Visitors of the Week: Carolyn and Noah from London

We're always looking to learn about the many, diverse visitors who stop by the Tenement Museum each week. Planning a visit? Send us an email and be our next Visitor of the Week!

Meet our Visitors of the Week, Carolyn and her son, Noah. Visiting from London, the two come to New York many times a year to spend time with Noah’s Grandmother. After investigating their own family’s history, the two discovered that they, too, have a connection to the Lower East Side.

Carolyn: Noah’s grandmother… has a story down on the Lower East Side. So that’s why we started coming to the Tenement Museum. It’s the first time we’d been.

What’s your grandmother’s connection?

C: Norma, [Noah’s] grandmother, was born to Hyman Kremer and Naomi, who were immigrants from Bialystok, now Poland, once Russia. Norma married Jack Bloomberg, who also is from Bialystok. Once his family came here, Jack was born on the way in Britain by chance…. As far as we gather, we’ve just started investigating.

What tour will you be going on today?
C: Immigrant Soles, the Walking Tour.

Do you have any favorites from the other tours you’ve done here?
C: That’s a tough one!
Noah: I like Piecing It Together with Justin!
C: I liked that one, too. A lot of your family, Noah, was in the garment industry, as well. One of the memories that Norma had last night was… waking up very early in the morning to find her mother stitching sequins onto chiffon in the morning light by the window. It’s been very interesting the last week or two since we’ve been coming here, because you go around these stories in different ways and Norma’s remembered different things.

So what are some other things you like to do when you’re visiting New York?
N: I like to go to Central Park… to the zoo. And right now, I’ve been having a really good time sledding.
C: Do you remember where you went yesterday in Brooklyn?
N: We went to the Brooklyn Transit Museum! It used to be an old train station.
C: The other place that’s near where we’re staying now in the Upper West Side is the Natural History Museum! But this has actually been our best museum experience in all of New York, I would say. We became members after the first tour, and we’ve been on four indoor tours, and now the outside tour. We thought we’d leave it to the end, having done the indoor tours… So we’ll do that and go to Katz’s deli for lunch later!

Have you been yet?
N: No!

You have to get some latkes.
C: Is that one of the things we should get?

They’re so good!
C: We should get some, Noah. They’ll be better than your Dad’s at Chanukah!

- ag