Category Archives: Places My Family Has Lived

The Man with the Mustache: Are You My Grandfather?

Posted on by
29

For Thanksgiving week, I am only posting once, so let me wish all of you a wonderful holiday (for those in the US, anyway). May we all be thankful for all the good we have in our lives—those ancestors and parents who paved the way for us, those we now share our lives and love with, be they spouses, relatives, or friends, and those who will come after us—our children, grandchildren and all our descendants.

For today, I want to update an earlier post where I reported on Ava aka Sherlock Cohn’s analysis of this photograph, taken in 1923, probably in Atlantic City. I am curious about your reactions to our thoughts on the man with the mustache. Is he my grandfather John Nusbaum Cohen?

Based on earlier research and photographs along with Ava’s report, I am now fairly certain of the identities of most of those in the photograph, as I discussed here.  In the front row are Bessie Craig Cohen, probably her mother Sarah Tadley Craig, and Maurice Cohen, Jr. In the middle is Bessie’s niece Margaret Craig and behind Maurice Cohen Jr is his mother, Edna Mayer Cohen. Kneeling behind Edna is her husband, Maurice Cohen, Sr., my great-uncle. I also assume that the photograph was taken by my great-uncle Stanley Cohen based on the fact that he appears in a separate photograph quite obviously taken at the same time and place.

But who is the man kneeling on the left in the top photo, the man with the mustache? How does he connect to the rest of this group? It could not be Bessie Craig Cohen’s brother James because he died in 1918.1 It also could not be her brother Christopher if the photograph was taken in 1923 because he died in 1922.2 Edna Mayer Cohen had a brother Eugene born in 1893 who is the right age to be the man with the mustache. He was living in the Philadelphia area in the 1920s,3 so he is one possibility, but I have no photographs of Eugene.

Ava at first had a much more intriguing conjecture with respect to the man with the mustache. She saw “a resemblance also to the young man holding a hat in the Cohen & Co. Money Loan Office photograph from ten years earlier. If we are to assume that the young man in that photograph is John Nusbaum Cohen, born 1895, then we can assume that the man on the beach is also John Nusbaum Cohen who I estimated to be born circa 1893-1895.” Ava had done a previous report for me on the Cohen & Company photograph and had tentatively identified the young man holding the hat as my grandfather John Nusbaum Cohen, Sr.

Cohen & Company photograph

That is, Ava speculated that the man with the mustache could also be my grandfather because he resembled that boy holding the hat. I can definitely see the resemblance. Look at the chin and lips, the deep set eyes, the angles of the ears, and the high forehead:

1913
Man on beach 1923

It would make sense for my grandfather to be in the 1923 beach photograph.  He was the right age (born in 1895 so 28 in 1923), and he would have been with his two brothers and their wives.

But my grandfather did not have a mustache in any of the photographs I have of him. Also, my grandfather definitely had attached earlobes. It’s hard to see in the beach photograph, but that man does not appear to have attached earlobes.

John Cohen in 1921
John Cohen 1923
Man on beach 1923
John Cohen 1930

And where is my grandmother? They married in January, 1923, so if the beach photo is correctly dated as 1923, my grandparents were already married by then. My grandmother would have been pregnant in the summer of 1923 as my aunt was born in January, 1924. Why wouldn’t she have been at the beach with her husband and brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law?

So I was not convinced that the man with the mustache in the photograph was my grandfather, but I also wasn’t willing to dismiss the possibility.

Then I received a whole box of photographs and other papers and books from my cousin Marjorie Cohen’s cousin Lou. Inside that box was this treasure, my grandfather’s 1921 passport including this stunningly clear version of his passport photograph:

The beach photograph was taken two years later in 1923. I definitely see similiarities—in the shape of the face, the lips, the forehead and eyebrows, the chin, and the nose. The eyes are so hard to see in the beach photograph, but they are definitely deep-set. But that mustache threw me off, and I could also see differences. My grandfather’s ears looked smaller and seemed lower set on his face, the top of his ears set below his eyes rather than at the same level.

1921
Man on beach 1923

Later, while doing a search on my computer for pictures of my father, I tripped on this photograph. I have no idea where I got this photograph. And I had no memory of seeing it before. But it had been saved to my computer three years ago. Hmmm. Why didn’t I label it when I got it?

Anyway, it’s another photograph of my paternal grandparents, Eva Schoenthal and John Nusbaum Cohen, Sr., taken some years later than the other two I have of them together. My grandfather was wearing glasses, so I wonder whether he was already having some of the early symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

Eva Schoenthal and John Cohen, Sr.

Does this help to identify the man with the mustache on the beach?

John Cohen undated
Man on beach 1923

I sent these two additional photographs to Ava to see what she thought, and interestingly, she concluded that although she now believed that the young man holding the hat in the Cohen & Company photograph was my grandfather John Nusbam Cohen, Sr., she did not think that the man with the mustache on the beach was my grandfather. Ava wrote:

He does look similar and, as you know, I initially said that the man with the hat in Cohen & Co. is the same man with the mustache in the beach photo. But as I said, the man in the beach photo is about the same age as John in the [recently added] photo taken with Eva and the two look different. I’m figuring the John and Eva photo is circa 1928-1931. So John would be in his early 30s. I’m quite certain John is in Cohen & Co. and the fact that his hair was parted in the center in 1921 for his passport picture and again in about 1928 would make the 1923 beach photo an anomaly if he had grown a mustache and changed his hairstyle two years after his passport photo and then changed it back by the end of the twenties.

That mustache is the real problem for me. The change in hair style is less concerning—he was at the beach. Maybe he went swimming? But that mustache. Facial hair often makes a man look older, so maybe that’s why he looks more like he’s in his early 30s and not 28, as my grandfather would have been in 1923.

But as Ava said, none of the other photos I have of my grandfather show him with a mustache—not the passport photo from 1921, not the one taken with my grandmother in 1923, and not the two later photographs. In fact, the 1923 photograph of my grandparents is dated July 1923 on its reverse, as I discovered when Lou sent me Marjorie’s collection:

Eva Schoenthal and John Cohen, Jr. July 15, 1923

Did my grandfather grow a mustache sometime that summer after the July 1923 photograph was taken, or maybe before and then quickly shaved it off? Neither of his brothers ever had mustaches. Were they even in style then?

Ava and I decided we both needed to get some distance from the photograph and come back with fresh eyes.  So for over a month, I put this all aside as did Ava. Then we both returned to it.

I asked the Photo Restoration Free Service group on Facebook to help by adding some clarity to the photograph and removing the mustache. Here was the result:

We then studied all the photographs again, adding this new one to the mix.

1921

As I looked over every adult photo of I have of my grandfather, I began to see that he looked different in every single one of them. I was totally befuddled, but now thought that the man on the beach wasn’t my grandfather.

Ava was also convinced that the man with the mustache was not my grandfather. She wrote:

I took a long look at John’s passport photo and compared it to the man on the beach. I still don’t believe the two are the same person. Besides the obvious clues like hairstyle and mustache, it appears that John’s ears and the ears of the man in the beach photo are not the same shape and even though they both seem to have attached earlobes, the pattern of the “shell” is different. … I looked at all the identified pictures of John that I have from you, including his baby picture. I don’t think the man on the beach is your grandfather. I also don’t think that the man on the beach is the person holding his hat in the storefront photo.

I responded that I agreed with her and wrote:

So here’s the $64,000 question—do you think the boy holding the hat in the Cohen & Company photo is my grandfather? 

Ava responded that she thinks it is likely that the boy holding his hat in the Cohen & Company photograph is my grandfather, but without more photographs, it’s impossible to be certain, especially given the blurriness of that photograph and the fact that the boy is squinting, making it difficult to see his eyes.

1913
1921

As I looked over the photographs yet another time, I made a new observation. My grandfather’s hairline, even as it receded, always seemed a bit further back along the temples, a bit more forward in the center. The man with the mustache seems to have a hairline that did not curve backwards in this way.

So in the end, Ava and I both concluded that the man with the mustache was not John Nusbaum Cohen, Sr., but that the boy holding the hat likely is.

What do you all think? Here for your final review are all the photographs that I know are of my grandfather, John Nusbaum Cohen, Sr. as well as the beach photo.

Man on beach 1923
1921
John Cohen 1923
John Cohen 1930
John Cohen undated

 

  1. James Craig, death certificate, Certificate Number: 140783, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1967; Certificate Number Range: 140251-143500, Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1967 ↩
  2. Christopher Craig, death certificate, Certificate Number: 23826, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1967; Certificate Number Range: 023001-026000, Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1967 ↩
  3. Eugene Mayer, 1930 US census, Census Place: Cheltenham, Montgomery, Pennsylvania; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 0024; FHL microfilm: 2341815, Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩

Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund’s Family in the 1910s: For Most, A Quiet Decade

Posted on by
23

With Leo’s death in 1913, only four of Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund’s children were still living: Henrietta, Simon, Joseph, and Mollie. In addition, there were numerous surviving grandchildren: William’s five children, Henrietta’s six children, Simon’s son Harold, Joseph’s two daughters Lenore and Celeste, Leo’s two children Edna and Lloyd, Mollie’s three children, and May’s son, Felix Albert Cahn. I’ve already written about Joseph’s daughters and their tragic losses in the 1910s and about Leo’s death and his family’s status in the aftermath. For Ella’s other descendants, the 1910s were not as difficult.

For the most part, William and Adelaide Sigmund’s five children continued to live in Washington, DC, with their spouses and children in this decade.  Albert continued to live with his wife Mae and work in the jewelry business.1

Abe and his wife Helene had a baby girl Marjorie born on April 16, 1911, in Washington.2 They were living in DC in 1920 where Abe was in the women’s apparel business.3

Jeanette and her husband Sydney Kaufman also were living in DC and had a daughter, Virginia Adelaide (in honor of her grandmother Adelaide, who was still living at that time) on August 22, 1913;4 in 1920 they were living in DC where Sydney was in the men’s clothing business.5

Goldsmith Sigmund and his wife Sadye and son William also were living in DC, and like his brothers Albert and Abe and his brother-in-law Sydney, Goldsmith was a merchant; the 1920 census reported that his business was a sports store.6

Howard Sigmund’s wife Lesley gave birth to their daughter Audrey Frances on May 21, 1910.7 Howard, who did leave Washington for short stints in Boston, Baltimore, and Amsterdam, New York, between 1912 and 1914, had returned to Washington by 1914. In 1920, he and his family were living in DC where he was in the women’s clothing business, seemingly with his brother Abe.8

Evening Star, Washington, District of Columbia, 29 Sep 1912, Sun • Page 66

Evening Star, Washington, District of Columbia, 16 Feb 1913, Sun • Page 65

Evening Star, Washington, District of Columbia, 11 Oct 1914, Sun • Page 70

Ella’s daughter Henrietta Sigmund Katzenstein was now a widow living in Cleveland with her daughter Moynelle. Her family’s story during the 1910s can be found here at the blog.

Ella’s son Simon Sigmund was living in Baltimore during this decade and working in the fur business (separately from his father’s business had been run by Simon’s brother Leo.)9

Simon and Helen’s son Harold was now an adult. In 1917 he was working in the advertising department of The New York Times.10 On April 4, 1918, he was inducted into the US Army to serve in World War I. He was stationed overseas from May 1, 1918, until July 12, 1919; his responsibilities included being in the infantry and then working on Stars & Stripes in their advertising department.11

After the war Harold returned to New York City, and in 1920 he was working as an agent for a publishing company, Butterick Quarterlies.12 Meanwhile, his parents remained in Baltimore, and in 1920 Simon was still working in his furrier’s business.13

Mollie and Harry Goldman’s three children were also adults in the 1910s. All three had been living at home in 1910, and L. Edwin was practicing law and Marguerite had been working as a clerk in an insurance office, presumably her father’s office.

The youngest child Adele was also still living at home in 1910, but she was the first of Mollie and Harry’s children to marry. She married Raymond Weil on December 24, 1911, when she was 24 years old.

Raymond was born in Wichita, Kansas, on June 1, 1885, to Jacob Weil and Henrietta Wolf.  Raymond’s father died in 1898 when Raymond was only thirteen, and in 1900 he was living with his mother and siblings in Cleveland, working as a clerk for an insurance company.13 By 1910 he was an insurance agent still living in Cleveland with his mother and siblings.14

After marrying Raymond, Adele moved to Cleveland where they had three children in the 1910s. Twins Robert and Marjorie were born October 7, 1912, in Cleveland,15 and Donald was born on August 25, 1916.16 Raymond continued to work in the insurance business as shown on his World War I draft registration and the 1920 Cleveland directory.17

Adele’s brother Leman Edwin Goldman married Rita Strauss on June 24, 1913 in Baltimore.

Rita was born in Baltimore on July 6, 1887, to Abraham Strauss and Hannah Selz. Her parents were both German-born, and her father was a dry goods merchant. Her father died in 1905, and in 1910 Rita was living with her mother and siblings in Baltimore, not employed.18

L. Edwin and Rita had three children born between 1915 and 1920. Nancy was born on March 7, 1915,19 Robert on January 9, 1917,20 and Sue on September 7, 1920,21 all born in Baltimore. In 1920, L. Edwin Goldman was living with his mother-in-law Hannah and brother-in-law Henry as well as his wife and two older children (Rita being pregnant with Sue), and he was engaged in the general practice of law.22

Adele and L. Edwin’s sister Marguerite was living with their parents Mollie and Harry in Baltimore in 1920, working as bookkeeper for an automobile company. Judge Harry Goldman was the financial secretary of a fraternal order.23

Finally, I was most concerned about the fate of Felix Albert Cahn, the orphaned son of May Sigmund and Gerson Cahn. He had lost both of his parents before his fifth birthday. In 1910 he’d been living with his aunt/cousin Mollie and her family. In 1913, when he was just thirteen years old, F. Albert made the Baltimore newspaper for his charitable efforts raising money to help save sick babies.

The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore, Maryland, 25 May 1913, Sun • Page 12

Did the tragic losses of his parents as a young boy give Albert a special empathy for sick babies? One would think so.

In May 1914, he was confirmed at the Har Sinai synagogue in Baltimore, along with his cousin T. Edna Sigmund, who had also lost a parent when her father Leo Sigmund died in 1913. Albert, as he was known, appeared to be on the path to a good life.

The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, 27 May 1914, Wed • Page 4

In 1917 Albert entered the US Army to serve in World War I. According to a record found on Ancestry in their Maryland Military Men 1917-1919 database, Albert’s history in the Army was checkered at best. I have sent away for his military records to see if I can get more information, so I will wait until I receive them before reporting more on Albert’s life.

 

 

  1. Albert Sigmund, 1920 US census, Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: T625_210; Page: 24B; Enumeration District: 166, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  2. SSN: 229809484, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  3. Abraham Sigmund and family, 1920 US census, Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: T625_212; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 271,
    Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  4. Virginia Kaufman Furman, passenger manifest, Year: 1931; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 5019; Line: 21; Page Number: 9, Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  5. Sydney Kaufman and family, 1920 US census, Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: T625_212; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 282, Enumeration District: 0282; Description: DC Precinct 10, bounded by Ontario Road, Lanier Place, Adams Mill Road NW, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  6. Goldsmith Sigmund and family, 1920 US census, Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: T625_210; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 188,
    Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  7.  Social Security Number: 579-07-0855, Birth Date: 21 May 1910,Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  8. Howard Sigmund and family, 1920 US census, Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: T625_212; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 282,
    Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  9. Baltimore, Maryland, City Directory, 1907, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  10. New York, New York, City Directory, 1917, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  11. Ancestry.com. New York, Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919.
    Original data: New York State Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917–1919. Adjutant General’s Office. Series B0808. New York State Archives, Albany, New York. A Brief History of the Stars and Stripes, Official Newspaper of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, From February 8, 1918, to June 13, 1919 (Columbia Publishing Company, Washington, DC), p. 34 ↩
  12. Printers’ Ink, Volume 109 (Decker Communications, Inc., 1919), P. 28; Harold Sigmund, 1920 US census, Census Place: Manhattan Assembly District 5, New York, New York; Roll: T625_1194; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 445, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  13. Raymond Weil, World War II draft registration, The National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; World War II Draft Cards (4th Registration) for the State of Ohio; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942. Henrietta Weil and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Cleveland Ward 13, Cuyahoga, Ohio; Page: 3; Enumeration District: 0051; FHL microfilm: 1241253, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census. Marriage record of Jacob Weil and Henrietta Wolf, Film Number: 000877918, Ancestry.com. Ohio, County Marriage Records, 1774-1993. ↩ ↩
  14. Weil family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Cleveland Ward 21, Cuyahoga, Ohio; Roll: T624_1174; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 0319; FHL microfilm: 1375187,
    Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  15. State File Numbers: 1912064139, 1912064140, Additional Information: Raymont, Ancestry.com. Ohio, Birth Index, 1908-1964. ↩
  16. State File Number: 1916067870, Additional Information: Raymont, Ancestry.com. Ohio, Birth Index, 1908-1964 ↩
  17. Raymond Weil, World War I draft registration, Registration State: Ohio; Registration County: Cuyahoga; Roll: 1831942; Draft Board: 17, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Cleveland, Ohio, City Directory, 1920,
    Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995. I coulld not find the Weil family on the 1920 US census despite searching their address on stevemorse.org. Somehow it seems the enumerator missed their address. I even searched the neighboring enumeration districts thinking that perhaps stevemorse.org had mixed up the ED since Edgehill Road didn’t come up at all in the designated ED. But still nothing. ↩
  18. Birth certificate number A95750, https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/coagserm/cm1100/cm1134/000000/000005/pdf/msa_cm1134_000005.pdf. Abraham Strauss and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 21, Baltimore City (Independent City), Maryland; Page: 3; Enumeration District: 0274; FHL microfilm: 1240617, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census. Name: Abraham Strauss, Death Date: 12 Apr 1905, Burial Place: Baltimore, Maryland, USA, JewishGen, comp. JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR). Hannah Strauss and family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 13, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: T624_557; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 0199; FHL microfilm: 1374570, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  19. SSN: 220050059, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  20. Robert Goldman, World War II draft registration, The National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards for Maryland, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 191, Ancestry.com. U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 ↩
  21. SSN: 220127765, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  22. Hannah Strauss and family, 1920 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 13, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: T625_658; Page: 17A; Enumeration District: 203, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  23. Harry Goldman and family, 1920 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 13, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: T625_658; Page: 13B; Enumeration District: 203, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩

Leo Sigmund: Loss of A Life, Loss of a Business

Posted on by
28

The extended Sigmund family suffered one more loss between 1910 and 1920 when Leo Sigmund, Ella and Albert’s son, died at age 54 on July 31, 1913. According to his obituary, he had suffered from a nervous condition for two years. Leo’s children were only thirteen (Tracy Edna) and eleven (Albert Lloyd) when their father died. As the obituary points out, Leo was the only remaining family member carrying on the hat and fur business started by Albert Sigmund in 1846, A. Sigmund & Son.

“Well-known Merchant Who Died Yesterday,” The Baltimore Sun, August 1, 1913, p. 12

The obituary is as much a tribute to Leo’s wife Claudia as it is to Leo; it describes how she took over and even improved the business while Leo was ill as well as nursing Leo and taking care of the household.

Unfortunately, Claudia found herself in a struggle to keep the business after Leo’s death. According to a complaint she filed in 1916 to have receivers appointed to the business, her own brother Michael Hirsch fraudulently induced her to sell him the business for far less than its value in the aftermath of Leo’s death. She claimed that the business was worth at least $45,000 (if valued at more than $60,000 in assets with $14,800 in liabilities) and that she sold it to Michael for only $8,000, leaving her with only $1,600 after paying off the debts.

“Receivers for Furriers,” The Baltimore Evening Sun, December 13, 1916, p. 9

“Receivers for Sigmund & Son,” The Baltimore Sun, December 14, 1916, p. 13

I don’t know whether Claudia ever received any compensation for the alleged fraud committed by her brother as I could find no story that reported on that question. As for Michael Hirsch, he and his wife started another business, and it also ended up in bankruptcy.1

In 1920 Claudia Hirsch Sigmund and her two children, now 20 and 18, were living in Baltimore with her mother and sister. Claudia was not employed outside the home, but her daughter T. Edna was working as a stenographer for a soil improvement company and her son A. Lloyd was an office helper in a straw hat factory.

And the business started by Albert Sigmund in 1846 and that supported his family for so many years was gone.

Claudia Hirsch Sigmund and family, 1920 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 13, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: T625_658; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 203
Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census

Fortunately, the 1910s were better years for the rest of Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund’s children and grandchildren, as the next post will reveal.

  1. The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, 02 Apr 1918, Tue • Page 15 ↩

Joseph Sigmund’s Daughters: A Double Tragedy

Posted on by
25

It’s hard to imagine the nightmare that the 1910s brought to Joseph Sigmund’s daughters, Lenore and Celeste. Both had married in the prior decade. As we saw, Lenore married a doctor, Henry Isaacs, and had moved with him to the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. Celeste married Abe Diamond, a cigar salesman from Chicago who had relocated to Denver, where Celeste and her family were living. Celeste and Abe had a daughter Marjorie who was born December 27, 1909, in Denver.

Then tragedy ended both of these young marriages. On February 19, 1912, Lenore’s husband Henry Isaacs was killed in a collision in Denver between a firetruck and the streetcar in which he was riding. Henry and Lenore were in Denver for the winter because Lenore was in poor health. Henry was only 32 years old.

 

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 21, 1912, p. 11.

Lenore remained in Denver and was at the same address as her parents in the 1913 Denver directory.1

Just four years later, fate dealt the family another cruel blow. Joseph Sigmund’s other son-in-law, Celeste’s husband Abe Diamond, was killed in a car accident in Denver on July 12, 1916. He was driving a car he had purchased just the week before. The car was traveling at a high rate of speed up a steep hill when it skidded and went over an embankment, falling 25 feet below. Abe was pinned under the car and crushed by its weight, dying instantly. A passenger in the car was thrown from the car and escaped serious injury. Abe Diamond was 37 years old when he died, and he was survived by his wife Celeste and their six-year-old daughter Marjorie.

“Abe Diamond Killed in Killed in Auto Wreck,” The Denver Post, July 10, 1916, p. 1

The Denver Rocky Mountain News also wrote about the accident:

“Abe Diamond Dies in Crash of Auto in Mountain Road,” Denver Rocky Mountain News, July 11, 1916, p. 7

Both Denver newspapers noted the terrible fact that both of Joseph Sigmund’s sons-in-law had been killed in automotive accidents in Denver. It is hard for me to fathom how the family responded to the cruelty of these events. How could two sisters both lose their young husbands in accidents like this within five years of each other?

Somehow the family survived and persisted. Both sisters eventually remarried. On September 23, 1919, Lenore married Edwin Weinberg in Denver.2 Edwin was a native of Chicago, born there on February 27, 1892, the son of Moses Weinberg and Emily Moore.3 In 1900, Edwin’s father was a bookkeeper for a wholesale meat business, and Edwin was a clerk in a wholesale hat business.4  Edwin was still living in Chicago in 1917 when he registered for the World War I draft; he was working as a salesman at that time.5 I’ve no idea how Edwin and Lenore met, but after marrying they settled in Denver, where in 1920 Edwin was working as a clerk in a clothing store. Lenore and Edwin would have one child born in the 1920s.6

Meanwhile, in 1920 Celeste was still living with her parents Joseph and Emma in Denver along with her daughter Marjorie. Joseph continued to work as an advertising writer and was supporting his wife, daughter, and granddaughter.

Joseph Sigmund and family, 1920 US census, Census Place: Denver, Denver, Colorado; Roll: T625_162; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 276
Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census

But Celeste remarried later that year. On December 12, 1920, she married Hugo Rothenberg in Denver.7  Hugo was born in Hamburg, Germany, on June 7, 1878, to Isaac Rothenburg and Rebecka Heymann, and immigrated to the US in 1896.8 In 1905, he was living in Denver, working as a clerk for Simon Frank & Company, a wholesale notions business.9 He was apparently quite friendly with Abe and Celeste Diamond.

Denver Jewish Outlook, April 26, 1907. p. 10

Denvery Jewish Outlook, June 12, 1908, p. 8

In 1910 he was working as the secretary of a mercantile business, Stern-Prince Importing, in Denver,10 but by 1918 Hugo had relocated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was a manager for Paris Fashions Co.

Hugo Rothenburg, World War I draft registration, Registration State: Wisconsin; Roll: 1674778; Draft Board: 01, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

He was still living there in 1920, and after he and Celeste married in December 1920, they lived in Milwaukee for at least the next four years.11  They would return to Denver by 1925 and remain there for many years, as we will see.

Thus, both Lenore and Celeste remarried after losing their first husbands to tragic accidents. The will to go on and to find love again is remarkable.

 

  1. Publication Title: Denver, Colorado, City Directory, 1913, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  2. Name: Lenore Isaacs, Gender: Female, Marriage Date: 23 Sep 1919, Marriage Place: Colorado, USA, Spouse: Edwin Weinberg, Film Number: 001690147,
    Ancestry.com. Colorado, County Marriage Records and State Index, 1862-2006 ↩
  3. Name: Edward Jacob Weinberg, Birth Date: 27 Feb 1892, Birth Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois, Ethnicity: American. Gender: Male, Race: White, Father: Moses A Weinberg, Mother: Emily Moore Weinberg, FHL Film Number: 1287929, Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, Birth Certificates Index, 1871-1922 ↩
  4. Moses Weinberg and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Chicago Ward 32, Cook, Illinois; Page: 11; Enumeration District: 1030; FHL microfilm: 1240286, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  5. Edwin Weinberg, World War I draft registration, Registration State: Illinois; Registration County: Cook; Roll: 1439759; Draft Board: 13, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 ↩
  6. Edwin Weinberg and family, 1920 US census, Census Place: Denver, Denver, Colorado; Roll: T625_162; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 237, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  7. Name: Celeste Diamond, Gender: Female, Marriage Date: 12 Dec 1920, Marriage Place: Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA, Spouse: Hugo Rothenburg, Film Number: 001690129, Ancestry.com. Colorado, County Marriage Records and State Index, 1862-2006 ↩
  8. Name: Hugo Rothenburg, Gender: männlich (Male), Birth Date: 7 Jun 1878, Birth Place: Hamburg, Hamburg, Deutschland (Germany), Civil Registration Office: Hamburg 02, Father: Isaac Rothenburg, Mother: Rebecka Heymann Rothenburg, Certificate Number: 2720, Reference Number: 332-5_1932, Ancestry.com. Hamburg, Germany, Births, 1874-1901. Staatsarchiv Hamburg; Hamburg, Deutschland; Hamburger Passagierlisten; Volume: 373-7 I, VIII A 1 Band 092 A; Page: 125; Microfilm No.: K_1754, Staatsarchiv Hamburg. Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934 ↩
  9. Denver, Colorado, City Directory, 1905, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  10. Hugo Rothenburg, 1910 US census, Census Place: Denver Ward 9, Denver, Colorado; Roll: T624_116; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 0113; FHL microfilm: 1374129, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census; Publication Title: Denver, Colorado, City Directory, 1911, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  11. Hugo Rothenburg, 1920 US census, Census Place: Milwaukee Ward 3, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Roll: T625_1998; Page: 15B; Enumeration District: 45, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census; The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 11 Jan 1924, Fri • Page 2 ↩

Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund’s Grandchildren: Eight Weddings between 1901 and 1910

Posted on by
20

Last time we saw that Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund died in 1904 after losing her daughter/granddaughter May the day prior to her own death. Ella was survived by five of her children: Henrietta in Washington, Pennsylvania; Joseph in Denver; and Simon, Leo, and Mollie in Baltimore. She also was survived by numerous grandchildren.

By the time Ella died, some of those grandchildren were adults and beginning to marry and have families of their own. For example, Henrietta’s daughter Moynelle had married Bert Spanye on October 19, 1900, and had given birth to Ella’s first great-grandchild, Edward Spanye, on September 19, 1902, in Cleveland, Ohio.

And all five of William Sigmund’s children married between 1901 and 1910. Albert married Mae J. Kaufman on January 15, 1901, in Washington, DC.1 Mae was the daughter of Charles Kaufman, a German immigrant, and Elizabeth Wetzler, a Maryland native. Mae was born in January 1877, in DC. Her father was a clothier there.2 In 1910 Albert and Mae were living in DC where Albert was the manager of a jewelry store known as The Ashley. They had no children.3

The next of William’s children to marry was his daughter Jeanette. She married Sydney C. Kaufman on January 28, 1903, in DC.4  Their wedding got a big write-up in the DC Evening Star, including pictures of both the bride and groom:

Washinngton DC Evening Star, January 29, 1903, p. 5

Sydney was the younger brother of Mae Kaufman, the wife of Jeannette’s brother Albert. Sydney was born on February 18, 1881, in DC,5 and in 1900 was living with his parents and siblings and working as a clerk in a clothing store, presumably his father’s.6 In 1910 Sydney and Jeannette were living in DC, and Jeannette’s mother Addie was living with them; Sydney was working as a clothing merchant on his own account. Sadly, it appears that Sydney and Jeannette had lost two children in the seven years they’d been married.

Sydney Kaufman and family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Precinct 10, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: T624_155; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 0215; FHL microfilm: 1374168
Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census

Albert and Jeanette’s brother Abraham Sigmund was next to marry, and he did not marry another Kaufman sibling. On January 14, 1907, he married Helene Eiseman,7 a native of DC, born on November 26, 1881, to Moses Eiseman and Bertha Kann8. Moses was also a clothing merchant and was German born; Bertha was born in Maryland. In 1910, Abraham and Helene were living in DC where Abraham was a dry goods merchant; Helene’s father, now a widower, was also living with them. They did not yet have any children.9

Washington DC Evening Star, January 15, 1907, p. 5

One year after Abraham married Helene, his younger brother Goldsmith married Sadye Breslau on January 18, 1908.10 Sadye was a native of DC, born there in about 1890 to Ferdinand Breslau and Clara Gross. Sadye’s father Ferdinand had died in 1905, but had been a milk dealer before his death.11 In 1910, Goldie was a clothing merchant in business with his brothers Abraham and Howard.12 Goldie and Sadye’s son William Ferdinand Sigmund, obviously named for his two grandfathers, was born on June 26, 1910, in Washington, DC.13

The Washington Times, January 20, 1908, p. 4

The youngest of William and Addie Sigmund’s children, Howard, was the last to marry. He married Lesley Wilhoite on April 18, 1909, in DC.14 Her parents were Jeremiah McRae Wilhoite and Frances E. Stith. Her mother was a widow by 1900, and in 1909, Lesley had been living with her mother in DC and working as a stenographer.15 In 1910, Lesley and Howard were lodgers in the household of others, and Howard was working with his brothers Abraham and Goldsmith in their store.16

Thus, all of William and Adelaide Sigmund’s children were married by 1910, though only one of those children yet had a child of his or her own.

Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund’s four other children also saw their families growing between 1901 and 1910. Simon Sigmund’s son Harold became a teenager in that decade. In 1910 he was eighteen and still living at home with his parents and not employed outside the home; Simon continued to work as a fur merchant in Baltimore.17 Leo Sigmund’s children were still quite young in this decade as Tracy Edna was born in 1900 and Albert Lloyd in 1902. In 1910, Leo was also a fur merchant in Baltimore in what had been their father Albert’s business, A. Sigmund & Son.18

Mollie and her husband Harry Goldman were also still living in Baltimore where Harry was no longer a police constable, but in the insurance business. Their children were also adults by the end of the decade. Leman Edwin was still living at home, but practicing law. He had graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1905 and from the University of Maryland Law School in 1907.

His sister Marguerite was a clerk in an insurance office, presumably her father’s. The youngest sibling Adele was still at home, not working. Also living with the family was Felix Albert Cahn, the orphaned son of Mollie’s sister/niece May, who had died in 1904 just months after her husband Gerson died, leaving three-year-old Felix Albert behind. I was glad to see that Felix was being taken care of by May’s sister/aunt Mollie.

Harry Goldman and family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 15, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: T624_558; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 0250; FHL microfilm: 1374571, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census

Joseph, the only son who was no longer living in Baltimore, continued to live in Denver in the first decade of the twentieth century and work in the advertising business.19 His daughters both married during those years. Lenore married Henry Isaacs on January 21, 1905, in Denver; Henry was a doctor and was born in Pennsylvania to Isaac E. Isaacs and Elizabeth Sampson in September 1880. He grew up in Pittsburgh and went to college and medical school in western Pennsylvania.20 It would be interesting to know how he met Lenore, who was living in Denver. After they married, they settled in the Pittsburgh area where in 1910 Henry was a doctor at Braddock Hospital in Braddock, Pennsylvania.21

Ancestry.com. Colorado, County Marriage Records and State Index, 1862-2006

Lenore’s younger sister Celeste married two years after her sister on November 28, 1907 in Denver. She married Abe Diamond, who was born in Chicago in 1879 to Solomon A. Diamond, a Dutch immigrant, and Henrietta Kuhn, a French immigrant. In 1900 Abe was still living in Chicago with his parents and working as a salesman, but by the early 1900s he had relocated to Denver where he was a cigar salesman.22 In 1910, Celeste and Abe and their three-month-old daughter Marjorie were living in Denver where Abe continued to work as a cigar merchant.23

Ancestry.com. Colorado, County Marriage Records and State Index, 1862-2006

Unfortunately, the marriages of both Celeste and her sister Lenore were cut short by painfully similar events in the next decade. More on that in my next post.

 

  1. Albert Sigmund and Mae Kaufman marriage record, FHL Film Number: 2108220
    Reference ID: Itm 1 p 1-2 cn 13295, Ancestry.com. District of Columbia, Compiled Marriage Index, 1830-1921 ↩
  2. Charles Kaufman and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Page: 18; Enumeration District: 0071; FHL microfilm: 1240161, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  3. Albert Sigmund, 1910 US census, Census Place: Precinct 7, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: T624_152; Page: 18A; Enumeration District: 0135; FHL microfilm: 1374165, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census; Washington, District of Columbia, City Directory, 1909, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  4. Marriage of Jeannette Sigmund and Sydney Kaufman, FHL Film Number: 2108264
    Reference ID: item 1 p 466 cn 20466, Ancestry.com. District of Columbia, Compiled Marriage Index, 1830-1921 ↩
  5. Sydney Kaufman, passport application, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; Roll #: 1931; Volume #: Roll 1931 – Certificates: 155476-155849, 27 Apr 1922-27 Apr 1922, Ancestry.com. U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 ↩
  6. Charles Kaufman and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Page: 18; Enumeration District: 0071; FHL microfilm: 1240161, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  7. Marriage of Helene K, Eiseman and Abraham Sigmund, FHL Film Number: 2108440, Reference ID: Pg276 CN 35876 Fr475, Ancestry.com. District of Columbia, Compiled Marriage Index, 1830-1921 ↩
  8. Birth record of Helene Eiseman, FHL Film Number: 2114651, Reference ID: cn 28339, Ancestry.com. District of Columbia, Select Births and Christenings, 1830-1955 ↩
  9. Abraham Sigmund and family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Precinct 10, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: T624_155; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 0215; FHL microfilm: 1374168, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  10. Marriage record of Goldsmith Sigmund and Sadye Breslau. FHL Film Number: 2108443, Refence ID: cn 40018, Ancestry.com. District of Columbia, Compiled Marriage Index, 1830-1921 ↩
  11. Ferdinand Breslau family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0096; FHL microfilm: 1240162, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census; https://www.findagrave.com/mem Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current ↩
  12. Goldie Sigmund and family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Precinct 8, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: T624_153; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 0142; FHL microfilm: 1374166, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  13.  Number: 578-07-5877; Issue State: District of Columbia; Issue Date: Before 1951,
    Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  14. Washington Evening Star, January 22, 1909, p. 7. ↩
  15. Lesley Wilhoite, 1900 US census, Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Page: 15; Enumeration District: 0036; FHL microfilm: 1240159, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  16. Howard Sigmund, 1910 US census, Census Place: Precinct 10, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: T624_155; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 0215; FHL microfilm: 1374168, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census. Title: Washington, District of Columbia, City Directory, 1909, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  17. Simon Sigmund and family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 14, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: T624_557; Page: 14B; Enumeration District: 0236; FHL microfilm: 1374570, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  18. Leo Sigmund and family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 15, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: T624_558; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0250; FHL microfilm: 1374571, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  19. Joseph Sigmund, 1910 US census, Census Place: Denver Ward 9, Denver, Colorado; Roll: T624_116; Page: 14B; Enumeration District: 0113; FHL microfilm: 1374129, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  20. “Dr. H. S. Isaacs,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Feb 21, 1912, p.11. ↩
  21. Ibid.; Henry Isaacs, 1910 US census, Census Place: Braddock Ward 1, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1293; Page: 19A; Enumeration District: 0019; FHL microfilm: 1375306, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  22. Sol A. Diamond and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Chicago Ward 11, Cook, Illinois; Page: 6; Enumeration District: 0325; FHL microfilm: 1240258, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census; Denver, Colorado, City Directory, 1906, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  23. Abe Diamond, 1910 census, Census Place: Denver Ward 10, Denver, Colorado; Roll: T624_116; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 0130; FHL microfilm: 1374129, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩

Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund Did Not Have A Baby in Her Fifties: Mystery Solved

Posted on by
33

As of 1900, Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund had over twenty grandchildren, but had lost her husband Albert and four of her ten children. Three of those children had died without any descendants: Jacob, Lena, and Stella.

William had left five children behind, and in 1900, all of them were still living with their mother Adelaide in Washington, DC. Albert (26) was a clerk in a jewelry store; Abraham (24) was working in men’s and women’s furnishings. Jeanette (20), Goldie (17), and Howard (13) were not working outside the home.

Adelaide Sigmund and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Page: 1; Enumeration District: 0031; FHL microfilm: 1240159
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

There are two things to note about this census record. First, Goldie was a son, not a daughter. That threw me off until I found later records for Goldie, whose real name was Goldsmith. Second, the record reports that Adelaide had had seven children, only five of whom were still living. I knew that Herman had died in 1883, but I have not located the other child who was no longer living.

Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund’s six surviving children were all married by 1900, and four of them were living in Baltimore.  Ella herself was living with her daughter May, May’s husband Gerson Cahn, a fur salesman, and their baby boy, Felix Albert Cahn (listed as Albert on the census).

Gerson Cahn and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 16, Baltimore City (Independent City), Maryland; Page: 13; Enumeration District: 0209; FHL microfilm: 1240615
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

Simon Sigmund was a dry goods salesman and was living with his wife Helen and son Harold in Baltimore.1 Leo Sigmund and his wife Claudia and infant daughter Tracy Edna were also living in Baltimore in 1900 where Leo was a hat merchant.2  Leo and Claudia’s second child Albert Lloyd Sigmund was born on September 17, 1902.3

The fourth of Ella’s children living in Baltimore in 1900 was her daughter Mollie, who was living with her three children and husband Harry Goldman.4 Although Harry was working as a police magistrate in 1900, his other activities are what he would become best known for. Harry Goldman, who was known as Judge, was one of the original organizers and investors in the team that would eventually become Baltimore’s American League baseball team, the Orioles, when the American League was formed in 1900. Here is the first Orioles team in 1901:

As a somewhat lapsed baseball fan, I loved reading the many articles describing how the American League was created and the obstacles it had to overcome as the older circuit, the National League, took extraordinary steps to try and prevent the creation of a league that would compete for audiences and players. For example, Harry Goldman located the land where the Baltimore’s stadium was to be built, and the National League tried to block that acquisition. Harry played such an instrumental role in the organization of the team and its league that he was named the first secretary-treasurer of Baltimore’s first American League team in 1900.5

The Baltimore Sun, November 17, 1900, p. 6.

Ella’s two remaining children were not living in Baltimore in 1900. Henrietta had long ago moved to Washington, Pennsylvania, with her husband S.J. Katzenstein. And by 1900, Joseph Sigmund had left Pittsburgh, where he had moved several years before. In 1900 he was living in Denver with his wife and children and working in advertising.

Joseph Sigmund and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Denver, Arapahoe, Colorado; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0059; FHL microfilm: 1240118
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Censu

Thus, in 1900, Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund had four of her six surviving children living nearby in Baltimore, plus one living in Pennsylvania and one in Denver. The next four years would be terrible ones, however.

First, Ella’s son-in-law S.J. Katzenstein, Henrietta’s husband, died on December 7, 1901, at the age of 53. He left behind his wife Henrietta and six children, ranging in age from Moynelle, who was 22, to Vernon, who was only nine years old.

Then two years later on November 23, 1903, Ella lost another son-in-law when May’s husband Gerson Cahn died from pulmonary tuberculosis. He was only 31 years old.

But the family’s tragedy deepened when May herself died just four months later on March 18, 1904, at the age of 29, from pulmonary edema and heart failure. Their son Felix Albert was orphaned at just four years old.

When I recently received May’s death certificate, it answered a question I had asked in a recent post: Had Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund really had a child in her fifties?

May was not Ella and Albert’s biological child. She was the child of their daughter Lena and her husband Solomon Sigmund. Although her death certificate states that May was born on May 2, 1875, both the 1880 census record and the 1900 census record suggest that she was born in 1874, not 1875. That would mean she was just over a year old when her mother died on July 31, 1875.

So perhaps her grandparents Ella and Albert adopted her, legally or unofficially, and thus they identified her as their daughter on the 1880 census and as one of Albert’s children in his obituary. But it also explains why Ella reported only five living children on the 1900 census, not six.

Gerson Cahn and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 16, Baltimore City (Independent City), Maryland; Page: 13; Enumeration District: 0209; FHL microfilm: 1240615
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

One question that remains unanswered is what happened to Lena’s husband and May’s father Solomon. I have not been able to find one reference or record that reveals where he was after Lena’s death. He is not listed in the Baltimore City Death Index for 1875-1880, so presumably he was still living in 1880 when May was living with her grandparents and listed as their daughter. So perhaps he had returned to Germany or just moved on to a new location in the US.6

Losing May after losing Lena as well as Jacob, Stella, and William must have been just too much for Ella to bear. She had now outlived four of her ten children as well as her husband Albert and now her granddaughter/adopted daughter May. Ella died the day after May on March 19, 1904, at the age of eighty-one from nephritis and diabetes.

Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund, my first cousin, four times removed, had lived quite a challenging life. Born in Grebenstein, Germany, she was the oldest of seven children and lost her mother when she was only sixteen. Faced with financial burdens, she had taken on the responsibility of not only helping to care for those younger siblings but of earning a living as a milliner. Then when she was about twenty-one, she decided to strike out on her own and left Germany for the US, where she married Albert Sigmund and had ten children. Although Albert was a successful businessperson in Baltimore, Ella suffered far too many losses—five of her children predeceased her as well as her husband Albert. One has to wonder whether her dreams of a better life in the US were fulfilled, given how much she had endured as an adult.

But five of her children survived her as well as over twenty grandchildren, so her legacy did not end with her life, as we will see.

 

  1. Simon Sigmund and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 16, Baltimore City (Independent City), Maryland; Page: 1; Enumeration District: 0208; FHL microfilm: 1240615, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  2. Leo Sigmund and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 16, Baltimore City (Independent City), Maryland; Page: 15; Enumeration District: 0209; FHL microfilm: 1240615, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  3. New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2W23-G4M : 10 February 2018), Claudia Hirsch in entry for Albert Lloyd Sigmund, 24 Oct 1938; citing Death, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 2,108,250. ↩
  4. Harry Goldman and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 16, Baltimore City (Independent City), Maryland; Page: 15; Enumeration District: 0209; FHL microfilm: 1240615, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  5. See, e.g., “The New Ball Club,” The Baltimore Sun, January 27, 1900, p. 6; “More Baseball War,” The Baltimore Sun, July 29, 1902, p. 6; Fred Lieb, The Baltimore Orioles: The History of a Colorful Team in Baltimore and St. Louis (SIU Press, 2005), pp. 91-95,111, 116, 147 ↩
  6. I did find a Sol Sigmund of the same age and born in Germany on the 1900 census, living in St. Louis and married to Emma Lorber with two children, but I have no way to know if that man was the same man. If it was the same Solomon Sigmund, he never reappears with that family either. Sol Sigmund and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: St Louis Ward 12, St Louis (Independent City), Missouri; Page: 5; Enumeration District: 0185; FHL microfilm: 1240894, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census. By 1910 Emma was living with her sons and still listed as married, but Sol is not in the household. By 1920 Emma identified her marital status as divorced. Could this be the same Solomon Sigmund? And if so, where did he now disappear to? ↩

Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund’s Family in the 1890s: Years of Transition

Posted on by
12

Although the 1880s were mostly happy years for Ella and her family, William’s death in 1887 brought heartbreak to the family.

The next decade started off well for the family of Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund. On January 16, 1891, Simon Sigmund married Helen Hirshberg, daughter of Henry and Mary Hirshberg, both of whom were German immigrants. Helen was born in Maryland in 1866. Her father owned a paint store in Baltimore.1 Simon and Helen had one child, a son Harold born in Baltimore one year after their marriage on January 4, 1892.2

Marriage record for Simon Sigmund and Helen Hirshberg, Maryland State Archives, http://guide.msa.maryland.gov/pages/viewer.aspx?page=marriage#goToPage

Ella and Albert celebrated the birth of another grandchild in 1892 when Henrietta Sigmund Katzenstein gave birth to her sixth and final child a month later in Washington, Pennsylvania. Their son Vernon was born on February 8, 1892.

On December 2, 1893, Stella Sigmund married Samuel L. Goldman in Baltimore.  Does that name sound familiar? It should because Samuel Goldman was the brother of Emma Goldman, the wife of Joseph Sigmund, and of Harry Goldman, the husband of Molly Sigmund. So three Sigmund siblings married three Goldman siblings. And Samuel also was the father of Leman Poppi Goldman, husband of Flora Wolfe, my Schoenthal cousin.  Samuel was a widower when he married Stella; his first wife Amanda Kann had died on March 30, 1892, leaving him with six children ranging in age from seven to eighteen.3

Marriage record of Estella Sigmund and Samuel L Goldman, Maryland State Archives, http://guide.msa.maryland.gov/pages/viewer.aspx?page=marriage#goToPage

But sadly Samuel was to become a widower again just a year and half after marrying Stella. She died on July 24, 1895, after being ill for several months. She was only 35 years old. Ella and Albert had outlived yet another child.  Stella was the fourth child to predecease them.

Obituary for Stella Sigmund Goldman, The Baltimore Sun,  Baltimore, Maryland
26 Jul 1895, Fri • Page 8

Meanwhile, Joseph Sigmund and his family left Baltimore in the 1890s for Pittsburgh. Joseph had run into financial problems with his business in Baltimore and had made an assignment for the benefit of creditors to a trustee in December 1891. He apparently had debts exceeding $40,000. According to the newspaper, a particularly warm winter had contributed to a drop in fur and hat sales.

The Baltimore Sun, December 30, 1891, p. 4

In 1893, lawsuits that had been filed by numerous creditors against Joseph Sigmund were settled:

Baltimore Sun, May 23, 1893, p. 8

In the aftermath of these losses and lawsuits, Joseph must have decided to leave Baltimore and get a fresh start in Pittsburgh. By 1896 he was working in the advertising business in Pittsburgh for the advertising firm Solomon & Ruben.4

Ella and her family suffered another loss on January 26, 1896 when her husband Albert died at age 77. The Baltimore Sun published this obituary the following day:

Obituary, Albert Sigmund, The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, Maryland
27 Jan 1896, Mon • Page 7

But the end of the decade brought some better news as there were two more weddings. May Sigmund married Gerson Cahn in Baltimore on April 24, 1898.

Marriage record of Gerson Cahn and May Sigmund, http://guide.msa.maryland.gov/pages/viewer.aspx?page=marriage#goToPage

Gerson was the son of Felix Cahn and Jenny Newmyer. His father was a German immigrant and was in the wholesale millinery business; his mother was born in either Maryland or DC and died when Felix was a young boy.5 Gerson and May had one child, a son born on November 6, 1899, named Felix Albert Cahn,6 who was obviously named for both of his grandfathers (though Gerson’s father was still living). In 1900, Gerson and May and their son Felix Albert (listed as Albert on the census) were living with May’s mother, Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund, and two servants. Gerson was working as a fur salesman.

Gerson Cahn and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 16, Baltimore City (Independent City), Maryland; Page: 13; Enumeration District: 0209; FHL microfilm: 1240615
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

The last of Ella and Albert Sigmund’s children to marry was their son Leo. He married Claudia Hirsch in Philadelphia in 1899.7 They would have two children born in the 1900s, Tracy Edna born in May 19008 and Albert Lloyd Sigmund, born September 17, 1902,9 the last-born grandchild of Ella and Albert, bringing the total number of grandchildren to 22.

As the 1890s drew to a close, there was one more transition in the family. Joseph Sigmund moved with his wife and daughters from Pittsburgh to Denver on the advice of his doctors:

“Joseph Sigmund Goes to Denver,” The Pittsburgh Daily Post, October 1, 1899, p. 23

Thus, as of 1900, Ella Goldschmidt was a widow and had outlived four of her ten children: Jacob, Lena, William, and Stella. The 1900 census record says she had five living children, but I count six: Henrietta, Simon, Joseph, Leo, Mollie, and May. Soon, however, there would only be five. Perhaps Ella foresaw the doom of one more of her children.

 

  1. Henry Hirshberg and family, 1870 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 4, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: M593_573; Page: 72A; Family History Library Film: 552072, Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census ↩
  2. Harold Sigmund, World War I draft registration, Registration State: New York; Registration County: New York; Roll: 1766139; Draft Board: 120, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918  ↩
  3. Amanda Goldman death notice, The Baltimore Sun, April 1, 1892, p. 2. ↩
  4. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, City Directory, 1896, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995. “Advertising Man Taken by Death,” The Denver Post, October 28, 1930, p, 8. ↩
  5. Death certificate of Gerson Cahn. Marriage record of Felix Cahn and Jenny Newmyer, 1864, Film Number: 002079252, Ancestry.com. District of Columbia, Marriage Records, 1810-1953. What I have not yet been able to determine is whether Jenny Newmyer was somehow related to Adelaide Newmyer, wife of William Sigmund. I am awaiting receipt of Jenny’s death certifcate. ↩
  6. Maryland State Archives, Baltimore Birth Index, Certificate B5470, http://guide.msa.maryland.gov/pages/series.aspx?action=viewseries&id=cm1134 ↩
  7. Marriage Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, Marriage Year: 1899
    Marriage License Number: 115918, Digital GSU Number: 4141922, Ancestry.com. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Marriage Index, 1885-1951 ↩
  8. Leo Sigmund and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 16, Baltimore City (Independent City), Maryland; Page: 15; Enumeration District: 0209; FHL microfilm: 1240615, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  9. New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2W23-G4M : 10 February 2018), Claudia Hirsch in entry for Albert Lloyd Sigmund, 24 Oct 1938; citing Death, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 2,108,250. ↩

Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund and Her Family in the 1880s: Years of Growth

Posted on by
25

The 1870s were primarily years of growth for the family of Ella Goldschmidt and Albert Sigmund. Three of their children married, and several grandchildren were born. Aside from the tragic death of their daughter Lena in 1875 after a long struggle with cancer, these were primarily good years for Ella and Albert.

The 1880s also started out with more good news. Their son William and his wife Adelaide had three more children, Herman Sigmund was born on May 14, 1880,1 Goldsmith Meyer Sigmund (also known as Goldie) born October 13, 18822 and Howard Lee Sigmund, born June 21, 1886,3 all in Baltimore. William as well as his brother Joseph were working as hatters and furriers with their father Albert.

William Sigmund and family, 1880 US census, Census Place: Baltimore, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: 505; Page: 477B; Enumeration District: 215
Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census

Joseph and his wife Emma also had children in the 1880s. Lenore was born on October 29, 1881,4 and her sister Celeste was born in Baltimore on June 12, 1886.5 And in Pennsylvania, Henrietta and S.J. Katzenstein added four more children to their family in the 1880s:  Milton (1881), Howard (1882), Ivan (1884), and Earl (1887).

In addition, one more of Ella and Albert’s children married in this decade. Their daughter Mollie married Harry Goldman on May 18, 1882, in Baltimore. Remember I warned you of more twists in the Goldman/Sigmund tree? Well, Harry Goldman was the younger brother of Emma Goldman, who’d married Mollie’s brother Joseph, and the younger brother of Samuel Goldman, whose son Leman Poppi Goldman was married to Flora Wolfe, a Schoenthal cousin. (Samuel returns in yet another twist in this tree, as you will see.) Harry was born on December 25, 1857, in Baltimore.6

Marriage record of Mollie Sigmund and Harry Goldman, Maryland State Archives, marriage registry, http://guide.msa.maryland.gov/pages/viewer.aspx?page=marriage#goToPage

Mollie and Harry had three children in the 1880s: Leman Edwin on September 27, 1883,7 Marguerite on December 28, 1884,8 and Adele on August 28, 1887,9 all born in Baltimore. Thus, by the end of 1887, Ella and Albert Sigmund had fifteen grandchildren, most of whom were living near them in Baltimore. Life must have seemed quite grand.

But unfortunately, all that joy was tempered by tragic losses.  First, William and Adelaide’s son Herman died May 9, 1883; he was only three years old.10  Then Herman’s father, William Sigmund, died on April 30, 1887, in Baltimore from phthisis pulmonalis or what we now call tuberculosis.11

William Sigmund, 1887 death certificate 99566, Maryland State Archives

He was only forty years old and left behind his wife Adelaide, who was only 34, and five children ranging in age from Albert, who was thirteen, to Howard, who was only ten months old. Ella and Albert had outlived yet another child, having already lost their son Jacob and their daughter Lena.

And sadly, those were not the only children who would predecease them before 1900.

 

  1. Baltimore City Birth Index, found at https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/coagserm/cm1100/cm1134/000000/000002/pdf/msa_cm1134_000002.pdf ↩
  2. Goldsmith M. Sigmund World War I draft registration, Registration State: District of Columbia; Registration County: Washington; Roll: 1556843; Draft Board: 08, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 ↩
  3. Howard Sigmund, World War I draft registration, Registration State: District of Columbia; Registration County: Washington; Roll: 1556845; Draft Board: 09, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 ↩
  4. Maryland State Archives, Baltimore birth registry, https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/coagserm/cm1100/cm1134/000000/000003/pdf/msa_cm1134_000003.pdf ↩
  5. SSN: 523244049, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  6. See gravestone at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7890082 ↩
  7. Leman Edwin Goldman, World War I draft registration, Registration State: Maryland; Registration County: Baltimore (Independent City); Roll: 1684137; Draft Board: 13, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 ↩
  8. SSN: 216056370, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  9. SSN: 300400462, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  10. Baltimore death registry, Maryland State Archives, found at https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/coagsere/ce1/ce42/000000/000082/pdf/ce42-000082.pdf, p. 478, certificate number 66538. I have not yet received his death certificate. ↩
  11. Baltimore death registry, Maryland State Archives, https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/coagsere/ce1/ce42/000000/000082/pdf/ce42-000082.pdf, certificate number 99566. ↩

Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund, Part I: Success in Baltimore

Posted on by
14

This is the first post about Ella Goldschmidt in the US. Please read first—I posted out of order.

Ella Goldschmidt was the first child of Meyer Goldschmidt and Lea Katzenstein. She was born in about 1823 in Grebenstein, Germany, and as described by her brother Selig, she had run a millinery business in her father’s home in the years after her mother died in 1839. Selig also wrote that after several years, Ella decided to seek better opportunities elsewhere and left the family to immigrate to the United States. Although I have not located a definite ship manifest for Ella, there is a manifest showing a 21-year-old woman named “Eliza” Goldschmidt who arrived in Philadelphia on June 2, 1845, on the ship Louise, sailing from Bremen, Germany.

Eliz Goldschmidt, passenger manifest, Departure Place: Bremen, Germany
Arrival Date: 2 Jun 1845, Arrival Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 
Ship: Louise, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Record Group Title: Records of the United States Customs Service, 1745-1997; Record Group Number: 36; Series: M425
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1800-1962

That may have been Ella, though I can’t be sure. At any rate, I know that Ella had arrived by April 25, 1846, because on that date she married Albert Sigmund in Baltimore, Maryland. (Ella appears to have used numerous variations on Ella in the US, sometimes Helen, sometimes Elena, sometimes as here Helena.) Albert was also a German immigrant; he was born in Bavaria in 1819. According to one source, he came to Baltimore in 1841.

Marriage record of Albert Sigmund and “Helena Goldsmith.” Maryland County Marriages, 1658-1940,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4JC-GYH : 16 March 2018), Albert Sigmond and Helena Goldsmith, 25 Apr 1846; citing Baltimore, , Maryland, United States, clerk of the circuit court from various counties; FHL microfilm 13,694.

Ella and Albert’s first child, William, was born in about 1847 as he was reported to be three years old on the 1850 census. His sister Lena was born the following year, and in 1850 the family was living in Baltimore where Albert was a customs house officer. His brother Philip was living with them, working as a cap maker. 1

Albert Sigmund and family, 1850 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 3, Baltimore, Maryland; Roll: M432_282; Page: 339B; Image: 109, Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census

Between 1851 and 1860, Ella and Albert had six more children, all born in Baltimore: Henrietta (1851),2 Simon (sometimes identified as Samuel or Solomon (1852), Jacob (about 1854), Joseph (1856), Leo(pold) (1858), and Stella (also identified as Hester and Estella) (1860).3

Also living with Ella and Albert in 1860 was Ella’s youngest sibling, Falk Goldschmidt. Falk had arrived on July 8, 1852 when he was only sixteen.

Falk Goldschmidt, passenger manifest, Source Citation
Year: 1852; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 116; Line: 24; List Number: 912, Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

Thus, Ella and Albert had a large household by 1860: eight children plus Albert’s father Herman and brother Philip and Ella’s brother Falk. Albert was working as a merchant, and he must have been doing quite well to house twelve people plus three servants.4

This advertisement from the November 23, 1858, Baltimore Daily Exchange (p.3) is for Albert’s fur business:

The Daily Exchange, Baltimore, Maryland, 23 Nov 1858, Tue • Page 3

In 1862, Ella gave birth to a ninth child, Mollie.5 Although the 1870 census lists Mollie’s (Mary here) birthplace as Maryland, every later census record reports her birthplace as New York. I’ve not found a birth record from either place to reach a conclusion as to which is right. One theory I’ve seen mentioned is that the family had moved to New York during the Civil War.

Albert and Ella thus continued to have a large household in 1870, but there were a few things on the 1870 census that confused me. This is how the census listed the children with their ages and occupations:

William (24, clerk in store),

Lena (22, at home),

Henrietta (19, at home),

Simon (10, clerk in store),

Joseph (14, at school),

Leo (12, at school),

Estella (10, at school),

Mary (presumably Mollie) (8, at school).

There were also two servants living in the household plus Albert’s father Herman and another Sigmund:

Solomon, listed as eighteen years old and working as a clerk in a store.

Albert Sigmund and family, 1870 US census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 12, Baltimore, Maryland; Page: 248A; Family History Library Film: 552075
Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census

So what is confusing here? First of all, Simon should have been eighteen in 1870, not ten. Plus would a ten year old be working as a clerk when his older brothers Joseph and Leo were both in school? I chalked this up to a scrivener’s error—it should have been an 18, not a ten for his age.

But then I noticed Solomon Sigmund—eighteen years old and a clerk. Had the enumerator listed Simon twice, once as a ten year old and then as Solomon, the eighteen year old? Or was Solomon yet another member of the family? Since the 1870 census did not include relationship to the head of household as a reported fact, it’s hard to know.

UPDATE: Thanks to David Baron, I now know that Solomon Sigmund married Lena Sigmund in 1873 and thus was not one of Ella and Albert’s children, but more likely a nephew or cousin of Albert Sigmund who was living with the family.

The other troubling thing about this 1870 census record is that Ella and Albert’s son Jacob, who would have been about sixteen in 1870, is not listed at all. The 1870 Baltimore directory is consistent with this census; William and Simon are listed as clerks, living at the same address as their father, Albert, the furrier. There is no listing for Jacob, the next oldest son.

Title: Baltimore, Maryland, City Directory, 1870, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [

So where was Jacob? Had he died? Moved away? I could not find one other record for Jacob aside from the 1860 census. I will keep digging to see if I can learn more about him, but since there do not appear to be any death records in Maryland before 1870, I am instead hoping to find a cemetery record somewhere in Baltimore.

UPDATE: Thank you to Marlene Pachinko at Har Sinai synagogue in Baltimore who provided me with the dates for the Sigmund family’s burials at their cemetery. Jacob Sigmund died in 1870 and is buried at Har Sinai.

UPDATE: Again, thank you to David Baron, who located a record of circumcisions that listed the following:

Family Name     Father     Infant       Date              No.
Siegmund          Asher      Uriel       2/4/1847         270
    ”                     Asher       Hayyim  3/8/1854         593
                                           (Henry Clay)
    ”                      Asher       Simon    7/4/1852        507
    ”                      Asher       Joseph   2/6/1856        685
David suggested that Asher was Albert Sigmund’s Hebrew name and that Uriel was William Sigmund’s Hebrew name. Simon and Joseph are obviously the sons with those names. And Hayyim (Henry Clay) could be Jacob, as the birth year lines up with Jacob’s age on the 1860 census. So now I need to search again for a child with that name.

Ella’s brother Falk was also no longer living with her family in 1870. In fact, Falk had returned to Germany where he had married Babette Carlebach on October 18, 1868, in Mannheim; they had their first child Meier on August 8, 1870 in Grabenhein, Germany.

Meier Falk Goldschmidt birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 903_8845, Year Range: 1870, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Matthias Steinke of the German Genealogy group kindly translated this record as follows:

Goldschmidt, Meier
Legitimate son and first child of the salesman Falk Goldschmidt from Gräbenhein in the district Cassel (Kassel) and his wife Babette born Carlebach, married 18th October 1868 in Mannheim, was born here Bleichstreet Nr. 40, Monday the 8th August 1870 in the morning at 5:45 o’clock.
Reason for this entry was the declaration of the father.
Entered the 16th November 1870.
In fidem
Signature

Thus, much of the information about Ella’s first 25 years in the United States is based wholly on the census records. From those records, we can see that she and her husband Albert were the parents of nine children, eight of whom were still living with them in 1870. The next decade would bring many changes to the family: births, deaths, and several marriages.

  1. These birth years are based almost exclusively on census records; I could not locate birth records online and learned that Maryland did not require registration of births from 1800 through 1864 and that even after 1864, most births in Maryland were not recorded. Thus, I have had to rely on the census and a few death records or obituaries to infer the birth years for the children of Ella and Albert. ↩
  2. “Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9PK5-9WV8?cc=1307272&wc=MD9X-G6D%3A287599701%2C294514201 : 21 May 2014), 1936 > 34601-37500 > image 2425 of 3212. ↩
  3. Other than for Henrietta, for whom a birth date appeared on her death record, I have no records of precise birth dates for these other children. These dates are based on census records, as discussed also on Note 1. ↩
  4. The 1860 census record for Albert and his family is not easy to read as the writing is very faint, but the transcription and indices are FamilySearch and Ancestry are consistent. United States Census, 1860″, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M69Z-5QX : 12 December 2017), Albert Sigman, 1860. Census Place: Baltimore Ward 13, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: M653_464; Page: 101; Family History Library Film: 803464, Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census ↩
  5. Her gravestone says February 8, 1862. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7890080 ↩

Ella Goldschmidt, Part II: The 1870s, Gains and A Heartbreaking Loss

Posted on by
16

As of the 1870 census, Ella Goldschmidt and her husband Albert Sigmund, a furrier, had eight children living at home, ranging in age from William, who was 24, to Mollie, who was eight. Jacob, who had been listed as six on the 1860 census, was not listed on the 1870 census, but no records have yet been found to explain what happened to him.

Twelve years after giving birth to Mollie in 1862, Ella apparently had another child, a daughter May born in 1874. As with all of Ella’s prior children, I cannot locate a birth record for May because Maryland birth records start in 1875, but am relying solely on two census records, specifically the 1880 and 1900 US census records.1 Ella would have been over fifty years old in 1874, according to her death certificate. The 1880 census lists Ella as 55 and May as 6, meaning Ella was at least 49 when May was born.  Could May really be her biological child? Or was she perhaps adopted or an out-of-wedlock child of one of Ella and Albert’s older children or another relative?

Meanwhile, Ella and Albert’s oldest child, William, had married Adelaide or Addie  Newmeyer (sometimes spelled Newmyer or Neumyer or Newmyre and even Neumeir) in September 1873 and was having children of his own by the time his baby sister May was born in 1874. Adelaide was born in about 1851 or 1852 in Pennsylvania, depending on the census record.

In 1870 Adelaide was living with her mother Fanny Newmyer and her six other children in Washington, DC. The 1871 Washington directory lists Fanny as the widow of Abraham,2 but the 1860 census includes the household of a John and Fanny Newmyre living in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, with their five oldest children. Adelaide appears to be listed as Alice on that census, but her siblings’ names match those on later census records. Since records for some of Adelaide’s siblings indicate they were born in Lock Haven, I concluded that this was Adelaide’s family on the 1860 census.3

Newmyre family, 1860 census, Census Place: Lock Haven, Clinton, Pennsylvania; Roll: M653_1097; Page: 274; Family History Library Film: 805097, Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census

Census Place: Washington Ward 4, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: M593_124; Page: 814A; Family History Library Film: 545623, Washington Ward 4, Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census

I could find no other records for John Newmeyer, no matter how many wild cards or spellings I tried, but I did find a directory listing Abraham Newmeyer in Washington, DC, in 1863 as a peddler4 and a Civil War draft registration dated 1863 for Abram Newmyer, a 44 year old native of Bavaria.  I believe that Adelaide’s father was Abraham Newmeyer and that the family had left Lock Haven for Washington some time between 1860 and 1863.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records (Provost Marshal General’s Bureau; Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865); Record Group: 110, Records of the Provost Marshal General’s Bureau (Civil War); Collection Name: Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865 (Civil War Union Draft Records); NAI: 4213514; Archive Volume Number: 5 of 5, Ancestry.com. U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865

William and Adelaide’s first child Albert Sigmund was born on August 12, 1874, in Baltimore, according to his World War I draft registration. 4

Their second child was named Abraham, born on April 27, 1876,5 bolstering my conclusion that Abraham was the name of Adelaide’s father. William and Adelaide had a third child Jeannette born sometime between 1878 and 1879. She is listed as two on the 1880 census, but later census records have her born in June 1879 or even as late as 1881. I searched the Baltimore birth index for 1877, 1878, and 1879, and could not find her listed. The closest I could find was a child born on  October 7, 1879, to a William and Addie Smith, but I need to get the birth certificate to be sure that this is the correct couple. At any rate, Jeannette is listed on the 1880 census, so she had to have been born before that was taken.

The 1880 census lists a fourth child, one month old, named Herman living in the household. I found a listing in the 1880 Baltimore birth registry for a child born May 14, 1880, to “William and Annie Sigmon” which I assume must refer to Herman. In 1880, they were all living in Baltimore where William was working as a clerk in the tax office.

William Sigmund and family, 1880 US census, Census Place: Baltimore, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: 505; Page: 477B; Enumeration District: 215, Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census

In 1875, Ella and Albert’s daughter Henrietta married her second cousin Scholum Joseph Katzenstein, the oldest child of my great-great-grandparents, Gerson Katzenstein and Eva Goldschmidt. Henrietta and Scholum Joseph were both the great-grandchildren of Jacob Falck Goldschmidt and Eva Seligmann, my four-times great-grandparents. Their mothers Ella Goldschmidt Sigmund and Eva Goldschmidt Katzenstein were first cousins.

I have already written about Henrietta and Scholum Joseph when I wrote about my Katzenstein relatives. You can find their stories here, here, here, and here. Thus, I will not repeat the stories of Henrietta and her descendants in telling the story of her parents and siblings, except to point out that Henrietta had six children, a daughter Moynelle born in 1879 and five sons, all born between 1881 and 1892, and that she was living in Washington, Pennsylvania.

Thus, Ella and Albert had become grandparents during the 1870s as well as having a new child May. But not all the news was good for their family. On July 31, 1875, their oldest daughter Lena died from cancer of the neck at age 27; according to her death certificate, she had been ill for over ten years.

Her death notice paid tribute to her courage:

UPDATE: Thank you to David Baron, who pointed out to me after I’d first posted this that this death notice mentions Solomon Sigmund as Lena’s husband. Somehow I completely overlooked that. I assume that this is the same Solomon Sigmund who was eighteen years old and living with Lena’s family in 1870 and that he must have been a relative of Albert Sigmund—a nephew or cousin. Once David pointed this out to me, I also located a marriage record for Lena and Solomon:

Sol Sigmund Lena Sigmund marriage 1873 MD state archives

I was unable to find any definite record for Solomon Sigmund after Lena’s death. Perhaps he returned to Germany. There were many other men with that name, but no way for me to connect any of them to Lena’s family.

On September 22, 1880, Ella and Albert’s son Joseph married Emma Goldman (not THAT Emma Goldman) in Baltimore.

Emma Goldman was born in about 1860 in Maryland and was the daughter of Leman Goldman and Henrietta Goldschmidt.6 When I saw Emma’s parents’ names, something rang a bell. Sure enough, there was another twisted branch on my family tree.  Emma’s brother Samuel L. Goldman was the father of Leman Poppi Goldman, who married Flora Wolfe, the daughter of Amalie Schoenthal, the sister of my great-grandfather Isidore Schoenthal.

And it gets even more twisted.  Stay tuned…

Thus, as of the end of 1880, Ella and Albert had lost one child, Lena. Three of their children, William, Henrietta, and Joseph, had married, and they had four grandchildren, William’s three children and Henrietta’s daughter. Ella and Albert were living with their remaining children, Simon (listed here as Samuel, 27), Leo (22), Stella (20), Mollie (18), and six-year-old May. Simon/Samuel and Leo were working as clerks, and Albert continued to work as a fur merchant.

Albert Sigmund and family 1880 US census, Census Place: Baltimore, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: 501; Page: 116C; Enumeration District: 110
Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census

The next twenty years would bring many changes, some good, some bad.

 

 

  1. Albert Sigmund and family, 1870 US census,  Census Place: Baltimore Ward 12, Baltimore, Maryland; Roll: M593_576; Page: 248A; Family History Library Film: 552075, Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census; 1880 US census, Census Place: Baltimore, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: 501; Page: 116C; Enumeration District: 110, Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census ↩
  2. Publication Title: Washington, District of Columbia, City Directory, 1871, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  3. Harriet Harris obituary, The Daily Record, Long Branch, New Jersey, 11 Feb 1937, Thu • Page 3 ↩
  4. Albert Sigmund, World War I draft registration, Registration State: District of Columbia; Registration County: Washington; Roll: 1556838; Draft Board: 07, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918.  I find it interesting that they gave their child the same name as William’s father even though he, Albert the elder, was still living, although naming a child for someone still living is fairly common on this side of my family tree. ↩ ↩
  5. Abraham Newmeyer, World War I draft registration, Registration State: District of Columbia; Registration County: Washington; Roll: 1556845; Draft Board: 09, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. ↩
  6. Leman Goldman family, 1870 census, Census Place: Baltimore Ward 7, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: M593_574; Page: 117A; Family History Library Film: 552073, Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census ↩