Esther Kay Marrom

The story of Esther in the Old Testament was a favorite of mine growing up.  What a pleasant coincidence that my future mother-in-law should have the name of one of my earliest heroines.  Like Esther in the Bible, my mother-in-law was a beautiful, gracious woman.  She was known as Kay but was named after her grandmother whom she never had the opportunity to meet.

It seemed fitting to spotlight Kay in my blog as the Jewish holiday of Purim was celebrated this past weekend.  Purim celebrates the courage of Esther in saving her people from extermination when they lived in Persia. Purim is one of the most joyous and fun holidays on the Jewish calendar.  Celebrations include costume parties, drinking and eating fruit-filled triangular cookies called hamentaschen which represent Haman's three-cornered hat.

For those not familiar with the story, Esther was selected to become a member of the king's harem because of her beauty and was eventually selected by the king to become his queen.  A plot devised by a vengeful advisor to the King would destroy all the Jews living in Persia to satisfy his vengeance on Esther's cousin who would not bow down to him.  In a courageous act to save her people, Esther goes to the King without being summoned to plead for her people.  The penalty for going before the king without being summoned was death.  The king welcomed her and upon hearing of Haman's plot turned the tables and hanged Haman on the gallows that had been prepared for Esther's cousin.

The story has been made into several films.  I remember seeing Esther and the King with Richard Egan and Joan Collins as a young teenager.

Alice on left and Kay in their
Preston, Idaho backyard

Now, back to Kay.  Esther Kay Marrom was born on February 14, 1915 in Preston, Idaho.  Being just two years younger than her sister Alice, they spent many hours together as young girls and again later in their lives.

Kay was a very quiet person who appreciated beauty.  She was always immaculate and very creative in making her home a place of beauty inside and out.  She had a natural knack for putting colors and objects together.  This knack helped her in her various retail jobs in women's wear in various local department stores.  She also joined me in taking an interior decorating class to help me with a home remodeling project.

Kay met her future husband, Leland Kammerman while working in a retail store in Salt Lake.  They were married April 9, 1936 in Morgan, Utah.  Known as Red for the color of his hair, her husband passed away in 1976.  Kay passed away June 4, 1998.

Newlyweds Kay and Red Kammerman

Shtetl Discovery

I have learned one of the first steps in seeking information about a Jewish ancestor from Eastern Europe is to determine the shtetl where they lived.  This was a new word for me.  So first, I needed to know what a shtetl is.  A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe prior to World War II and the Holocaust.

In the 19th century shtetls were mainly found in the areas which were known as the Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania.  Since our family knows that Joseph stated Tauroggen as his birthplace in his naturalization papers, this placed his family in this area.

Further searching uncovered a description of life in the shtetl as noted in Chapter 15 of There Once was a World: a Nine-Hundred-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok by Yaffa Eliach.  Although I can't be sure if the descriptions paralleled Joseph's life, there were certain aspects that may have impacted both his childhood and the remainder of his life.  Specifically:

• The Household:  Often three generations lived under the same roof.  The pattern in Eastern Europe dating from at least the seventeenth century, was for young couples to establish their first household in the home of the wife's family. This made me wonder about the mention of Tilsit in connection with Joseph.  At one point it was thought that was his birthplace but this was corrected by finding his naturalization certificate and his US Army enlistment.  Now I wonder if perhaps that could be where his father was from and he came to Tauroggen where his wife's (Joseph's mother) family lived.  If you have any information that would shed light on this, please feel free to share.
       In addition, Joseph's mother passed away when he was a baby and his father remarried.  This meant he may have been part of another household.
• Sons-In-Law:  The treatment a son-in-law received in his new household may have differed greatly from what he experienced in his home prior to his marriage.  In the matriarchal society of homes, a son-in-law was often thought to be doing wrong much of the time unless he he was an aspiring scholar.
• The Jewish Matriarch:  In Eastern Europe of the seventeenth, eighteen, and nineteenth centuries, the home and its modest commercial enterprises were the woman's domain.  This makes it important to discover more about Joseph's mother and stepmother.  Could one of them have been the owner of the hotel/inn mentioned in Marrom family stories? 



Painting of Anatevka:  Everything I knew, or thought I knew, of Jewish life in Russia prior to the Russian Revolution came from the movie,
Fiddler on the Roof

• Step-Siblings and Orphan Relatives:  During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the first two decades of the twentieth, perhaps as many as two-thirds of the marriages in the shtetl were second, third, and even fourth marriages.  This was the result of death rather than divorce.  Death also created a large number of orphans.  Many spouses brought with them the children from previous marriages where they were often considered a heavy burden and resented.  Could this have contributed to Joseph's immigration to the United States at such a young age?  Another factor may have been the anti-Semitic practice in Russia of impressing Jewish teenage boys into mandatory military service for as long as a 25 years.

Really interesting information, but it seems to have raised more questions than it resolved.  I have identified Joseph's shtetl based on his identifying Tauroggen as his birthplace.
     Stetl:  Taurage (Alternative Names/Spellings - Taurage/Lithuanian,
              Tovrik/Yiddish, Tauroggen/German, Taurogi/Polish,
              Taurage/Latvian,
              Taurogen, Tarogen, Tauragunay, Tauragnu, Tauragnay,
              Tauraginos, Tauraginai
     District (Uyezd):  Zarasai (I also found a reference to Raseiniai)
     Province (Guberniya):  Kaunas

Random boy in Lithuanian shtetl posted on Webshots.com by  itzko102

Do You Know Moses Marrom?

In our quest to find relatives of "Grandpa" Joseph Marrom, we have repeatedly come across the name of Moses Marrom. Moses lived in Chicago and was born in Russia. He immigrated to the United States in 1881 or 1882. This could fit with the family tradition which has led us to believe that Joseph stayed with relatives in New York, Illinois and Wisconsin after immigrating from Russia.

So far I have not been able to locate Skaadwill, Russia which was the city Moses cited as his birthplace. The physical description for Moses on his passport application bears a resemblance to the physical stature of Joseph on his military enlistment papers. Both were relatively short men with dark hair and dark complexions.

At the turn of the century Moses had a saloon on Rush Street in Chicago. I have located what I believe are two wives for Moses: Sarah, who appears to have died (or left?) after 1894; and Betty who married Moses in 1899.

If Moses Marrom is a "leaf" on your family tree, it would be interesting to explore stories to see if this could be a link to finding more family members.

Joseph's Family Tree

Although it is just a stub, I have posted a family tree on Ancestry.com. Hopefully we will be able to add branches. Much research has already been done on the Selk line and I will be adding as I can. We are still trying to identify any siblings Joseph may have as well as searching for grandparents, aunts and uncles. The journey has been very slow and continues to show signs of being a "road less traveled." The hope is that other travelers may come across our path and open up new landmarks. Suggestions from other travelers are always welcome.

http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/38062873/family?fpid=19176871405

Grace Marrom

Grace was born March 20, 1898 in Blackfoot, Idaho. From the little bit I was acquainted with Grace, I thought she was a lot of fun. However, when I met her, she had survived a rather nasty automobile crash which seriously injured one of her legs and resulted in ongoing pain for the remainder of her life.

Back to the stats: I found two marriages for Grace. The first marriage was to William M. Colman on December 26, 1926 in Dayton, Idaho. This marriage was either annulled or ended in divorce.

On July 9, 1929, Grace married Ernest M. Gibson in Caldwell, Idaho. I was fortunate to know Uncle Ernie as well. Grace and Ernie truly loved each other and looked after after each other through thick and thin. Ernie worked for a movie distribution company. While they were living in Sacramento, Grace would drive to Reno to visit her mother and play the slot machines. It was on one of these trips that Grad had the car accident.

When my husband and I were living at Lake Tahoe, Uncle Ernie and Aunt Grace came to visit us. Aunt Grace was in heaven at the Stateline casinos.

With no children of their own, Grace and Ernie spent much of their "family" time with her sister, Kay Kammerman and her family celebrating holidays and special occasions.

Grace died on August 1, 1970 in Slat Lake City, Utah. Practically inseparable, Ernie died just a few months later on January 14, 1971.

Norma Marrom

Norma, the second child of Joseph and Annie, was born May 30, 1898 in Montpelier, Idaho. She attended Preston Central School for elementary education. She was among the first graduates of the Jefferson School following the school year 1914-1915.

She married James Henry Christensen who died in 1950 in Salt Lake City. Following his death Norma moved to Sacramento where she lived until her death in 1953.

Her obituary read:
"Mrs. Norma Marrom Christensen, 54, Sacramento, California, former Salt Lake resident, died Saturday at her residence of natural causes, according to word received by Salt Lake relatives.
Born May 30, 1899 in Montpelier, Idaho, she was a daughter of J.S. and Anna Selk Marrom.

She was married to Henry Christensen. He died in 1950. Mrs. Christensen then moved to Sacramento.

Surviving her are her mother, Mrs. Anna O'Keefe, Reno, Nevada, three brothers, W.L. and C.S. Marrom, both of Salt Lake City, Nate Marrom, serving with the U.S. Army; three sisters, Mrs. Grace Gibson, Sacramento; Mrs. Alice Keysor, Salt Lake City; and Mrs. Kay Kammerman, Pocatello, Idaho.

Funeral services will be conducted in Salt Lake City."

If you have additional information about Norma, please feel free to comment.

Howard Marrom

Howard Marrom, the third child of Joseph and Annie, was born July 18, 1901 in Montpelier, Idaho. Montpelier, a small farming community in the Bear Lake Valley, is just none miles from Dingle where Lionel was born. This valley is located in southeastern Idaho near the Utah border.

Howard married Blanche Evans and was later divorced. They had one son, Paul Howard Marrom, who was born on November 19, 1935.

Howard died December 31, 1944 in Alameda County, California.

The attached slideshow shows Howard as a happy, confident young man.