My father, known as Samuel Gisser in this country, was born in Grodno, Poland, [people often referred to the largest near city even though they lived in a nearby small shtetl, in this case, it was Lunna], which was then a part of Russia, in the spring of 1890. Records were not well kept then, so he later adopted April 1 as his "official" birthday. He was the son of Abraham (Avram) Swotinsky (Savitinski), and Frances (Finkel) Swotinsky. There were five children who came to this country. They were, in order of age, Mashke (today she would be called Martha), Sam, Elsie, Morris, and Isadore, known as Izzy.

I really don't know much about life in Russo-Poland at that time, but I do remember a few of the things my father told me about his early years. His father was evidently a kind of skilled craftsman. He was an expert at making bricks. Bricks were not made in large-scale factories, mostly by machinery, at that time. Instead, each nobleman would have as a part of his estate, which was really a sort of self-contained village, various craftsmen (in addition to farmers), such as carpenters, bakers, blacksmiths, etc. Abraham Swotinsky would agree with a nobleman to work for several years at a time on such an estate, making bricks. When there were enough bricks for the next building the noble had in mind, the family would go elsewhere.

The bricks were made by the following process. The younger children in the family would dig up the soft clay near the bank of a stream or river, and mold it either by hand or with simple wooden tools into brick-shaped blocks, which were then set aside to dry. Meanwhile the older children would scour the area for firewood, until they had accumulated a very large amount. It would normally take a month or more to accumulate enough dried clay blocks and firewood to actually fire the bricks.

This was done in some kind of brick-lined oven, with several access holes in addition to the chimney port. The oven may have been rebuilt for each firing, I'm not sure. The dried blocks were placed inside along with some of the firewood, and the fire lit. More wood was added from time to time, and the brick-master, from long experience, could tell from how well the fire burned, how much wind, and the color of the hot bricks, when to put out the fire. If he did his job well, there were mostly good bricks and only a few over-burned or under-burned. If not, the yield of good bricks could be very small.

The next thing that I know about my father is that he was evidently a good student, and at a fairly early age he was occupied as a traveling teacher, tutoring youngsters in such things as plane geometry in the Russian language. Around 1910 to 1915 there was a very strong drive in Russia to recruit young men for the army. Many citizens, especially Jews, tried to escape to other countries. He succeeded, entering the US on Feb. 12, 1912 through Ellis Island.

My Father's Family
Unfortunately, I never knew any of my father's family who remained in Europe. The same thing is true of my mother's family with one exception. Since we have never heard from any of the Europeans after World War II, I presume they all perished. One branch of my mother's family wound up in South Africa.

I did know all who came to this country, of course, Mashke, Sam, Elsie, and Isidore. Mashke, the oldest sister, was known as "die kluge" - the wise one. I have heard stories of her great courage in the face of adversity in finding her way from Europe to the United States, but remember no details. She married a man named Ichi-Mayer (Yitchak/Isadore) Gisser in Lunna and they had at five children, Phillip (born in Lunna), Hymie, Sarah, Henry, and Morris. As you can guess, Ichi-Mayer was the "sponsor" when Dad came to this country, and when an immigration official accidentally used the sponsor's name for the immigrant's, our branch of the family became Gissers instead of Swotinskys.
 

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