Behind the Marriage of Max and Mae Feinberg

Behind every marriage is the question, "How did they meet?" According to the norms of "Traditional Marriage," they met by arrangement of their parents or extended families. This clearly was how things worked in the "Pale" of Eastern Europe, as many weddings turn out to involve families related by earlier weddings.

The arranged marriage did not necessarily give way to the love marriage on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. In an earlier blog, I showed how the earliest Romanian-Jewish immigrants in Des Moines arranged the marriage of my maternal great-grandparents Aaron and Clara Marcovis in 1888.

The Feinberg-Ginsberg Connection

I have long suspected that the 1915 marriage of my paternal grandparents Max Feinberg and Mae Chapman was also arranged. Mae's mother was a Ginsberg. Two years earlier, in 1913, Max's older sister Anna married Mae's Uncle Hyman Ginsberg. Seven years before that, in 1906, Max's maternal uncle Hyman Cohen married Mae's Aunt Rae Ginsberg.

What's with the Feinbergs and the Ginsbergs of Des Moines and Centerville, Iowa? I have not found any Feinberg ancestors of Mae Chapman. As far as Max Feinberg's ancestry, nothing is documented save for his father David Cecil Feinberg.

Earlier in 2018 I tested with Family Finder DNA and Ancestry DNA. On Ancestry, I found several Feinberg 2nd Cousins. One was descended from Max's half-brother Sam Feinberg. Another was descended from Max's half-sister Carrie. Both of these half-siblings, born to David's second wife, married non-Jews.

This means that any DNA I shared with those cousins must have come through no one other than David Cecil Feinberg, the last member of our only shared ancestral line. Any more distant DNA matches that I share with these cousins must be related through David Cecil Feinberg.

Those Ancestry shared matches included my Ginsberg cousins. In addition, a large DNA segment was shown on My Heritage to be shared with both a known Ginsberg relative and a definite Feinberg match. Clearly, David Cecil Feinberg was related to my Ginsbergs. But how?

It could not be too complicated, because David himself had to be familiar with the relation. Living in the U.S. without his parents or any known siblings, there was nobody else to advise him.

The Feinberg-Goldring Connection

When my father of blessed memory Ted Feinberg was in the service based in San Diego following the end of World War II, he visited his Aunt Fannie and her husband Uncle Leo Schutzbank in Los Angeles. The Schutzbanks introduced him to a Goldring family. Dad knew from Grandpa Max the Goldrings and Feinberg were connected, but neither of them knew how. One relative thought David Feinberg changed his surname from Goldring to appear as an only child in order to avoid conscription in the Russian Army.

Long ago I called up Aunt Fannie's daughter Pat Engle. Pat recalled a Minnie Goldring Wolfe who attended her wedding. I tracked down Minnie's niece Sarelle Riave Friedman (1932-2017) who remember the name Fannie Schutzbank. "Who could forget it?"

Minnie's Wolfe's father was Maurice Samuel Goldring (1862-1937). His obituary said he was born in Sakiai, Lithuania, and when Sakiai birth records were found and translated, Moshe Shlomo Goldring was there. Death records included Moshe's father, who died in 1867. David Feinberg was reportedly born in 1871. They could not be full siblings, but they could have been half-siblings, born to the same mother but different fathers.

The birth record shows Moshe's mother was Khaya Hinda, maiden name unknown. Both Maurice Goldring and David Feinberg had daughters named Ida, a common translation of Khaya.

The Goldring-Markson Connection

Moshe brought his wife Khana and their infant son Leib to Canada in 1882. On the same boat, and originating from the same town of "Budkin," were Notel and Etel Marksohn. Nathan and Ethel Markson moved from Montreal to Lewiston, Maine, in the late 1890s.

Hannah Kert Goldring (1858-1920) and Ethel Kert Markson (1855-1924) were sisters, the daughters of Moshe and Rachel Kert.

The Markson-Ginsberg Connection

Nathan Markson (1857-1943), born in Pilviskiai, Lithuania, was the son of Moshe Tzvi. The Hebrew "Tzvi" corresponds with the Yiddish "Hirsh."

Abraham Markson (1839-1901) was also from Pilviskiai, Lithuania, and he also lived in Lewiston, Maine. His parents were "Harris and Fanny."

Itsko Markson was listed in the resident book for the town of Zapyskis, Lithuania. He was born in Pilviskiai in 1843 to Hirsh Markson and Feiga Ginsberg. Itsko (Isaac Lewis Markson) died in Polk County, Iowa, (near Des Moines) in 1899.

Seeing Ginsberg and Zapyskis in the same record, it is likely the Feiga Ginsberg Markson was the daughter of Avram and Khaya Ginsberg of Zapyskis. While nothing directly connects my own Ginsberg ancestry to Zapyskis:

• Many known Zapyskis-Ginsberg descendants settled in Des Moines.
• Grandma Mae's Uncle Ike Ginsberg came from Pilviskiai.

[Initial] Conclusion [as posted in 2018]

I am certain that David Cecil Feinberg and Maurice Samuel Goldring were the sons of the same Khaya Hinda. Because of Maurice's association with a son of Feiga Ginsberg Markson, Khaya Hinda may herself have been a daughter of Feiga. Feiga's link to Zapyskis, Lithuania, means her father was probably Avram Ginsberg.

Accordingly, my grandfather Max Feinberg was son of David Feinberg, grandson of Khaya Markson, great-grandson of Feiga Ginsberg, and great-great-grandson of Avram and Khaya Ginsberg of Zapyskis.

My grandmother Mae Chapman was daughter of Lizzie Ginsberg, granddaughter of Abraham Joseph Ginsberg, great-granddaughter of Isaac (Yitzkhak) Ginsberg, and great-great-granddaughter of Avram and Khaya Ginsberg of Zapyskis.

My paternal grandparents were 3rd Cousins.

Correction

Chaya, the mother of David Feinberg and Maurice Samuel Goldring, was in fact an Epstein. This is stated in Goldring's remarriage record in Los Angeles, which I came across in late 2019.

The connection between the Goldrings and the Markson can only be explained by Chaya's remarriage to Mordechai Feinberg, who in turn had a family connection to the Ginsbergs. The conclusion that my paternal grandparents were 3rd Cousins may still hold true, given their common Zapyskis ancestry.