About ten years ago, I was in Quebec City with my wife Sharon. On a rainy May morning, we decided to visit the Jewish cemetery where we had been told my great grandparents are buried. Finding the Jewish cemetery in French Québec was not an easy task. We were told that it was next to a Catholic cemetery and we went from cemetery to cemetery in the rain and mud before we finally found Beth Israel Ohev Shalom Cemetery. We found the tombstones in Row G, striking matching brown marble monuments. Kalmen and Kaila are buried next to each other and their daughter Clara is buried in Row C.

It was there, in the cold and rain and mud that I realized that I had been named after my great grandfather Kalmen (Charles) Reich. He had died five months before my birth.

Several years before she died, Irene Mendels mentioned to me that Dr. Harry Rich was seeking information about the Rich Family. Irene knew that I had been interested in tracing back the roots of the Rich and Flam Families and that I had gathered together some information a few years ago when my first cousin Michael Zatzman entrusted me with the birth certificate of my grandfather Leiser (Louis) Flam.

Leiser Flam’s mother, Taube Schapira Flam, was Kaila Rich’s sister. Leiser married Kaila Rich’s daughter Sarah. So the Flam and Rich families are intertwined and both Kaila and Taube are my great grandmothers.

When I first came to McGill University in 1958, Irene and Babe Mendels were very kind and included my brother David and me for Friday night and holiday dinners. Irene was really the matriarch of the Rich family until her very recent death. She had been in regular contact with the extended family and possessed the most information about the descendents of Kaila and Kalmen Rich. She lived with Grandma and Grandpa Rich during most of her childhood. The photographs attached here were provided by Irene. I also draw your attention to the attached “A Very Special Mezuzah”.

All of the persons mentioned in this History are “family”. We share a common ancestry and a common heritage. We are kith and kin and share the blood of Kalmen and Kaila Rich. I have no doubt that each of us has learned that family is very important, particularly as we grow older and experience the trials, the tribulations and the joys of life.

I hope that the History brings our family closer together and that we all make the effort to get to know those we have never met. I have no doubt that that Kalmen and Kaila Rich would be so very happy to know that the result of my efforts has been a closer family. At the very least, we will know now who our relatives are and where they live.

May the memories of our ancestors be blessed.

Montreal, April, 2005 (Revised September, 2008)

Charles (Chuck) Flam Kalmen ben Rueven

KALMAN REICH/CHARLES RICH

Born Kalmen Reich in Pilzno, Poland in 1856. His father was Yitzhak Reich. He died on October 26, 1941 at age 85. and is buried in Quebec City in Beth Israel Ohev Shalom Cemetery.

The Jewish sector of Pilzno consisted of a shtetl (hamlet) of 150 Jewish families on the Wisloka River, 101 km east of Krakow. The shtetl itself may have been called Leki Dolne, but it was part of Pilzno. Literally translated from Polish, Leki Dolne means “low field”. My father remembers Grandma Rich telling him that they came from Leki Dolne.

Leki Dolne is approximately 5 km west of the center of Pilzno. Nearby villages were Tuchow, Debica (Dembica/Dembitz), and Cieszanow (Cieszyna). A larger nearby town was Tarnow and it seems that many of the registers of births, marriages and deaths were kept in Tarnow. Other records for the Kolbuszowa Region were kept in the town of Rzeszów.

In 2008, I was fortunate to be put in contact with Joanne Kanner La Place and I learned that Kalmen had a sister Brindle, who married a Franzblow. Joanne is the great great grandchild of Brindle Reich, Grandpa Rich’s sister. Fransblows have lived in Chatham, Bathurst, Tracadie and Saint John. I have added a chapter about the Fransblow family, based on information provided to me by Joanne La Place.

KAYLA REICH/CATHERINE RICH

Born Kaila Schapira in Pilzno in 1855. Her parents were Isak and Leie Schapira. On Kaila’s tombstone it is written that she died on November 10, 1943 at age 88. She is buried next to her husband in the Quebec City Jewish cemetery.

Kaila had at least one sister, Taube. Taube married Schaje Flam. One of their children was Leiser Schija Flam. I have Leiser’s original birth certificate because he is my grandfather Louis Samuel Flam. Leiser was born on March 12, 1882 at 16 Low Field (Leki Dolne), near Pilzno.

I am quite sure that Kaila and Taube also had a brother who ended up in New York. His name might have been Sam Spiro and he had at least one child, a daughter named Pinnie. Annie Rich Jacobson told Irene that she visited Uncle Sam and her cousin Pinnie in New York in the early 1920’s.

For many years I had believed that the Flam name was not the name used in Europe, but I was wrong. There are records going back to the 1700’s recording births and deaths of Flam ancestors in Krakow province and Western Galicia.

Kalmen and Kaila

There are no records proving the date of the marriage of Kalmen Reich and Kaila Schapira. They were certainly married in Pilzno. My father tells me that Kaila once told him that she attended Leiser’s bris (Jewish circumcision) when she was on her honeymoon. If that is true, Leiser’s bris was on March 20, 1882, so it is fairly sure that Kalmen and Kaila married in 1882. In 1882, Kalmen was 26 years old and Kaila was a year older.

According to the Miramichi Leader (the newspaper in Chatham, NB) story of October 11, 1996, their first 2 children were born in Pilzno. This would be Harry and the oldest sister. The Leader says that it was Sarah, my grandmother, but I am sure that this is not accurate. Fanny was older than Sarah and I was always told that Sarah was born in New Brunswick. According to the Leader, Harry was born in 1886. Kalmen and Kayla eventually had eight children.

The Leader story says Kalmen and Kaila came to New Brunswick in 1891. My father says that they came before 1890. I believe that they came to Canada in 1890 with Harry and Fanny.

Why did they go to Canada? That is a question I have asked myself many times. I have never found the answer. The ships stopped at Saint John, New Brunswick. Perhaps they couldn't afford the fare to New York. Perhaps someone else from the Pilzno area was already in New Brunswick. It appears that they came directly to New Brunswick. Joanne Laplante has been searching the ship records to see if the names can be found anywhere. No success so far. As improbable as it may sound, there were about 20 Jewish families in the tiny town of Chatham, New Brunswick during the first half of the 20th Century. There was a synagogue, even a shochet. Homes were kosher. One of my earliest memories (not a particularly pleasant one) was attending High Holiday services in the Chatham shul. That was probably in the late 1940's. I am not certain that the Riches were the first Jewish family to arrive in Chatham. If they were not the first to settle there, perhaps they went to Chatham because they knew of another family who lived there.

I don't know what Kalmen did in Pilzno. In Chatham, New Brunswick, Kalmen did well. He started in the fur business, buying furs from local Indian tribes and selling them to furriers in Montreal. He also had a cattle food wholesale business. As he accumulated a little money, he purchased real estate. By the time that his many daughters reached the time when they should marry, Kalmen was able to pay a dowry for each and, in some cases, even bought a home for his daughters. As you can see from the report of the marriage of Sarah Rich and Louis Flam (my grandparents) it would seem that the Riches were a prominent and well-to-do family in Chatham. I have always heard this from my father and his cousins, that is, that the Riches were "rich".

There was a very prominent and wealthy man, Max Aitken, who grew up in Chatham. He later became Lord Beaverbrook and was one of the most prominent and wealthy men in the British Commonwealth during the first decades of the 20th Century. Beaverbrook was in the war cabinet of Sir Winston Churchill and owned the Daily Express, the most successful of the British daily newspapers. In his memoirs, Beaverbrook mentions Charles Rich as being one of his good friends in Chatham.

I think that the Reich name was anglicized when they arrived in Canada. Kalmen Reich became Charles Rich and Kayla became Catherine Rich. I have difficulty with Yiddish, but I am pretty sure that on the tombstones of Kalmen and Kayla the Yiddish spelling is the traditional spelling of Reich in Yiddish.

Home of Kalmen and Kaila Rich. Sheriff Street Chatham, Province of New Brunswick, Canada

Chatham in its prime (1880- 1919) had extensive wharves, a pulp mill, three large sawmills, a fish packing plant, a large foundry/shipbuilding facility with a repair yard for small vessels, an armory, several sizeable hotels, a Catholic hospital (Hotel Dieu), St. Joseph's Nursing Home, three secondary schools, a Catholic Liberal Arts college, the county poor house (the County Home), a race track, an indoor rink, a golf club, facilities for an agricultural exhibition and several notable churches. WWII saw the opening of RCAF Station Chatham, providing an economic stimulus for the town until its closure in 1996.

THE RICH CHILDREN

HARRY: born in Pilzno in 1886. Married Mary Agnes McHugh in New York City (St. Patrick’s Cathedral) and they then went on a two month honeymoon to Europe. Harry died at age 89 and is buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Moncton near his sister Addie and his nephew Robert Jacobson.

Harry and Mary had six children, one was stillborn. The five surviving children: Dr. Harry, John, Catherine, Peter and Margaret.

Early in his adult life, Harry ran a movie theatre in Chatham, then a haberdashery store in Kouchabougac, NB. Eventually he became involved in the raw fur business and moved to Moncton (where he met Mary).

FANNY: born in Pilzno in 1888. When Fanny was born, her given name was Eva (Chava in Hebrew). Eva changed her name to Fanny because she liked it better.

Fanny married James Harris. They lived in Chatham before moving to Montreal prior to the birth of Phyllis, their youngest child. Jim died in 1955 and Fanny died in 1962. Fanny and Jim had seven children. One died in infancy. Lester died in 1915 at age seven. Herman, Arthur, Estelle and Phyllis are deceased.

SARAH: was born in 1891 in Chatham. She married Louis Samuel Flam, her first cousin (born Leiser Schija Flam in Pilzno on March 12, 1882) in St. John on September 22, 1909. Below is a clipping from the newspaper of 100 years ago reporting on their wedding.

Louis and Sarah were the children of two sisters, Kaila and Taube Schapira of Pilzno. I am told that Kalmen and Kaila returned to Pilzno in 1895 to attend the Bar Mitzvah of their nephew Leiser. On that visit, it was decided that Leiser would go to Canada and live with his aunt and uncle. He arrived at the port of Saint John, NB in early spring 1899. He was 17 years old when he arrived in Chatham in 1899. This is what Leiser stated in the Petition for Naturalization which he filed in 1928. In June 1928, Certificate of Naturalization number 17173E was granted by the Secretary of State.

Louis (Leiser) and Sarah lived in Chatham/Newcastle. They had four children: Bernard, born June 28, 1910 in Grand Falls; Robert Samuel (Bobbie) born July 8, 1913 in Chatham (my father); Leah (named after Leiser’s grandmother Leie Schapira) and Tiny who died in infancy. Sarah died in 1958. Leiser died in 1972. Sarah and Louis are buried in Halifax.

Newspaper clipping (provided to me by Joanne La Place)
September 22, 1909: The Miramichi Leader

1911 Canada Census

Surname	Given	Age	Province	District	Subdistrict
Flam	Lewis	29	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Flam	Sarah	20	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Flam	Burnett	1	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham

ANNIE: Born in Chatham, probably in 1893. In 1923 in Chatham she married Abraham David Jacobson, the son of the rabbi in Sydney, NS, and lived in Cape Breton for the first years of her marriage. There were three children: Robert, Melvin and Irene, all of whom are now deceased.

Annie separated from her husband when the children were young and returned to Chatham. They lived with Kalmen and Kaila Rich. In Chatham, Annie owned a successful clothing store. None of Annie’s children have children. Annie is buried in the Saint John Jewish Cemetery.

GUSSIE: Born in Chatham in 1895. On May 25, 1920, she married Alex Haines, a Dorbyaner then living in Moncton, NB. They settled in Antigonish, NS where they had gone on their honeymoon. Alex was in the raw hides and raw fur business all his life. Early in his married life he was a partner in that business with his brother-in-law Leiser (Louis Flam). Gussie lived in New Glasgow with her daughter Shirley for 5 years following Alex’s death and then moved to Toronto where her other two children lived. She died about 13 years ago at 99 years of age. Gussie and Alex had three children: Shirley, Lucille and Max.

CLARA: Clara died as a child. She is buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Quebec City. On her tombstone it is written that she died in 1903. According to the Leader story she was born in Chatham in 1895. I am told that when Clara was stricken with a serious illness, Kalmen and Kaila took her to Montreal for treatment. She died in Montreal. To be buried closer to home, her parents decided to bury her in Quebec City. I am told that Clara’s only brother Harry made all the arrangements.

When Kalmen died, Kaila decided that she didn’t want Clara to be alone in Quebec City for posterity and Kalmen was buried in Quebec City. That, apparently, is the reason why Kalmen and Kaila are buried in Quebec City.

SOPHIE: born in 1899 in Chatham. She went to McDonald College of McGill University and was one of McGill’s first female graduates. After graduating from McGill, she went to Columbia University in New York for a Masters degree. While in New York it is said that she lived with an uncle whose last name was Spiro (possibly Sam Spiro). Supposedly he was a brother of Kaila and Taube. While in New York, Sophie married Harry Scheurer.

Sophie and Harry Scheurer had three children, all of whom are living: Joan, Don and Eddie. Sophie died very young.

ADDIE, the youngest of the Rich children, born in Chatham in 1901, lived the longest. She lived almost her entire life in Chatham. She married very briefly, but that was a subject almost never mentioned. She worked in Annie’s store and lived in the Rich house in Chatham with Annie.

1901 Canadian Census: New Brunswick

Surname	Given	Age	Province	District	Subdistrict
Rich	Charles	40	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Rich	Katie	40	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Rich	Harry	15	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Rich	Sarah	9	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Rich	Annie	?	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Rich	Gussie	6	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Rich	Clara	5	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Rich	Sophie	2	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Rich	Addie	3/12	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham

1911 Canadian Census for New Brunswick:

Surname	Given	Age	Province	District	Subdistrict
Rich	Charles	49	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Rich	Katie	49	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Rich	Annie	16	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Rich	Gussie	14	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Rich	Sophie	12	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Rich	Addie	10	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham
Rich	Harry	24	New Brunswick	Northumberland	Chatham

THE FLAMS

When my grandfather Louis (Leiser) came to Chatham to live with Grandma and Grandpa Rich, he left behind brothers and sisters in Pilzno.

In 1927, Louis sent to his brother Aaron money to buy passage to Canada. Aaron was a watchmaker in Pilzno. He stopped over in Antwerp, Belgium where Flam cousins had already immigrated a few years before. The cousins were diamond cutters and polishers in Antwerp. They convinced Aaron to stay in Antwerp and he opened a watch shop there. There were a number of Flams in Antwerp. The Germans invaded and almost all of them were consumed in the Holocaust.

The only Flams known to me who were still in Europe and who escaped the Holocaust were a woman Anna Flam who survived with her two children and Harry Flam. She fought with the resistance movement and her two children were saved by a Catholic family. They later moved to Kingston, NY. The other survivor was Harry (Hershel) Flam. I think that he was Anna’s cousin. I don’t think that they were brother and sister. He also lived after the war in Kingston, NY with his wife Mildred and son Phillip. (Note: I believe that the Kingston relatives spelled the surname “Flamm”.)

My father went to Antwerp after the war to try to find out what happened to Aaron. It was confirmed by the persons who were then living at Aaron’s address that he was captured by the Nazis.

I believe that all of the Antwerp Flams were the descendants of Taube Schapira and Shaje Flam.

There is no doubt that there remained in Pilzno members of the Flam, Reich and Schapira families who were slaughtered by the Germans. Family members living in North America believed that their relatives in Poland died shortly after the Germans arrived in 1939. In reality, the systematic slaughter of Jews began in earnest only in 1942.

Early in September 2008, I received an email from a Chicago lawyer named Howard Reich. Through the Jewish Genealogical Society, Howard knew of my interest in the Reich family of Pilzno. Howard’s ancestors also came from Pilzno. Indeed, Howard is the son of one of the Reich brothers “who survived in the bunker with the Bochners” referred to in NAMES OF RESIDENTS OF PILZNO IN 1939, as remembered by Maurice Chilowicz, which is included in this webpage.

Howard and I were unable to establish any connection between his family (referred to as the Wolf Reich family in the Chilowicz recollection) and the family of Kalmen Reich. It is difficult to imagine that there would be two unrelated Reich families in the small community of Jews in Pilzno. There may be even a third Reich family, as there is reference to a Pesel Kranz who married Sender Reich as having lived in Pilzno before the arrival of the Nazis. Neither Howard nor I had ever heard of Pesel Kranz Reich.

A couple of days after Howard and I established contact, he sent me an email to tell me that a woman from Moncton, NB (Joanne La Place) was also researching the Reich family of Pilzno. I contacted Joanne immediately and have learned from her that she is a direct descendant of Brindle Reich, the sister of Kalmen Reich!

This is what I have discovered by reading a document written by Joanne La Place called “Descendants of Niesan Franzblau” and speaking with Joanne by telephone.

Niesan Franzblau married Brindle Reich, daughter of Yitzchak Reich and sister of Kalmen Rich. It appears that Niesan and Brindle lived in Debica/Dembitz (a larger shtetl close to Pilzno) where their children were born. Niesan and Brindle had 4 children: Jacob Fransblow (born in 1871), Rebecca Franzblow (born in 1881), Harry Blau (born in 1883) and Isadore Blau (born in 1892). Remember that Leiser Flam was born in Pilzno in 1882. Rebecca was just about Leiser’s age.

Two of Niesan and Brindle’s children, Jacob and Rebecca, arrived in Chatham, NB sometime around 1900. By that time, Kalmen and Kaila had lived in Chatham for about 10 years.

1911 Canada Census:

1911 Canadian Census for New Brunswick:

Surname	Given	Age	Province	District	Subdistrict
Fransblow	Eddy	9	New Brunswick	Gloucester	Saumarez Parish
Fransblow	Harry	4	New Brunswick	Gloucester	Saumarez Parish
Fransblow	Himan	3	New Brunswick	Gloucester	Saumarez Parish
Fransblow	Jacob	37	New Brunswick	Gloucester	Saumarez Parish
Fransblow	Louis	7	New Brunswick	Gloucester	Saumarez Parish
Fransblow	Rebeca	34	New Brunswick	Gloucester	Saumarez Parish
Fransblow	Willie	3/12	New Brunswick	Gloucester	Saumarez Parish

From 1908 to sometime into the 1950’s, there was a synagogue in Chatham. One of its rabbis in the 1920’s was Rabbi Samuel E. Spiro. It is virtually certain that this Rabbi Spiro was related to Kaila Rich. I have memories of hearing that the Riches were instrumental in having this relative brought from Poland to serve as Rabbi in Chatham. I even have memories of attending services at this synagogue as a very young boy (not particularly pleasant ones!).

While Rabbi Samuel Spiro served in Chatham two of his children were born there. One was David Spiro who became Rabbi in Fredericton where he served for many many years. I was married by Rabbi David Spiro in 1963.

Some 10 years ago, my brother Donald’s daughter Robben gave birth to a son (the great great great grandson of Kalmen and Kaila). The father was a black man with whom she was living. Robben decided to have a “bris” and I was invited to attend. When I arrived in the little surgery room at the Jewish General Hospital the mohel was throwing a fit and had no intention of giving this little black baby boy a bris. I was delegated to speak with the mohel.

I introduced myself. When the name Flam registered with him, he asked me if I came from New Brunswick. When I told him about my family, his mood changed and he became friendly. He told me that he was the son of Rabbi Samuel Spiro and the brother of Rabbi David Spiro. He told me that my great grandfather (Kalmen Rich) and my grandfather (Louis Flam) had brought his father to Canada. It was going to be an honor for him to perform a bris on this patently obvious Jewish baby!

A VERY SPECIAL MEZUZAH

On the doorposts of Jewish homes, there is found a mezuzah like the one pictured above. The mezuzah is not, as many believe, a good-luck charm, nor does it have any connection with the lamb’s blood placed on the doorposts of Jewish homes in Egypt in the time of Moses.

In Deuteronomy 6:4-9 G-d commands that His words constantly be kept in our minds and hearts by writing them on the doorposts of our house. The words of a passage from Deuteronomy, the Shema, are written on a tiny scroll which is placed inside the mezuzah.

The mezuzah pictured above was brought to Canada more than a century ago by Kalmen and Kaila Rich when they left Pilzno. It was placed on one of the doorposts of their home in Chatham, NB. It remained there until the Chatham home was sold after the death of Annie Rich Jacobson and after Addie Rich had moved to a senior citizen’s residence.

Irene Mendels gave the mezuzah to me when I moved to my new residence in 2004. On Erev Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) 2004, the mezuzah was affixed to the right side doorpost of the entrance to our master bedroom.

Whenever I pass through the door to my bedroom, I am reminded of Grandma and Grandpa (after whom I am named) Rich.

Many thanks to Irene Mendels for this wonderful mitzvah.