Emma Goldman was born June 27, 1869, in Kovno, Lithuania, which was then part of the Russian Empire. The Goldman family moved to St. Petersburg, where Emma’s father experienced a series of business failures. Goldman often quarreled with her father, who failed to support his daughter’s educational endeavors. In 1885 Goldman and her older sister Helena left Russia for the United States and settled with other family members in Rochester, New York, where Goldman began factory work as a seamstress. In February 1887 she married her fellow worker Jacob Kersner, but the marriage dissolved after a year, with Goldman moving to New York City in 1889.