Information from Dawn Cherlyn.
Date: Wed, 05 Aug 1998 23:29:43 -0700
Reply-To: DAWNDAV -AT- pacbell.net
My maiden name was Dawn Cherlyn. My Aunt Frances, who is 90 years old,
told me she changed the i to a y when she was young. I don't know if we
are the same family.
My father Efraim (Fred) was born in Vilna, Russia August or September of
1909. His mother, Luba was approximately 42 years old when he was born,
which would mean she was born in approximately 1867.
Her husband was David. (I have my
father's original papers and need to have their Russian names
translated.) David and Luba were step-brother and step-sister. They
married when Luba was 15. Luba's maiden may have been Sherman or
something sounding like that.
David and Luba had a daughter, Bayla, who was about 25 years older than
my father.
Their other daughter, Frances is two years older than my father. My
grandmother, Luba, past on a story that my grandfather's sister was
Irving Berlin's mother. The name on my father's ship boarding papers is
Crirlin. My father had two daughters and thought he was last male in
the family with the name Cherlyn. Please advise if you have any
information linking our family with yours.
Regards,
Dawn
Notes. The passport gives the following names (in Russian spellings)
Other information given: Yossel was a trader (or merchant) living regularly in Plisa, outside Disna, in the eastern Vilna region, in the Russian Pale of Settlement. He received an internal passport for business travel valid in the Russian Empire in 1910 (though if he was preparing to emigrate at this time he would have needed the document in any case to reach the port of embarkation). The name as spelled by the Russian authorities in Plisa, in the Russian alphabet, was rendered Tsirlin (or in a more precise transliteration, Tsyrlin).
As these are both young men of draft age in 1881 they do not seem to correlate with any known Cherlins.
(Regarding Disna: there is a Disna Yizkor book of remembrance for the Jewish community in Disna. Follow the link for information about this book.) A modern map of the area to the west of Disna (Dzisna) is found here. A xerox copy of this book is in the possession of Gregory Cherlin. It is in Hebrew and Yiddish.
May 2003
