The Lewis Girls and Mom: Elusive in Two Census Counts

1940 US Census

My mother's first cousin Eugene Albert Schwartz (1916-1983) married Dorothy Lewis (1919-1989) on Christmas Day, 1940. Constructing a timeline, I was recently tracing Dorothy, two sisters, and their widowed mother Mildred Weinberg Lewis back from Dorothy's marriage and forward from Dorothy's birth on December 12, 1919. 

For Dorothy, I had:

• Bronx birth certificate index (digitized original not yet available on New York City Municipal Archives site)
• 1920 US Census
• 1925 New York State Census
• 1940 marriage in New York City, Dec 25
• 1950 US Census
• 1989 obit in Arizona Republic newspaper
• Find a Grave memorial site with photo of gravestone
• Info from Eugene's and Dorothy's grandchildren about family life and their retirement to Sun City West, covering later years up to the 1980s

Hey, where was Dorothy in the 1930 and 1940 US Census? Ancestry didn't find her or her mother and sisters in either of those two Census years. I tried a few different ways to search, but no joy. I wanted to fill out my timeline more completely. How could a widowed Mom and three daughters disappear? 

Try a different site, different index/transcription

Then the lightbulb went on. I needed to try a site that indexes and transcribes the US Census differently. So I searched on FamilySearch for all three of the daughters, including Pearl Edith Lewis, who married George Frey in November, 1939. This was a winning research combo.

I quickly found Dorothy with her mother Mildred Lewis and sister Jeanette Lewis on 119 Tudor Place in the Bronx in 1940. The entry directly below is Pearl Edith Lewis with her new husband George Frey. See excerpt from the Census at top. Success in 1940!

Still no sign of them in 1930

Yet Millie and her family are nowhere to be found in 1930. I tried FamilySearch's 1930 US Census collection, MyHeritage's 1930 US Census collection, and Ancestry's US Census 1930 collection with the three daughters' names and/or their mom's name, collectively and individually. No joy.

Millie remarried!

Meanwhile, I looked closely at all three of the daughters in the 1950 US Census and discovered that Millie had indeed remarried after being widowed. She was with the head of household, Max Rabinowitz, and her daughter Pearl Edith and that family. It took 15 seconds to find the New York City marriage license for Millie Lewis and Max Rabinowitz in August, 1943. 

Millie and her second husband Max are both buried in Sharon Gardens Cemetery, Valhalla, New York. I've suggested an edit to Millie's Find a Grave page to link her and her second husband, and will continue to link her to more relatives over time. I'm so glad the timeline helped me flesh out the lives of these in-laws.

This is my post for Amy Johnson Crow's prompt "What the Timeline Shows" in her long-running 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series.

Why I Love Address Books Handed Down from Ancestors!

I'm a big fan of scrutinizing address books handed down from ancestors in the tree. Especially since my maternal family tree has three men named Joseph Roth, it's been a challenge to determine who's descended from which Joseph and what the relationships are between the Roth branches. My connection is through a sibling of my great-grandmother who married a brother of Joseph Roth. 

Above, a snippet from the neatly printed loose-leaf address book of Joseph Roth (1858-1945), who was married to Julia Gutfried (1862-1937, name Americanized by others in the family as Goodfried). The book was handed down to a granddaughter who very kindly allowed me to scan and analyze the contents.

Matching names to the tree

I've worked my way through nearly all of this address book, matching the names and addresses to this Joseph Roth's children and grandchildren. This entry for Howard Weinberg initially puzzled me, especially the notation "private."

But I was also missing a spouse for Joseph Roth's granddaughter Vivian Ruth Rethy (1917-1991). Could Howard be Vivian's husband? Bear in mind, the address book didn't get handed down in Vivian's line, it was from one of the other Joseph Roth men in the tree 😉.

At the back of the address book was a list of names and dates. They were birth dates of Joseph's children, their spouses/children, and some in-laws. I matched "Vivian Weinberg" with her birthdate, and below her name was "Howerd __" meaning same surname as Vivian. 

Creatively spelled given name, but now I had a good hypothesis. I researched Howard Weinberg with the birth date in the phone book, and in conjunction with Vivian's name. I quickly found their marriage record and Census documents with street address, etc. 

Occupation and address matches 

Also I found Howard's WWII draft registration from 1940, showing his occupation as an optician. Continuing my search, I came up with a New York City phone book entry for an optometrist/optician in Manhattan, with both business and residence address/phone numbers.

These street addresses and phone numbers are an exact match for the address book kept by Joseph Roth, grandfather of Howard's wife. A bit more research and I had an obit for Howard Leonard Weinberg (1916-1985) who had retired from the Big Apple to Palm Beach, Florida. I'll do descendancy research to try to trace Howard and Vivian's two children.  With luck, more cousin connections are in my future.

Amy Johnson Crow's genealogy prompt for this week in her #52Ancestors series is "Handed Down."