The photo location is in front of the Sorokin home in Sladkovodnaya. Unfortunately, the immigrant generation did not pass on the complete identification list to their children. Some identifications, with considerable overlap, were recalled by contemporary Canadian Sorokins of Edmonton and Freedmans of Winnipeg. The Molotskys, who were murdered in the Shoah, were identified by Molotskys from Ukraine, who are now in Israel and whom Norman Freedman met in 2007 and 2012. These Israeli Molotskys had not previously seen this photo.

Using a genealogical data base given to me by Sora Satanove Shulman (1938–2007), a daughter of person 47, and noting the estimated ages of the wedding party, I tentatively identified person 40 as Hershel Sorokin. This identification was confirmed by his grandson, Morley Zipursky (1925 – ). “My grandfather had a small beard.” Another tentative “matching-estimated-age” identification is person 31 who could be Abraham Shlachter, a paternal uncle of the bride, sitting next to his brother, the bride’s father. This is Norman Freedman’s best guess. Norman also thinks that person 23 is Abraham’s daughter, Leah Shlachter Adelstein (1880–1959). A less likely alternate “matching-estimated-age” identification of person 31 is Yehuda Gershon Molotsky (1855 – ), a paternal uncle of the groom. Presumably, person 35 is the wife of person 31. Persons 45, 48 and 49 could be Doris, Bill and Betty Sorokin, ages 7, 10 and 5, the children of person 40.

Sora Satanove Shilman told me that there were Rokhkovich relatives in the photo, but she didn’t know who they were. I eventually established contact with the Rokhkovich/Rockovitz/Rock family of Rochester NY and Jerry Koris of this family sent me the 1919 100th birthday party photo of his great grandmother, Esther Shapiro Rokhkovich (1819–1921). From this birthday photo person 43 in the wedding photo can easily be identified as Esther Rokhkovich. the maternal grandmother of the bride. A person’s appearance doesn’t change much from age = 91 to age = 100. Matching others in the wedding photo with their nine-years-later images in the birthday photo is more problematic. The beards on the males are a serious impediment to face matching. I think that person 25 is a match with the older Kerner cousin in the birthday photo, but all other matches seem more difficult even though it is almost certain other Rokhkovich relatives are in the wedding photo. There was a Jewish Kerner family living in Hulaipole so it is possible that an Esther Rokhkovich daughter, who could be sitting in the middle row with her brothers in the birthday photo, married a Kerner from Hulaipole.

Question -- Can anyone match the “unknowns” in the wedding photo to the “knowns” in the birthday photo? I prepared a wedding photo with identified faces blanked out, which would facilitate this matching. This blanked faces photo is available on request.

Question -- Does anyone know something about the “Kerners of NYC” who are related to the Rokhkovichs/Rockovitzs/Rocks of Rochester ?