| levari: Re: Frank Stock | I am Sternthal. We are from eastern europe, was romania, now moldova. our village was wiped out by Ion Antonescu, a little known butcher and murderer, under the orders of the then Russian red army. The village of Khotin was sepearated by the Dinester River, the rich families on the south side, the poor families on the north. This was a mixed village of Jews, Gypsies and Christian Armenians, all were targeted by the cossacks and my grandfather told me that unlike in other villages the people of all races were banded together so they mixed socially andvery openly. Most of the rich families stayed behind, while the poor families left between the wars. My grandfather told me he knew the family of the painter Arshile Gorky quite well and they were all quite artistic. His name was Jacob Sternthal, left for America, though he did not pass through Ellis Island, but first to London with his sister and then on to Philadelphia, PA, emigrating officially in 1919. Many Sternthals now reside in Montreal, Canada, having emigrated in around St. Urban street, orginally. Now most of my family lives in the North East corridor, between Philadelphia and New York, and a few live in Los Angeles.
Sternthal translates in "Star Valley," while it seems German or Prussian, it could also be Yiddish. There is a town in Germany known as Sternthal, and a muslim city in northern India known as "Saintthal." My mother's family is Sephardic and most of my family looks Southern Spanish or North African going back many generations. We have, for the most part, married within the Jewish community so there's been little variation to this rule, as far as I know and I believe, based on the photographs we have going back to what was then Romania that this is what the family from our area of the world looked like.
I haven not seen the name "Stock" in our records, but it certainly seems a viable "americanized" mutation of Sternthal having come through Ellis Island, as Americanizing names seemed to be the norm.
Hope this helps.
Best,
Levari |
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