SHUPINSKY/SHUPINn/SNAPINSKY/SHUPINK (May 2002 update)

[Russell Shaw]

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My grandfather was Sam SNAPINSKY (1891-1963). An exhaustive search of
online and offline records reveals that to be an extremely rare last
name - no instances have been found outside my own family.

Simon Snapinsky was born in Vilna, Poland/Lithuania, in 1842. He first
popped up in the U.S. Census in 1880, in Pittsburgh, Pa. Census noted
that he and his wife had four children, the oldest who was born in
Pennsylvania in 1872.

Simon was listed as a peddler in 1880 Census. A city directory of
Pittsburgh from around 1890 lists a Simon Shupinsky, also a peddler.
(My own grandfather was sometimes known as Shupinsky, too). I think
Simon Snapinsky and Simon Shupinsky were the same person.

Simon and his wife Goldie had three daughters and one son. Assuming the
daughters all married and changed their name, the one son, Moses, would
have carried the name forward. He was born in 1878.

Pittsburgh orphanage records from around 1910 lists a Meyer Shupinsky
"or Shufrinsky" as having been a resident of one such orphanage. He was
12 at the time, indicating a probable 1898 birth. He could have been
the son of Simon's only son, who was born in 1878. Simon also had three
daughters, the eldest born in 1872. While we might expect to see a son
bear the father's surname, the fact that Meyer Shupinsky was in an
orphanage could have been because his mother -- perhaps one of the
three Shupinsky daughters -- gave birth illegitimately.

Except for Meyer, the presumed Snapinsky/Shupinsky line seemed to vanish
from Pittsburgh around 1890. But several Shupinskys began popping up in
Indianapolis shortly thereafter. If there is a connection between the
Pittsburgh Shupinskys of the 1870s-80s and the Indianapolis Shupinskys
of a couple of decades later, that would be the ticket.

Some Indianapolis Shupinskys I have been able to unearth were Rose
Shupinsky, who died in 1903, Harry Shupinsky (1901-1981), Katie Shupinsky
(1901-1975) and William Shupinsky (1896-1962). Thinking that Harry might
have been the child of one of Simon Shupinsky's children, I wrote for his
death certificate, but, apparently, there was no relation. I have been
able to determine that Harry married a non-Jewish woman, Beatrice Spencer,
who died in 1999. Subsequent generations of this family, many of whom are
still in Indianapolis, do not appear to practice Judaism.

In recent months, I have spoken to a Cleveland-born, relation of the
Indianapolis Shupinskys. I asked him whether he was aware of any
connection between the Indianapolis Shupinskys and the Pittsburgh
Shupinskys/Snapinskys. He vaguely recalls, as a teenager, a very
brief introduction to "some people from Pittsburgh."

Another generation of Jewish Shupinskys pops up around 1920. Joseph
Shupin was born in Indianapolis in 1921, and died in 1996. He had a
sister, Ethel Brown, who passed away in January, 2002.

According to 1997 reports, Joseph's widow Ida was still alive, and like
the next generations of Shupins, lives in the San Francisco area. Ida
and Joseph had two children. One is Gary Shupin, and the other is now
Adrienne Herman. She has a grandchild, G.H. Hermann.

So to sum up, this rests on a connection between the Snapinsky/Shupinsky's
of 1870s-1890 Pittsburgh, and the Shupinskys/Shupins that can be placed
in Indianapolis starting around a century ago. There are also a few
Shupins in New Jersey, but I have been unable to determine a link.

Interestingly, there is a non-Jewish Shupinsky family, who also traced
their roots to Pittsburgh, and further back, to Vilna. There is a Julius
Shupinsky, and as I recall, cousins and brothers who shortened their last
name to Shupink and worked as coal miners in Pennsylvania. All of the
Shupinks are deceased. I had been in contact with an adopted
granddaughter of Julius Shupinsky, and she says she knew of no
definitive Jewish blood in that family. Perhaps they were converts
back in Vilna.

Anyone have more info?

Russell Shaw
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