Singer Genealogy and Singer Family History Information

Abraham "Avrum" Singer of Omaha came to the US from Vasyl'kiv Kiev Ukraine with his wife, Bessie "Bashi" Kezinsky Singer.

Reportedly, the surname had been Patlashenko, but was changed to Singer upon arrival in the US.

I understand from Igor Patlashenko that Jews living in Czarist Russia were limited to a territorial region of settlement known as the Chertá Osédlosti ("Pale of Settlement"), and were further restricted to living in "little towns" ("shtetls").

In order to live in a big city (like Kiev), Russian Jews would purchase a Ukrainian surname (like Patlashenko).

So Wolf Baer Patlashenko's actual Jewish surname might well have corresponded to the Americanized surname, Singer.