Vaughan Family Tree

We have been researching our family roots for a few years and have had incredible success tracing our ancestors (mine and yours!!).

Having collected Stories, Documents and photos here is the story so far.

I was contacted by Stevie Milne in March 2005 after leaving a posting on the Internet he had already created a family tree and done much research on Simon Berman and family. Our Berman research grew from there. He already knew that Simon Berman was born 1867 in Ivyanyets (Ivenets), Minsk, modern day Belarus and his parents were called Elias and Easter and he went to England sometime around 1882.

We started finding new branches of Simon and Kate's descendants and asked questions drank tea, ate cake and wrote down all we learned we copied photos, certificates and other documents which we added to this site. This tree is almost 7ft tall so I have included a version on 29 separate pages.

Several family members gave a similar account that Simon's surname couldn't be understood by the registrar at the point of entry so he decided to take his wife's maiden name. His real name was understood to be Russian sounding (millerkovsky/mullkoski) but we could find no record of that name of anything sounding like it. We talked to Shiela Dobin, Keith Band and Hetty woodward all Berman descendants from different branches, some who had not been in touch with each other for a long time. All remembered that Simon had referred to Rabbi Myer Berman as a nephew, Shiela remembered Rabbi Myer Berman and also the story of a sister who may have gone to America But Myer Berman did not fit into our tree and nobody knew about a sister.

We discovered that Rabbi Berman's Grandfather was Mordechai (Mark) Berman so we researched his family tree.

We discovered that Simon had many possible connections with Myer Bermans family but nothing concrete. Simon left money in his will to the same yeshiva Rabbi Berman attended, Myer Berman's brothers in law Rev Abraham Rose the executor of Simons Will and Simon Had named two of his children Alec and Leah, Rabbi Myers father Jacob had a brother and sister called Alec and Leah. Co-incidences and lots of them then I was put in contact with Helen Stoll

Helen wrote "I was told as a child that Berman was not their real name, that the family name was Sackelovitch (I have no idea how to spell it). My cousin Doris told me that she thinks a brother of Mordechai may have come over first and married a girl named Berman. That he went to meet Mordechai when he arrived in England, and as the customs man was having difficulty with the Sackelovitch name, intervened saying the name was Berman, which he had taken on too"

I didn't take long after that to locate them recorded on the 1901 census as Saklovitz. We were lucky to find them at all; when Jacob and Ettie got married nearly a year earlier their marriage certificate records them as BERMAN. At the time of the census on the 1st of Apr 1901 - Simon and Kate lived at 5 Basire Street, New North Road, Islington. Marks family were much older and lived at 15 Davis Avenue by now Jacob Had married ettie and they lived next door. Each family has visitors, Harris with Marks family and Morris living with jacob and ettie.

Helen remembered many other facts and it was when I was emailed by Philip Kuhn things started slotting together. He had asked his grandfather Dan Berman to write down details of his life before he passed away.

Philip Wrote
Daniel mentions that every Saturday he used to walk to his uncle's house (I assume that this was his father's brother! but of course it could have been his mother's brother) who was fairly wealthy. The uncle had 2 sons and 4 daughters. Lea, Sophie, Esther - who married a Mr Caplin, a nearly blind musician - and Renee (?). Of the two sons Alec married a baker's daughter and Mark (?) was wounded in the 1914-1918 war returning from the front as "deaf as a door-post"

I replied
"Simon Berman" (1897-1946). Simon was a Mantle Maker. He and Kate had 6 Children, 2 sons and 4 daughters Alec Mark, Leah, Sophy, Esther and Rose Rene. Simon took on his wife katie's maiden name BERMAN.

It seems that Mordechai Saklovitz was Simon's brother and like Simon also adopted Berman as a family name when he arrived in London a year later in 1893

Here are a couple of visual ways of looking at the complete Saklovitz / Sokolove / Berman Tree, here is a traditional family tree view of the descendants of Elias and Easter. This view lists all the individual decedents of Elias and Easter Saklovitz / Sokolove with some notes

We kept asking questions, by January 2007 things started getting interesting and in In my emails to Philip Kuhn I asked about the American link or if his mum knew if Simon and Mark had any other siblings and he replied (8th Jan 2007) My mother remembers a cousin by the name of Renee who was one of the daughter's of uncle Simon they always called Simon "the uncle"). She remembers that Renee had one daughter (Sybil) and both Sybil and her daughter Carol corresponded with a mother and daughter who lived in America, near to New York. My mother remembers meeting this mother in America. My mother also thinks that Renee's daughter married an Arnold Seigal and that they had two children. Renee's daughter and husband (Mr & Mrs Seigal) kept in touch with these relatives in America and my mother believes these were the same American relatives you suggest. This maybe Irene Sher who my mother remembers having met in America and her daughter Gloria who was in touch with Renee's daughter.

I called Carol Seigal who was still in contact with Gloria's children she confirmed they were an American branch of the family. She told me the names of several of the cousins and from there I tracked down Gloria to Tucson, AZ. I telephoned her and explained that carol had confirmed that she was a cousin and did she know how? She told me "Yes I know of Simon and his sister was called Rachel Sokolove my grandmother" "They also had a brother called Jacob!" Her family tree has 95 descendants of Rachel and Jacob Sokolove. All this new data has been added.

Almost at the same time through another enquiry I was contacted by Steve Garber he is a descendant of Jacob Sokolove the other brother and with his data added we have over 600 descendants of Simon, Mark, Rachel and Jacobs parents Elias and Easter.

we have spent much time since then adding dates and a rich collection of quotes and documents to confirm dates, lineage etc. Steve Garber has added lots to the story and over time we hope to add much more. There are several mysteries and unanswered questions and this page will contain them and any answers we find.

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