Showing posts with label Simon Schwartz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simon Schwartz. Show all posts

Monday, November 8, 2010

Mystery Monday - Margaret Schwartz and son William

My great-uncle Samuel SCHWARTZ died in 1954, while married to his second wife, Margaret (his first wife, Anna, had died in 1940). According to family lore, Sam and Margaret drifted away from the family after their marriage and once Sam died, leaving nothing to the children of his first marriage, the rift was complete.

Looking for more on Margaret, I found a grave for someone with that name in the same cemetery where Sam & Anna are buried...in fact, Margaret's plot is in the same block and section as Sam & Anna, and the burial society (1st Hungarian Independent Lodge) is the same for all three. 2022 update: Cemetery is Riverside in Saddle Brook, New Jersey. Sam's Find a Grave memorial is here.


Now for the mystery: The next of kin listed on Margaret's cemetery info is "William Schwartz, son." Although I don't know whether this is the correct Margaret (I've guessed wrong before!), nobody has ever heard of Margaret and Sam having a son. Is William Schwartz a distant relative? Does he still have any of Sam Schwartz's family heirlooms?

Mystery solved! My cousin Bonnie told me she remembers that Margaret had a child from her first marriage, so William might have been my great-uncle Sam's stepson. However, it turns out that William is NOT the correct guy. Margaret's son was named Simon, as I learned when I found him with his mother and stepdad in the 1950 US Census. My 2024 conclusion is: Margaret Schwartz buried in Riverside unlikely to be the person in my family tree.