Eudel SCHEFCZINSKY ^{1 3 4}

   Other names for Eudel were Uncle Edel, Edel SCHAFF, Ellis SCHAFF, Jacob SCHAFF, Judku SCHEFCZINSKOMU, Judke SCHEFCZINSKY, Eudel SHAFF, Yehuda Yidl SHAFF, Judel SZEFSZYNSKI and Judel SZOFSZYNSZKI.

  General Notes:

Eudel is buried in the Hordishter/Wilshaner (Gorodishche/Olshana) Landsmanschaften area of Mt. Carmel.

Thanks to Margaret Mikulska, I now know that the unusual endings that appear in "Judku Schefczinskomu" in the Blitzstein Bank Passage Order Book records are not spelling variations of Eudel's name but the dative case in Ukrainian, the column in which they appear being for "Passengers Address," presumably where the passage money was to be sent. ¹¹

  Research Notes:

Eudel's age is given on his tombstone as 73. Lois Sernoff has 1849 from the manifest of the SS Patricia.

On the manifest of the S. S. Pennsylvania, Daniel Schaff has the name "Szewczynski," which would be "Shevchinski" in English orthography, apparently a rendering of "Shevchinskij" from the river Shevchinka in Litin district. The name is found in Kanev (Kaniv), upriver from Cherkassy on the Dnieper River. Kanev is the site of a dam built in 1976. The poet and artist Shevchenko was also from Kanev. Shevchenko was adopted, so there exists a tantalizing suggestion of a possible connection of some kind.

There is some confusion as to whether Eudel's given name was "Eudel" or "Edel." His tombstone has "Eudel," but he seems to have been known at times as "Edel." The following may be of help:

"Edel" is "a not-uncommon Yiddish nickname for 'nice, good, pleasant, refined in behavior,'" according to Amy Leserman.
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"...In the old (prior to Yivo's 1920? orthography book) Yiddish spelling, if a yud began a word, it was pronounced 'y'; if a vov began a word, it became 'v.' To make them into vowels, you placed a 'shtume aleph,' a silent aleph, in front. Thus aleph, yud, daled, eyin, lamed would be pronounced 'EE-del.'

"According to Professor Esterson, even though you might go through life being called 'Eedel' by everyone you knew, when you were called to the Torah and [on] any other religious occasions, a man had to have a Hebrew name....So, in your case 'Yehudah Idl' were the Hebrew and Yiddish names referring to a Jew (Judah & Yidl)! Prof. Esterson concurs....

"From Prof. Esterson: 'I believe that the only case in which the Yiddish name 'Edel' was used for a male was in the case of 'Yidl,' a kinui for the Hebrew name 'Yehuda.' They form the Hebrew double name 'Yehuda Yidl/Yudl.' 'Yidl' has a variant 'Idl' which migrated to 'Edl,' a slight dialectical move. So I do not think that interpreting the name 'Yidl' as 'Edl' was a mistake of some sort, but rather a natural, convenient creation of a new name from an old one.'" --Henry Carrey

The Hebrew side of Eudel's tombstone has Yehuda Yidl, in line with Prof Esterson's analysis.
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All this being said, upon considering the recently obtained DNA evidence, it appears that the above may turn out to be the sheerest of intellectual fantasies based upon a method in which conclusions are assumed and the details are retroactively filled in from there. As it turns out, I appear to be more closely related to the Hungarian speaking Csango of Moldavia in Romania than to the Ashkenazi of Hungary. The Csango claim to be descended from Attila the Hun, and the name is sometimes found among them. It turns out that the name "Attila" is believed to be based on the old name for the Volga River, Itil or Idil, and "Idil" is sometimes given as an alternative spelling of the name, which raises the fascinating possibility that my great-grandfather Eudel or Idl Schaff was indirectly named after Attila the Hun. Curiouser and curiouser. ^{1 10 12}

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Residence, May 13, 1902, Stepnoia St. at Jurewski, Ekaterinoslav, Ekaterinoslav, [Ukraine], Russian Empire. ⁷ Eudel lived in a single house.

2. Employment, 1905, Ukraine. ¹⁰ Edel was a joiner.

3. Emigration, 1905, Gorodishche, Ukraine. ¹⁰ The manifest has "Horodisk," which the transcriber has helpfully changed to "Reiodisk." ;o)

4. Embarkation, Jul 14, 1905, Hamburg. ¹⁰ The Hamburg records have July 15 for the date of departure of everyone on this trip. Eudel was a journeyman joiner.

5. Port of call: Dover, England. ⁹

6. Port of call: Boulogne-sur-Mer. ⁹

7. Immigration, Jul 27, 1905, Ellis Island, New York. ^{2 10} Edel arrived aboard the SS Patricia out of Hamburg. He was coming to see his son-in-law, "Meier Weiss."

8. Residence, 1910, 319 Bainbridge St., Philadelphia. ² ED #57, sheet 28A.

9. Business, 1910, Philadelphia. ² Edel was a furniture salesman. According to Lois Sernoff, he made glass-fronted cabinets for candy stores. Other furniture references are at Samuel Franklin, Morris Franklin (b. 1863), Harry Nathan Schaff, David Snader, and Katie Crisansky.

10. Residence, Jan 19, 1920, 232 Bainbridge St., Philadelphia. ⁶ ED #103, sheet 2B.

Eudel married Ida SOSNOVSKY, daughter of Yekov SOSNOVSKIJ and Unknown, in 1870.^{1 2} (Ida SOSNOVSKY was born in 1852 in Gorodishche, Kiev, [Ukraine], Russian Empire,² died on Jun 6, 1929 ^{1 4} and was buried in Mount Carmel Cem, Philadelphia ¹.)