I'm fairly certain will be cited without the use of "approx."My great uncle
Aaron Udin perished on the 29th of May,1914 when the Empress of Ireland sank in the St.
Lawrence River near Rimouski, Quebec after colliding with a Swedish coal ship during a
fog. The tragedy is magnified because he was travelling to Latvia to visit his wife,
Slava-Rifka, who was ill, but unbeknownst to Uncle Aaron , was actually dying and
may have died on or about the same date as the Empress disaster. Further research is
needed to ascertain, if possible, the exact date of her death. Now Uncle Aaron was living
in Toronto with relatives, presumably my great aunt Sarah, or my great aunt Rossel,
working in a brush factory , trying to earn enough to send for his wife and four young
children who were to emigrate to Canada and join the rest of the family there. Sadly, all
four children, ranging in age from about 4 to 14 became orphans due to this double
tragedy.They were,however fortunate enough to be cared for by believe,their maternal
grandmother for approximately 8 to 10 years, when they finally came to Canada, probably
under the supervision of the eldest daughter, Bertha, born apron 1902, and would have been
in her early twenties by then(approx 1922-24).Whether or not they were adopted, I don't
know, but the two boys Samuel and Harry went to live with one of the aunts and the two
girls with the other. The children in order of birth were Bertha, c.1902, Bessie, c.1905,
Samuel ( 7 April, 1908) and Harry(Gershon) c.1911. All four are now deceased, all lived a
Biblical allotment of three score and ten,or more and all but Bessie lived the remainder
of their years in Toronto. Bessie moved to New York City and was married to Joe Freda.
I've mentioned my two great aunts and my one ill-fated great Uncle Aaron, but I haven't
mentioned a fourth sibling of that generation and that was my maternal grandfather,Morris
Udin, born about 1887.His first born, Mary , April 2, 1912, is alive and well in Margate,
Florida, and she has two sisters, Esther and Ethel still alive and well in Tamarac, Fl.
and Buffalo, NY respectively. My grandfather died in Buffalo in 1946, when I was 8 years
old. Back to Uncle Aaron. His ticket on the Empress was made out in the name Harry
Judin ( or Yudin), that is , both spelling were on the ticket. His destination was
listed as Libau, which is a seaport in Latvia, south of the well-known major seaport,
Riga.But we know that he was headed to his hometown, Kraslava, Latvia, which is approx.
250 km (150 mi.) inland , very close to the Belarus border, and near the larger city
Daugavpils, also called Dvinsk, in southeast Latvia. I am in the process of doing research
on his parents ( my maternal great-grandparents), Shmoel Udin and his wife, whose maiden
name was Necha Golden. I can only estimate that the dates of their births would be about
1850 to 1860. I am presently in contact with other individuals who also had ancestors in
his very small town and therefore hope to add to the story. Although the original family
name was (freely translated) Udin, at Canadian immigration, it became Ugen, and later , an
easier to pronounce, Eugene. The family name is extended through Aaron's son Samuel, who
had a son and daughter, both my third cousins, alive and well in Toronto today.
