Discovering the Short Life of Augusta Sarah Markell

Julius Markell (1882-1966) was one of four Markell brothers, in-laws to my father's Mahler family. Depending on the source, Julius was born in Russia on September 1st of 1882 or in 1883. 

First family

Julius worked as a plasterer when in his 20s, which somehow brought him to the West Coast of the United States, where he married Ella Lebowitz (1884-1965). 

Ella and Julius had a daughter together in 1908, and the family soon moved to Boston and then to Pittsburgh, where Ella filed for divorce in 1915. The legal proceedings dragged on for years. Meanwhile Julius took off to Brooklyn, New York to work in doll manufacturing. His naturalization, dated April 1920 in Brooklyn, indicated his wife Ella and daughter Ruth were living in Pittsburgh.

Second family

By 1921, Julius was apparently divorced and he had moved on to yet another occupation (theater manager) in a new location (Pittsfield, Massachusetts). On May 31, 1921, the City Clerk of Pittsfield performed the wedding ceremony for Julius and his second wife, Tillie Sacks. By 1923, the couple had moved back to Brooklyn, where Julius was again working as a plasterer.

New news: Revisiting my research last week, I did an online search for both the husband and wife's names together. The fifth result from that search was a Find a Grave memorial that was created on May 29, 2025, so only newly visible. I used the info on that memorial to search FamilySearch for the baby girl's original birth and death records, which popped up immediately.

Sad to say, I learned that little Augusta Sarah Markell was born on March 28, 1922 in Pittsfield (as shown on the birth cert at top) and died just one month and seven days later, on May 5, 1922, due to accidental burns of her toes. Heartbreaking. I can't even imagine how the parents felt.

Happily, the couple's second child, William, was born in March of 1923 in Brooklyn, NY--just about a year from the day their first child was born in Pittsfield. I don't know whether anyone ever spoke of Augusta in later years, but she is now on my family trees to be remembered for the future.