and at the end of August 1896 he travelled to Paris. In 1898 he moved to England, arriving in London in April, then travelling to Leeds and on to Hull
In his diary he tells of his struggles with work, his social life, his concerns re health and several romantic encounters. However by 1898 he was living in Hull, and in 1899 he married Annie Salit (Grandma Davidson). They went on to have six sons and three daughters (unusually all of them surviving to adulthood) and thus established the Davidson family. When in the 1930s the three daughters married the three Noble brothers the Davnob family was created.
A word about the surname
Davidovitch is a Polish name meaning son of David. It is variously spelled as Davidovitch, Dawidowicz, and Davidovitz. In the 1920s (probably after he died, as on his grave and death certificate he is named as Hyman Davidovitch) the family name was changed to Davidson, but one branch of the family to this day retains the historical Davidovitz name.
A word about the birth certificate
Information about Avram Chaim's birth comes from a possible birth certificate:
which says: Act 125 - the village of Krazh. It took place in the city of Ciechanow in the year 1868, on the first day of July at nine o'clock in the morning. Leorik Davidovich, a worker living in the village of Krazh, 23 years old, appeared in person, in the presence of skolniki, Abram Vontroba, 53 years old, and Gershon Totengreber, 31 years old, living in the city of Ciechanow, and presented us with a male child, born in the village of Krazeh on 22 June at 4 o'clock in the morning to his wife Estera Elka, née Katz, 26 years old. The baby was given the name Abram Chaim during the religious ceremony. This act was signed by us and witnesses after it had been read. The father cannot write.
signatures: Abram Vontroba, Gershon Totengreber, Person. in charge of the Civil State Acts.
Uncle Lionel believed this was not his father's birth certificate - but this was largely because he thought his father was born in 1866. However if it is our Avram Chaim, then we find his mother Estera-Elka Katz was born nearby in Plonsk in 1841, which he later (in the 1911 UK Census) he records as his place of origin. (Lionel also mistakenly objected to the birth certificate on the grounds that his father was well-educated and certainly could write. In fact the reference to not being able to read was about Leoric and not Avram Chaim.)
(Incidentally as a sidenote Estera Elka's father was called Eydel - which just happens to be the Yiddish for Noble!)
