Shubb Family Tree
Family History
Beginnings
Russia
The Move to America
Sioux City
The Move West
Where are they now?
The Shubb family can be traced back to Abraham Asher Shubb, who lived in a village, or shtetl, in Russia called Mena (accent on the last syllable) in the early 19th Century.
The village, situated just east of the city of Chernygiev (or Chernihiv), still exists as one of several thousand similar villages in Ukraine today. Abraham may have had a brother named Nathan who moved to Riga, Latvia, but whether he had any other siblings, and where they might have emigrated, is unclear at this time.
The name "Shubb" came from the three Hebrew letters Shin, Vov, and Bes, and is written (from right to left) as follows:
. In Russian, it is spelled SH (sha) U (oo) b (beh) ' (tvyordiy znak), and looks like this (left to right): 
In the Russian Jewish tradition, the "Shubb" was the person who supervised the inspectors of small animals (i.e. chickens rather than cows) to ensure that the meat was clean, or kosher.
Russia
Abraham and his wife, Helen Mary (or Chia) Shatz had three sons and two daughters. They lived next door to the family of Nachum Benzion Dobrofsky and his wife Rasha. In fact, two of Abraham's sons, Charles (or Yeheskeal) and Barnet (or Boroch), married two of Dobrofsky's daughters, Katherine and Sarah. Thus the Shubbs and the Dobrofskys maintained an especially close family relationship thereafter. Abraham's third son, Shlomo (or Soloman), married Rejzel Bolnick.
When Shlomo was 10 or 11 years old, an itinerant rabbi-cantor named Myer Leeder came to the shtetl. Leeder was so impressed with Shlomo's singing that he offered to take him to Poland to make him a cantor. Helen refused to allow her son to go. So one night Leeder kidnapped Sholmo and took him to Poland anyway.
Leeder later brought Shlomo back to Mena for his Bar Mitzvah. It is reported that when his mother heard how well he had been trained to sing, realizing that he was living a happy life, she gave her consent for him to return to Poland, where he became a great cantor.
Shlomo and his family took the name of Shubin instead of Shubb. It is believed that most of his family was killed in the Holocaust. However, at least two of his daughters escaped. One of them, Toby, now lives in Chicago, Illinois. She married Fishel Edelsberg, and their daughter, Cecille Silver has two children. The other one who escaped, Eva, also came to Chicago, where she lived until her death.
The Move to America
Sometime between 1897 and 1900, because of religious persecution, it became necessary for the other two sons and the daughters of Abraham and their families to emigrate from Russia. Charles and Barnet and their respective families moved to Liverpool, England, with the plan of eventually going to South Africa as soon as they could raise enough money. One of the jobs they took was working on ships carrying passengers and cargo to the United States. While they were in Liverpool, the political strife which had developed in South Africa caused them to change their plans, and they decided to book passage on one of those ships themselves. Temporarily leaving their families behind, the two brothers departed Liverpool on May 26, 1908 on a ship called the Westernland bound for America. Because Barnet was blind, he brought his 12 year old son Myer with him. After a rocky trip, during which young Myer was seasick every day, their ship arrived in Philadelphia on June 7, 1908.
Their respective families followed about ten months later. As their ship approached the port, Barnet's five year old son Ben began to cry. "Stop crying," his brother John demanded, "if you keep crying your eyes will be red, the immigration authorities will think you have an eye infection, and they won't let any of us in." When Ben continued to cry, John promised him a bicycle if he would stop. Ben stopped crying (but never got the bicycle), and they made it through immigration.
Sioux City
The Shubbs had planned to settle in Chicago with their uncle Jake Dobrofsky, who had preceeded them. However, while he was waiting for them Uncle Jake met and fell in love with a girl whose family lived in Sioux City, Iowa. Without notifying the Shubbs, he had married the girl and moved to Sioux City. When the Shubbs arrived in Chicago they could not find Uncle Jake. Learning he had moved to Sioux City, they followed him there. Thus it was that Charles and Barnet Shubb and their families settled in Sioux City, Iowa. Most, if not all, Shubbs now living in the United States can trace their ancestry back through them.
Partly because not only were Charles and Barnet brothers but their wives were also sisters, the two families lived almost as one in Sioux City. Charles had four sons (Bennie, Oscar, Hymie, and Phillip) and three daughters (Sarah, Bessie, and Mary). Barnet had six sons (Asher, John, Myer, Charles, Ben, and Nathan) and one daughter (Kate). They lived next door to each other at 1617 and 1619 Omaha Street. Both Charles and Barnet earned their living peddling fruit through the neighborhoods with a horse and wagon.. Their younger children attended Hopkins School and Westside Jr. High School. It was common for the boys to sell newspapers to supplement the family income.
Seven or eight blocks from the Shubbs, on Hamilton Street, lived a German carpenter named John Otto Fruechtenicht (pronounced "fruit-night") and his Dutch wife Nellie Schipper. They had three sons, who became good friends with the Shubb boys. Their daughter, Bernice, was to later move to Los Angeles and marry Barnet's son Ben.
The Move West
In the early 1920's Charles' and Barnet's offspring began to move west. The family had taken in an orphaned boy who eventually become a prize fighter called "Newsboy Brown." On some brief tours with him, the boys had become impressed with the economic opportunities in Southern California. So in 1923, Barnet's son Ben, who had gained the nickname "Midge" because of his stature, went into partnership with some Italian friends from Omaha to buy a car and move to California. A little outside of town the car broke down. Rather than return home in failure, they rode the rails to Los Angeles. Charles' son Bennie followed in 1924. Barnet and Sarah followed by automobile shortly after that with their youngest son Nate and daughter Kate. Charles' son Oscar came in 1926. Charles and Katherine and the rest of their family, including sons Phillip and Hymie, followed by train in 1927.
The center of activity for the family members and friends who came west was in a neighborhood near what is now known as MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. Then it was called Westlake Park, and the hub of the neighborhood was at 7th and Alvarado Streets. The two Bens sold newspapers there. Barnet's oldest son Asher (named for Abraham Asher) took the name of Harry Gordon and opened a card room in Gardena, but his son Donald Shubb also sold newspapers. Not all of the family went to 7th and Alvarado of course. For example, Charles son Oscar went to work in Jack Doborfsky's merchandise store in Chino. And of course none of them stayed there, but it accounts for the fact that most Shubbs today still live somewhere in Southern California.
Where are they now?
Charles' descendents
Charles' son Bennie, now in his nineties, is still living in Van Nuys, California. Bennie's son Charles and Judy Kazerman have two daughters, Michelle and Lisa. Michelle and her husband, Tom, have a young son named Josh and live in Van Nuys or North Hollywood. Lisa recently graduated from the California State University at Northridge and lives in La Jolla.
Bennie's other son, John and Robin Mennen have a daughter Melissa and a son Scott. Melissa recently graduated from pharmacy school at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.
Hymie's son Mike lives in Capitola and has remarried to Barbara Shubb. Mike has two daughters, Kierre and Gina. Gina has a young daughter named Lily, and Kierre is expecting a child soon.
Hymie's third son, Rick has remarried to Patricia Rothfeld and is a fourth grade school teacher in Monrovia. He has two children, Zachary and Lindsay. Zackary graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 1995, and presently works for an executive recruiting firm in West Los Angeles, placing high level executives in the film industry. Zack also does some screenwriting on the side.
Lindsay plans to attend either UC Davis, Arizona, or Arizona State University upon her graduation from high school.
Hymie's son Bob recently passed away and is survived by his wife Bonnie (Schwade) and sons Marc and Glenn. Marc recently married Lori, a court reporter, and is in the fundraising business in San Diego. Glenn is a lawyer in Northridge.
Phillip's son Jason has for many years been a producer of television sitcoms. Jason and his wife Catherine have a son Cameron. Phillip's daughter Joanne and Mark Markowitz have two sons.
Charles' fourth son, Oscar, has no known offspring. Charles' daughter Bessie married Morris Holzband, his daughter Sarah married Morris Goldblatt, and his daughter Mary married Sol Shain. Each of them has several children and grandchildren.
Barnet's Descendents
Although Barnet's oldest son, Harry Gordon, married again, his only son was Donald Shubb. Donald's daughter, Bonnie Saunders to the best of my knowledge still lives in Southern California.
Barnet's second son John, fourth son Charles, and daughter Kate have no known descendants.
"Midge" spent 75 years of his life in the newspaper circulation business. He married Bernice Fruechtenicht and moved from Los Angeles to Oakland to work for the San Francisco Examiner in the 1930's.
Their oldest son, William, is me. I live in Sacramento with my wife, Sandy. Two of my daughters, Alisa and Vicki, live in Sacramento, and my other daughter, Carissa, is a lawyer in San Francisco. Alisa and her husband Mike Bohan have two daughters, Daniella and Veronica, who have kept the Shubb name.
Midge and Bernice's second son, Rick, is the owner of Shubb Capos, a musical instrument accessory company in Valley Ford, and lives in Bodega Bay with his wife Linda.
Barnet's youngest son Nate married Rose Ginsberg. Interestingly, Nate and Rose were first cousins, their mothers being Dobrofsky sisters. Their son Jerry and Joan Chinknowski have two sons, John and Aaron. And their daughter Debra and Joe Goldwine have two sons and a daughter, as well as five grandchildren. Nate's descendants now live in Southern California and Phoenix, Arizona.
Barnet's third son, Myer, was the only Shubb to remain in Sioux City. He lived over 101 years, and until the age of 95 was active in his practice as a Certified Public Accountant, spending the winters in Florida and the summers in Sioux City. He had two children, four grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.
His daughter, Eileen Lottman, is married to a film editor and is herself a writer in New York. Myer's other daughter, Jeanne Jacobi, lives in Colorado.
See pictures of some of the people mentioned in this history in Photo Album.
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