2 Comments

1. 

   Jeffrey Dawson on August 21, 2022 at 8:32 pm

   GROSS was not his name from birth–it was likely SEGAL or PERSOHN!
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   Thank you so much for your incredible website. Solomon Wolf Gross is my great-great-grandfather. I discovered his headstone and picture only thanks to this page. Previously, I had only his death certificate and the location of his burial, but I had never been to the cemetery and seen his headstone or picture. Additionally, I did not hear much information about my ancestors growing up, so I did not know much about them.

   What I can tell you is that his wife (my great-great grandmother) was Chaye Gross: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/151804544/chaye-gross
   She is buried in the row in front of him. Their children were Sarah Leah Gross (my great-grandmother), Jennie (Shaindel) Gross Shapiro, and Alex (Eliah) Gross.

   He and his family lived in either Riga or Kaunas when it was part of the Russian Empire at the time (modern-day Latvia or Lithuania). My great-grandmother Sarah had documents referring to both cities, so I am guessing they lived in both locations, as it was common for Jews to move from Kaunas to Riga and vice versa around that time. The family emigrated to the United States around 1900. It looks like their last residence according to ship records, before coming to the United States was Libau, Latvia.

   For most of his time in the U.S., Solomon Wolf lived in Brooklyn, in the Bedford–Stuyvesant region. He may have also briefly lived in New Jersey and taught at the Free Hebrew School. However, I am not sure if the records I found of a Solomon Gross in New Jersey who taught at the Free Hebrew School is him or a different Solomon Gross.

   Solomon Wolf Gross also had two brothers named Morris (Moshe Dov) Pearson and Louis (Yehuda Leib) Pearson and a sister named Mrs. Annie Peddy from Newark, New Jersey. This brings me to my next important point–his birthname was not Gross! Apparently, it was changed to Gross when they came to the United States. I had heard this from my family and confirmed it myself recently when I discovered a February 18, 1920 newspaper article in The Daily Free Press (Kinston, North Carolina) stating Morris Pearson and Solomon Wolf Gross were brothers and that both men changed their names when coming to America.

   Several branches of my family state that the name was originally Segal, although I discovered a book that mentions Solomon’s brother Morris Pearson. The book says that Morris’s last name was originally Persohn and it was Americanized to Pearson when he arrived in the United States. Since they are both brothers, then Solomon Wolf Gross’s birth name would have also been Persohn. Nevertheless, the book had a few other errors in it, so it may have been mistaken about the name. I suspect in reality it was more likely to be Segal.

   So although I’m not 100% sure if his real last name at birth was Segal or Persohn, I am sure that Gross was not the real name. If anyone has info on a rabbi named Sholem Zev Segal or Sholem Zev Persohn, or information about the father Yechezkel “Haskel” Yitzchak Segal or Yechezkel “Haskel” Yitzchak Persohn, I would be so grateful if you could share it with me. Perhaps there is a sefer written under one of these names. You can email any info at jeffgator@gmail.com. Thank you so much!

2. 

   Susan Gordon (maiden name Gross) on June 27, 2023 at 4:38 pm

   Cousin Jeff, thank you so much for this information. Solomon Wolf “Gross” was my great grandfather, his son Alex my grandfather. My father always told us that the original family name was Segal…that some of the family (I presume brothers) emigrated to US at different times or different ships (maybe both) which is how one branch of the family ended up “Gross” and the other “Pearson”. I’m so grateful for this information as I only have family history from my mother’s side and a bit from my paternal grandmother’s side.