Max and Bessie Bell (Bellostotsky) came to Calgary from Russia about 1920 being sponsored by her brother Joe Lukatsky and by Henry Belkin, both of whom had already been in Calgary for some years and were partners in a meat packing plant.

      Max had been in the meat business in Russia and opened a kosher butcher shop in Calgary. He sold this business after about a year and a half and became a cattle buyer, a trade at which he had much more success.

      Max and Bessie Bell had three daughters: Ethel, Ann and Mary.

      Ethel Bell married Ben Kerr who was the brother of Chana, Henry Belkin's wife. They had three sons: Allan, Morley and Alvin.

      Ann Bell married Barney Ross and moved to Los Angeles. They have one son, Kenneth Ross.

      Mary Bell married Harry (Doc) Freedman and lives in Vancouver. They have two children, Marcia and Rick.

      Max Bell died in 1950 and Bessie in 1958.

      The Bercov family has been active and prominent in Alberta's Jewish communities since 1906. If the Bercov name is unfamiliar to many it may be because six of the eight pioneering Bercov children were girls, they took their husbands' names.

      The parents, Leah and Harry (Hillel) Bercov, came to Calgary in 1906 from Odessa, in the wake of the anti-Semitic Russian repression that followed the failed 1905 revolution attempt. They brought all eight of their children, ranging in age from 5 to 19, with them.

      Their families had been aristocratic Jews in the Ukraine, but Leah and Harry Bercov were reduced to running a small confectionery in the Riverside district.

      The Bercovs busied themselves with local Jewish activities. Harry became one of Calgary's first Hebrew teachers and remained a Talmud Torah stalwart. He also befriended and aided many Jewish immigrants, going with his friend Harris Groberman to meet railway colonization trains.

      Both Leah (1866-1934) and Harry (1870-1936) are buried in the old Calgary Jewish cemetery.

      Oldest son Abe Bercov returned to Russia but made his way back to the United States, finally settling in Los Angeles, where he worked as an engineer, married Rae, and raised two children.

      Celia Bercov married Sam Shuler in Calgary. They had no children.

      Freda was married to Jack Churgin, a men's clothier. He later sold his "Shirt Shop" business to his brother-in-law Bill Bercov.

      Freda and Jack Churgin had three children: Betty, who married Michael Katzin; Annette, married to Albert Calsman; and Arnold Churgin, married to Geta Gurevitch. Arnold owned a well-know local business, Arnold Churgin Shoes.

      William (Bill Bercov (1890-1957) and his wife Riva Shapiro had three daughters: Miriam Dvorkin, Annette Goldstein and Sophie Sollway. Sophie's husband Rio Solway continues the family's haberdashery interests.

      The next oldest daughter, Mary, married John David Dower, one of Edmonton's earliest Jewish pioneers. He ran Dower Brothers Wholesale and later operated the large Sterling and Paramount shoe store chains. The Dowers had three children: Sylvia, Lola and Marvin.

      Fanny Bercov married Albert Calman and moved to Lethbridge where Albert operated the New York and Canadian fur stores. They had three children: Morris, Hy and Sabine, the sons were furriers in Lethbridge until recently.

      Hilda married into the huge Shumiatcher/Smith family, marrying Harry Smith, who owned the Boston Hat works and Harry's News in Calgary. They had two children, Annette Rothstein and Julian Smith, and later moved to Vancouver.

      The youngest Bercov, Rose (1901-1962), married Barnet Groberman, who was active in the Calgary furniture trade, running Sykes Imperial and later Nielsen's Furniture stores. They had two children, Harold Groberman and Annabelle Gurevitch.

      The Bercov descendants are looking forward to another ninety years of being part of Jewish life in the West.

      When Jacob (Jack) Bercuson was 18 he fled Romania to avoid army service.

      The handsome, blonde youth travelled in steerage to Canada and armed with a few Canadian phrases, became a peddler. Upon his arrival in Alberta, he sent for his cousin Sara Hart, who came with her widowed father and twelve-year old sister Bertha (Segall).

      In l906 Jacob Bercuson and Sarah Hart were married by Rev. Hirsch Sosinsky, the father of Ben Sherwood (Sosinsky). In a year or two their son Joseph was born, followed by their daughter Pat (Hector).

      Trouble for Jacob and other small merchants came with the opening of the T. Eaton Department Store. Eaton's prices made competition impossible; and the Bercuson family moved to Montreal.

      When Jacob Bercuson was 55, he and Sarah returned to Calgary for a visit. Jacob fell ill and died. Sarah remained in this city they both loved.

      As related by David Bickman:

      "The Bikman family came from Novaya Ushitsa, Podolia Gubernia, Ukraine to Baltimore, Maryland, by steamship in 1907-1910. They reached Lethbridge via Billings, Montana, in the summer of 1911.

      The arrivals were my grandfather Sam Bikman and his brothers Max and Louis, and Max's wife Tillie. My grandmother Leah and my father Abe arrived in October 1913 by steamship from Hamburg to Grimsby, England, and thence via Liverpool and Quebec City to Lethbridge.

      "Max and Tillie lived in Lethbridge for 2 - 3 years. They then moved to Medicine Hat where Tillie's sister and brother-in-law Annie and David Goldstein operated a general store. The two couples resided in Medicine Hat only for a few years before returning to Montana.

      "My great-uncle Louis ranched near Coutts on the Canadian side of the border for 50 years before retiring to Lethbridge in 1965. My grandfather Sam lived in Lethbridge his entire life after coming to Canada, and passed away in 1970. My grandmother also lived in Lethbridge from 1913 until her passing in 1962, as did my father from 1913 until a few months before his passing in 1983.