Kramer relatives in Dalhinev
This picture was given to me by Sophie Kramer Cantor. This appears to have been taken in a photographer's studio with a backdrop The cloth and items on the table look like a Shabbat setting.
When Meyer and his siblings got off the boat at Ellis Island, he was most likely met by his Aunt Gruni. Aunt "Muna" Gruni Kramer Rubin was probably the only one of my great-great Grandfather Yosef's children that came to America.
Aunt Gruni had come to the US ten years earlier than Meyer. Evidently the Kramer family had some Lurier relatives who were already in this county and living in Waterbury. Lazar Ruben Kramer's wife was a Lurier so that might have been the connection. Aunt Gruni arrived this country at Ellis Island in 1910. Her Ellis Island record indicates that she was 50 years old and from Dalhinev. At that time, her children would have been grown. When they came to this country, they brought their mother with them.
She had at least five children. In order of birth they were: Joseph, Ida, Nathan, Abraham, and Harry. I knew cousin Joe Rubin whose father was her son, Nathan. Joe ran a record store in downtown Waterbury for at least 30 years. According to Joe, his grandmother was born in 1850 is Dalhinev. She died in 1938 when she was 88 years old and she is buried in Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Gruni and her family lived in Brooklyn all of their lives. Joe Rubin said that his grandmother used to drive up from New York and always visit their Shapiro Aunts Tzeva and Dora. Muna Gruni Rubin is still remembered by many family member from Waterbury. Aunt Gruni must have made an impression on my father since he named my brother, Jeff, after her. My Aunt Marilyn and Aunt Rose said that she was “a lovely, beautiful woman who was one of the mainstays of the Kramer family.”
My branch of the Kramer family is descended from Yosef Kramer's son, Gabriel, and his wife Hannah. Our branch includes the descendants of Meyer Kramer, Barnet (Barney) and Esther Kramer Kravitz.
My grandfather, Meyer Kramer, (Ellis Island Record), was born on February 15, 1893 in Dalhinev where he witnessed a tragedy during his childhood. His father, Gabriel, had committed suicide. It was Meyer who discovered his father who had possibly hung himself. That is probably why the younger children left Europe -- to get away from this death.
Meyer came to this country in December 1913 with his brother, Barnet (Barney) and his sister, Esther. Meyer was the youngest child in his family. He had two other sisters who remained in Russia. They were reported as killed during World War II. I believe that these are the two young women in the picture on page one of the Kramer history. Meyer arrived at Ellis Island on December 02, 1913. He was 21 years old. He arrived on the ship, The Nieuw Amsterdam, that had departed from Rotterdam. His marital status was listed as single and his place of residence was listed as "Dolhynew, Russia." I never knew my grandmother. I was only 3 years old when he passed away in 1951. My father, Joseph Kramer, was one of his two sons.