The Sturmans of 512 Dickenson Street, Philadelphia, c1923. L to R: Maurice, 1907-77, Nathan Paltiel Sturman, 1871-1944, Rose (nee Kaiserman) 1879?-1949, Jack, (my father), 1913-2000, Bess, 1900-1985, David Wolf, Bess's husband, and Benjamin 1910-1998. Photo taken 19 years after coming to Philadelphia from Teplik, Vinnitsa, Russia (now Ukraine). Nathan arrived in the USA at Ellis Island in December 1904 and settled in Philadelphia, and sent for his wife and daughter Bess in 1906.
Another photo of our paternal grandparents of honored and loving memory, Nathan and Rose Sturman. This photo was taken in the backyard of 512 Dickenson Street in around 1940. They were the parents of Bess, Maurice, Benjamin and Jack (my father).
Our maternal grandmother, Roslyn K Fitch 1889-1984, born Roslyn Kohn, who grew up on a farm in Rosenhayn, New Jersey, near Millville, in the extreme southeast corner of the state. This was a 19th century Jewish farming community billed at the time as "an alternative to the difficulties and dangers of settlement in Palestine". She moved to Philadelphia after her marriage to a prosperous Jewish North Philadelphia pharmacist, Henry Fitch, in 1909. They lived at 941 North 8th Street, near 8th and Girard. She was the mother of Gilbert, Jean (1917-90), and Helen (1920-1993) Fitch. Gil Fitch was a graduate of Temple University, played basketball on the Philly SPHAS team, had his own pop swing band and later served as a Colonel in the US Army Air Forces in World War II. Rose Fitch was grandmother of Kathryn Fitch and Nathan, Mitchell and Robert Sturman. Kodachrome II slide by Nathan Sturman, April 1968.
