Sam Feldman was sixteen when he sailed alone from Fiume in 1907. He was the second of Elias and Miriam's eight children, born 6 October 1890 in Jákó. The first member of the Feldman line in America. He went to Mobile, Alabama — following the southern-port pattern that his uncle Simon Grósz had established two years earlier in Selma. The two villages were a hundred miles apart but they were the same network.
In Mobile he met and married Jennie Taube Zseni on 1 February 1914. He was twenty-three. Their two oldest sons, Rudolph (1915) and Sidney (1917), were born in Mobile. He filed his first Declaration of Intention there on 23 May 1916. The 1916 form had a small clue in its margin — "Certified copy issued on Dec. 5, 1921 in accordance with Dept. letter 4-d-751-Dec. 3/21." Sam had requested a certified copy of his Declaration in late 1921, almost certainly because his younger brother Henri Feldmann (Hymie) was about to land in New York that very month (8 December 1921) and would join Sam in Mobile.
By the late 1920s Sam had moved north. The exact year of the Mobile-to-Chicago move is not yet recovered; the two younger sons Edwin (1926) and Herbert (1930) were born in Chicago, which dates the move to somewhere between 1917 and 1926. He had to re-file his Declaration of Intention after the move — on 30 January 1929, now at 1509 S. Sawyer Avenue, listed as "Merchant." By 1941 he was at 1115 S. Spaulding Avenue, occupation "Fruit Peddler." The Petition for Naturalization that followed that February led to his swearing-in on 4 April 1941, Certificate № 5127183. Thirty-three years after his teenage arrival, Sam was an American at last.
He lived out his last years in Skokie, Illinois, where he died on 5 November 1967, age 77.
Sam Feldman was born on 6 October 1890 in Jákó, a village in Szabolcs County in northeastern Hungary. He was the second of Elias Feldman and Amália Miriam Grósz’s eight children. His mother Miriam was a sister of Simon Grósz of Nyíregyháza — making Simon Sam’s uncle, and Simon’s 1905 emigration to Selma, Alabama the family precedent that would shape the next two decades.
Sam was sixteen years old and alone when he sailed from Fiume — today Rijeka, on the Adriatic coast — in 1907. He was the second of the Grósz-line Hungarian arrivals in America, just two years after his uncle Simon. He was also the first Feldman in America. He followed the southern-port pattern Simon had established and went to Mobile, Alabama, a hundred miles south of Selma. The two villages were a hundred miles apart but they were the same small-town Hungarian-Jewish merchant network — cotton ports on the same set of rivers.
In Mobile he met and married Jennie Taube Zseni on 1 February 1914. He was twenty-three. Jennie was from Sátoraljaújhely, another Hungarian-Jewish village a hundred miles south of Jákó back in the old country — not a Hungarian neighbor randomly met in America, but almost certainly a match facilitated through the Hungarian-Jewish trade network that already ran from New York to Alabama. Their first son, Rudolph, was born in 1915. Their second, Sidney, in 1917.
Sam filed his first Declaration of Intention in Mobile on 23 May 1916. The handwritten form recorded him as twenty-five, married, occupation: merchant. The 1916 form has a small detail in its margin: “Certified copy issued on Dec. 5, 1921 in accordance with Dept. letter 4-d-751-Dec. 3/21.” Sam had requested a certified copy of his Declaration in late 1921 — the same month his younger brother Hymie arrived at the Port of New York on the R.M.S. Olympic and went straight to Mobile to join him.
By the late 1920s Sam had moved north. The exact year of the Mobile-to-Chicago move is not yet recovered — his two younger sons Edwin (1926) and Herbert (1930) were born in Chicago, dating the move to somewhere between 1917 (when Sidney was still a Mobile birth) and 1926 (when Edwin was a Chicago birth). What pulled him north was almost certainly his brother Hymie’s 1923 pivot to Chicago for the marriage to their first cousin Sarah Szerena Weisz. The Feldman center of gravity had moved.
Because Sam had crossed state lines after his first Declaration of Intention, he had to re-file a fresh Declaration in Chicago. He did so on 30 January 1929, age thirty-eight, with his address at 1509 S. Sawyer Avenue in Lawndale and his occupation still listed as merchant.
Twelve years after the Chicago re-filing — and thirty-three years after his teenage arrival at Mobile — Sam finally became a U.S. citizen. He filed his Petition for Naturalization on 28 February 1941 at the U.S. District Court in Chicago. His address by then was 1115 S. Spaulding Avenue, also in Lawndale. His occupation, in 1941, was listed as “Fruit Peddler.” He was naturalized on 4 April 1941; Certificate № 5127183.
Sam was the second arrival of the Grósz-line in America. He held the door open for his brother Hymie, who held the door open for their sister Esther, who held the door open for their niece Bobby. The chain only worked because each generation went first.
Immigration and naturalization documents are the highest authority — the records Sam signed himself between 1916 and 1941.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama at Mobile. The first immigration document Sam signed. Confirms his arrival at age 16 in 1907, his marriage to Jennie in 1914, and his Mobile address.
U.S. District Court at Chicago. Sam re-filed after the inter-state move. Confirms his Chicago address at 1509 S. Sawyer Avenue and his occupation as merchant at age 38.
Mobile and Chicago. The censuses anchor Sam’s residence transitions and confirm his sons’ birth states (Alabama for Rudolph and Sidney; Illinois for Edwin and Herbert).
The vetted prose treatment of the Selma-Mobile-Chicago network. Several details on this profile are anchored in that chapter’s research. Read Chapter Six →
Bobby's maternal uncle · Regina Feldman's older brother · born 6 October 1890 in Jákó · sailed alone from Fiume at age 16 in 1907 · settled in Mobile, Alabama, where his uncle Simon Grósz had been since 1905 · married Jennie Taube Zseni in Mobile on 1 February 1914 · four sons: Rudolph (1915 Mobile), Sidney (1917 Mobile), Edwin (1926 Chicago), Herbert (1930 Chicago) · filed Declarations in both Mobile (1916) and Chicago (1929) after the family's mid-1920s move · naturalized 4 April 1941 in Chicago, age 50, occupation "Fruit Peddler", Certificate № 5127183 · 33 years after his arrival · lived out his last years in Skokie, Illinois, where he died on 5 November 1967, age 77. The second Feldman brother in America after his uncle Simon, and the one whose 1907 arrival opened the door for Hymie in 1921.
Regina's older brother · arrived NYC 28 August 1907 on the SS Slavonia from Fiume, Italy — age 16 (per Certificate of Arrival on his 1941 petition) · the second member of the family in America after his uncle Simon Gross (1905) · went to Mobile, Alabama, where he worked as a merchant at NE Corner Kennedy & Adam Streets · married Jennie (born Taube Zseni in Sátoraljaújhely, arrived NYC 1910 on SS Carpathia) on 1 February 1914 in Mobile · four sons: Rudolph (b. 1915 Mobile), Sidney (b. 1917 Mobile), Edwin (b. 1926 Chicago), Herbert (b. 1930 Chicago) · moved family from Mobile to Chicago between 1917 and 1926 · re-filed Declaration in Chicago 30 Jan 1929 (1509 S. Sawyer Ave., Merchant) · naturalized 4 April 1941 (Certificate № 5127183, by then a "Fruit Peddler" at 1115 S. Spaulding Ave.) · part of the pre-war Chicago community that received Irene in 1950 · lived and died in Skokie, IL · see Chapter Six
