The Manishin (Maniszyn or מנישין) family is believed to have originated in Maniusin (Mieczyslawow), Poland, a small village approximately 100 miles southwest of Warsaw, and according to the Dictionary of Jewish Names and Their History, took its surname — following Napoleon's 1808 decree that all Jews adopt last names — from the Yiddish adaptation of the town name. The family eventually moved eastward into present-day Ukraine, populating Voldymerets (Vladimeretz), Chartorisk, Sarny and other shtetls surrounding Rovno (Rowno) at the beginning of the 20th Century. Israel (Srul) Maniszyn, the oldest personally known ancestor, was a teacher and Rebbe in Voldymerets (now Vladimirets, Ukraine). His son Yankel (Jacob) Manishen was the first to leave the Old Country, immigrating to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada around World War I, eventually followed by most of Jacob's nephews and nieces, who settled as well in Boston, Montreal and Cincinnati. Vladimirets and the Rowno Ghetto were massacred by the Nazis on August 28, 1942, with an unmarked mass grave, granite memorial and Sefer Vladimirets now standing in memory of the handful of known Manishin/en ancestors lost in the Shoah. Israel and Esther (nee Minuk) Maniszyn's present descendants include 79 great-great-grandchildren, 75 great-great-great-grandchildren, 20 great-great-great-great grandchildren and a total of more than 210 living cousins — doctors, lawyers, teachers, artists and much more — everywhere from Canada to California, Illinois, Israel, Gibraltar and, surprisingly, Russia.

The Silberstein/Gilbert family originated in Vilna, Russia (now Vilnius, Lithuania) in the early 19th Century — although some immigration records suggest Gorki, Russia (now Belarus) — where the family name was by legend "Pereplotcyk" (Pereplotchik), taken from the Russian word for book-binder. Samuel & Ruth (nee Zifind) Silberstein, the oldest documented ancestors, settled in Dorchester, Boston around 1893, preceded on their journey from the Old Country by several of their sons. The Silberstein name was predominant among their 13 surviving children — a youngest son died as a newborn following the earlier birth of twin brothers Bennie and Harry, a loss from which Samuel never recovered — but one son chose Silverstein, one Sills and another Gilbert. (No, the story that comedian Phil Silvers is a relative, as far as we can document now, is false family lore.) Just after the turn of the 20th Century, several of the Siberstein sons and a daughter moved to Baltimore, where the Kolodny and Baker families and more than 130 Silberstein descendants still reside. Indeed, much of Baltimore City was built by real estate developer Israel Labe Silberstein (1866-1938), the oldest of all the 2nd generation Silberstein children — and himself the prolific father of five daughters and two sons. The Boston half of the family kept in fairly close touch with a "cousins club" through the mid-1960s, and held its most recent annual reunion in 1965 at the summer estate ("Shortacre") of the late Saul & Rigi Silverstein on Columbia Lake in Willimantic, Connecticut. Samuel and Ruth Silberstein's presently known descendants include at least 85 great-great-grandchildren, 147 great-great-great-grandchildren, 163 great-great-great-great grandchildren, four "5G" grandchildren and a total of more than 320 living cousins, everywhere from Brookline and Framingham, Massachusetts to Baltimore, Rockville and Bethesda, Maryland, California, Washington, DC, Miami and the Florida Gulf Coast.

The Baizman (Bejzman) family originated in Rafalovka (Rafałówka), Poland — a modern, non-traditional shtetl in the Wółyn (Volhynia) province, northeast of L'vov in present-day Ukraine. (Some immigration records suggest an earlier residence in Berezina, Russia, site of a famous 1812 battle during Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, and as a consequence, a French synonym for "disaster.") The third son of Aron Leib and Chayeh (nee Kushnier) Bejzman, taking the Americanized name Eugene Baizman, immigrated to Boston via New York in 1912. Colloquially called "Yena," Gene, wife Ethel and the Baizman family settled on Chestnut Street in Chelsea, Massachusetts, down the block from where brother Jacob Baizman was already living. Another Bejzman brother (Zvi Zvi "Welvel"), retaining the Old Country spelling of the surname, settled in Porto Alegre, Brazil, with some of his children emigrating to Israel. Rafalovka, sadly, was later exterminated in the Holocaust on August 29, 1942, including two known Bejzmans. The presently identified descendants of Aron and Chayeh Bejzman (not counting their grand- and great-grand-nephews through cousin Max Baizman, also Boston-based) include 20 great-great-grandchildren, 19 great-great-great-grandchildren, and a total of nearly 60 living cousins — doctors, lawyers, artists and at least one Rabbi — everywhere from New York City to Washington, DC, Maryland, Massachusetts, Brazil and Tel Aviv.

The Gordon family originated in the early 19th Century in Meretz (Meretch), Russia (now Merkinė, Lithuania), a small town of about 2,000 Jews and some gentiles located approximately some 54 miles southeast of Vilnius which would eventually be liquidated in the Nazi Shoah on June 23, 1941 and September 10, 1941. Little is presently known about the family's life in Europe. The Gordon family settled in the United States when Abraham Gordon, age 20, immigrated to New York City in 1888. Abraham and Martha (nee Goldstein) Gordon eventually had eight children and lived in Medway, Massachusetts, owning Grass & Gordon (later Gordon Mfg. Co.) ladies' clothing company first at Washington and Kneeland Streets in Boston and later from Framingham, Massachusetts. The company is now operated as a commercial real estate firm by the children of Abe's late grandson Jay R. Gordon, Maxwell Gordon's son. Abe and Martha's present descendants include 49 great-great grandchildren, 23 great-great-great-grandchildren, one "5G" grandchild and a total of 118 living cousins, everywhere from Boston and Framingham to San Diego, Florida, Washington, DC, Houston and New York.