Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Tombstone Tuesday: Sandor "Alex" Farkas, Born on Christmas?

Great-uncle Sandor (Alex) Farkas (1885-1948) was born in December 1885, in Botpalad, Hungary to my great-grandparents, Moritz Farkas and Leni Kunstler Farkas. His actual birth record, shown below, says December 12, but Alex always wrote December 25 on all his U.S. official records.*

Alex was married to Jennie Katz (1886-1974) on Christmas Eve, 1914, one of several weddings in my family tree that took place on December 24th.

Both Alex and Jennie are buried in Mt. Hebron Cemetery in NY, within the plot of the Kossuth Ferencz Hungarian Literary Sick & Benevolent Association, which Alex helped to found in 1904.

* Turns out he sometimes claimed a different birth date. In 1918, Alex told the draft board that he was born Jan 5, 1885, suggesting he was almost a full year older than he really was. Hmm.

8 comments:

  1. I always wonder about the "whys" when I find such a discrepancy in birth dates. I too have ancestors who consistently wrote one date for their birth and yet records prove otherwise.

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  2. The mysteries of family histories...every answer raises a new question. Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  3. Born on the 25th and married on the 24th, a great seasonal post. It is strange about his birth date in the records but I would say he knew when he was born.
    Our son was born on the 23rd. It makes this time of year extra special.

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  4. Happy bday to your son, Colleen, and all good wishes for Christmas and the new year!

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  5. Perfect Tombstone Tuesday post for this week. Merry Christmas to you and yours, too, Marian.

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  6. Thanks, Anna. And good wishes to you and yours! Looking forward to reading your posts in 2017.

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  7. Interesting to consider the process that he went through to select his preferred English name. Shmuel Zanvel --> Sandor (obviously seen as short for Alexander) --> Alex.

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  8. Emily, Sandor/Alex's maternal grandfather was Shmuel Zanvil Kunstler, who died in 1869. We have other Alex/Sandor names on the family tree as well! Happy holidays to you and your family.

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