Because several family members have expressed an interest in contacting others in the Sheff clan and in learning more about our family heritage, I have created a Yahoo! discussion group, "Sheff_family." The purpose of this group is to exchange anecdotes, rumors, gossip, or tales that we may recall about our grandparents Leon and Bessie Sheff, and their sons and daughters, who arrived in the United States in 1905. I can imagine that one story might spawn another or that other versions of the same story might turn up, reflecting a different point of view ("That’s not how I heard it"). It would also be a great way to meet others in the family and to "get acquainted" before our reunion in 2005.

One caution—let’s be discreet. Families being what they are, we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

To reach the Sheff_family group, you must have Internet access. Using your browser, go to the group’s home page, at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sheff_family Near the top of the page, click on the button, "Join this group." When you arrive at the "Welcome to Yahoo! Groups" page, you can either sign up to Yahoo! if you’re not a member already, or if you are, simply sign in with your Yahoo! ID and password.

If you do not have Internet access, please write down what you’d like to add to the group discussion list and either send the information to me or call me:

Burt Altman

4191 Bradfordville Road

Tallahassee, FL 32309

(850) 668-2306

Since there are five main branches of the Sheff family (Altmans, Fleishers, Hellers, Sheffs, and Singers), it would be helpful to know how we are all related. Therefore, I have constructed a family tree that traces our lineage from our maternal grandparents, Bessie and Leon Korostoshevski, through the 4^th generation here in the United States. You can find the family tree as an attachment to the e-mail announcing this newsletter. If you have more complete information for the fourth and fifth generations, please submit it to me.

Recently, several family members made a contribution to the Ellis Island Foundation to have the names of our relatives engraved on the "American Immigrant Wall of Honor." This wall pays tribute to those immigrants, like our parents and grandparents, who arrived in the United States through Ellis Island.

So when we all visit Ellis Island as part of our 100^th Anniversary Reunion in 2005, you'll be able to proudly find the names of your parents and grandparents (and even your great-grandmother!) chiseled on this Wall of Honor - Leon and Bessie (our grandparents) and Rivke (our great-grandmother, Grandpa's mother who accompanied Grandma and her brood here in 1906) and all their children (our parents) - Morris, Lizzie, Alexander, Claire, and Pauline. They'll all be listed together under "Korostoshevski" using their names as they appeared on the ship manifest.

In case you're wondering what happened to the names of Marcia and Charlie...remember, they were not born yet when Grandma came to Ellis Island. Since they were American-born, and therefore did not immigrate here, they will not be included.

As I mentioned in the last newsletter, my brother Joel Altman, cousin Don Sheff (Alex Sheff’s son and Leon Sheff’s grandson), and I have been exploring possible locations in Manhattan for the 2005 Sheff family reunion. Don had suggested that the Yale Club would be a good reunion hotel. It’s centrally located – across the street from Grand Central Station (44^th Street and Vanderbilt Avenue), has about 10 floors of hotel rooms, four restaurants, and a dozen or so meeting rooms for accomodating all sizes of groups. It would be suitable for our group activities, outside of location visits.

As I suggested in the last newsletter, on days that we take field trips to the old family neighborhoods in Brooklyn (like East 2^nd Street), the site of Grandpa Sheff’s jewelry store, lunch at famous "Lundy’s" of Sheepshead Bay, and visits to cemeteries,* we could go by car, or possibly hire a bus for that purpose. Several may even want to "re-live" the experience of taking the old BMT subway out to Brooklyn sites, such as the old Coney Island boardwalk. And of course, Manhattan would be convenient for taking the ferry out to Ellis Island to view its re-created facilities and the American Immigrant Wall of Honor.

When Don spoke to the Yale Club’s manager back in August, he found out that during the summer months, their rates are considerably less than the usual hotel rates in New York. For example, this past summer, the rates dropped to a range of $100 to $130 a night, considerably below reputable New York City hotel rates.

Because the 100^th anniversary of our family’s arrival is on July 13, it would be nice if the reunion could be held close to that date, and over a long weekend. We hope to finalize the date and reunion hotel site within the next six months.

As I mentioned in the last newsletter, I am preparing a short family history to distribute at the reunion. If you would like to contribute any photos or other memorabilia, please send them to me at the above address. I’d be happy to reproduce them for this publication and return them to you.

*By the way, by contacting several cemeteries in Elmont, New York, as suggested cousins Alfred Heller and Jeffrey Sheff, I discovered that Grandma Bessie and Grandpa Leon Sheff are buried in Beth David Cemetery, in Elmont, Long Island. We will surely include a visit to their gravesite during the reunion.

Our parents and grandparents arrived in the United States through Ellis Island, where only steerage passengers were processed. According to sources I have checked, the average cost of a ticket for a passenger on steerage was $30, which in those days was a good proportion of a European immigrant’s income. Steerage fares were enormously profitable for steamship companies. Larger ships could hold from 1,500 to 2,000 immigrants, netting a profit of $45,000 to $60,000 for a single one-way voyage. The cost to feed a single immigrant was only about 60 cents a day!

GRANDMA AND GRANDPA SHEFF ON THEIR WEDDING DAY

Ca. 1893