Grandma Minnie's Lavalier Pendant

Minnie Farkas Schwartz's pendant

My immigrant maternal grandma Hermina (Minnie) Farkas Schwartz (1886-1964) lived a modest life, with not a lot to spare for frills like jewelry. She and her husband worked long hours, standing on their feet in the Bronx grocery store they owned.

They took one "honeymoon" trip to Florida during retirement, decades after they were married. Otherwise, their big retirement extravagance(!) was renting an inexpensive bungalow outside New York City for a few weeks each summer.

Yet Minnie left each of her granddaughters a couple of fine jewelry pieces. I received the delicate gold pendant shown here, plus a diamond ring. Sis's inherited earrings have lovely European-cut diamonds. I'm documenting these heirlooms for future generations, and telling Grandma's stories to go along with the jewelry.

The question that Sis and I want to answer is . . . where did Grandma Minnie get this jewelry, and when?

Minnie's Immigrant Background 

Minnie was the second-oldest child of Moritz Farkas (1857-1936) and Leni Kunstler Farkas (1865-1938). The family lived in Beregszasz, Hungary, where Moritz managed agricultural land and leased some land for his own crops.

According to family legend, Moritz was so successful for so long that one year, he didn't bother insuring his crops. That year, a big hailstorm wiped out his plantings, leaving him financially ruined.

In 1899, Moritz sailed for America to make a new life, leaving his wife and children in Hungary. In 1900, Leni's mother sent her to America to reunite with Moritz, while the children remained behind. Finally, Minnie (age 14) and her older brother brought two of their younger siblings with them to New York to reunite with the parents. It wasn't until 1903 that the entire family was together in one small apartment on East 3rd Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Minnie and Teddy in the Grocery Business

Minnie immediately went to work to help support the family. She met her future husband, Tivador "Teddy" Schwartz (1887-1965) in a Hungarian deli in the Lower East Side. Initially, her family was against the match, but she eventually persuaded them to give their consent. Minnie and Teddy married in 1911, both 24 years old.

Teddy had to give up being an agent for steamship lines when World War I erupted. Instead, he opened a grocery store in the Bronx. For nearly 40 years, Teddy ran a store and Minnie worked alongside him, often relying on her younger sisters to care for her son and twin daughters.

The grocery business helped Minnie and Teddy to weather the Depression with sufficient food, but the stress of long hours standing on their feet hurt their health. Teddy moved his store several times as the population of the Bronx moved northward to more suburban-like neighborhoods. They took their first out-of-state vacation only after selling the store during the 1950s, when they were already in their late 60s.

Who Had Money for Jewelry?

Sis and I wonder how Minnie (or possibly Teddy) acquired the pieces of jewelry that we girls inherited. We agree there was little extra money until possibly after the sale of the grocery store. Maybe Teddy splurged for Minnie's special birthday or their 25th or 50th wedding anniversary? Or Sis wonders whether customers may have paid for groceries with jewelry during the Depression?

Next step: Asking an older cousin whether Minnie's mother might have brought some good jewelry with her from Hungary or inherited jewelry heirlooms from her ancestors. UPDATE: Cousin doesn't know of any inherited jewelry that came from Hungary, so the origin of the lavalier pendant remains a mystery.