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The Ratnofsky
family pictured in the photo emigrated to the United States from Motol
between the years 1898 and 1913. Once
in the U.S., they took the last name Radner.
Front row, left to right: Sarah
Ratnofsky Bergman, Malka Lutsky Ratnofsky, Samuel/Shmuel Radner, Miriam
Warshovsky Radner, Barnet/ Dov Baer Radner, Florence/Feigl Radner (later
Ocko).
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Malke Lutsky Ratnofsky
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Back row, left to right:
Max/Hershel Radner, George/Moshe Yankel Radner, Frieda Ratnofsky
Rabinowitz, Victor/Avigdor Radner, William/Velvel Radner, Stella/Slata
Radner Wolf, Louis/Leib Radner, Esther Ratnofsky Wasserman.
Samuel Ratnofsky, was the head
of the family. He is seated
between his mother on his right, and his wife on his left.
They are surrounded by the next generation.
Although Samuel’s occupation
was an innkeeper, the family apparently owned land.
Two of the children had fond memories of a large barn on the
property. One of the children reported that he had supervised the
peasants in their work on the farm.
A third described riding into town on a wagon full of produce.
The family was apparently fairly well off since Samuel’s wife
reportedly had a small carriage that was sometimes borrowed by the town
to transport dignitaries. Samuel’s
father, Avraham Yakov Ratnofsky, had been a rent collector for the local
nobleman and had been robbed and murdered when he had been out on his
horse. Samuel was the
eldest of seven children and took over the leadership of the family when
his father was killed.
The eldest Ratnofsky children
arrived in the U.S. one by one at fairly young ages beginning
in 1898.
In 1906 Miriam Ratnofsky brought one of her daughters and a niece
to attend the weddings of her daughters Sarah and Esther.
She then persuaded her husband to emigrate the following year
with the remaining three children.
Only one daughter, Frieda, remained in Motol until 1913 since she
had been married at a young age and already had a family.
Three of Samuel’s siblings
also came to the United States. A
sister, Esther, may have arrived first from Motol with her husband,
Moshe Gutensky. A younger
brother, Aaron, was also an early arrival.
He changed his name to Raunik and then Ronick and worked for a
relative by marriage who had a furniture factory in Norfolk, VA.
After Miriam had arrived for the weddings, another brother,
Max/Michel arrived in the U.S. with his family and their mother, Malka,
in November 1907 and took the surname of Ronnick.
The Ronnicks lived in Hartford, CT.
Contributed by Debra Wolraich
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