Monthly Archives: February 2026

Update on Lotte Nathan: Thanks to the Genealogy Village

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Back in late October 2025, I wrote in two blog posts about my attempts to learn more about Bertha Katzenstein, my grandmother’s third cousin. Bertha, as I wrote then, was born in New York on April 23, 1892, and her mother (also named Bertha) died shortly thereafter. Bertha and her father and stepmother moved to Europe, and in 1913, Bertha married Hermann Nathan in Harburg, Germany. They divorced six years later in 1919. For seven years that was all I knew about Bertha.

Then last fall I was contacted by Ines Weber, who had located a second marriage for Bertha. On January 14, 1921, Bertha married Friedrich “Fritz” Wilhelm Langebartels in Hamburg, Germany. They left Germany for the US in 1926, and in 1927 Bertha applied for naturalization.1

Bertha Katzenstein Nathan marriage to Friedrich Wilhelm Langebartels, Landesarchiv Berlin; Berlin, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Heiratsregister, Register Year or Type: 1921 (Erstregister), Ancestry.com. Berlin, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1940

On her naturalization form, I learned that Bertha had had a daughter Lotte during her marriage to Hermann Nathan and that that daughter was still living in Germany. Lotte was born on May 1, 1915.

Bertha Katzenstein Langebartels Weber petition for naturalization, The National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, D.C.; Petitions For Naturalization From the U.s. District Court For the Southern District of New York, 1897-1944; Series: M1972; Roll: 542
Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Naturalization Records, 1882-1944

As I wrote back on October 22, I had and still have had no luck locating Bertha after that 1927 petition for naturalization. But I had more luck locating her daughter Lotte. As I wrote on October 29, 2025, Lotte Nathan married Emil Fischbein, and on September 8, 1936, they left Germany and immigrated to Palestine. Their son Hanan was born on August 11, 1937, in Haifa. I learned from Hanan’s grandson that Lotte left Emil and Hanan when Hanan was a child and went to England with an English soldier. Other records showed that Lotte married Ronald Francis George Buchanan and died in England in 1971.

That was all I knew when I posted Lotte’s story on October 29, 2025. Then a woman named Jutta posted a comment in German on that post on December 7, 2025, saying that her mother was a half-sister to Lotte Nathan. She explained that Hermann Nathan had remarried after he and Bertha Katzenstein divorced in 1919 and that he had two daughters with his second wife, one of whom was Jutta’s mother.

Jutta and I have now emailed numerous times since then, and she has even shared some photographs of Lotte. Here are two photographs:

Lotte’s half sister, her stepmother, Lotte, and her father Hermann Nathan
Courtesy of the family

 

Lotte Nathan (left) and her two half-sisters. Courtesy of the family

Jutta also knew that Lotte had ended up in England where she died in 1971 from multiple sclerosis. Teresa of the Writing My Past blog encouraged me to send away for Lotte’s death certificate, which I did. It confirmed what Jutta said and what I’d seen on other trees: that Lotte Buchanan was born Lotte Nathan on May 1, 1915, in Germany, that she died on November 21, 1971, in Aspley, Nottingham, England. Her cause of death was respiratory failure and “disseminated sclerosis,” which Google tells me is another name for MS.2

From Jutta I learned that her grandfather, Lotte’s father, Hermann Nathan committed suicide in early 1945 rather than be sent by the Nazis to the concentration camps. His second wife and his daughters were Christian so did not feel as endangered by the Nazis, but Jutta said that her grandmother stood by Hermann until his death.

Although I still haven’t found any further evidence as to what happened to Bertha Katzenstein, Lotte’s mother, I feel I do have some closure on Lotte herself, thanks to the genealogy village: Ines, Teresa, Gil, and now Jutta.

 

  1. As that blog post discussed, because she had married a foreign national before 1922, she had forfeited her birthright citizenship. ↩
  2. Unfortunately, I forgot to scan the death certificate before leaving for Florida, so it is home in Massachusetts. I will add it here when I get back home. ↩

Henry M. Katz, 1933-2026: A Man Beloved by Many

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Henry M. Katz

It is with great sadness that I share that my cousin Henry Katz passed away this week on February 7, 2026, at the age of 93. Henry was my third cousin, once removed, and we shared Scholem Katzenstein and Breine Blumenfeld as our mutual ancestors. But more importantly, Henry was someone I had the great pleasure of talking to and emailing with about his distinguished family history. I was connected to Henry through his wonderful daughter Marsha Katz Rothpan, who I was so fortunate to meet in person several times and with whom I still stay in touch.

Marsha and her sisters Beth and Barbara wrote their father’s obituary, so I am going to use their words to tell more about Henry. Henry’s funeral service will be livestreamed this morning at the link included below.

Henry Marvin Katz
January 3, 1933 – February 7, 2026

Funeral services for Henry Marvin Katz, 93, of Ada are Wednesday, February 11, 2026, at 10 am at Criswell Funeral Home, Ada. Rabbi Vered Harris will officiate. Burial will be at 2 pm at the Temple B’nai Israel Memorial Cemetery in Oklahoma City. Mr. Katz passed away Saturday, February 7, 2026, at his home in Ada.

Henry Katz was born on January 3, 1933, in Ada, Oklahoma, to Sadie and Benjamin Katz. The youngest of three children, Henry was a lifelong resident of Ada. He graduated from Ada High School in 1950 and the University of Oklahoma in 1954, where he was a member of Pi Lambda Phi fraternity.

After college, Henry served for two years in Japan in the U.S. Army. Upon returning home, he joined his father Ben, uncle Sidney Katz, and brother Alfred in the family business – Katz Department Store. When his father and uncle retired, Henry and Alfred took over the downtown Ada store. In 1984, Katz added a second location in Arlington Center. The downtown location remained open until 1989, and the Arlington Center store served the community until Henry’s retirement in 2004.

Henry was a descendant of a pioneer Oklahoma family. The Katz family, originally from Germany, settled in Stillwater, Indian Territory, in 1894 and opened the first Katz Department Store in 1896. Ben and Sidney came to Ada in 1926, and opened the Ada store, which was one of several successful Katz Department Stores throughout the state.

Following the example set by his father and uncle, Henry devoted his life to civic leadership and community involvement. He was deeply committed to making Ada a better place through service, business, and generosity. Henry served on the Ada Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, including a term as President, and contributed to the Chamber’s Industrial Development Committee for many years. He also served as President of both the United Way and the Retail Merchants Association, leading the latter during the development of downtown Ada’s public parking lots – something he took great pride in.

In 1959, Henry began serving on the board of the Ada Science and Natural Resources Foundation, chairing its Land Committee for more than 40 years. When he noticed the deterioration of the historic Little Red School House (built in 1907), he led the effort to move it to its present location in Wintersmith Park where it continues to educate visitors about early rural schools.

Henry also served on the Board of the First National Bank (now Vision Bank) beginning in 1982 and continued his service through 2025. He was an active member of the Audit and Loan Committees and was proud to have contributed to Vision Bank’s growth across Oklahoma.

Judaism was an important part of Henry’s life. He was a longtime member and treasurer of the Seminole Hebrew Center for more than 40 years, and after its closing in 2017, he and Helen became members of Temple B’nai Israel in Oklahoma City.

Henry met Helen Roberts when they were both students at the University of Oklahoma. In January 1964, while on a business trip to Dallas, Henry invited Helen to dinner, and the rest was history. After a brief courtship, they were married on April 30, 1964, and shared a loving marriage for 57 years until Helen’s passing in 2021. Together, they made their home in Ada, where they raised their three daughters – Marsha, Beth, and Barbara – who were the pride and joy of Henry’s life.

When asked what he was most proud of, Henry always said, “my family.”

Henry will be remembered as a wonderful storyteller and the unofficial historian of the Ada area. He radiated positivity, warmth, and had a wicked sense of humor. Henry never met a stranger, and cherished time spent with family and friends. He especially loved hosting “Happy Hour” at his home – a tradition he and Helen began decades ago. Henry enjoyed fishing, traveling, and reading, and he was an avid fan of both the Ada Cougars and the Oklahoma Sooners. Despite never being able to keep a beat, he loved listening to music and always found joy in it.

Henry is survived by his three daughters: Marsha Katz Rothpan and her husband Jeff; Beth Katz Sherry and her husband Mike; and Barbara Katz Cobin and her husband Todd. He is also survived by his grandchildren Drew and Shayna Cobin, Leah and Gabe Sherry, his nephew Ron Lane of Ada, and many nieces, nephews, and cousins.

He was preceded in death by his wife Helen, his brother Alfred J. Katz, and his sister Bryna Katz Lane.

The family is incredibly grateful to Tina and Makayla Stephens for their love and care.

Pallbearers are Todd Cobin, Drew Cobin, Tom Cooper, Ron Lane, Jeff Rothpan, Mike Sherry and Gabe Sherry.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, the Ada Library Friends, Temple B’nai Israel, or a charity of your choice.

The funeral service will be livestreamed on the Criswell Funeral Home Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/criswellfuneralhome).

Henry, you will be missed by all who knew you.

May his memory be a blessing forever.

 

A New Brod/Brotman Discovery—Thanks to Leah Larkin!

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I hit a solid brick wall over thirteen years ago trying to find ancestors earlier than my great-grandparents on the Brotman/Brod branch of my tree. I still continued to find cousins, like my Goldfarb cousins, but even that had seemed to end. But recently another new Brotman/Brod cousin and I connected, thanks to the DNA Geek, Leah Larkin, the nationally known expert on genetic genealogy who has been helping me for years in my efforts to learn more about my Brotman/Brod family.

Back in December, Leah wrote to me, saying that she had located a new Brod family match, a woman descended from Gussie Goldfarb, my grandmother Gussie Brotman Goldschlager’s first cousin. Gussie Goldfarb was the daughter of Sarah Brod Goldfarb, and Sarah was the sister of my great-grandmother Bessie Brod Brotman, my namesake.1

The new match was a woman named Ellen, and Ellen listed Gussie Goldfarb as her great-grandmother on her Ancestry tree. But Leah pointed out that on Ellen’s tree, Gussie was married to someone named Harry Gross and had had a daughter named Rosa in 1906 with Harry. Rosa was Ellen’s grandmother. I had no record of Gussie being married to Harry or of a daughter. On my tree, Gussie had married a man named Max Katz in 1910 and had died nine years later in 1919 when she was only 31 years old. Could there be an error in my tree? Or could there have been two different Gussie Goldfarbs?

Leah didn’t think the second possibility was likely because Ellen not only matched me, but she matched two other Goldfarb cousins with a lot more shared DNA—Alyce and Gabrielle, both of whom were descended from one of Gussie Goldfarb’s brothers, Alyce from Joe Goldfarb, Gabrielle from Julius Goldfarb. The number of shared centimorgans (213) between Alyce and Ellen was large enough to make them second cousins, once removed, and the amount shared with Gabrielle (111 cM) made her a third cousin to Ellen, the relationships they would share if Ellen’s tree was accurate. Ellen shared enough DNA with me (53 cM) to support the fact that we were third cousins, once removed. It certainly looked like Ellen’s tree was accurate and that her great-grandmother Gussie was the daughter of Sarah Brod Goldfarb.

So I contacted Ellen for more information, and she confirmed that Gussie Goldfarb was indeed her grandmother’s mother. When I told her that I only had one marriage record for Gussie and not to Harry Gross, Ellen sent me her grandmother Rosa’s birth certificate:

Birth record of Rosa Goldfarb

The birth record established that Gussie Goldfarb and Harry Gross were Rosa’s parents.

When I studied Ellen’s tree more carefully, I noticed that Ellen had indicated that Rosa had been adopted by another couple with the surname Wolff and that she had thereafter been known as Rosa Wolff, not Gross. Ellen shared this affidavit signed by a family friend in 1942 attesting to the fact that Rosa had been adopted (whether legally or not isn’t clear) by Esther and Herman Wolff in about 1909, the year before Gussie married Max Katz in 1910.

Affidavit of Gussie Tannenbaum about Rosa Gross Wolff

When I reexamined the marriage certificate I had for Gussie Goldfarb and Max Katz, a few things jumped out at me. One, Gussie was using her birth surname Goldfarb, not Gross, and two, she indicated that her marriage to Max was her first marriage.

Marriage record of Gussie Goldfarb and Max Katz

I began to wonder whether Gussie had ever legally married Harry Gross. I could not find a marriage record for Gussie and Harry, nor did Ellen have one. In 1906 Gussie would have only been eighteen years old when Rosa was born (although Rosa’s birth certificate above indicates that Gussie was twenty-one). Perhaps Gussie had Rosa “out of wedlock.” Maybe she and Harry had never married and that’s why Rosa was eventually given up for adoption to the Wolffs.

Although we know what happened to Gussie after Rosa went to live with the Wolffs—she married Max in 1910 and died in 1919 but had no more children—we do not know what happened to Ellen’s great-grandfather Harry Gross. Neither Ellen nor I could find any later record that we could identify as relating to Harry. The name is common enough that census records do not help, even when I tried searching by the address on the 1906 birth certificate for Rosa. The next step is to look at Ellen’s DNA matches to see if we can identify any matches that connect to Harry as opposed to her maternal matches and her matches to Gussie. We are hoping that Leah can help with that.

But from my genealogy perspective, I am thrilled that I have learned more about Gussie Goldfarb and that I have found another genetic cousin, my third cousin, once removed, Ellen. I had no idea that Gussie had any descendants, and without Leah’s help with the DNA matches, I would never have known that Gussie had a daughter Rosa and that Rosa had children and grandchildren. How wonderful that Gussie has them all as her legacy.

 

  1. You may recall that both Sarah and my great-grandmother Bessie have some records that list their birth surname as Brod  some that list it as Brotman. ↩