Meyer & Tillie Mahler's story

Was my great-grandpa Meyer Elias Mahler (1856?-1910) part of the famed Luria family?

Gravestones of Meyer Elias Mahler and Tillie Rose Jacobs Mahler

I know he was a tailor from Latvia (sometimes part of Russia), and he married Tillie Rose Jacobs in 1880. He came to America in 1885, and she followed in 1886. (See below for blog posts about Tillie and the Jacobs family.)

Great-grandpa Meyer took the oath of citizenship to fulfill his dream of being naturalized in 1900, just a decade before he died.

Children of Meyer Elias Mahler and Tillie Rose Jacobs Mahler:

David Mahler, Henrietta Mahler, Morris Mahler, Sarah Mahler, 

Ida Mahler, Dora Mahler, Mary Mahler

Meyer's background is especially intriguing because his death certificate shows his mother as Hinde Luria of Kovno. So far, the Luria family genealogist hasn't found a definite connection, but the translation of Meyer's headstone indicates another connection:

Here lies the distinguished man from the branch of the fear of heaven, author of the sefer "Kanaf Ranannim," R' Meir Eliyahu son of R' Dovid Akiva, born in 5616 died 3 Shvat 5670.

Here are my posts about Meyer, 2008-2012:

• Which ship did Meyer arrive on? (I'm still researching ships that arrived in New York City on the date Meyer told US authorities he came, May 27, 1885.)
• Meyer Mahler, d. 1910 (his death certificate).
• Meyer and Tillie's gravestones (and more about the Luria connection)
• Visiting Meyer and Tillie's graves (with closeup photos)
• What was going on in the world when Meyer came to NYC in 1885 (background about international, national, and local doings that shaped Meyer's world)
• Meyer Mahler becomes a citizen (in 1900)

Now for a few links to posts about Tillie Rose Jacobs and her story:

• Seeking Tillie's siblings (my early post). I know now that she had one brother, Joe Jacob (or Jacobs??) who married Eva Michalovsky.
• Great-grandma Tillie died at 99. Or so we think, since she was cagey about her age, fooling her family into giving her a 100th birthday party early, according to fam legend.
• Tillie and some of her children lived at 2347 Morris Avenue in the Bronx, according to the 1925 NY Census--the same building where her daughter Ida and son-in-law Louis Volk lived.

Tillie and Joe's mother was Rachel Jacob(s). So far, I haven't learned her birth/death dates. In 1900, the census shows Rachel living with Tillie and Meyer and their family at 88 Christie Street, in New York City's Lower East Side. The census says she had 2 children, both living (that would be Tillie and her brother Joe). But then again, the census says Rachel was born in 1849 and this would be unlikely, given Tillie's age. Rachel's maiden name was Shuham. Interestingly, Joe Jacob and his wife Eve and their children also lived in the same tenement building in 1900.