When Isaac Met Henrietta (1905)

1905 NY Census

Henrietta Mahler married Isaac Burk on June 10, 1906, in New York City. 

Over and over, I've tried to figure out how they met. He was a carpenter from Russia (now Lithuania), she was the Latvian-born daughter of a tailor.

Now the 1905 New York State Census has provided a very tantalizing clue: two "Burke" brothers living as boarders with Henrietta's family (father Meyer, mother Tillie, and siblings) in an apartment in Manhattan. Do the math: That's 11 people in what was certainly no more than a 3-bedroom apartment, if they were lucky.

One boarder was Meyer Burke [sic], a cutter from Russia who had arrived in the US 2 years earlier. His age seems to be 20. There's a good chance that this Meyer was working with Meyer Mahler, and boarding with him for convenience.

The other boarder was Isidore Burke [sic], a carpenter from Russia, 23 years old, who had arrived in the US only 1 year earlier. Wanna bet this was Meyer's brother?

My grandfather Isaac Burk was a carpenter. He came to the US in 1904, having first stopped off in New Brunswick, Canada on December 5, 1903, following a 12-day trans-Atlantic trip from Liverpool on the S. S. Lake Erie.

1910 Census

It's very easy for me to believe that the Isidore shown on the 1905 Census is actually Isaac, especially since in the 1910 Census, there's a boarder named "Jennie Birk" living with Tillie Mahler and her family. Isaac Burk spelled his name "Birk" earlier in his US stay...and nobody ever spelled "Burk" the same way. Jennie, by the way, is an "operator" meaning she operated a sewing machine.

Now to hunt down Meyer and Jennie Burk/Birk/Berk/Burke and try to find out more!