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Lachowiczers in the Ellis Island Database

contributed by the Lachowicze research group
with special thanks to Eilat Gordon
commentary by Neville Lamdan

The Ellis Island Database is an extraordinary resource. Eilat Gordon was kind enough to comb it by place and she produced almost 1,200 people who gave Lechovich or places with similar names as their last permanent place of residence. Members of the Lechovich SIG provided another 66 individuals who were not on Eilat's list. 

Hence, the question immediately arose whether it was credible that about 1250 people from the town ("shtetl") of Lechovich could have headed for Ellis Island in the years 1896 and 1924 - bearing in mind that in 1897 the Russian census showed just 3,846 Jews in the town (within a total population of 5,016). Put another way, could it really be that some 32.5%, or almost a third, of the town's Jews in 1897 entered the US in the period indicated via Ellis Island alone?

On the face of it, the answer was simply "no". The figure of some 1250 individuals clearly required critical examination.

The first thing to be done was to delete people on the list of almost 1200 who came from places picked up by the EIDB Soundex facility which were patently not Lechovich, as the town was called by the Jews (Lachowicze in Polish, Lyakhovichi in Belarussian, to mention only a couple of several variants). Then people from "highly improbable" places had also to be stripped out. Since due caution was exercised in the elimination process, the reduced list - 939 names - was assumed to be overstated by 10%. When that percentage is deducted, and the 66 individuals on the SIG's input list are added back, the revised total was 911. 

However, the original question persisted. Was it reasonable that over 900 of the town's Jews in 1897 - 23.4%, or almost a quarter of them - could have headed for Ellis Island during the time period in question? And factor in another consideration, not yet mentioned - that, after 1897, the town's population did not grow but, quite the reverse, it shrunk significantly, partly because of the magnetic attraction of more prosperous towns nearby, especially Baranovich which was booming thanks to the railroad, and partly because of the adverse impact of World War I, when Lechovich found itself in the middle of a war zone and was partly evacuated.

One possible hypothesis which may explain the apparent anomaly could be that many of those who are recorded in the EIDB as coming from Lechovich did not actually come from the town itself, but from the numerous villages in the administrative sub-district ("Uchastok") surrounding the town. Those people would have very naturally given "Lechovich" as their place of residence, because that was how they were registered in Czarist Russia and how they were referred to in their Russian passports. (Indeed, some people may have left Lechovich and its administrative area altogether but, for various reasons, had not re-registered elsewhere!). This last complication aside, if one assumes somewhat arbitrarily that at least as many Jews lived in the villages and outlying places as in the town itself, the number of just over 900 from the town can readily be halved to approximately 450 - or 11.7% of the 1897 figure. This surely is a more reasonable figure for people from Lechovich proper. 

Additional refinements may be required, but they are of a lesser order. 
For example, not everyone who arrived at Ellis Island was admitted to the US 
- so remove, let's say, another 1-2%. Then, many bona fide Lechovichers had re-located and re-registered with the Russian authorities before they sailed for America; thus, they are listed in the Ships' Manifests as coming from such towns as Baranovich, Nesvizh and Kletsk - so add back, perhaps, 2-3%. 

Altogether, after adjusting the numbers as suggested above, it appears that perhaps 12-13% of the town's population in 1897 (460 - 500 individuals) entered the US via Ellis Island. At the same time, a similar number of the "Lechovichers" arrived from villages in the vicinity, equivalent (on this calculation) to 12-13% of the Jews in the "Uchastok" . But the total of 911 from town and country remains, which is striking to say the least, bearing in mind the many other entry-points into the US, including overland via Canada. 

An additional perspective on this number is to be found in the Polish census of 1921, which recorded only 1656 Jews in the town of Lechovich (out of a total population of 2819). This depleted number in comparison with 1897 (less than half) clearly reflects the negative impact of a combination of emigration, re-location and the effects of war.

Some Particulars. 

1. Rhythm of Migration. 

The first Lechovicher found to have passed through Ellis Island was Reise Mandel-Adelsohn, who arrived with her children (via Kletsk) in 1896. Thereafter, people came in one's and two's, until the trickle became a flow in 1902 (with 16 names). Lechovich arrivals totally ceased during World War I and the two years of Russian-Polish turmoil thereafter, only to resume slowly in 1920 (a mere 95 people over the five years between 1920 and 1924). 

2. Peak Years of Arrival. 

446, or virtually half, of the 911 Lechovichers arrived in just four years: 

• 106 in 1904 (the year after the Kishenev Pogroms);

• 117 and 105 in 1906 and 1907 respectively (the two years after the "1905 Revolution");

• and 118 in 1913 (the year before the outbreak of World War 1).

3. Ages.

Lechovichers arriving at Ellis Island ranged in age from a new-born of two months to a 67 year old. However, 462 - or over half of the group - fell into the 16 - 25 year old bracket. If that bracket is widened to 14 - 30 years old, then the number rises to 570, or about 63% of the total. Noteworthy in itself.

4. Family Groupings and Migration Patterns. 

Among the Lechovichers arriving at Ellis Island were singles, husbands travelling ahead of their families, wives and children joining their husbands and fathers, complete families, and even a few elderly people. The different groupings are difficult to quantify but presumably they reflect the general migration patterns of Jews from other "shtetlach" in the Minsk Gubernya. 

Commentary by Neville Lamdan, September, 2001 

© 2001 Belarus SIG