U.S. (mostly) Cirlin family members and descendants

Benjamin (sons Meyer, Marcus, Harold); Aron Cirlin, Samuel A. Cirlin
various Cirlincione lines; and misc. U.S. from 1773 onward.

Our focus here is on those who used the spelling Cirlin.

Typically the ancestry is Russian Jewish (in the sense of the Russian Empire) and the name has been transcribed in a varity of alphabets as Cirlin, Cyrlin, Sirlin, Zirlin, and Zyrlin in Ellis Island records, as Tzirlin in Hebrew or Yiddish records, and as Tsirlin in Russian sources (or in some cases, Chirlin.

Some Cirlincione family members of Italian descent also adopted that surname, as well as some of Irish extraction (possibly transcription errors).


Cirlin family members and descendants

Benjamin Cirlin Line; Born ca. 1858, Russia
Imm. 1908. Richmond, NY
M. 1919 Fanny (Margaret) Nerson b. ca. 1860, imm. 1905
Aron Cirlin Line Samuel A. Cirlin Line Max (Menachem Mendel) Cirlin Line
Aaron (Aron) Cirlin b. 8/19/1888
M. Fanny Chochem, Bella Serken b. 1889, 1 other
Samuel A. Cirlin
b. 1888 (Minsk)
A. M. in 1920: Rosie
B. M. in 1925: Lena (in 1925)
C. M. from 1933: Bertha (Breine) Jacobs (Engler, Appleby, Leavitt) b. 1890
Max (Menachem Mendel) Cirlin b. 1889
M. Becky (Rivke, Rebecca, Beckie) b. 1894
Various U.S. Lines
To 1865 1865-1890 After 1890
Cirlincione
Benjamin Cirlincione (1881) line Other Cirlin(cione) lines
Lithuania
  • Alter Cirlin
  • Son

Immigration

From the Lipshutz/People's Bank
via Stew Cherlin

  • Jake Cirelson paid for passage April 6, 1911 for
    • Rode (Rhoda) Cirlin
    • Sore (Sora) Cirlin
    • Libe (Liba/Luba/Leib?) Cirlin
    • Schiffre (Shiffra) Cirlin
    • Mine (Mina) Cirlin
  • David Zirlin or Cerlin paid for passage for
    • Chawe Hode and Solomon, Oct. 27 1912
    • Again Chawe Hode, March 1, 1913
    • Ite Feige (Ita Feiga Zirlin), Girsch (Girscha Zirlin) Pesie (Pesia Zirlin), Schmuel (Samuil Zirlin), Dec. 6, 1913
  • Martin Hofkin paid for passage for Gessie Cirlin on April 4, 1914.
  • This seems to be a variant of Gitel/Gessel (if it is not Bessie).

Ellis Island Records (Minsk origin)

# Name Residence Arrived Age
414 Cirlin, Abe Minsk, Russia 1910 46
415 Cirlin, Chacze Minsk, Russia 1913 21
416 Cirlin, Chaie Minsk 1906 23
417 Cirlin, Chane Minsk, Russia 1910 48
418 Cirlin, Eisik Minsk 1906 2
419 Cirlin, Fanny Minsk, Russia 1910 5
420 Cirlin,Joel Minsk 1903 21
421 Cirlin, Mendel Minsk, Russia 1907 23
422 Cirlin, Mordche Minsk, Russia 1907 20
423 Cirlin, Sore Minsk, Russia 1910 25
424 Cirlin, Sore Minsk, Russia 1913 19
(Steve Morse)

There are a large number of entries for Cirlin's at Ellis Island. In the transcriptions entered into the database, many of these have been misread by the transcribers. See the full list of common variants. Generally these entries correspond to Tsirlin in the cyrillic alphabet, Tzirlin in Yiddish, and the use of Cirlin reflects Polish usage.

Parafianov

According to Aaron Ginzburg, there are 200+ descendants of a Cirlin from Parafianov, Belarus (close to Dokshitzy).

Cirlin-Ginzburg Famiy History

Sometime in the mid 19th century, a male Cirlin and his wife had at least two children ...

The first child had at least one child, and his child, Haya Cirlin, married Rafel Ginzburg.
Rafel and Haya had five children. The three male children of Rafel and Haya immigrated either just before or after WWI. Israel ended up in Newport, RI to join his wife's Dvorshe Kusinitz's three siblings ( Newport was virtually a transplanted Dokshitz), Raymond ended up in Brooklyn, NY, and Menachem Mendel ended up in Cuba. Ester and Pesia stayed in Parafianov. Ester married Aron Levitan.
You can read about them in the Yizkor book. Our uncle Aron was hung the day the Germans arrived in June, 1941. Pesia Ginzburg married Rafel Markman. Of their seven children, one, Shmuel Markman, survived the Holocaust and made his way to Israel. In the Dokshitz-Parafianov Yizkor book Shmuel wrote "I want to write the names of my brothers and sisters and their families here, perhaps someone of them survived."He went on to list seventy of our relatives. He undoubtedly knew then that they did not survive. He also submitted their names to Yad Vashem, which is attempting to compile as many names of our martyrs as possible.

The second known child of that original Cirlin was named Avraham Anshel Cirlin. Avraham Anshel had two known children. The older child, Ester Cirlin, married Samuel Gejdenson. One of their children, Shlomo, survived the holocaust and made his way to the USA after the war. Shlomo was the sole survivor from this branch and has named four more lost family members by submitting pages of testimony to Yad Vashem. His son, Sam Gejdenson, was a United States congressman from Connecticut for 19 years during the 1980s and 90s, and was ranking member of the House Foreign Relations Committee. Sam was able to visit Dokshitz in the 1990s and thank the people who hid his father.

See also

Ancient Faces

Sources include Ellis Island immigration forms, Castle Garden immigration records, NY marriage records, CA death records.

Tree pages © Gregory Cherlin, David Cherlin, Stew Cherlin. Contributors retain all rights to contributed material.

2004; 2023