Arye Leib (Louis) Azaroff

I never knew my grandfather Louis (Arye Leib). He was born in 1880 in Belarus in the Gomel area. He came to the U.S. about 1905. He delivered bread for a bakery on the Lower East Side via horse and wagon. His two oldest children, Jack (1905) and Sadie (1906) were born in Belarus. Sometimes Belarus is used interchangeably -- right or wrong -- with Russia. His other four children, Dave, Etta, Joe, and Louis, were born in NYC. Papa Louis died at age 42, presumably of a heart attack. He was a handsome man, built solidly, and a hard worker who took son Jack on his early-morning bread route before school. It rubbed off on young Jack (Jacob), also a hard worker who gravitated into the grocery/deli business. After Louis died, young Jacob, age 17 and working for the A&P, supported his mother, Ida, and his siblings. Four years later, about 1926, Mother Azaroff and Etta, Dave, Joe and Louis went to Lima, Ohio, where Mother Ida married a cousin, Nathan Tinianow, although no one seems to know how they were related. While in Lima, little Louis, age 4 or 5, was killed by a truck. When Papa Louis died, Mama Ida was pregnant. The baby boy was named Louis. Jack and Sadie Azaroff never went to Lima. Jack had a good job in NYC and Sadie married Bill Sanders. Sadie's firstborn was named Louise. Jack's firstborn was named Lewis. The Ohio marriage didn't work. Divorce followed. Mama Ida married a third time -- a dapper gentleman named Selinger -- after returning to NYC. She died in 1935 or 1936 of cancer -- in her mid-fifties. She and Selinger are buried side-by-side in Brookhaven Cemetery (?), Brooklyn. Louis Azaroff is buried a few feet away.

 I salute my forebears for having the courage to come to a new country with no money, no education, no knowledge of English. If they hadn't done what they did, where would any of be? Bless them. May they rest in peace.