Yisroel and his first wife (her name is not known to us) had five children, all males. Yisroel's wife died and Yisroel remarried, but we don't know when or his second wife's name, but they don't seem to have had any children.
The youngest of Yisroel's five sons, Yussel (if he had an English name it would be Joseph) married "Shayna," who's last name we don't know. Yussel and Shayna Sokolovsky had five children, two girls and three boys.
The youngest of Yussel and Shayna's sons, Dov Sokolovsky (who was known as "Beryl" in Yiddish and Benjamin in English), was born in about 1858 in Brest-Litovsk. Some relatives shortened the family's last name to Sokolow. He shortened it also and became the first "Sokolov." In about 1878, he married Eva Krater (perhaps "Kreider") in Brest-Litovsk. They later moved to the Colony Savoya (Czar Alexander II freed the serfs in Russia and endowed them with, and others who desired to have as Dov did, modest allotments of land), but after Eva (who was a city person) expressed great dislike about living on the Colony, they moved back to Bresk-Litovsk. They had seven children - Etta Devorah, Ida, Isidor "Izzy", Meyer, Moshe, Joseph, and Edith (some on the Colony and some in Brest-Litovsk), four boys and three girls. One of the boys (Moshe) died when he was about 20 years old (perhaps while in the Czar's army) and the oldest child, Etta Devorah, died in Brest-Litovsk in the early part of the 20th century. The other children and their parents emigrated to the United States during the first 20 years of the 20th century.
In 1929, the fourth child of Beryl and Eva Sokolov (the second son), Meyer (whose full name was Yisroel Mayer and was listed as Srul M. Sokolowsky on the manifest of the ship that brought him to the United States and as Srul Meer Sokolovky on his Russian passport), married Annie Halpin, a Canadian who had emigrated to the United States to work and live with her maternal aunt and uncle, Hymie and Bessie Greenberg, who introduced Meyer and Annie at the wedding of Joseph Sokolov to Augusta ("Gussie") Klein in November 1928. Hymie's brother Ben (both were the brothers of Annie's mother, Toba Greenberg Halpin) was married to Pauline who was Gussie's sister. Annie and Meyer had two sons -- Sherwin, born in 1935 and married to Barbara Schanz from Sharon, Pennsylvania in August 1957, and Howard, born in 1940 and married to Diane Lupovich in 1966. Diane and Howard's children are Jennifer born in 1970 and Brad (1971-1990). Jennifer is married to Damon Whittemore. Barbara and Sherwin have three children--Judith, Mark, and Cheryl. Judith married Matt Leavitt, Mark married Debbie Drucker, and Cheryl married Scott Woolf. Judye and Matt have three children, Lauren, Adam, and Danielle. Debbie and Mark have three children, Ari, Jesse, and Corey. Cheryl and Scott have two children, Eric and Ryan.
Joe and Gussie had two daughters. Debra and Bernice. Debra married Marvin Greenberg in December 1951and have two sons. A daughter died in infancy. The two sons, Bruce and Jonathan, are married to Deborah (nee Berman) and Stacey (nee Sern), respectively. Stacey and Jonathan have two children, Scott and Jennifer. Bernice, who passed away in1982, married Robert Weinstock and they and had three sons, Michael, Eric, and Kenneth. Michael is married to Joy (nee Kimmelman). Eric is married to Amy (nee Baron).
And that brings us from a long time ago to today. All of us who, even though we may have different last names, are a family whose members share a common ancestery with important connections to history. To see some of the last names, click on "The Generations and Generations" link below. To learn about the connections of The Sokolov Family to history, click the "How and Where History and The Sokolov Family Met" link below.
Sokolov, a Russian name, pronounced "sock-oh-luv," means a hawk or a falcon -- a majestic bird.
Actually, the family name originally was "Sokolowsky" or "Sokolovsky,"
depending on who was spelling it. The root word of the name, "Sokol," a hawk or a
falcon. The suffix, "sky," means "of" or "from" or "kin of" in Russian and Polish. If the suffix is spelled "ski," it means the same, but it's usually not a Jewish person. Russian and Polish names that end in "sky" may or may not be Jewish. The Sokolov family depicted on this web site is Jewish. In Yiddish, Sokolov is written: ו. We can be pretty sure that in the distant past that no one remembers, the son of someone in the family thought that this was a good sounding name, and became the first "Sokolovsky." As far as is known, this happened before 1810.
In 1810, or thereabouts, Yisroel Sokolovsky, who was
born in Pinsk, Russia (it's now in the country of Belarus). Some years later, he moved to the city of Brest-Litovsk, Russia (also in Belarus 2 now, but called just "Brest" -- Russians don't seem to be able to keep the names and places of their cities the same for very long). Brest, on the Bug ("Boog") River, is the most western city in Belarus. It was where a famous non-aggression treaty between Germany and Russia in 1917. The city was, at that time, important militarily because it had an arsonal. Jewish people from Brest-Litovsk called themselves "Briskers."
