Tamara’s weirdest family-history-linked-story: Sonia Glickfeld, beauty queen of Bialystok.

Tamara’s weirdest family-history-linked-story
(prompted by a friend’s Facebook post last night):

Every now and then I share a “Random Tamara Story” mostly for my children, but also to have these stories written down somewhere (anywhere!) for posterity! Last night a friend posted on Facebook – asking for friends to share any interesting family-history-linked / genealogy stories on the comment thread of her post and I thought of this story. I started to write this as a comment on my friend’s thread but decided it would be better to share it as a post on my blog (so it wouldn’t get lost in the massive amount of data that is Facebook!)

While my family is not related to kings or historical figures (that I know of!)… we have this one interesting family bit of history that popped up several times over the decades (including popping up in very strange and unexpected ways – as shared below.)

My late-grandfather (Arthur Glickfeld)’s version of the first part of the story.

My distant cousin was (apparently!) a beauty queen in Bialystok, Poland sometime in the early 1900s. My grandfather (that’s his picture – below- in his license from shortly before he died, below) used to share that a cousin “Sonia Glickfeld” was the beauty queen of Bialystok around the turn of the century (the last century – c. 1900.) I remember he used to say that she was in Bialystok around 1916. The logic of his version of the story (with the assumed date) was that this beauty queen family member was assumed to have lived in Poland before each of the big wars – World War I and World War II – like the rest of the family. I am sure my grandfather (born in San Francisco – in the Jewish Ghetto of the “Mission Neighborhood” – in 1912) thought this because most of our family (my Jewish side of the family) escaped Europe before World War I.

Part 2 of the story: Peretz (Perez?) from Israel

Some time in the 1980s or early 1990s (I don’t remember exactly – but I think I was in high school or college) a man name Peretz Glickfeld came to San Francisco from Israel. My vague memories include that he was a teacher or a doctor or was somehow affiliated with one of the local universities or hospitals (in a position of responsibility.) I also heard from family members that he was a bit of a creep because he (apparently) made a pass at one of my aunts (even though he was married AND even though that aunt was RELATED to him!) but that’s another story!

Anyway this guy (we’ll just call him “P.” because I cannot remember the exact spelling of his first name) came to San Francisco and must have been thumbing through a phone book out of curiosity (this was long before the internet was a regular every day thing.) He looked up “Glickfeld” to see if he could find any long-lost family members.

But, before I continue here’s the “How my family ended up in San Francisco” part of the story.

My understanding is that my great grandmother (my grandfather Arthur’s mother – we called her Pomma) and her husband (Louis Glickfeld, my grandfather’s father) each had families that originally came from the same region of Poland (and each had families that escaped before World War I.) From long-ago conversations with my mother and grandmother – I understand my great grandmother (my mother’s father’s mother) was born in Denver. When I get home from this business trip I will update this post with their photos and birth certificates, which I think I have in files from my late-mother! While I’m not 100% sure, I think my great grandfather (Louis) was born in Europe.

I know for certain that on that side of the family I am at least a 3rd generation American – but it may be split… 3rd and 4th generation. family lore has it that that side of the family moved from Poland to Canada (I think we still have family in Montreal – and I remember visiting family there when I was growing up near Boston) – and then to San Francisco.

Getting back to my story:

Somehow P. Glickfeld had learned that he might have family (fellow Glickfelds) in San Francisco- which is why he looked up my grandfather. My grandfather was one of three Glickfeld siblings from that generation (Arther Joseph Glickfeld – married to Rose Miller Glickfeld, Nadine Glickfeld – married to Doctor Oscar “Rush” Rushakoff, and Bernard [Billy] Glickfeld – married to my great-aunt Bernice (Bee) Glickfeld!).

P. called my grandfather and my grandfather (ever the skeptic and quite distrusting of calls from random strangers as a rule) heard “P’s” story but did not believe him right off the bat. “P” said he was here (in San Francisco) from Israel (I think for an extended period of time for work) and he thought he might be my grandfather’s distant cousin. My grandfather wanted proof that would demonstrate they were related… so they each tried to share stories that would prove they were related (bits of family lore that only members of the family might know or have access to.) Then the conversation turned to Sonia. “P” told my grandfather that he had a distant cousin… Sonia Glickfeld… who had been a beauty queen in Bialystok in the 1920s. My grandfather realized the guy must actually be a cousin – but asserted he had the date wrong – that she was a beauty queen of Bialystok in the 19-teens. This is how this family legend became real! We must actually have a family member who was a beauty queen of Bialystok at the turn of the last century… but that’s not the amazing story… that’s just the preface…

Here’s where the story gets wild!

When I was living in Fairfax, California I remodeled my house. It was c. 2000/2001. I got custom made black granite counters installed (they were all the rage then!) The stone industry in the Bay Area at the time was largely run by families from Poland and many of the employees (the guys doing the manual labor – cutting, installing and polishing the stone) were from Poland and didn’t speak much English at all. One worker who was helping with my job had left Poland and moved to Canada (the Montreal area if I recall correctly) a few years before. He then came down to the Bay Area from Canada to follow the “money trail”…. looking for better paid work in the construction industry.

I’m sorry – I don’t remember his name. He was slight (skinny and not too tall), dark (thick tousled darker hair and I think darker skin from getting tan while working outside) and very polite. That’s about all I remember. When I learned that he and his coworkers were from Poland I told one of them (as they were installing my counters) that my family was also originally from Poland. This one worker asked another to translate for us and he asked me where I was from. I told him that my family was originally from Bialystok.

He laughed and smiled and wanted to give me a hug – he said HE was originally from Bialystok (or perhaps had been living in Bialystok most recently before leaving.) He then said he moved to Canada before coming to the Bay Area and I told him that some my family had moved to Canada first from Poland too. He asked me what my family name was. I told him “Glickfeld”. He didn’t understand what I was saying. I wrote it out on a scrap of paper … G-L-I-C-K-F-E-L-D. He looked at it and then the guy who was translating for us translated it into Polish characters (I think it was Polish characters, but it might have been Russian now that I think of it! – Russia and Poland alternately claimed Bialystok as their territory over the past century-plus, so the people in the area normally spoke both Russian and Polish) – and he read the name out loud (which was then pronounced very differently than how my family pronounces it) and a BIG SMILE came across his face and he started laughing some more – he recognized the name. Not knowing why he was reacting in that way, I then told him (with the help of the translator) that I had a distant cousin – Sonia Glickfeld – was likely a beauty queen of Bialystok c. 1916-1928.

This tile-worker from Poland then almost fell over in shock…

Here’s the story that was then conveyed to me through the granite worker who was translating (and also, please know this whole conversation happened over the course of maybe 10 minutes at the most):

The granite worker who knew my family name had been recently (like 18 or 24 months earlier) working on the gut-renovation (down to the studs) of a house in Bialystok, Poland. The house had not been touched since after WWII and it was a mess (it was built around the turn of the century – possibly before… late-1800s, early 1900s). During this gut renovation they tore out the walls of the home to replace them. Tucked inside one of the walls (likely to hide it from the Nazis during the war) was a bunch of papers including a scrapbook from Sonia Glickfeld, beauty queen of Bialystok (I think he confirmed it was from c. 1928) – with ribbon, mementos and photos from her pageants. He decided to take the scrapbook with him because it was a time-capsule from history and he thought it was really interesting. Since this happened just before he moved to Canada he brought the scrapbook with him to Canada – but had left it there when he came to San Francisco for work. He then promised that he would bring it to me as a gift (to return it to Sonia’s family) at the next opportunity.

And then what happened…?

I never heard from him again. 🙁 I don’t know if he ever came back to the United States after returning to Canada. However just knowing that this happened (thinking back on this story) sure gives me a lot of hope for humanity and for family and for the connectedness of every person on the planet! Perhaps that scrapbook is still out there somewhere and will eventually be returned to my family! Who knows.

Thanks for reading my silly family story! There are so many more of these to come… I promise you (kids!)

And gosh – I just have to say… yesterday we visited my stepfather (Spencer Marshall) at our family honey farm in Napa Valley (American Canyon) and he gave me a box of my mother’s papers. In it was my grandfathers’ last driver’s license (from 1997 – shortly before he died.) I miss this man so much! He was such a huge influence and big part of my life and I loved him so very much too. I named my son Alexander Joseph after my grandfather (Arthur Joseph). Thanks for being my grandfather, Pakka!

My advice to you my friends (and readers of this blog): TAKE VIDEOS! Take videos of all of your elders. Ask them questions. Record their stories told firsthand. You will be so thankful to have those family histories later. I wish I had.

Tamara Rubin, Mom
#LeadSafeMama