families

Here is a partial listing of Pokrossa families:

• 1. Pokrass. My grandmother's aunt, Feiga Zolotarevskaya, born presumably in 1860s, was married to Chaim-Gersh Pokrass. They lived in Cherkassy. Two of their sons immigrated to the US and made their presence felt. Louis Pockrose was a prominent Garment Center Union figure.  Among descendants of the Pockrose brothers are a world-foremost Nabokov scholar, a television screen writer, an investment company founder and a former Fortune magazine executive.  Igor Schein                                                           

  2. Meir Pokrass family 1836-1905 This family lived in Khodorkov, Ukraine about 30 miles from Zhitomir. Meir and his wife Sima  had four children, Haya b 1861, Sima-Rukhal 1870-1950, Pinchus(Pavel, and Yosef (Iosef). Sima-Rukhal was born in Fastov and died in Volgograd, where her descendants still live.  Descendants last names are also Chernov and Genshpring.

  3. Pokrassa. This family is from Zolotonosha, Ukraine. An  Moshe Pokrassahad three known children, Abraham, Marion Libby, and Devorah. Abraham married Anna (Feinberg) and had 7 children, Marion Libby married Jacob Newman and had 5 children, and Devorah married Felippe Faivel Bobouslavsky and  had 6 children. Many of them lived in Paris, France on their way to the US. Some remained in France and in the Ukraine, some immigrated to the New York area, and some went to Canada. Learn how  the American branch of this family was reunited with the Ukrainian branch.                                    

  4. Meyer(Kriugliak) and Slava(Zhitomirsky) Pokross family. They had four known children.About the oldest, Sura, nothing is known. Penny(Pinchas), Louis(Lemel), and a sister, Friedal immigrated from Horodyshche (near Cherkassy) Ukraine to Fall River Massachusetts, USA. Penny's descendants did not wander too far from Fall River. Most of Louis and Friedel's family went to NY and New Jersey. Now primarily in Southern New England, USA, New York, New Jersey, and South Florida. Friedl married Samuel Siegel.Her descendants are Siegels, Kislaks and Fishers among others. Visit the Pokross Family website. The site includes pictures of cemeteries in Fall River and Gorodishche, and David Pokross's story about the early days in Fall River.  This family are Levites.                                                                

  5. Pokrasse London, England, Towanda, Pennsylvania, Cleveland, Ohio, South Africa- This family originated in Novimgorod / Zlatopol in the Ukraine. See below for  a YouTube clip from Mark's visit to Zlatopol. DON'T MISS IT!The website contains a very thorough story about the London branch of this family.  Go the celebrity page on this site to learn about the composer that is mentioned in the video. In this family an Chiam Gersh Pokrassa has several children. Pinchus's son Ephraim went to Towanda. Ephraim's brother Chaim went to Cleveland, and  later returned to London. A brother of Pinchus, Itzak had a child Godel who went with his wife Malka and family to London. Update July 4th: Thanks to a report by Miriam Weiner extensive information about this family is available.            July 4th, 2007 I realized that a Holocaust victim, Khava (nee Pokrass) Podolskaya was a member of the  Zlatapol Pokrasse family. The page of testimony submitted to Yad Vashem by her son,Isaak Podolskiy, said that she was born in Gorodische to Godl Pokrass and was killed when she was 60 in 1943. Therefore she was born in about 1882. Isaak died two years ago in Van Nuys, California. Are you related to Khava or Isaak? Hundreds of family members are waiting for you. I realized the Khava was related to this family after recreating a family tree based on a report by Miriam Weiner  about a search of Ukrainian archives. The report, commissioned by Mark Lewis, mentioned the merchant family living in Gorodishche in 1888 of God (el) Pokrasa, son of Yudko, Godel's aunt, Mariya, and Godel's children: Yudko, Avrum, Suriya, Reilya, and the twins Leina and Chave. The family of Godel is on Mark Lewis's family tree.  It seems likely that Khava nee Pokrass Podolskaya was a member of this family.ag Current family names include Phillip, Pokrass, Atkins, Brandon and others.   This family are Levites.   

  6. Pokras Family (spelling may vary including Pokrass, Pockers, Pocrass, Pokress, or Pokress.) Philadelphia division. Originated in Boguslav, Ukraine. A Pokrass family had three known children: Isaac married Frieda Kurlie and had six children and many descendants. A second sibling and his spouse had two known children, and many descendants. Spellings include Pockrass, Pockers, and Pokres. A third child Nathaniel and his wife had four children and numerous descendants. At least some family members immigrated directly to Philadelphia. Some then moved on to Chicago. A family memory of an All-American Football player Martin Pokras (see our celebrity page) enabled me to reconnect branches of this family. Perhaps this will be replicated in your family.-when I started to look for Pokrassa families, Gary Pokrassa(see Zolotonosha above) told me he had received a letter from AH about thirty years ago looking for information about Pokrassa families. He still had the letter, written in 1979, and a copy of the family tree for this family. In a pioneering effort, AH had gone to the Philadelphia Public library, looked through the phone books, and mailed letters to everyone he could find. That was before we had computers to help to the work, and the internet to spread the word. AH is still working on his family tree!

  7. Pockross, Ross. Two brothers Sam Pockross and Adolph Ross. Sam settled in the Chicago area and Adolph went to Milwaukee. May originate from the same village as Sholom Aleichem, possibly Pereyaslav Khmelnitsky.

  8. Pockrisse (Parkrose, Pokris, Pokras) may be from Ekaterinoslav the city(now known as Dneiperpetrosk.) or the Gubernia which is a bit further down the Dnieper River. I am aware of more than one family from this area . One family is descended from Mordecai and his children who settled in Bridgeport Connecticut, USA. Mordecai had a sibling Adolph in Milwaukee, and may also have had another sibling that went to California.

  9. Pokrass from Rossava which is 54 miles from Kiev, and only 11 miles from Boguslav. Harry went to Milwaukee and had three sons including (Morris and Sam), and at least one daughter Sophie. Family legend has it that the sons were bootleggers during prohibition, and I found a newspaper article that tends to confirm this for one of the brothers. Some descendants are still in the Milwaukee area.

  10. Rachmiel Pokrassa Family Rachmiel was born in the Ukraine. His son David was born in Kiev and married Tzirl Daitch. David died in Beaunos Aires.David's sons Moises died in Argentina, son Mordechai died in Israel, daugher Raquel married Abraham Neponiaschy. 

  11. Pokras Louis son of Shlomo(Solomon) the Levy was married to Brina. They had six children:Larry, Henrietta, Ann, Isador, Rose and Abel. This family settled in Philadelphia, PA. Louis died in 1958. The first two children were born in the old country. The family is believed to be from Ekteranoslav. As I receive more information it will be posted.           

  12. POKRAS Both references for POKRAS in my tree are linked to my KATZOWSKY (or any other spelling imaginable), from Peryaslav. I saw one of your posts noted this town.

  13. Maurice Pokras is understood to have been Rivka Katzowsky's first husband. They had at least two children: a baby girl who died in infancy; and Abe/Albert (in emigrating at 9 years old to the USA, he entered under his mother's maiden name - which was later misspelled as Kuzowsky).

  14. Maurice Pokras died in WWI. Abe came to the USA, when his mother re-married. With her second husband, Lazi Brillant, she settled in his town of Priluki; and then perished with their 6 children in the Holocaust.

  15. It is also understood that this Rivka had an aunt, also Rivka, whose daughter married a Pokras in Philly. If anyone has a KUTZOVSKY/KATZOWSKY in their POKRAS tree - we have a match!! All the best David Gordon  Now read below for additional information from Al Kuzowsky. Alan and David know each other.    If you have more information please contact  yousaypokrassa@gmail.com                                                                                                                               

  16.   I am the grandson of Maurice and Rivka Pokras. You've mentioned them in your story of the Pokras' and how my grandfather died in WWI and how my grandmother re-married someone Lazi Berliant. My father, their son Abe/Albert came to America (Philadelphia) with his maternal grandfather and grandmother Katzowsky, using his mother's maiden name, Katzowsky, which later changed to Kuzowsky.My father married young to a woman named Mildred, but after a few years did not work out. Then after many years in the 82nd airborne division of the army, my father met my mother. They were married for 47 years,  had 7 children together and 31 grandchildren (28 of those were boys). They both died in 1993 (7 months apart). The strange thing is that I never knew my real name was Pokras until recently and I am presently 54 yrs old. I have known only the Kuzowsky side of my family and have no pictures of my grandfather or any of his family. It would be interesting to hear from someone on the Pokras side who has any stories or pictures pertaining to Maurice Pokras, my grandfather.  Al Kuzowsky 

  17. Pokrassi, Joseph David supposedly owned and ran a flour mill in the vicinity of Kiev.Joseph was said to have been married multiple times, fathering many children along the way. By one of those marriages (to a wife named Frieda Leah (maiden name unknown)) three sons ensued named Henry, Frank and my great-grandfather Harry (born in 1873).They all left Russia in fear of being drafted into the czar’s army sometime around 1905. In the states the family name became Pocras. The 3 brothers came first to St. Louis.Harry and Frank moved on to Quincy, Illinois where I grew up. Frank took his family including 11 children to Denver some time, I think, in the 1920's                                                                                                                                         

  18. Pokrass Gosh!!! I don't really know why I have this name. The story is that my great-grandmother did not permit my grandfather to marry while using his real father's name (Kaminsky). So he took his stepfather's name, Pokrass. My father didn't like the last "s", so he dropped it when he registered for the army in WWII. My cousins still use the double s.Both my father and his brother are long gone, and they were my only link to the family history that I know. My cousins are also left in the dark.So, while I might be your distant relative, by adoption, I can't say anything except that we might be associated with part of the group hat you mentioned who landed in Philadelphia.

  19. POKRASA New York in 1903, it says they were going to join a cousin, Aron AVRATIS, at 122 Bowery. The 12 SASLAVSKYs also came with a male, age 26, single, named Chaje POKRASA, apparently also a cousin to Aron AVRATIS. Chaje was a locksmith, as was my grandfather. I don't know, however, how exactly all of these folks were cousins and whether the relationship was through Blume or through her husband. Could this be the same as Khaja, child of Meer and Sima? There are markings on the manifest indicating citizenship data, but I never obtained Chaje's citizenship papers. If you want to check it out, they came on the S.S. Batavia from Hamburg, arriving in NY. Chaja may be from Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky, Ukraine.