Tracing Lawrence Lipton (1898-1975)

One of the nice things about Ancestry.com – their records are cleaner and more accurate than those of EllisIsland.org.  Case in point, the arrival record for Lawrence Lipton (nee Israel Lipschitz) his mom and two siblings:

Ancestry:

One must view the actual record to see the last residence for the family was LODZ, Poland (Russia).

Now for the Ellis Island website record:

Note the 6 MONTHS have become 6 YEARS old and the 4 – which is clear on the original record at both sites – has been lost.  Note also the last residence – an examination of the original record shows that “Rugloska” was the residence of the passenger immediately preceding the Lipshitz family.

Similar errors and omissions have plagued every search I’ve done at EllisIsland.org … a reality which, while not negating the usefulness of the Ellis Island database, does make access to Ancestry.com of far more valuable to serious passenger list research.

That said:  We now have our documentation as to the age and arrival date for the boy who would become, author of “The Holy Barbarians”.  We also have clear confirmation that, in terms of surname, he can be associated with  is of the Famed Lipshitz family of Talmudic Scholars – something which explains why, as a graphic artist, he chose to illustrate a Haggadah (a Passover prayer book) … for which he also won an award.