The Abramis-Abramson Family Tree

Descendants of FIRST Abramis

Ok, so his name wasn’t “The First”… and I’m not sure he was even born with the surname Abramis, spelling being relative, and we of course are dealing in multiple languages (Yiddish, Russian, English) and alphabets.

The Abramis family was in or about the city of Vitebsk in what is now Belarus. The family seems to have always stressed education, but were also involved in commerce. They seem to have been relatively well off.

The “First Abramis” has at least 3 children. One was a son named Berl, whom we know nothing of at this point. His daughter Rachel Leah married Yosef Yakov Melamed. It was about this time that the European governments were forcing Jews to adopt surnames; Melamed may have been indicative of his occupation. The third child concerns us directly. His name was Israel Yosef Abramis, and he the earliest known ancestor of this family.

Israel Yosef Abramis had four children that we know of, two boys, Morris and Meyer, and two girls Esther and Muska. These are the four branches of the Abramis-Abramson family. Esther and Morris both emigrated to the United States, and children of Meyer and Muska also came to the USA. Once in the USA the ABRAMIS name was anglicized several times. Variants included Abramson, Abrahmson, Abramsohn, and Branson.

An extensive family tree was compiled in the late 1990s. Comment below with any questions concerning this tree. — Phil Cohen