Notes for: Louis (Nachum Lieb) SVERDLOV

#1048 Leibe Swerdlow a/k/a Louis Sverdlov a/k/a Nachum Leib Sverdlov
#Nachum Louis Sverdlov

#RESEARCHER-UPDATE: Andrew I. Sverdlove; 17-Feb-1996; Source Documentation.
!IMMIGRATION: Declaration ofIntent; 1935; ; ;
Emigrated to the USA from Montreal at Rouses Point, NY under the
name Leibe Swerdlow (Louis Sverdlove) on August 19, 1935.
On 8 Apr 1938 declared his intent to naturalize.
He was then residing at 498 Hindsdale Street
Brooklyn, NY
and described himself:
Brown eyes, grey hair, 5' 9" and 190 lbs.
Race Hebrew, Nationality British [Canadian]
Gave birth date. Marriage Date, and ages of children.
Ann Feb 23, 1902
Rose Aug 21, 1903
Harry May 17, 1905
Jack Apt 17, 1907
all born Lepel', Russia. All now reside Montreal, Canada except Harry

MARRIAGE:
He told his grandson, Andrew Sverdlove (me), that he met his wife, Sonia
Davidson through an army friend while serving in the Russian Imperial Army
in the Sino-Russian War.
The date and location of his second marriage was recorded on the Declaration
of Intention to naturalize as an American citizen, certificate 269588 Eastern
District of New York 8 Apr 1938 (also stamped 336017). Nov 10, 1935,
(elsewhere as Nov. 20, 1935. He was 60 and Dora admitted to 43. She was
probably older. He was a month shy of 80 when he died.
Dora moved to the Catskills and was a
chambermaid for a number of years before moving to Montreal where
she lived until she died.

NAME:
Nachum Leib for his mother's paternal grandfather.
Nachum is from the Hebrew, meaning "comfort."
In the Bible (Nahum 1:1), a minor Prophet of the seventh
century, B.C.E. who foretold the fall of Ninevah. In the Talmud
(Berachot 22a)
a second-century Palestinian scholar known as Nachum Ish Gamzu was
Rabbi Akiba's teacher. Nahum is a variant spelling. He was called
Label by friends. Label or Leibel are pet forms of the Yiddish name
Leib, meaning "lion." Leib is a Yiddish form of the German name
Loeb. Akin to Leo.

From the village Sverdly (Polotsk district, or Disna district)

MEMORIES
My grandfather stayed with me and my sister a few winters while my
father and mother went to Miami Beach for winter vacations. I
recall grandpa asking me to open the liquor cabinet so he could
have a "schnapps", scotch or vodka. I also enjoyed the sight of
his sipping tea from an hugh samovar in the back of the grocery
store he had in Brooklyn. I was introduced to halvah, persimmons,
and chocolate covered jelly rings in that store. But I was
fascinated about grandpa's habit of sticking a cube of sugar in his
mouth while he sipped syrupy tea from a tall glass. That sugar
cube melted ever so slowly! How did he do it.

I am left with an impression that he left over a dozen siblings in
Lepel' and that some went to South Africa, among other places.

My father felt we were related to Ya'akov Sverdlov the first Primer of the
U.S.S.R. When I went to Israel in 1969 I looked up and befriended the
Sverdlov's descended from Ya'akov's brother, who walked to Palestine and
founded Gedera an agricultural community near Rehovet.

GRANDPA did not talk about Lepel'. I understood he came from a very large
family.

#