>>Our Family Story <<

Members of the Zavelsky family began immigrating from Russia and Ukraine 1n the early 1900s. The most recent person to immigrate to The United States, was Irinia Zavelsky in 2003. Her daughter Svetlana Markanova Zavelskaya immigrated a few years before to New York.

Through the years most of the Zavelsky family immigrated to The United States, Australia or Israel. In The United States families settled in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Chicago, Springfield, Detroit, Connecticut, Michigan, Virginia and Florida

The Voyage
Our ancestors came to America during the peak immigration years between 1880 and 1924.

Despite the emotional pain of leaving family friends and home, these travelers hoped that their life in America would somehow be better.

They walked, used horsedrawn carriages and traveled by trains to reach the harbors where the steamships departed for America.

Before boarding their ships steerage class passengers had to take an antiseptic bath, have their baggage fumigated and be examined by steamship company doctors.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s the cost of steerage class passage was approximately $25.00 for each passenger.

Second cabin passage was $50.00 for an adult and $25.00 for a child. Second cabin passage meant private staterooms and exemption from the intense scrutiny upon arriving in New York.

Where They Lived
My direct Zavelsky ancestors settled in Philadelphia in the South Philadelphia section.

In many ways life was quite different from the villages in Russia, but in many ways quite the same. It was a clustered life, divided into sections by nationality.

The women worked hard right alongside the men and in many cases, the women did all the work while the men congregated at the synagogues.

The living conditions were crowded and not always clean. Families of five and six lived in one or two rooms.

My great grandmother and grandmother both had stalls on 4th street where they sold yarn goods and buttons. These stalls developed into viable retail businesses.

The family of Aaron Zavelle also settled in Philadelphia where he ran a school teaching the immigrants to speak English. Eventually Aaron ran the well known Zavelle Bookstores at several Universities.

#1...The Train station in Bremen, Germany where many of our ancestors departed from.

#2...Mire and Bernard Chazanoff, Parents of Manya Zavelsky, immigrated on the S.S. Potsdam in 1907. The 547' ship held 280 first class passengers, 210 2nd cabin class passengers and 1800 steerage passengers.

#3...South Philadelphia
...1910

#4...Stands (pushcarts) on 4th Street in Philadelphia

#5...At a 1994 Chazanov reunion in Philadelphia, an old Philadelphia trolley took family to see our ancestral landmarks.

To see additional Zavelsky Immigration pictures, click here.

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