Port Elizabeth, South Africa

A. Nathan Baker

My great grandfather A. Nathan Baker (Avrom b'Aharon Leizer) lived in Port Elizabeth from 1898-1907 before leaving through Cape Town (via Southampton) to New York and eventually marrying and settling in Baltimore. I know on his citizenship form INTO South Africa in 1905 he resided at 9 Wasley Street in PE at the home of a tailor named Mr. Jackson where he also worked. Family lore indicates he had a brother there as well who was a chazzan or rabbi. I realize no one alive would have known him then, but I was hoping someone had heard of the chazzan called Baker or a similar derivative. His immigration papers into America said he was Bekerman. I have never found a document with the family's real name in Pasvalys, Lithuania (Poshvol) from whence he came. I have his birth record from Lithuania as well which does not list a last name, nor do the two for his brother and sister. He had older siblings from his father's first marriage who were 30 years older than him, and their children came to Baltimore as well. I secured his actual immigration papers from the SA government and it's kind of cool to see his signature swearing allegiance to Edward V of Great Britain, which I guess made him slightly British at the time.

Andrew Monfried

Dallas, Texas