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

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Amy

English: Liberty Bell (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As reported previously, in 1841 Hart Cohen and his wife Rachel were living with four of their children, Elizabeth, Moses, Jacob and John, on New Goulston Street in the Whitechapel section of London, presumably part of the Chut community and living fairly comfortably with the two older sons working as china dealers. There was also at least one other son, an older son Lewis, and possibly another younger son, Jonas, although I am now thinking that John was in fact Jonas, but more on that later. By 1860, only Moses (and John if there was in fact a son named John) was living in England; all the rest were in Philadelphia. I will try to trace in chronological order the major events and moves made by these family members.

In order to get a complete picture of the family and their lives in England, I will need to get copies of the vital records, including their birth certificates and marriage certificates. I am now trying to learn how to do that. I have received some extremely helpful tips and information from another of my favorite genealogy bloggers, Alex Cleverley of the blog Root to Tip. Alex is a very experienced English genealogist, and with the help she has given me, I will now order the records I need. Unfortunately it appears that there is no fast and easy access to these documents so for now I will have to rely on the 1851 census, a few other secondary sources, and later census reports and infer a number of facts from those documents. As I receive other documentation, I will report what I find.

I will start with Hart and Rachel’s son Jacob because he is my direct ancestor, my great-great grandfather, and thus the one I have the greatest interest in tracking. According to the 1841 census, Jacob was 15 that year, giving him a birth year of 1826.

Hart Cohen and family 1841 English census

This appears, however, to be inaccurate based on later census reports from the United States and from a passenger manifest, all of which indicate a birth year of 1824 or 1825. That would have made Jacob 16 or 17 in 1841.

This also seems more consistent with the fact that Jacob may have married his wife Rachel Jacobs (possibly a relative of his mother, whose birth name was also Jacobs) on October 24, 1844. Without an actual marriage certificate I cannot be completely sure, but I found a marriage record on SynagogueScribes for Jacob Cohen, son of Naphtali Hirts HaCohen, to Sarah Jacobs, at the Great Synagogue of London on that date. The Hebrew name is not identical to what I had earlier found for Hart, Jacob’s father, but it is very close. I know that Sarah’s maiden name was Jacobs based on the death certificates of two of their children, Isaac and Frances. Thus, I feel fairly confident that this is in fact their marriage record as transcribed by SynagogueScribes.

COHEN
Forenames	Jacob
Hebrew Name	Jacob

Event	Marriage
Date	1844 [29 Oct]
Occupation
Address

Father
Father’s Hebrew Name	Naphtali Hirts HaCohen
Mother’s Family Name
Mother’s Forename
Mother’s Hebrew Name

Spouse	JACOBS Sarah

Frances, or Fanny, was Jacob and Sarah’s first child, born around 1847, as inferred from later US census reports. Within a year of Fanny’s birth, Jacob and Sarah left London and moved to Philadelphia. On July 7, 1848, Jacob, Sarah and Fanny, an infant, arrived in New York aboard the ship New York Packing. Jacob’s age was given as 24, consistent with a birth year of 1824, and Sarah was 20, giving her a birth year of 1828. Jacob’s occupation was given as “General dealer,” as were many other men on the manifest.

Jacob and Sarah Cohen ship manifest 1848

Jacob was the first of Hart and Rachel’s children to leave London and move to the US. His siblings and eventually his father began arriving several years later. I found this interesting, given that Jacob was not the oldest son, but the fourth child and third son. Why did he go first? What drew him away from his family and to America with his young wife and baby? I also found it revealing about my direct line that both Hart and Jacob were the sons who left their families behind and moved to a foreign country. As far as I can tell, Hart arrived alone and without his family when he immigrated to England, just as his son Jacob did fifty years later when he left England and moved to the US. I can’t say I inherited this willingness to take risks and move far from home, having never lived more than four hours from where I was born, but I like the idea that my ancestors were such risk-takers and so independent.

I don’t know whether Jacob and his family stayed very long in New York after arrival, but by 1850, Jacob and Sarah were living in Philadelphia. It was not easy finding Jacob and Sarah on the 1850 US census. I tried searching for all Jacob Cohens, Sarah Cohens, Fanny Cohens, and variations on each name and wild card searches on each name, but came up empty for a family that fit my relatives. Then I decided to search just by first names for a Jacob with a wife named Sarah and a daughter Fanny and found them listed as “Coyle,” not “Cohen,” another instance of a mistaken name on a census report. I am quite certain that these are my relatives despite the Irish surname because all the other facts fit closely enough—names, ages, places of birth for Jacob, Sarah and Francis. Jacob’s occupation is described as “Dealer in 2d HG,” which I interpret to mean a dealer in second hand goods. The only inconsistency is that Francis is listed as male, not female, but later census reports correct that mistake and list her as female.

Jacob Cohen and family 1850 US census

By 1850, Jacob and Sarah had two additional children born in Pennsylvania. Joseph was two years old, so presumably born shortly after Jacob and Sarah had arrived in the US in 1848, meaning Sarah was pregnant when they left England. Isaac was six months old, so presumably born in January, 1850, since the 1850 census was dated July 25, 1850.

There were also two other men living in the household, both twenty years old: Mordecia (Mordecai?) Coyle (Cohen?) and Alexander Kelly. Unfortunately, the1850 census did not identify the relationship of each individual to the head of household as later census reports did, so I do not know who these two men were. Mordecai might very well have been a relative since he shared the same surname with the family. But how might he have been related? None of Jacob’s siblings were old enough to have had a twenty year old son, and Jacob did not have a younger brother named Mordecai. Also, the census indicates that Mordecai was born in Pennsylvania, meaning that his parents would have been in the US in 1830. Perhaps Hart had a brother who had emigrated from Holland or Amsterdam or England that early? Or was Mordecai not even related to Jacob? I have done some preliminary searching for other records for Mordecai, but so far have not had any success.

Thus, by 1850 my great-great grandfather was settled in Philadelphia, a young man with a young wife and three little children, working as a dealer in second hand goods. His parents and his siblings were all still back in London, but between 1850 and 1860, that would change, and Jacob’s family both in his household and in Philadelphia would expandd many times over.

My next post will describe what the rest of Hart’s family was doing between 1841 and 1860, by which time most of the Cohens had arrived in Philadelphia.

Hart Levy Cohen and A Very Brief History of Jews in London

Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose

Posted on April 10, 2014 by Amy

I have had some incredible luck following my hunches when ordering vital records about people who I think are my family members—finding Frieda Brotman’s death certificate and marriage certificates, for example, or finding Susie Mintz and Gustave Rosenzweig and Tillie Strolowitz and their relatives. But lest anyone think that all my hunches have worked out, I want to give you three recent examples where I just guessed wrong.

The first example involves Gussie Rosenzweig, Gustave’s wife. Recently I was able to obtain her death certificate and saw that her son Jack had listed her as a widow with a husband named Ben. I was very puzzled by this as Gussie had not been listed as living with any man in the most recent census reports before she died. Had she married sometime in the 1920s or 1930s and been widowed in between census reports? I did a search and found only one Gussie Rosenzweig who had married a man named Benjamin. I ordered that certificate, and this is what I received:

Clearly, this is not the right Gussie. This Gussie was only 27 in 1934, whereas our Gussie would have been in her 70s; this Gussie had different parents who had come from Hungary. So I still have no idea whether there ever was a Ben who married Gussie after she and Gustave split up. Strike one.

The next bad guess involved a search for the other children of Gussie and Gustave who did not survive infancy. I had seen on Rebecca’s birth certificate in 1893 that Gussie and Gustave had had five children, four living at Rebecca’s birth. Somehow I miscounted and thought there was a missing child, although now when I go back and re-read my blog post, it seems pretty obvious that I had found all four living children (Lillie, Sarah, Abraham, and Rebecca) and the one deceased child (David). But I thought I had found another—Samuel Rosenzweig—and sent for that death certificate. Not surprisingly, he was not the child of Gustave and Gussie, as you can see below. Strike two.

The last example of my bad hunches involved a man named Paskel Rosenzweig who came from Iasi in 1900. I thought that he might be another Rosenzweig sibling and decided to research his life in the US. I was able to determine that he had changed his name to Charles and ordered a death certificate, hoping it would show that he was the sibling of Gustave, Tillie, Ghitla and Zusi, but as you can see below, he was not. Strike three.

Perhaps he was a cousin, but it would require some further digging into Romanian documents to see if Charles’ father was related to my great-great grandfather David Rosenzweig. For now I will accept that my hunch is unproven, if not yet proven wrong.

There are other examples of times I made a bad guess. Fortunately for the most part these bad guesses are not costly, as the documents usually came for free from the Family History Library. But even so, every time I open a document, either electronically or in hard copy, my heart is beating, hoping it will provide an important clue or confirm a hunch. When it does not, it is very disappointing. Inevitable—what are the odds I will always find the right person?—but nevertheless, disappointing.

More Mysteries: Can you help with handwriting analysis?

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Amy

When I order a death certificate, I am hoping it will help me put some matters to rest (OK, pun intended), give me some closure, provide some answers. More often than not, however, these so-called vital records raise more ghosts and mysteries than answers.

Two cases in point: the death certificates of Gustave Rosenzweig and his first wife Gussie Rosenzweig, the parents of my grandfather’s first cousins Abraham, Jack, Joe, Lillie, Sarah, Rebecca, Lizzie, and Rachel, among others.

First, let’s look at Gustave’s death certificate. It confirms a number of things that make me certain that this is the right Gustave. He was born in Romania. At the time of his death, he was married to Selma and living at 49 Wadsworth Avenue in Manhattan. He died on October 16, 1944; his birth date is given as October 7, 1859, which is not exactly the date provided by his Romanian birth record of June 10, 1856, but close enough. He was a retired painter, which is consistent with his occupation both in Romania and in New York. The only clear mistake here is that although it has his father’s name correct (David), it has his mother’s name as Leah, instead of Esther. Again, I’ve seen worse mistakes on death certificates, so I am comfortable dismissing that error. Overall, this is a fairly reliable record of Gustave’s life and death.

Gustave Rosenzweig death certificate 1944

But here’s where it opens a new door and a mystery. Here’s where I need some help. At the bottom of the certificate is the signature of Gustave’s daughter as the informant, and I cannot read the last name. The first initial appears to be an L, meaning this could be either Lillie or Lizzie. But what is the surname? Dorsie? Dorne? Dorme? Dorsue? If I could decipher this, it might help me find either Lillie or Lizzie, both of whom I’ve had trouble tracking down. If anyone can help me read this writing, I’d much appreciate it. Remember you can click on the image below to enlarge it.

Now to Gussie Rosenzweig’s death certificate. Again, the information here makes me certain that this is the correct Gussie, the mother of my grandfather’s first cousins and Gustave’s first wife. Gussie was born in Romania to Isadore Sachs (Itzic Zacu) and Muriel Klein (Mirel), which is consistent with her birth record and marriage record from Romania. She was residing at 2112 Dean Street in Brooklyn at the time of her death on December 23, 1935. She was reported to be 75 years old at her death, giving her a birth year of 1860, close to the 1864 given on her Romanian birth record. It looks like Gussie must have died a fairly gruesome death, having been hospitalized since November 5, 1935, suffering from gangrene of her foot, caused by diabetes. Her son John hired the undertaker, as indicated on the reverse of the death certificate.

Gussie Rosenzweig Death certificate 1935

So what is the mystery here? Gussie is identified as widowed, and her husband’s name is…Benjamin? Who could Benjamin be? Had Gussie had remarried after she and Gustave divorced? (They are not living together on any census after 1910.) In 1915 the children were living with Gussie. (I have yet to find Gustave on the 1915 NYS census.)

Rosenzweigs 1915

The 1920 census is confusing; I have two pages for Gustave—one as a painter living in Manhattan as a boarder in East Harlem, one in Brooklyn with the Rosenzweig children. I have to believe that the Brooklyn Gustave is really Gussie, as she is listed as unemployed and divorced.

Gustave Rosenzweig in Manhattan 1920

Rosenzweigs 1920 census

The 1925 census shows her living with “Rose,” who I assume by the age (22) is Ray/Rachel. The NYS census does not indicate her marital status, but there is no Benjamin living with them.

Gussie Rosenzweig 1925 NYS census

The 1930 census has her again living with Ray, but lists her marital status as married. Again, there is no husband, no Benjamin living with her.

Gussie Rosenzweig 1930 census

I checked the NYC marriage index for any brides named Gussie Rosenzweig who married between 1915 and 1935 and found three. One did marry a man named Ben Rosenberg on January 27, 1935, less than a year before our Gussie died. Could she have gotten married at that point? If so, why wouldn’t she have changed her name to Rosenberg? Or did John, her son, not want her listed as divorced so he made up a husband who predeceased her? I will order the marriage certificate for Ben Rosenberg and Gussie Rosenzweig, but somehow I doubt that that is the same Gussie Rosenzweig. Stranger things have happened, of course.

And here’s the final mystery. Both Gustave and Gussie are buried at Mt Zion Cemetery, not in the same section, but nevertheless in the same cemetery. Neither Selma, Gustave’s widow at the time of his death, nor Benjamin, the alleged widower of Gussie at the time of her death, is buried there. Gustave and Gussie’s son Harry who died as a teenager in 1913 is buried there, however, so perhaps in death Harry brought his parents back together.

I’m Ba-a-a-ck! With an Update on Lillian Rosenzweig

Posted on March 23, 2014 by Amy

After a week away in the beautiful Florida Keys where we were able to put the miserable New England winter weather behind us and enjoy the outdoors, kayaking, swimming, walking, and seeing wildlife including dolphins and alligators, I am back in New England with the miserable winter temperatures outside, but happy knowing that spring is at least here on the calendar if not in the weather quite yet. It has to get above freezing soon, doesn’t it?

While I was away I received a number of documents, mostly confirming the hunches I’d had about Lillian and Rebecca Rosenzweig. Today I will focus on Lillian. About ten days ago I posted what I knew and thought I knew about Lillian. I believed that she had married Toscano Bartolini in July, 1901, had had a son William born in March, 1902, and then lost her husband in 1904. All of those facts are now confirmed by the marriage certificate, William’s birth certificate, and Toscano’s death certificate, all of which I received late last week.

First, as you can see from the marriage certificate, Lillian and Toscano were married by an alderman, not a rabbi, on July 6, 1901. This is clearly the right Lillian Rosenzweig, as her parents’ names are Gustav and Gussie nee Sagg. According to the certificate, Lillian was then eighteen years old, which would have made her birth date 1883—a year before her parents married. Lillian must have lied about her age in order to get married without parental consent. I have speculated elsewhere that she was likely born in 1885 since her parents were married in June, 1884. Also, Lillian’s address is given as 320 East 9^th Street—not in Brooklyn where her parents were living. She must have moved out before she married Toscano, who was living on Sullivan Street at that time. These inferences are consistent with the family story that Lillie’s marriage to someone who was not Jewish led to disapproval and perhaps some estrangement from her family.

Bartolini Rosenzweig marriage certificate

From William’s birth certificate, another inference seems possible. William was born on March 9, 1902, just eight months after Lillie and Toscano had married. Perhaps Lillie was already pregnant at the time of the wedding, although I am not sure she would have known that at the time since she would have been just one month pregnant. It is, of course, entirely possible that William was a month premature. William was born at home—177 Houston Street in NYC. Interestingly, Lillie’s age is now reported as seventeen—a year younger than she had reported on her marriage certificate a year earlier. If she was in fact seventeen in March, 1902, her birth year would have been 1885, as I suspected. It also means she was only sixteen when she married Toscano.

William Bartolini birth certificate

The other interesting fact gathered from this certificate is that Lillie had already had a child before William’s birth, but that that child was no longer living. When could she have had that child? Her marriage certificate reported that her marriage to Toscano was her first marriage. Had she had a child with him before they married? Had she had an out-of-wedlock child with someone else? Had that child really died or had she given that child up for adoption and simply reported it as if he had died? I have no idea and no idea how to try and figure that out. (It’s also sad that on the 1910 census when Lillie was back living with her parents, she is listed as single and having no children.)

The third document in this trilogy is Toscano’s death certificate. Toscano died on April 27, 1904, from chronic nephritis, kidney disease, at age 27. He’d been working as a bartender and died at 69 Carmine Street in NYC. He had only been in the US for five years, had been married for less than three years, and left behind his 19 year old wife and 2 year old son. I don’t know what causes chronic nephritis, although it looks like uremia is given as a contributing cause of death. But I’ve never heard of someone dying at age 27 from that today.

Toscano Bartolini death certificate

The rest of the story, as reported earlier, shows a family in disarray. Lillie and William moved back to Brooklyn and were living with Gustave and Gussie and the family in 1905, indicating at least a temporary reconnection. In 1906, however, William was living at the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphanage. Although it appeared that he was released back to his mother for some time, by 1910 William was living at St. John’s Home in Brooklyn and in 1915 at the NY Catholic Protectory. Lillian, who was living with her parents in 1910 without William, then disappears from the records.

I still have not found either William or Lillian after that. I don’t know what happened to either of them. Joseph’s grandchildren told me that at some point Lillie was back in touch with her siblings, but no one knows anything more specific than that. I will keep looking for some new clue, but for now I’ve hit the proverbial brick wall with Lillie and William Bartolini.

What I do know is an incredibly sad story of a young woman, emigrating with her family from Romania when she was only a young child, having two children before she was eighteen years old, losing one apparently to death and another to institutional care, losing a young husband after just a few years of marriage, and losing the support of her family as well for at least some period of time. It’s a story to contrast with the story of Leah Strolowitz Adler, the daughter of Tillie Rosenzweig and Jacob Srulovici, who also came to the US as young girl but found the American dream.

The story of Lillie Rosenzweig raises so many questions: how did she, a young Jewish immigrant living in Brooklyn, meet and get involved with a young Italian immigrant who was living in the Lower East Side, not Brooklyn? Who was the father of her first child, and what happened to that child? What happened to William after he left the Catholic Protectory? Did he have any contact with his mother or her family? And what happened to Lillie after 1910? Did she remarry and regain custody of William? Did she also die at a tragically young age? These loose ends make me crazy—I want some endings to the story, but I may have to accept that I may never know what happened.

Joseph Rosenzweig: The Process of Elimination

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Amy

The other day I wrote about the steps I took to narrow down the thirteen possible Abraham Rosenzweigs in the 1915 NYS census to the one who I am reasonably certain was the Abraham who was the son of Gustave and Gussie Rosenzweig and thus my grandfather’s first cousin. Over the last two days I have been engaged in the same process to determine which of the many Joseph Rosenzweigs I found in the US and NYS census reports was the younger brother of Abraham and also Gustave’s son. I am once again reasonably certain that I have found the right Joseph, but I want to record the process I used to get there, both for my own record-keeping and to invite others to question my reasoning and my conclusions.

In many ways the search for the right Joseph was easier than the search for Abraham. For one thing, there were far fewer Joseph Rosenzweigs than there were Abraham Rosenzweigs. For another, Joseph was born in 1898 and thus was almost ten years younger than Abraham. That meant that I had five census reports in which Joseph was living with his parents and siblings: 1900, when he was two years old, 1905 (seven years old), 1910 (twelve years old), 1915 (seventeen years old) and 1920 (22 years old). I also found what is definitely Joseph’s draft registration and World War I service record; I know these are for the same Joseph because his address on these two forms, 1882 Bergen Street in Brooklyn, is the same address where the family was living in 1920 according to the 1920 US census.

From these documents I learned a fair amount about Joseph’s early adult life. In 1915 he was employed as a driver’s helper, according to the 1915 census.

Rosenzweigs 1915

In 1917 when he registered for the draft he was working for the BRT, or the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, which eventually merged into the BMT or Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Company. It is difficult to decipher the handwriting, but it looks like he was a guard for the BRT, perhaps the same as being a driver’s helper as he had reported in 1915.

Joseph Rosenzweig draft registration World War I

His draft registration also indicated that Joseph was the sole supporter of his mother at this time. By this time Gustave and Gussie had separated or divorced, and on the 1915 census two years before Gussie had been living not only with Joseph, but also with Abraham and Jacob, both already in the US Navy, and Lizzie and Rachel, both still in school and young teenagers. Apparently by 1917, only Joseph was providing support for his mother and presumably his two younger sisters. According to the 1918 abstract of Joseph’s military service during World War I, he served as a Seaman, Second Class, in the US Navy at the Brooklyn Navy Yard from February 8, 1918 until November 11, 1918, Armistice Day, the end of World War I.

Joseph Rosenzweig military service

After the war, according to the 1920 US census, Joseph was still living with his mother and Jacob (Jack), Lizzie and Rachel (Ray) at 1882 Bergen Street and working as an operator in a millinery shop; in other words he was a hat maker. It is this occupation that became critical to my analysis as I moved past the 1920 census to the 1925 NYS census and the 1930 and 1940 US census reports.

There are only two Joseph Rosenzweigs listed on the 1925 NYS census born in New York around 1898. One was living with his parents, whose names were Aaron and Rose, so clearly not our Joseph. The other Joseph was married to a woman named Sadie and had a four year old daughter named Irene. They were living at 308 East 98^th Street in Brooklyn, and most importantly, Joseph’s occupation is listed as a hatter. His wife Sadie had been in the United States for 12 years and was born in Russia. Although I have yet to find a marriage record for Joseph and Sadie, it appeared that they must have gotten married in 1920 since they already had a four year old child by 1925. I will continue to search for their marriage certificate as it will provide more definite evidence that the Joseph who married Sadie was the son of Gustave and Gussie Rosenzweig.

Rosenzweigs 1920 census

Joseph and Sadie 1925

Although I would like additional evidence to link this Joseph to Gustave, I am reasonably certain that it must be the right person. The age and birthplace are correct, the occupation is the same as the occupation held by Joseph when he was still living at home with his mother, and there was only one other Joseph Rosenzweig listed in this age range in the 1925 NYS census.

Thus, I moved on to the 1930 census to see if any other Joseph Rosenzweigs were included there who could match the right criteria. On the 1930 census I found two Joseph Rosenzweigs. The first Joseph was born in 1898, but he was living with a brother named David, and Gustave and Gussie did not have a son named David who survived until 1930. The second Joseph was the Joseph who married Sadie. The census reported that he was born in 1897 and had been married to Sadie for ten years, making 1920 again the likely year of their marriage. Sadie’s sister Tilda Kablanski was living with them, and they now had two daughters, Irene (nine years old) and Mildred (four years old). They were still living on East 98^th Street in Brooklyn, and Joseph was still employed as a hat maker. There was also a John Rosenzweig who had Romanian parents, which looked promising, and he was living on Albany Avenue in Brooklyn, married to Ethel Bloom. He was working as a postal clerk. Although he was born in 1890 and thus older than Gustave’s son and had the wrong name, I held him aside as a possibility.

The only information in the 1930 census for the Joseph that married Sadie that conflicts with what I know about Joseph, Gustave’s son, is that it reports that his parents were born in Russia, not Romania. I would be more troubled by this if I had not already seen so many errors on census reports: my grandmother’s name listed as Maurica when it was Gussie, my great-grandmother’s name given as Pauline when it was Bessie or Pessel, ages that are inaccurate, relationships described incorrectly, and so on. I had to remind myself not to use this inconsistency to dismiss Joseph and Sadie; genealogists often are reminded that census takers took information often from neighbors or children or anyone who was around when the occupant was not home. So given that there were only two Joseph Rosenzweigs of the right age born in NYC listed on the 1930 census, I decided that it was still more likely that the Joseph who married Sadie was Gustave’s son than the John who was almost ten years older and working as a postal clerk or the Joseph who was living with a brother named David.

Joseph and Sadie 1930 census

So I moved ahead to the 1940 census to see if I could find anything that would help to nail down the identity of the correct Joseph. There were four Josephs (plus the John who married Ethel; since his name was listed as John again, I decided that this was not a census taker’s mistake and eliminated him from my pile.) Once again, there was Joseph who married Sadie, living with their two daughters Irene and Mildred on Rockaway Parkway in Brooklyn. Joseph’s birth year was given as 1899 this time, and his occupation was still in hat-making. There was a second Joseph married to a Sadye, living in Manhattan, but he was older (born in 1894). There was a third Joseph married to a Jenny, also living in Manhattan, who was a salesman of knit goods, but he was also older, born in 1893. And finally there was a Joseph born in 1897, married to Sarah and living in the Bronx. He was a clerk in a rubber factory. Of the four Josephs, it still seemed to me that the one who was most likely Gustave’s son was the Joseph who married Sadie: he lived in Brooklyn, where our Joseph grew up; he was a hatter, which our Joseph had been in 1920; and he was the correct age, unlike two of the other three.

Joseph and Sadie 1940

Obviously I cannot be 100% sure unless and until I can find a marriage certificate for Joseph and Sadie which reveals his parents’ names or unless and until I can find a descendant of Joseph and Sadie who may know whether their great-grandfather was named Gustave and whether their great-grandmother was named Gussie. I have sent messages to a few of those descendants, and I am hoping that one of them will be able to help. In the meantime I will continue to search for more evidence linking Joseph to my great-great uncle Gustave Rosenzweig, in particular the marriage certificate or the death certificate for the Joseph who married Sadie.

Thirteen Abraham Rosenzweigs or How I Almost Threw My Computer through the Window

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Amy

English: Bromo-Seltzer advertisement for headache medicine. Lottie Collins sings Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-de-ay! after being healed by the medicine and this effect makes her to dance and sing. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A couple of weeks ago I started trying to trace Gustave Rosenzweig’s story and the story of his children by searching for census reports and other documents on ancestry.com and familysearch and other websites. Gustave and Gussie had ten children, and they all had names that were apparently very common back then: Lillian, Sarah, David, Abraham, Rebecca, Jacob, Joseph, Lizzie, Rachel and Harry (not necessarily in that order). When I came down with the flu around the same time that I started trying to sort all those children out, I decided that I needed to wait until I felt better. Names, numbers, census reports, and vital records were all floating before my fevered eyes, and I was unable to focus at all.

So yesterday and last night, finally back to full strength, I decided to try again. No fever, no chills, but nevertheless names, numbers, census reports, and vital records were still circling around and making me dizzy. I decided to take one child at a time and not get distracted by the other children. I had previously accumulated a fair amount of information about Abraham and thought I would start there. I thought I had found a census report for Abraham for almost every year that there was one: 1900, 1905, 1910, 1925, 1930 and 1940. I was only missing 1920. I also thought I had found Abraham’s wife and children and ordered his marriage certificate a few weeks back. But given that I had accumulated a lot of this without yet going through it very thoroughly, I knew I needed to go back and be more careful.

The 1900 and 1905 census reports were easy. Abraham was living with his parents and his siblings, making it easy to be sure I had the correct reports. Both indicated that he was born in 1890. So far so good. As I turned to the 1910 census, things became a little less clear as there was no census that had Abraham living with Gustave, Gussie and his siblings. There were two possibilities. One Abraham was living with his mother Gussie, who had been born in Romania, so that looked promising. But this Abraham had only two siblings, Joseph and Isaac, and this Abraham was born in 1894 and was younger than his two brothers. His mother owned a candy store in Brooklyn. It certainly could be that the census had errors; that happens all the time. But I wasn’t sure. The other Abraham on the 1910 census who was a possibility was the right age and also had Romanian parents, but he was in the Navy, so I had no way of knowing his parents’ names. I saved both census reports as possibilities.

I turned to 1915. There were THIRTEEN Abraham Rosenzweigs listed on this New York State census. I checked every single one of them, listing the facts, dates, occupations, places of birth, relatives’ names, and then narrowed it down to two real possibilities, the same two. The younger Abraham, born in 1894, was living alone with his mother Gussie and working as a grocery clerk; the older Abraham was living with his mother Gussie and all the correct siblings and was a sailor. It seemed obvious that the older Abraham, the sailor, was the correct one, meaning the correct Abraham in 1910 had been the one in the Navy, not the one living with Gussie. Although that was very time-consuming, I felt like I had confirmed that the data I had previously collected was correct.

I moved on to 1920. Now there were only (!) nine Abraham Rosenzweigs who fit within the appropriate age range and were born in New York City. Again, I sifted through each census report and started finding some repeating Abrahams—the one working as a naval clerk, married to Lena but of Russian background, the railway mail clerk married to Tessie, but of Austrian background, a few who were too young, one who was in prison but had American born parents, one who was a motion picture operator, and two who lived too far away and were too young. The one who seemed most likely was born in 1890, of Romanian parentage, and was married to a Rebecca and had two sons, Maxwell (3) and Irving (1). They lived in Brooklyn, where he worked as a bread salesman. But I had no way of linking him to Gustave and the right Gussie. I searched for a certificate for a marriage between an Abraham Rosenzweig and a Rebecca, but could not find one. I moved on to 1925.

Now there were eleven Abraham Rosenzweigs. I was starting to get a bit punchy, but labored on, wanting to do this before I lost track of my findings and my thoughts. Once again I saw some familiar faces—Lena and Abraham the naval clerk, Tessie and Abraham the railway mail clerk—and some new faces that did not fit. After another long stretch staring at each census report, I narrowed it down again to two: the Abraham living with his mother Gussie and the Abraham married to Rebecca, living in Brooklyn with their two children and employed as a driver. I then did the same thing with the six Abrahams listed in 1930 and in 1940.

In my earlier search I had somehow assumed that the Abraham living with his mother Gussie in 1925, 1930 and 1940 was the right Abraham because I had not seen that there were two Gussie Rosenzweigs with sons named Abraham. Thus, I had added information to my tree for the wrong Abraham, including what I now believe were the wrong wife and children since this Abraham had married in 1932 a woman named Lee and had two daughters. I had been confused at the time also by the conflicting World War I draft registration forms I’d found. I had thought Abraham was still single in 1917 since I’d thought he hadn’t married until 1932, and so I had eliminated any draft registration for a married man. As a result I had selected an Abraham who also had had no prior military service. Although I knew that conflicted with the 1910 and 1915 census reports that showed that my Abraham had been in the Navy, I could not then figure out where I had gone wrong. Yesterday I realized my mistake, found what I think is the correct draft registration, and have to go back and correct my tree and look for records that will reveal if the Abraham who married Rebecca is in fact the right Abraham.

As usual, there remain more questions. If our Abraham was not living with his mother Gussie in 1925, 1930 and 1940, where was she? Had she died? Where was Gustave in 1915? The children were living only with Gussie, and I cannot find another census that includes Gustave. There also remains the question of why the 1920 census shows the other children living with Gustave, not Gussie, and yet there is another Gustave who is a painter from Romania listed elsewhere living as a boarder in 1920. I can’t find a marriage certificate for Gustave for his second marriage.

And I’ve only done one of the ten children. There are also multiple Josephs, Jacobs, Sarahs, Rachels, Lillians, and so on. It will take a while to resolve all this, but in the end, perhaps I will have a fuller picture of Gustave’s family and his life and even more cousins with whom to share the story of our family.

This is not Gustave’s family, but it gives a sense of what ten children in a family looks like.

A family of ten children

Vital Records—American versus Romanian

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Amy

Romanian flag (Photo credit: Tudor Girba)

American flag (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The other Romanian records I received last week from Marius Chelcu are the birth and marriage records of Gustave Rosenzweig, my great-great uncle, the man who stood up for and posted a bond of Jankel Srulovici, the man who met his nephew Isidor or Srul Srulovici at Ellis Island, and the man who signed as a witness for his niece Bertha at her wedding in 1915. Although I’ve not yet found any record linking him directly to my grandfather or his siblings, I have to believe that he also helped out my grandfather when he first arrived and probably also helped when my great-grandfather died in 1910 right before his wife and other children arrived.

So I have a great feeling of fondness for Uncle Gustave, and I was very happy that Marius was able to find these records. There were six pages of documents: a birth record, a record to prove that Gustave and his wife were not related under the Romanian Civil Code, and four pages of marriage records. Marius explained that these last four are essentially the same, as marriage laws required that there be three announcements of the marriage. (I am not sure what the fourth represents.) Marius only provided one translation of these four pages, however, so they need to be reviewed more carefully. I wish I knew Romanian, but looking over these documents I can pick out many words because of their similarity to English, French or Italian. But it is still hard to compare them, given the handwriting as well as the unfamiliar words.

The birth record is not like the records I posted about yesterday, which were actual birth records for David and Rebecca Srulovici, filed at the time of their birth. Gustave’s record was created at the time of his wedding in June, 1884, to substitute for a missing birth record. On this document, four witnesses, including his father David Rosenzweig and his father-in-law to be, Itzic Zacu, attest to the fact of Gustave’s birth as Ghidale on June 10, 1856. This document was important to me for several reasons: it provides not only information about Gustave’s birth date but also the birth year of my great-great grandfather David Rosenzweig. The record gives David’s age as 60 in 1884, meaning he was born around 1824. Also, it appears that Itzic Zacu knew Ghidale from birth or at least was willing to attest to that fact, perhaps indicating a close relationship between the Rosenzweig and Zacu families.

Gustave Rosenzweig birth record

translation of birth record

The second document is entitled “Testimony,” according to the translation provided by Marius. The translation simply reports that Ihiel Fisler, a witness to the wedding, attested to the fact that Ghidale and his bride Ghitla Zacu were not related under the Civil Code. The actual document, however, has four signatures, two written in Yiddish or Hebrew, two in the Latin alphabet. I have tried to decipher the ones written in the Hebrew alphabet, but would love some help if anyone knows Hebrew script better than I do.

testimony for Gustave and Gussie

translation of testimony

The remaining pages are the four pages of the marriage record itself, each one repeating what the other said, that is, that Ghidale Rosenzweig, 28 years old, son of David and Esther Rosenzweig, a painter by occupation, wanted to marry Ghitla Zacu, 20 years old, daughter of Itzic and Mirel Zacu, on June 1, 1884. Unfortunately, the translation Marius provided contains an error; it had the date as September 2, 1887, even though I could see the date was June (Iunie) 1, 1884 myself. I may ask him to provide a translation of each document separately, as it seems to me that there are some differences. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Gustave and Gussie Rosenzweig marriage record

translation of marriage record

When I reviewed these dates against the other records I have for the birthdates of Gustave and Gussie and their children, I was somewhat puzzled. According to the 1900 census, Lillie, their first born, was born in July, 1884, a month after the wedding. I realize that women did get pregnant before marriage even back then, but Gussie would have been eight months pregnant in June, 1884; why would they have waited so long? But then again the same census has Gustave’s birth year as 1861 and Gussie’s as 1862, not 1856 and 1864, as the Romanian records suggest. And it says Lillie arrived in the US in 1884, whereas Gustave’s naturalization papers clearly indicate that they arrived in 1887.

Does it seem likely that Lillie was born a month after her parents’ wedding? I went back to look at the 1905 census, and there Lillie or Lillian is listed as 21, giving her a birth year of 1884 as well. On the other hand, on the 1910 census, she is listed as 24 years old, making her birth year 1886, which makes more sense. Unfortunately, I’ve not yet found any other record for Lillie either after 1910 or before 1900, so I have no further evidence to corroborate either date. Perhaps Marius will find her Romanian birth record or perhaps I will find more American records. But which should I trust? What do you think?

UPDATE: This story on the blog Genealogy Tip of the Day relates to my question.

Romanian birth records

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Amy

I have received a number of different records from Marius Chelcu, the man who has been doing research for me in Iasi, Romania. Among those records are the birth records for five of the children of Jankel Srulovici and Tillie Rosenzweig, my great-great aunt. I now have birth records for Isidore, or Srul, their oldest child, for Bertha, or Bruha, their second child, for David, their third child, and one for Rebecca/Ray, their fourth child. I also have one for a son who died in infancy, Zissu. Unfortunately, Marius was unable to find a birth record for either Pincus or Leah.

First, the birth record for Isidore, or Srul, indicates that his birth date was June 9, 1883, and that his parents were Iancu Itzic Strulovici, age 38, and Bruha Thela Strulovici, age 36. This birth year is consistent with Isidore’s age on the 1910 US census, so it would be appear to be the right child and the right parents.

Isidore (Srul) Strolowitz Adler’s birth certificate

This record provides corroboration that Jankel Srulovici, here named Iacob Itzic Strulovici, was in fact Isidore’s father and that there was no first husband named Adler. The same is true on David, Bertha, and Rebecca’s birth records: Iacob Itzik Strulovici is their father. There is no indication on any of these birth records of anyone named Adler, and it thus does seem that the Adler name was chosen by the family sometime after arriving in NYC for reasons that are not yet clear.

If the ages of Jacob and Tillie are correct on Isidore’s birth record, they were born in 1845 and 1847, respectively, contrary to the 1851 and 1860 on their American death records.

The record for their next child, Bertha, has a date of birth of February 16, 1885, and her parents’ names as Iacob Itzic Strulovici, age 39, and Tilla Strulovic, age 36. Two things raise questions for me here as to whether this is the same mother named in Srul’s birth record. First, the mother is still 36 years old. That alone would not concern me, given how inaccurate the ages on these records appear to me. But her name is different. Certainly Bruha Tella could be the same person as Tilla, but the child’s name was also Bruha. Given Jewish naming patterns, it seems quite unlikely that Bruha would give her daughter her own name. It seems more likely that Bruha had died between 1883 and 1885 and that Iacob had then married Tilla, the mother of Bruha. But obviously I cannot be sure.

Bertha (Bruha) Strolowitz Adler birth record

The next record is for David, born on October 22, 1886, in Iasi, to Iacob Itzic Strulovici, 41, and Tela Strulovici, still 36. Perhaps Tillie just didn’t want to age and she was the mother of all three children?

David Strulovici birth record

translation of David Strulovici birth record

Next is the record for Zissu Strulovici, who was born April 1, 1891 and died six days later on April 7, 1891. At his birth Iacob is listed as 45 and Tillie as 40. Tillie had finally gotten older than 36.

Zissu Strulovici birth record

But when Rebecca was born on October 24, 1892, her father was 48 and her mother 39. So the best we can say about the accuracy of the Romanian records is that they are consistently inconsistent.

Rifca Ruhla Strulovici birth record

translation of Rifca’s birth record

Assuming then that Jacob was really 48 in 1892, he would have been 63 when he arrived in NYC in December, 1907, eight years older than the 55 he claimed on the manifest and at Ellis Island for his immigration hearing. Given the typical lifespan back then and the fact that he was reported to be senile by the doctor who examined him at Ellis Island, it does make it seem even more likely that he died not long after being admitted to the US.

I was also interested to see on Isidore, Bertha and David’s birth records that Jacob signed his name in Hebrew or Yiddish. I can decipher the “Yaakov Itzic Srulov—“ . It also appears that his older brother Joseph was a witness and signed as “Strulov” on David’s record. On Rebecca’s birth record six years later, it seems that Jacob signed his name as “Strulov” and not in Hebrew letters, as did the other two witnesses. It also seems that Strulov could have been written by the same person, presumably Jacob, on both documents as the writing is very similar.

I find great comfort in seeing these documents. It’s wonderful to have a record of events that happened in the family so long ago, and it gives me hope that all the work I’ve done will survive as well. It is also very moving to imagine my grandfather’s cousins as babies, their births being recorded for all time by their parents. Given what I’ve learned about how the lives of these children unfolded and ended, it is particularly poignant to think of them as innocent babies, unaware of their struggles ahead.

Questions raised by Headstones

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Amy

I was reminded of the power of headstones when I received a set of photos from Tillie Strolowitz/Adler’s great-granddaughter Jean. Jean has been doing genealogy research for many, many years, and it has been wonderful to have a family member who shares this passion. Jean started in the pre-internet era, and she has been helpful in reminding me to be patient as I wait for documents. I want immediate gratification, typical of those of us working with modern technology; Jean reminds me that back in the pre-internet era there were no documents that you could view from the comfort of your home just by clicking on a computer. You had to travel to libraries, government offices, cemeteries, synagogues, and other record-holding institutions—or at best mail away (snail mail) and wait for documents to be returned by snail mail.

Anyway, Jean wrote to me about her visit to Mt Zion Cemetery back in 1999 to search for her great-grandmother’s headstone. Her experience was very much like mine when I searched for my great-grandfather Joseph Brotman’s headstone last fall. The stones are so overcrowded in the old cemetery that it is impossible to walk around without stepping on the gravesites of other people. It is also very difficult to find a particular headstone. There are no straight lines, no easy paths, as in other cemeteries. Here are some photos Jean took back then to capture the feeling.

Mt Zion cemetery

But when you do find the headstone, it is a powerful experience. You suddenly understand that your long-lost relative is in fact buried there and that someone stood there in mourning to bury them many years ago. Jean pointed out that Tillie’s headstone only refers to her as a loving mother, not a wife, and that the Strolowitz name is nowhere included on the stone, just the name the family adopted in America, Adler, despite the fact that Tillie’s death certificate is under the Strolowitz name.

Tillie Strolowitz Adler headstone Mt Sinai

Tillie Strolowitz Adler headstone Mt Zion

When Tillie died, two of her sons had already passed away, Isidor and Pincus, and were also buried at Mt Zion under the Adler name. Had the family erased Jankel from their memory by dropping his name and not including any reference to Tillie as a wife on her headstone? Does that provide any clues as to what happened to him? One would assume that he, too, was buried at Mt Zion, if he had died shortly after arriving in NYC, but I cannot find anyone with a name similar to his buried there.

I am still waiting for some records that may relate to Jankel and his fate. I am not optimistic that these will in fact relate to Jankel, but I will be patient, count the days, and hope that these records will help to answer the mystery of Jankel Srulovici.

Zusi Rosenzweig: Some answers, more questions

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Amy

About ten days ago I wrote about the documentation that confirmed that Zusi Rosenzweig—also known as Sonsa, Ceci, Cecile, Celie, Susie and Susan Mintz—was my great-grandmother’s sister and the aunt who met my grandfather Isadore at Ellis Island in 1904. I also knew that she had married a man named Harry Mintz in December 1896, but it appeared that Harry had died by the time of 1900 census since Zusi, as Sonsa Mintz, was listed as a widow on the 1900 census, living with Jake and Rachel Reitman.

I also believed that I had found evidence that Zusi had had a son Nathan, born in December, 1897, but had not further evidence of him until he was living with Zusi at the time of the 1915 census. I believed Nathan had married a woman named Gertrude in 1930 and had had a daughter named Susanne in 1932, one year after his mother Zusi/Susie had died.

Although I was able to research fairly deeply into Jake and Rachel Reitman from the public records, I could not find any familial link between Zusi and either Jake and Rachel. On Jake and Rachel’s marriage certificate, their parents’ names are all revealed, and no one has a surname that I can link to the Rosenzweig/Goldschlager/Strolowitz family. I still don’t know if Sonsa Mintz is in fact Zusi, and if it was, I have no idea why she was living with the Reitmans.

Jake and Rachel Reitman marriage certificate

I had ordered three more documents: a birth certificate for Nathan Mintz, a marriage certificate for Nathan and Gertrude Mintz, and a death certificate for a Harry Mintz who died in 1924, thinking that perhaps Harry had just “disappeared” and had not died between 1897 and 1900. Today I received those documents, plus one more. For the most part, these documents did in fact confirm my hunches. The Nathan Mintz born in December, 1897, was the child of “Zussie” Rosenzweig, born in Romania, and her husband “Herman” Mintz.

Nathan Mintz birth certificate

The Nathan Mintz who married Gertrude in 1930 was the same: son of Susan “Rosenberg” and Harry Mintz.

Nathan and Gertrude marriage certificate

Thus, Susanne is Zusi’s granddaughter and her namesake. The death certificate for Harry Mintz dated 1924 neither confirmed nor contradicted what information I had because it is not the same Harry; this one had only been in the US for four years, was older, from Poland, and married to a woman named Ida.

Harry Mintz death

But there were some surprises in the documents; first, I received a second birth certificate for a baby Mintz born in December, 1897, Nathan’s twin, Hyman: same parents, same birth date, same doctor.

Hyman Mintz birth certificate

I immediately wondered why I had not seen any future references to Hyman and suspected the worst. I checked the death index, and Hyman Mintz died in January, 1898, a month old infant.

Moreover, the New York City birth certificate form asked how many children were born to this mother before this delivery and how many of those children were still living. On both Nathan and Hyman’s birth certificates, it says that Zusi had had one prior child and that three were still living. So who was this first child, and where was she or he living? Zusi and Harry had only been married twelve months when the twins were born, so they could not have had a prior child (well, at least one conceived since they had married). Zusi had been a 24 year old widow when she married Harry; she must have had a child with her first husband, perhaps in Romania before immigrating to the US. She was only a teenager when she emigrated. I have what I think could be the ship manifest listing Zusi as a passenger on the Ethopia, arriving in New York City on September 30, 1890; there is no child with her.

Ship Manifest as Susel Rosenzweig

Did she leave her child behind in Iasi for her family to raise? Why did she return to her maiden name if she’d been married? Perhaps there never was a marriage? I can guess, speculate, but not know for certain.

So what do we know and what don’t we know about this woman who met my grandfather at Ellis Island? We know she married Harry Mintz, had twin sons Nathan and Hyman, but only Nathan survived. Nathan grew up, married Gertrude, and had a daughter in 1932 named Susanne. Zusi died in 1931. What we don’t know is what happened to Harry or what happened to her first child. We don’t know where Zusi and Nathan were between 1898 and 1915. And we don’t know whether Nathan and Gertrude had additional children, whether Susanne had children, whether there are any living descendants of the elusive Zusi Rosenzweig.

Brotmanblog: A Family Journey

Adventures in Genealogy

Tag Archives: vital records

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

Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose

More Mysteries: Can you help with handwriting analysis?

I’m Ba-a-a-ck! With an Update on Lillian Rosenzweig

Joseph Rosenzweig: The Process of Elimination

Thirteen Abraham Rosenzweigs or How I Almost Threw My Computer through the Window

Vital Records—American versus Romanian

Romanian birth records

Questions raised by Headstones

Zusi Rosenzweig: Some answers, more questions

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