52 Ancestors #28: John Slatter, Son of a Cook at Christ Church College, Oxford

John Slatter (1837-1901) was hubby's great-granddaddy. He was third of six children born to John and Sarah Slatter in Oxfordshire.

Great-great-granddaddy John Slatter Sr. was a cook at Christ Church College in Oxford, England, I know from the baptismal records at St. Ebbe's Church.

Thanks to the kind folks at the Woodland Cemetery Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio, I now have John Slatter's exact birth date, which is carved on his grave stone. And with that confirmation, I was able to send for his birth cert.

Now I know John Slatter was born on Blackfriars Road, St Ebbe, Oxford, to a cook, John Slatter, and his wife, Sarah Harris Slatter. Although the birth was on January 31, 1838, it wasn't registered with authorities until March 7th.

Great-granddaddy John married Mary Shehen (or Shehan) and they had six children (five lived beyond childhood). After the children were grown and gone, Mary seems to have died. John Slatter left for North America and remarried, to Louisa M_____ [maiden name unknown]. She died before him, in February of 1895, and was buried in Woodland Cemetery. So far, no luck getting her death certificate...but I'll try again.

John died at the Cleveland home of his daughter, Mary Slatter Wood, in 1901, and he was buried beside Louisa. Only then was a gravestone erected. John's stone includes the honorific "Father" but Louisa is recognized only as "His wife, Louisa M." Maybe Mary didn't know her step-mother's maiden name? That's a surprisingly plausible explanation because Mary only arrived in Ohio in 1895, the year Louisa died.

52 Ancestors #27: Joseph Roth and Julia Goodfried Roth, Naturalized 105 Years Ago

Joseph and daughters: top, Helen and Blanche; bottom, Serena and Theresa

Joseph Roth (1860-1945) married Julia Goodfried (or Gutfried, 1862-1937) in Hungary, and the couple had four daughters before they came to New York City in March, 1903.

This week, during a visit with one of Joseph's granddaughters, I was able to scan his address book, which included specific details about his naturalization.

Joseph Roth in 1921

Joseph's petition was filed in the US Circuit Court, Southern District of New York, on July 27, 1909, when he was 48 years old and Julia was 46. Today I'm sending for those documents to learn more!

Joseph was a brother of Bela B. Roth, whose first wife Sali/Zolli Kunstler died young. Sali was my great-grandma Lena Kunstler Farkas's sister. I've written about Joseph/Josef and the Roth family before. In short, Joseph was, like Bela, a cousin to my family.

Now for more fun. Joseph Roth listed two other Joseph Roths in his own address book! Here's the rundown:

• The Joseph Roth who owned the address book lived with his oldest daughter Blanche and son-in-law Alex Rethy on West 108th Street in Manhattan in 1940, after Julia Goodfried Roth died.
• Joseph Roth #1 was listed in the address book at 70-03 Harrow Street in Forest Hills, NY. I will check that address in the 1940 census. This is where the OTHER Joseph Roth lived, the son of Bela Roth! One of his descendants confirmed the address.
• Joseph Roth #2 was listed in the address book at 20 Pond Park Road in Harbor Hills, Great Neck, Long Island. I will check that address in the 1940 census.

Using Stephen Morse's handy-dandy one-step ED finder for the 1940 Census, I am looking up Census districts for Joseph Roth #1 and #2 and manually paging through the listings. Maybe some Roth family members will be listed--or their occupation/employer. Or I'll spot a friend or neighbor whose name I recognize?

Sympathy Sunday: Ella Markell, "Aunt of Husband of Grand Aunt"

Ella Lebowitz Markell (1886-1965) was the "aunt of the husband of my grand aunt." The family connection is through Joseph Markell, who married my grand aunt Mary Mahler. Mary was one of the matchmaker aunts who arranged for my parents to meet, so anyone connected with her family is special to me.

Two Markell men married two Lebowitz sisters, and I have been hoping to learn whether the Markell men were brothers or cousins or what. Ella and her husband Julius Markell (1882-1966) had a daughter, Ruth Markell. After Ella and Julius divorced, he married Tillie UNK and they had one son, William Markell.


Ella's death cert finally arrived today and I was saddened to see that she died of a stroke in Pittsburgh's Jewish Home for the Aged, just a month after her 81st birthday. She is buried in the Sons of Israel cemetery, Forest Hills, PA.

Ella had the same condition which also contributed to her mother Fanny Schwartz Lebowitz's death in 1933.

Thinking of Ella on this Sympathy Sunday.

52 Ancestors #26: Private Hugh Rinehart of Company I, 15th Ohio Volunteer Infantry

Great-grand uncle Hugh Rinehart (1839-1917) was a younger brother of hubby's great-grandma Elizabeth Jane Rinehart. He was born in Ashland County, Ohio.

In the 1860 census, Hugh was listed as a 20-yr-old "farm laborer" living in Crawford county, Ohio, with his parents (farmer Joseph C. Rinehart and Margaret Shank) and four younger siblings (Mary, 18, occupation "sewing;" Joseph, 16, "farm laborer;" Sarah, 13; Nancy, 9).

When the Civil War broke out, Hugh enlisted as a private in Company I, 15th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for a 90-day period in 1861. His particular company included a lot of men from Wyandot County. After being formed, the 15th Infantry guarded the B&O railroad in West Virginia, among other duties.

When Hugh's initial enlistment was up and the regiment was being reformed for three more years of active duty, Hugh took his leave and returned home. Within a week, he had a marriage license to marry Mary Elizabeth McBride (1842-1918). Hugh and Mary had two children: Clara and Charles (another child died young). He became a carpenter in the Wyandot/Crawford county area. Later, he filed for invalid status based on his Civil War service.

Hugh and his wife Mary are buried in Marion cty, Ohio, and his tombstone in Grand Prairie Cemetery reflects his Civil War service.

52 Ancestors #25: Isaiah Wood and Harriet Taber of the "Little Compton" Wood Family

Isaiah Wood Sr. (abt 1784-1834) and Harriet Taber (abt 1790-1838) married in New Bedford, Massachusetts on May 18, 1806. They're hubby's great-great-grandparents. The 1810 Census finds them in New Bedford with one child.

Given the timing, this one child must be Thomas Haskell Wood, born in 1809. (As an adult, Thomas wooed New York teenager Mary Amanda Demarest and then married her in Plaquemine, Louisiana--a geographic mystery we have yet to solve.)

Harriet Taber: Our cousin (and family researcher extraordinaire) Larry linked Harriet Taber's line back to Philip Taber, born in England and transplanted to Plymouth, Mass in 1630. Philip moved around the area, settling in Watertown, Yarmouth, and Martha's Vineyard, among other areas. He died and was buried in Tiverton (part of Dartmouth, MA). 

Isaiah Wood, Sr.: Thanks again to cousin Larry, we know Isaiah Wood was of the "Little Compton Woods," who can trace their line back to John Wood "The Mariner," born about 1590 in or near Southwark, England. The men of the Wood family were seafaring, building and often captaining ships. Patriarch John "The Mariner" was just such a man, a Master's Mate or possibly a captain.

Wordless (Almost) Wednesday: July 16, 1947

For years I wondered about this photo, dated July 16, 1947, taken in Montreal. Why were my newlywed parents (Harold Burk and Daisy Schwartz) in Montreal? Who was the young man on the right?

Now, 67 years later, I have some answers. It turns out that the young man is Dad's first cousin William, who lived in Montreal.

William was a son of Abraham Burke, while Harold was a son of Abraham's brother, Isaac Burk. (Sometimes their last name was spelled Berk.)

William was at my parents' 1946 wedding in New York City and months later, when Mom and Dad visited Montreal to see the Burke/Berk family, William took them to this fun restaurant. In fact, his daughter has this exact photo!

Mom in the South Bronx on Friday the 13th

My cousin just sent me this photo of my mother and her twin sister, with their aunt Rose, who often babysat for them.

It was taken on Friday the 13th, in July of 1923. (I know because the date is written on the back.)

Grandpa Teddy Schwartz and his wife, Grandma Minnie Farkas Schwartz, ran a small dairy store in the neighborhood, so relatives like Rose helped look after the twins and their older brother during the long hours when the store was open.

Fox Street and the South Bronx in general at that time were usually safe, although my Grandpa's store did get robbed once, during the Depression, on Thursday, December 16, 1937. Here's the story as published in the New York Times:

Band Robs 3 Stores

Three Armed Men Get $300 in Series of Bronx Raids

Three armed men within an hour and a half held up three store-keepers in the Bronx last night and escaped with $300. About 9:30 o'clock they entered the grocery store of Theodore Schwartz at 679 Fox Street, hit him on the head with a pistol butt when he resisted and took $50. Half an hour later they went into the grocery store of Louis Lepperman at 422 Jackson Avenue and hit him with a pistol, but left quickly without taking anything when his wife screamed from a back room. In another half an hour, they forced Leonard Gaglio and his brother, Milton, liquor dealers at 1012 Morris Park Avenue, into a back room and took $250. 

Probably Grandpa Teddy's worst ordeal came when he had to come home and explain the loss of the hard-earned $50 to Grandma Minnie!

Friday's Faces from the Past: Why Isaac Berk Landed in New Brunswick

Sometimes ancestors zig-zag to their destinations.

That's the case with my Grandpa Isaac Berk (later Burk), a skilled cabinetmaker who sailed from Liverpool to Canada on November 24, 1903, via the S.S. Lake Erie. 

Isaac got off the ship on December 5th in Saint John, New Brunswick.

 As the map shows, that's a LONG way from Montreal or New York, where he later lived--major metro centers where he could easily find work as a cabinetmaker.

Henrietta Mahler Burk & Isaac Burk, 1937

And, in fact, Isaac's trail next shows up in 1904, when he crossed the border into Vermont, on a train enroute from Montreal to New York City, where his sister Nellie (or Nella) lived.

So why did Grandpa land at Saint John instead of continuing further into Canada?

Thanks to a phone call from my Canadian 2d cousin, the granddaughter of my great-uncle Abraham Burke, I now know the answer.

The family story is that Isaac got badly seasick and when the ship came into New Brunswick, he got off as quickly as he could!

Isaac never again sailed anywhere, as far as I know--he always took the train.

Sorting Saturday: Magnifying Glass + Brooch = Mahler Identification

This photo of a mystery lady was in a batch of old photos lent by my Cousin E for me to scan and (hopefully) identify.

I got out my magnifying glass and studied her brooch after scanning the photo.

Look at the two adults at the right of the photo below--Tillie Jacobs Mahler and her husband, Meyer Elias Mahler. (Thanks again to Cuz Lois for identifying this photo.)

The mystery lady's pin clearly shows Tillie and Meyer, taken in the same studio at the same time as the big group photo.

The family portrait was taken around 1900, judging by the ages of the children. Knowing that Meyer died in 1910 helped Lois and me guesstimate the timing.

Other, later photos in Cousin E's batch show the mystery lady wearing the same brooch.

In the photo below, taken at the site of Meyer Mahler's grave, the now much older mystery lady has the brooch pinned on.

No magnifying glass needed this time since I blew up part of the photo and put it below.

Wait! There's more . . .

One final photo confirmed the identification and solved the mystery.

At bottom, a cropped version of a photo my cousin Ira lent me several years ago--a photo we know to be of my great-grandma Tillie Jacobs Mahler.

But we never noticed the brooch, which was not sharply defined in this photo from the 1940s.

Now we know Tillie kept this brooch as a memento of a happy family time.

She wore it for four decades after her husband's death, until she died in June, 1952 and was buried next to her beloved husband.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #24: Sam "Born on 4th of July" Schwartz & Anna Gelbman

Photo taken at Beldegreen Studios on Avenue C in NY's Lower East Side, 1909

My great-uncle Sam Schwartz (Grandpa Theodore Schwartz's brother) was born in Ungvar, Hungary on the 4th of July in 1883. His original name was Simon but for unknown reasons, he became Samuel when he arrived in New York City in January, 1904, a 20-year-old man trained as a printer.

Sam wasted no time declaring his intention to petition for citizenship in May, 1904. In 1905, he lived as a boarder in the Lower East Side apartment of the Grossman family, at 82 Avenue D. That's the same apartment building where Sam's younger brother Teddy (hi Grandpa!) lived not long afterward.

By 1906, Sam had moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he sold vegetables until he found work as a printer. In October, 1909, Sam became a full-fledged U.S. citizen--and a week later, he married Anna Gelbman (1886-1940), the American-born daughter of a shoemaker from Miskolc, Hungary. Anna's family lived only a short walk from the field in central Bridgeport where P.T. Barnum wintered his circus, elephants and all.

Sam and Anna moved back to New York City by 1915 and in the 1920s, he went into business running Norwood Dairy, a Queens grocery store, with his brother-in-law, Louis Frish (married to Anna's sister Belle). Sadly, his beloved Anna died from cancer in 1940. Sam remarried to a lady named Margaret. Unfortunately, he had a fatal heart attack while mowing his lawn on a hot day in 1954.

On Independence Day I salute my Great Uncle Sam, born on this day 131 years ago, and his gentle wife Anna.

Travel Tuesday: Saluting Slatters on Canada Day

Happy Canada Day! Let me extend a digital salute to hubby's great uncles, John Daniel Slatter (1864-1954), Henry Arthur Slatter (1866-1942), and Albert William Slatter (1862-1935). All the brothers left England to travel to Canada and make new lives as bandmasters of military units.

Their sisters, Ada Mary Ann Slatter and Mary Slatter, also left England and settled in Ohio to marry and raise their families around the turn of the century. Mary Slatter married James Edgar Wood and they are hubby's grandparents.

On Canada Day, the three brother/bandmasters would have been heading the parades in their respective adopted hometowns (Toronto, Vancouver, and London, Ontario).

In honor of the Slatter brothers, here are more WWI badges that were probably given to Captain John Slatter by his brother Captain Albert Slatter, then passed down in the family.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #23: Bachelor Brothers in WWI

Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the flashpoint that started WWI. It reminded me that one of my Farkas great uncles had been a very reluctant conscript.

Julius Farkas (1892-1969) signed his WWI draft registration card in June, 1917, with the notation that he had a "conscientious objection" to the war (see below). Julius and his younger brother, Peter Farkas (1894-1961), were close throughout their lives. Peter also registered for WWI but didn't mention any objection.

Both brothers were drafted and served in the war.

Peter (service record, left) quickly rose through the ranks from private first class to corporal to sergeant during his period of service, May 1918 to March 1919. His service in the 152 Depot Brigade was at Camp Upton, NY, processing recruits and then processing newly returned soldiers at the end of WWI.


Julius, the reluctant soldier, became a cook (see his service record, below) and served from March, 1918 to August, 1919. He was also in a depot brigade, after initial training.

After the war, the Bachelor Brothers, as they were known in the family, were a quiet, affable presence, living together, often operating a dairy store together, and then moving in with one of their sisters late in life. Their stinky cigars were a feature at family get-togethers; my cousin B remembers the stinky cheeses they brought to picnics!

Friday's Faces from the Past: Dad Spent April in Paris (in 1945)

On April 22, 1945, my Dad (Harold Burk) was stationed in Paris with his WWII Army unit. The Allies were advancing on their objectives day by day and the end of the war in Europe was just weeks away.

On this spring day, Dad and his buddies posed for a group photo. Dad wrote the last names of each person on the back, along with the date.

In the top row, left to right:
Burkhardt
Bevis
Felice
Grady

In the bottom row, left to right:
Lustig
Flynn
Endreson
Dad
Hicks

Those Places Thursday: Isaac Burk, Born in the Pale

Grandpa Isaac Burk (1882-1943) kept certain photos all his life and now, thanks to my first cousin who lent me the cache for scanning, I'm finding confirming clues to advance my research into that family's background.

Above, the photographic studio where a lady from Isaac's family back home was photographed. Thanks to Tracing the Tribe members, I have the translation: the photo studio was in Telsiai, Kovenskaya Gubernia - In other words, in Kovno (now Kaunas), Lithuania. Other documents from Isaac's immigration records say he was born in Gargzdai, Kovno, Lithuania.  

It appears that Isaac and his siblings were born in the Pale of Settlement and, while in their late teens and early twenties, four of them left to make new lives in the West, away from pogroms and Russian Army conscription.

As I wrote last week, Isaac and his brother Abraham went to Manchester, England, to stay with their uncle and aunt, Isaac and Hinda Chazan. Isaac left after a couple of years, bound for Canada and then the United States. Abraham married Annie Hurwitz and then continued to Canada, where he settled and sent for his family. Their sister Nellie and brother Myer were in New York City during the early 1900s, but I don't have more information than that...yet.

Although I don't know the exact relationship between the Burk/Birk/Berk family and the Chazan family, I plugged a name into my Ancestry tree and up popped a hint--someone else's family tree with the name in question. I wrote the tree owner and he wrote back, putting me in touch with my Chazan cousins. They not only know the Burk name, they remember my Uncle Sidney visiting Manchester and introducing them to bubble gum--and they have photos of him visiting there, as well. Plus they know some of their family visited the Abraham Berk family in Canada. Those brick walls keep crumbling!

Wordless (Almost) Wednesday: Still W-a-i-t-i-n-g for Ella Markell's Death Cert

On March 8, I sent for Ella Markell's death cert. Ella's history is part of my research into the Markell/Mahler/Lebowitz family mysteries--two brothers marrying two sisters.

On April 4, Pennsylvania cashed my check. And I waited.

On May 13, Pennsylvania wrote me the above letter, asking for my patience and saying the record would be on its way in four more weeks. I waited. And I waited.

Does Pennsylvania usually take this long to process a simple document request?

I'm still w a i t i n g. I'm going to write them again today. The LONG wait leaves me, well, nearly wordless.