Home
Maryland Resources
Links
Contact JGSMD

 
Other Area JGS Websites
Greater Washington
Greater Philadelphia
New York

 

 

Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland


Brick Walls
Are you up against a genealogical brick wall ? Let JGSMD members help you break it down! If you have a perplexing research problem and desire some guidance on where to look next or how to proceed, maybe our group members can point you in the right direction. See instructions for presenting your brick wall problem here. Submitted Brick Wall problems will be posted on this web page.

JGSMD group members are invited to contribute suggestions and pointers for resolving the problem but should not do the research themselves. If you d like to offer a research suggestion, please see instructions here.

When responses are received, they will be forwarded to the person who submitted the problem. Questions and responses will also be edited for publication in the next edition of our quarterly newsletter, L DOR V DOR, so that we can all share the learning experience. Contributors email addresses will not be published.



Submitted Brick Walls--Can You Help?

The Elusive Cohn Family


Claudia Bullock

I have extensive family history notes that have been passed down to me. These notes document the names of my great-grandparents, Labe and Sarah Cohn, as well as the names of all six of their children (Nathan Cohn, Myer Cohn, Harry Cohn, Lizzie (Cohn) Kann, Annie (Cohn) Swartz, and Rose Cohn). No census records or official documents of any kind have ever been found for Labe and Sarah Cohn, who according to the family history notes, emigrated from Russia and settled in Baltimore. The only information I have on them is that Labe was said to have been a religious man.

Since all the children were born in Russia, and I believe the youngest (my grandfather, Myer Cohn) was born around 1886, I figure that the parents had to have arrived sometime after that date, and perhaps they would have even come with Myer, who appears to have been the last child to immigrate, in 1896, as he would have only been around 10 years old.

My dilemma is that I ve never been able to find any naturalization records or passenger manifests for any of these eight people, nor have I found a census record for either of the parents (I have no census records prior to 1900, but, of course, that is because the 1890 census was lost). It has been suggested to me that the children would have been covered under the naturalization papers of their father (since they arrived when they were minors) and that this may be the reason I haven t been able to find their naturalization records.

It has also been suggested to me that the naturalization records for the parents may have been filed at the city or county court level in Baltimore, and may not be digitized. I would like to know if that is a possibility, and how I would go about finding such records, since I am not physically in Baltimore.

Census records have been found for five of the six children from 1900 forward, indicating that all were born in the Russian Empire and that they immigrated at various times between approximately 1882 and 1896. All of the family members settled in the Baltimore/Washington area. I was able to find them in censuses using minor variations of the spelling of their names. For example, in the 1910 census, my grandfather was listed as Meyer Cohen, in 1920 as M Cohn, and then as Myer Cohn in 1940. I also have other records for him that spell out the full name of Myer Solomon Cohn. I never found the 1900 or 1930 census for my grandfather, but I do have them for other siblings. Although there are some minor discrepancies from one census year to the next, it seems that all family members must have arrived after the 1880 census was taken. By 1900, while my grandfather s location is unknown, the census records for Nathan, Harry, and Lizzie show that they were all in Washington, DC, while Annie is the only one known to be still in Baltimore.

Based on the census records that I do have, it appears that all of the children were naturalized and that all of them immigrated to the U.S. while they were still minors. The only one I don t know about, and for whom I ve never found a census record, is Rose, who sold hats. She is said to have had kyphosis (excessive curvature of the upper back), and she never married.

It is possible that the reason that I can t find census records for the parents, Labe and Sarah, is that they may have died before 1900. I don t know when they might have died, and don t know where they might be buried.

Annie came to this country when she was only about 15, but by 1900 she was married to Tobias Schwartz, who had a men s clothing factory in Baltimore. I have naturalization records for her husband Tobias, and those records cover his wife Annie. So, she is actually the only one who is accounted for by any sort of naturalization records. The records say that Tobias came in through the port of Philadelphia; however, they do not indicate how Annie arrived.

Nathan died in 1920 (not long after the census was taken), and Annie died in 1922. Annie is buried at Hebrew Friendship Cemetery in Baltimore, along with her husband Tobias. I had hoped to find an obituary for either Nathan or Annie, which would give me some indication of whether or not the parents were still living at that point in time; however, I was never able to find one. I also looked to see if the parents (or perhaps Rose) might have been buried in the same Baltimore cemetery but wasn t able to identify them. There was a Sarah Cohn buried there in 1921, but perhaps not the right person, since I couldn t find her husband there.

What is most perplexing, is that, with all of the census records I do have, I have not been able to locate the parents living with any of their children at any time, although in some cases I ve found the siblings temporarily living with each other. The siblings had many connections between them, which I ve been able to document, yet no sign of the parents anywhere.

I have tried very hard to find passenger manifests for the members of the family and have had no success in identifying manifests for any of the correct people. I ve also had other very experienced people assist me and have had no success, so I am puzzled concerning how my relatives actually got here. If I could find naturalization papers, perhaps that would shed some light on the matter.

I would also dearly love to know what my great-grandmother s maiden name was as well, but no one seems to be able to tell me that.

Ancestry and Origins of Charles GLASS


Alison Greengard

I am hoping that you can point me in the right direction to find some records.

My family believes that Charles GLASS of Baltimore, married to Ida KLAVANSKY in 1895 (Hochheimer marriage book), was my great-grandmother s half-brother. My great-grandparents lived in Philadelphia, and two of their sons married two of Charles GLASS s daughters. So we know they were very close to one another. However, he was 18 years younger than my great-grandmother, who was the daughter of her father s second marriage. So we re thinking if he has the same last name of GLASS as my great-grandmother s maiden name, then potentially he s the son of a third marriage. Or perhaps the second wife remarried another GLASS male. It s all very murky. The only birth record for my great-great-grandparents Vulf and Ite GLASS shows my great-grandmother, Sheine Esther GLASS, born in 1856.

Charles says he immigrated in either 1888 or 1891 (two different federal census records). One census says he was naturalized in 1893, but there are no naturalization records that I can find on the Internet. I can t find any record of his father, Yoel GLASS, in Baltimore.

Charles and his family are buried in Ohr Knesseth Israel Anshe Sphard cemetery in Baltimore.

Our GLASS family comes from Vorniai, Lithuania. There are scores of records on JewishGen for our family. But we can t find Charles in those records. According to Charles s gravestone, which I found on Find A Grave, his Hebrew name was Bezalel, and his father s name was Yoel (GLASS). There is only one JewishGen record of a Tzalel GLASS from Vorniai, but it shows him paying a tax and nothing else listed for him. Yoel (Joel) is not a male given name in the GLASS family JewishGen records for Vorniai going back to the 1700s. So we re kind of scratching our heads.

So my questions are:

  • Would you know who has the records for the Ohr Knesseth Israel Anshe Sphard cemetery and any contact information? I m hoping that Charles s parents and perhaps his birth town are listed on their records.
  • Would you know where I can obtain Charles s death certificate? He died in 1947. I assume it is at the Maryland State Archives but unsure who to email about that. I m hoping that record might also contain his parents names.
  • Would you know whom to contact for naturalization papers? I m unsure if these were kept at a state level or federal level and where I would obtain them in Maryland. I m hoping this will show his birth town as Vorniai, Lithuania. GLASS is a very common last name, so I want to verify at least that Charles is from Vorniai.

Italian-American Catholic Romeo and Jewish Juliet, WWII Marriage, and Birth of a Daughter (1943/1944): Searching for Our Dad s Daughter Who Wanted to Connect!


Joshua Pane

I am searching for my dad s first daughter, my half-sister. She wanted to connect with her father in 1977. She may still want to connect with her two sisters and three brothers (I m one of the three) from another mother.

While serving in World War II back East, our dad met a young woman from a Jewish family and fell in love. He shipped out after he married her, made it through the Italian Invasion and D-Day, among other battles, and returned to find that his marriage was annulled, and his wife was gone. We re not certain whether he knew, at that time, that his wife had given birth to a baby girl.

The Search
My siblings and I started the search for our missing half-sister about 1993, after our dad, Joseph Pane, Jr., died on December 10, 1992. (By the way, Pane is pronounced PAH-neh and means bread in Italian.)

Our father seemingly didn t know that he had a daughter from his short-lived, pre-World War II marriage until about 35 years later, in December 1977, when he received a card, out of the blue, from a woman who said she was his daughter. He was hurt again by the memories of this traumatic period, and it opened up old wounds, reminding him of the loss of his first love. That is why nothing was done to find this woman until after he died. We don t know whether our father ever replied to her. He insisted that we not talk about it.

The lost daughter had found her father, as evidenced by this 1977 card. We all feel for her: a daughter who reached out to her father but didn t connect with him.

Resources Consulted
New York City Boroughs and the Capital in Albany
My sister Teresa, her best friend, Moria, and I tried a few ways to find her. For some reason, because, the one time our dad spoke about it, he said he had met a girl back East, we thought he had met her when he was stationed in New York for a stint at the Cooks and Bakers School. So, with this very thin reed of information, we contacted all the boroughs of New York to see whether there was a marriage license application from one Joseph Pane, Jr. We struck out. Then someone from the boroughs suggested that we contact Albany to see whether they had married anywhere else in the state. That search came back negative, as well.

Northern New Jersey
Next, we sent inquiries to a few of the counties in northern New Jersey, for no other reason than it seemed like a good place to go if you were eloping and you lived in New York. After inquiries in a few counties in New Jersey, we gave up. It s an expensive and inefficient way to do a search.

Military Records, Curtis Bay, MD
Then, within the past 3 years or so, we got the idea of requesting our father s military record. That proved to be quite illuminating. Through that file, we learned that besides his few months in New York, he also had been stationed at the Coast Guard facility in Curtis Bay, MD, for a few months before he shipped out. Furthermore, there s a large and robust Jewish population around Baltimore, so it may have been the perfect setting for him to meet his young Jewish girl. Sadly, Maryland s records from that era have not been digitized, so we were reduced to paying clerks to search, by hand, paper records in various counties surrounding Curtis Bay. Again, we had no idea which county might be the right one, or even if they married in Maryland. Also, I discovered that when there is an annulment of a marriage in Maryland, all records are expunged. We paid for searches in quite a few counties of Maryland, to no avail.

Then, I paid for someone to do some searching based upon places our father had been stationed while in the Coast Guard, which detailed his years of service in the war.

DNA Testing
Since we were striking out with our hit-or-miss searches, we thought of trying Ancestry.com. We ve had no luck with a DNA match to her. She obviously isn t on Ancestry.

New York Attorney, 1977, Female Jewish
Our father had told us that his daughter s card, received in 1977, mentioned that she was an attorney in New York City. (That s the only fact we have.) Within the past year, we tried to narrow the field by figuring out the names of women who successfully passed the New York State Bar in the 1970s. We figured that we might come up with a list of 20 to 25 names, and at least we would have a more defined universe of potential people, because there weren t too many women who became lawyers in New York in the 1970s.

Unfortunately, there is no central place that we ve found that lists, in a concise, organized fashion, the names of the people who passed the Bar. We ve been searching microfiche back issues of the legal newspaper in New York for that time period, but there is no rhyme or reason to the date when the list of Bar passers was published (it s not the same date each year). Also, the New York State Bar itself has no lists from that era that it can produce to us.

Searching the microfiche records has been a tedious process, and one to which we haven t devoted much time. The microfiche records for this newspaper exist in only a few places, mostly university and state law libraries.

The Search Continues
By our estimation, our half-sister would be about 74 or 75 years of age. So the sands of time are running through the hourglass, and we need to do this now, if we re going to succeed!

The next step we re thinking of is taking a DNA test at another site, such as 23andMe or National Geographic. It has also been suggested that we should try all of the DNA sites, including FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch.

We ve also thought of checking marriage records in some counties in Pennsylvania, because when our father came back from the war, he asked to be assigned to Philadelphia. We are guessing that he wanted to be near his wife. This assignment request would have occurred before he found out about the annulment and the family move. Philadelphia happens to be rather close to Curtis Bay, MD, and it s another state where we haven t looked.

Our dad s first daughter, our half-sister, wanted to connect with her father in 1977. She may still want to connect with her sisters and brothers, and we re still hoping to find her.

Where would you search next?

Moses and Sarah Hornstein s Children


Linda S. Rich

Here is what I know:

  • Moses Hornstein (my great-grandfather) was born in Russia or Poland in 1850.
  • Sarah Hornstein was born in Russia or Poland in 1855.
  • Moses Hornstein immigrated to Baltimore in 1872.
  • Moses and Sarah lived at 1242 McElderry Street in Baltimore.
  • Moses and Sarah had eight children: Eva, Bella, Abraham, Rachel, Mary, Rose, David, and Harry, born between 1880 and 1897.
Moses and Sarah s son David (1896-1976) was my maternal grandfather. I remember him as a wonderful, sweet, kind man. Until I recently researched my grandfather s family by accessing the 1900 and 1910 U.S. censuses on Ancestry.com, I thought that my granddad had only two siblings, his older sisters Rachel (known as Rae) and Rose. On the censuses, the other sisters, Eva, Bella, and Mary, plus two brothers, Abraham and Harry, are listed! By accessing obituaries, I found out that Eva married a man with the last name Stevenson; Bella s married name was Cohen; Mary s married name was Benesch; and Rae s married name was Astrinsky.

I am seeking information about David s siblings and their descendants. It appears from my

grandfather s obituary that all of his siblings, except Mary, predeceased him.

Many, many thanks!

Hinda Saval/Savol/Savolovitch and the Hertzbach Family s Descendants


Linda S. Rich

Here is what I know:

  • Hinda s daughter, Hannah Leah Savol or Saval (Savolovitch), born in Russia, married Isaac Hertzbach.
  • Hannah Leah and Isaac immigrated to London in the late 1890s and then to Baltimore circa 1901. They had five children: Sol, Morris, Sadie, Sophie (my maternal grandmother), and Joseph.
  • All of the children married and stayed in Baltimore.
  • Sadie s married name was Harris, and Sophie s married name was Hornstein.
I am seeking Hinda Saval s maiden name and information about the Hertzbach siblings families.

Many, many thanks!

Miss M. SOLOMON


Jeanne Klein

Over the past year, I have been researching Miss M. SOLOMON (or SOLOMONS) (b. 1788), a child actress who was very active from her singing debut at age five on June 4, 1793 in Baltimore through at least 1804. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. (Nathan?) Solomon, were also strolling actor-singers who moved frequently across the entire eastern seaboard and probably stayed in boarding houses during their temporary stays in theatrical cities and towns. Miss M. also had a younger sister, Miss C. or K. or S. Solomon, who performed with her in Philadelphia and Boston.

Specifically, I am trying to find Miss M. s first name and any birth, school, potential marriage, and death records, as well as the first names of her parents and sister and their respective birth, marriage, and death records. (NOTE: Lucy B. Pilkinton names her father Nathan in her 1993 U of Michigan dissertation, Theatre in Norfolk, Virginia, 1788-1812," p. 542, but I have not been able to locate or confirm this first name.)

The fact that the family moved so frequently makes it especially difficult to locate their genealogical records. I already have a strong performance record of Miss M., as well as her parents and younger sister, from secondary theatre history sources and dissertations covering Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Providence, Newport, Charleston, Savannah, Richmond, and Norfolk, as follows:

  • October 15 to December 4, 1794 w/Old American Company at John Street Theatre, NYC
  • March 13, 1795 to June 22, 1796 w/Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia & Baltimore
  • September 20, 1796 to May 12, 1797 w/Federal Theatre in Boston
  • December 6, 1797 to March, 1798 w/Federal Theatre in Boston
  • October 29, 1798 to April, 1799 w/Federal Theatre in Boston
  • 1799-1801 seasons, Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia (& Baltimore?)
  • July 13, Oct. 14, Nov. 13-17, 1802 w/Chestnut company in Annapolis & Baltimore
  • Feb 4 to May 10, 1803 w/father in Alexandre Placide s company in Charleston
  • June 29, 1803 to June 4, 1804 w/Chestnut company in Annapolis, Philadelphia, & Baltimore
I have already consulted the 1790 Census, various city directories (online only), and various histories of Jews in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Charleston with no luck. I do know that the family was not buried at the Etting Cemetery in Baltimore, and the Maryland State Archives do not include any Jewish marriages with the Solomon name.

My colleague, Heather S. Nathans, has recently published some information on Mr. Solomon and his family in Hideous Characters & Beautiful Pagans: Performing Jewish Identity on the Antebellum American Stage (Ann Arbor: U of Michigan Press, 2017), pp. 89-96, 148-49. She, too, has been unable to find Mr. and Miss M. Solomon s first names and other details. She is also unable to confirm with certainty whether the family was actually Jewish, but she speculates that Mr. Solomon may have been the first Jewish-American actor.

Thank you in advance for any genealogical records anyone may find.

Looking for HAGEDORN Family History in Baltimore


Rosa Hagedorn

I am trying to find out information about my family name (HAGEDORN), my ancestors, and my family s history in Baltimore. More specifically, I want to find out information on my great-great-grandfather and great-great-grandmother. I cannot find any ancestry past my great-great-grandfather. At some point, his religion was concealed from future generations. My question is: What types of resources can I use to help figure out who my great-great-grandparents were? Any ideas or information? I am interested in going as far back as I can to uncover my ancestry. I have hit a brick wall and would love some help.

The following facts I know to be true:

  • I took the 23andMe test, and it found that I have 12.5% Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.
  • My father, Charles HAGEDORN III, took the same test and found that he has 25% Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. His Y-DNA tested as the J-M267 haplogroup. He was born in Washington DC.
  • My grandfather, Charles HAGEDORN, Jr., was born in Baltimore, MD, but later moved to Washington DC and then northern Virginia. If the genetics are correct, then he would have to be near 50% Ashkenazi descent. He was in the navy in World War II, along with his brother Robert. A third brother, James, was in the air force and was killed in action in 1945. My grandfather married Sara Margaret SENSENEY, who was an extremely active member of the Brethren Church. Her family has been in Virginia since before the Revolution.
  • My great-grandfather, Charles HAGEDORN, Sr., was born in Baltimore. If the genetics are correct, then he would have to be near 100% Ashkenazi descent. He served in the army in World War I and the Korean War and was a musician in the army band. He became a park guard in Washington DC when he retired. He married Sallie Virginia GOODE, whose family can be traced back to England.
  • My great-great-grandfather, Henry HAGEDORN, immigrated from Hanover, Germany, to Baltimore through the port of Baltimore (not Ellis Island). He immigrated when he was around 7 years old in 1841. He married Caroline at some point in Maryland, and they had several children. To make the genetics work, both Henry and Caroline would have to be 100% Jewish.

Facts I cannot confirm but I think are true:

  • I found a record for a Caroline WOLLFARTH HAGEDORN who was married to a Henry and buried in Baltimore, I assume this is my great-great-grandmother. I know she was from Germany, and her parents are listed as John and Wilhelimina WOLLFARTH.
  • I found a Baltimore Sun obituary from 1917 for a George HAGEDORN. His parents are listed Henry and Caroline HAGEDORN. He is listed as having the following siblings, who are probably my relatives and may or may not have been practicing the Jewish faith: Minnie (HAGEDORN) ENGLEBACH, Carrie HAGEDORN, Emma (HAGEDORN) ENGLEBACH, Elizabeth (HAGEDORN) ZIEGLER, John HAGEDORN, Frederick HAGEDORN, Harry HAGEDORN, and Charles HAGEDORN (presumably my great-grandfather).
  • My father was told by my grandfather that sometimes HAGEDORN is spelled HAGEDOORN in Europe. As I took 7 years of German, I know that this probably means that the O in the name may have originally had an umlaut.
  • I know there is always the possibility of some sort of illegitimate parentage in my line. I could tell you that it would not be from my father or my grandfather, but I cannot say the same for higher generations. I am OK with learning any new information!
  • There is also a Ruth HAGEDORN that was listed as living as an adopted sister of my grandfather. She was known in the family history, but, apparently, she left home when she turned 18 and died in a nursing home in the 1970s in Baltimore. I only found her through family documents; no one mentioned her out loud, and my father did not know about this possible adopted aunt. She seems to have disappeared from our history. Any info on her would be great, too!

Levi Herzog: Fells Point Hebrew Friendship Congregation


Richard B. Herzog, Jr.

Levi Herzog, my great-great-grandfather, lived in Baltimore from his arrival from Germany about 1848 until his death in 1892. He is buried at Hebrew Friendship Cemetery. He was Secretary of Fells Point Hebrew Friendship Congregation from 1856 to 1861 and the Sexton from 1870 to 1885. Several of his daughters were married by Rabbi Hochheimer and are noted in his marriage book. The congregation dissolved around 1900. There are some limited records of the Fells Point HFC at the Jewish Museum of Maryland.

I have already checked the censuses, city directories, the Baltimore Sun archives, Congressional Record, and a number of other sources. I was shocked at how much stuff I found (e.g., a letter Levi wrote to Isaac Leeser in the Special Collections at the University of Pennsylvania library). The archivist at the JMM dug in and pulled up the records that they have. She was very helpful, but there is not much there.

When the Fells Point HFC dissolved around 1900, it sold the building (Eden Street Synagogue) to another congregation, and the seat holders formed a corporation to own and operate the Hebrew Friendship Cemetery. I flew up to Baltimore for a weekend last summer and went by the JMM, the Hebrew Friendship Cemetery, and a number of locations associated with Levi Herzog. I was even able to photograph four still-standing buildings in which he had lived or had stores, as well as the vacant lot where the Eden Street Synagogue once stood.

I was hoping that perhaps one of your members might have some idea of what happened to the records or have some knowledge of the Fells Point Hebrew Friendship Congregation. I would like to find the minute books or any other records of the Fells Point HFC between 1848 and 1900.

Levi Herzog was also the Secretary of the Jedidjah Chapter of B nai Brith in 1860 and active until the 1880s. If anyone has any idea where records of, or information about, that Chapter between 1847 and 1900 might be, I would be interested in those as well

I am at a brick wall.

By the way, Baltimore is a great place to visit!

Deceased Father s Medical Records


Marc Stein

My genealogical problem is one that definitely fits the description of a brick wall, but I sometimes think that a fetid swamp (with quicksand) would be a more apt description. Because of all the hoops that my sister and I have had to jump through, I would want to know at the outset whether anyone has been prevented from getting the medical records of a close relative because of the way the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has been interpreted. From our experience, the law is being disturbingly applied in such a way that family connections have no real meaning.

We have tried to get our father s medical records from a hospital in Montgomery County, MD, without much success. The hospital refuses to give them to us. Our father has been dead for 12 years at this writing. My sister and I are the only genetically connected children of our father, although we never had power of attorney. Our father adopted two people in their mid-forties whom he did not raise (we found out about this quite fortuitously), and they have access to the records, while we don t. Jewish ethics, as I know them, haven t impressed anyone but us. We think that it is an outrage that, here in the United States, you are prevented from accessing a parent s records that could help address family medical history.

My sister and I do have our father's death certificate. We definitely know what he died of. However, we also know that the hospital has plenty of our father s medical records over a significant amount of time. I would emphasize that there is still a great deal that we don t know.

In terms of my sister and me, I would only pose the question that if you can t get your father s medical records, then whose records can you get? We have an unusual situation, it is true maybe one of the most unusual in the country so I m doubtful that anyone in this group could help resolve our situation. With that said, I would like to know what others have had to deal with in getting family medical records.

Looking for My Grandfather s Birthplace


Edward Levine

I am trying to find the birth town for my paternal grandfather. After I find that, I hope to be able to identify some of his siblings and family.

This is what I know, or believe to be correct, with regard to my grandfather, Samuel LEVINE. He was born Salomon (a.k.a. Schneur Zalman) KRIWCZENKO, on 15 Nov 1877, in Russia. He died 23 Dec 1943 in Brooklyn, NY. He was buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery, Maspeth, NY, in the landsmanshaft plot of the First Poltaver (Poltavia, Ukraine) Brotherly Aid Association.

He immigrated in 1903, and his address in the U.S. was 1193 44th St., Brooklyn, NY. He was married to Anna Levine, of Minsk, Belarus, about 1901. His father was Isidore, and his mother was Minnie Levin; both remained in Europe. According to his gravestone, he died 22 Dec 1943. A translation from Yiddish gives: Here lies Shniur Zalmen, son of Yitskhak/Isaac.

In the 1930 census, Samuel Levine, Brooklyn, NY, was born 1876, immigrated 1904, married in 1901, and was a shoemaker. Per his World War II draft registration, dated 1942, he was born in Yelatz, Russia, in Sept 1877. In both the Hamburg and New York City ship passenger lists, his name was Salomon KRIWCZENKO; his last residence was Wilpsk. Per his naturalization form, he was Sam KRICHEMSO, from Elitz, Russia.

I am thinking that the possible birth town was Yel'sk, near Mazyr, in the Gomel region of Belarus. I am looking for some guidance on where to look next.

How Do I Get Restricted Record Extracts from the Maryland DHMH?


Robert Zavos

I am a new JGSMD member and new Maryland resident. I would like to get a few details (e.g., the mother s European birthplace) from three Maryland birth certificates that are less than 100 years old and are restricted via Maryland statute 9-1015. On the Maryland State Archives (MSA) web site, I found that the births I want are on microfilm rolls at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH).

I have the exact birthdates of the three children and the roll numbers. I looked at Section 9-1015, which says, in Section (d)(3): An individual may obtain an extract of a restricted vital record and, in Section (e): The Archives may charge a reasonable fee to cover the expense of copying vital records or indexes to a vital record, to make extracts from restricted vital records or to undertake a search for vital records.

Neither the MSA nor DHMH web site offers any details on getting restricted records. There are no forms for this option. I realize I can call the general help desk, but I would prefer to hear from someone who has done this or has any suggestions.

Trying to Locate the Gravesite of Yetta RASHBAUM


Maxine Walters

In the 1910 census, Yetta RASHBAUM (my great-great- grandmother) lived with her daughter Rosie PARRILL, her son-in- law Isaac Parrill, and her grandchildren Emil and Morris S. Parrill at 1914 North Monroe St in Baltimore. In the 1913 Baltimore City Directory, Yetta is listed at that address. According to the Maryland State Archives Vital Records, Yetta died on April 24, 1913.

I am trying to find her gravesite. I have searched Find-a- Grave with no luck. Are there lists of people buried at individual cemeteries and where in the cemeteries they re located? Should I contact synagogues about those lists? Are there other resources that you can suggest? I do not live in Maryland. Thank you!

How Did the LEVENSONs Get to America?


Chaim Luria

For the past 16 years, I have been trying to find information regarding the immigration of my ancestors Abraham and Fanny Levenson to the U.S. The 1910 U.S. census for the city of Baltimore shows them living at 309 S. Eden St. They and their sons lived in Baltimore until their deaths. I have not been able to find them in the 1900 census or in any document preceding the 1910 census. The death certificate for Fanny Levenson, who passed away in 1916, says that she lived in Baltimore for 20 years, so she should appear in the 1900 census.

In addition to my Ancestry.com subscription, I have tried many other online resources, used infinite variations of the family name, and even searched long lists using given names. Abraham (b. 1865) and Fanny Levenson (b. 1873), as well as their sons Myer (b. 1888) and Hyman (b. 1890), were born in Russia. The 1910 census does not show Hyman living with the family, but I am certain that he was the son of Abraham.

If anyone can find any type of information regarding their arrival in the U.S. or their location in the 1900 U.S. census, I would be very grateful. Since I am located in Jerusalem, I can only access online resources. I have spoken to the Maryland State Archives and the National Archives in Philadelphia regarding naturalization documents and have come up empty handed. Any help would be appreciated.

Marriage of Joseph and Minnie ZBAR


Phil Trupp

I am seeking to discover the time and place of the marriage of my maternal grandparents, Joseph and Minnie ZBAR, sometime in the early 20th century in Poland or Russia. As husband and wife, they lived with their children in Baltimore, MD. Joseph Zbar entered the U.S. in 1908 or 1909. Minnie arrived 1-3 years later. Minnie departed Bremen aboard the Rhein and entered the Port of New York. I am writing a history of the Zbars in America. I have a fair amount of information on the Zbar family during their lives in Baltimore. It s their European history that has stumped me. Anything you can suggest would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance!

The Search for My Mother and Her Family


Arlynne Pack Brown

I have several areas of confusion with regard to my mother s side of my family. First, I cannot find my mother, Leah Harriet ROSEN, and her mother, Sure/Sadie GOLDENBERG (Brody, Austria)/GOLDBERG (NYC), between the 1930 U.S. census and the early 1950s. Second, a woman by the name of Mollie Goldenberg HALPERN is buried near Sadie s parents, aunts, and uncles, and I would like to find out how she is related to my mother s family. Also, the FEUERSTEIN and FLOCH families are likely related to my Goldenbergs and Goldbergs, and I would like to figure out their connection.

My grandmother, Sadie Hilda Goldberg, married Ben Rosen, gave birth to my mother in March 1929, and divorced after the census in 1930. I have no record of Sadie after the 1930 census until she died in 1951. My mother had nowhere to live after Sadie s death, and my father recalls that she stayed temporarily with a family (probably relatives) by the name of Feuerstein in New York. Soon afterward, she went to live with her father, Ben Rosen, and stepmother, Edith. In the 1950s, my mother married my father, Irwin PACK.

There are a few records in which Goldenbergs and Feuersteins were traveling together. A passenger manifest of the Nieuw Amsterdam, which sailed from Europe on 22 May 1909 and arrived in New York on 1 June 1909, shows that Sadie s father, Boruch/Benjamin Goldberg, and her brother, Selig, were traveling to New York with the Feuerstein/Floch family. Lines 17-21 show the Feuerstein/Floch family s relative in the place from whence they came as S. Goldenberg of Garesmolno; they are going to Josef Feierstein, at 370 Madison St; he is the son of passenger Taube Feuerstein and the brother of the Floch family. (I think showing Josef Feierstein as brother to Selig Goldenberg is an error.) Line 24 has Boruch Goldenberg leaving his relative, Jossel (or Sissel) Goldenberg of Brody, and going to his cousin, Josef GEIDLER (or CZEIDLER) (a relative of whom I was not previously aware), in Brooklyn.

Another reference to the Goldenberg/Feuerstein connection is in the New York Passenger List record for Moses Goldenberg, age 52, David Goldenberg, age 50, and Rachel Goldenberg, age 16, all traveling from Hamburg on the Pretoria and arriving in New York on 16 Jan 1907. Moses and David are going to join Moses s uncle/David s brother-in-law, Marcus Minzer of 26 Jefferson St, and Rachel is going to her brother Boruch c/o Josef Feuerstein at 346 Madison St. I wasn t previously aware of Moses or young Rachel, but this record reinforces that there is a relationship between the Goldenberg and Feuerstein families.

I will try to present what I know and don t know about Mollie Goldenberg Halpern and her husband, Solomon Halpern, in a clear manner. I am not sure whether Mollie is even a relative. First, Goldenberg was a very popular name in Brody, Austria, during the late 1800s and early 1900s. She could be not related and buried in the Brodier section coincidentally. Second, in my family, no one living has ever heard of her. My great-uncle was married to a Mollie, but her last name would have been Goldberg, not Halpern, when she died.

While searching the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) for the family of my grandmother, Sadie Goldberg, I discovered that someone had taken photos of the First Brodier section in Mt. Zion Cemetery in Maspeth, NY. Sadie s mother and father (Gussie and Boruch Goldberg), as well as her uncle and his wife (David Goldberg and Rebecca Mintzer), are buried there. The graves of Solomon and Mollie Halpern, buried side by side as husband and wife, are nearby.

On Mollie s JOWBR record, she is listed as the mother of Moses Halperin and Max Halpern and as the sister of Boruch and David Goldberg. Her parents are listed as Hirsch Goldberg and Ruchel BERMAN. The father of Boruch and David was also named Hirsch Goldberg, but their mother was Rachel Cohen HALPERIN. Was Hirsch Goldberg married twice, once to Ruchel Berman and also to Rachel Cohen Halperin (same last name as Mollie s husband, Solomon Halperin)?

I have another document presenting inconsistent information about Mollie and Solomon s relationship: according to New York Passenger Lists, Malie Halpern (indexed as Cub Malie Halprin ) from Brody sailed from Rotterdam on the Rijndam, arriving in New York on 8 Aug 1911. She is traveling with Schloime, age 17, and going to Moses Halpern (this may be a completely different Mollie with a son, rather than husband, named Solomon).

In conclusion, my questions are:

  • I know my mother, Leah Rosen, lived with her mother, Sadie Goldberg Rosen, between the 1930 census and Sadie s death in 1951. Where was their home? My mother said something about the Sherbourne, and my Dad mentioned a multi-family house with the Feuersteins.
  • Was Mollie Goldenberg Halpern related to Sure/Sadie s Gold(en)berg family?
  • How are the Halperns and Goldenbergs related?
  • Did Harry/Hirsch Goldenberg have two families, first with Ruchel Berman and daughter Mollie, and next with Rachel Cohen Halpern and sons David and Boruch?
  • How are the Goldenbergs and Feuersteins/Flochs related?
I have found my information through Ancestry.com and am open to suggestions on where else to look for more clues. I will gladly invite anyone to my Ancestry.com family tree. Please contact me so I can do so.

Thank you in advance for your insights.

Missing BAILISes from Poland


Eileen Julie Bailis Rosenbaum

I m looking for information about my father s family. My father, Abraham BAILIS, was born in New York City on April 20, 1914, and died in Baltimore in May 2003. His parents were Isidore/Isadore BAILIS/BAILOS/BIOLIS (born June 5, 1888, in Suros [possibly Suraz], Grodno gubernia, Russian Poland, and died in October 1918 in New York City) and Eva Deborah GONSHEWSKI/GUNSCHAVSKY (born in November 1891 in Sokolow [possibly Sokoly], Lomza gubernia, Russian Poland, and died in August 1956 in Queens, NY). I found Isidore s Declaration of Intention, dated January 14, 1916, which shows that he emigrated from Hamburg, Germany, on the Graf Waldersee and arrived on March 11, 1904. His parents were Elias (Eliyahu) BIOLIS and Eva (Chava) RUDIE. Isidore, his brother Morris, and two sisters immigrated to the United States, but their parents did not. The two sisters moved to Chicago and married two brothers (GLASSMAN).

Abraham had a brother, William, who was born in 1916 or 1917 and died at age 7 on July 5, 1924, in Manhattan, NY. I was able to obtain a death certificate number but have been unable to find out where he is buried. Several years ago, I wrote to the Jewish Child Care Association in New York City to get information on him as well as my father. Both of them were in orphanages, starting about 1920. (I do have information on my father but not on my uncle.)

My questions are:

  • How do I find out where my uncle William is buried? (It would be in the New York City area.)
  • How do I get more information about my grandfather s brother, sisters, and their families?
I hope that someone in the group will be able to give me some ideas.

GLASSMAN-SCHOTOFF Marriage Where and When?


Gail M. Schotoff-Patterson

Ida (Yetta) GLASSMAN (a.k.a. GLASSNER) of Baltimore (b. June 6, 1891, in Rochester, NY) and Samuel Milton SCHOTOFF of New York City (b. April 4, 1892, in Manhattan) married between March 1914 and January 1920, presumably in Maryland. I am trying to find the exact location and date of their marriage.

Circa 1901, Ida moved from Rochester to Baltimore with her parents, Nathan B. (b. 1861 in Russia, d. 1903 in Baltimore) and Mary L. (b. 1867 in Russia, d. 1931 in Baltimore), and her siblings. In 1903, Ida and family lived in a rented home at 1124 Low St, where Mary owned and operated a grocery store; around 1914, the family (minus the father) moved to a rented home at 1403 Jefferson St. On March 8, 1914, Ida appears to be single, since she and her single sisters hosted a party at the Jefferson St address (Baltimore Sun, March 15, 1914).

Sam joined the U.S. Army in 1911 and from 1914 to 1919 was stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Ida and Sam could have met in Rochester, where Sam s uncles and their families may have also resided, or they may have met in Baltimore when Sam was in the U.S. Army. In any case, they were married in a civil ceremony (although both were Jewish) and were renting on Aisquith St, Baltimore, in January 1920 (no children). By April 1930, they had two (their only) children: William Jerome (b. May 24, 1920) and Janice (b. March 21, 1925), and they owned a home at 4729 Alhambra St. In April 1940, they owned a home (since at least 1935) at 931 N. Washington St.

In January 1920, Sam was working as a machine operator at Crown Cork & Seal; in April 1930, he was a station master (likely with the B& O Railroad); in April 1940, Sam was back working at Crown Cork & Seal as a special policeman ; and he retired from Crown Cork & Seal after 1956. Sam passed away in 1967, and Ida died in 1968; they are buried together at MD Free State Post #167 Jewish War Veterans Cemetery, Rosedale.

To date, I have tried to determine Ida and Sam s place and date of marriage by searching Baltimore City Archives, Maryland State Archives, Pennsylvania and West Virginia Marriage Indexes, Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.com, and Baltimore Sun archival records. I have also contacted the Jewish Cemetery Association of Greater Baltimore (Steve Venick). I have had no luck thus far in finding their date and place of marriage and would appreciate suggestions on where to look next.

Searching for a Widow Who May Have Remarried


Chaim Luria

I would like to get some help with a Brick Wall problem that I have not been able to solve for the past 15 years. My great-grandmother Lena Seltzer (b. 1864) came from Ukraine to Baltimore with her husband Hirsch (Harry, Henry) in 1892. In 1906, Hirsch passed away. At that time, Lena was only 42 years old. I have found the grave of Hirsch Seltzer in Baltimore, and Lena is not buried next to him. In the 1910 U.S. census, she is living with her children in Baltimore. After this census, I can find no information on her as Lena Seltzer. I have now come to the conclusion that she probably remarried and, hopefully, stayed in Baltimore to be near her children, whose names were Benjamin Seltzer (d. 1926), Morris Seltzer (d. 1944), Mollie Luria (d. 1964), Ida Cohen (d. 1986), and Anna Gershenson (d. 1985).

With the assistance of Joanna Church, I have searched the Baltimore Sun obituaries for an obituary which mentions the given name Lena along with the family name of one of her children, without finding anything. Also, since the Maryland marriage indexes go by the surname of the groom (which I do not know), there is no way for me to find information on her second marriage. I have used Ancestry.com to find Jewish Lenas living in Baltimore who appear in the 1920 census but not in the 1910 census. The surnames which I got using this method have also not turned out to be helpful.

Does anyone have a good idea?

Origins of VENZE/WENZE


Madeleine Isenberg

After years of trying, I realize I have reached a brick wall. My son is married to the granddaughter of Paul VENZE. Paul s mother, Anna (n e RUBACHA), died when he was 10 years old. I have been trying for years to figure out what the family s name, VENZE, originally came from, because Paul, himself, does not know. Thoughts are that it was derived from a distortion of Ben-Zion (Bentsion ? Bentse ? VENZE), but we have no way to confirm this.

In the oldest U.S. census record that would apply, that of 1910, Paul s grandfather Harry VENZE (a.k.a. Zvi or Hirshel, son of Pesach, the Cohen, per FindAGrave; www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=venze&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=22&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=73025673&df=all&) was born around 1872 and arrived in 1901 from Russia. Harry is buried in Adahs Israel Congregation Cemetery.

Harry VENZE s wife, Tillie, and sons Aaron (later, Harry Aaron) and David, arrived in 1902. David was Paul s father, and Paul bears the Hebrew name of Pesach. Family members named VENZE are buried in Baltimore Jewish cemeteries, and photos of their tombstones are on FindAGrave.com. For unknown reasons, Tillie s tombstone bears the name spelled as WENZE; she died in 1922 and is buried, it seems, in a different cemetery. JOWBR has a location for her stone, in Baltimore s Hebrew Mt. Carmel cemetery, Posvohler Friendly Society section, A Row: 1 Lot/Grave 9. However, for this same person, FindAGrave (www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=wenze&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=22&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=101527282&df=all&) has this message: Note: stone missing from foundation. That is a shame. Is it there and not photographed?? When/where she was born and her actual Hebrew name are not known.

Although some of the census records indicate that some of these VENZEs submitted papers for naturalization, I cannot find any (I have tried both Ancestry.com and Fold3.com). Not knowing what the original name was, I cannot find when they arrived in the U.S. and where they landed. (I ve tried Stephen Morse s wonderful web site, SteveMorse.org, and tried my best for arrivals at Ellis Island and Baltimore.)

Can someone help me locate information about the original name? I m stuck at the brick wall.

Thanks in advance for any help in solving this problem!

Great-Uncle in an Insane Asylum


Meagan O'Boyle

Hi, I'm Meagan. I have been receiving help from a Facebook group called Tracing the Tribe. The members there found that my great-uncle Charles RECHES was a patient in Spring Grove Mental Hospital in Catonsville, MD, according to the 1930 and 1940 censuses. He was married in 1930 but single by 1940. I am hoping to learn whether there is any record of what happened to him at the hospital, why he was there, if he ever got out, and maybe even who admitted him. It would be great to find a photo of him, too. I have searched for information on FamilySearch.org, but there is only so much I can find on that site. Thank you so much for your time.

Great Grandm's Mysterious Origins


Joseph Leahy

I have been researching my great-grandmother, Frieda Fannie WIENER (or WEINER), who was born December 15, 1878, in Germany. Oral family history says she emigrated from the port of Bremen to Baltimore, but we have no idea what town she was from in Germany, thus no way of knowing which German State Archive from which to request her birth certificate.

My search has been successful insofar as I ve located her death and marriage certificates at the Maryland State Archives, but those records only indicate that she was from Germany, not her town/city of origin.

The best source of information so far has been the 1920 U.S. Census: it says she was born in 1878 and immigrated in 1895. I used that information to research ship manifests into Baltimore and New York using Ancestry.com, as well as the microfiche at the National Archives and Maryland Historical Society (just for Baltimore). No luck. I searched her name as Frieda/Freida and Fannie, and her surname as both WIENER and WEINER. Still nothing.

I have also requested information from every Standesamt (Vital Records Office) in each German state. All replies have been negative or require further information that I just don t have.

Can you assist? Thank you.

Chiessa PODRABIN/FREED/RABINOWITZ


Helen Dillon Freed

I need help finding information about Chiessa PODRABIN/FREED/RABINOWITZ, my children s 3x-great-grandmother on their father s side. She was originally from Lithuania (probably Kaunas). Family lore indicates that she immigrated to Baltimore, where she operated a store until her death in approximately 1916.

I am occasionally in Baltimore for short visits, and I would like to find evidence of Chiessa s life in Baltimore. Since I want to use my limited time there most effectively, I hope that someone could direct me to the places where I am most likely to find information to help me.

Here is what I know so far: Chiessa had at least two sons, who may have been twins (per family oral history): Moses (Chaim Moshe) FREED, b. about 1865 in Kaunas, and Victor FREED, b. about 1867 in Kaunas. Moses and Victor were both jewelers and both immigrated, separately, to the U.S. around 1885 1887. Moses lived in Manhattan and Brooklyn; Victor lived in Baltimore (where he was naturalized in 1892) before moving to New York and, later, South Africa. Baltimore city directories show that Victor operated a jewelry store on E. Fayette Street in 1893 and on E. Baltimore Street in 1896.

Moses marriage license (1887) states that his mother was named Chiese PODRABIN. Victor s marriage license (1892) states that his mother was Chessa RABINOWITZ. I have been told that she died during a visit to New York, but I can find no record of her death or burial in New York or Baltimore. I have also been told that she was nearly 90 years old at the time of her death.

I have a copy of a letter that was written in 1916 by Gerson ROBISON (b. 1870). In his letter, Gerson gives permission for Chiessa RABINOWITZ to be buried in the ROBISON family plot in Hebrew Friendship Cemetery in Baltimore. I have visited the cemetery, and there is, in fact, a small plot purchased by the ROBISONs, but there is no evidence of any burials there.

Gerson s letter states that Chiessa was Gerson s aunt on my father s side. According to Gerson s passport application, his father was Lazarus. If Chiessa was Gerson s aunt on his father s side, presumably she was Lazarus sister. I realize that she may, instead, have been the sister of Lazarus father, but given the similar ages of Chiessa s children and Lazarus children, I suspect that they are part of the same generation.

Thanks to the internet, I know that the ROBISON family s surname was originally PODRABINEK. I am aware of an 1858 Sedova record that shows a PODRABINEK family that includes a Gershon (b. 1848) and a Leyzer (b. 1840). I am guessing that perhaps Leyzer is Lazarus, the younger Gerson s father.

I am pretty sure that I have searched most of the immigration/birth/death/marriage records that are available online, yet I can find no record of Chiessa at all. Are there perhaps some records available in Baltimore that might help? What about the Jewish Museum? Are there any records about Jewish merchants, since Chiessa supposedly was a merchant? Is there any way to search electronically for her by her somewhat unusual first name? (I ve tried that on Ancestry.com, with no success.) And are there any locally available family histories that might explain the relationship between Chiessa and the ROBISON/PODRABINEK family?

Many thanks for any advice that you can give!

A Mysterious Death


Sara Ani

I am in the processing of researching my grandmother s eight siblings. My great-uncle, Joseph HOFFMAN, was born August 16 (according to the Pennsylvania death certificate) or September 16, 1903 (according to his tombstone). His wife s name was Rae. In the 1920 census, Joseph is 16 and living at home. In the 1930 census, he is married to Rae, and they have a 2-year-old daughter, Marion. I could not find a 1940 census for the family.

Joseph died under mysterious circumstances. His body was discovered in the Monongahela River off the High Bridge in Homestead, PA, at 12:35 a.m. on September 1, 1944. The death certificate says he drowned. However, there is controversy over what caused the drowning, and this controversy caused ill feelings in the family. I would like to be able to find out whether there are more details concerning the death from a newspaper article, police report, or obituary. Some of the family believed that Joseph had an accident, some believed that it was a suicide, and others believed that he had a connection to the mob and was done in. I do not want to cause anguish to anyone, but I think it would be good to know what really happened and put this incident to rest.

Both Joseph (August or September 16, 1903 September 1, 1944) and Rae (June 7, 1908 July 10, 1968) are buried in the New Light (Ohei Chodesh) Cemetery in Etna, PA. Their daughter Marion (April 14, 1928 March 9, 1937) is buried next to them.

My question is: where can I look for more details concerning my great-uncle s death?

FULD Family from B dingen, Germany


Nan Lefenfeld

My great-great-grandparents, Jonas and Bessy (also known as Bettie or Berthe) FULD, immigrated to Baltimore from B dingen, Germany, sometime prior to 1850. (Their names appear in the 1850 U.S. census records for Baltimore.) B dingen is a small, medieval town situated about 30 miles northeast of Frankfurt. I have identified nearly 20 members of the extended Fuld family who arrived in Baltimore during the 1840s and 1850s, having come from that town. Most of these individuals are buried in Baltimore s Hebrew Friendship Cemetery. I will be going to Germany and plan to briefly visit B dingen. I would like to pose the following questions to JGSMD members:

1. Are you related to any of the Fulds of Baltimore, and/or have you done research related to thefamily?

2. Were some records relating to arrivals at the port of Baltimore in the mid-19th century destroyed at some point in time? I believe that I was told this many years ago and that the individual who mentioned this to me related the loss to the Great Baltimore Fire. However, I do not know if it is true and have no information about what records may have been lost. I have conducted archival research at the Jewish Museum of Maryland and the National Archives and consulted online sources (i.e., Ancestry.com), but I am unable to locate immigration records that I can link definitively to Jonas and Bessy Fuld, although I did locate a record for a Fuld family that arrived in New York in 1849.

3. Have you traveled to a small town in Germany to trace your own family s roots, and, if so, can you share with me your experience in locating records? The Jewish community that existed in B dingen in the 19th century was very small. By the late 1930s, nearly all of the town s Jews had left. A few small Jewish cemeteries still exist, as does a small structure that was used as a synagogue. As I do not speak German, it has been particularly challenging for me to make inquiries to find out whether any records pertaining to the historic community still exist and, if so, where they might be located.

My thanks in advance for any information or advice you can give me on these questions.

The Meyer Cohen Family of Baltimore


Marsha Birnbaum

In working on my family history, I ve been pursuing three challenging goals: ascertaining my great-grandparents date of arrival in New York, confirming whether or not my great-grandfather was ever naturalized, and finding out about another family group s arrival in Baltimore. We have a wealth of oral history and little in documentation. The U.S. census listings for this family and their cemetery headstones contain as much fiction as truth.

Here s what I have so far:

1) My great-grandfather was Meyer COHEN (actually, he was Isaac Meyer; he didn t use his first name, but it is on his headstone). He was born in 1865 and died in Baltimore on November 1, 1939. His wife, Marcia Rosa Cohen, was born in 1870 and died in Baltimore on February 9, 1945. Meyer and his wife, along with their son Louis, sailed from Bremen and arrived in New York around December 1890. They were probably processed at the Barge Office, which served as the immigration facility in New York at that time. They were received by relatives in New York. The family moved to Baltimore after about a year, and Meyer went into business with his cousins.

My grandmother, Yetta/Etta (or Addie), was born in New York on July 8, 1891; this date has been confirmed by a birth certificate showing that Yetta was born to Rosie Pondfeld Cohen and Isaac Cohen at their home, 6 Essex St, New York City, on that date. The family s estimated date of arrival is tied to the fact that Marcia was pregnant during the voyage and stated on the 1900 U.S. census for Baltimore that a baby girl was born in July 1891.

My goal is to obtain my great-grandparents date of arrival. The little family of three Meyer, Marcia or Rose, and 2-year-old Louis haven t shown up under the surnames COHEN or GERSTEIN/HERSTEIN (a name used by some relatives) on any passenger search at Ancestry.com or SteveMorse.org for the estimated time period. During the past few months, curators at the Hall of Records in Annapolis and the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington DC have also searched for me on Ancestry.com and didn t find anything. What should I try next?

2) I am not certain whether Meyer Cohen was ever naturalized. I found an index card at Ancestry.com showing a Meyer Cohen who was naturalized in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore on April 28, 1904 (Cert JWC#23 Folio 74). My intuition tells me that this is the right Meyer Cohen, but I can t be sure. The index card does not give a street address or names of other family members. The card does give the name of a witness, Joseph Cohen, but Meyer did not have a brother or other known relative by that name. The curator at the National Archives in Philadelphia told me that the index card reflects the information that the court collected at that time. Beginning in 1906, the record-keeping system was expanded and became more standardized. More detail was included, such as the names and ages of children.

Before 1922, wives and children became citizens automatically with the man s naturalization. If Meyer was naturalized in 1904, his son Louis should also have been naturalized at that time. However, military documents show that Louis entered the military in 1918 as an alien and gained citizenship with his honorable discharge. The only explanation I have is that early record keeping was so chaotic and varied so greatly among the many U.S. courts, it was like the Wild, Wild West.

I am curious as to whether Meyer was ever naturalized, but I particularly hope that a naturalization document will provide the family s date of arrival. In the 1900 census, a false arrival date was given, and it was claimed that Louis was born in the U.S. And in the 1920 census, the respondent was someone who knew the family but gave wrong ages and dates. (The family owned the house, but they had moved.) As for the year of arrival, this respondent actually reported that the parents were living in America while Louis was born overseas!

I ve contacted the National Archives online to ask where to look for a Declaration of Intent or Petition for Naturalization. If either exists, it should confirm that I have identified the correct Meyer Cohen and give his date of arrival. If these searches are unsuccessful, how can I ascertain whether Meyer was naturalized?

3) Meyer brought all his relatives into Baltimore, including his father, Jacob COHEN (1840-1918), his sister Lena COHEN, and her future husband, Morris PONDFIELD. It might be possible to find them on passenger lists, although the Cohens may have sailed under the name Gerstein. Lena and Morris were born in the 1870s and married in Baltimore on June 7, 1896; thus, it is likely that they arrived in Baltimore between 1891 and 1896. Jacob sailed with other relatives and may have arrived as late as 1904. They probably sailed from the port of Bremen on the German America Line. However, I can t find any evidence of their arrival. Where should I go from here?

The documents I hold include: the 1900 and 1920 U.S. censuses for Baltimore; death certificates for Meyer, Marcia, my grandmother Etta, and Meyer s father, Jacob (Hall of Records, Annapolis); a new certified marriage certificate for Jacob Cohen in his old age in Baltimore, 1918; a birth record for Etta s next sibling, Reba, who was born in Baltimore in 1893 (Annapolis); photos of all their cemetery headstones; Louis s induction and honorable discharge documents; and the naturalization index card for a Meyer Cohen of Baltimore (National Archives).

MONSON in Katerburg


Selene Scherr

I am researching my mother s parents. Esther MONSON, my mother, came from Katerburg, Russia or Poland, as an 8-year-old child with her cousins and aunt after her mother was killed by the Bolsheviks during a pogrom between 1918 and 1920. I found out about the murder through a family member, just a few months ago. Previously, I thought my grandmother died of an illness. I d like to find a death record or perhaps an account of the pogrom in the area. I do not know what happened to my grandfather. I think his name was Frayim.

I do not have Esther MONSON s Petition for Naturalization, but I have her Certificate of Citizenship. I also found the Petition of her aunt, Bessie (Pesya) FIRESTEIN, on Ancestry.com. Bessie and family, including my mother, Esther, arrived in New York on September 20, 1920, on the ship Oscar II. The family moved to Baltimore and settled there. I cannot locate any record of Esther MONSON in Poland or Russia or in the immigration records. Perhaps she had a different name in Poland. I am hoping that the new records from Ron Doctor s Kremenets project will uncover something, and I plan to look through those records soon.

I have been trying to locate Bessie FIRESTEIN s obituary in the Baltimore Sun to learn her maiden name; her date of death is documented as August 5, 1950. My great-aunt s maiden name would be the same as my grandmother s.

I ve consulted Jewish Records Indexing-Poland and thought I found the family listed under FAYERSHTEJN/FAYERSHTEYN in Katerinovka, Poland, but I m not sure that is the right family because the birth dates in that record do not coincide with the dates of birth on the Petition for Naturalization.

Any help or tips would be much appreciated.

Who Is Barbara or Eve Vanderslice?


Amber Hennessey

Here is my dilemma on finding my ancestor: I am trying to find a woman (or, possibly, two women) named Barbara/Barbary or Eve. According to census records, her husband, Moses VANDERSLICE, was born about 1801 in Holland. I already have some information about her. I have combed through Ancestry.com and many Google and Jewish genealogy society sites.

In records of Mikveh Israel Jewish Congregation in Philadelphia, her name is given as Eve, the wife of Moses Vanderslice and the mother of Elsey (b. 1835), Isaac (b. 1837), Rachel (b. 1840), and Aaron (b. 1842). It is possible that, if Eve and Barbara are two different women, Eve died around 1842.

A marriage record for Moses Vanderslice indicates that he married Zibaure/Zibora ___ in 1843 in Philadelphia at Rodeph Shalom Congregation. In the 1850 census, Moses Vanderslice s wife is listed as Barbara, and in the 1860 U.S. census and 1865 Massachusetts state census, she is Barbary. In 1860, two other children, Ann (b. 1842; possibly written mistakenly for Aaron) and Joseph (b. 1845), are living in their household. Barbara was born in Baltimore in 1804 or 1805, a time when there were only about 15-20 Jewish families in Baltimore. Barbara Vanderslice died on 1/12/1880 in Philadelphia and was buried by Congregation Rodeph Shalom.

My questions are: How can I determine whether Eve changed her name to Barbara, or whether Eve died and Barbara was the second wife of Moses? Also, how can I find her birth name? Who were her parents, and where were they from?

I thank you kindly for all your effort and help.

Morris (Moshe) Levin or Levine, Early 1900s Shochet In Baltimore


Jane Alpert

Can anyone help me trace the early history of my ancestor Morris (Moshe) LEVIN or LEVINE in Baltimore? My family believes he was well known and established in the Jewish community from the early 1900s. He was a shochet, had a shop in Lexington Market, and was a scholarly man who affiliated with Shaarei Zion shul and was close with their long-time leader, Rabbi Israel Tabak. Eventually, he owned a number of rental properties that made him and family fairly well off. Yet, none of his descendants has any details on his background in Europe, other than that he came from Novogrodek in Russia (now Belarus) and his parents were named Lazar and Leah. I am interested to know what brought him to Baltimore, how he became successful here, and whether he maintained any ties with the family in Novogrodek.

My research so far has turned up a 1904 Baltimore City Directory, listing him at 213 Pearl St. Also, the 1910 U.S. Census has him at this address with his wife, Lena, and three children, Ida, Rebecca, and Louis. I have also found a 1910 passenger manifest for my great-grandmother, Bella LEVINE ( LEWIN on the passenger manifest), showing that she and the children were coming to live with my great-grandfather Samuel at the same 213 Pearl St address. Samuel and Bella eventually settled with their children at 774 Saratoga St.

There is a family legend that the name in Russia was ELETZKY (phonetic spelling) and was changed by Morris after he came to Baltimore, when a signmaker told him it was too long for a sign on his schochet shop. The family has told this story for years, but no one has been able to document the original family name.

I need to know my family s original surname to make progress tracing back the family in the old country. I would also love any additional information or insights into their lives and work in Baltimore in the early 1900s. I have not found passenger manifests for Morris or Samuel, only for Bella, who was the last of the family to arrive.

I would be grateful for recollections, hints, or advice.

What Ever Happened to Dreske/Dora/Thelma?


George Rothstein

I am looking for a first cousin once removed on my father s mother s side. She immigrated as Dreske, appears in census reports as Dora and has always been known to her family as Thelma.

Here is what I already know about her:

Probable match on ship`s manifest shows Eva Leah (Chava Leie Lewin) arriving on the Netherlands-American Line Obdam from Rotterdam on November 11, 1897. Accompanying her are Josef Elie (Albert?) aged 10, Dreske (Dora/Thelma?) age 8 and Mendel (Victor Emanuel) aged 6. If Dreske is Thelma her age and Mendel`s age may have been switched.

1900 US Census shows her name as Dora living with parents, Israel and Eva and brothers Albert, Emanuel and Samuel at a rented apartment at 423 Delancy Street, New York City. Shows her date of birth as December 1885, shows she immigrated in 1897, that she can read, write and speak English and that she is in school.

1905 NY State Census shows Dora living with her parents and 4 brothers and my grandmother, Lena Levine, at 60 E. 98th Street in NYC. Her age is given as 19 and her occupation, milliner.

[From Barbara Levine, her niece] Struck and killed as a young woman in a car accident. Was always known to the family as Thelma. "When Dad [Irving (Abraham Levine) Levine) - b.NYC 1902] moved to Baltimore he told me this story: He was a kid living in New York. Previously he had told me they lived on the Lower East Side. He was coming home from school and other kids yelled at him "Hey Levine, Your sister`s dead". He then found that she had been struck by a car near their place. Information from the Ivy Dall Family Tree

1910 US Census shows Dora's parents and two youngest brothers (including Irving/Abraham) living at Lincoln Park and Boonton Turnpike in Pequannock, NJ. Dora is not

1920 US Census shows parents and Irving/Abraham living at 390 Berraman Street in

Possible match: Dora Levine, died 28 October 1915, age 26, buried in Bayside Cemetery,

Possible match: Washington Cemetery, 5400 Bay Parkway,Brooklyn, NY, 11230, 718-377-8690. Dora Levine, died 12/30/1918 on Grant Street in Manhattan, Cemetery 1, Post 19, Row 7, Grave 5. Sent for photograph 6/7/13. NO this Dora was 54 years old per death record.

I have done the following research:

Looked at Italian Gen for deaths of all Dreske/Dora/Thelmas (regardless of last name) who died between 1905 and 1930. Obtained death certificates for any candidates born around 1885.

Looked at all Jewish cemeteries in NY area that had location finders.

Looked at Brooklyn Eagle and NY Times data bases for reports of a car accident involving a Dreske, Dora, Thelma or Levine.

Questions: Could Thelma have lived separated from her parents as a single Orthodox Jewish woman? Could she have living in NY with a relative or at a boarding house when her family lived in NJ? Could Irving have remembered incorrectly and his sister actually died in NJ? I haven t been able to search local NJ papers for the accident. Irving was born in 1902. If he was coming home from school he must have been at least 6 years old. But sometime between 1905 and 1910 he was living in NJ. Could he have remembered incorrectly where he was living when his sister died?

I would appreciate any suggestions you can make to track down this elusive relative. Thanks!

Bessie Klivansky Great-grandmother


Minna Culiner

Bessie Klivansky was born around 1866 in Russia to Samuel Klivansky and Frada (or Freda) Levine. I believe she arrived in the U.S. around 1886 or 1887, but I am not sure what city or port she arrived in. I have a feeling she lived with a cousin when she first arrived in Baltimore; however, I have no information to confirm this theory.

She lived in Baltimore around 1887 and married my great-grandfather, Morris Friedlander, about the same time. They had four children between 1887 and 1895. Her children are as follows: Rose Friedlander, born May 1887; Minnie Friedlander, born July 1889; Bessie Friedlander, born July 1891; and Israel Friedlander, born June 1895.

I found an 1897 death certificate for her. The certificate had no information about her spouse or parents. She died in childbirth at 1144 East Lombard Street and was buried in the Mikro Kodesh Synagogue Cemetery on Philadelphia Road. The undertaker was J. Gittlesohn of 800 East Lombard Street. The gravestone no longer exists, and there is only an empty plot, per Beth Israel.

She is not listed on any census or city directory from 1887 to 1897. Unfortunately, there is no 1890 census, either. I did find her brother, Jacob Kline, in Raleigh, Wake Co., NC.

His obituary in 1925 did not mention his parents names or his deceased siblings names.

I am trying to find out: 1) what country she came from, 2) when she arrived in Baltimore, MD, 3) the ship she arrived on, and 4) if she has any living family members who were told any stories about her. Where would you research next?
Instructions for Posting Problems



Instructions for Posting Research Suggestions

  • Write a brief, focused response, giving a research suggestion or pointer to help resolve the problem.
  • Be sure to mention the title of the problem to which you are responding, and provide your full name at the end of your response.
  • If possible, supply links to suggested databases or web sites, and provide reference information for printed resources.
  • Send your response to Susan Steeble at ssteeble@gmail.com. Please put the words BRICK WALL RESPONSE in your email subject line.

©2014 Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland
webmaster