In Memory of Cousin Annie Jacobs, 1895-1896

 

My 1c2r Annie Jacobs died on this day in 1896, only 13 months old. She was the third child of my great uncle Joseph Jacobs (1864-1918) and his wife, Eva Michalovsky Jacobs (1869-1941).

As shown on her death cert above, little Annie died of bronchitis, with other illnesses contributing to her death. She was buried in the Plungianer society plot of Mount Zion Cemetery in Queens, New York. 

The Jacobs family suffered many hardships and losses after arriving in New York City from Russia. Joe came first in 1882, bringing his mother Rachel Shuham Jacobs within a few years. He became a US citizen in 1888, and married another immigrant, Eva Michalovsky in New York City on March 2, 1890. He initially worked as a cap-maker and a tailor to support his family, but as his health declined, he later worked as a janitor.

Joe and Eva had four daughters and two sons together. Sadly, Annie was the first of their children to die, followed by Pauline in 1907 (at age 6) and Flora in 1923 (at age 32). Joseph's mother Rachel died in 1915, and he himself died in 1918 of Parkinson's, after being hospitalized for nearly a decade. 

Dear cousin Annie, I'm keeping your memory alive as I blog about you, and put your story on public family trees, 127 years after you passed away.

The Perils of Researching Pauline

 

It took a village to overcome a number of perils in researching Pauline Jacobs, who sadly died at a very young age.

Pauline, my 1c2r, was a daughter of paternal g-g-uncle Joseph Jacobs (1864-1918) and g-g-aunt Eva Micalovsky Jacobs (1869-1941). She was a younger sister of Flora Jacobs, whose life I wrote about yesterday.

My first actual document recording Pauline's death (see above) came from the cemetery where she's buried, Mount Zion in Maspeth, New York. The cemetery has a handy "interment search" where I located Pauline, her sister Flora, and her parents and grandmother, all buried in the Plungianer Unterstutzungs Verein plot. They copied and sent me Pauline's interment record, shown at top of this post.

Even with this information in hand, I still faced four perils in researching Pauline!

Peril One: Details Count 

If I had not seen the cemetery record card with my own eyes, I might have believed the incorrect death index for Pauline, shown at right, which indicates 1908 as her year of death. There is no access to images of the actual index, just this transcription. In general, I prefer to see for myself, not blindly trust transcriptions.

My guess is that the actual death info was received by New York City in 1908, since Pauline died just two days before the end of 1907. But I believe the cemetery got the year correct and the index/transcription was incorrect. Therefore I searched for Pauline's official death cert with the assumption she died in 1907.

Peril Two: Limited Access to Images

Searching on FamilySearch.org, I could see that Pauline's death cert was in fact in the database. However, images of many vital records are accessible only at a Family History Center. The pandemic has mostly closed these down for the time being. 

Happily, I knew from social media that a few volunteers regularly visit FHC parking lots and access the database wirelessly to pull images by request. It's impossible to say enough good things about these volunteers, who are incredibly generous with their time and energy.** 

A kind parking lot angel saw my FB request for Pauline's death cert (I provided full details, including the cert number from the index and my belief that the year was 1907). Within a few minutes, she had accessed and sent me the image, for which I am truly grateful. 

The cert says Pauline had been treated for 3 weeks at Willard Parker Hospital in New York City (specializing in communicable diseases). The cert also solved the medical mystery of Pauline's untimely death at the age of 7. Well, it would have if I could have deciphered the cause of death. 

** During 2021, Family Search is offering a remote lookup service that takes the place of parking lot angels. I've had very good luck using this service! Try it.

Peril Three: Handwriting and Medical Jargon

The cause of death was handwritten...and I couldn't decipher what it said, let alone what it meant. More eyes were needed. I took a screen shot of the cause of death and posted on Twitter with a request for #Genealogy help. And I got out my tissue box, ready to cry.

Within moments, answers began pouring in. Not only did these savvy folks know that the cause of death was scarlatina (scarlet fever), but they read the rest of the details: 24 days, sepsis. Scarlet fever can be treated today but it was quite perilous in the early days of the 20th century, well before antibiotics, making me tear up. 

Thanks to the helpful Twitter community of genies, I knew a lot more about Pauline's fate. But I still needed one more piece of the puzzle for a better picture of Pauline's life.

Peril Four: Finding the Right Jacobs

My next quest was to obtain little Pauline's birth certificate. I clicked to the Italian Genealogical Group's New York City vital records databases and searched for births of "Jacobs, Pauline" after 1899 and before 1902. Jacobs is a fairly common name, of course. I began with her name as recorded on the cemetery and death documents. I would have tried "Jacob, Pauline" if no decent possibilities showed up--because different official records showed "Jacob" OR "Jacobs" for this family's surname at different times. 

I was able to narrow down the list of possibilities, as shown above, from the ItalianGen database results. In my opinion, the most likely is the second on the list, Pauline Jacobs, born on June 26, 1901. I decided it was worth paying $15 for this record and I ordered online from New York City, saving a week or more in the long waiting time for a response. 

Having overcome four perils of researching Pauline, I'll hope to see this birth certificate before the end of 2020. Meanwhile, I'm remembering this cousin who unfortunately died way too young, keeping her memory alive for future generations. 

-- This post is part of the Genealogy Blog Party "Virtual Research Trip" for July, 2021. 

Remembering Thoroughly Modern Flora

The 1c2r cousin in this picture is Flora "Florence" Jacobs (1890-1923), the first child born to my paternal great-great uncle Joseph Jacobs (1864-1918) and his wife, great-great aunt Eva Micalovsky Jacobs (1869-1941). 

Until this week, Flora was just a name from the past on my father's side of the family tree. 

Flora Jacobs in the Roaring 20s

Now I can see from the photo that my cousin Flora was thoroughly modern for the 1900s, a young woman of the Roaring Twenties with cropped hair and a fashionable frock. 

What an emotional experience it was to see Flora's face for the very first time. I am very grateful to the exceptionally kind photo angel who visited the cemetery and sent this closeup of Flora's gravestone. She also was thoughtful enough to post the gravestone photos on Find a Grave.

From US and NY Census records, I learned that Flora worked as a bookkeeper for a neckwear company in 1910, as a "forelady" in a garment factory in 1915, and as an operator on knitted goods in 1920. Working in New York City's garment district, she would have seen and wanted to wear the latest styles, I'm sure, gazing at her fashionable dress.

Flora Laid to Rest in Mount Zion Cemetery

Sad to say, Flora died of rheumatic endocarditis on September 26, 1923, only weeks before her 33rd birthday. She was buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Queens, New York, near her father (who died 5 years earlier) and sister Pauline (who died 16 years earlier).

Flora's headstone, translated by the nice folks on Tracing the Tribe/FB, indicates that her Hebrew name was Bluma--"flower." She was named for her maternal grandmother,  Blume Manes Micalovsky - I found Blume's name on Eva's marriage license!

Notice the unusual wording "My beloved daughter" just above Flora's name? If I hadn't been aware of the father's death, this wording would be a hint that only one parent was alive when Flora died. The surviving siblings at the time were Louis, Hylda, and Frank Morris. 

In 2020, I'm remembering thoroughly modern Flora of the last century's Roaring Twenties and honoring her memory by keeping her story alive.

Remembering Great-Great Uncle Joseph, the Cap-Maker

On this day 102 years ago, my great-great uncle Joseph Jacobs died. Born in what was then Russia (but today is Lithuania), Joseph came to New York City via Castle Garden in the 1880s. He was a single young man, the first wave of immigration in his family, paving the way for his mother and his sister (and her family) to find more opportunity in America.

Joseph and his mother (my paternal great-great-grandma Rachel Shuham Jacobs) and sister (my great-grandma Tillie Jacobs Mahler) initially lived in the Lower East Side of Manhattan where so many immigrants crowded into small apartments. At the time he was naturalized in 1888, Joseph's occupation was "cap-maker" (see naturalization index card at top). This was a period when well-dressed men wore hats and boys of all ages wore caps, so his skill was in demand.

He married Eva Micalovsky in March of 1890. In December of that year, the couple welcomed their first-born child, daughter Flora. I'll be remembering Flora in tomorrow's post.

Why Joseph's Occupation Changed

In the 1900 US Census, Joseph was listed with his wife Eva and four children, still living on the Lower East Side. Now his occupation was peddler. Then in the 1905 NY Census, he was a janitor, supporting his wife and five children. I wondered about this change in occupation, because peddler and janitor jobs probably meant he earned far less than as a cap-maker. 

I got a hint of why he changed occupations when I found Joseph in the 1910 US Census. Joseph was no longer living with his wife and children. Instead, he was listed by the Census as being in the Montefiore Home & Hospital for Chronic Invalids. 

The enumerator wrote that Joseph was in his first marriage (correct), was married for 19 years (actually 20 but close enough), was 55 years old (sort of close), could read but not write (likely true), had petitioned for naturalization but was not yet a citizen (nope, he was naturalized years earlier). 

When Joseph died on November 3, 1918, the death certificate revealed the sad reason why Joseph had been hospitalized for so many years: his cause of death was "paralysis agitans" or Parkinson's disease. He is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery, Maspeth, New York, where others in his family were laid to rest.

On the anniversary of Joseph's death, I'm reminded of his courage as the journey-taker who left Eastern Europe so the rest of his family could have a better life in America.