Most of my ancestors emigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and small communities in the surrounding area. Much of the documentation about the family can be found in Pennsylvania records, and the areas where various parts of the family lived provide interesting stories in their own right!
My mother grew up in Wilmerding, an industrial community near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
My paternal grandparents lived in the small town of Dunlo, in Cambria County, before moving back to Pittsburgh just before my father was born. My father's mother's family had settled in South Fork, famous in the Johnstown Flood.
The Saul family was very involved in the Jewish community in Pittsburgh. The 1924 Pittsburgh Jewish Community Book, archived at the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, lists many members of the family (both men and women) who were active in many synagogues and philanthropic organizations. The founding of a minyan on the North Side is shown here as an important example.
Photos and documents:
Harry Saul and Lillie Mandelstein wedding invitation, 1900
Harry Saul store (Dunlo or Pittsburgh?)
Isaac and Miriam Saul with 5 of their 6 sons, and 1 grandson
Isaac Saul and Sadie Miriam Saul graves, McKees Rocks
Family tradition: Chanukah cookies
Biography of Samuel D. Saul
Biography of Ruth Friedman Saul
Useful books:
Bell, Thomas, Out of This Furnace. (Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh, 1976). Historical novel that includes references by name to people in Siegel/Friedman families and their friends, including Schmidts Jewelry Store (p. 167).
Burstin, Barbara S., Steel City Jews. (Apollo PA, Closson Press 2008). Comprehensive history of Pittsburgh and its Jewish comunity, 1840-1915.
Feldman, Jacob, The Jewish Experience in Western Pennsylvania: A History, 1755-1945 (Pittsburgh, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1986). Encyclopedic in scope; full of details.
Morawska, Ewa, Insecure Prosperity: Small Town Jews in Industrial America, 1890-1940, (Princeton NJ, Princeton, 1996). Excellent discussion of Jewish life in Johnstown and Cambria County, Pennsylvania.
Perlman, Robert, From Shtetl to Milltown: Litvaks, Hungarians and Galizianers in Western Pennsylvania, 1875-1925 (Pittsburgh, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 2001). Good general history, but does not emphasize differing experiences of these three groups (which are the three different groups my family includes), nor does it provide the original insights found in Perlman's earlier book on Hungarian Jewish immigration (see booklist under HUNGARY.)
10/20/2009
