Tag Archives: vital records

Malchen Rothschild, Part I: A Large Family

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Having now completed the stories of the family of Gerson Rothschild and Fanny Kupermann, it is time once again to see where I am in the overall Blumenfeld family. Gerson was the eighth of the eleven children of Gelle Blumenfeld and Simon Rothschild. And Gelle Blumenfeld was the third of the three children of Moses Blumenfeld I and Gidel Loeb. And Moses Blumenfeld was the older brother of my three-times great-grandmother Breine Blumenfeld Katzenstein. So seeing this in a visual format, this is where I am:

Here is a chart of where I am in the descendants of Moses Blumenfeld I:

That looks like a lot of progress, doesn’t it?

But this is where I am in the overall family of Abraham Blumenfeld I and Geitel Katz, my 4x-great-grandparents:

So I still have a long, long way to go. (One thing not reflected here is that I have already covered the family and descendants of my three-times great-grandmother Breine Blumenfeld Katzenstein, the third child of Abraham I and Geitel.)

Now I will move on to the ninth of the children of Gelle Blumenfeld and Simon Rothschild, their daughter, Malchen. She was born on March 3, 1857, in Waltersbrueck, Germany.

Malchen Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hessen, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 28

On May 12, 1878, Malchen married Daniel Rosenblatt in Waltersbrueck. Daniel, the son of Feist Rosenblatt and Minna Heilbrunn, was born on December 20, 1851, in Beisefoerth, Germany (now known as Malsfeld, Germany).

Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 8404, Year Range: 1878, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Malchen and Daniel had seven children.

Their first born was Julchen or Julie Rosenblatt; she was born February 3, 1879, in Beisefoerth.

Julchen Rosenblatt birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 4410, Year Range: 1879, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

The second child was Jette, born February 8, 1880, in Beisefoerth.

Jette Rosenblatt birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hessen, HHStAW, 365, 66, pp. 76-77

Felix, the third child, was born December 15, 1881, but in Zimmersrode, so the family must have relocated from Beisefoerth by then.

Felix Rosenblatt birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 9519, Year Range: 1881, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

The fourth child was Auguste, born in Zimmersrode on February 6, 1883.

Auguste Rosenblatt birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 9521, Year Range: 1883, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

The fifth child, another boy, was Juda or Julius Rosenblatt, also born in Zimmersrode, on July 13, 1884.

Juda Rosenblatt birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 9522, Year Range: 1884, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

After Juda came Betty Rosenblatt, born January 8, 1887, in Zimmersrode. Sadly, Betty did not make it to her second birthday; she died on October 7, 1888, in Zimmersrode.

Betty Rosenblatt birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 9525, Year Range: 1887, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Betty Rosenblatt death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 9603; Laufende Nummer: 920, Year Range: 1888, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Finally, Malchen gave birth to her seventh child, Siegmund, on November 15, 1889, in Zimmersrode.

Siegmund Rosenblatt birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 9527, Year Range: 1889. Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Julchen, Jette, Felix, Auguste, Juda, and Siegmund all survived to adulthood. Finding records for some of their children has proven to be a challenge.

On July 3, 1905, Julchen Rosenblatt married Max Wolf in Zimmersrode. Max, the son of Loeb Bunum Wolf and Bertha Blach, was born on April 11, 1879, in Barchfeld, Germany.

Julchen Rosenblatt and Max Wolf marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 9567, Year Range: 1905, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Julchen and Max had one child, Edgar, who died on March 2, 1909, in Kassel, when he was only one year old.

Edgar Wolf death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 5501; Laufende Nummer: 910,  Year Range: 1909, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

As far as I have been able to determine, Julchen and Max did not have any other children.

Jette Rosenblatt, the second child, does not appear to have married or had children.

Felix Rosenblatt, the third child, married Minna Goldwein on March 17, 1914, in Ehrsten, Germany.  Minna was born in Meimbressen, Germany on January 2, 1891, to Jakob Goldwein and Bertha Frankenberg. (Minna is likely very distantly related to Manfred Goldwein, who married my cousin Margaret Sluizer.) I have no primary sources to prove that Felix and Minna had children, just unsourced family trees on Ancestry and on Geneanet and Geni/MyHeritage, but those trees and sites show that Felix and Minna had two children born in Zimmersrode: Siegfried, born January 23, 1915, and Ludwig, born November 15, 1919.

Felix Rosenblatt and Minna Goldwein marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Signatur: 1808, Year Range: 1914, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Auguste Rosenblatt, the fourth child of Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt, married Samuel Roth on June 13, 1911. Samuel was born February 16, 1883, in Nieder-Ohmen, Germany. He was the son of Jakob Roth and Jettchen Stiebel. Auguste and Samuel had four children born in Breitenbach, Germany, according to various secondary sources, Holocaust documents, and a few primary sources for marriage or death: Irma, born May 26, 1912;1 Friedel, born December 15, 1913;2 Lothar, born January 15, 1915;3 and Gretl, November 12, 1919.4

Auguste Rosenblatt and Samuel Solly Roth marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 9573, Year Range: 1911, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Juda Rosenblatt married Julchen Rosenblatt on February 3, 1920. No, not his sister—this Julchen Rosenblatt was his first cousin. Julchen, Juda’s wife, was born on September 10, 1892, in Malsfeld (formerly Beisefoerth), Germany, to Levi Rosenblatt and Dorette Levi. Levi Rosenblatt was Daniel Rosenblatt’s brother.

Juda Rosenblatt and Julchen Rosenblatt marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 4473, Year Range: 1918-1924, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Tragically, Juda died just ten months later on December 15, 1920. He was only thirty-six years old. I believe that Juda and Julie had one child before Juda died: a son Manfred born on August 11, 1920. More on that to come in a subsequent post.

Juda Julius Rosenblatt death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 9635; Laufende Nummer: 920, Year Range: 1920-1921, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Siegmund Rosenblatt, the youngest sibling, married Else Schwab in Schlitz, Germany, on February 9, 1920, six days after his brother Jude’s wedding. Else was born on November 1, 1896, in Schlitz, Germany, to Abraham Schwab and Franziska Strauss. Once again several unsourced trees and sites list Siegmund and Else with two or three children: Arno and Ruth and Margot. I have no primary sources for those children.

Siegmund Rosenblatt and Else Schwab marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 921; Laufende Nummer: 902, Year Range: 1915-1925, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Thus, as you can see, my research of many of the grandchildren of Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt rests largely on unsourced trees and websites. I am not sure where I could find more reliable information since the birth records for the towns and years where and when these grandchildren were born are not available online. But I will keep searching.

Sadly, Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt died before any of those grandchildren had reached their teenage years. She was 65 when she died on January 11, 1923, in Kassel, Germany.5 She was survived by her husband Daniel, five of her seven children, and her grandchildren.

“Rosenblatt, Malchen née Rothschild (1923) – Haarhausen,” in: Jewish Gravesites <https://www.lagis-hessen.de/de/subjects/idrec/sn/juf/id/2330&gt; (accessed June 5, 2012)

Her gravestone reads:

Here rests

a capable housewife for her husband and children.

This is Malchen, daughter of Simon,

Wife of Gedaliah, son of Uri.

She died on Thursday, 23 Tevet,

and was buried on the 25th of the same [5] 683

after the small count.

Her soul is bound in the bond of life.

(German inscription below:)

Here rests

Malchen Rosenblatt

from Zimmersrode

born March 3, 1857, died January 11, 1923

Her husband Daniel Rosenblatt lived long enough to experience Nazi persecution and the beginning of World War II. He died on April 5, 1940, in Zimmersrode.

Daniel Rosenblatt death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 9655; Laufende Nummer: 920, Year Range: 1940, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Notice that his death record has his name as Daniel “Israel” Rosenblatt, reflecting the Nazi requirement that all Jewish men add Israel as their middle name. He was 88 years old and died of a stroke.6

Malchen and Daniel were spared seeing what would happen to their three daughters and their families during the Holocaust.

 

 

  1. Irma Roth marriage record, Landesarchiv Berlin; Berlin, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Heiratsregister, Ancestry.com. Berlin, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1940 ↩
  2. Friedel Roth death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 598; Laufende Nummer: 926, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958 ↩
  3. Lothar or Lotario Roth burial record on JewishGen, JOWBR database, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0200287&#160;↩
  4. Gretel Roth, Arolsen Archives; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Record Group 1 Incarceration Documents; Reference: 1.2.1.1, Ancestry.com. Germany, Incarceration Documents, 1933-1945 ↩
  5. “Rosenblatt, Malchen née Rothschild (1923) – Haarhausen,” in: Jewish Gravesites <https://www.lagis-hessen.de/de/subjects/idrec/sn/juf/id/2330&gt; (accessed June 5, 2012) ↩
  6. Daniel Rosenblatt, Arolsen Archives, Digital Archive; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Lists of Persecutees 2.1.1.1, Description Reference Code: 02010101 oS, Ancestry.com. Free Access: Europe, Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees, 1939-1947 ↩

Albert Rothschild’s Family 1915-1920: Loss and Survival

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The third son of Moses and Matilda Rothschild, Albert, was the first to die, and he died far too young.

On August 25, 1915, Albert, while a patient at Lloyd’s Sanitarium in New York City, drew up his last will and testament. According to this website, Lloyd’s Sanitarium was created by Dr. Henry William Lloyd in 1909 as a private hospital for the well-to-do.

Dr Lloyds Sanitarium from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Albert’s will1 provides evidence that Albert was at least financially comfortable although perhaps not wealthy. In it he provided for a $500 trust to be created for his mother, Mathilde. In 1915 $500 would be worth over $15,000 in today’s money—not a fortune, but still a generous bequest. The will also provided that his wife Rose would receive “a third of her dower rights” or alternatively $50 to $60 a month, or about $1500 a month or $18,000 a year in today’s money. Again, hardly a fortune. Albert named Rose as well as his brothers Samuel and Rudolph to be the executors of his estate. The will documents reveal that Rose and the children were living at 964 Simpson Street in the Bronx in 1915 (although they are not listed there on the 1915 New York State census).

Albert Rothschild Last Will and Testament

Albert Rothschild notice of probate

Albert Rothschild probate order

Albert died a month later on September 29, 1915, in Amityville, New York, out on Long Island, presumably at a hospital there.2 I do not know what the cause of death was (and ordering a copy of the certificate from Vital Records is prohibitively expensive), but it would certainly appear that Albert knew he was gravely ill a month earlier when he wrote his will. He was only 38 years old and left behind not only his widow Rose, but their five daughters, Rachael, then 19, Josephine (13), Theresa (9), Lillian (6), and Dorothy, only one year old.

In this way Albert was following in the footsteps of his father Moses, who also died in his thirties and left behind six children who were all quite young. Was it the same cause of death? Was Moses’ cause of death really general paresis or was there a genetic cause of death for both Albert and Moses? I don’t know.

As for Albert’s widow Rose and their five daughters, their lives continued. Rose remarried in 1917, in New York;3 her second husband was Craig Powis, born in New York on October 27, 1874, to Charles Powis and Jennie Armstrong.4 On his 1918 World War I draft registration, Craig’s occupation was reported as an engineer at the army base in Brooklyn, and he and Rose were living in Brooklyn.

Craig Powis World War I draft registration, Registration State: New York; Registration County: Kings, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

But two years later in 1920, Rose was living with four of her daughters in the Bronx. Although she was using the last name Powis and reported her marital status as married, Craig was not listed as living with her. Rose was working as a salesperson in a dry goods store.  Perhaps Craig was living on the army base in Brooklyn. Perhaps the marriage had failed.

Rose Powis and family 1920 US census, ear: 1920; Census Place: Bronx Assembly District 1, Bronx, New York; Roll: T625_1130; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 42,  Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census

It’s hard to know because I cannot find Craig on the 1920 census nor can I find either Rose or Craig on the 1925 NYS census. However, it does appear that Craig may have married again because on the index of his death record on FamilySearch, it says that he died on July 14, 1926, in the Bronx and that his surviving spouse was named Anna. Of course, the index could be an incorrect transcription of the death certificate or it could just be a mistake. But in any event it does not appear that Craig was living with Rose in 1920.5

Living with their mother Rose in the Bronx in 1920 were her four younger daughters: Josephine (17), Theresa (14), Lillian (10), and Dorothy (5). Josephine was working as a billing clerk for a lumber company. The other three were still in school.6

Albert and Rose’s oldest daughter Rachael (now using Rae) was not living with her mother and sisters because she had married Gerald L. Jordan on July 17, 1919, in Brooklyn, New York. Gerald was born in Charleston, West Virginia, on June 9, 1892, to Louis Jordan and Bertha Schmitz.7 On his June 1917 World War I draft registration, Gerald was living in New York City and was the secretary and salesman for the David Cohen Sales Company. He claimed an exemption from military service because of “heart trouble.” I could not find Rae and Gerald on the 1920 census. They had a daughter born on April 18, 1921, in the Bronx, named Alberta.8 She was Moses and Mathilde Rothschild’s first great-grandchild, and I assume she was named for Rae’s father Albert Rothschild.

Gerald Jordan World War I draft registration, Registration State: New York; Registration County: New York, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

The rest of the story of Albert Rothschild’s family will follow in subsequent posts.

  1. Albert Rothschild, Probate Date 25 Aug 1915, Probate Place Bronx, New York, USA, Inferred Death Date 1915, Item Description Probate Administration Records, #0335-0343, Mary Vander Roest-Charles V Schüll, 1915-1916, New York, Bronx Probate Administration Records; Author: New York. Surrogate’s Court (Bronx County); Probate Place: Bronx, New York, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1659-1999 ↩
  2. Albert Rotohschild [sic], Event Type Death, Event Date 29 September 1915, Event Place Amityville, Babylon, Suffolk, New York, United States. Event Place (Original) Amityville, New York, Entry Number 55476, “New York, State Death Index, 1880-1956”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG2W-Y243 : Fri Mar 08 01:04:50 UTC 2024), Entry for Albert Rotohschild, 29 Sep 1915. ↩
  3. Rose Rothschild, Gender Female, Marriage License Date 1 Mar 1917, Marriage License Place Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA, Spouse Craig Powis
    License Number 6232, New York City Municipal Archives; New York, New York; Borough: Manhattan; Volume Number: 3, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018 ↩
  4. Craig A. Powis., Sex Male, Age 52, Birth Year (Estimated) 1874, Marital Status Unknown, Father’s Name Charles, Father’s Sex Male, Mother’s Name Armstrong
    Mother’s Sex Female, Spouse’s Name Anna Powis, Event Type Death, Event Date 14 Jul 1926, Event Place The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States, Event Place (Original) Bronx, New York, New York, United States, Record Type death, Certificate Number cn 5497, “New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WG3-NVM : 13 May 2022), Craig A. Powis, 1926. ↩
  5. See Note 4, supra. ↩
  6. See image above. ↩
  7. Gerald Lewis Jordan, Sex Male, Age 25 years, Birth Year (Estimated) 1892, Father’s Name Louis, Father’s Sex Male, Mother’s Name Bertha Schmitz
    Mother’s Sex Female, Spouse’s Name Rae Rotschild, Spouse’s Sex Female
    Spouse’s Age 21 years, Spouse’s Birth Year (Estimated) 1896, Spouse’s Father’s Name Albert, Spouse’s Father’s Sex Male, Spouse’s Mother’s Name Rose Katz, Event Type Marriage, Event Date 10 July 1917, Event Place Kings, New York, United States
    Source Details 10399, “New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2CK-YV93 : Sat Mar 09 05:09:54 UTC 2024), Entry for Gerald Lewis Jordan and Rae Rotschild, 10 July 1917. Gerald L. Jordan Sex Male Father’s Name Louis Jordan Mother’s Name Bertha Schmitz Event Type Birth Event Date 9 Jun 1892 Event Place Charleston, Kanawha, West Virginia, United States, “West Virginia Births and Christenings, 1853-1928”, , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X556-8BP : 12 December 2019), Gerald L. Jordan, 1892. ↩
  8. Alberta L Jordan, Birth Date 15 Apr 1921, Birth Place Bronx, New York City, New York, USA, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Birth Index, 1910-1965 ↩

Moses Rothschild, Part IV: Rudolph Rothschild, Where Were You? And Where Was Your Infant Son?

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Now that I have concluded that Moses Rothschild, the third child of Gelle Blumenfeld and Simon Rothschild, died on April 11, 1885, I can move on to discuss the lives of his surviving family. He was survived by his wife Mathilde and their six children, Samuel, Rudolph, Albert, Theresa, Gertrude, and Aaron, all born between 1873 and 1881. Aaron, the youngest, was only three when his father died, and Samuel, the oldest, was only eleven. Mathilde certainly had her hands full.

In 1900, Mathilde was living in New York City with her three younger children, Theresa (21), Gertrude (20), and Aaron (18). Theresa was working as a stenographer, Gertrude as a dressmaker, and Aaron as a clerk.

Matilda Rothschild 1900 US census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Manhattan, New York, New York; Roll: 1154; Page: 9; Enumeration District: 0841, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

The three oldest children of Moses and Mathilde had all married by 1900, as we saw in this post. Samuel had married Sallye Livingston in 1898, and they were also living in New York in 1900, where Samuel was working as a clothing salesman.1

Albert, the third son, was also in New York City in 1900, working in a hardware store and living with his wife Rose, whom he’d married in 1895, and their daughter Rachel, who was four years old.2 But their son Milton, born on September 26,1898, was not listed on the 1900 census. I found a death record for him under the name Moses Rothschild, his grandfather’s name and his namesake; little Milton/Moses died on July 20, 1899, two months before his first birthday.3

And then I hit another brick wall with this family. The second son, Rudolph Rothschild, married Rebecca Schlossberg on April 17, 1898, in New York City, as we saw. There is an extracted marriage record on FamilySearch and on Ancestry for this couple, so although I have not seen the actual marriage certificate, I am very certain that this information is reliable.

But I was not able to locate Rudolph Rothschild on the 1900 census with or without Rebecca. I searched high and low, using different spellings, wild cards, different data bases. Nothing. I recruited the help of the experts on Tracing the Tribe, and they couldn’t find Rudolph anywhere on the 1900 census either.

However, I did find his wife Rebecca: she was living with her mother and sister in New York. The census record lists her under her birth surname Schlossberg (misspelled here) and her marital status as single. Since Rudolph was a traveling salesman according to later records, I wondered whether they were living with Rebecca’s mother and Rudolph was not home but on the road when the enumerator came. The enumerator may have assumed that Rebecca was single since no husband was there at that moment. But that’s all speculation.

Rebecca Schlossberg Rothschild 1900 US census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Manhattan, New York, New York; Roll: 1119; Page: 16; Enumeration District: 0846, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

But what is even more perplexing is the fact that according to several records, Rudolph and Rebecca had a son named Mortimer Max Rothschild born on October 28, 1899, just a few months before the census enumerator took the family’s information for the 1900 census. Yet there is no listing for any infant living with Rebecca on that 1900 census. Where could that baby have disappeared? Was the census enumerator that incompetent that he not only listed Rebecca as single with the wrong last name but also entirely missed not only her husband but also her child?

Something just seemed off to me. And I became even more troubled when I decided to confirm that Mortimer Max Rothschild was in fact born on October 28, 1899, in New York, as reported on his two draft registrations4 and to Social Security.5 I could not find any birth record for him on that date in New York. I expanded the search to other states. No luck. I searched for any Rothschild baby born anywhere on that date. No luck. I searched on October 28 in other years—1898, 1900—no luck. I used wild cards. No luck. There were many babies born in the five boroughs of New York City on October 28, 1899, but only one of them was born to a woman named Rebecca, and that was a different Rebecca.

So I am at a loss.

My theories? One long shot guess: Rebecca and Rudolph adopted a baby sometime after the 1900 census was taken, and that baby was born on October 28, 1899, to unidentifiable birth parents and is thus not listed on the birth registry with the name Mortimer Max Rothschild.

Or, more likely, Rebecca and Rudolph never registered Mortimer’s birth. That certainly happened back in that era. Since I also cannot find a birth record for Rudolph and Rebecca’s second child Alvin, born September 2, 1903, according to several later records (draft registration,6 Social Security7), it seems quite likely that Rudolph and Rebecca just weren’t good at filing birth certificates. But that doesn’t explain why Mortimer is not listed with Rebecca on the 1900 census or where Rudolph was at that time.

What I do know is that according to the 1905 New York State census, Rudolph, Rebecca, Mortimer and their second child Alvin were then living together in New York City. Not that they were easy to find there either. I am grateful to Giannis of Tracing the Tribe for locating the family on the 1905 New York State census. As you can see from the image below, the last name and Alvin’s first name were misspelled and the indexer on Ancestry added some transcription errors, so that’s why I’d had no luck finding them. But Rudolph, Rebecca, Mortimer, and Alvin were all living together in 1905, and as we will see, they lived as an intact family for at least another twenty years.

Albert Rothschild 1905 NYS census, New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1905; Election District: A.D. 23 E.D. 41 2; City: Manhattan; County: New York; Page: 13, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State Census, 1905

In the next series of posts I will tell the stories of the children of Moses Rothschild and Mathilde Seligmann from 1900 forward.

 

 

  1. Samuel Rothschild 1900 census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Manhattan, New York, New York; Roll: 1119; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0846, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  2. Albert Rothschild, 1900 census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Manhattan, New York, New York; Roll: 1123; Page: 5; Enumeration District: 0930, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  3. Moses Rothschild, Sex Male, Age 0, Birth Year (Estimated) 1899, Birthplace N Y C, Address 2068 Third Ave, Burial Date 21 Jul 1899, Race White, Father’s Name Albert Rothschild, Father’s Sex Male, Father’s Birthplace N.Y.C., Mother’s Name Rosie Rothschild, Mother’s Sex Female, Mother’s Birthplace Germany, Event Type Death
    Event Date 20 Jul 1899, Event Place Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States, Certificate Number cn 21063, Cemetery Mt. Neboh Cem,  “New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949,” database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WX3-D79 : 3 June 2020), Moses Rothschild, 20 Jul 1899; citing Death, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,322,962. ↩
  4. Mortimer Maxwell Rothschild, World War I Draft registration, Birth Date 28 Oct 1899, Residence Date 1917-1918 Street Address 645 W 160st St, Residence Place Manhattan, New York, USA, Draft Board 147, Relative Rudolph Rothschild, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918; Mortimer M Rothschild, World War II draft registration, Age 42, Birth Date 28 Oct 1899, Birth Place New York, New York, Registration Date 15 Feb 1942, Registration Place New York City, New York, New York, Employer Mode Kiddie Coats Inc, Next of Kin Mrs M M Rothschild, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For New York City, 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 ↩
  5. Mortimer Rothschild, Social Security Number 068-07-0481, Birth Date 28 Oct 1899
    Issue year Before 1951, Issue State New York, Last Residence 10530, Hartsdale, Westchester, New York, USA, Death Date Oct 1974, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  6. Alvin Raymond Rothschild, World War II Draft Registration, Race White, Age 38
    Birth Date 2 Sep 1903, Birth Place New York City, NY, Residence Place Buffalo, Erie, New York, Registration Date 14 Feb 1942, Registration Place Buffalo, New York, USA
    Employer Neissener Bros. Rochester, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For New York State, 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 ↩
  7. Alvin Rothschild, Social Security Number 221-07-6663, Birth Date 2 Sep 1903
    Issue year Before 1951, Issue State Delaware, Last Residence 60062, Northbrook, Cook, Illinois, USA, Last Benefit 60062, Northbrook, Cook, Illinois, USA, Death Date Feb 1987, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩

Moses Rothschild, Part II: Is this his death certificate?

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I am still searching for some evidence of when my cousin Moses Rothschild died. As seen in my last blog post, he was alive in 1880 when the 1880 census was enumerated, but by 1900 his wife Mathilde/Matilda was listed as a widow on the 1900 census. By 1888 a Matilda Rothschild is listed as a widow in the New York City directories. But I couldn’t find any death records or FindAGrave listings that I could identify as referring to my relative Moses Rothschild.

After posting that last blog post, I was determined to keep looking after I received some suggestions from readers. I contacted Union Field Cemetery, the cemetery where one Moses Rothschild was buried according to FindAGrave, but that FindAGrave listing provided no birth or death dates so it was not useful. Unfortunately, the cemetery wasn’t able to help unless I had a date of death, which was, of course, what I was searching for.

I also posted on Tracing the Tribe, asking for help and suggestions. One commenter located a listing on FamilySearch.org for the death of a man named Moses Rothschild who died on April 11, 1885, in New York City. But it was only an index listing, and it only reported that that Moses Rothschild was 48 when he died in Manhattan, meaning he was born in about 1837, eleven years before my Moses Rothschild was born in 1848. The index listing also included the certificate number, so I decided to get a copy of the actual certificate to see if there were more details to be revealed.

I wrote to Susan Glenn, whose wonderful research services I’ve used before and who has always been prompt and helpful, and she located this death certificate based on the information on FamilySearch:

What information can I learn from the image of the actual death certificate that might help me learn if this is my relative? Not much. The father’s name is “unknown.” The birthplace is Germany, but nothing more specific. It says that he was 48 when he died so born in 1837 and that he had been in the United States for 20 years—so since about 1865.  He died in the NYC asylum on Ward Island from general paresis, meaning probably syphilis. He was married and a salesman and had resided at 205 East 107th Street before being admitted to the asylum. And he was buried in Union Field Cemetery. I assume that this is the Moses Rothschild who is listed in that FindAGrave listing mentioned above.

Unfortunately, none of this is very helpful. My Moses was born in 1848 so he would have been 37 in 1885, not 48. None of the NYC directories between 1880 and 1890 have a Moses Rothschild living at 205 East 107th Street, so the address doesn’t help nor does the occupation.

But my Moses may have come to the US in about 1865, so would have been in the US twenty years in 1885. That is the only fact that lines up with what I know about my cousin Moses Rothschild.

Because of the discrepancy in the age, I am not comfortable assuming that this is my Moses Rothschild. But maybe it is. If it is, why would the age be so far off? Who would have provided that information?

If the family of the my Moses Rothschild provided the information about his age and his time in the US, they presumably would have known he wasn’t 48 in 1885. Maybe the family didn’t provide the information and the hospital estimated his age? Could the person filling out the certificate have thought 48 was the age instead of the year of birth? Maybe??

How would the hospital have known he’d been in the US for 20 years and was born in Germany unless he or his family told them? If the deceased himself gave that information, wouldn’t he have known his parents’ names? Something just doesn’t add up.

I contacted Union Field Cemetery again now that I had a date of death, and they do have a Moses Rothschild buried there who died on April 11, 1885, but all they told me is the location of his grave. Unfortunately, that tells me nothing about the identity of the man buried there. I then asked if they had any paperwork or whether it was possible to get a photo of the headstone, but was told, “Unfortunately, we do not provide that particular service at the cemetery and I have provided you with all the information I have for Moses Rothschild.”

I’ve now submitted a request for a photograph of the headstone on FindAGrave. Unless there is a Hebrew name on the stone with his father’s name, I don’t think there is any way to determine whether the Moses Rothschild buried there and on the death certificate is my relative. And even that may not be determinative.

 

Moses Rothschild, Part I: When Did He Die?

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This summer’s posts up to now have all been devoted to the John Nusbaum photo album, but now it’s time to return to the Blumenfelds and my more traditional genealogy work. When last I wrote about the Blumenfelds back on May 29, 2024, I wrote about Levi Rothschild, the third child of Gelle Blumenfeld Rothschild. To refresh everyone’s recollection (including my own), Gelle was the third child and only daughter of Moses Blumenfeld. And Moses was the older brother of my three-times great-grandmother Breine Blumenfeld Katzenstein. Here’s a chart showing where I am in my research of the Blumenfeld family

But now it’s time to turn to Gelle Blumenfeld Rothschild’s next child, Moses Rothschild, and he has a far different story from those of his other siblings. Unlike his two older brothers Seligmann and Levi, he left Germany as a teenager and came to the United States.

Moses was born on August 30, 1848, in Zimmersrode, Germany. He immigrated to the United States as a young man, but I cannot be certain exactly when because there are two ship manifests for men named Moses Rothschild and both could be the one I am looking for. One manifest has a Moses Rothschild arriving in New York at age fifteen in 1865, meaning he was born in 1850.1  Another Moses Rothschild arrived on July 31, 1868, at twenty-five, meaning he was born in 1843.2 Neither of those two Moses Rothschilds was born in 1848, assuming their ages were accurately reported, but both are pretty close.

I could only find one man named Moses Rothschild living in New York on the 1870 census, and he was 22, so born in 1848 in Germany like “my” Moses Rothschild. He was living on the Lower East Side; unfortunately the census does not provide any occupational information.3 But it seems likely that this was the right Moses Rothschild.

On December 8, 1872, in New York City, Moses Rothschild married Mathilde Seligmann, the daughter of Ludwig Seligmann and Therese Rosenthal.4  Her death record says that she was born on February 19, 1849, in Germany,5, but I have no birth record to back that up. Based on various records including census records and records for her siblings, I believe she was born in Darmstadt, Germany, but I am not certain because some trees claim she was born in Mainz, Germany, and emigrated from there. I have yet to resolve that conflicting information. 

Moses and Mathilde had six children. Their first was Samuel Seligmann Rothschild, born July 21, 1873, in New York, New York.6 Second born was Rudolph Rothschild, born in New York on March 17, 1875.7 The third son was Albert Rothschild, born January 2, 1876, in New York.8 Finally, a daughter was born on August 22, 1878, in New York.9 She is identified as Theresa (presumably for Mathilde’s mother) on almost all records, but on the 1880 census, she is listed as Betsy. I assume that was a mistake on the part of the census enumerator. On February 10, 1880, Moses and Mathilde’s fifth child was born; her name was Grethe, but she was later known as Gertrude.10

In 1880, the family was living at 322 East Third Street on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. In addition to Moses and Mathilde and their five children, two of Mathilde’s brothers, August and Carl were living with the family as well as a servant. Moses was working as a butter dealer, and his brother-in-law August was working as a grocer.

Moses Rothschild 1880 US census, Year: 1880; Census Place: New York City, New York, New York; Roll: 881; Page: 20c; Enumeration District: 307, Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census

One more child was born to Moses and Mathilde after the 1880 census—their son Aron. He was born on August 17, 1881, in New York.11 If the transcribed birth information on Ancestry is correct, it appears that the family had moved from lower Manhattan to 344 East 78th Street uptown when Aron was born.

Trying to find Moses in the New York City directories during the 1880s was tricky because there were multiple men with that same name. For example, in 1880, the year Moses is listed as living at 322 East Third Street in Manhattan in the 1880 census record, there were three men named Moses Rothschild in the NYC directory, none of whom were living at that address: one was an agent living at 340 East 77th Street, closest to where Aron would be born in 1881, one was a milliner living at 622 Fifth Avenue, and one was a “pedlar” living at 284 Third Avenue, almost two miles from 322 East Third Street where the family was in 1880.

There is no 1881 NYC directory, but in 1882 there were now only two men named Moses Rothschild, both “pedlars,” and one was still living at 284 Third Avenue uptown, the other at 25 Rutgers Street all the way downtown.12 The 1883 directory has two men named Moses Rothschild, one an agent, the other a meat dealer at 281 Second Avenue.13 I don’t know if one of those is my Moses.

The 1884 NYC directory is even more confusing. Now there are FOUR men named Moses Rothschild: two meat dealers, one grocer, and one insurance agent.14 I have no way of knowing if any of them were my Moses. And this continues. In 1886 there are three Moses Rothschilds, a driver, an insurance agent, and a meat dealer at 284 Second Avenue.15

I would have thought that my Moses was most likely the meat dealer, who was at 284 Second Avenue. But in the 1888 directory, there is a Matilda Rothschild, listed as the widow of Moses, living at 163 East 104th Street, and there are still three other listings for Moses Rothschilds: the insurance agent, a clerk, and the meat dealer at 284 Second Avenue.16 So either 1) the directory listed my Moses after he was dead or 2) Moses the meat dealer was not my Moses or 3) there were two men named Moses Rothschild married to women named Matilda/Mathilde. Later directories include listings for Matilda, widow of Moses, at various addresses.

The 1900 census does show Mathilde is listed as a widow and Moses is missing from the family, but the children are there, meaning this is the right Rothschild family. They were now living at 49 West 114th Street.

Matilda Rothschild 1900 US census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Manhattan, New York, New York; Roll: 1154; Page: 9; Enumeration District: 0841, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

So Moses does seem to have died sometime between 1886 and 1900. But I have not located a death record for Moses. I have searched The New York City Municipal Archives as well as Ancestry and FamilySearch, but with no luck. There is a FindAGrave listing for a Moses Rothschild at Union Field Cemetery in Queens,17 but it has no gravestone photograph nor any dates for birth or death, so I do not know whether that is for my Moses Rothschild, and even if I did, it provides no useful information. It does appear that Mathilde’s brother August was buried at the same cemetery in 1916, however, so perhaps that is a useful bit of circumstantial evidence.18

Because I couldn’t find a death record for Moses, I began to wonder whether Mathilde was not really a widow, but a woman whose husband had abandoned or divorced her. There is, however, other circumstantial evidence suggesting that Moses had died by 1898 and had not divorced or abandoned Mathilde: the names of his grandchildren.

Moses’ third son Albert was the first to marry. On May 4, 1895, he married Rosie Katz, for whom I have little background information except that she was born in Germany in 1875.19Their first daughter, Rachel, was born in New York in March 1896, but more to the point of this post, Albert and Rose named their second child and first son Milton, born on September 26, 1898.20

Moses’ next child to marry was his second oldest child Rudolph. He married Rebecca Schlossberg on April 17, 1898, in New York. Rebecca was born in North Carolina in about 1877 to Max Schlossberg and Fanny Otterbourg.21 Rudolph and Rebecca’s first child was named Mortimer Maxwell Rothschild; he was born on October 28, 1899, in New York.22

Samuel, Moses’ first-born, married Sallye Livingston on September 4, 1898, in Chicago, Illinois.23 Sallye was the daughter of Aaron and Magdalena Livingston, and she was born in Missouri on October 14, 1868.24 Sallye and Samuel’s first son was named Milton Samuel Rothschild. He was born on March 5, 1906.25

Do you see a pattern here? The oldest son of all three of Moses’ oldest three children had names that began with an M. In fact, as we will see, the three younger children of Moses and Mathilde also named their oldest sons with names that start with M. So I am inferring from this that Moses had died before that first M grandson was born on September 26, 1898, and probably died before 1888 when Mathilde is listed as a widow in the NYC directory.

But why is there no death record for Moses? If anyone has any suggestions for where to find it, please let me know.

I will be back with more on the family of Moses Rothschild in September. My children are all arriving today and so I will be focusing on them until Labor Day!

  1. Moses Rothschild, ship manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897; Microfilm Serial or NAID: M237; RG Title: Records of the U.S. Customs Service; RG: 36, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  2. Moses Rothschild, ship manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897; Microfilm Serial or NAID: M237; RG Title: Records of the U.S. Customs Service; RG: 36, Description Ship or Roll Number: Ariel, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  3. Moses Rothschild, 1870 US census, Year: 1870; Census Place: New York Ward 11 District 23 (2nd Enum), New York, New York; Roll: M593_1028; Page:  787B, Description Township: New York Ward 11 District 23 (2nd Enum), Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census ↩
  4. “New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2CN-VN8G : Fri Mar 08 21:51:45 UTC 2024), Entry for Moses Rothschild and Matilda Seligmann, 8 December 1872. ↩
  5. Mathilda Rothschild, [Mathilda Selizmann], Gender Female, Race White
    Marital Status Widowed, Age 82, Birth Date 19 Feb 1849, Birth Place Germany
    Years in US 63 Years, Death Date 7 Nov 1931, Death Street Address 2033 Morris Ave
    Death Place New York City, Bronx, New York, USA, Cause of Death Chronic Myocarditis and Nephritis, Arterial Hypertension, Burial Date 9 Nov 1931
    Burial Place Mount Carmel Cemetery, Occupation House Wife, Father’s Birth Place Germany, Mother’s Birth Place Germany, Father Louis Selizmann, Mother Theresa Selizmann, Executor Sam Rothschild, Executor Relationship Son, Certificate Number 9230, New York City Department of Records & Information Services; New York City, New York; New York City Death Certificates; Borough: Bronx; Year: 1931, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Index to Death Certificates, 1862-1948 ↩
  6. Samuel Rothschild birth record, “New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:27BV-JW5 : 11 February 2018), Samuel Rothschild, 21 Jul 1873; citing Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, reference cn 114503 New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,322,065. ↩
  7. Rudolph Rothschild birth record, New York City Department of Records & Information Services; New York City, New York; New York City Birth Certificates; Borough: Manhattan; Year: 1875, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Index to Birth Certificates, 1866-1909; Rudolph Rothschild, Birth Date 17 Mar 1875, Birth Place New York, Claim Date 3 Apr 1940, SSN 111071339, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  8. Albert Rothschild birth record, Gender Male, Race White, Birth Date 2 Jan 1876
    Birth Place Manhattan, New York City, New York, New York, USA, Residence Address 7th Street 256, Certificate Number 198376, Father Moses Rothchild, Mother Mathilda Rathchild, Mother Maiden Name Seligman, New York City Department of Records & Information Services; New York City, New York; New York City Birth Certificates; Borough: Manhattan; Year: 1876, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Index to Birth Certificates, 1866-1909 ↩
  9. Theresa Rothschild birth record, Teresa Rothschild, Gender Female, Race White
    Birth Date 22 Aug 1878, Birth Place Manhattan, New York City, New York, New York, USA, Residence Address 7 Street 244, Certificate Number 239687, Father Moses Rothschild, Mother Matilda Deligman Rothschild, Mother Maiden Name Seligman, New York City Department of Records & Information Services; New York City, New York; New York City Birth Certificates; Borough: Manhattan; Year: 1878, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Index to Birth Certificates, 1866-1909 ↩
  10. Grethe Rothschild birth record, Grethe Rothschild, Gender Female, Race White
    Birth Date 10 Feb 1880, Birth Place Manhattan, New York City, New York, New York, USA, Residence Address E. 5 Street 622, Certificate Number 277695, Father Moses Rothschild, Mother Matilda Seligman Rothschild, Mother Maiden Name Seligman, New York City Department of Records & Information Services; New York City, New York; New York City Birth Certificates; Borough: Manhattan; Year: 1880, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Index to Birth Certificates, 1866-1909 ↩
  11. Aron Rothchild, Gender Male, Race White, Birth Date 17 Aug 1881, Birth Place Manhattan, New York City, New York, New York, USA, Residence Address E. 78th St. New York 344, Certificate Number 318749, Father Moses Rothchild, Mother Matilda Rothchild, Mother Maiden Name Seligmann, New York City Department of Records & Information Services; New York City, New York; New York City Birth Certificates; Borough: Manhattan; Year: 1881, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Index to Birth Certificates, 1866-1909 ↩
  12.  New York, New York, City Directory, 1882, Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995, p. 1385. ↩
  13.  New York, New York, City Directory, 1883, Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  14.  New York, New York, City Directory, 1884, Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995, p. 1523. ↩
  15.  New York, New York, City Directory, 1886, Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995, p. 868. ↩
  16.  New York, New York, City Directory, 1888, Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995, p. 1706. ↩
  17. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/131249188/moses-rothschild: accessed August 17, 2024), memorial page for Moses Rothschild (unknown–unknown), Find a Grave Memorial ID 131249188, citing Union Field Cemetery, Ridgewood, Queens County, New York, USA; Maintained by Athanatos (contributor 46907585). ↩
  18. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/127067956/august-seligmann: accessed August 17, 2024), memorial page for August Seligmann (unknown–1916), Find a Grave Memorial ID 127067956, citing Union Field Cemetery, Ridgewood, Queens County, New York, USA; Maintained by Athanatos (contributor 46907585). As we will see in later posts, Mathilde and several of their children are buried elsewhere. ↩
  19. Albert Rothschild and Rosie Katz marriage record, “New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2CN-Q2R3 : Sun Mar 10 19:42:31 UTC 2024), Entry for Albert Rothschild and Rosie Katz, 4 May 1895. ↩
  20. Milton Rothschild birth record, Milton Rothschild, Gender Male, Race White
    Birth Date 26 Sep 1898, Birth Place Manhattan, New York City, New York, New York, USA, Residence Address Third Avenue 2068, Certificate Number 40264, Father
    Albert Rothschild, Mother Rosie Rothschild Mother Maiden Name Katz, New York City Department of Records & Information Services; New York City, New York; New York City Birth Certificates; Borough: Manhattan; Year: 1898, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Index to Birth Certificates, 1866-1909 ↩
  21. Rudolph Rothschild and Rebecca Schlossberg marriage record, “New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24ZZ-QWH : Tue Feb 20 21:40:11 UTC 2024), Entry for Rudolph Rothschild and Rebecca Schlossberg, 17 Apr 1898. ↩
  22. Mortimer Rothschild, World War I draft registration, Mortimer Maxwell Rothschild
    Birth Date 28 Oct 1899, Residence Date 1917-1918, Street Address 645 W 160st St
    Residence Place Manhattan, New York, USA, Draft Board 147, Relative Rudolph Rothschild, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 ↩
  23. Samuel Rothschild and Sallye Livingston marriage record, Samuel S. Rothschild
    Age 25, Gender Male, Birth Year abt 1873, Marriage Type Marriage, Marriage Date 4 Sep 1898, Marriage Place Chicago, Cook, Illinois, Spouse Name Sallie Livingston
    Spouse Age 24, Spouse Gender Female, FHL Film Number 1030288, Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, U.S., Marriages Index, 1871-1920 ↩
  24. Sallye Rothschild death record, Sallye Rothschild, [Sallye Livingston], Gender Female, Race White, Marital Status Married, Age 77, Birth Date 14 Oct 1868, Birth Place Missouri, Clarkville, Residence Street Address 1900 Grand Concourse
    Residence Place New, Death Date 14 Nov 1945, Death Street Address 1900 Grand Concourse, Death Place New York City, Bronx, New York, USA, Cause of Death Adenocarcinoma of Ascending Colon, With Metastasis, Burial Date 16 Nov 1945
    Burial Place MT Carmel Cemetery, Occupation Housewife, Father’s Birth Place Germany, Mother’s Birth Place Germany, Father Aaron Livingston, Mother Magdeline Livingston, Spouse Samuel Informant Thomas Rothschild, Informant Gender Male
    Informant Relationship Husband Executor Samuel Rothschild Executor Relationship Husband, Certificate Number 10938, New York City Department of Records & Information Services; New York City, New York; New York City Death Certificates; Borough: Bronx; Year: 1945, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Index to Death Certificates, 1862-1948 ↩
  25. Milton Rothschild birth record, Milton Rothschild, Birth Date 5 Mar 1906
    Birth Place Manhattan, New York, USA, Certificate Number 28041, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Extracted Birth Index, 1878-1909 ↩

Jacob’s Bible: Lost and Found

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I continue to be amazed by the people who find my blog and contact me—whether it’s because they are related to someone I wrote about (and thus to me) or because they knew someone I wrote about or because, as in this case, they have found some artifact that relates to someone I wrote about. That is how Martin Gonzalez found me and told me about Jacob Cohen’s bible.

Back in early January 2024, Martin wrote to ask me if I was related to Jacob and Ida Cohen. When I asked him why, he told me that he owned a bible that had their names in it. He sent me a few images of the bible that showed Jacob and Ida’s names.

I did a search of my family tree and realized that the Jacob Cohen who had married Ida Siegel was my second cousin, twice removed, the great-grandson of my three-times great-grandfather, Hart Levy Cohen, and my grandfather John Nusbaum Cohen’s second cousin. You can read what I’ve already written about Jacob and Ida and their family (and find sources) in my earlier posts here and here. I will only include an outline of their lives here.

Jacob was born on March 9, 1870, in Washington, DC, to Moses Cohen and Henrietta Loeb. As a young man, Jacob moved to New York City, where he first worked as a bookkeeper. He married Ida Siegel in 1894, and they had two children: Aimee, born in 1895, and Gerson, born in 1900. You can see those births mentioned on this page from the bible:

One of the images Martin shared from the bible showed that Ida had given Jacob the bible as a gift on this 38th birthday on March 9, 1908.

So I wrote back to Martin and told him that I was in fact related to Jacob Cohen and asked him how he had ended up with Jacob’s bible. He told me the following story:

Back in 1977, when I was 16 years old and in high school, I worked as a stock boy at Nadeen’s Department Store in the Bronx (NY).  One of my responsibilities was to sweep the floors. One day I came across a dirty old box under one of the clothing racks. I asked my store supervisor (Nathaniel, a devout Christian) about the box and he showed me its contents.

Two things I remembered seeing in the box vividly was a beautiful vintage radio, the kind that operated from glass tubes and an old, dusty Bible. As we spoke, he realized I had never read the Bible. So, he gave it to me as a gift. Nat told me it was previously given to him by our store manager at the time, Jack Katz.

In 1979, I graduated high school and joined the Marine Corps. The Bible stayed at my parents’ apartment while I toured.

After the service, a few years later, I came back home, and the book has been with me ever since. The Bible is in the plastic linen bag my wife came across to protect it and it fits perfectly!

Martin then sent me more images from the bible, including this one with some unfamiliar names.

I set off to try and identify those people and realized that many of them were not in fact blood relatives of Jacob or Ida. But to understand how those names ended up in the bible, you need a little more background about Jacob, Ida, and their children. Again, except where noted, this information and my sources are from the earlier blog posts linked to above.

On February 12, 1917, Jacob and Ida’s daughter Aimee married Lester Wronker.  Aimee and Lester had a son, Robert, who was born in April, 1919.  In 1920, they were living in Manhattan.

In 1925 Jacob and Ida were living in Manhattan, and Jacob was working as an insurance agent.  Their daughter Aimee and her husband Lester and their son Robert were now living in Yonkers. Sometime thereafter, Jacob changed his surname from Cohen to Cole. His son Gerson also changed his name to Gary Cole and was living in 1930 in Detroit as a credit manager for a furniture business.

Jacob died on February 13, 1930.

In 1940, Jacob’s widow Ida was living with Aimee and Lester Wronker in Yonkers. Their son Robert Wronker graduated from Princeton University in 1940. Tragically, Robert died on August 20, 1956, after a long illness.  He was only 37 years old. He had never married or had children. Meanwhile, in Detroit, Jacob’s son Gary Cole had married Wanda Budzinsky in 1941, and they had two sons.

Ida Siegel Cohen/Cole died in 1949. Sadly, neither of her children outlived her by very long. Gary Cole died in 1955 at 55; his sister Aimee Cohen Wronker died in 1959 at 64. Thus, with Aimee’s death, the only direct descendants of Jacob G. Cohen and Ida Siegel who were still living were their two grandsons through their son Gary, and they were just teenagers and living in Detroit.

So what happened to Jacob’s bible after Aimee died in 1959 and Gary, Ida, and Jacob were already deceased? It appears that it was in the hands of Lester Wronker, Aimee’s widower, Jacob’s son-in-law.

Lester remarried in 1961, two years after Aimee’s 1959 death. His second wife was Claudia Langfeld Bamberg,1 a widow herself with one son, Abbot Strouse Bamberg, and two granddaughters, Abbot’s daughters Judith and Carol.2

You can see that someone—Claudia probably—added information about Claudia, her son Abbot, and her two granddaughters Judith and Carol to Jacob’s bible. Notice how the handwriting and the ink is noticeably different from the earlier entries made by Jacob or Ida or Aimee.

So how did the bible end up at Nadeen’s in 1977 where Martin discovered it? No one knows for sure. But after Lester Wronker died in 1976, it appears that Claudia and her son and granddaughters must have gotten rid of the bible, and somehow it ended up in a dirty old box in Nadeen’s women’s clothing store in the Bronx, where Martin Gonzalez discovered it in 1977 and kept it safe for close to fifty years.

Martin contacted me because he wanted to be sure that the bible did not someday once again end up in a dirty box in the backroom of some store or in a landfill. He offered it to me, but I suggested that it would be better to donate it to a library, museum, or archive where it would be kept safe in perpetuity. Martin liked that suggestion and has now sent it to the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York.

Today we hear so much about the ugliness in the world—the hatred, the anger, the polarization. But we also need to remember that there are also wonderful, loving, and generous people in the world who only want to do the right thing. Martin Gonzalez is one of those people. He easily could have done nothing, and Jacob’s bible might once again have been lost. But he took the time to search for someone who might help him preserve it, and fortunately he found my blog. Thank you, Martin, for restoring my faith in people and reminding me to believe that good can prevail over evil and love can prevail over hate. You have done an amazing mitzvah by taking such good care of Jacob’s bible.

 

  1. Lester Wronker, Gender Male, Marriage Date 6 Sep 1961, Marriage Place New Rochelle, New York, USA, Certificate Number 40700, Records Sharing Certificate Number (Name), Lester Wronker, Claudi L Bamberg, Claudi L Langfeld, New York State Department of Health; Albany, NY, USA; New York State Marriage Index, Ancestry.com. New York State, Marriage Index, 1881-1967 ↩
  2. See “Abbot Bamberg, Former New Rochelle Resident,” The Daily Times (Mamaroneck, NY), May 23, 1990, p. 4. ↩

Isaak Blumenfeld’s First Born, Abraham Blumenfeld III, and His Nine Children

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By 1861 when their last and ill-fated daughter Sara was born, Isaak and Gelle (Straus) Blumenfeld had nine children plus Isaak’s son Abraham III, who was born to his first wife Frommet Kugelmann who died shortly after giving birth. Because there are so many children and because some of them had many children, I’ve decided that rather than go decade by decade as I often do, I will need to examine each of the eight children who survived to adulthood separately, starting with the first-born child of Isaak, his son Abraham III.

As we saw, Abraham III was born on March 13, 1842, and his mother died five days later. Isaak did not remarry for ten months, so I don’t know who helped him care for the newborn baby. Isaak’s mother Gidel died a year after the baby’s birth, so perhaps she helped through that first year. Or maybe Frommet’s family helped. I don’t know, but somehow little Abraham survived.

On December 16, 1868, Abraham III married Friedericke Rothschild, the daughter of Abraham Rothschild and Gelle Baum, born in Angerod, Germany, on December 18, 1845.1

Marriage record of Abraham Blumenfeld III and Friedericke Rothschild, Arcinsys Archives Hessen, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 628, p. 12

Abraham III and Friedericke had nine children (you can see why I had to break this family down a bit!).

Dina Blumenfeld was born on February 1, 1871, in Momberg, Germany.

Dina Blumenfeld birth record, LAGIS Hessen Archive, Geburtsregister der Juden von Momberg (Neustadt) 1850-1874 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 608), p. 7

Her sister Auguste came next on June 13, 1873, in Momberg.

Auguste Blumenfeld birth record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, Geburtsregister der Juden von Momberg (Neustadt) 1850-1874 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 608), p. 7

Then came Katincka, born February 5, 1875.

Katincka Blumenfeld birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 6458, Year Range: 1875, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Nanny was the fourth child, born January 3, 1878.

Nanny Blumenfeld birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 6461, Year Range: 1878, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

After four daughters, Abraham III and Friedericke had two sons. Hermann was born on April 17, 1880. Since he is the youngest of the three Hermann Blumenfeld’s on the tree, I will refer to him as Hermann Blumenfeld III.

Hermann Blumenfeld birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 6463, Year Range: 1880, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

And his brother Hugo was born August 30, 1882.

Hugo Blumenfeld birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 6465, Year Range: 1882, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Bertha came next. She was born on May 4, 1885.

Bertha Blumenfeld birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 6468, Year Range: 1885, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

The eighth child was another boy and yet another Moses Blumenfeld to add to the family tree. He was born on September 28, 1887, and was known as Moritz, as were three other men on the family tree (not to mention all the men named Moses Blumenfeld). I will refer to this cousin as Moritz Blumenfeld IV because he was youngest of the four cousins who used that name.

Moses (Moritz) Blumenfeld birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 6470, Year Range: 1887, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Finally, Abraham III and Friedericke’s ninth and final child arrived on November 7, 1892. Her name was Emma.

Emma Blumenfeld birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 6475, Year Range: 1892, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Thus, Friedericke was pregnant and giving birth from 1871 until 1892. She was 47 when she gave birth to her last child Emma in 1892. I cannot begin to imagine it. Her first grandchild was born just three years after the birth of Emma, so Emma was an aunt at three.

More on the next generation in the posts to come.

 

  1. Friedericke’s birth date and place were found here. ↩

Isaak Blumenfeld’s Ten Children, Or How I Found Myself Overwhelmed With Repeating Names!

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I am slowly working through the research of my Blumenfeld relatives, a branch of the tree that sometimes seems overwhelming. I have completed the blogging (for now) about only the first branch of the first sibling of my 3x-great-grandmother Breine Blumenfeld Katzenstein, that is, the oldest child (Abraham IIA) of the oldest brother of Breine, Moses Blumenfeld I. I will now turn to the second child of Moses Blumenfeld I, his son Isaak.

There are two different dates recorded for Isaak’s birth. First, on a family register compiled for the Neustadt region which includes Momberg where he was born, his birth is given as December 13, 1814.

Family register for Moses Blumenfeld, Arcinsys Archives Hessen, HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 631, S. 18

On the other hand, his death record filed many years later says he was born on December 18, 1813.1

Which is right? I don’t know. But given the general principle that the record created closest in time to the event is presumed to be more reliable, I will assume that Isaak was born on December 13, 1814.

Isaak was a butcher, like his father and his brother Abraham IIA. He married Frommet Kugelmann on August 27, 1841, in Neustadt. Frommet was the daughter of Hiskias (Hezekiah) Kugelmann and Knendel Andorn, and she was born in about 1821 in Wohrda. I have no actual birth record, but her marriage record reports that she was 20 when she married Isaak.2

Marriage of Isaak Blumenfeld and Frommet Kugelmann, Arcinsys Archives Hessen, HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 629, S. 6

Sadly, Frommet died on March 18, 1842, just five days after giving birth on March 13, 1842, to her first and only child, Abraham Blumenfeld, named presumably for his great-grandfather Abraham Katz Blumenfeld, the patriarch of this line in my tree and my four-times great-grandfather. According to her death record, Frommet was nineteen when she died, meaning either her marriage record or her death record is incorrect.

Frommet Kugelmann Blumenfeld death record, Arcinsys Archives Hessen, HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 630, S. 8

I will refer to her son as Abraham III to distinguish him from his great-grandfather and from his uncle, Abraham Blumenfeld IIA, Isaak’s brother, as well as the other four Abraham Blumenfelds on my tree.

Abraham Blumenfeld III birth record, Arcinsys Archives Hessen, HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 628, S. 12

Ten months after Frommet’s death, on January 10, 1843, Isaak married again. His second wife was Gelle Straus, sister of Giedel Straus, the wife of Isaak’s brother Abraham IIA. So two brothers were now married to two sisters. Gelle was born on November 6, 1819, in Amoeneburg, to Hahne Straus and Dusel Loewenstein.

Marriage of Isaak Blumenfeld and Gelle Straus, Arcinsys Archives Hessen, HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 629, S. 6

Gelle and Isaak had nine children together, meaning that Isaak had ten children altogether. Unfortunately, the first child born to Gelle and Isaak, an unnamed baby boy, did not survive. He was born and died on January 24, 1844, in Momberg.

Unnamed child, LAGIS Hessen Archives, Geburtsregister der Juden von Neustadt 1824-1884 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 628), p. 13

Just eleven months after losing that first baby, Gelle gave birth to her second baby, a girl named Giedel, born on December 16, 1844. I assume that Giedel was not named for her aunt, Gelle’s sister, but for one of the many other women with that name on the family tree.

Giedel Blumenfeld birth, LAGIS Archives, Geburtsregist Neustader der Juden vont 1824-1884 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 628)AutorHessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, WiesbadenErscheinungsjahr1824-1884, p. 14

And guess what they named their next child, a boy born on May 2, 1847, in Momberg? Moses! Yes, another Moses Blumenfeld, one of six on this tree. I will refer to this one as Moses Blumenfeld IIB to distinguish him from his first cousin Moses Blumenfeld IIA, son of Abraham Blumenfeld II.

Moses Blumenfeld birth record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, Geburtsregister der Juden von Neustadt 1824-1884 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 628)AutorHessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, WiesbadenErscheinungsjahr1824-1884, p. 16

Next born was another Dusschen Blumenfeld, not to be confused with her first cousin Dusschen Dora Blumenfeld, daughter of Abraham Blumenfeld IIA. I was confused about these two Dusschens for some time. To keep them straight, I called Abraham’s daughter Dora; I will refer to this one as Dusschen. She was born on December 25, 1848.

Dusschen Blumenfeld birth record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, Geburtsregister der Juden von Neustadt 1824-1884 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 628), p. 16

Then came Meier Blumenfeld, born on March 5, 1851, in Momberg. Like his siblings Moses and Dusschen, he also shared his first name with a first cousin, Meier Blumenfeld IIA, son of his uncle Abraham IIA. I will refer to Isaak’s son as Meier Blumenfeld IIB.

Meier Blumenfeld birth record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, Geburtsregister der Juden von Momberg (Neustadt) 1850-1874 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 608), p. 3

Isaak and Gelle’s sixth child was named Gerson. He was born on April 29, 1853, in Momberg. You might think that unlike his older siblings, Gerson didn’t have to share a name with a first cousin since we haven’t yet talked about another Gerson Blumenfeld. But in fact, there was another Gerson Blumenfeld, the son of Meier Blumenfeld I, younger brother of Moses Blumenfeld. That Gerson Blumenfeld was born in 1834, and guess what? He would later marry Isaak’s daughter (and Gerson’s sister) Giedel! But I am getting ahead of myself. Isn’t this fun? Anyway, Isaak’s son Gerson will be referred to as Gerson II.

Gerson Blumenfeld birth record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, Geburtsregister der Juden von Momberg (Neustadt) 1850-1874 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 608)AutorHessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, WiesbadenErscheinungsjahr1850-1874, p. 4

The seventh child born to Isaak and Gelle was born on August 23, 1856, in Momberg. Her name was Rebecca, and she also shared her name with a first cousin, Rebecca Blumenfeld, the daughter of Abraham IIA. So I will refer to this Rebecca as Rebecca II.

Rebecca Blumenfeld birth record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, Geburtsregister der Juden von Momberg (Neustadt) 1850-1874 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 608), p. 4

Finally with their eighth child, Isaak and Gelle selected a name that was not shared by any of that child’s close relatives. Fradchen Friedericke Blumenfeld was born on November 2, 1858, in Momberg.

Fradchen Blumenfeld birth record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, Geburtsregister der Juden von Momberg (Neustadt) 1850-1874 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 608)AutorHessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, WiesbadenErscheinungsjahr1850-1874, p. 5

That brings me to the ninth and last child born to Gelle and Isaak, Sara, born on October 16, 1861, when Gelle was 42 years old. Unfortunately Sara died when she was only eight years old on July 11, 1870.

Sara Blumenfeld birth record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, Geburtsregister der Juden von Momberg (Neustadt) 1850-1874 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 608)AutorHessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, WiesbadenErscheinungsjahr1850-1874, p. 5

Sara Blumenfeld death record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, Sterberegister der Juden von Momberg (Neustadt) 1851-1873 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 609)AutorHessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, WiesbadenErscheinungsjahr1851-1873, p. 5

Thus, Isaak Blumenfeld had ten children, one with his first wife Frommet and nine with his second wife Gelle. Eight of those children lived to adulthood, and their stories will be told in the posts to come. Let’s hope I can keep them all straight from their identically named cousins!

 

  1. Isak Blumenfeld, Age: 79. Birth Date: 18. Dez 1813 (18 Dec 1813), Death Date: 2. Apr 1892 (2 Apr 1892), Death Place: Neustadt Hessen, Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany), Civil Registration Office: Neustadt (Hessen), Father: Moser Blumenfeld, Mother: Giedes Blumenfeld, Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 6559, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958 ↩
  2. To learn Frommet’s parents’ names other than from the information on the LAGIS cemetery website here, I looked at the birth records for Wohrda in the Arcinsys Archives, but they start in 1825 so too late to include Frommet. I found a birth record for one of her siblings, however, and asked on the GerSIG Facebook group for help in deciphering the script. Thanks to Bernhard Kukatzki for doing so and revealing the names of their parents. ↩

Don’t Believe Everything You Read on Public Records: An Update on Albert Kaufmann

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It’s always good to be reminded that “official records” are only as accurate as the person who creates them and the information that person was able to obtain.

Back in December 2021, I wrote about Albert Kaufmann, the son of Hedwig Blumenfeld Kaufmann. He was married first to Dorothy Schimmelfennig in Germany in 1928, but they divorced in 1932. Albert had immigrated to Brazil sometime after his divorce from Dorothy and married a woman named Georgina Correa, who was born in 1921 and almost twenty years younger than Albert. I assume they married sometime in the 1940s, but I have no record. Albert died in Brazil in 1986 at the age of 84.

I did not believe that Albert had had any children in part because I could find no birth records or any other record for a child and also because Albert’s death record reported that he had no children. Thus, I reported originally on my blog that Hedwig had no living descendants since her daughter Anna and her entire family had been killed in the Holocaust and because her son Albert had not had any children.

Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Registro Civil, 1829-2012,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6QQP-KV?cc=1582573&wc=9GYK-DPJ%3A113334201%2C120190503%2C122537201 : 7 January 2019), Rio de Janeiro 02ª Circunscrição Óbitos 1985, Nov-1987, Jan image 172 of 304; Corregedor Geral da Justicia (Inspector General of Justice Offices), Rio de Janeiro.

But it turns out that Albert’s death record was wrong. And I never would have known except for the good fortune that another Blumenfeld cousin, Gail Levy, found my blog. Gail is the granddaughter of Hedwig Blumenfeld Kaufmann’s brother, Ernst Blumenfeld. Thus, Gail’s father Paul Blumenfeld was Albert Kaufmann’s first cousin. Not only did Gail help me fill out Paul Blumenfeld’s branch of the family tree, she shared with me correspondence she’d had with another cousin, Paul St. George, who was, according to that correspondence, the grandson of Albert Kaufmann and Dorothy Schimmelfennig and thus Gail’s second cousin and my fifth cousin, once removed.

I contacted Paul, and he confirmed what he had told Gail—that his mother Inge Kaufmann was the daughter of Albert and Dorothy—and he shared with me Inge’s birth record from Berlin. She was born on November 23, 1928, nine months after her parents married on February 10, 1928.

Birth record of Inge Kaufmann. Courtesy of Paul St George

Transcribed birth record of Inge Kaufmann. Courtesy of Paul St George

Thus, the Brazil death record was wrong. Albert Kaufmann did have a child and does have living descendants, including my cousin Paul.

I asked Paul what he knew about his grandfather, but he had never met his grandfather and knew little about him. He only has one photograph of his grandfather, and he obtained it from Gail. It’s a 1980 photograph of Albert with his second wife Georgina or Gina with a New Year’s greeting on the reverse:

Albert and Gina Kaufmann. Courtesy of Paul St George

I also asked Paul about his grandmother Dorothy and his mother Inge. I knew from my research that Dorothy Schimmelfennig was born in England, married Albert Kaufmann in 1928, and died on March 31, 1938, in Berlin when she was a month shy of her thirtieth birthday. But I didn’t know the cause of her death. I had also wondered why she would have been in Berlin in 1938, given what was going on in Germany.

Paul told me that his grandmother Dorothy and his mother Inge went to England in 1933 and lived in London. But in 1938 Dorothy returned to Berlin, apparently just a few days before her untimely death on March 31, 1938.1 Paul told me that her death is listed as a suicide in the memorial book for victims of the Holocaust.  Also, the Arolsen Archives include a document that lists Dorothy’s cause of death as from poisoning (“Veronslvergiftug”).

AJDC Berlin Card File (Deportations) Subcollection 1.2.1, ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives.

In addition, Paul told me that Dorothy is listed as a forced suicide in a 2007 book by Anna Fischer, Erzwungener Freitod: Spuren und Zeugnisse in Den Freitod Getriebner Juden der Jahre 1938-1945 in Berlin (translation: Forced Suicide: Traces and Testimonies in The Suicides of Driven Jews of the Years 1938-1945 in Berlin) (2007: Berlin : Text Verlag Edition Berlin).  Yad Vashem lists Dorothy as both murdered and as a suicide. There do not appear to be any more details, but it seems entirely possible that Dorothy felt hopeless and helpless in the face of Nazi persecution and became too despondent to go on with life in a world filled with so much hatred and fear. But as Paul wrote, it remains a mystery.

But what happened to young Inge Kaufmann, just ten years old at the time of her mother’s death in 1938? She was still in England, and Paul shared what happened to her after her mother’s death:2

My mother was looked after in England by a Jewish Charity (Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBF)). Some Jewish people in England could see the problems in Germany as early as 1933. They petitioned the UK government for permission to bring Jews from Germany to England. The UK government agreed but with strict rules. The refugee had to be self-supporting, looked after to a certain standard, and so on.

So this is why my mother did not live with a relative. Many if not most of these refugees did not live with a relative in England. Reasons against included over-crowding, too poor, etc. But a relative (Charlotte Pick) was a sponsor. She paid money to the charity and the charity bought clothes, shoes, etc. for my mum. My mother would have been housed in a series of homes in the Hemel Hempstead area. By housed I mean she had a room and meals. Those who provided the children with a place to live were not there to look after the children they housed. The charity did that. Also, my mother would have attended a normal local authority school near to the digs. The charity (now called World Jewish Relief) sent me her case file and that lists the monies and the check-up visits and so on.

Inge later attended the well-known St. Martin’s School for the Arts where she studied fashion and developed friendships with several people who became well-known artists. Paul, a well-known artist himself, recalls visiting the grand homes of these artists as a child, describing them as “full of clutter and the smell of oil paint and cake.”3

After she graduated, Inge became a costume designer for the theater, where she met Paul’s father, an acrobatic tap dancer born George Alexander Bernard, who adopted his stage name Buster St. George as his legal name. He was born in Manchester, England, to Alexander Bernard and Doris Matz on January 16, 1913. Inge and Buster were married in 1953 and had two sons, Julian and Paul. Paul was born in Norway while the theater group which employed them was on tour for performances of Kiss Me Kate. Inge and Buster divorced in 1957. Inge Kaufmann St. George, my fifth cousin, died on November 9, 2000; she was 71. Buster St. George died on October 10, 1986.4

I am very grateful that I was able to connect with my cousin Paul (via our mutual cousin Gail) and to learn that Hedwig Blumenfeld Kaufmann’s son Albert did have a child, his daughter Inge, and that thus today Hedwig has living descendants, unlike what I believed before finding Gail and thus Paul. This experience was an important lesson in remembering that just because a record records a “fact” does not necessarily make it true.

 

  1. Email from Paul St George, January 13, 2022. ↩
  2. Email from Paul St George, January 7, 2022. ↩
  3. Email from Paul St. George, January 13, 2022. ↩
  4. Emails from Paul St George, January 7, 13, and 17, 2022. Buster St George
    Registration Date: Jul 1953, Registration Quarter: Jul-Aug-Sep, Registration District: Brighton, Inferred County: Sussex, Spouse: Inge Kaufmann, Volume Number: 5h
    Page Number: 280, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 5h; Page: 280,
    Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005. Paul St. George Ancestry Family Tree, located at https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/171856232/family/familyview?cfpid=122230313195&fpid=122231826460&usePUBJs=true&#160;↩

The Children of Falk Goldschmidt and Clara Babetta Carlebach

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Falk Goldschmidt and his wife Clara Babetta Carlebach had five children, all born in Frankfurt. First born was Meier Falk Goldschmidt, born on August 8, 1870.

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

Then came their daughter Helene born on September 26, 1871:

Helene Goldschmidt, birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 903_8849, Year Range: 1871, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Third born was Fanny on August 18, 1874.

Fanny Goldschmidt, birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 903_8858, Year Range: 1874, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Their fourth child was Hedwig; she was born on January 1, 1877.

Hedwig Goldschmidt, birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903; Laufende Nummer: 143, Year Range: 1877, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

And finally, their youngest child Julius Falk Goldschmidt was born November 27, 1882.

Julius Falk Goldschmidt, birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 903_8972, Year Range: 1882, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

That makes the fifth Meier/Meyer Goldschmidt, the fourth Helene Goldschmidt, the fifth Hedwig Goldschmidt, and the third Julius Goldschmidt on my tree. And that doesn’t even count all the Goldsmiths with those first names. No wonder Meier and Julius used their middle name Falk to identify themselves.

Meier Falk Goldschmidt, their oldest child, immigrated to New York in about 1888 to 1890. I could not find a ship manifest for his first arrival in the US, but those were the dates listed on the 1910 and 1920 census records for Meier.1 Also, on an 1895 ship manifest for his return to the US, he indicated that he was already by that time a US citizen.2 Unfortunately, I could not find naturalization documents for Meier to corroborate that assertion.

I also could not find Meier on the 1900 census. I asked for help from Tracing the Tribe, but no one there was able to find him on that census, nor could they find a ship manifest or naturalization record to establish his date of arrival. Meier just seems to be one of those elusive relatives who does not want to be found.

Fortunately, Meier does appear on both the 1910 and 1920 US census. In 1910 he was single, living in Queens as a boarder, and working as a ribbon salesman.3 In 1920, Meier was living in Manhattan, still single, still working as a ribbon salesman. Although he is listed here as Clair F. Goldschmidt, I am quite certain that this is Meier as all the other facts add up.4

Meier died two years later on February 22, 1922. He was 51 years old. He was buried in New York. As far as I can tell, he never married.5

Meanwhile, Meier’s four younger siblings were all still in Germany. His sister Helene married Bernhard Igersheimer on November 1, 1889. He was the son of Jonas Igersheimer and Sara Dreyfus and was born in Mergentheim, Germany, on April 18, 1856.

Helene Goldschmidt marriage to Bernard Igersheimer, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Signatur: 9481, Year Range: 1889
Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Helene and Bernard had two children. Fanny Flora Igersheimer was born in Frankfurt on October 6, 1890.

Fanny Flora Igersheimer birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 903_9076, Year Range: 1890, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Her brother Franz Jonas Igersheimer was born on March 20, 1895, in Frankfurt.

Franz Jonas Igersheimer birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 903_9151, Year Range: 1895, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Falk and Clara Babetta’s second daughter Fanny married Siegfried Loewenthal on January 6, 1893 in Frankfurt. Siegfried was born in Wiesbaden on March 27, 1864, to Meyer Loewenthal and Regine Kahn.

Fanny Goldschmidt and Siegfried Loewenthal marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903, Year Range: 1893,
Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Fanny and Siegfried had two sons. Julius Loewenthal was born on December 6, 1893, in Frankfurt.

Julius Loewenthal birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 903_9125, Year Range: 1893, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

And Edgar Loewenthal was born January 16, 1896.6 Sadly, Edgar died just over a year later on February 27, 1897.

Edgar Loewenthal death record, Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 10503, Year Range: 1897, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

The two youngest children of Falk and Clara Babetta I’ve already written about. Their daughter Hedwig married her first cousin Marcel Goldschmidt, son of Falk’s brother Jacob Meier Goldschmidt. They, as I wrote, had four children: Jacob, Nelly, Else, and Grete. Since writing about Hedwig and Marcel, I’ve connected with some of Grete’s descendants and will have an update on that part of the family in a post to follow.

And Falk and Clara Babetta’s youngest child, Julius Falk Goldschmidt, married his first cousin, once removed, Helene “Leni” Goldschmidt, the granddaughter of Jacob Meier Goldschmidt. I’ve also written extensively about them and their two sons, Felix and Herman.

The post to follow will focus on Falk and Clara Babetta and their two other daughters—Helene Goldschmidt Igersheimer and Fanny Goldschmidt Loewenthal—and their families during the 20th century.

 

 

  1. Meyer Goldsmith, 1910 US census, Year: 1910; Census Place: Queens Ward 5, Queens, New York; Roll: T624_1068; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 1248; FHL microfilm: 1375081, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census; Clair F. Goldschmidt, 1920 US census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Manhattan Assembly District 15, New York, New York; Roll: T625_1214; Page: 16B; Enumeration District: 1099, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  2. M.F. Goldschmidt, ship manifest, Year: 1895; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Line: 15; Page Number: 4, Ship or Roll Number: Fürst Bismarck, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  3. See note 1, above. ↩
  4. See note 1, above. ↩
  5. New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WLT-K79 : 10 February 2018), Meyer F. Goldschmidt, 22 Feb 1922; citing Death, Bronx, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 2,167,577. ↩
  6.  Edgar Löwenthal, Gender: männlich (Male), Birth Date: 16 Jan 1896, Birth Place: Frankfurt am Main, Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany), Civil Registration Office: Frankfurt am Main, Father: Siegfried Löwenthal, Mother: Fannÿ Löwenthal, Certificate Number: 288, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903; Laufende Nummer: 152, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901 ↩