Scheina Freida Novoselok / Sadie Silk Dumes

The lists of Jewish families belonging to Dvinsk and the Dvinsk district in 1875 contained only males. These lists were used for conscription. They contain information about a Novoselok family living in Vishki.

Aron, son of Abram Novoselok, was born in Vishki circa 1841. He had at least 6 children.

1. Son Mowscha-Selik was born around 1860/1861 in Vishki. In the All Russian census of 1897 he was listed as 41 years old. His place of registration was Vishki, and worked as a peddler and a glazier.

2. Daughter Sheina-Freida was born around 1862 listed in the 1897 census with her husband, Chaim Dumesh. Her age is listed as 35, and she was literate in Hebrew.

3. Son David was born around 1863/1864 in Vishki. His occupation was a glazier. His wife Dweira (Dwerka), daughter of Nachman, nèe Neuhaus was born around 1863/1864 in Vitebsk. David and his family moved to Los Angeles, where he was a rabbi for many years.

4. Daughter Rifka/Rebecca Richmond we know only from rumor and Sadie's obit. In Sadie's obit, Rebecca is living in Brooklyn.

5. Daughter Heske Caplan we know only from rumor and Sadie's obit, which places her in Saratoga Springs.

6. Daughter Zirel (Zirka) was born in 1875 in Dvinsk, where the Novoselok family had moved.

On August 19, 1912, Sheina-Freida of Vishki, Latvia with her children Arthur, Anna and William arrived in Philadelphia (NOT Ellis Island). For more detailed info regarding the family's journey to America, check out the immigration page.

From Philadelphia, they traveled to Champaign, IL to meet the rest of the family on the event of eldest son Louis' wedding to Rebecca Stein in September 1912. Sadie notes in the ship manifest that they are traveling to meet Leib (Louis) Dumes at 503 E. Park St. in Champaign, IL.

More documentation

On Sadie's ship manifest, she names "brother: Selig Moishe" as nearest relative in her native country which the clerk wrote as "Wyskis" [Vishki]. It's very rewarding when you are researching these records to find another thing which helps to verify that you've found the right person. It can be very difficult to know if you've found the correct "Jacob Kaplan", for example, because the name was so common.

We have info from the obit in the St. Louis Globe Democrat 8-8-33 that she had sisters Mrs. Heske Caplan of Saratoga Springs and Mrs. Rebecca Richmond of Brooklyn and a brother Rev. David Silk of Los Angeles.

I've heard the names "Tanta Rifka" and "Aunt Richmond" used to refer to a sister of Sadie. I'm assuming that both names refer to Rebecca Richmond. She shows up in a small number of the family photos.

The photo on the left is Anne Fine. Cousin Lillian Zoll had the photo and told me that her mother was a sister of Sadie and Aunt Richmond. I don't know if her birth name was Fine or if that was a married name, so it's not a lot to go on.

Lillian often referenced the Fine family when she was talking to me, but couldn't rember exactly how they were connected.

I made contact with a descendant of David Silk, Sadie's brother. David's grandson Nathan was elderly and not in great health. I sent him some documentation which I had gathered as well as a photo of his mother from a passport photo that he had never seen. He said that was the only photo he had of her.

He was very grateful for the information, but had very little to add. He said that he was unaware that his grandfather David had any siblings, so I think any knowledge of our part of the family had long since faded. Nathan has since passed away.

Sadie's Death

Sadie Silk Dumes died in St. Louis, Missouri, killed by a hit-and-run driver in August 1933, while crossing an intersection in St. Louis, where she was living at that time, not far from where she was killed. I have a half-dozen newspaper articles about the accident and her death in the Documents/Newspapers page.