This  family tree has been over 30 years in the making.    My mom, Helen Jean (FRUMHOFF) BUSH,  started her research around 1975 and worked for many years putting together the SHANIN; DAVIS / FRUMHOFF history.  Before the internet even existed, mom worked tirelessly in the "old way"-- corresponding with relatives, taping conversations, visiting the Family History Library in Salt Lake City,and sending for vital records from around the country.

The genealogy bug bit me sometime after 1998, when my mother died.  With the help of the internet, most specifically, Jewishgen.org,  I continued this research on the SHANIN /FRUMHOFF branch back to  Belarus and Ukraine and their journey in the United States.

I also began to research my father, George BUSH's REST / BLUSHINSKY /BUSH family history. With information
 gathered from several relatives (particularly REST cousins Arliss and Reva, my late aunt Shirley Holtzman, and members of the BUSH /PASIMANEK branch), and a large amount accumulated data from various databases,  I have made an attempt to piece together the puzzle of this family's recent and early history in Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Argentina, and South Africa.  Most events for the early REST / BUSH; BLUSHINSKY family are documented according to sources, and where appropriate, I have indicated where I have assumed a connection based on circumstantial evidence.

This family site is a work in progress!  I have many pictures yet to upload!  If you have additional information which you would like me to include, or corrections to make, I would appreciate your contributions and comments. Please contact me either through this site or at: erbush@phch.org.   Pictures, too, are most welcome!  You can send them to me and I will upload them.

Let me know what you think, and please sign the guest book!

BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE BUSH/BLUSHINSKY FAMILY ORIGINS:

IOSEL / JOSEPH BLUSHINSKY
 Iosel / Joseph Blushinsky, the son of Mordukh and Sheyna Beyla, was born in 1844.  In 1875 at the age of 23  he was living in Postavy-- a shtetl in the Vilnius gubernia in Lithuania.  (Postavay is located in Belarus today).  Later records show him to be living in Moletai (Malat) Lithuania.  It seems the Blushinsky family lived in different towns in the Svintsyn district of greater Vilna:  Postav, Nemincine, Moletai.   In notes from my father passed on to my brother, it is mentioned that Joseph  "was an overseer on a large Russian estate.  He was killed while trying to tame an unbroken horse."  Also in the notes was a reference to the Vilna Gaon and a relationship to the Blushinsky family.  Not sure if this was true-- apparently many Jewish families from Vilna liked to think of themselves as relatives of the Gaon!  The Blushinsky family is Cohanim.

Joseph and Shirley/Ethel (possible Shterl Ester) Blushinsky had 5 children all born in Lithuania:    Benjamin Ezhiel "Berko" Bush (b1869) Chicago, and Khaia (b 1869), Jacob Blashinsky / Blash (1874-1962) New York, Abraham Bush (b1876) Chicago, and David Blushinsky (b1872) Detroit.

ABRAHAM BUSH (1876-1925) my grandfather:
 Abraham came to the US in 1902 and at age 27 worked as a laborer in a book-bindery.  At the time of his death in 1925, he was in the roofing business.  I have not been able to find immigration records for Abraham.  He may have also been known as Benjamin or a form of that name.   Abraham married Sophie REST in 1910.   They had four children:  David, George (my father), Earl and Shirley (twins).

BENJAMIN BUSH (1864 or 1869-1956):
 By 1900, Benjamin and his wife Elka PASIMANEK were living in Chicago.  Married before coming to the US, Elka arrived  in 1898 with three children-- after her husband who came in 1895.  I have not found his immigration records.    Benjamin's occupation in 1900 was "capmaker"-- name is still BLUSHINSKY.   By 1910 he was a real estate agent and the name had been changed to BUSH.   Benjamin and Elka had 8 children:  Belle, Bessie, David, Florence, Harry, Joseph MIchael, Ruth (Jennie Rachel), Sheine / Sadie (died at age of 2 in a a backyard fire when her clothes caught fire from a candle.)

KHAIE BLUSHINSKY (1869)  
 From archival records, nothing more is known of this daughter.

DAVID BLUSHINSKY (1872-1948)

It shows a David "from Detrot" is mentioned in notes to Janet Bush Epstein from her father, also David. He
 thought the name was Blash, but census and death records show otherwise.  David's death records show father as Joseph and mother, Ethel.  They had four children, but I have not found their descendants....yet....

UPDATE: A descendant of David Blushinsky was found and we shared DNA data. This person's mother was Ethel Blushinsky, daughter of David. Her parents' seem to indicate a perfect match but the DNA is very iffy. Unfortunately, there are no male descendants of David to test YDNA. Keeping them on the tree, just in case.

JACOB BLASH / BLASHINSKY (1874-1962)
 My aunt Shirley BUSH HOLTZMAN remembered that there was a brother living in New York.  "Jacob" is mentioned as a brother in an obituary for one of the BUSHes.  Jacob BLASH has been "found".  The first to come to the 
 United States in 1893, Jacob was first married to Rebecca YONAS.  They had three children: Joseph, David, and Ida.  By 1905, Jacob 
 was married to Rose and together they had seven children:  Mary and Sarah (twins), Isadore/Irving, Abraham/Arthur, Dorothy, 
 Morris, and Herbert.  The 1910 census shows two "cousins":  Celia (age 30, married) and Julia (age 6) Leibow living with the family. 
 Perhaps mother and daughter.  Mary was married to Herman SCHATZMAN.  Terry BLASH AMRANI is the daughter of Arthur.

VERY BRIEF NARRATIVE OF REST FAMILY ORIGINS:
 Although family lore, both oral and written (see Stories link above under People), weave a story of Sephardic origins, earliest archival records of the REST family name date back to the late 1700s in Plunge, Lithuania.  From there-- many traveled.  In brief, one branch went to Ukraine in 1848 along with many other Jews from the region. This branch split years later, one branch went to Buenos Aires, Argentina in the early 1900s, and another stayed in Ukraine through the Holocaust. There is a video interview on file with the Shoah Project of a REST descendant telling her story of survival.

Another branch of the RESTs stayed in the Plunge area--where some died in the Holocaust. Two of this family survived and landed in South Africa after the war.  My great grandfather David, moved the family from Plunge, Lithuania to Latvia in 1876. He and a brother or cousin went to South Africa in 1900.  One REST stayed and David returned to Latvia and moved the family to Chicago in 1900. Hence the second South Africa branch of RESTs.

There are interesting mini-stories attached to many early relatives on this tree.  I hope you will take the time to explore your family-- go back, and read about our ancestors.  Please let me know if you have additional information or corrections.