Tag Archives: Adler

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). ↩

Milton Goldsmith’s Family Album, Part VI: His Parents, Abraham and Cecelia

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This is Part VI of an ongoing series of posts based on the family album of Milton Goldsmith, so generously shared with me by his granddaughter Sue. See Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV and Part V at the links.

Now that we have seen the pages Milton devoted to his maternal and paternal grandparents, we can turn our attention to those devoted to his parents, Abraham Goldsmith and Cecelia Adler.

First, there is this page:Although they are not labeled, the paired photographs at the bottom must be Cecelia Adler and Abraham Goldsmith. I know this because the photograph on the upper right is one I’ve seen before—I received it from my cousin Julian Reinheimer over a year ago,  labeled as Julian’s great-grandfather, Abraham Goldsmith. So I know that the upper photograph is Abraham, and he is certainly the same man as the man in the photograph at the lower right.

Abraham Goldsmith, courtesy of Julian Reinheimer

I also know that the woman on the left is Cecelia because Julian also sent me this photograph of his great-grandmother Cecelia, and she is the same woman as the woman on the left in the photograph above:

Cecelia Adler, courtesy of Julian Reinheimer

Could the two framed photographs be their wedding photographs?

Cecelia was only nineteen in 1858 when they married, Abraham was six years older or twenty-five. Somehow they look older than that in these photographs, but I am terrible at determining age in these old photographs when people dressed so formally and posed so stiffly without smiling. It’s obvious, however, that these two photographs were taken at the same studio and likely at the same time, given that the same table appears in both. I wonder if there was a date on the reverse, but it is not worth trying to remove the photograph from the album to check.

According to Milton, his grandfather Samuel Adler was not successful in business, but Cecelia certainly is dressed very well in this photograph and is wearing what appears to be a large cameo pendant, similar or perhaps the same as the one in the photograph I received from Julian, seen above. Was this taken after she married Abraham, who was in fact very successful in business? Which photograph appears to be earlier?

Cecelia Adler Goldsmith, courtesy of Sue Jacobson

Finally, there is the photograph labeled “The Homestead in Oberlistingen.” This must have been the house where Abraham and his family lived before he and almost all his siblings immigrated to the United States beginning in the 1840s. So who is the woman standing on the stairs in front of the house? My first hope was that this was Hinka Alexander Goldschmidt, my three-times great-grandmother and Abraham Goldsmith’s mother, Milton’s paternal grandmother.

But then I realized this could not be Hinka. She died in 1860. This looks like a casual snapshop, and thus not something that could have been taken in those early days of photography. In fact, according to the Smithsonian:

Photography emerged in the early 19th century, but well into the 1880s it was a difficult, ponderous thing to do. The reigning forms of photography recorded onto chemically treated plates and paper. Taking a picture required the subjects to sit still for a half minute or more—“torture,” as the social critic Walter Benjamin recalled. Families trooped into studios to get portraits taken, but they were a study in stiffness: everyone sitting ramrod straight, afraid to move—or even to change their expression—for fear of blurring the photo.….Things changed dramatically in 1888 when George Eastman introduced the Kodak camera. A small hand-held box, it cost only $25—about the price of a higher-end iPad in today’s money, which put it in the range of the well-off middle class. And it offered simplicity…

So much to my disappointment, I concluded that this was not Hinka, but some other woman posing on the front steps of what had been the Goldschmidt home in Oberlistingen.

Milton did not write much about Hinka, mentioning her only to say that several girls in the family were named for her (including my great-grandmother Hilda Katzenstein Schoenthal, who was the daughter of Eva Goldschmidt Katzenstein and granddaughter of Hinka Alexander Goldschmidt). Milton obviously never met his grandmother Hinka, who never left Germany and died a year before Milton was born. And unlike the heroic war stories passed down about his grandfather Seligmann Goldschmidt, there were likely no such stories shared about his grandmother. Like women of those times, her life was not in the public sphere, but in the home. So all we know about her is when she was born, who she married, what children were born to her and raised by her, and when she died.

It’s thus not surprising that my heart wanted that to be a photograph of Hinka standing in front of her home, but alas, my brain knew otherwise. I do, however, have this photograph or drawing of Hinka, provided by David Baron and Roger Cibella, who is also her descendant:

Hinka Alexander Goldschmidt. Courtesy of David Baron and Roger Cibella

Milton Goldsmith’s Family Album, Part V: A Love Letter

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This is Part V of an ongoing series of posts based on the family album of Milton Goldsmith, so generously shared with me by his granddaughter Sue. See Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV at the links.

As promised, today I am sharing a letter that Samuel Adler wrote to his beloved fiancée, Sarah Kargau, shortly before their marriage in 1837.

Once again, I am indebted to Matthias Steinke for his generous help in transcribing this letter:

Würzburg, den 6ten November 1837

Meine Geliebte!
Voll unbeschreiblicher Sehnsucht zähle ich mit dir jede Stunde. Ja, mit heisser Sehnsucht sehe auch ich dem heiligen Momente unserer Einsegnung, unserer ewigen Verbindung entgegen. Nur noch wenige Tage und wir haben das Ziel unserer Wünsche erreicht. O, wie freue ich mich darauf! Schneller durchströmt bei diesem Gedanken das Blut meine Adern, heftiger schlägt bei diesen Gefühlen mein Herz. Ja, dieses Blättchen würde nicht hinreichen, die alle meine dieshaltigen(?) Gefühle zu schildern, und ich will daher davon abbrechen. Ich habe nun noch eine Bitte: Wir werden nämlich an unserem Hochzeitstage nur eine Vase (Chaise?) mit nach Fürth bringen,

The letter must have continued on the back of the page, as Sue could see there was writing on the reverse side. But she did not want to risk damaging this 182-year-old letter by trying to remove it from the album, so we don’t know how Samuel closed out the letter.

Using Google Translate and my rudimentary knowledge of German, I was able to translate the letter as follows:

Würzburg, November 6, 1837

My beloved! Full indescribable longing I count with you every hour. Yes, with a hot longing I too see the holy moments of our consecration, our eternal connection. Only a few days left and we have reached the goal of our wishes. Oh, how happy I am! The blood rushes through my veins faster at this thought, my heart beats harder with these feelings. Yes, this leaflet would not suffice to describe all of my heartfelt (?) Feelings, and I therefore want to stop it. I have one more request: we will bring only one vase (chaise?) to Fürth on our wedding day,

What a passionate letter! This was no marriage of convenience arranged by parents or a matchmaker. This was a true affair of the heart. I admit to being surprised by the ardor expressed so openly in this letter—the desire is palpable. Samuel was certainly a man in love (or at least in lust). But what was the vase or chaise reference all about? I guess some things are best left to the imagination.

Samuel Adler

 

 

Milton Goldsmith’s Family Album, Part IV: His Mother’s Parents

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This is Part IV of an ongoing series of posts based on the family album of Milton Goldsmith, so generously shared with me by his granddaughter Sue. See Part I, Part II, and Part III at the links.

In addition to the biographies of his father Abraham and paternal grandfather Seligmann Goldschmidt, Milton Goldsmith wrote about his mother’s family. His mother was Cecelia Adler, Abraham’s first wife, and she was the daughter of Samuel Adler and Sarah Kargau. Although Cecelia’s family is only related to mine through her marriage to Abraham, it is nevertheless fascinating to read about her parents.

Here is Milton’s page about his maternal grandfather, Samuel Adler:

Samuel Adler,–my grandfather, was born in Biebergau, Germany in 1814. He had the usual school education, but was never much of a scholar.  He was a stout, benevolent looking gentleman, hearty and genial, with a host of friends.  He married Sarah Kargau, and we have letters from him to her, also their marriage settlement. A year after my mother was born, they came to American in a sailing vessel, and settled in Philadelphia. For a while he manufactured Mantillas, but was not over-successful. He was one of the founders of the first Reform Temple, the Rodef Scholom in Philada, and became its president. Later, he was one of the founders of the Keneseth Israel Congregation, to which he belonged for the rest of his life.

After the marriage of his daughter, to my father, he came to live with them, until he died of ptomaine poisoning in 1886 at the age of 72. During the later years of his life, he went into the haberdashery business, but it was not successful, my father helping him along and providing for his needs.  Neither he nor my grandmother ever mastered the English language properly, which proved a great handicap. His sister, Mrs. Greenbaum, lived in Burlington, Ia. and died at 90 years of age.

I was left with the impression that Samuel was a wonderful man and well-loved by his family and his community, but not much of a businessman. Certainly he did not measure up to Abraham’s success in business in Milton’s eyes, but this is nevertheless a very loving tribute to his grandfather.

Milton also included this photograph of his grandfather Samuel.

Samuel Adler

But is the man depicted on the lower left side of the page supposed to be Samuel looking like a young George Washington? Or someone else? Any ideas?

As for his maternal grandmother and her family, Milton provided this page:

From looking at this page, I realized that some of the decorative art in this album was probably supplied by whoever manufactured the album. The inserted article at the top overlaps some of that decoration. It is a short biography of Mendel Kargau, Cecelia Adler’s maternal grandmother and Milton’s maternal great-grandmother:

This short biography (taken from the Jewish Encyclopedia, according to Milton) shows that unlike her father Samuel Adler, Cecelia’s maternal grandfather was quite scholarly. In his essay about Mendel Kargau and his daughter Sarah Kargau Adler, Milton wrote:

Mendel Kargau, as the attached biography taken from the Jewish Encyclopedia shows, was an eminent Rabbi in Fuerth, Bavaria. I was named for him, Milton being the English equivalent of Mendel.  He lived and died in Europe.

His only daughter, SARAH, was my maternal grandmother. She emigrated to America about two years after her marriage with SAMUEL ADLER, my grandfather. My mother, Cecelia Adler was a baby when they sailed, and during their sixty day voyage in a sailing vessel, she learned to walk. There were several brothers, one of them Moritz, was still living in Fuerth a few years ago. A nephew, Emanuel Kargau, is a dentist in Chicago. Grandma Adler, was a unique person. She was small in stature and not good looking, but must have been very sprightly in her youth. She was witty, and read a great deal. Her preference was for spicy books.  She lived with us for many years, later in life when the family grew too large, she lived near-by. She outlived her husband by many years, died in 1907 at advanced age of 93, retaining her faculties to the end, although she was always hard of hearing. After mother died, she helped to raise our family of 6 children.

When I researched Milton’s family, I noted that after his mother Cecelia died, his maternal grandparents Samuel and Sarah Adler lived with the family, and I’d assumed that Sarah had taken on part of the responsibility of caring for her daughter’s motherless children. Milton’s essay confirmed that assumption and painted a picture of a grandmother who was lively, interesting, and, his words, unique. I found it amusing that he said she wasn’t good looking. Maybe at 93 she wasn’t or even in her fifties when Milton was a child. Like most children, he probably just saw his grandma as an old lady.

I love this photograph of his grandmother. I have zoomed in on it here so that we can see Sarah Kargau Adler more clearly. I bet she was attractive as a young woman when she swept Samuel Adler off his feet. The letter he wrote before their wedding certainly reveals a man deeply in love. I will save that for my next post.

 

Update: The Strolowitz/Adler Family, My Grandfather’s Cousins

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As I have written, in 1910, after my great-grandfather died the day before his daughter Betty arrived and before my great-grandmother and her son David arrived, Betty and her brother Isadore lived with their aunt Tillie Rosensweig Strolovitz and her seven children on East 109th Street in New York City.  Tillie had arrived with her husband Itic Yankel Srulovici and their three youngest children, Beckie, Pincus and Leah, in late December, 1907.  Their four oldest children had left Iasi, Romania, before them: Isidor in 1901, Bertha and Bella in 1906, and David in January, 1907.

Leah Adler c. 1920

Leah Adler c. 1920

Although I have not yet found a ship manifest for Isidor, the oldest child, I do now have manifests for all the other members of the family, having just located David’s last night.  Among the many documents I received this week were David’s naturalization papers, which provided his date of arrival and the name of the ship.  Although his first name was partially torn off the paper, with a little trick of the trade I learned from Renee, I was able to obtain a copy of the ship manifest as well.  David is listed as “…vid Stubowicz” on the manifest, yet another variation on the family name.  He named his brother, Israel (presumably Isidor) Stubowicz, as the person paying for his ticket and meeting him in New York.   Interestingly, although David’s certificate of arrival has his name as Strubewicz, his petition for naturalization was made under the name David Adler.

David Adler petition for naturalization

David Adler petition for naturalization

I had already found the manifests for Bertha and Bella and for Tillie, Jacob and the other children, and interestingly, every member of the family used some variation of Srulovici/Strubowicz/Strolovitz on the manifests, not Adler.  It appears that the Adler name was not used officially by the family until after they came to the United States.  Whether Isidor had already adopted it and then the others eventually followed I do not know.  In 1910, we know that only David and Isidor were using Adler, but as already discussed, eventually every member of the family was using it at least part of the time.

David Adler and his wife Bertha

David Adler and his wife Bertha

In addition to David’s naturalization papers, I received several other documents related to the Adler family.  (For simplicity sake, I will refer to them as the Adlers, except where the Strolowitz name is relevant for a particular reason.)  I had hoped to find something that would help me learn what had happened to Jacob. To recap what I already knew and did not know, I had not found any record of Itic Yankel after the ship manifest of 1907, and family lore said that he had never left Ellis Island.  The ship manifest, however, indicated that he was admitted, after being briefly detained for a doctor’s examination of his eyes.  There is no record of deportation.  I thought perhaps that he had died shortly thereafter, and I ordered the death certificate of the only Jacob Adler I could find who might fit in terms of age and year of death.  I now have that certificate, but unfortunately it was not for the correct Jacob Adler.  The certificate is for a Jacob Adler from Germany who had been in the US since 1880 at the time of his death in 1910.  So I still have no answers to the question of what happened to Jacob, Tillie’s husband.  I am awaiting his immigration papers from the National Archives and hope that they will provide some clues.

I had requested several other documents in order to confirm what I assumed was true: that Tillie was the sister of my great-grandmother Gisella Rosensweig and that Itic Yankel Srulovici and Jacob Adler were the same person and the father of all of the seven children.  Not surprisingly, they all do confirm one or both of those facts.  First, Tillie’s death certificate lists her parents as David and Esther Rosenzweig (no maiden name for Esther, unfortunately), my great-great grandparents, confirming that Tillie was my great-grandmother Gisella’s sister.  Her death certificate was witnessed by her son David, signing as Strulowitz, confirming that Yankel Srulovici was his father and not some other husband named Adler.  (Tillie is also a Strulowitz on the certificate.)

Tillie Strulowitz death certificate

Tillie Strulowitz death certificate

Second, Isidor’s death certificate confirms that he died young—in 1915 of liver cancer at age 31. Although he is identified as Isidor Adler, his parents’ names are given as Tillie Rosenzweig and Jacob Strulowitz. Bertha’s marriage certificate gives her parents’ names also that way, with Bertha also now using Strulowitz.  On the other hand, Leah’s marriage certificate uses Adler and lists her father’s name as simply Jacob (and her mother as Tillie Rosensweig). Finally, David’s death certificate gives his father’s name as Jacob Adler (and David’s name as David Adler), and his mother’s as Tillie Rosensweig.  Certainly this is enough documentation to prove that Jacob Adler and Yankel Srulovici were the same person and the father of the seven children.

Isidor Adler death certificate

Isidor Adler death certificate

Thus, many open questions were answered by these latest documents, but there remains still the question of what happened to Jacob Srulovici/Strolovitz/Strulowitz/Adler after he arrived at Ellis Island.

In addition, the marriage certificate of Bertha contains the signature of a Gustav Rosenzweig as a witness to the marriage.  Could this be Tillie and Gisella’s brother? Or a nephew? Cousin? And thus begins yet another search for a possible member of the extended Goldschlager-Rosensweig family.

Bertha Strulowitz marriage certificate witnessed by Gustav Rosensweig

Bertha Strulowitz marriage certificate witnessed by Gustav Rosensweig

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The Adler Strolowitz family continued

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Although I still don’t have answers to all the questions about the Strolowitz/Adler family, I have made a lot of progress finding the descendants of Tillie Strolowitz Adler and her children, with a lot of assistance from Renee Steinig, who continues to teach me and to amaze me with her ability to find people through various search methods.  So here’s a summary and a description of the process used to find most of these people, including several living descendants who I am now trying to contact.

I’ve not had any success finding Tillie’s son Isidor yet aside from the entry in the 1910 census.  There are numerous Isidor Adlers listed in the NYC marriage index and many also in the US and NY census reports, but I cannot with any degree of certainty identify the right one.  Some are too old or were married and had children before 1910, when the right Isidor was still single and living with his mother.  Some are not from Romania or born in the United States.  I am beginning to think that Isidor either died young or maybe even returned to Romania.  I have found one death record for an Isidor Adler who died April 23, 1915, and the age looks right, so I will send for that death certificate.

I’ve had better luck locating the second son, David Adler.  After a careful process of elimination, I believe that Tilllie’s son David married a woman named Bertha (maiden name not yet found).  Since David also had a sister named Bertha, this created some confusion for me.  David and Bertha had a daughter Tessie, born in 1927 (possibly named for Tillie, who had died in 1925).  Renee found a memorial written about Tessie Adler on the Findagrave.com site, and the date of birth corroborated that this is the correct Tessie.  Tessie and her husband Harry had two sons, David, possibly named for his grandfather David Adler, and Ira.  I am now in touch with Ira, who confirmed that he is Tessie’s son and that she was David’s daughter and Tillie’s granddaughter.

The Strolowitz daughters were much trickier to find, as women tend to be.  Once they get married, they are much harder to find, unless I can find a marriage record which gives me their husband’s name.  I first focused on Bertha, figuring that it was a less common name than Beckie, Bella or Lizzie.  I found a marriage record for Bertha Strulovitz to Benny Bloom in May, 1914.  I then did a census search and found a Bertha and Bernard Bloom living on East 109th Street in 1915.  The “Bernard” threw me, as did the fact that Bertha was 27, meaning she would have been born in 1888, not 1885, as reported on the 1910 census.  But while scanning the page to look for their entry, I saw a listing in the same building for a Tillie Stralowitch and her children, David, Bella, Beckie, Peter (Pincus?) and Lizzie.  This was obviously Tillie Strolowitz, living in the same building as in 1910, with her married daughter Bertha and her new husband Bernard or Ben in their own apartment.  So far, so good.  It also made sense that Bertha was born in 1888, not before David, who was 28 in the 1915 census and thus older than Bertha.  That could explain why David and Isidor were Adlers, while the rest of the children were Strolowitz.  Perhaps Mr. Adler died right after David was born, Tillie remarried to Strolowitz and within a year had Bertha?  Phew!  They acted fast back then!  (Remember Harry Coopersmith…)

But after that, I could not find any references for Bertha Bloom at all.  I was stumped.  I couldn’t find any more references for Tillie Strolowitz either, no matter how I spelled it.  Finally, I decided to look for Tillie Adler, and there she was in the 1920 census, listed as Tillie Adler, living with her three daughters, Bertha, Bella and Leah (Lizzie?) on East 107th Street.  The ages and names matched, but why were they now using Adler? So much for my earlier hypothesis.  Maybe Mr. Adler was the father of all these children? Maybe Mr. Adler and Mr. Strolovitz were the same person? And what happened to Bertha’s husband? Why was she living with her mother?  She is listed as married, not single, on the 1920 census, but not living with Bloom.

In 1925 Tillie, Bertha and Bella were all still living together on East 107th Street under the surname Adler.  There was no question about marital status on this form, but apparently Bertha was still legally married because in 1926 she applied for citizenship.  On the naturalization form she signed as “Bertha Adler known as Bertha Strulovici and Bertha Bloom,” and listed her spouse as Benjamin Bloom.  Her brother David Adler signed as a witness for her.

By 1930, Tillie had died, and Bertha and Bella had moved in with David Adler and his wife Bertha and daughter Tessie.  Imagine—two Bertha Adlers living in one household.  The census taker must have been confused because he listed Bertha, David’s sister, as his mother.  On this census, Bertha (the sister) is now listed as divorced, finally.

In 1940, Bertha was no longer living with David, but now was living with her sister Leah on Grant Avenue in the Bronx.  Leah was married to Benjamin Schwartz, an optometrist, and had two children, Ira and Theodora.  Renee helped me locate Theodora, who is now living in Atlanta where her parents eventually moved and died.

No further luck finding out what happened to Bella or Bertha after 1940, but at least we know what happened to Tillie, David, and Leah, and have located the next generation of third cousins, the great-great grandchildren of David and Esther Rosensweig.

More discoveries in the next post, including some of the most interesting ones of all.  But for now, back to the research.

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Who was Tillie Srulowitz? Another mystery solved?

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As I mentioned in my post about the ship manifests, Betty Goldschlager was released from Ellis Island to someone she identified as her aunt, Tillie Srulowitz.  I had no idea who this could be when I first saw this many months ago.

In reviewing my Goldschlager research this past week or so, however, I looked more closely at the census report from 1910, as seen below.

The Strolovitz Adler family with Isadore and Betty in 1910

The Strolovitz Adler family with Isadore and Betty in 1910

Isadore and “Bella” Goldschlager are listed as boarders living with….Tillie Strolowitz and her many children.  When I first looked at this, I had no idea who the Strolowitz family was and just assumed that Isadore and Betty were living there as boarders, not relatives.  This time I remembered the name on the ship manifest and made the connection: this was the aunt that met Betty at Ellis Island.

So who were these people?  Tillie was listed as a widow and had five children named Strolowitz: Beckie, Bertha, Bella, Lizzie and Pincus.  She also had two sons with the last name Adler, David and Isidor.  I assumed David and Isidor were children of a first marriage, and the others children of her second marriage, but since David is younger than Bertha, that did not make sense.  Of course, knowing how unreliable census reports are, it is also likely that that is just an error and that David was in fact older than Bertha.  The census also reports that Tillie’s present marriage was 26 years old, but I don’t know whether that means she’d been married to Mr. Strolovitz for 26 years when he died or whether it had been 26 years since she had married him.  All her children named Strolovitz were younger than 26, whereas Isidor was 27.

I then decided to see what I could find about the Strolovitz family and the possible connection to the Goldschlager family.  On the Ellis Island site, I found entries for two sisters, Betty and Bruche Strulovici from Jassy, who arrived together in 1906 on the Noordam when Betty was 17 and Bruche was 20 with thirty dollars between them.  That information matched the ages and dates of arrival for Bella and Bertha Strolovitz on the 1910 census, so it could very well be them.  I so far have not been able to locate any other Ellis Island records for Tillie Strolovitz’s family.

When I searched for later US census records, I could find almost nothing at first for anyone named Strolovitz with similar first names or for Szrulowitz or Strulowitz or any other reasonable variation.  I then turned to search for David and Isidor Adler and ran into the problem of too many people with those names and no certain way of determining which ones were Tillie’s sons.  I think I have narrowed it down, but am still not certain that I have found the right David or Isidor.

On the other hand, while searching for Adlers on the US census I found this one:

Tillie, Bertha, Bella and Leah Adler 1920

Tillie, Bertha, Bella and Leah Adler 1920

Tillie, Bertha, Bella and Leah Adler, listed as mother and daughters, of the approximate ages that Tillie Strolovitz and her daughters would have been in 1920, from Romania.  This seemed too unlikely to be a coincidence, and I feel fairly certain that for some reason, Tillie and her daughters had changed from being Strolovitz to Adler.  I could not find any records under either last name for Tillie or the daughters, except for death certificate for a Tillie Adler dated 1925 for a woman of the correct age.  I have ordered that certificate and will wait to see what it contains.

Having concluded that Tillie and her daughters were now using Adler, I thought that perhaps her son Pincus had also switched from Strolovitz to Adler, so I searched for him.  I found a South Carolina death certificate for Pincus Adler dated July, 1919, age 19, born in Romania, whose father’s name was Jacob Adler, and whose mother’s maiden name was Tillie Rosensweig.

Pincus Adler Death Certificate 1919

Pincus Adler Death Certificate 1919

The informant on the death certificate was David Adler of West 68th Street, New York, New York.   I am fairly certain that this is the same David Adler and the same Pincus Strolovitz AKA Pincus Adler, although the age may be off by a year or so (not anything surprising in these records).  Everything else lines up: mother is Tillie and brother is David Adler from NYC.  Pincus Adler was also buried at Mount Zion cemetery in Queens, not in South Carolina.  Perhaps Pincus ended up in South Carolina after World War I.  I’ve yet to find a draft registration under either name, but am continuing to look.

So why does any of this matter? When I first saw what Tillie’s maiden name, it didn’t mean anything to me.  Like so many other times in the research, I had to move away from it. Several hours later, while doing something completely unrelated, a lightbulb went off.  Rosensweig was Gisella Goldschlager’s maiden name also! Gisella and Tillie were sisters—Tillie, after all, was listed as Betty’s (and thus, David’s and Isadore’s) aunt on that Ellis Island form.  Her children—Bertha, Bella, Beckie, Pincus, Lizzie, David and Isidor— were my grandfather’s first cousins.

I still have more work to do to figure out the Strolovitz/Adler family.  Why did they use two different last names?  I found a Tillie Strulowitz buried at Mount Zion on August 4, 1925, the day after the date of death for Tillie Adler; this must be the same person, but one place she is Adler, the other she is Strulowitz.  Why is Jacob Adler listed by David Adler as Pincus’ father?  Was there ever a Mr. Strolovitz or was Jacob Adler the father of all seven children? Why did Tillie switch back and forth? Why did her daughters become Adlers?

This stuff just never gets boring to me; there is always another mystery, another surprise around each corner.

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