Morris and Anna (Porter) Roffman are considered the Hoffman immigrant ancestors. They settled in Boston where they raised nine children, mostly boys. They were Jewish migrants from an area of the Russian Empire known as the Pale of Settlements. Morris names his hometown variously as Rossits and Roshiste, Russia, locations that elude us for now. Anna’s siblings and parents, Abraham and Sarah (Mazur) Porter, also travelled to Boston. They came from Rowno, now called Rivne, located in Western Ukraine.
Their names got anglicized after their arrival so you will see many variations of their name:
- Roffman, Hoffman, Reiffe
- Porter, Portnoy, Portnoi, Porthnow
- Mazur, Massar, Mazar, Mazor, Mazer, Mzay
Migration from Russia to Boston
One cannot point to a single immigration date, but rather the Roffman and Porter families had a series of trips. The young Porter men came first according to this email from Dick Hoffman:
“According to cousin Cal [Porter], the original version of Porter was Portnoy. He said his father was the first of the tribe over, then went back to answer the draft call from the Tsar (otherwise the whole family would go to jail). When he got out of the army he came back to the U.S. and brought others with him.”
This account is likely correct. You can find Morris Portnoy, father of Cal, on the 1900 census with his brother, Louis. They state that they emigrated from Russia in 1897. Morris Roffman likely came next, but it’s not clear when. According to the 1910, he immigrated in 1900. According to his naturalization papers, he immigrated on October 3, 1901 on the Southward. Although passenger records for this trip survive, no sign of Morris is seen on the ship manifest. Morris could also have arrived as late as 1904 since his second son, Philip, was born in 1905.
One found immigration manifest has proven to be very illuminating. It concerns the ship Smolensk that docked on September, 1906 at Ellis Island. In that document, you can see that Morris Reiffe’s wife, Jitte Reiffe, age 27, and her two children, Leyle (age 7) and Piesse (age 11 months), travel to see Morris. Also in the party is Morris’s brother, Wolf Reiffe, age 18. Fitte is travelling with her parents, Abraham and Sore Portnoy, and her sister, Gitte Portnoy, 22, to visit her brother Morris Portnoi. It may, at first, not seem like a fit, but let us break it down.
- Sore was likely Hebrew name, Sori, who became Sarah.
- Gitte Portnoy, b. 1884, and Wolf Reiffe, b. 1888, disappear after this record.
- Jitte Reiffe, born in 1879, would become Anna. Her gravestone lists a 1881 birth. So the sisters seem to be Jitte and Gitte.
- Leyle is more likely to be Leyb or Leib (meaning Lion). Born in 1900, he would become Harry, who later used 1902 in Ohio as his birth.
- Peisse, born Oct 1905, would become Philip. Per the 1988 newspaper, his mother called him by Pasey. Morris lists his birth as 2 Jun 1905 on his immigration application.
- Mr. Slobotkin of 57 Salem St refers to Meier A Slobokin (1869-1912) who immigrated from Minsk Russia. No relationship could be found. Maybe he owned the house where the families first lived.
The West End Years
Originally, the families settled in the Boston’s West End. This area housed the city’s immigrants, primarily Jewish and Irish. Jewish immigration in Boston rose rapidly from 1880 to 1910. Thanks to censuses, city directories and tax rolls, we know where the Roffman/Porter families lived during their time in Boston. First was 12 Norman St followed by 5 Poplar St as noted on the 1910 census. Information on this document starts to shift around. Harry b. 1900 and Philip b 1903 indicate their Russian birthplace. Anna Porter confirms her 1906 immigration year. Furthermore, Morris and Anna married in 1899 with Morris arriving to America in 1900, a problematic date given that Anna gave birth to Philip in 1903 or 1905.
It would be nice to visit the old neighborhood, but there is nothing to see anymore. During a big Boston redevelopment project in the late 1950’s, the city used eminent domain to tear down the West End buildings. The area was deemed blighted, allowing the city and developers to execute a power grab. The immigrants were forced out of the city in search of rentals housing that cost more. Fortunately, some great Boston maps survive that provide details of the West End. Of particular interest are the so-called Bromley maps which show the buildings of downtown Boston in stunning detail complete with addresses and owners. Photos of the West End survive that give a glimpse of life in the West End. There is an incredible view that actually shows the old Poplar street location.
Don’t get too nostalgic about this time in the West End. Life would have been hard. The growing family would have had been quite poor living on Morris’s tailor salary. The West End population swelled to 40,000 by 1910. Look at that census, and you can count 47 people living at the 5 Poplar street address. No surprise that a 1913 Boston Globe newspaper account surfaced that names Harry Roffman for effectively fencing stolen books as a 13 year old boy (suppose it’s a good sign that he was into books). Many inhabitants of the West End had strong incentive to improve their condition. They started moving into the Boston suburbs as they assimilated into their new county. The Hoffman and Porter were among this group.
The Roffmans and the Porters go to Malden
By 1914, prior to the birth of Molly, the Roffmans/Porters had moved to the Boston suburb of Malden at 44 Sammett Street with their 6 small children along with Anna’s parents. Anna would give birth to three additional children here. Unfortunately, Molly died in 1931 of pneumonia. A photo of her survives on her gravestone. The remaining children, now all boys, grew to manhood at this location. There is an interesting 1998 Boston Globe article that describes their time in Malden. Sounds like they remained poor, but happy. A majority of the Hoffman men remained in the area. Harry moved to California, while Charles would move to Florida and Abraham settled in Mississippi. Not sure what happened to Louis who drops out of sight after 1964. All the children can be seen in a 1939 family reunion photo, likely at the marriage of Joseph and Mildred (Lyons) Hoffman. Members of the Porter family also attended.
Expanding the Tree
Now, let us see how much we can enlarge the family tree using the wealth of online documents coupled with posted DNA evidence on ancestry.com. The DNA for this essay comes from JS, the granddaughter of Harry Hoffman. We are looking for brothers and sisters who leave surviving documentation and descendants. Ancestry can couple user submitted trees with its DNA to create ThruLines. It’s a good starting place. The trees for the Morris Roffman and Abraham Porter are shown.
Expansion of the tree for Morris Roffman has proven elusive. His one brother, Wolf, disappears after his immigration. Morris’s death certificate has been ordered. Hopefully it will name his parents. No DNA specific to the Roffman side has been identified yet. So right now the trail ends with Morris Roffman.
The Porter family search gives good results. Abraham and Sarah’s gravestone is now available on findagrave.com, giving death dates for the couple in the Hebrew calendar. The online death certificate for Abraham Porter names his parents as Joseph and Malie. Sarah’s death certificate still needs to be ordered. Sarah indicates that she had 5 living children as of 1910. In addition to (1) Anna Roffman, are (2) Morris and (3) Louis Porter mentioned above. Another brother, (4) Joseph, is living with Anna in the 1950 census. (5) Gitte Porter who disappears after her arrival to New York may be the fifth child, or there may be another missing sibling. (6) Barnet Parthnow, another brother, died in Boston at 16 in 1903.
A descendant of Anna’s brother, Morris, has tested. Call him RE. He and JS have a list of matches with shared Porter/Mazur DNA. Several of these shared DNA matches show a Harry Mazer (b. 1851 to 1855) in their tree. Given his surname and birth date, he is likely a brother of Sarah. Further evidence is given by Harry’s daughter, Becky Snyder, who lists her birth city of Rovno.
We can summarize all these finding into one grand tree that includes all the marriages and the known DNA results. Admittedly, this diagram is a little busy and can be slightly confusing to read. However, we need to account for a lot of people at this point.
It’s hard putting an end to this tale because additional research keeps surfacing. Harry’s father is listed online as Elyahu Mazur b. 1935 in Belarus, but this person is probably wrong. Our Harry Mazer, who likely died in 1940, may be getting confused with another Harry Mazer who died in 1945. Time to order some of those death certificates.