The Surviving Children of Reuben and Sallie Cohen, Part I: Minnie, Rae, Reuben, Jr., Lewis and Violet Mae

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Amy

As I wrote last week, Reuben and Sallie Cohen had seventeen children, but ten of them predeceased their parents. Eight of the children died before they were four years old of various illnesses or, in the case of one child, as a result of a horrific accident. Two of the children survived to adulthood, but then succumbed to illnesses in the early years of their adult lives.

That meant that Reuben and Sallie had only seven of their seventeen children alive when they died. All but one of those children lived relatively full lives, living at least into their sixties if not beyond. I will try and capture those lives, going in birth order.

The fourth child born after Sallie R., Jacob, and Hart, all of whom had died before their parents, was Minnie. Minnie was born on September 25, 1882, and lived with her family in Philadelphia and Cape May. On August 5, 1900, the Philadelphia Inquirer made this comment about Minnie in an article about summer visitors to Cape May: “Miss Minnie Cohen is one of the prettiest girls at the resort. Her bathing costume is always the picture of neatness.” (“Cape May’s August Days,” Sunday, August 5, 1900, Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA) Volume: 143 Issue: 36)

It was not until eighteen years later when she was almost 36 that Minnie married Harry Frechie in February, 1918. The Philadelphia Inquirer had this to say about her wedding:

(“Matrimony Notice,” Friday, February 15, 1918, Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA) Volume: 178 Issue: 46 Page: 10) Mrs. S. Rosenblatt was her sister Rae, discussed below. Violet Mae was her youngest sister, also discussed below.

Minnie and Harry were married for many years, but did not have any children. Like his father-in-law and many other family members, Harry was a pawnbroker. They appear to have traveled quite a bit, including a Caribbean cruise in 1939. I have not yet been able to find a death record for Harry, but the 1950 Philadelphia city directory has a listing for Mrs. Harry Frechie alone, suggesting that Harry may have died sometime between the 1940 census and 1950. I also could not find a World War II draft registration for Harry, which could suggest he died before 1942.

UPDATE: With the release of the Pennsylvania death certificates through 1944, I am now able to update this post and the information regarding Harry Frechie. Harry did die before 1942; he died on September 27, 1940. No cause of death was given as there was a pending coroner’s inquest. I will have to see if I can learn more about that.

Harry Frechie death certificate 1940

At any rate, Minnie appears to have lived a life without much controversy as I cannot find any newspaper references to either Harry or Minnie aside from the wedding notice. Minnie died in Philadelphia in 1977 when she was 95 years old.

Minnie’s sister and matron of honor, Rae, was the next child who survived. She was born in 1886. Rae married Samuel Rosenblatt in 1910.[1] Sam was in the business of dress manufacturing according to the 1920 census, more specifically children’s dresses according to both the 1930 and 1940 census reports. They had one son, Samuel Rosenblatt, Jr., born in 1913, who died in July, 1933. I have not found anything yet to explain why Samuel, Jr., died at such a young age. The Philadelphia death certificates through 1944 are supposed to be online soon, so I am hoping to find out eventually what happened to Rae and Samuel’s only child. Rae died in 1959 at age 73. Her husband Samuel died in 1973.

UPDATE: As noted above, I now have access to the Pennsylvania death certificates through 1944, including that of Samuel Rosenblatt, Jr. Sadly, Samuel died from leukemia.

Samuel Rosenblatt, Jr. death certificate 1933

The next child of Sallie and Reuben Cohen to survive his parents was Reuben Cohen, Jr., born November 5, 1888. Although at age 21 he was working as a clerk in a loan office according to the 1910 census, he appears not to have stayed in the pawnbroker business for his entire career. In 1914, he married Leona Mayer, and according to the 1915 Philadelphia directory, he was a notary public by occupation at that time. I don’t know how that would be a full time occupation, so perhaps he was still working in the “loan office” at that time as well. In fact, on his World War I draft registration he listed his employer as his father, Reuben Cohen, Sr., so he must have still been working the pawnshop at that time. In 1920, his occupation on the census is described as manager of a brokerage house, presumably a pawn brokerage, not a stock brokerage. But in 1930 Reuben’s occupation was listed as a textile designer, and then in 1940 he is described as a salesman in textile manufacturing. On his 1942 World War II draft registration, he listed his employment as “own business.” Thus, it appears that Reuben, Jr., went out on his own and left the Cohen family pawnbroker business.

Reuben, Jr., and Leona had one child, Elinor Cohen, born in April, 1915, who married Melvin Beard. I am now trying to contact their descendants. Reuben Cohen, Jr. died January 28, 1958, when he was 69 years old. His wife Leona died in 1970 at age 78. Their daughter Elinor died thirteen years ago in 2001.

Reuben Jr.’s younger brother Arthur was the next sibling to survive their parents, but I am going to defer telling his story until I get a little more information from one of his descendants.

Of the seven surviving children, the one I have had the hardest time tracking is Lewis Cohen, who was born in September, 1892, the thirteenth child of Reuben and Sallie. According to his World War I draft registration in 1917, he suffered from “nervous trouble.”

Lewis Cohen World War I draft registration

He was working as a real estate broker, and I was able to find a number of his real estate broker’s advertisements in the Philadelphia Inquirer as well as a news story about a large real estate transaction he brokered for a client in 1922. On the 1920 census he was still living at his parents’ home at age 28, and as far as I can tell, he never married or had children.

It’s very odd, but I cannot find Lewis on either the 1930 census or the 1940 census, and at first I thought that perhaps he had died. Then I found his 1942 World War II registration, in which he described himself as self-employed. He was then living at the Roosevelt Hotel in Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, and his emergency contact person was a woman named Hilda Eskin, also at that location.

Lewis Cohen World War II draft registration

Where was he between 1920 and 1942? I just cannot seem to find him. Is there any significance to the scar on his left wrist? To the fact that he was cross-eyed? And who was Hilda Eskin? The only Hilda Eskin I could find in 1940 in Philadelphia was a divorced 45 year old woman, living with her parents; she owned a millinery shop. She and her parents were living in 1940 at 329 South 63^rd Street, about four miles west and across the Schuylkill River from the Roosevelt Hotel. Since Hilda was not an employee of the hotel in 1940 and owned her own business, my hunch is that she was Lewis’ girlfriend in 1942, living with him at the Roosevelt Hotel. I could not find Lewis living at that address in 1940. I did find one Lewis Cohen as a prisoner at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia whose age, birth place, and parents’ birth places all fit my Lewis Cohen, but then there were many Lewis Cohens living in Philadelphia who could have been the one in prison. Maybe I can find something more about the person in prison?

The only other records I found for Lewis related to his death in November, 1964. He is buried at Beverly National Cemetery in Burlington, NJ, as a veteran who served in the US Navy during World War I. So despite whatever the reference to “nervous trouble” meant on his draft registration for that war, he did serve in the Navy and was buried as a veteran of that war. I will continue to look to see if I can fill the gaps in Lewis’ life and military service.

The youngest daughter of Sallie and Reuben Cohen was Violet Mae. She was born May 7, 1895, and was living at home until 1921 when she married Abram E. Stern, who was born and lived in Washinton, DC. Violet and Abram lived in Washington, DC, where Abram worked in the store fixture manufacturing business. They had two children in the years after they first married. By 1940, they had divorced, and Abram was remarried. Violet Mae died in December, 1974, in Silver Spring, MD, at the age of 79. I am hoping I can track down her descendants and learn more about her.

Simon, the youngest child of Sallie and Reuben Cohen, did not live as long a life as the other six siblings who survived their parents. His story is another I will tell in a subsequent post once I get more information from one of Reuben’s descendants.

These five children of Reuben and Sallie Cohen all lived relatively long lives for those times and, in the case of Minnie, a very long life. They all also lived lives that were, at least as far as I can tell, relatively trauma and drama free. Yes, Violet was divorced, Rae lost her son when he was only 20, and certainly Lewis, Reuben, Jr., and Minnie must have also had some difficult times in their lives. But given the family tragedies their parents endured, losing so many children, it is somewhat remarkable that these five led fairly quiet and, at least outwardly, regular lives. But who knows what happened beneath the cold hard facts of census reports and city directories? Certainly losing ten siblings must have had some impact on these people. Did Minnie not have children for fear of losing them as her parents had? Is that also why Rae and Reuben, Jr., each had just one child? Did Lewis suffer from “nervous trouble” as a result of experiencing so many deaths? I don’t know, but I have to believe that growing up as they did, seeing death occur over and over again, had to have affected all of them.

[1] There was also an entry on the Philadelphia marriage index for a Rae W. Cohen who married Isador Landau in 1913, but since I cannot find any other evidence of Mr. Landau and since Rae and Samuel Rosenblatt were together on the 1920, 1930, and 1940 census reports, I have to assume this was an error in indexing.

A Distributed Denial of Service Attack on Ancestry.com and other Genealogy Sites

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Amy

There was an attack on ancestry.com by hackers yesterday, taking down the entire site and all of its associated sites including FindAGrave, newspapers.com, and many of the databases shared by JewishGen. That means I could not access my tree or do more research except on the FamilySearch website. Although I have my tree backed up on my computer, I had not backed it up in the last week or so (stupidity on my part), so it was not up to date.

What have I learned from this? I am too dependent on ancestry.com for storing my family history information. Yes, I do download copies of all the photographs and most of the documents to my computer, and they are also accessible through FamilyTreeMaker, the family tree software I have on my computer. All my blog posts are also stored in Word format on my computer as well as on WordPress, the host of this blog. But what if my hard drive is destroyed? What if WordPress is attacked? How do we protect our photographs and documents as safely as possible? I can’t imagine losing everything that I have worked so hard to find and collect, so if others out there have suggestions, please let me know.

Ancestry.com (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ancestry.com was up very briefly this morning, so I was able to update my hard drive version of my tree with Family Tree Maker. But it is down again now, and I am just wondering how much at risk my saved files and research are and will be in the future.

Elizabeth Cohen 1859-1923: Twists and Turns in Life and in Genealogy

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Amy

In my post about Hannah Cohen, I wrote about how difficult it can be to research a woman’s life once her name was changed at marriage. Some women, like some of the Rosenzweig women, I have not yet found at all. Sometimes, as when marriage records are searchable by a bride’s name, it is relatively easy. And sometimes it just takes a little luck and some good hunches to find her married name. In the case of Elizabeth Cohen, the ninth child and youngest daughter of my great-great-grandparents, it took both some good hunches and a lot of luck. It also involved some misdirection and some confusion.

Elizabeth was born on December 25, 1859, in Philadelphia. When I did a search for records for her on ancestry.com, she appeared with her parents on the census reports of 1860, 1870, and 1880. But then I could not find anything for an Elizabeth Cohen after those reports until I happened upon her death certificate. It’s odd to find the death certificate first, to see how a life ended before knowing the earlier years, but her death certificate appeared because it had her father’s name on it. Ancestry.com had the certificate listed under both her birth name (Elizabeth Cohen) and her married name, “Shirzer.” At least, that’s how it was spelled on the ancestry index. I was certain that this was the right person based on her father’s name, his birthplace, her birthplace, and her age. I also thus knew that she had been related, perhaps married, to someone named Bernard Shirzer, the informant on the certificate.

Elizabeth Cohen death certificate 1923

I then started searching for her as Elizabeth Shirzer and also searching for Bernard Shirzer. I found nothing under either name, but wild card searches led me to the 1900 census where they were indexed as Sluizer and the 1920 where they were indexed as Shezer. I stared and studied the handwriting on the death certificate and these two census reports, but still wasn’t sure which, if any, of these were their actual names. I was able, however, to learn the names of their children. In 1900 they were living with three children: Florence (15), Herbert (10), and Mervyn (3). In 1920 Bernard and Elizabeth were empty nesters, living alone. I could not and still have not find them in 1910.

Elizabeth and Bernard Sluizer 1900 census

Elizabeth and Bernard Sluizer 1920 census

From the ages of the children, I assumed that Bernard and Elizabeth had to have married sometime before 1885. I could not locate a marriage record in the online index, but since the index available online starts in 1885, that did not trouble me.

I decided to search for the two sons to see if I could find something that would confirm which name was the actual name, and since Mervyn seemed relatively unusual, I focused on him, and using again various wildcard searching techniques, found several records, including his draft registration forWorld War II with the name spelled Sluizer that also included his father’s name, Bernard Sluizer. The birth year and place and the first name and Bernard’s name were sufficient clues to confirm that the name was Sluizer.

Mervyn Sluizer World War II draft registration

I then went back to look for Bernard Sluizer to be sure this was the right one and found some early records for him that also seemed to corroborate that this was the correct name and thus Elizabeth Cohen’s married name. But then I found a record on the marriage index showing that Bernard Sluizer had married Elizabeth Heyman in 1892. It seemed so unlikely that there were two Bernard Sluizers married to Elizabeths that I was truly confused. Could the name on the marriage index be wrong? Of course, it could. But how could the date also be wrong? Bernard had to have married Elizabeth before 1885 if Florence was born in 1885.

The other problem was that I could not find any record for either Florence Sluizer or Herbert Sluizer after 1900. Not being able to find Florence was not troubling; I assumed she married and had changed her name. But where was Herbert? I couldn’t find one trace—not a draft record, not a marriage record, not a death record. Nothing. I was mystified.

I figured it was worth a search on genealogybank.com for newspaper articles that might reveal more about the Sluizers. And that’s where luck helped me out. Searching for Bernard Sluizer, I found an article about a charity raising money for the Doylestown Farm School, and listed among the donations was a reference to a donation by Bernard Sluizer in memory of his son, Herbert Heyman. (“$50,000 Donated to Aid Progress of Farm School Donations for Doylestown Institution One Feature of Anniversary,” Monday, June 10, 1907, Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA) Volume: 156 , Issue: 161, Page: 4, 1 ) Herbert Heyman? How could he have a son with a different surname? Sons don’t change their names.

When I searched for Herbert Heyman, knowing he had died before June 10, 1907 , the date of the newspaper article, I found his death certificate, which identified his mother as Elizabeth Cohen, but his father as Benjamin Heyman. Who was he??

Herbert Heyman death certificate

My search then for Benjamin Heyman uncovered a death certificate for someone of that name who had died of uremia on July 23, 1890, at age 30.

Benjamin Heyman death certificate

This must have been Elizabeth Cohen’s first husband. It explained both of the confusing records. Bernard Sluizer had married Elizabeth Heyman; that was her married name when she married him, but she was born Elizabeth Cohen. And Bernard Sluizer had been in many ways, even if not legally, the father of Herbert Heyman because he had married Elizabeth in 1892 when Herbert was only three years old. Herbert’s biologicial father Benjamin had died when he was only a year old.

Having finally found all the little pieces of the puzzle, I think I now have the story of Elizabeth’s life. She must have married Benjamin Heyman sometime before 1885 and had two children with him: Florence, born in 1885, and Herbert, born in 1889. Then her first husband died in 1890, leaving her with two very young children. She married Bernard Sluizer in 1892 and had a third child, Mervyn, with him the following year. The 1900 census indicates that Bernard was a salesman; the 1920 census is more specific—a salesman for a pawnbroker. Another relative in the family business.

Having lost her first husband so tragically young, Elizabeth then endured a second terrible loss when her son Herbert died from pneumonia in 1906 when he was sixteen. What a sad, short life he had lived, losing his father when he was not even two years old and dying before he was seventeen years old.

Elizabeth herself died on September 28, 1923, when she was only 63 years old from “cancer of the womb.” Her husband Bernard continued to work as a pawnbroker and was living with their son Mervyn and his wife and children in 1930. Bernard had remarried in 1928, but appears not to have been married as of the time of the 1930 census. He died on September 2, 1944, at age 84.

Elizabeth’s life story, like those of so many other women, would have disappeared, and I might never have been able to figure it out, if not for the fact that her husband Bernard Sluizer made a donation to a charity in memory of his stepson Herbert Heyman. If there had been no such donation, I might never have been able to figure out that Elizabeth had had a first husband who died at a very young age leaving her with two young children. I would never have been able to figure out that the Elizabeth Heyman who married Bernard Sluizer was born Elizabeth Cohen but for the fact that her son Herbert Heyman died and her birth name was on his death certificate. So in a very sad twist of fate, the fact that Herbert died so young enabled me to preserve the story of not only his life but that of his mother, my great-grandaunt Elizabeth Cohen.

Blog Update

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Amy

My head and heart are filled with the joy of the birth of my new grandson, and so is my time right now. That means that there will be a hiatus of sorts in my research and less time to write up whatever research I do, at least for a short period. I do, however, have a few items to post based on research I had completed before he was born. They require a little more work, but I hope to post them within a a very short time.

In the meantime, I will be celebrating this new life and the knowledge that our family history continues with this new leaf on the tree. It was primarily for my children and my grandchildren that I started down this path originally, though it has grown to be something more than I ever anticipated, linking me to new cousins, teaching me so much about my ancestors, history, and myself. But in the end it does all come down to future generations. Now I just have one more reason to keep doing this research and to keep writing this blog.

Maria Cohen 1856-?: A Hard Story to Find, A Harder One to Tell

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Amy

It took me a long time to find the story of Maria Cohen, the seventh[1] child of my great-grandparents, Jacob and Sarah, and once I did, I wished I hadn’t. Things started easily enough, as I was able to find a record in the Philadelphia marriage index identifying her husband as William Levi. They married on December 15, 1875. I was able to find them on both the 1880 and 1900 census reports with their sons Lewis, Jacob, and Isaac, but on both there were entries that were inconsistent with the facts I know about Maria. On the 1880 census, it says her parents were born in Germany, and in 1900 it says her parents were born in Russia, when I know that her parents were in fact both born in England.

Had the census taker received erroneous information or did I have the wrong Maria? Certainly her sons’ names, Lewis, Jacob and Isaac, were all names that ran in the Cohen family. The age given for Maria on the census reports seemed close enough. In 1880 Maria would have been 24; the census says she was 21 with two sons ages two and one. If she really married in 1875, that means she would have been only 16 when she married, which seems unlikely. In 1900, Maria would have been 44; the 1900 census reports it as 40. I am accustomed to census errors, and these were not any worse than others I’ve seen.

So this could be the right Maria Cohen, but I cannot be absolutely sure because after 1900 she and her husband disappear from the records. I cannot find Maria or William Levi on the 1910, 1920, or 1930 census. Perhaps they both died between 1900 and 1910, but I also cannot find any death records or burial records for either of them. At first I thought perhaps they all changed their names, but after a lot of looking I was able to find death records for three of their four sons, and that is where this story gets harder to tell.

The first record I found was for their oldest son Lewis, who died on May 4, 1915, from heart disease at age 38.

Lewis C. Levy death certificate

His wife Emma Fogle, whom he had only married five years before in 1910, lived another almost 50 years, but was buried beside him at Adath Jeshurun cemetery and apparently never remarried. Since the headstone is marked “father” and “mother,” there must have been at least one child born during that brief marriage, but so far I have not been able to locate that child.

Lewis and Emma Levy headstone

This morning, after much looking, I found a death certificate for Maria and William’s second son Jacob, who also died at a young age. He died only a year and half after his brother Lewis on December 22, 1916, from tuberculosis. He also was 38 when he died. The death certificate reveals that he had been residing at the Norristown State Hospital for the Insane when he died and had been there for just over ten years. He also was buried at Adath Jeshurun.

Jacob Levy death certificate

I was already feeling sad for Maria and William for losing two sons before either reached forty years of age when the story got even worse.

In searching for records for Maria, William and their sons this morning, I was surprised to see a death record for a Benjamin Levy, son of William Levy. It was the first time I knew that Maria and William had had a fourth son, Benjamin, born in 1881. Since he was born in 1881, he was not on the 1880 census. Since he died in 1897, he was not on the 1990 census. I had missed him completely in doing my initial research of Maria and her family. I gasped when I found his death certificate and saw his cause of death: “found drowned.”

Benjamin Levy death certificate

I looked to see if I could find any other information and found this story, quoted in its entirety from the Philadelphia Inquirer dated March 18, 1897.

The body of the young man which was found on Monday in the Delaware River at the foot of Callowhill street was that of Benjamin Levy, aged 16, who lived at 1580 Fontaine Street, and who has been missing since January 9. It is thought that he committed suicide.

Before going away, he said to his brother: “Good-bye, Jake, forever. I’m going to jump overboard.” He was not seen alive afterwards. It is believed he drowned himself because he had been rebuked for drinking.

(“A Young Suicide,” Thursday, March 18, 1897,Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA) Volume: 136 Issue: 77 Page: 10 )

Benjamin had been missing for two months when his body was found. I cannot begin to imagine how his family felt. Could it possibly be that just getting scolded for drinking led him to commit suicide? Or was there something else behind the story? Was there underlying mental illness, as was the case with his older brother Jacob?

Although the death certificate for Jacob said that he had been hospitalized since October, 1896, ten years, one month and 28 days before his death, this news story about Benjamin seemed to indicate that Jacob was still home when Benjamin committed suicide in March, 1897. One has to wonder whether Jacob’s mental illness was precipitated or at least exacerbated by his little brother’s death and thus whether Jacob’s death certificate was off by a year in describing his stay at the state hospital. Did Jacob feel guilty, knowing that his younger brother had talked about suicide but Jacob had not being able to stop him? How did Maria and William cope with these two traumas?

It was less than twenty years later that their son Lewis died in 1915, with Jacob dying a year later in 1916. Only Isaac remained, their youngest son. Fortunately, Isaac’s story is not tragic. In 1909, he had married Rose Hicks, who was a few years older than Isaac and had a son William from a previous marriage. Although marrying an older divorced woman with a child might have been somewhat unusual back then, given what this family had been through, that must have been small potatoes to them. In 1910, he and Rose were living at 133 Walnut Street in 1910 with several boarders, and Isaac, now using the name Harry, was working at a pawnshop.

Isaac “Harry” Levy and Emma Levy 1910 census

In fact, it was his uncle Lewis Cohen’s pawnshop, as revealed in Harry’s World War I draft registration (and as confirmed by an address check for Lewis Cohen in 1917).

Isaac “Harry” Levy draft registration World War I

Harry, Rose, and Rose’s son William as well as her nephew were living on Reno Street in 1920, and Harry and Rose continued to live in Philadelphia at least until 1942 when Harry’s draft registration for World War II continues to provide a Philadelphia address at 222 North 52^nd Street. Harry was working for the WPA in Philadelphia at that time.

Isaac “Harry” Levy World War 2 draft registration

It does not appear that Harry and Rose had any biological children of their own. I cannot yet find any record for Harry or Rose after 1942, nor have I yet had any luck locating any records for Maria or William after the 1900 census. I plan to contact Adath Jeshurun cemetery in Philadelphia to see if they have records for Harry/Isaac, Rose, Maria or William Levy. Since the other members of the family were all buried at that cemetery, I am hoping that I will be able to get at least some greater information about the others.

Genealogical research is filled with twists and turns. I spent many hours this week, focused on Maria Cohen and her family with William Levy, and until this morning I had found almost nothing except their marriage record and those two census reports. I went to sleep feeling that I would never know the rest of the story. Then with just a few lucky keystrokes this morning, I opened the door to a terribly tragic family story. I almost wish that I hadn’t. Careful what you wish for, as they say. I hope I can put some closure on Maria’s life. Only time, persistence, and lots of good luck will tell.

[1] Reuben was the sixth child, but I am skipping over him for now as I wait to hear from one of his descendants.

Rachel Cohen 1853-1925: An Ordinary Life

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Amy

As I move down the list of my great-grandparents’ thirteen children, I will face a few new obstacles. First, there are several daughters among the middle group of siblings, and as noted before several times, women have a tendency to disappear if I cannot figure out their married names. Second, as these children were born later, many also died after 1924, making it much more difficult to obtain their death certificates and other vital records on line. That means I will either have to order documents from the Pennsylvania archives or visit a local branch of the Family History Library where I can view microfilm sent from Salt Lake City. Those visits will have to wait until the fall probably as I will not have ready access to a branch until then. For now I will report what I know based on what I can find and then update my findings as I obtain more documents and information.

I have reported on the first four children of Jacob and Sarah, my great-great grandparents: Fanny, Joseph, Isaac, and Hart. Rachel is the next child. She was born in Philadelphia in 1853 and spent her childhood at 136 South Street with her family. In 1879 she married Lewis I. Weil, who was born in Pennsylvania of German-born parents. In 1880 Rachel and Lewis were living at 406 South 2d Street with a servant. Lewis was in the gentlemen’s furnishings business, and Rachel was at home. (It is hard to imagine what a young woman with no children did at home all day, given that she had a servant, but times were different back then.)

Rachel and Lewis Weil 1880 US census

Rachel and Lewis had six children: Sallie (1880), Benjamin (1882), Jacob (1883), Blanche (1888), Irene (1891), and Joseph (1893). All but Benjamin survived to adulthood; Benjamin died when he was six months old from enteritis, an inflammation of the small intestine usually caused by a bacterial infection.

Benjamin Weil death certificate

On a separate record of Benjamin’s death, it identified the attending physician as “Sarah Cohen.” Since this was 1882, it seems unlikely that this was really a doctor, but rather Rachel’s mother, Sarah, my great-great grandmother.

UPDATE: See the comments below from rustica2389. It seems there was a Dr. Sarah Cohen practicing in Philadelphia at that time! I should never make assumptions….

Benjamin Weil death record

That must have been an awful loss for Rachel and Lewis, but like so many others, they went on to have four additional children. In 1900, Rachel and Lewis still had all five surviving children living with them, and Lewis was still engaged in the business of men’s clothing. They also still had a servant living with them, now at 1401 Ridge Avenue.

Rachel and Lewis Weil 1900 US census

By 1910, the family had moved to 606 Diamond Street, and only Sallie (who never married), Irene, 19, and Joseph, now 17, were still living at home. Lewis was still working in men’s furnishings, and Joseph was working in the same business. Sallie was a salesperson in a department store, and Irene was at home. Lewis’ brother Simon was also living with them.

Rachel and Lewis Weil 1910 US census

In 1908 Jacob had married Flora Cohen and was selling men’s neckwear in 1910, and the following year his younger sister Blanche had married Alexander Klein who was a “manager” in some kind of manufacturing, according to the 1910 census.

Marriage certificate of Blanche Weil and Alexander Klein

Ten years later in 1920 Rachel and Lewis were living with Sallie, Blanche, and Blanche’s son Edwin, who was nine years old, born in 1911. They now lived at 4620 Thirteenth Street, and Lewis was working as a buyer and manager in “furnishings,” I assume men’s clothing. Sallie was an assistant buyer of dry goods, and Blanche was a singer in the theater. (Each of these moves from Second Street to Ridge to Diamond to 13th Street took the family further and further north, consistent with other family members and Jews in general in Philadelphia.)

Rachel and Lewis Weil 1920 US census

Although Blanche was still listed as married, her husband Alexander was not living with her, but was living with his brother Lewis at 4510 York Drive. He was in the shoe business. He also is listed as married.

Alexander Klein 1920 census

Since Blanche and Edwin were also living without Alexander in 1930, I assume they never reconciled, although perhaps they also never divorced. Thanks to Gil Weeder, a relative by marriage to the Weil family, I now have these photographs of young Edwin Klein with his father’s family, presumably with his mother Blanche next to him sometime before Blanche and Alexander separated.

Blanche and Edward Klein 1930 US census

Rachel and Lewis Weil’s daughter Irene had married James Doran in 1915. They had a long marriage, living in Philadelphia for almost twenty years before moving to Camden, New Jersey in the 1930s where they lived for at least another ten years. I have not found any records for either of them after 1945, except for a record of Irene’s death on April 8, 1977 in Erie, Pennsylvania, on the Social Security Death Index. Both Irene and James were buried at West Laurel Hill cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, but no dates are recorded for James, so I am not sure when he died. They left no descendants.

Rachel and Lewis’ youngest child, Joseph, married Goldie Kret on June 17, 1912. He was only 19, though his age on the marriage certificate is 21. Goldie was recorded to be 18. They were married in Wilmington, Delaware, and Joseph’s sister Blanche and brother-in-law Alexander Klein were the witnesses on the certificate. Goldie was the daughter of Jacob Kret and Sarah nee Newman.

Joseph Weil and Goldie Kret marriage certificate

Interestingly, Joseph was residing in Boston at the time and working as a salesman. Why is this interesting? Because I have been in touch with someone who is a relative of Flora Cohen, Jacob Weil’s wife, and he has a copy of a baby book created for Jacob and Flora’s daughter, Maizie Weil, in which there is a reference to a trip to Boston to visit “Daddy.” Maizie was born in 1912, so perhaps Jacob and his younger brother Joseph were living in Boston for work during that time period. Since both Jacob and Joseph were living in Philadelphia in 1910, this marriage certificate is the first document I’ve found that has a reference to anyone in the family living in Boston.

By 1917, however, Joseph was living back in Philadelphia, according to his World War I draft registration. The registration also says that Joseph was married with two children, living at 2405 South Elkhart Street, and working as a buyer at N. Snellenburg and Company. Joseph’s uncle, Joseph Cohen (Rachel’s brother) had married Caroline Snellenburg, so I imagine that this was a store owned by his uncle’s father-in-law’s family.

Joseph Weil World War I draft registration

I cannot find Joseph or Goldie or either of their daughters on the 1920 census, although there is a man named Weil living as a boarder in a home in Tampa, Florida, with no other identifying entries in the listing. By 1922, however, it is evident that the marriage between Joseph and Goldie had ended, as Goldie married Edwin Hoffman that year, and in 1930, she and her two daughters with Joseph, Lillian and Barbara, were living with her second husband in Newark, New Jersey.

Joseph, meanwhile, had also remarried by then. He had married Rose “Rena” Sley in 1921. On the 1930 census, he was living with Rena, and their daughter Geraldine, who was then seven years old. Joseph was selling men’s shirts. In 1935, they were living in Hackensack, New Jersey, and in 1940 in Irvington, New Jersey. Two cousins were living with them as well. Joseph was a buyer at a department store; according to his World War II draft registration, he was working for R.J. Goerke Company in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and living in East Orange in 1942.

Joseph Weil World War II Draft Registration

Meanwhile, on March 9, 1925, his mother Rachel, my great-grandaunt, had died at age 72 of what looks like bone cancer: carcinoma of the left femur; she, like so many in her family, was buried at Mt Sinai cemetery. Her husband Lewis died three years later on July 26, 1928, of heart disease and was buried beside her.

Rachel Cohen Weil death certificate 1925

Lewis Weil death certificate 1925

Rachel and Lewis Weil death record

Rachel’s life story is not dramatic. It was in fact a bit of a relief after researching her brother Hart. Rachel’s life seems to have been without scandal. Her husband had a steady occupation throughout. They suffered the loss of a child early in their marriage and perhaps other losses that are not documented in public records, but they also raised five children to adulthood. Two of those children may have had some marital issues, but overall there were, aside from Benjamin’s death, no apparent tragedies or scandals. Rachel and Lewis stayed married to each other for almost 50 years. They both lived into their seventies, unlike Rachel’s older siblings who did not live to see 70. It was not a remarkable life, but it was a life not unlike many lives. It may not make for an exciting story, but nor do most lives. Their story is a family story, a story that many people aspire to live for themselves.

My Great-Great Grandmother Rachel Jacobs Cohen: Her Death Certificate

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Amy

I have received a certified copy of my great-great grandmother’s death certificate from the General Register Office in London. This is my first English vital record, and I was quite excited to receive it. It amazes me that I can obtain a record that is over 150 years old from a foreign country just by clicking on the keys of a computer. Below is a scan of the document and also a cropped version to highlight the actual text on the certificate.

Rachel Jacobs Cohen death certificate

There are a number of things that interest me about the information on this document. First is Rachel’s date of death, January 9, 1851. When I had searched through the BMD Index for this certificate, there were a number of Rachel Cohens who might have been the right person. I guessed that it was this one based on the date. Although Lewis and Jacob, Rachel’s sons, had left for the US in 1846 and 1848, respectively, Rachel’s husband and other children, Elizabeth and Jonas, did not leave until 1851. I had a hunch that they did not leave because Rachel was ill and not able to make the journey, so they waited until after she died.

As the certificate shows, Rachel’s cause of death was “scirehus paylonis” and exhaustion, and it seems she had been ill for a year. As best I can tell, scrirehus paylonis would be translated to schirrous pylonis or cancer of the stomach. (My medical expert should feel free to correct this.) I found some English writings on line in which that term was used to refer to what we would call stomach cancer.

The certificate also indicates where the family was living—in Landers Buildings in Christchurch, Spitalfields, in the Registration District of Whitechapel, County of Middlesex. It also confirms that Hart Levy Cohen was a clothes dealer.

Perhaps most interesting and surprising to me is that Hart signed the certificate with a mark, an X, not with a signature. Was he not able to sign his name? Was he illiterate? It’s so hard for me to imagine not being able to read and write that I found this shocking and disturbing.

Hart Cohen and Family Between 1841 and 1851: My Great-Great Grandfather Jacob Cohen

Isaac Cohen 1850-1914: A Harder Story to Tell

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Amy

The third child of my great-great grandparents was Isaac. He was born on February 4, 1850, in Philadelphia, the first of their children both conceived and born in the US. Until at least 1872 when he was 22 years old, he lived at home with his parents at 136 South Street and was working as a clerk in one of the family pawnshops.

He was living at a different address as of 1873, 923 Parrish Street, which was two and a half miles north of his family home, continuing the northward movement of the family. I assume that sometime in 1873 he had married his wife, Emma Cordelia van Horn, since he was no longer living at home. Emma was born in 1853 in Pennsylvania, the daughter of William van Horn and granddaughter of I.B. Merkel, according to documents relating to her death, but so far I have not been able to find out more about her family or to locate a William van Horn with a daughter named Emma. I was surprised to see just how many William H. van Horns there were in Philadelphia alone.

Like his older brother Joseph (as well as many of his younger brothers) and his father, Isaac was a pawnbroker. For his whole career he worked at a pawnshop at 830 North 10^th Street, a block away from his residence in 1873 on Parrish Street. On July 9, 1879, Isaac and Emma’s son, Isaac Wilbert Cohen, was born, and in 1880 the family was living at 636 North 11^th Street, only a few blocks away from the store on 10^th Street. The 1880s seem to have been fairly uneventful. Isaac continued to work at the same location throughout the decade, according to the city directories. Emma and little Isaac were at home.

Isaac Cohen and son living with Emanuel Cohen and family 1880 census

Isaac Cohen and family 1880 census

Then in 1893, tragedy struck, and Isaac’s life was never the same. His wife Emma died on November 3, 1893, when she was only forty years old and her son was only fourteen years old. Emma died from “Septic Peritonitis from Suppurative Salpingitis,” according to her death certificate. As explained to me by my brother, suppurative salpingitis means she had pus in her fallopian tubes, a condition today known as pelvic inflammatory disease. In Emma’s case it led to a septic condition in her abdomen which killed her.

Emma Cohen death certificate 1893

Emma Cohen funeral notes 1893

It was from the funeral notes above that I learned Emma’s father’s and grandfather’s names.

When she died, Emma and Isaac had been living at 1606 Diamond Street, so the family had moved again, about two miles north from 11^th Street and Isaac’s store on 10^th Street. After Emma died, Isaac and his son remained at 1606 Diamond Street, and as of 1895, Isaac’s much younger brother, my great-grandfather Emanuel, was also living at 1606 Diamond Street. Emanuel was thirteen years younger than Isaac, 32 in 1895, and was himself married and the father of three sons, including my grandfather John, who was born in 1895. On the 1900 census, Isaac and his son were still living with Emanuel and his family, with Emanuel listed as the head of household.

Isaac Cohen and son living with Emanuel Cohen and family 1900 census

I found this somewhat puzzling. Had Emanuel moved his family to Isaac’s home to help take care of his widower brother and motherless nephew? Or had Isaac taken in Emanuel to help him out? I assume it’s more likely the former—that Isaac need help with caring for his teenage son and that my great-grandmother Eva was willing to help raise him as well as her three sons, who would have been young boys during the 1890s. Isaac had twelve siblings, some much closer to him in age. Why would he have ended up living with Emanuel, his much younger brother and not one of the others?

Isaac was the first member of the Cohen family to marry someone who was not Jewish. Emma had been buried in a non-Jewish cemetery, West Laurel Hill in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia. Had his other siblings been upset that he married outside the faith?

Isaac’s stay in Emanuel’s household continued for almost twenty years. In 1910, he was still living with Emanuel, Eva, and their sons, now at 1441 Diamond Street, and still working as a pawnbroker. His son Isaac Wilbert had married Gertrude Mann the year before and was living in his own place. Why had Isaac stayed with Emanuel and not moved with his son? To give the newlyweds their own space? Again, it does seem a bit strange, but I suppose that after fifteen years of living with his brother and family, Isaac at age 60 was content to stay put.

Isaac Cohen with Emanuel and family 1910 census

But then Isaac suffered another terrible loss. On March 3, 1914, his son Isaac Wilbert Cohen died from lobar pneumonia. According to the death certificate, Isaac Wilbert had suffered from myocarditis, another family member succumbing to heart problems. He was only 34 and had been married only five years when he died. He had no children.

Isaac Wilbert Cohen death certificate

Isaac Cohen, my great-grandfather’s brother, himself died just a few months later on September 15, 1914, from acute peritonitis secondary to pancreatic cancer.

Isaac Cohen death certificate

He was 64 years old and had lost his wife 21 years before and his only child just six months before. It seems like he endured far too many losses far too soon. I hope that he found comfort living with my great-grandparents and my grandfather and great-uncles. I wish that I knew more about his life and his story.

Like his wife, Isaac was buried at West Laurel Hill cemetery along with his son Isaac Wilbert.

My Great-Grandfather’s Brother Joseph: 1848-1923

Posted on May 26, 2014 by Amy

Joseph was the first child of Jacob and Sarah Cohen to be born in the US; he was born on November 21, 1848, in Philadelphia, only four months after his parents’ arrival in July, 1848, meaning his mother was five months pregnant when she traveled from England to the US with her husband and toddler daughter, Fanny. Joseph lived with his family at 136 South Street until he married Caroline Snellenburg around 1868.

Caroline was born in Germany around 1849 and emigrated to the United States with her family as a young child in 1857. Although I cannot locate a specific marriage record for Joseph and Caroline, they probably were married sometime in or before 1868 because their first born child, Hart, was born May, 1869. In June, 1870, when the census was taken, Caroline, Joseph and one year old Hart were living at 115 Congress Street in the same ward and district as Joseph’s parents, and Joseph was working as a tailor.

Joseph and Caroline Cohen 1870 US census

Then, later that year, little Hart was stricken with typhoid fever and died on November 21, 1870, only one and a half at the time. So like his older sister Fanny and her husband Ansel who lost their daughter Rachel to typhoid fever in 1873 before she was two years old, Joseph and his wife Caroline lost a young child to typhoid.

Hart Cohen death certificate 1870

I have speculated before about what these deaths must have done to young parents and whether it made them less able to attach to children or made them treasure each child more. In the case of Joseph and Caroline, it seems they compensated by having another ten children after losing their first born. At least one other child did not survive to adulthood, the last born child, Meyer, who was born in July 1889 and died the next month. By having so many children, Joseph and Caroline were able to ensure that at least some of their children would survive the dangers of life back in the 19^th century.

By 1875, Jacob and Caroline had four children, Jacob (1872), Bertha and Isaac (1874) and Nathan (1875) and were living at 221 South 2d Street, where they would live at least until 1886, according to various city directories. This residence was located about half a mile north of where Joseph grew up on South Street and close to the city center of Philadelphia, near Walnut Street.

In 1875 Joseph was listed in the city directory as a clothier, and in 1879 he was in business as Cohen and Brothers with at least his younger brother Reuben and perhaps Hart and Isaac as well. Although there is no description of what trade Cohen and Brothers were engaged in in the 1879 directory, on the 1880 census Joseph’s occupation was described as a dealer in clothing so he was still in the clothing trade.

Joseph Cohen and family 1880 census

In 1881, however, the city directory lists his business as being a pawnbroker, like his father and his brothers Isaac and Reuben (Hart was still a clothier), but also as a clothier at his home location. So by 1881, Joseph had followed in his father’s footsteps and was working as a pawnbroker but also selling clothing.

Perhaps Joseph was engaged in two businesses for good reason. By 1881, he and Caroline had five children, Sallie having been born in 1877. By 1884, they had two more, Fannie (1882) and Julia (1884). By 1886, the family had moved, perhaps to accommodate all these new and growing children, to 703 South 12^th Street, and Joseph was in business with his younger brother Lewis Cohen and had a store at 701 South 12^th Street, right next door to his residence. This was a move closer to Broad Street near South Street, so presumably a good business location. In 1887, Joseph and Caroline had two more children, twins named Morris and Samuel.

The business and the family remained at this location at least through 1889, and then in 1892, Joseph had a store at 1200 South Street and was residing at 710 North 5^th Street. This was a move four miles north, and so nearing the turn of the century, Joseph, like his sister Fanny, was living in North Philadelphia, part of the migration of Jews from the southern to the northern parts of the city. Presumably, the business and the family were doing quite well.

Interestingly, in 1900, Joseph and Caroline and the children were living in Cape May, New Jersey, where Joseph was working as a pawnbroker. I assume that he was working to establish a new store in a new territory, perhaps for one of his sons. Or maybe after the death of infant Meyer in August of 1889, they just needed a change of scenery. Although the records conflict, some records indicate that the twins Morris and Samuel were born in Cape May in August, 1887, so it could be that this was a second stay for the family in Cape May.

Joseph Cohen and family 1900 census

Although Joseph and Caroline’s oldest son Jacob was already married at this point, he is listed on the census as living in Cape May with his parents in 1900. (He is also listed as living with his wife and child back in Philadelphia, so I assume he was shuttling back and forth.) His occupation was as a jeweler, a business that I know became a part of the Cohen family businesses. His younger brother Isaac was working as a traveling salesman, and Nathan, then 25, was working as a clerk in the pawn store.

By 1903, however, Joseph was back in Philadelphia, working at the store at 1200 South Street, and in 1910 Joseph and Caroline were living with six of their adult children at 1915 Diamond Street, another few miles north and west of where they had lived in 1889.

Joseph Cohen and family 1910 census

Joseph was described as the proprietor of a business, but I cannot decipher the script for what type of business. If one of you can, I’d love to know.

Detail: What is the word after “Proprietor” on Joseph Cohen’s line?

Sam and Morris were working in a department store (maybe Ansel’s, maybe their father’s?), and Nathan was working as a loan officer in a bank. Imagine that! A rebel in the family, abandoning the long tradition of being merchants and pawnbrokers.

On October 17, 1918, Joseph and Caroline lost another child, but this time an adult child. Their son Morris, who was only 30 years old, died from pneumonia after having influenza. Morris was married to Helen Goodman and working as a sheet metal worker in the manufacture of automobile radiators, according to his death certificate and 1917 World War I draft registration. He had only completed that draft registration a few months before his death.

Morris Cohen death certificate

Morris Cohen draft registration for World War I

In 1920, Joseph and Caroline were living with just two of their adult children, Nathan, now 43 and still working as a loan officer, and Fanny, who was 35 and not employed outside the home. Joseph had no occupation listed on this census, and he and Caroline were now 70 years old. They were living at 1914 Erie Avenue, even further north and west from their prior home on Diamond Street.

Joseph Cohen and family 1920 census

Joseph died three years later, on June 10, 1923, from chronic endocarditis, another family member dying from heart disease. The contributing causes were chronic parenchymalious nephritis. According to my medical consultant and brother, this is form of kidney disease.

Joseph Cohen death certificate 1923

Caroline died the following year on April 3, 1924. I do not have a death certificate for her, but both she and Joseph were buried in Mt Sinai cemetery. Together they had endured a fair share of heartache, losing at least two children as babies and one as an adult, but they also had enjoyed a fair amount of financial security and the company of many of their children. As with Fanny, Jacob and Sarah would have been pleased to know that their son Joseph had overall lived a good life.

So Many Cohens, So Many Stories to Tell

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Amy

(Photo credit: wok)

I am feeling a little overwhelmed. I thought there were a lot of Rosenzweigs; after all, Gustave had nine children and Tillie had seven. But my great-great-grandparents Jacob and Sarah Cohen had THIRTEEN children, and Jacob’s brother Moses had five more. And they are only the first generation of American Cohens. There are two more to go before I get to my generation, and each generation gets bigger. Fortunately, Jacob’s other siblings did not have children, or I would really be drowning in Cohens.

As is it, I am not sure where to start or how to tell the story of Hart Levy and Rachel Cohen’s grandchildren. Do I keep doing it by decade, jumping from one of those descendants to another? Do I take each one and discuss his or her life separately? Doing it the first way gives me more of an opportunity to see and describe the big picture, but it could make each post very long if I tell the story of all the grandchildren’s lives in a particular decade. Doing it one by one would be simpler, but would mean losing the chance to see overall trends in the family.

I am also still researching each one of these eighteen grandchildren and looking ahead to see how many children each one of them brought into the world. I haven’t even begun to research that generation—the great-grandchildren of Hart and Rachel, many of whom lived far into the 20^th century. But I am getting ahead of myself. One thing at a time. First, the children of Jacob and Sarah. Then the children of Moses and Adeline.

Since Jacob and Sarah’s children were born over a twenty year span from Frances (1846) to Abraham (1866), I think it makes sense to take a few of these children at a time in chronological sets. I will do first the four oldest, then the middle five, and then the last four. Some of these people, especially the women, I have not been able to track completely, but amazingly for most of them, I have been able to go from birth to death.

Once I have done Jacob and Sarah’s children, I will turn to the five children of Moses and Adeline Cohen. I am still researching the question of whether or not the DC Cohens were in fact related to the Philadelphia Cohens, but I am operating under the assumption that they were in fact all descendants of Hart and Rachel. I am even having my brother take a DNA test to see if we can make the linkage. Only time will tell, but meanwhile I am going with my hunch that Moses and Jacob were brothers.

So that’s where I am. Thanks for letting me think out loud and get organized. It may take a bit longer to get each of these posts researched and written, so I may be posting a little less frequently. Stay tuned for the continuing saga of the Cohen clan.

If you think my plan makes no sense, let me know. I am more than open to suggestions on how to tell the story.

Brotmanblog: A Family Journey

Adventures in Genealogy

Tag Archives: genealogy

The Surviving Children of Reuben and Sallie Cohen, Part I: Minnie, Rae, Reuben, Jr., Lewis and Violet Mae

Elizabeth Cohen 1859-1923: Twists and Turns in Life and in Genealogy

Blog Update

Maria Cohen 1856-?: A Hard Story to Find, A Harder One to Tell

Rachel Cohen 1853-1925: An Ordinary Life

My Great-Great Grandmother Rachel Jacobs Cohen: Her Death Certificate

Isaac Cohen 1850-1914: A Harder Story to Tell

My Great-Grandfather’s Brother Joseph: 1848-1923

So Many Cohens, So Many Stories to Tell

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