Pilvishki, Lithuania and El Paso, Texas

Samuel Levenson is pictured here with his wife Jocheved Rogalsky Levenson and their children; this picture was taken before the family emigrated to America, in Pilvishkiai. Samuel was a teacher and school principal, while Jocheved ran the family store.

From left to right: Max Levenson, mother Joheved, sisters Anna and Bessie, father Samuel, and brother Moe. At right is a lovely portrait of Bessie when she was about sixteen years old, taken before her arrival in the United States.

Samuel Levenson died in 1914 and left Jocheved a widow. She emigrated to the United states in 1920, leaving Europe via Antwerp and arriving at the port of new York.

Her passenger manifest showed that she was traveling to meet her son, Sol Levenson of El Paso, with two of her children, 21 year old Chaja (Anna) and sixteen year old Moses (Max), all from Piloiskiai (Pilvishki), Lithuania. A relative left behind was a Mendel Apriaski on Marketplatz in Pilvishki. The manifest erroneously listed a Vatuga Yakoberak, age 20, as one of Jocheved's children, but this is likely an error.

Pictured below in El Paso the 1930s, they are (from left to right) Anna Levenson Tarlowe, Sol Levenson, mother Joheved, Max Levenson, Bessie Levenson Bellman, and Moe Levenson.