How I Found Them: The Kavesh Family— from Russia to New Hampshire

By BRADLEY GREENLAND
Posted 1 October 2018

This past July, I visited the Manchester Hebrew Cemetery in Manchester, New Hampshire. During my visit, I came across the headstone of Frank Kavesh and became interested in learning more about him and his genealogy.

What We Know
To begin this research, we first can look at the headstone of Frank Kavesh. From this, we can determine two important pieces of information. First, that he was born in 1889, but we do not know where. This same roadblock occurs with Kavesh’s death in 1975 as his headstone does not provide us with that data. Although his headstone does not provide a lot of information, it will still be helpful as we begin our research.

Where to Begin
Since all I knew about this man were his years of birth and death, I began by searching through cemetery records that included Frank Kavesh and the years he was born and died. By doing so, I was also able to find the names of both his father, Aaron David Kavesh, and his brother, Max Edward Kavesh. I was also able to determine, using these records, that Frank was born in Russia on 13 March 1889 and later immigrated to the United States where he died in 1975.¹

World War II
Using the information above, I was able to track down the World War II Draft Registration Card for Frank Kavesh which became much easier once I knew his place of birth, date of birth, and names of some of his relatives.

The Parentage of Frank Kavesh
From the information we started with, we know already that Frank’s father was Aaron David Kavesh. Since, according to Frank’s draft card, his father lived in Manchester at the beginning of World War II, I began my search by sifting through census records from Manchester, New Hampshire, during the time Frank and his father were alive.

The earliest census record which I was able to locate involving Aaron Kavesh was from 1910 while Aaron David was living in Manchester with his wife, Sophia, daughter Celia, son Samuel, daughter Sarah, and son Max. This record also states that the family immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1906. Due to Frank’s being old enough to be on his own, he is noticeably absent from this census record and is absent from all others which I searched.³ Another record which was particularly helpful in my research of the family was the death record of Aaron David Kavesh. These records can be very helpful in expanding the scope of your research because they typically listed on these records are the names of the deceased’s parents, as well as their places of birth.

Unfortunately, this is where the paper trail for the Kavesh family comes to an end. Due to the the family being both Jewish and from Russia, it is very difficult to go back any further as many of the records involving them may have been lost over time.