This post will tell about the lives of the three youngest children of Albert and Rose (Katz) Rothschild, their daughters Theresa, Lillian and Dorothy, from 1940 and after.

The third  and fourth daughters, Theresa Rothschild Blumenfeld and her younger sister Lillian Rothschild Blumenfeld, were living together in 1940 in the Bronx, along with their husbands, Arnold and Max, respectively, and Theresa and Arnold’s two children, Albert (13) and their eleven year old daughter Doris. Remember that Arnold and Max were brothers so there were two sisters married to two brothers all in the same household.

Max Blumenfeld and family 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, Bronx, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02492; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 3-1276, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census

Perhaps the decision to move in together was not just due to the family connection, but also a sign that the Depression had had some impact on these couples. Arnold, Theresa’s husband, was working as a taxi driver; his brother Max, Lillian’s husband, was a salesman in the pleating industry. His World War II draft registration revealed the name of that company—Ideal Pleating. His wife Lillian was a clerk at Twentieth Century Fox.

Max Blumenfeld World War II draft registration, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For New York City, 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

Whatever the reasons behind the decision to all live together, the two couples were no longer living in one household by 1950. Theresa and Arnold were living with their daughter, who had married in 1947 and who may still be living, her husband and their young son in Queens, New York. Theresa and Arnold’s son-in-law was a lawyer, and Arnold was a wholesale candy salesman.¹

Theresa and Arnold’s son Albert Blumenfeld also had married by the time of the 1950 census. First, Albert served in the US Navy, enlisting on October 2, 1944, when he was eighteen, discharged on June 24, 1946.² He then married Ruth Aronow sometime after March 17, 1949, when they took out a marriage license in New York.³ Ruth was the daughter of Moe Aronow and Mollie Schulter and born in New York on July 22, 1929.⁴

Arnold Blumenfeld died October 6, 1956, in New York; he was only 56 years old.⁵ Theresa survived him by less than eight years; she died in January, 1964.⁶ She was 58. Arnold and Theresa were survived by their two children and their grandchildren. Their son Albert also did not live a very long life; he was 63 when he died on October 19, 1989.⁷

As for Theresa’s sister Lillian and her husband Max Blumenfeld, Arnold’s brother, in 1950 they had moved from the Bronx and were living in Queens with their son, and Max was still a salesman for the pleating company.⁸ Max died on April 13, 1971, at the age of 67.⁹ Lillian survived him by almost seventeen years; she was 78 when she died on January 7, 1988.¹⁰ Max and Lillian were survived by their son.

Finally, the youngest of the sisters, Dorothy and her husband Sidney Spiegel were living in the Bronx in 1940; Sidney was working as a typewriter mechanic.¹¹ Sidney joined the US Army on October 8, 1943, and was discharged on May 6, 1946.¹² I couldn’t find Sidney and Dorothy on the 1950 US census. At some point they relocated to Florida, where Dorothy died on September 3, 1979, at the age of 64¹³. She was survived by her husband Sidney, who died three years later on October 27, 1982.¹⁴ He was 71. I was not able to determine if Dorothy and Sidney had any children.

Longevity was definitely not a trait shared by Albert Rothschild and his family. He died at 39, his wife Rose at 57, and their son Milton died when he was just a year old. Of their five daughters, only two made it to 65.  Although Josephine lived an extraordinarily long life, making it past 100, and Lillian at least made it to 78, the other three sisters did not have long lives—Rae was only 54, Theresa 58, and Dorothy 64. Their husbands didn’t live very long either.  It must have been very hard for Josephine to see not only her brother die as a baby, her father die when he was only 39, her mother when she was 57, and then to lose all four of her sisters before they reached a ripe old age. It seems quite miraculous that Josephine lived as long as she did, given all those losses she had suffered and her family history.