Origin of the Chicago Marcus Family from Ciechanów

Sometime between 1760 and 1785, a boy named Wulf was born in Poland, probably in the large town of Ciechanów (pronounced “Chee-ha-noff”), which is about 60 miles north of Warsaw. It is likely he didn’t have a surname when he was born. It wasn’t until the early 1800s that the Russian tsars and Napoleon, who controlled various parts of Poland at the time, passed laws to require Jews to have permanent family names (to make it easier to tax them and draft them for the army).

The Podjazd Name

Nobody knows exactly when, but Wulf's family took (or was assigned) the name Podjazd or Podjazdowski at some point before 1826. Both forms of the name are correct -- one is a noun, the other an adjective. Throughout the next century, the name would be spelled in many different ways due to varying literacy, the fact that J, I and Y are interchangeable in Polish, and the general melting pot of official and unofficial languages in and around the family (including Polish, Russian, German, Yiddish and Hebrew). Although the modern meaning of podjazd (pronounced "pud-e-yahst") is “driveway” (literally, “under-drive” or “drive under”), back in 1800 it was used to describe an expedition or military raid on horseback.

The Podjazdowski Family in Ciechanow

The oldest record still available of the Podjazd family is the marriage record of Szylim Szlomo Podjazdowski in 1826, which mentions his father Wulf and his mother Fayga Podjazdowski. Unfortunately it doesn’t give Wulf’s age, but based on the evidence from all the subsequent births in the family, Wulf could have been anywhere from 18 to 45 years older than his son Szylim (a.k.a. Szulem, pronounced "Shu-lim") – who was 21 at the time.

Here is an English translation of the marriage record (from the Polish):

It happened in the city of Ciechanów, on 20 January 1826 at 3 pm. Appeared old religious [i.e. Jewish] Abraham Rafal Landau, local Rabbi, with [Jewish] Szylim Podjazdowski, young man, craftsman, profession shoemaker, residing in Ciechanów, 21 years old, born here in Ciechanów, son of Wulf and Fayga, spouses Podjazdowski, residing here in Ciechanów, and making their living from labor; 

with [Jewish] Bayla Bekas, Miss, 20 years old, daughter of Dawid Bekas, laborer, and Hana, spouses residing here, so far staying with her parents; in consciousness of Wulf Podjazdowski, father, Szylim Podjazdowski, and Dawid Bekas, father of Bayla Bekas, and in the presence of witnesses (Jewish) Major Poznanski, huckster, 48 years old, and Abraham Szynkier, tailor, 51 years old, residing in Ciechanow; 

He stated that before him today, between Szylim Podjazdowski and Bayla Bekas, has been concluded religious marriage, which was preceded by two announcements on 8 and 15 January of the current year, before officer maintaining Civil Vital records Registry; that this marriage received oral permission from present Wulf Podjazdowski, David Bekas, fathers of the newlyweds, that no opposition to the marriage had happened. The new spouses stated that they did not conclude any prenuptial agreement. This act was read to the present and witnesses, and was signed by Rabbi Abraham Rafal Landau, the bride’s father David Bekas, the groom Szylim Podjazdowski and the two witnesses, because other people in the act expressed they do not know how to write.

So, Wulf is as far back as we can know right now, along with his wife Fayga, for whose family there are no clues available. Based on his age of 21 in January 1826, Szylim Podjazdowski was probably born in 1804, and his wife Bayla Bekas in 1805.

The First “Meyer”

Szylim and Bayla had a son Majer (pronounced "Meyer") Szlamowicz Podjazd about a year later in 1827. Bayla then either died or was divorced from Szylim, because Szylim’s next three children born between 1834 and 1844 (Hinda, Fayga, and Mosiek Dawid) had a different mother, Gitla Podjazd.

Majer became a shoemaker, like his father. He married Rywka Forma in 1847, the same year his father died. They had at least five children between 1850 and 1871 – Bayla, Josek, Dawid, Aron, and Jacob (or Jankel).

Majer died in 1881, and Rywka in 1886. All the children were grown up except for Jacob, who at age 15 must have gone to live with one of his older siblings or perhaps his mother’s relatives. In 1891, at the age of 20, he left Poland for America. He sailed from Hamburg on the S.S. Wieland which left Germany on May 24, stopping in Le Havre, France, then arriving in New York City on June 5th. On both the outbound passenger list written in German and the arriving passenger list written in English his occupation is given as “workman” and his name is written as Jacob Podiast.

Podjazd Becomes Marcus in Chicago

Jacob settled first in Chicago and became a tailor. He married Bella Ernstein, a newly arrived immigrant from Marijampole, Lithuania in 1892 and for some reason started using the name Marcus. They had a son Allen in 1894, and then in 1895 Jacob appears to have been naturalized as Jacob Markus (although all other records spell it Marcus).

The family moved to Milwaukee for several years. Meyer Marcus (my grandfather) was born in 1897, Louis in 1899, and Herman in 1901. By 1903 they were back in Chicago, where a year later their youngest son, Abraham, was born.

In the 1910 census, the family is recorded as living on E. 41st St. on the south side. In addition to Jacob, Bella, and the five boys, a 23 year old nephew named Myer Marcus was also living with them. Polish records show two Majer Podiazds were born in Ciechanów in 1884 and 1885, and it can be assumed one of them was the Myer Marcus staying with Jacob (ages on census forms back then were often a couple of years off the mark). Whichever one it was, there is no other information available on the fate of this particular Myer. As it turns out, Myer was the son of Jacob's brother, Dawid Podjazd. Click here for the story of Myer Marcus.

The Previously Unknown David Marcus Branch of the Family

Also in 1910, two of Dawid Podjazd’s children travelled to Chicago by way of Philadelphia. They told immigration officials that their tickets had been paid for by their cousin Jankel Marcus of E. 41st St., Chicago (clearly, this was their uncle Jacob: "Jankel" is a nickname for Jacob). Nachman was 20 and changed his name to Nathan Marcus. Riwke was 17 and changed her name to Rose, then married a guy called Charlie Cohen.

In 1911, the 50-year old Dawid Podjazd moved to Chicago, leaving behind his wife and his three youngest children. He was a shoemaker like his father Majer and his grandfather Szylim, and set up shop on the south side. He changed his name to David Marcus.

Tragically, David Marcus was shot and killed outside of his shop on E. 37th Street during the Chicago Race Riot of July 1919. Here is a contemporary account from the Daily Jewish Courier:

Although known to David Marcus’s descendants, this story was not passed down in Jacob’s family and only became known by the original Chicago Marcus family from Ciechanow in 2015. This came about from contact with the only other person on the Internet researching the Podjazd family, one Gideon Marcus of California, who turned out to be my third cousin once-removed.

(Side note on the Race Riot: Blacks were not targeting Jews. The riot started when a black teen was killed because on a 100 degree day his raft at the beach drifted into the white section of the water. In the following days, whites--largely south side Irish, including the athletic club of future Mayor Richard J. Daley--started systematically attacking blacks, threatened by their growing presence in their neighborhoods and workplaces. The blacks started fighting back, and David Marcus was a random victim of their retaliation. In total, 38 black and white people were killed in the riots.)

Two more children of David’s, Taube and Nesia, came from Poland to Chicago in 1920 and stayed with their brother Nathan (who carried on the shoemaker tradition). They changed their names to Dorothy and Nettie Marcus. Another sibling, Chaim, arrived in Chicago in 1923. He came by way of Mexico City and Laredo, Texas, and changed his name to Hyman Marcus. In the 1923 Chicago City Directory, there is a Hyman Marcus listed at the same address as Jacob and his sons, and it appears he was working with them at the time in their “Marcus Brothers” business. Later in 1923, David’s widow Estera Podjazd (Esther Marcus), aged 61, having lived through the occupation of Ciechanów by both the Russian and German armies throughout World War I, finally made it across the ocean to join her children there.

The Fate of the Podjazd Name

That appears to be the last of the Podjazds moving to Chicago. Prior to Jacob and David’s generation, there was only one Podjazd family in Ciechanów or anywhere – Wulf, followed by Szylum, followed by Majer (plus an aunt, two sisters and a brother who died very young). But in addition to Jacob and David, who went to Chicago, Majer had three other children. These included two sons, Aron and Josek, who carried on the family name. A dozen Podjazds were born in Ciechanów (and only in Ciechanów), between 1884 and 1907 (excluding those already mentioned who moved to the US). Some died young, others had families. A business directory from the 1920s shows two tailors named Podjazd based in the nearby town of Mlawa.

Unfortunately, Ciechanów and the rest of Poland came under Nazi control in 1940 and by 1941 the entire Jewish population started getting wiped out. There are 17 Podjazds from Mlawa County (which includes Ciechanów) recorded as being killed either in the concentration camp at Treblinka or in the ghettos of Warsaw and Vilnius where some were sent first. They ranged in age from 3 to 61. In Ciechanów itself, it is known that most of the Jewish population were simply taken to the forest outside of town and shot.

There are two Podjazds – Moishe, born in 1919, and Chana, born in 1911 – who were in the Vilnius ghetto but don’t show up in the lists of those killed. Movsa appears on a post-war refugee list so we can assume he survived. Chana's fate is unknown.

EDIT: Further analysis indicates Moishe was a refugee who fled the occupied parts of Poland after the 1939 invasion and relocated to Vilnius, however, the Germans arrived in 1941 and established a ghetto and nearby concentration camps. Both he and Chana were on the Vilnius Ghetto List, a census taken in 1942. It now appears extremely unlikely that either one survived. A "Mozes" Podjazd was prisoner number 73686 at Stutthof, the work/death camp near Danzig/Gdansk, in August 1944, where many residents of the ghetto were taken. The camp was not liberated until the following May. Further, a memorial site for Shoah victims from Mlawa lists "Moshe Podiast", a tailor born in 1920, reported by an uncle named Shlomo Furmanski to have been murdered by the Nazis. Click here for the story of Moishe.

Attempts to find anyone with the name Podjazd today in Poland, Israel, or the U.S. have been unsuccessful. If you ask a Polish person in 2015 if they have ever heard of the name “Podjazd”, they laugh, because to them it just means “driveway”.

Direct Line of (the Original) Chicago Marcus’s from Ciechanów

Meyer Marcus (1897 – 1978) and Mary Schwartz (1908 – 1986)

Jacob Marcus (Jankel Podjazd) (1871 – 1951) and Bella Ernstein (1872 – 1941)

Majer Szlamowicz Podjazd (1827 – 1881) and Rywka Forma (1828 – 1886)

Szylim Szlomo Podjazdowski (1804 – 1847) and Bayla Bekas (1805 - ?)

Wulf Podjazdowski (17?? – 18??) and Fayga (17?? – 18??)

Notes About the Research

First port of call was my father Martin Marcus, grandson of Jacob. Then I found Gideon Marcus on the Internet, who said the first in his line was named David Podjazd/Marcus and came from Ciechanow to Chicago to join his brother Jacob.

To fill in the gaps and provide relationships, I had to find official records. This involved searching the free jewishgen.org and familysearch.org databases, and getting multiple free trials of subscription databases from Ancestry.com and others.

I ordered scans of birth, death and marriage records from archives in Poland, Israel, and Chicago. I had Polish and Russian language records translated by kind volunteers on Jewish and Polish genealogy sites. I also read a lot of history about the Jews, Poland, US immigration, and Chicago.

Since there are no surviving birth records of either Jacob or David, I hesitated to write this until I had multiple sources indicating they were brothers, which proved that Majer was Jacob’s father, and therefore Jacob (and the rest of our family) was descended from Wulf (I knew Majer was David's father from David's marriage record). I’m still getting other Podjazd records translated, but they probably won’t change much in the account above.

My three goals when I started were to trace the paternal Marcus/Podjazd line back as far as I could, confirm the relationship of Jacob and David, and trace the family trees of all the Podjazds who died in the Holocaust. I’ve completed the first and second of these, but will continue working on the third.

-John Marcus