KOLINSKY FAMILY HISTORY

Shlomo Kantalinsky (1856-1936) and his family lived in Linitz, a shtetl 150 miles southwest of Kiev in the Russian gubernia (province) of Podolia. It is now the village of Ilintsy in Ukraine. According to Morris Kolinsky's oral history recorded in 1978, the family name came from an "estate" owned by Shlomo's great-grandfather. Although Jews living in the Pale of Settlement were not normally allowed to own land or engage in agriculture, there was an experimental movement under Czar Alexander I in 1807 to establish agricultural "colonies" in Ukraine as part of the expulsion of Jews from the major cities of the Russian Empire, so perhaps Morris' account is indeed accurate.

Linitz was a typical Eastern European shtetl of about 5000 Jews in 1900, representing about 50% of the population, with no public schools, only religious schools (cheders) for the Jewish boys and six synagogues. Podolia had a longtime Hassidic tradition, and one of the most famous rabbis of the late 17th century, Rabbi Gedaliah Rabinowitz (d. 1803) (a follower of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov), came from Linitz. Shlomo's family was quite religious, but not Hassidic, and was considered well off, owning their own five-room house and renting another.

Shlomo's father was Elye Zindl (1819-1861) and his mother's name was Elke. Recent research indicates that Shlomo had at least one brother, Avrum (b.1841), and a sister Feigy, who was born in 1857 but died in 1860. The Kantelinskys originally came from Dashev, a shtetl 14 miles from Linitz, but Shlomo moved to Linitz when he married Maya Levitan (Leventhal) of Linitz on August 14, 1874. Maya was the daughter of Moishe-Idl ("Mamrika") Leventhal, a tallis maker, and she died giving birth to her fifth child Chaya (Ida) on November 6, 1892. Shlomo's father and grandfather had been butchers but Shlomo couldn't stand the sight of blood so he became a tailor. His second wife Malia (Molly) Klotzig was from Darsha, where her father had been kidnapped -- a common practice for providing Jews to the Imperial army. Molly was actually Shlomo's niece and was in her 20s when they married while he was in his mid-30s. They had six children together.

The eldest child from Shlomo's first marriage, Leah (Fine) moved to Moscow after her husband was killed in a pogrom. She was last heard from in 1937 when Morris Kolinsky's daughter Ida ("Chaiky") married Lou Kaufman in Cleveland. Morris said that the first pogrom he remembered in Linitz took place after he moved to the U.S. in 1911. There are historical accounts of two pogroms in Linitz in 1919 and by 1939 the Jewish population of Linitz had dropped to just over 2,000, representing about 64% of the village population.

Morris Kolinsky (1884-1981) deserted the Russian Army after six months service in 1906 and made his way by boat and train to London in April, 1907, where he worked as a tailor. He brought his older brother Abe (1882-1963) to London in 1908, and the two arranged passage to America, but Morris was rejected, perhaps because he had left Russia illegally and didn'€™t have a valid passport.

Abe left England alone, sailing from Southampton on the SS Adriatic on October 7, 1908, and arriving at Ellis Island on October 14, 1908 as "Abraham Kontulinski". Abe's destination was listed as "brother-in-law Motel Fiteifsky at 4003 Woodland Ave., Cleveland, Ohio", although Morris said that Abe stayed with his sister-in-law Minnie Cohen and her husband Max.

Meanwhile, Morris returned to Russia where he spent 45 days in jail for desertion before receiving a passport under the name "Moische-Idel Kantelinsky" in Kiev on March 13, 1910. He then returned to London and left for America in 1911, arriving in Boston on April 6, 1911 and then joining Abe in Cleveland. Abe's wife Sonia arrived at Ellis Island on June 29, 1909, with her 11 month-old son Chaim (Harry Collins). Abe and Sonia moved to Toronto in 1922.

Motel (Max) Kolinsky (1886-1962) arrived at Ellis Island November 13, 1912, on the SS Russia and his destination was listed as "brother-in-law H. Heinblatt at 141-143 Hopkins St., Brooklyn, NY". His wife Chaika, listed as "Chaya Kantolinksy", arrived at Ellis Island December 12, 1913 with her parents Avrum and Luba Kripinsky and her two-year-old son Isike (Sol Kolinsky). They were to stay with Luba's brother in Brooklyn.

Shlomo and his daughter Chaya (Ida) (1892-1988) arrived at Ellis Island June 13, 1913 on the SS Adriatic from Liverpool. He is listed as "Schlome Kantolinsky, age 53, 5-foot tall with 'fresh' complexion, grey hair and blue eyes". His destination was his son "A. Kolennsky at 2557 E. 40 St., Cleveland, Ohio." Under relatives or friends in country of origin, the entry is "none", suggesting that Shlomo may have been leery of the authorities in Russia or the US, or both.

The eldest child from Shlomo's second marriage, Manuel, arrived in the U.S. in 1914 and Molly and the rest of her children (Jack, Sarah, Ann, Bella and Lottie) came to Cleveland via Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1922. Manuel was the first member of the family to change his name to Collins, while Shlomo and his other children used the name Kolinsky after they came to America. Some in the next generation changed their family names to Collins and Kollins.

Shlomo died in Cleveland in 1936, and Molly moved to Pittsburgh to live with her daughter Ann Shapiro in 1939. She later moved back to Cleveland and lived with her daughter Sarah Davis until she died on August 27, 1948.

Before Abe Kolinsky's grandson Richard Kollins and Max Kolinsky's grandson Rick Kolinsky made a trip to Russia and Ukraine in July, 2007, family members in Canada and the U.S. had no knowledge of any other Kantalinskys. However, the discovery by Rick and Richard of Avrum Tsinovich Kantelinsky's grave in Ilintsy on July 8, 2007 led to a search for a branch of the family that had survived World War II and the Holocaust. This line of Kantelinskys are descendants of Ben Tzion (Tsina) Kantelinsky and his five children, Rachel, Mania, Joseph, Avrum and Dimitri. They now have family in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Germany and Israel.

In February, 2008, Tsina's granddaughter Maya, who lives in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, discovered her father Joseph's birth certificate, which indicated that Tsina's father was named Avrum. This would seem to verify that Tsina's father was Shlomo Kantelinsky's older brother Avrum (b. 1841), and that would make Shlomo Tsina's uncle.

(Compiled by Richard Kollins, revised December 2008)