Returning now to the story of Gelle Blumenfeld Rothschild’s son Moses Rothschild, this post is about his youngest child, Aron Rothschild. We’ve already seen that Aron married Martha Schoenholz in 1918 and that they had a son Melville born in 1919. In 1920 Aron was in his own business selling beads and novelties. Finding Aron after 1920 proved to be a challenging search.

I could not find Aron on the 1930 census, but I did find his wife Martha and son Melville (10) on that census; they were living with Martha’s mother Clothilde Schoenholz in Manhattan; Aron was not listed in the household, but Martha still listed her status as married. She was working as a salesperson in a department store. Where was Aron? I do not know. Somehow he eluded the census enumerator in 1930. Or so it seems.

Martha Rothschild 1930 US census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Manhattan, New York, New York; Page: 20A; Enumeration District: 0512; FHL microfilm: 2341295, Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census

Aron does, however, turn up on the 1940 census, living in the Bronx as a lodger with Nathan and Anna Braverman, two Russian immigrants. He listed his marital status as single and his employment as a salesman in a house furnishings store.¹

Meanwhile, Aron’s wife Martha and their son Melville were still living with Martha’s mother in 1940; they were in Manhattan, and Martha, still listing her status as married, was working as a “saleslady” in a dress store. Melville, now twenty, was working as a junior salesman in a pleating factory.²

So although Aron had listed himself as single on the 1940 census, Martha still claimed that she was married in 1940. It would seem, however, that their marital relationship had ended by 1940, whether legally dissolved or not.

Aron’s 1942 World War II draft registration reported that he was then living in Manhattan and was self-employed. He listed “M. Alexander” as the person who would always know his address. That referred to his brother-in-law Max Alexander, who was married to Aron’s sister Theresa and living at that address.

Aron Rothschild, World War II draft registration, The National Archives At St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 14
Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942

Aron’s son Melville registered for the World War II draft on October 16, 1940; at that time he was living in Los Angeles and would not provide the name of his employer, according to the registration. He joined the US Army on February 22, 1943, and was discharged on January 11, 1946. He served in the Pacific and received the American Service medal and the Philippines Liberation Ribbon.³

Melville Rothschild, World War II draft registration, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For California, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 1559 Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For California, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 1559
Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

On December 7, 1946, in New York, Melville Rothschild took out a license to marry Barbara Sichel.⁴ Barbara may still be living although she would be over 100; I cannot find a death record or obituary. Melville and Barbara would have two children. I was unable to locate the family on the 1950 US census.

I had a lot of trouble locating Aron Rothschild on the 1950 census or thereafter, but after much investigation, I believe I found him. Here’s my research path:

According to an entry on FindAGrave, Aron died on March 17, 1955, at the age of 73 and is buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens, New York. But I was skeptical about the reliability of that information. First, Aron’s name was spelled “Aaron” both on FindAGrave and on the cemetery records listed on the Mount Carmel website.  Also, although I have Aron’s Social Security Number, he is not listed in the Social Security Death Index. The FindAGrave entry has his correct birth date, but says he was born in Manhattan Beach in Maryland. I assume the creator of that entry confused Manhattan Beach with Manhattan, New York. But given these inaccuracies—the spelling of the name and the error in the birth place—I worried that the FindAGrave entry could be for an entirely different A[a]ron Rothschild. ⁵

So I decided to search a little deeper. On FamilySearch, I found a record for an Aaron Rothschild who died in Islip, New York, on March 17, 1955, the same date of death for the Aaron Rothschild buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery and listed on FindAGrave. That listing in the New York State Death Index on FamilySearch gives Aaron Rothschild’s age at death as 71, but my Aron would have been 73 on March 17, 1955.⁶ So I remained doubtful.

I went back to search the 1950 census again to see if I could find the Aaron Rothschild who died in Islip, and I found him there, a patient at the Pilgrim State Hospital for the Care and Treatment of the Mentally Ill. His marital status was listed as “sep” or separated. His birthplace was “USA” (although transcribed on Ancestry as Virginia). And his age was 68. My cousin Aron Rothschild would have been 68 in April, 1950, when that census record was created.⁷ Had Aron suffered from mental illness? Was Aron the patient at the Pilgrim State Hospital?

Things certainly were pointing towards this being my Aron with his name misspelled. To know for sure, I needed more information. I could not get a copy of the actual death certificate because I am not a close enough relative to qualify. Instead, I wrote to the Mount Carmel cemetery to ask what information they had about the Aaron Rothschild buried there. Two days later, I received the following information in an email dated January 23, 2025: “The information the Cemetery has on Aaron Rothschild is as follows:  He died at the age of 71 on March 17, 1955, in W Brentwood, New York, and was interred on March 21, 1955.  Sam and Rudolph Rothschild were the lot owners.” [emphasis added.]

That seemed to confirm that the A(a)ron Rothschild who died on March 17, 1955, and is buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens, New York, was my cousin Aron Rothschild, son of Moses and Mathilde Rothschild. Brentwood is a small hamlet near Islip, New York, where the Pilgrim State Hospital was located. Although the age of the deceased is off by two years (Aron would have been 73, not 71), the fact that the cemetery plot was owned by Samuel and Rudolph Rothschild, Aron’s oldest brothers, convinced me that the man buried in that plot was their brother Aron.

In fact, Aron’s mother Mathilde, his brothers Samuel and Rudolph, Samuel’s wife Sallye, and Samuel’s grandson Ronald are also buried at Mount Carmel in the same section, 1-B-3-746. Aron’s sister Theresa and her husband Max Alexander are also buried at Mount Carmel in a nearby section, 1-B-4, and Rose Katz Rothschild, Albert Rothschild’s wife, is buried in section 1-C-9. All this further confirms that Aron Rothschild died on March 17, 1955, and is buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery.

As for Aron’s family, his wife Martha Schoenholz Rothschild is listed on the 1950 US census, still living with her mother in Manhattan and working as a “salesgirl” in a dress shop. (She was 59 years old at the time.) Now she listed her marital status as widowed. Was this just a way of avoiding listing her status as divorced? Since Aron was still alive in 1950, Martha was not yet a widow.⁸ Martha died on April 3, 1959; she was 68 and is buried in Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in Hartsdale, New York.⁹ She and Aron were survived by their son Melville.

Melville died on June 9, 1978, in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, at the age of 58. According to his obituary, he had lived in Edison, New Jersey for 27 years and had been a self-employed retail merchant for many years before spending the last ten years as a security agent for Wells Fargo. Melville was survived by his wife and child.¹⁰

This brings me to the end of the saga of Moses Rothschild and his family. Next I will turn to the younger siblings of Moses Rothschild, the remaining seven children of Gelle Blumenfeld Rothschild. Unlike Moses, all seven (as well as the three older children already discussed) remained in Germany for their entire lives. Moses was the only one of the eleven children of Gelle to come to the US and settle there. So it’s back to German research that I now return.

But first a short update on an earlier post about some of my Katzenstein relatives.

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