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I am interested in genealogy and family research, books, movies, cats, dogs, and baseball.

Julius J. Adler, Part I: Was His Birth Name Joseph?

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The third son of Sara Rothschild and Moses Adler, Joseph, was born on July 28, 1887, in Niedermeiser, Germany, and as I mentioned in my first post about Sara’s family, I could not find any further documentation of the existence of this son other than his birth record:

Joseph Adler birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 909; Signatur: 7413, Year Range: 1887, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

I searched for a Joseph Adler in US and German records but failed to come up with anyone who was a definite or even a likely match. (The name was quite common.)

And then, when I was researching Louis Adler, as I mentioned in my first post about Louis, I saw that on the 1920 US census, Louis Adler’s household in Leavenworth, Kansas, included a brother named Julius as well as three children of Julius: Roland, C(h)rystal, and Irene. Julius was 32 years old, so likely born in 1887 or 1888. He was a widower and a baker. I wondered whether Julius Adler could be the same person as Joseph Adler, who was born in 1887.

Louis Adler 1920 US census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Leavenworth Ward 6, Leavenworth, Kansas; Roll: T625_537; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 109,
Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census

That led me to search for Julius Adler and his three children. The 1920 census is hard to read, but it looks like Julius arrived in the US in either 1901 or 1907 and was naturalized in 1911. According to this census record, his three children were all born in Wisconsin, so American-born. Roland was seven, Crystal five, and Irene three and a half. With those clues, I went to look for Julius Adler in Wisconsin on the 1900 and 1910 census records as well as on immigration and naturalization records.

I could not find him on any passenger ship manifest, but I did find him on the 1910 census in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He was then 22 and a baker, so that fit with the facts reported on the 1920 census. He was not yet married. On this census he reported that he had arrived in the US in 1906.1

Since his son Roland was seven in 1920, I assumed he was born in 1912-1913 in Wisconsin, so I searched for a birth record and found one for a George Rolland Adler born February 12, 1912.2 Searching further for Roland, I found a Roland George Adler born February 12, 1912, in Stevens Point, Wisconsin in the Social Security Applications and Claims Index on Ancestry. His parents were Julius J. Adler and Edith Richelt.3 I also found Chrystal Adler on the SSACI, and she was born in Stevens Point to Julius and Edith on January 30, 1914.4

Knowing the name of the mother of Roland and Chrystal was Edith Reichelt or Richelt led me to a marriage record for Julius. He married “Ida Richelt” on May 11, 1911, in Portage County, Wisconsin.5 I then found a news article about their wedding:

“Adler-Richelt,” Stevens Point (WI) Journal, May 12, 1911, p. 1

It appears that Ida was also known as Edith and that her birth surname was also sometimes spelled Reichelt.

In any event, all of this was interesting, but it didn’t definitively tie Julius Adler to the Joseph Adler born to Sara Rothschild and Moses Adler.

But the fact that Julius was in Wisconsin in 1910, the same state where Sigmund Adler was living and going to school at that time, seemed likely to have been more than coincidental and made me think it was very likely that Julius was in fact the same person as Joseph Adler. This little article in the March 16, 1916, Leavenworth, Kansas, newspaper also buttressed the ties between Louis, Sigmund, and Julius:

“Looking for Brother,” The Leavenworth (KS) Times, March 16, 1916, p. 5

Notice that Louis knew that Julius had been in Beloit, Wisconsin four years earlier in 1912. Sigmund went to Beloit College in Beloit before attending the University of Wisconsin in Madison and finishing his education there. Had Julius been drawn to Beloit, Wisconsin by Sigmund or perhaps vice versa? By 1916 when Louis was searching for Julius, Sigmund had left Wisconsin and was in Michigan. Perhaps that’s when Louis lost touch with Julius.

I knew that Julius’ children Roland and Chrystal were both born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, but Irene, the youngest of the three, was born September 12, 1915, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.6 So sometime between 1914 and 1915, Julius and his family had relocated to Minneapolis. I also knew from the 1920 census that Julius was a widower by 1920, so sometime between September 12, 1915, and the taking of the 1920 census, his wife Edith/Ida must have passed away.

I found this obituary for Edith, and it filled in some of these holes:

“Mrs. Julius Adler,” Stevens Point (WI) Journal, September 3, 1919, p. 5

Edith was only thirty years old, and her children were only seven, five, and three, when she died from tuberculosis on August 28, 1919. She was buried back in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, where she was raised and where she’d married Julius just eight years before.

And then Julius appeared on the 1920 census, living with his older brother Louis in Leavenworth, Kansas. For all his legal troubles, Louis came through for his younger brother. He looked for him and obviously when he learned that his wife had died, he welcomed Julius and his young children into his home. Louis and his wife Edna had no children of their own, so it must have been quite an adjustment having Julius and three young children move in with them.

Of course, I still had no absolute proof that Julius was the same person as the Joseph Adler born on July 28, 1887 to Sara Rothschild and Moses Adler, just circumstantial evidence: the 1920 census listing him as Louis Adler’s brother, the fact that he had lived in Beloit, Wisconsin, around the same time that Sigmund Adler was in school there, and the fact that he was born in Germany in around 1887. But for me that circumstantial evidence was strong enough to conclude unless proven otherwise that Julius must have been the secular name adopted by Sara and Moses for the third-born son Joseph. And so based on that assumption, I will continue in my next post to tell the story of Joseph/Julius Adler and his family.

What do you think? Have I persuaded you that Julius Adler was the son named on the 1887 birth record as Joseph, son of Sara and Moses?

To those celebrating Hanukkah (and everyone else), I hope you are finding some light, some hope, in these very dark days. It seems like just one tragedy after another since the weekend: Brown, Bondi Beach, Rob Reiner, an MIT professor, teens at a sweet sixteen party in Brooklyn. Everywhere we turn, we see the results of violence and hatred and guns. I am searching for the light and the hope, but it just keeps getting harder.

Be safe, everyone, and be kind.

  1. Julius J Adler, Age in 1910 22, Birth Date 1888, Birthplace Germany, Home in 1910 Menomonee Falls, Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA, Sheet Number 14a, Street Fond Du Loc St, Race White, Gender Male, Immigration Year 1906, Relation to Head of House Baker, Marital Status Single, Father’s Birthplace Germany, Mother’s Birthplace Germany, Native Tongue English, Occupation Baker, Industry Bakery
    Employer, Employee or Other Wage Earner, Naturalization Status Alien, Able to read Yes Able to Write Yes, Enumeration District Number 0163, Out of Work N, Number of Weeks Out of Work 0, Enumerated Year 1910, Year: 1910; Census Place: Menomonee Falls, Waukesha, Wisconsin; Roll: T624_1741; Page: 14a; Enumeration District: 0163; FHL microfilm: 1375754, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  2. George Rolland Adler, Birth Date 22 Feb 1912, Birth County Portage, Wisconsin, USA, Wisconsin Department of Health Services; Madison, WI, USA; Wisconsin Birth Records, Ancestry.com. Wisconsin, U.S., Birth Records, 1812-1921 ↩
  3. Roland George Adler [Roland Edward Adler] [Roland Adler] Gender Male, Race White, Birth Date 22 Feb 1912, Birth Place Stevenspoint, Wisconsin, Death Date 6 May 1999, Father Julius J Adler Mother Edith Richelt SSN 488109582, Notes Nov 1936: Name Listed As Roland George Adler; Sep 1964: Name Listed As Roland Edward Adler; 12 May 1999: Name Listed As Roland E Adler, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  4. Chrystal Lorraine Adler, [Chrystal Lor Boyd] [Chrystal Boyd] Gender Female
    Race White, Birth Date 30 Jan 1914, Birth Place Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Death Date 1 Jun 2004, Father Julius Adler, Mother Edith Reichelt, SSN 494035530
    Notes Dec 1936: Name Listed As Chrystal Lorraine Adler; Nov 1955: Name Listed As Chrystal Lor Boyd; 05 Jun 2004: Name Listed As Chrystal L Boyd, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  5. Julius Adler, Marriage Date 11 May 1911, Marriage County Portage, Wisconsin, USA, Spouse Ida Reichelt, Wisconsin Historical Society; Madison, WI, USA; Wisconsin Marriage Records 1907-1939, Ancestry.com. Wisconsin, U.S., Marriage Records, 1820-2004 ↩
  6. Irene Jeanette Kohring, [Irene J Kohring] [Irene Jeanette Adler] Gender Female
    Race White, Birth Date 12 Sep 1915, Birth Place Minneapolis, Minnesota, Death Date 6 Jun 2000, Father Julius J Adler, Mother Edith Reichelt, SSN 489071723, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩

Sigmund Adler, A Life Dedicated to the Young

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Compared to the rather tumultuous life of his older brother Louis, the life of Sara Rothschild and Moses Adler’s second child Sigmund seems relatively uneventful, but not without its own drama. And it started even earlier in Sigmund’s life. He was sent off at the age of twelve to live with an uncle in the United States; he arrived even earlier than his older brother Louis. As with Louis, who also immigrated as a teenager, I am very curious as to what would lead a parent to allow a child to leave home and cross the ocean at such a young age. But I don’t have an answer.

Sigmund was born on March 10, 1886, and immigrated to the US in 1898, according to numerous census records including the 1900 census taken just two years later. On that census Sigmund was living in Lexington, Kentucky with his uncle Louis Adler, his father’s brother (not Sigmund’s own same-named brother), a shoe merchant. Sigmund was in school and had been listed as an honor student the year before at the Dudley Public School in Lexington.1

Sigmund Adler 1900 US census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Lexington Ward 4, Fayette, Kentucky; Roll: 519; Page: 10; Enumeration District: 0022, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

By 1910, Sigmund had left his uncle’s home and Lexington, Kentucky, behind and was living in Madison, Wisconsin. He was living as a lodger with an unrelated family and listed no occupation. I was puzzled as to what had brought him to Wisconsin so looked for him in the newspapers.com database to see if there were any articles that shed light on that question.2

I found several articles that provided the answer. Sigmund had left Kentucky to attend Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin, and then the University of Wisconsin, which is in Madison, Wisconsin. After graduating he was hired by the YMCA in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to be the Assistant Secretary and Boys’ Secretary; as described in the paper, he would be in charge of clerical matters, but primarily responsible for programming for boys at the Y.3 The article below (click and zoom in to read) discusses Sigmund’s involvement in and commitment to programming for boys at the Y during his time at the university.

“To Boost Boy’s Work, Kenosha (WI) News, February 16, 1911, p. 2

A later article further detailed Sigmund’s expected responsibilities. “There will be meetings for boys at which interesting topics will be discussed and an effort will be made to have the boys take up natural history with long walks into the country to follow up on this work. Secretary Adler is full of enthusiasm and full of plans for the boys and it is pretty certain that the directors will give him free rein to carry out these plans.”4

In February 1912, Sigmund spoke at a local church; his talk was titled, “The Foreigners within our Gates.” The newspaper commented that “Mr. Adler came to this country as an emmigrant [sic] when he was fifteen years of age [actually twelve]. He worked hard and earned enough money to pay his way through the University of Wisconsin and now holds a responsible position.”5

Six months later Sigmund announced that he would be leaving the Kenosha YMCA for a similar position in Richmond, Virginia. The local paper bemoaned his impending departure, commenting on all the good work he had done:6

[H]is work for boys in this city has attracted attention among association men all over the country. No more popular leader of boys ever came to Kenosha. His work has made the YMCA the social headquarters for the boys of the city and he has brought a big interest in this work to the boys.

The article then listed numerous projects that Sigmund had successfully initiated and led. It also pointed out that Sigmund would have preferred staying in Kenosha, but because of plans for building a new building, “there is grave doubt as to whether or not this work can be continued during the coming year….”7  There was even a farewell dinner for Sigmund attended by a hundred boys.8

Sigmund was still affiliated with the Richmond YMCA in March 1913 when he came to Ishpeming, Michigan, to speak at a boys’ conference there.9 But not long afterward he must have taken a job at the Y in Ishpeming because when he married Ethel Farrill of Kenosha on August 14, 1913, the newspaper story about their wedding noted that Sigmund was now “in charge of YMCA work” in Ishpeming, Michigan.10

Ethel Farrill was the daughter of Reverend Edgar Thomas Farrill and Mary Alice Fenner of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; she was born in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, on April 28, 1885.11 Ethel was a graduate of Smith College and had been teaching in the schools in Kenosha, Wisconsin.12

Sigmund and Ethel had a baby boy named Edgar Farrill Adler on August 27, 1914, in Ishpeming, Michigan, but sadly the baby died a month later on September 28, 1914, from congenital heart disease. Although the name on the death record is Randall Adler and at first I thought Sigmund and Ethel lost two babies born on August 27, 1914, I could find no birth record for Randall and no death record for Edgar. A newspaper article mentioned only one baby. So either Sigmund and Ethel changed the baby’s name (unlikely) or the person filling out the death certificate misheard the baby’s name. 13

Edgar Farrill Adler birth record, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services; Lansing, MI, USA; Michigan Birth Records, 1867-1920, Reference Number: 1-316, Michigan, U.S., Birth Records, 1867-1914

Death record for son of Sigmund Adler and Ethel Farrill, Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics; Lansing, Michigan; Death Records
 199: Lenawee-Missaukee, 1914, Ancestry.com. Michigan, U.S., Death Records, 1867-1952

Sigmund and Ethel later adopted a baby boy and named him Edgar Thomas Adler. He was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, on April 3, 1917.14

Sigmund registered for the World War I draft on September 12, 1918, in Ishpeming, Michigan. He listed his occupation as “social welfare” for the Cleveland-Cliffs Mining Company.

Sigmund Adler World War I draft registration, Registration State: Michigan; Registration County: Marquette County, Draft Card: A, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

By 1920, however, Sigmund and his family had relocated again, this time to Hartford, Connecticut, where Sigmund was once again working for the YMCA.15 He finally became a naturalized citizen of the United States on October 25, 1921.16 And appropriately enough his job with the Hartford Y was the secretary of Americanization. Sigmund gave many speeches on the subject and also supervised a program where local volunteers would go into the factories to teach employees about the process of “Americanization.”17

Sigmund returned to working with young people by 1925 when he was a teacher and a guidance counselor in the public high school in Hartford.18 On the 1930 US census, he listed his occupation as a public school teacher; he and Ethel and Edgar were living in Rocky Hill, Connecticut.19 They were still living in Rocky Hill in 1940, and Sigmund continued to teach at a public school.20

Their son Edgar, now 23, was working as a laborer in 1940.21 His World War II draft registration filed later that year revealed that Edgar was working for the Royal Typewriter Company in Hartford and was living at home in Rocky Hill. He enlisted on February 12, 1941, and was discharged with the rank of captain in the US Army on December 26, 1945.22 He served with the Fifth Army in Italy during World War II, earning a Bronze Star and the European African Middle Eastern Service Medal.23

Edgar Adler World War II draft registration, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For Connecticut, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 2, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

Edgar married Edith Constance Gilbert on July 3, 1943, in Augusta, Georgia.23 She was born in September 6, 1923, in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, to Harry Gilbert and Gertrude Codaire.24 They would have two children born in the 1940s. Edgar at some point earned a degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

Sadly, Ethel Farrill Adler died on June 12,1944, in Rocky Hill, before she would know her grandchildren. She was 59 years old.25

Sigmund remarried the following year on February 12, 1945, in Bangor, Maine. His second wife was Alice Jennison,26 born on December 15, 1894, in Bangor, to William Jennison and Florence Whitney.27 She had been previously married and was employed as a secretary to an attorney in Bangor.28

In 1950 Sigmund and Alice were living in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, and neither listed an occupation on the census record. Sigmund was now 64 years old and had retired.29 His son Edgar was also living in Rocky Hill in 1950 with his wife Edith and their children; Edgar was working as the manager of a concrete plant.30

Sigmund Adler died on March 10, 1968, in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. His obituary identified him as “the first guidance counselor of the state,” having served as a guidance counselor at Hartford High School for 27 years, retiring in 1948. He was also active in several civic organizations and in 1962 had been named Man of the Year by B’nai Brith, which surprised me because nothing in Sigmund’s life in the US indicated any connection to Judaism. In fact, his memorial service was at the Rocky Hill Congregational Church.31 Sigmund’s second wife Alice survived him by 26 years. She died at the age of 99 on May 10, 1994, in Rocky Hill.32

Sigmund’s son Edgar died on March 22, 2005, in Hyannis, Massachusetts, not far from where I now live. He was 87 years old. According to his obituary, “[h]e was employed as a boat captain in the charter fishing industry for 25 years prior to retiring in 1979.”33 His wife Edith died twelve years later on January 15, 2017. She was 93 and had been a registered nurse.34 Edgar and Edith were survived by their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Sigmund Adler’s story stands in stark contrast to that of his older brother Louis, despite the fact that both came as boys to America without their parents. Louis had a life filled with conflict, but like Sigmund, had a long marriage. Sigmund, on the other hand, lived a life that was based on education and service, and although he moved around a lot early on, he lived most of adult life in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, teaching and helping young people find a successful path in life.

As with Louis, I will always wonder why Sara Rothschild and Moses Adler sent Sigmund off to the United States when he was so young. Perhaps in this case they saw his intelligence and his potential and believed his opportunity for success would be greater in the United States than it would have been in a small town in Germany. He certainly found that success.

And now we turn to the third son of Sara and Moses, who also came to the United States when he was quite young. Let’s see what paths his life took. Would they be more like that of his brother Louis or that of his brother Sigmund?

 

  1. “Honors for February,” Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader, February 22, 1899, p. 2. ↩
  2. Sigmund Adler, 1910 US census, Year: 1910; Census Place: Madison Ward 5, Dane, Wisconsin; Roll: T624_1708; Page: 3a; Enumeration District: 0061; FHL microfilm: 1375721, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  3. “To Boost Boy’s Work,” Kenosha (WI) News, February 16, 1911, p. 2. ↩
  4. “Will Keep Boys Busy,” Kenosha (WI) News, February 21, 1911, p. 1. ↩
  5. “Speaks at Church,” The Journal Times (Racine, WI), February 26, 1912, p. 7. ↩
  6. “Going to Richmond,” Kenosha (WI) News, August 27, 1912, p. 4. ↩
  7. Ibid. ↩
  8. Kenosha (WI) News, September 4, 1912, p. 5. ↩
  9. “Delegates Leave Friday to Attend Boys’ Meet,” The Calumet (MI) News, March 26, 1913, p. 5. ↩
  10. “Miss Farrill Weds,” Kenosha (WI) News, August 15, 1913, p. 5. See also Sigmund Adler, Marriage Date 14 Aug 1913, Marriage County Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, Spouse, Ethel A Farrill, Wisconsin Historical Society; Madison, WI, USA; Wisconsin Marriage Records 1907-1939, Ancestry.com. Wisconsin, U.S., Marriage Records, 1820-2004 ↩
  11. Ethel Alice, Gender, Female, Race White Birth Date 28 Apr 1885 Birth Place
    Hopkinton, New Hampshire, USA, Father Edgar T Farrell. Mother M Farrell, Birth Certificates, 1631-1919; Archive: New Hampshire Department of State; Location: Concord, New Hampshire; Credit: The Original Document May Be Seen At the New Hampshire Department of State; Ancestry.com. New Hampshire, U.S., Birth Records, 1631-1920 ↩
  12. See Note 10, supra. ↩
  13. See images above. Kenosha (WI) News, September 30, 1914, p. 5 (news report of the death of Edgar Farrill Adler). ↩
  14. See Edgar Adler on the 1920 US census, where he is described as their adopted son. Year: 1920; Census Place: Hartford Ward 10, Hartford, Connecticut; Roll: T625_184; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 124, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census. Edgar Thomas Adler [Edgar T Adler], Gender Male, Race White, Birth Date 3 Apr 1917, Birth Place Fondulac, Wisconsin, Death Date 22 Mar 2005, Father Sigmund Adler, Mother Ethel Farrill, SSN 049015785, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  15. Sigmund Adler and family, 1920 US census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Hartford Ward 10, Hartford, Connecticut; Roll: T625_184; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 124, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  16. Sigmund Adler, Naturalization Age 35, Record Type Naturalization, Birth Date 10 Mar 1886, Birth Place Germany, Naturalization Date 25 Oct 1921, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC; Indexes to Naturalization Petitons For United States District Courts, Connecticut, 1851-1992 (M2081); Microfilm Serial: M2081; Microfilm Roll: 1, Ancestry.com. U.S., Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project) ↩
  17. “YMCA Planning to Educate Aliens in City Factories,” Hartford (CT) Courant, September 11, 1919, p. 16. ↩
  18. “Older Girls Hold Annual Conference,” Hartford (CT) Courant, April 18, 1925, p. 9. ↩
  19. Sigmund Adler, 1930 US census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Rocky Hill, Hartford, Connecticut; Page: 18A; Enumeration District: 0207; FHL microfilm: 2340003, Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩
  20. Sigmund Adler, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Rocky Hill, Hartford, Connecticut; Roll: m-t0627-00506; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 2-199,
    Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  21. See Note 20, supra. ↩
  22. Edgar T. Adler, National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland, USA; Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, 1938-1946; NAID: 1263923; Record Group Title: Records of the National Archives and Records Administration, 1789-ca. 2007; Record Group: 64; Box Number: 03303; Reel: 52, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 ↩
  23. “Adler-Gilbert,” Hartford (CT) Courant, July 30, 1943, p. 11. ↩ ↩
  24. Edith C Adler, Death Age 93, Birth Date 6 Sep 1923, Death Date 15 Jan 2017
    Interment Place Bourne, Massachusetts, USA, Massachusetts National Cemetery
    Section D, Row 2, Plot D30, National Cemetery Administration; U.S. Veterans’ Gravesites, National Cemetery Administration. U.S., Veterans’ Gravesites, ca. 1775-2019; Edith Adler, 1930 US Census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Rocky Hill, Hartford, Connecticut; Page: 22A; Enumeration District: 0207; FHL microfilm: 2340003, Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩
  25. Ethel Adler, Death Date 12 Jun 1944, Death Place Rocky Hill, Connecticut, USA, Connecticut Department of Public Health; Hartford, Connecticut, USA, Ancestry.com. Connecticut, U.S., Death Index, 1917-2017 ↩
  26. Sigmund Adler, Gender Male, Residence Rocky Hill, CT, Spouse’s Name Alice Jennison, Spouse’s Gender Female, Spouse’s Residence Bangor, ME, Marriage Date 5 Oct 1945, Marriage Place Maine, USA, Ancestry.com. Maine, U.S., Marriage Index, 1892-1996, Original data: Maine State Archives. Maine Marriages 1892-1996 (except 1967 to 1976). ↩
  27. Alice Jennison, Gender Female Birth Date 15 Dec 1895 Birth Place Bangor, Penobscot, Maine, USA, Father William A Jennison. Mother Florence Whitney, Maine State Archives; Cultural Building, 84 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0084; 1892-1907 Vital Records; Roll Number: 29, Ancestry.com. Maine, U.S., Birth Records, 1715-1922 ↩
  28. Alice Jennison, Gender Female, Age 27, Birth Date abt 1894, Birth Place Bangor, Marriage Date 5 Nov 1921, Marriage Place Bangor, Kennebec, Maine, USA
    Father William A Jennison, Mother Florence Whitney, Spouse Miles F Ham, Maine State Archives; Cultural Building, 84 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0084; 1908-1922 Vital Records; Roll Number: 24, Ancestry.com. Maine, U.S., Marriage Records, 1713-1922 ↩
  29. Sigmund Adler, 1950 US census, National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Rocky Hill, Hartford, Connecticut; Roll: 3568; Page: 19; Enumeration District: 2-205, Ancestry.com. 1950 United States Federal Census ↩
  30. Edgar T. Adler, 1950 US census, National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Rocky Hill, Hartford, Connecticut; Roll: 3568; Page: 14; Enumeration District: 2-206, Ancestry.com. 1950 United States Federal Census ↩
  31. Sigmund Adler, Gender Male, Birth Date 10 Mar 1886, Death Date 15 Mar 1968
    Claim Date 20 Dec 1965, SSN 048362456, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007; “Sigmund Adler Dies; Guidance Counselor,” Hartford (CT) Courant, March 11, 1968, p. 8. ↩
  32. Alice Adler death notice, Hartford (CT) Courant, May 12, 1994, p. 90. ↩
  33. Edgar T. Adler, Social Security Number 049-01-5785, Birth Date 3 Apr 1917
    Issue year Before 1951, Issue State Connecticut, Last Residence 02675, Yarmouth Port, Barnstable, Massachusetts, Death Date 22 Mar 2005, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014; Edgar T. Adler, The Barnstable (MA) Patriot, April 1, 2005, found at https://www.barnstablepatriot.com/story/news/2005/03/31/obituaries-4-1-05/33017465007/ ↩
  34. Edith Constance Adler obituary, found at https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/sandwich-ma/edith-adler-7253066 ↩

Louis Adler, Continued: More Troubles in the 1930s

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My last post before Thanksgiving about Louis Adler stirred a lot of interest. Many wondered why he got into so much legal trouble: was it discrimination? Was it economic desperation? Was it just his nature? We don’t know.

Two readers went above and beyond and did their own research, looking for answers. Linda Stufflebean, a fellow genealogy blogger who writes the blog Empty Branches on the Family Tree, tried to find more information about Louis’ wife Edna Anderson. Although she found a birth record for a Hetna Brandes born in Copenhagen around the same time period that Edna was born, neither of us could find anything that connected Hetna to Edna. So Edna’s background remains a mystery. I went back and searched everything again and still have no immigration record for Edna nor anything else before her marriage to Louis Adler.

Another reader, John Shriver, decided to look for more news articles about Louis. He subscribes to two newspaper services I don’t follow–newspaperarchives.com and oldnews.com–and sent me several articles from the 1930s and later that I could not find in the databases to which I have access: newspapers.com and genealogybank.com  The last article I had found about Louis, as reported in that earlier blog post, told of his arrest for possession and transportation of alcohol in April 1931.

Apparently Louis was convicted of those charges because the earliest article that John found was dated May 24, 1932, and reports on Louis Adler’s release from prison after eleven months. On a positive note, the article described Louis as a “prominent Leavenworth man” and as “one of the most likable and best behaved prisoners ever to serve in the local jail.”

“Gains Freedom After Nearly Year in Jail,” Hutchinson (KS) News, May 24, 1932, p.11

But Louis did not avoid controversy for long. In 1934 he became embroiled in a political and legal battle involving garbage pickup services in Leavenworth. Louis had made an agreement with the city to pick up the city garbage for a year for one dollar. When there were numerous complaints that the garbage was not all being collected and creating a health hazard, Louis offered to buy whoever could find any uncollected garbage “a $50 suit of clothes.”

“Charges Are Hurled in a Leavenworth Rumpus,” Lawrence (KS) Daily Journal-World, February 9, 1934, p. 1

I could not understand why Louis would agree to pick up all that garbage for $1 a year until I read the last two paragraphs of the article: he was using the garbage to feed his hogs!  But when he realized that there were objects like glass and cans in the garbage, making it unsuitable to use as hog feed, perhaps he stopped picking up the garbage. Or maybe this was just the case of a disgruntled commissioner who had lost the garbage contract to Louis. Once again, it’s hard to know what was really going on with Louis.

The next article about Louis that John Shriver located is dated August 5, 1937, and is about a fire that destroyed a desiccating plant in Leavenworth that seems to have belonged to Louis Adler.

“Wants Plant Rebuilt Elsewhere,” Lawrence (KS) Journal-World, August 5, 1937, p. 6

I had no idea what a desiccating plant was, but Google defines it as a plant “involved in the processing of animal carcasses into products like fertilizer, hides, or rendered fats.” Since Louis raised hogs and perhaps other farm animals, it would make sense that he had a facility for processing their carcasses. It looks like Louis once again raised the ire of the local community just three years after the garbage controversy.

Louis was not directly involved in the next article, dated March 20, 1939, but his wife and an employee named Lange were. Lange was a security guard Louis hired to protect his property; he was killed by intruders while trying to protect Edna.

“New Job Costs His Life,” Lawrence (KS) Daily Journal, March 20, 1939, p. 1

The final article that John Shriver found that concerned Louis Adler was dated March 9, 1940, and it also did not directly involve Louis. I learned something new in studying this article–that Kansas continued to ban alcohol sales even after federal prohibition ended. It was the last state in the country to lift the ban–in 1948!

Anyway, although neither Louis nor Edna was charged with possession or sales of alcohol in this article, it seems to suggest that the authorities suspected that such illegal activity was being conducted on their property.

“Two Are Arraigned,” Lawrence (KS) Daily Journal-World, March 9, 1940, p. 1

I love that last sentence: “They found Mrs. Adler churning butter in the kitchen of the house but a search disclosed no liquor.”

As we saw, Louis Adler died on February 1, 1942, just about two years after that last article. John did not find an obituary or any other relevant article after the 1940 article above. Perhaps Louis’ life settled down and he was able to live in peace for those last couple of years.

 

Louis Adler, A Man with Many Legal Troubles

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Sara Rothschild Adler’s first child was her son Louis, born on December 4, 1884, in Niedermeier, Germany. Louis was just a teenager when he left home and immigrated to the United States. I could not find a passenger ship manifest for Louis despite hours of searching, but according to the 1910 census1 he arrived in 1900 when he was going on sixteen years old. Louis also provided that year of arrival in a document he filed on February 11, 1918, to register as an “alien enemy” during World War I.2 In fact, he was quite specific in saying he arrived on the Kaiser William in New York on April 22, 1900. Even with that information, however, I could not find him on a ship manifest on any ship arriving within two years before or after 1900.

Louis Adler, 1918 Alien Enemy registration, Arrival Date 22 Apr 1900, Arrival Place New York, Ship Kaiser William, District Court, Kansas, National Archives at Kansas City; Kansas City, MO, USA; Record Group: Records of United States Attorneys and Marshals, 1821-1994; Record Group Number: Rg 118; Catalog: Enemy Alien Registration Affidavits, 1917-1921; Catalog Number: 286181, Ancestry.com. Kansas, Permits and Registration of Alien Enemy Residents, 1918.

But a few months before filing that February 11, 1918, document, Louis filed a different document required by his “alien enemy” status. In that document dated December 13, 1917, he stated that he had arrived in the US on April 21, 1901. (That’s why I searched for two years before and after 1900.)

Louis Adler 1917 Alien Enemy registration, National Archives at Kansas City; Kansas City, MO, USA; Record Group: Records of United States Attorneys and Marshals, 1821-1994; Record Group Number: Rg 118; Catalog: Enemy Alien Registration Affidavits, 1917-1921; Catalog Number: 286181, List of Permits Issued to Alien Enemies 1918, Ancestry.com. Kansas, Permits and Registration of Alien Enemy Residents, 1918

Also, his naturalization registration dated September 14, 1921, lists April 1, 1901, as Louis’ date of arrival. And on the 1930 US census his date of arrival is also 1901.

Louis Adler naturalization card, The National Archives at Kansas City; Kansas City, Missouri; Naturalization Index for the Western District of Missouri, compiled 1930 – 1950, documenting the period ca. 1848 – ca. 1950; Record Group Title: Records of the District Courts of the United States; Record Group Number: RG 21, Surname Range: Aach – Amonia, Ancestry.com. Missouri, U.S., Western District Naturalization Index, 1840-1990

Just to add to the confusion, the 1920 US census reports his arrival as 1903,3 and a 1925 Kansas census reports his arrival in 18954 when he would have been eleven! (Louis also was inconsistent with how he reported his date of naturalization so perhaps we just should assume he was an unreliable reporter.)

In any event, Louis Adler likely arrived in New York from Germany in April of either 1900 or 1901 when he was either fifteen or sixteen years old. I have no evidence of where he first lived on arrival.

But on March 24, 1906, Louis Adler obtained a license to marry Edna Anderson in Kansas City, Missouri.5 According to the 1910 census6 and almost every subsequent US census record on which Edna appears, she was born in Denmark in about 1877-1878 and arrived in the US in 1903. I do not have any records that reveal more precisely where or when she was born, who her parents were, or when she arrived in the US.

In 1910, Louis and Edna were still living in Kansas City, and Louis was working in a butcher shop. They also had a boarder living with them.

Louis Adler 1910 US census, Year: 1910; Census Place: Kansas Ward 9, Jackson, Missouri; Roll: T624_787; Page: 16a; Enumeration District: 0119; FHL microfilm: 1374800, Enumeration District: 0119; Description: Kansas City, Old Ward 9 (part) Precinct 10, New Ward 9 (part)
Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census

By December 14, 1917, when Louis filed the first document (see 1917 document above) to register as an “alien enemy”  to obtain a permit to do business, Louis and Edna had moved from Kansas City to Leavenworth, Kansas, and Louis now was self-employed as a dairy farmer. The registration affidavit he filed a few months later in February 1918 (see above) also indicated that he was a “dairyman” living in Leavenworth.

Louis (despite being an alien enemy) registered for the US draft on September 12, 1918, listing Edna as his wife and his occupation as dairyman.

Louis Adler, World War I draft registration, Registration State: Kansas; Registration County: Leavenworth County, Draft Card: A, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

In looking for more information about Louis, I ran across numerous newspaper articles dated between 1918 and 1924 in which Louis was involved in either a legal dispute or a criminal charge. It seems he was a man who couldn’t escape conflicts.

Louis’ public problems seemed to start in July 1918 when his truck was hit by a train while he was taking two calves and a pig to the market in Kansas City. His truck was badly damaged and one of the calves was killed, but Louis escaped without injury. I did not find any articles following up on this incident.

“Train Hits Louis Adler,” The Leavenworth (Kansas) Post, July 25, 1918

But a year later on July 9, 1919, Louis was arrested and charged with selling milk that did not meet the standards required for the sale of milk in Leavenworth.

“Arrest a Milk Man,” Leavenworth (Kansas) Tribune, July 9, 1919

This would not be the last time he was accused of this behavior. In fact over and over again, Louis’ legal problems made the newspapers, often on the front page.

Less than a year later he was again charged with selling substandard milk. According to an article in the February 4, 1920, Leavenworth Tribune, Louis had been convicted on the earlier charge but released on a technicality because the ordinance regulating the sale of milk had been too vague. That ordinance had since been amended to provide more clarity. The February 4, 1920, article reported that “[f]our samples bought after the milk had been sold by Adler and while it was in bottles sealed by him showed, after straining, to have contained a quantity of dirt, according to [the inspector].”6 Yuck…

Louis’ troubles continued in June 1920 when he was sued by a local garage owner for non-payment of a bill for repairs to his truck. The headline on the article first discussing this lawsuit read, “Adler In Trouble Again.” Louis was ultimately held liable for payment of the bill.7

Meanwhile, the 1920 US census showed Louis and Edna in Leavenworth and owning a dairy farm where both were working. They had no children of their own, but living with them, as described on the census report, were Louis’ “brother” Julius and his three children. Julius was a widower and a baker born in about 1887. This really puzzled me. Who was Julius? I had no brother named Julius for Louis. I was intrigued. But that’s a story for another post.

Louis Adler 1920 US census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Leavenworth Ward 6, Leavenworth, Kansas; Roll: T625_537; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 109, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census

Louis continued to have legal problems in 1921. In January he was arrested for disturbing the peace because he made “uncomplimentary remarks” about officials who were removing fixtures from a local hotel A subsequent article described his behavior as “loud and boisterous.” Ultimately Louis pled guilty, was sentenced to ten days in jail and subjected to a ten dollar fine; both penalties were then suspended by the judge.8

The Leavenworth (Kansas) Times, January 20, 1921, p. 6

In April 1921, there was another train collision with a vehicle owned by Louis Adler. Louis was not driving this time; one of his hired drivers was. As the article in the April 24, 1921 Leavenworth Times reported:

“Team is Killed by Train Crash, Driver Escapes,” The Leavenworth (Kansas) Times, April 24, 1921, p. 2

Louis sued the railroad and ultimately received a verdict in his favor and a judgment of $350.9

On September 14, 1921, despite all these lawsuits and arrests, Louis became a naturalized citizen of the United States (after claiming on earlier census reports that he was already naturalized).10 But his legal problems did not end. In March 1922, he was sued by a man who had purchased a cow from Louis and claimed that Louis had misrepresented how much milk the cow would produce. Louis lost this case and was found liable for $150 to the plaintiff.11 In July 1922, the Adlers were both sued by an ice cream company that claimed the Adlers owed $274.25 for milk and flour it sold to them.12

Things got worse when Louis was found guilty of violating Prohibition laws in March 1924. One article described him as the “king of the bootleggers” after two police raids found liquor on his property. A first raid uncovered 78 gallons of corn whiskey and a later one fifty gallons of corn whiskey.

The (Leavenworth, Kansas) Chronicle, March 14, 1924, p. 1

A subsequent article in the Leavenworth Chronicle described Louis as a “wholesale moonshiner” and a “persistent violator of the prohibitionary law.” He was fined $1500 and sentenced to eighteen months in jail. As the article so glibly commented, he “may, on conviction, be away from the giddy whirl of society for a long, long time.”13

Louis appealed his conviction, but it was upheld by the Kansas Supreme Court with respect to the possession of alcohol.14

The court concluded:15

The defendants were also convicted of having intoxicating liquor in their possession. Thirteen five-gallon containers of whisky were found hidden in a barn on the Adler premises, which were claimed by them, however, to have been leased to some one else—a claim which the jury were warranted in discrediting. Other five-gallon bottles of whisky were also found along a fence under garbage cans in the street abutting on the Adler place, and in a neighboring ditch. The contention is made that there was no evidence of any of this liquor having been in the possession of the defendants, and particularly of Mrs. Adler. There was evidence fairly open to interpretation as showing an effort on the part of both to bribe the officers to abandon the raid and let them alone, after liquor had been discovered in the barn, and this with other circumstances warranted the verdict rendered.

I don’t know whether or how much time Louis spent in prison for this conviction.

And he didn’t learn his lesson! Despite this conviction, Louis continued to be involved in some aspects of bootlegging. In April 1931 he went on trial in federal court on charges of possession and transportation of liquor after authorities allegedly found fifty gallons of liquor in his car. Louis claimed he’d been framed because he had information that a group of men including the Leavenworth chief of police were selling liquor.16

I did not locate any later articles about Louis Adler after the 1931 arrest for possession and transportation of alcohol. Maybe that arrest really marked the end of his legal troubles or, more likely, maybe I just can’t find any more articles because the newspaper databases I use do not have Leavenworth papers for the years between 1925-1942.

Louis Adler died on February 1, 1942;17 he was 57 years old. Despite all the newspaper coverage of his life in earlier years, I could not locate one obituary for him. Sometime before 1950 his widow Edna remarried; her second husband was George W. Edwards.18 Edna died on May 14, 1959, in Leavenworth, Texas. She is buried in the same cemetery as both her husbands, Mount Muncie Cemetery in Lansing, Kansas. Her name on her headstone has both of her husbands’ surnames: Edna Adler Edwards.19

I wish I knew more about Louis Adler and why he was so often embroiled in legal troubles. Was it resentment on his part after being treated as an “alien enemy” during World War I? Or was he targeted because he was a German immigrant? Or because he was Jewish? Or was he just a difficult person, one who had left home as a troubled teenager? Whatever the reasons for all his troubles, it is noteworthy that his wife Edna stayed with him to the bitter end.

I will be taking the next two weeks off from blogging, but will be back during the first week of December. Wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving a bit early!

 

 

  1. Louis Adler, Age in 1910 26, Birth Date 1884, Birthplace Germany, Home in 1910 Kansas Ward 9, Jackson, Missouri, USA, Immigration Year 1900, Relation to Head of House Head, Marital Status Married, Father’s Birthplace Germany, Mother’s Birthplace Germany, Native Tongue English, Occupation Butcher, Enumeration District Number 0119, Years Married 4, Enumerated Year 1910, Year: 1910; Census Place: Kansas Ward 9, Jackson, Missouri; Roll: T624_787; Page: 16a; Enumeration District: 0119; FHL microfilm: 1374800, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  2. On April 6, 1917, after the US entered World War I against Germany, President Woodrow Wilson invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to require all male German immigrants over the age of fourteen to register as an “alien enemy.” They were photographed and fingerprinted and in some cases detained. See Wilson’s speech here https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/april-6-1917-proclamation-1364. See also Tim Balk, “A History of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798,” The New York Times, March 21, 2025, at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/us/politics/trump-alien-enemies-act-history.html ↩
  3. Louis Adler, 1920 US census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Leavenworth Ward 6, Leavenworth, Kansas; Roll: T625_537; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 109, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  4. Louis Adler, 1925 Kansas Census, Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; 1925 Kansas Territory Census; Roll: KS1925_76; Line: 19, Ancestry.com. Kansas, U.S., State Census Collection, 1855-1925 ↩
  5. Louis Adler, Marriage Date 24 Mar 1906 Marriage Place Jackson, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, Spouse Edna Anderson, Missouri State Archives; Jefferson City, MO, USA; Missouri Marriage Records [Microfilm], Year or Year Range: 1905-1906, Ancestry.com. Missouri, U.S., Marriage Records, 1805-2002 ↩
  6. “Milkman is Arrested,” Leavenworth (Kansas) Tribune, February 4, 1920, p. 8. ↩ ↩
  7. “Adler in Trouble Again,” Leavenworth (Kansas) Tribune, June 22, 1920, p. 1; “Judgment of $75 in Repairs,” The Leavenworth (Kansas) Times, June 23, 1920. ↩
  8. “Adler Finds Friend in Mr. Roy Hubbard,” Leavenworth (Kansas) Tribune, January 25, 1921, p. 1. ↩
  9. “Jury Deliberates More Than Hour; Adler Gets $350,” The Leavenworth (Kansas) Times, February 16, 1922, p. 10 ↩
  10. Louis Adler, Naturalization Age 36, Record Type Naturalization, Birth Date 4 Dec 1884, Arrival Date 1 Apr 1901, Arrival Place New York, Naturalization Date 14 Sep 1921, Naturalization Place Leavenworth, Kansas, USA, Naturalization Courthouse District Court, The National Archives at Kansas City; Kansas City, Missouri; Naturalization Index for the Western District of Missouri, compiled 1930 – 1950, documenting the period ca. 1848 – ca. 1950; Record Group Title: Records of the District Courts of the United States; Record Group Number: RG 21, Ancestry.com. Missouri, U.S., Western District Naturalization Index, 1840-1990 ↩
  11. “Ten Jurors Sit in Damage Suit,” The Leavenworth (Kansas) Times, March 14, 1922, p. 3; “Verdict Favors Martin Grabish in Damage Suit,” The Leavenworth (Kansas) Times, March 21, 1922, p. 2 ↩
  12. “Company Files Suit Against Louis Adler,” The Leavenworth (Kansas) Times, July 7, 1922, p. 1 ↩
  13. The (Leavenworth, Kansas) Chronicle, March 21, 1924, p. 1 ↩
  14. Kansas v. Adler, Supreme Court of Kansas, 119 Kan. 757, 241 P. 119 (1926). A separate verdict for maintaining a “liquor nuisance” where liquor was kept and sold was overturned due to a legal technicality. ↩
  15. Ibid, at 759. ↩
  16. “Kansas Farmer Will Face Liquor Charges,” The (Manhattan, Kansas) Morning Chronicle, April 16, 1931, p. 1 ↩
  17. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/182868544/louis-adler: accessed October 30, 2025), memorial page for Louis Adler (4 Dec 1884–1 Feb 1942), Find a Grave Memorial ID 182868544, citing Mount Muncie Cemetery, Lansing, Leavenworth County, Kansas, USA; Maintained by KAB (contributor 47294688). ↩
  18. Edna and George Edwards, 1950 US census, National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Leavenworth, Leavenworth, Kansas; Roll: 1825; Page: 22; Enumeration District: 52-43, Ancestry.com. 1950 United States Federal Census ↩
  19. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/182868648/edna-edwards: accessed October 30, 2025), memorial page for Edna Adler Edwards (1876–1959), Find a Grave Memorial ID 182868648, citing Mount Muncie Cemetery, Lansing, Leavenworth County, Kansas, USA; Maintained by KAB (contributor 47294688). ↩

Sara Rothschild Adler, Part I: Ten Children in Seventeen Years

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Having completed the story of Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt, I will now move on to the tenth child of Gelle Blumenfeld and Simon Rothschild, their daughter Sara. Fortunately her family has happier stories than those of some of her siblings.

Sara Rothschild was born on either January 6, 1859, or January 3, 1860, in Waltersbrueck, Germany. Her marriage and death records indicate the January 3, 1860, date, but there was no record of her birth on that date in the archives for Waltersbrueck. The birth record below, however, appears to be for Sara (Sarchen) and shows a birth date of January 6, 1859. It’s difficult to read, but the baby’s name is Sarchen, and in very faint letters you can see that the father is Simon and the mother’s name is Gelle Blumenfeld of Momberg. You will need to click on the image and zoom in to see the writing.

Sara Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hessen, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 30, found at https://digitalisate-he.arcinsys.de/hhstaw/365/893/00030.jpg

Sara married Moses Adler on December 26, 1883, in Waltersbrueck. He was the son of Selig Adler and Amalie Winkler and was born in Desenberg, Germany, on April 25, 1858. (Notice the January 3, 1860 birthdate for Sara.)

Sara Rothschild and Moses Adler marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 8409, Year Range: 1883, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Sara and Moses had ten children. Their first was Louis, born December 4, 1884, in Niedermeiser, Germany.

Louis Adler birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 909; Signatur: 7410, Year Range: 1884, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-190

Then came Siegmund, born March 10, 1886, in Niedermeiser.

Siegmund Adler birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 909; Signatur: 7412, Year Range: 1886, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

The third child was Joseph, born July 28, 1887, in Niedermeiser. Joseph proved to be a real challenge to track down later, as we will see.

Joseph Adler birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 909; Signatur: 7413, Year Range: 1887, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

After three sons, Sara and Moses next had a girl, Caroline (also known as Grete), born on August 13, 1889, in Niedermeiser.

Caroline Adler birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 909; Signatur: 7415, Year Range: 1889, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Sara and Moses’ second daughter Malchen was born on March 15, 1891, in Niedermeiser.

Malchen Adler birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 909; Signatur: 7417, Year Range: 1891, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Then came another daughter, Emmi, born in Niedermeiser on September 4, 1892.

Emmi Adler birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 909; Signatur: 7418, Year Range: 1892, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Their seventh child was Tekla, born November 23, 1893 in Niedermeiser. Tekla died when she was only twelve years old on June 17, 1906 in Grebenstein, Germany.

Tekla Adler birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 909; Signatur: 7419, Year Range: 1893, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Tekla Adler death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 3052; Laufende Nummer: 909, Year Range: 1906, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Another boy was born next. David (also known as Theodore) was born on July 2, 1895, in Niedermeiser.

David Adler birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 909; Signatur: 7422, Year Range: 1895, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Then came Betty (also known as Jenny), born on September 20, 1898, in Grebenstein, so the family must have relocated to Grebenstein sometime between July 1895 and September 1898.

Betti Adler birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Signatur: 2954, Year Range: 1898, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Sara and Moses’ last child was Adolph/Adolf Adler, and he died when he was nine months old in Grebenstein on February 25, 1902. I couldn’t locate a birth record, but I can infer from his death record that he was probably born in May, 1901. UPDATE: Richard Bloomfield found in the Arcinsys Archives of Hessen a database of headstone inscriptions from the cemetery in Grebenstein that included information from Adolph’s headstone indicating that he was born on May 11, 1901.

Arcinsys Archives of Hessen, HHStAW, 365, 378, p. 6, found at https://digitalisate-he.arcinsys.de/hhstaw/365/378/00006.jpg

Adolf Adler death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 3048; Laufende Nummer: 909, Year Range: 1902, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Of the ten children born to Sara Rothschild and Moses Adler, eight survived to adulthood: Louis, Siegmund, Joseph, Malchen, Caroline, Emmi, Tekla, David, and Betty Jenny. Miraculously, all eight survived the Holocaust, and all ended up in the United States. Some came long before Hitler came to power, some came after. But they all survived. I will tell all of their stories in the posts to come.

 

 

 

Lotte Nathan: Carrying and Passing on Family Trauma

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Although I couldn’t find out what happened to Bertha Katzenstein Nathan Langebartels, I learned from her naturalization papers that Bertha had had a child with her first husband, Hermann Nathan, named Lotte. Lotte, according to the naturalization petition, was born on May 1, 1915, in Hamburg, Germany. She would have been only eleven years old when her mother and stepfather immigrated to the US in 1926, but she did not come with them. The naturalization petition stated that she “lives in Germany.” The petition also indicated that Friedrich and Bertha had last resided in Hamburg before coming to the United States. I hoped to find Lotte as another way of learning what happened to her mother.

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
Description
Archive Roll Descriptions: (Roll 0542) Petition No· 124777-Petition No· 125042
Source Information
Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Naturalization Records, 1882-1944

My hunch is that Lotte stayed behind with her father Hermann Nathan, but I can’t be certain. But I do know that sometime during or before 1936 Lotte married Emil Fischbein because on September 8, 1936, they left Germany and immigrated to Palestine as a married couple.1 Emil was born in Duisburg, Germany, on September 15, 1912, but was of Polish nationality, according to his Palestine immigration documents; one tree on MyHeritage created by his great-grandson Gil reports that Emil’s parents were Isaak and Esther Fischbein, both born in what is now Poland. German law at that time provided that children born to non-German parents were not considered German.

Emil and Lotte’s Palestine immigration documents also include Lotte’s passport,2 which was issued as a Fremdenpass, or a passport issued by the German government to non-Germans living in Germany. Lotte was not eligible for a regular German passport—either because she had married a “foreigner” or because she was Jewish. Jews whose citizenship had been revoked also were granted Fremdenpasses, not regular German passports.

Lotte’s passport was issued on August 15, 1931, from Koeln (Cologne), which suggests that she was living in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia in 1931, not in Hamburg where she was born and where her mother and stepfather had been living before going to the US. It also appears that Lotte’s father Hermann Nathan was not living in North Rhine Westphalia; he was born in Wittingen3 and in 1939 was living in Hildesheim, both of which are located in the German state of Lower Saxony. Emil, however, was born in Duisburg, which is in North Rhine Westphalia, so perhaps that is where they connected with each other.

By October 15, 1940, when Lotte and Emil obtained Palestinian citizenship, they were living in Haifa and had a son, Hanan, who was born on August 11, 1937, in Haifa.4 Through MyHeritage, I located one of their descendants to learn more about Lotte and her family. Gil is Lotte’s great-grandson; his grandfather was Hanan, the baby born in Haifa in 1937. He told me that family lore is that Lotte left Emil and Hanan when Hanan was a child and went to England with an English soldier.

Some trees on Ancestry and MyHeritage indicate that she married Ronald Francis George Buchanan and died in England in 1971. There is a death record on Ancestry for  Lotte Emma B. Buchanan born on May 1, 1915, the day Lotte Nathan was born; the index indicated that she died in the fall of 1971 in Nottingham, England.5 Another record on Ancestry indicates that she died on November 21, 1971, and was cremated in Nottinghamshire on November 24, 1971.6

Lotte Nathan Fischbein Buchanan had a family history and personal history that was difficult. Her grandmother Bertha Metz died from complications of childbirth just two weeks after giving birth to Lotte’s mother Bertha Katzenstein in New York. Bertha Katzenstein was then taken by her father Adolf to Germany, away from her mother’s family.

Then Lotte’s mother Bertha married Hermann Nathan and had Lotte in 1915, only to be divorced from Hermann in 1919 and to marry Friedrich Langebartels in 1921. In 1926 Bertha and Friedrich came to the US and were there at least long enough to file for US citizenship in 1927, leaving Lotte behind in Germany at eleven years old. I don’t know what happened to Bertha after 1927 or whether Lotte ever reunited with her mother.

We know that there is truth to the concept of generational trauma—how the traumas and tragedies suffered by earlier generations are passed down to the children, grandchildren, and so forth of those earlier generations. Bertha Katzenstein grew up without a mother and was taken from the US to Germany as a child by her father, far from her maternal relatives. We don’t know how that trauma affected her, but in some ways her daughter Lotte suffered a similar trauma when her mother Bertha divorced her father, remarried, and left Lotte behind after moving to the US with her second husband. And then Lotte inflicted a similar trauma on her son Hanan, leaving him behind when she remarried and moved to England.

How tragic it is that the scars of one generation can be so easily passed on to the later generations.

 

  1. Emil and Lotte’s application for citizenship in Palestine in 1940 was found at the Israel State Archives website, temporarily found at https://search.archives.gov.il/, after a cyberattack on their main site. ↩
  2. See Note 1, supra. ↩
  3. Hermann Nathan and Bertha Katzenstein marriage record, Year Range and Volume: 1913 Band 01, Ancestry.com. Hamburg, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1920 ↩
  4. See Palestine immigration documents above. ↩
  5. Name Lottie Emma B Buchanan, Death Age 56, Birth Date 1 May 1915, Registration Date Oct 1971, [Nov 1971] [Dec 1971], Registration Quarter Oct-Nov-Dec, Registration District Nottingham, Inferred County Nottinghamshire, Volume 3c
    Page 1274, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 3c; Page: 1274, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 ↩
  6. Name Lottie Emma Bertha Buchanan, Register Type Cremation, Death Date 21 Nov 1971, Burial or Cremation Date 24 Nov 1971, Burial or Cremation Place Nottinghamshire, Deceased Online; Kettering, England, UK; Deceased Online Burial Indexes, Ancestry.com. Web: UK, Burial and Cremation Index, 1576-2024 ↩

How My American-born Grandmother Lost Her US Citizenship

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An update of a seven year old post:

Almost seven years ago I wrote about my grandmother Eva Schoenthal Cohen’s second cousin, Bertha Katzenstein, the great-granddaughter of Seligmann Goldschmidt, my three-times great-grandfather. Bertha was born on April 23, 1892, in New York City, to Adolf Katzenstein and Bertha Metz, who died less than two weeks after giving birth to her namesake Bertha.

As I wrote back in 2018, Bertha must have been living abroad for some part of her childhood with her father Adolf and stepmother. She was married on February 9, 1913, in Harburg, Germany, to Hermann Nathan. She was only twenty when she married, and six years later they were divorced on July 3, 1919, in Hannover, Germany.

Ancestry.com. Hamburg, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1920.
Original data: Best. 332-5 Standesämter, Personenstandsregister, Sterberegister, 1876-1950, Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Hamburg, Deutschland. Certificate Number: 62
Reference Number: 332-5_11409

That was the last document or record I had for Bertha Katzenstein for almost seven years. I didn’t know whether she’d returned to the US or stayed in Germany, but I couldn’t find her in the US or in Germany—not as Bertha Nathan or Bertha Katzenstein. If she remarried, I had no record of it.

And now, seven years later, I have learned more, thanks to Ines Weber, who left a comment on my original post revealing that Bertha had remarried. That led me to learn a lot more about Bertha’s life.

On January 14, 1921, she married Friedrich “Fritz” Wilhelm Langebartels. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, on June 5, 1894, the son of Rudolph Friedrich Albert Langebartels and Margaretha Johanna Henriette Dreyer.

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 October 15, 1926, Friedrich and Bertha arrived in New York City after living in Berlin. Friedrich filed a declaration of intention to become a US citizen on June 14, 1927, listing Bertha as his wife.

Friedrich Langebartels declaration of intention, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, PA; NAI Title: Declarations of Intention For Citizenship, 1/19/1842 – 10/29/1959; NAI Number: 4713410; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21, Roll 357) Declarations of Intention For Citizenship, 1842-1959 (No 226101-227150), Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943

But what really puzzled me was this document: a petition for naturalization filed by Bertha herself. She was born in New York! Why was she filing for naturalization? It even says right on the petition that she was born in New York. I was mystified.

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, Archive Roll Descriptions: (Roll 0542) Petition No· 124777-Petition No· 125042, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Naturalization Records, 1882-1944

And so I asked about this in the Facebook group Tracing the Tribe and learned that at one time, if a woman born in the US and thus a natural born citizen married a foreign born man, she forfeited her American citizenship. The 1907 Expatriation Act read in part: “That any American woman who marries a foreigner shall take the nationality of her husband…” Act of Mar. 2, 1907, ch. 2534, §3, 34 Stat. 1228.

Thus, under American law Bertha took her husbands’ German nationality when she married first Hermann and then Friedrich in Germany and thereby lost her US citizenship. That meant she had to apply for naturalization to become (again) a US citizen.

However, after women gained suffrage, a new statute overturned that provision. The Cable Act of 1922, Section 3 (ch. 411, 42 Stat. 1021), provided:

That a woman citizen of the United States shall not cease to be a citizen of the United States by reason of her marriage after the passage of this Act, unless she makes a formal renunciation of her citizenship before a court having jurisdiction over naturalization of aliens..[emphasis added]

But this didn’t apply to Bertha because she’d married Hermann in 1913 and Friedrich in 1921 before the Cable Act took effect.

After learning all this, I realized something—this also applied to my maternal grandmother Gussie Brotman, who was born in New York but married my Romanian-born grandfather Isadore Goldschlager in 1916. She lost her US citizenship once she married him. I was horrified, and that led me to try and determine whether my grandmother also had to petition for citizenship despite having been born in the US.

What I found was that my grandfather petitioned for naturalization and was sworn in as a citizen on May 18, 1920. Thus, by virtue of HIS naturalized citizenship, my grandmother once again automatically became a US citizen. What a crazy sexist world it was. Still is in many ways, but not as bad as it was back then.

Anyway, returning to Bertha Katzenstein Nathan Langebartels…

There are two other interesting things about Bertha’s petition: One, I learned that Bertha had had a child with her first husband, Hermann Nathan; Lotte Nathan was born on May 1, 1915, in Germany, and was still living in Germany in 1927 when Bertha filed the petition. I will follow up with what I have learned about Lotte in a subsequent post.

Also, it appears from this document that Bertha was known as both Bertha Langebartels and Bertha Weber. But why Weber? Who was that? I found a Friedrich Langebartels-Weber from Hamburg listed in a database of those injured fighting for Germany during World War I. So Weber appears to have been part of his name.1

I found his birth record, thinking that perhaps Weber was his mother’s birth name, but it was Dreyer.

Friedrich Langebartels birth record, Year Range and Volume: 1894 Band 04, Ancestry.com. Hamburg, Germany, Births, 1874-1901

I asked Ines about this, and she told me that the Weber came from Friedrich’s mother’s second husband, whom she married in 1905 when Friedrich was only eleven years old.

But then Bertha disappeared again. I cannot find anything later than her naturalization record seen above. I can’t find Bertha and Friedrich on the 1930 US census, but Ines found Friedrich as Fred Weber on his 1942 World War II draft registration. This appears to be the right person, given the birth date and birth place.

Fred Weber World War II draft registration, The National Archives At St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; World War Ii Draft Cards (Fourth Registration) For the State of New York; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147; Box or Roll Number: 650, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942

But notice that Fred/Friedrich was now married to a woman named Erna, not Bertha. They also appeared as a married couple on the 1940 US census.2 And doing a full-text search on FamilySearch brought up Fred Weber’s second Declaration of Intention, and on that form he reported that he was married to Erna on December 20, 1940, in West New York, New Jersey.3 I also found Erna’s Declaration of Intention and learned her surname was Barsig before she married Fred.

So where was Bertha? Had she died? Were she and Friedrich divorced? Had she returned to Germany?  I wish I knew. I cannot find any references or records or even unsourced trees that reveal what happened to Bertha Katzenstein Nathan Langebartels Weber. She just seems to have disappeared. The search will continue.

  1. Friedrich Langebartels-Weber, Residence Year 1914, Residence Country Deutschland (Germany), List Date 07 Nov 1917 (7 Nov 1917). List Number 1701
    Volume 1917_XVI, Ancestry.com. Germany, World War I Casualty Lists, 1914-1919. ↩
  2. Fred Weber, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: New Rochelle, Westchester, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02810; Page: 61B; Enumeration District: 60-243, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  3. Fred Weber, Petition for Naturalization, “New York, U.S. District and Circuit Court Naturalization Records, 1824-1991”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:65DG-STLP : Tue Apr 15 00:10:46 UTC 2025), Entry for Fred or Fritz Weber or Langebartels and Erna, 18 May 1944. ↩

Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt’s Youngest Child, Siegmund

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The other surviving son and the youngest child of Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt was their son Siegmund. Like his brother Felix, he escaped from Nazi Germany to Argentina with his wife Else Schwab and their three children, Arno, Ruth, and Margot.

I was very fortunate that Ellie Roden, a first cousin, once removed, of Siegmund’s wife Else, reached out to me through my blog. Ellie wrote that “Siegmund wanted all the family on both sides to leave Germany but before Kristallnacht many hoped and believed that the Nazi reign would end.”1 Unfortunately, as we have seen, Siegmund’s three sisters Julchen, Jette, and Auguste, did not heed that advice. According to Ellie, Siegmund, Else, and their children left Germany for Argentina in July 1937. They joined the same community, Colonia Avigdor, where Siegmund’s brother Felix had settled the year before. According to Siegmund’s great-niece Carmen, Siegmund and his family left Colonia Avigdor in about1955 and moved to Buenos Aires. After receiving compensation from the German government, they could afford to live in the city.2

Ellie shared these wonderful photographs of Siegmund and his family, first a photograph of Siegmund and Else and their children in 1937 before they left their home in Kassel, Germany:

Siegmund Rosenblatt and family in 1937, Kassel, Germany
Courtesy of Ellie Roden

This second photograph is undated, but is of Siegmund and Else. I assume it was taken in Argentina some years later.

Else Schwab and Siegmund Rosenblatt. Courtesy of Ellie Roden

The third photo may have been taken at the same event as the one above; it was taken in Buenos Aires:

The Rosenblatt family in Buenos Aires: Margot, Siegmund, Else, Ruth, Arno, and Danny. Courtesy of Ellie Roden

I don’t have any records for the family’s life in Argentina, but Ellie was able to confirm that Arno, the oldest child, had a son named Danny, presumably named for his grandfather Daniel Rosenblatt; he must be the young boy in the photo above. Margot, the middle child, married someone named Kurt Oppenheimer; I don’t know whether they had children. And Ruth, the youngest child, may have married someone named Arno Kaufman. I don’t know whether they had children.

I was able to find burial records for Siegmund and Else and for two of their three children in the records for Argentina in the JOWBR at JewishGen.org. Siegmund died on November 3, 1982, and is buried in Buenos Aires.3 His wife Else died on August 11, 1984, and is buried in Buenos Aires.4 Their daughter Ruth Rosenblatt Kaufmann died on January 12, 1989, and is also buried in Buenos Aires.5 Finally, their son Arno Rosenblatt died on December 31, 2008, and is buried in Buenos Aires.6 I was not able to locate a burial record or any other record for Margot, but did locate one for her husband, Kurt Oppenheimer, which named her as his spouse. Kurt died on February 13, 2007, and is buried in the same cemetery as his in-laws.7

I am so grateful to my cousins Julio and Carmen and to Ellie Roden for sharing the photographs and information about the families of Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt’s three sons, Felix, Julius, and Siegmund. Although the family of Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt suffered terrible losses during the Holocaust, it was uplifting to learn that there are still living descendants living in many countries around the world. I am so grateful for that.

I have now completed the stories of the children of Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt and will move on to Malchen’s younger sister, Sara Rothschild Adler, and her family. But first a few updates on earlier posts.

 

 

  1. Email from Ellie Roden, August 13, 2025. ↩
  2. Email from Carmen Rosenblatt, September 17, 2025. ↩
  3. Burial record in the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0199329 ↩
  4. Burial record in the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0199309 ↩
  5. Burial record in the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0164434 ↩
  6. Burial record in the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0199303 ↩
  7. Burial record in the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0189236 ↩

Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt’s Descendants in the Colonia Avigdor in Argentina

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As we saw, Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt’s daughters all were killed in the Holocaust. Their son Julius had died as a young man, leaving behind a young widow Julie Rosenblatt and their infant son Fredi. Julie and Fredi escaped to Uruguay, and thanks to Fredi’s son Julio, I’ve been able to learn and share much of their story.

Malchen and Daniel’s other two sons Felix and Siegmund escaped to Argentina, not Uruguay,1 and thanks to the magic of the internet, I am now in touch with Felix’s granddaughter in Argentina, Carmen. I found a photograph of the gravestone of Felix’s son Ludwig Rosenblatt (see below) on JewishGen and posted it on Tracing the Tribe, asking for a translation of the Hebrew inscription. A woman in the TTT group tagged Carmen when she saw my post, and Carmen, Ludwig Rosenblatt’s daughter, responded. Although Carmen doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Spanish, we’ve managed to communicate, thanks to Google Translate and DeepL.

Carmen shared with me a lecture2 she delivered in 2018 to the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary about the community where her family has lived since 1936 when they immigrated from Germany to Argentina. It is in Spanish, and I’ve used DeepL to translate it and now will paraphrase and take excerpts from the translation to share the story of Carmen’s family and their community. Carmen also filled in other details through email.

As Carmen explained in her lecture, the German philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch formed the Jewish Colonization Association (“JCA”) in the late 19th century to acquire land and create settlements in Argentina for Jews escaping persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe. When Hitler came to power in the 1930s, it became apparent that there was a need for more land and more places for German Jews to escape, so the JCA acquired additional land to create a new settlement called Colonia Avigdor, which is over 300 miles from Buenos Aires.

Thanks to the efforts of the JCA, Jewish families like Carmen’s were able to escape Nazi Germany. I asked Carmen what convinced her grandparents to leave Germany. She wrote that one night her grandfather’s car was confiscated by the Nazis in Zimmersrode, and when it was returned to him the next day, an official in the town told him: “Felix, this is getting very ugly for you Jews, take your family and leave Germany.” Felix replied, “How??? I have to sell my house, my things.” The official replied, “Leave everything, don’t sell anything… nobody is going to pay a Jew.” Felix contacted the JCA and asked for help to leave Germany and move to Argentina.

Carmen’s grandparents Felix and Minna (Goldwein) Rosenblatt and their sons were one of the ten families that first settled in Colonia Avigdor. They arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with their sons Ludwig, then 17, and Siegfried, 20, and their daughter-in-law, Siegfried’s wife Jenny Feilmann, on January 25, 1936. As Carmen explained to me and in her lecture, because the JCA required a family to have five adults to qualify for the settlement program, Siegfried, although only twenty years old, had married Jenny at such a young age in order for the family to qualify.

After a few days in Buenos Aires, Felix, Minna, and their family traveled by train from Buenos Aires to Bovril, the closest train station to Avigdor. From there they traveled the last fifteen miles of the over 300 mile journey “by horse-drawn carts through trees and bushes in the woods along winding paths” to get to their new home. Carmen wrote that they were “full of hope that they would adapt to such a hard life and happy to set foot on land that promised above all FREEDOM and work to build a good future.”

Carmen’s description of their early lives cannot be paraphrased adequately; here is how DeepL translated her words:

Each of the settlers was allocated 75 hectares of land and a poorly constructed house made of mud-covered bricks with a dirt floor, two rooms, one kitchen, one veranda, and a bathroom at the back, about 10-15 meters away from the house. In each house, they found a bag of hard “cookies” (country bread), several days old… as well as some work tools, a few cows, some horses, some chickens… The next day, they got to work, first clearing the yards of wild trees, then the fields so they could plant them, building fences to divide them. It was very hard work, but as I said, they were happy because they had hope for progress. The women devoted themselves more to the tasks in the yard, tending to the chickens and other poultry, milking the cows for the milk they consumed, in addition to their household chores. They had to knead the bread in wood-fired ovens, whose mouths opened into the kitchen…

They say that at first, these women did these tasks crying practically all day (and at night too) because of the precarious conditions around them… there was no electricity, the lamps were kerosene… there were no refrigerators, no appliances whatsoever. And it should be emphasized that they came from an advanced civilization in Germany… Some, those who came from small towns, adapted more easily, but those who came from cities such as Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, etc., of which there were many… found it extremely difficult, or simply could not get used to it…

Colonists plowing the land
Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

A colonist’s yard
Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

Children coming to school
Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

The community grew as more and more refugees came from Germany; eventually there were about 120 families. The settlers engaged in many forms of agricultural work: dairy, livestock, farming, gardening, and beekeeping. They established a cooperative to market their products. A school was established by the JCA, and there was a post office, a synagogue, a kosher butcher, and a Hebrew teacher. There was even a small hospital to provide health care to the settlers and a social center for dances, theaters, and orchestral performances. Land was also set aside for a cemetery.

The synagogue in Colonia Avigdor
Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

Interior of the synagogue
Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

But conditions remained fairly primitive for a long time. It wasn’t until 1971 that there was electricity in the colony, and there were only dirt roads until 1987. Despite all these challenges, Felix and Minna and their children remained at Colonia Avigdor, working hard to achieve their dreams.

Their younger son Ludwig Rosenblatt married Ruth Plaut, another refugee from Germany, in 1944. They had two children, Carmen and her sister Alicia. Ludwig’s older brother Siegfried and his wife Jenny also had two daughters, Miriam and Lenore.

Felix Rosenblatt died on February 4, 1955, and is buried at the Centro Unión Israelita de Colonia Avigdor cemetery in Colonia Avigdor, Argentina, as is his wife Minna Goldwein Rosenblatt, who died on February 16, 1969. Here is a photograph of their gravestones.

Felix and Minna Rosenblatt headstones from JOWBR database, found at https://data.jewishgen.org/imagedata/jowbr/ARG-06046/WA0125.JPG

Their son and Carmen’s father Ludwig Rosenblatt died on October 10, 1977, and is buried at the same cemetery as his parents. He was only 57 when he died. As translated by the kind people at Tracing the Tribe, the Hebrew reads: “Here [lies] buried / Leib son of Uri / a reputable man / a faithful protector of / his family / an example for his descendants / [we] remember him with love / may his soul be bound in the bond of [eternal] life.”  The footstone engraving in Spanish mentions his wife, children, and grandchildren; it was placed there on the occasion of what would have been his 70th birthday on November 15, 1989.

Ludwig Rosenblatt headstone at JOWBR database, found at https://data.jewishgen.org/imagedata/jowbr/ARG-06046/WA0143.JPG

As for Siegfried Rosenblatt, Felix’s other son, he died on October 23, 2004, and is buried at Cementerio Israelita De San Vicente Cordoba, in Cordoba, Argentina; he was predeceased by his wife Jenny Feilmann who died on May 23, 1978, and is buried in the same cemetery.3 Their daughter Lenore, who was born on November 2, 1940, died on April 27, 2001.4

Carmen still lives in Colonia Avigdor with her husband Abraham Isaac Kogan, whom she married almost 58 years ago. They had two sons, one of whom passed away; the other still lives in Argentina, but not in Colonia Avigdor. Today there are only about twelve Jewish families left in Colonia Avigdor because many people left long ago to live in the cities. Carmen wrote, “These days, basic services such as electricity, water, roads, television, communications, etc. are practically comparable to those in cities… the precariousness has been overcome… but let’s not forget that since the founding of Avigdor in 1936, 82 years have passed… and the vast majority have left…”

Carmen generously shared with me some photographs of her extended family. This photograph was taken at her wedding in 1967.

Photograph taken at Carmen Rosenblatt’s wedding to Abraham Kogan in 1967, courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt. Standing from left to right: Ruth Plaut, Carmen’s mother; Ludwig Rosenblatt, Carmen’s father; Abraham Isaac Kogan; Carmen Alexander; Jenny Feilmann, wife of Siegfred Rosenblatt; Siegfried Rosenblatt, Carmen’s uncle Seated: Family friend,\; Minna Goldwein, Carmen’s grandmother; Else Schwab, wife of Sigmund Rosenblatt; Sigmund Rosenblatt, Carmen’s great-uncle.

This more recent photograph was taken in 1981 on the occasion of Carmen’s son’s bar mitzvah. I think it illustrates how Jewish traditions are similar all over the world. This photograph could have been taken at any bar mitzvah in the US in 1981, and it would have looked very much the same.

Abraham Kogan, Andres Kogan, Carmen Rosenblatt, Marcelo Kogan, 1981. Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

Carmen’s story has given me a new perspective on the lives of those who escaped from Nazi Germany. It’s hard to imagine how they adapted to such a hard life—a precarious one, to use Carmen’s word. They were coming from a place where their ancestors had lived for centuries to a primitive place, far from any city, where people spoke a language they didn’t know, and they had to live according to the rules and subject to the authority of the JCA—and yet they were filled with hope and grateful for the chance to survive and live freely.

All this reminds me to be grateful for what I have and to empathize with all those around the world who are forced to abandon their homes in search of a safer and better life.

 

 

  1. Although they came from different villages in Germany and ended up in different countries in South America, the Rosenblatts in Uruguay and the Rosenblatts in Argentina have stayed in touch and even visited each other over the years. Julie Rosenblatt was a first cousin to Felix and Siegmund as well as their sister-in-law. ↩
  2. Carmen Rosenblatt, unpublished lecture, “Immigracion de Judio Perseguidos en Alemania, Colonizados en Los Campos de Colonio Avigdor (Entre Rios),” (September 2018). ↩
  3. See burial records at the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0036804 and at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0036805 ↩
  4. See burial records at the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0071081 ↩

In Memory of My Cousin Sue

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My cousin Sue, sailing. Courtesy of Lisa Wartur

I lost a dear cousin on August 25, 2025, my cousin Sue (Leyner) Wartur (1938-2025). Sue was my third cousin and also my half second cousin, once removed, making us double cousins. Sue’s grandfather Julius Goldfarb was my maternal grandmother’s first cousin. And Sue’s grandmother Ida Hecht Goldfarb was the daughter of Taube Brotman Hecht, my grandmother’s half-sister. Sue and I were doubly bonded by our mutual family trees.

Ida Hecht Goldfarb and Sue Leyner, July 1938. Courtesy of Sue Leyner Wartur.

I didn’t know Sue until March 2016 when I found Sue’s daughter Lisa while searching for descendants of my grandmother’s Goldfarb cousins. Lisa connected me with her mother, and immediately I felt like I had known both Sue and Lisa all my life.

We were bonded by more than just genetics. Although we never met in person, Sue and I exchanged many emails over the nine and a half years we knew each other. It didn’t matter that we never met in person (though I wish we had) because through those emails, we learned a lot about each other and developed an affection and a bond that you wouldn’t imagine two people who never met could share. We had one magical zoom in October 2023—seeing Sue’s face and hearing her voice made that bond even deeper.

Sue shared with me many photographs and stories about her beloved grandparents and all her cousins and their times together at the beach house owned by her grandparents. Over the years we learned that not only did we share DNA and a love of family history, but we also shared a love of the beach (Sue’s on Long Island, mine here on Cape Cod), a love for Italy, a passion for words and writing, and a devotion to Judaism. We agreed on politics and on the need for hope in a world filled with reasons for despair.

Sue adored above all else her husband Larry and her daughter Lisa. Here are some of Lisa’s favorite photographs of her mother.

Sue and Larry Wartur on the wedding day in 1959

Sue and Lisa

Lisa, Larry and Sue

Sue’s emails often made me laugh—-her sense of humor and of the absurd was delightful and insightful. And over those nine years we shared some heartbreaks as well. The illness and death of her beloved husband Larry, the deaths of both of my parents, and finally her own health struggles.

When Sue was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March, she was determined to fight to survive and went through a long series of treatments. And then, just days after her oncologist had announced that despite all the odds, Sue was cancer-free, Sue collapsed while at synagogue and died a couple of days later from a brain aneurysm. The cruel irony of that has left all who loved her shocked and heartbroken.

Although I couldn’t get to Long Island for the funeral, I was able to watch it through the magic of the internet. It was one of the most moving and beautiful funerals I’ve seen because it was so filled with love and sadness. But mostly love. Everyone who spoke had obviously been forever touched by Sue and loved her deeply. Even the rabbi cried when talking about Sue.

I did not know Sue for most of her life, a life that was filled with so many accomplishments, adventures, and love. Please read the obituary below to learn more about her remarkable life. I can’t tell you how moved I was to see that Lisa, Sue’s daughter and my wonderful cousin, included me among the cousins who were mourning Sue.

https://www.easthamptonstar.com/obituaries/202593/susan-leyner-wartur

Sue, your memory will always be a blessing for me, and I know it will be a blessing for Lisa, Steven, Debrah, and all those family members, friends, former students, and others who loved and adored you.

Sue at the beach, her favorite place. Photo courtesy of her daughter Lisa Wartur