The Fetter Family of Luoke
by
Joel Fetter
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The earliest trace of the Fetter (or Feter) family in Luoke is found in the 1816 census. There we see Abram Meir Feter and Yossel Wolf Feter.
Yossel Wolf (Iosel Wulf) was born in 1776 to Shmuel. Yossel married Feiga, who was born in 1774.
Abram Meir was born in 1786 to Chaim and married Malka Sora (born in 1787). Abram and Malka are known to have had two children -- Girsh and Meir.
Girsh was a teacher of six students at the Luoke cheder and belonged to the "middle class." Girsh is known to have paid a candle tax in 1846, a box tax in 1892, and to have voted in 1884.
Meir, born in about 1820, was registered as a butcher in 1869. He married Gite Mandel, who was born in 1825, daughter of Zelik. Meir and Gite had three known children: Khlauvne (or Hlavne) Shmuel, born in 1849; Gute, born five years later in 1854; and Blume, who was born in 1874.
The oldest of the three, Khlauvne Shmuel, moved to Tokmak (now in the Uklraine) as a young man, possibly to avoid conscription into the Russian Army.
Shmuel and his first wife, Shifra, had two children -- Batya and Malka. Shmuel married again to Pessia-Riva Bloch. Pessia was born in 1862 (probably in Tokmak) to Mendel and Leah Bloch. Shmuel and Pessia had six children: Mendel, Leah, Sara, Myer, Abrasha, and Gital.
Shmuel died in Tokmak, circa 1920. His wife Pessia and his children immigrated to Australia in the 1920's. Once in Australia, they spelled their surname with a double "t": Fetter. It is not known what happened to his siblings,Gute and Blume.
The 1834 census contains an entry for a Leib Futer, who was born in 1804 to Shmuel. Along with Leib are entries for his wife and two sons, one of whom is named Yosel or Iosel. The Futer surname is very similar to Feter and there may be a family connection.
There is a Fetter family rumor that the family surname was originally Saks. There were several Zaks families living in Luoke, but no connection between the Fetter and Zaks families have been made.