Tracing My Mahler Ancestors

Today I visited the graves of great-grandparents Meyer and Tillie MAHLER--thank you for responsive, caring cemetery staff members! They helped me locate the graves in the middle of very crowded plots and photocopied the cards on file. Although I had their death certs, I never knew the middle names of these ancestors, so this was helpful. Although they died decades apart, their stones were side by side.

Feeling like Peter Falk's Columbo, I turned back to the cemetery office before leaving and said, "Just one more thing..." This cemetery has a searchable online database and I had previously searched for Tillie's mother, Rachel Jacob (or Jacobs). I found a Rachel Jacob, but not in the same cemetery section. Almost didn't ask but as long as I was in the office, I did. All I knew was her name and that she died after 1900 (because of her appearance in the 1900 Census).

The cemetery staff checked a big ledger book and there was Rachel JACOBS, along with her death date which I would never have found otherwise. Sadly, it was impossible to find her grave stone (must have weathered away since her death in 1904) but as soon as I arrived home, I searched out and found her NYC death cert number. Yes! In approximately one month, I'll know her full name, parents, place of birth, and anything else that NYC records on death certs from that era. This was a very good genealogy day for me!

2022 update: This was NOT my Rachel Jacobs, sorry to say. But I did upload headstone photos to Ancestry, Find a Grave, and into my genealogy software.