Continuing with the family of my great grandfather Benjamin Lipshitz I am moving on to his sister Mollie Lifschitz born March of 1872. At this point in my research she appears to be the second oldest child of David/Davis and Ida/Yetta Palay. Mollie was born with in the Russian Empire with no exact location identified at this time. She married Hyman Cohen on Dec. 24, 1892. The only record I could find (and thankfully so) for the marriage was from familysearch.org
Mollie Lifschitz and Hyman Cohen
| Name | Hyman Cohen | |||
| Spouse’s Name | Mollie Lifschitz | |||
| Event Date | 24 Dec 1892 | |||
| Event Place | Manhattan, New York, New York | |||
| Father’s Name | Joe Cohen | |||
| Mother’s Name | Ettie Sheiewitz | |||
| Spouse’s Father’s Name | Davis Lifschitz | |||
| Spouse’s Mother’s Name | Ida Paley | |||
Those early years right after the marriage produced the only 2 children I have been able to find for Hyman and Mollie. Son Joseph was born in Dec. 1894 followed by Jacob in May 1898.
By 1900, the first census for the family, their address was 133 Henry St., NYC. Hyman’s (30), Russin/Poland, profession: foundry; manufacturer. His immigration year was noted as 1889, here for 11 years. Noted for Mollie (30) also from Russia/Poland, married 8 yrs with 2/2 children. Joseph (5) and Jacob (1)
By 1910, remaining in Manhattan, the family had relocated to 550 West 144th St. Hyman (42) was no longer working at the foundry but was now working in manufacturing/clothing. Mollie (38) with the notation that she had immigrated in 1889, the same year as Hyman, now naturalized. I have been unable to find any record for this. Joseph (15) and Jacob (11) had nothing else noted. Also by 1910 their last name spelled Cohen changed to Cohn on all census and death records found.
1920 arrived and the family again made another move to 620 West 149th St., N.Y.C.. Hyman was working on his own account in wholesale clothing, noted partner. Both of his sons, Joseph (24) and Jacob/John (20) were also listed as wholesale clothing, partner. I am assuming that the three of them were in business together. The family must have been doing well. They employed a servant by the name of Bella Shiner (25) from Austria. What ever happiness and success the family had was shattered with the death of Mollie on March 10th, 1922. She was 53 years old. (I have sent away for her death certificate and hopefully we can learn what caused her death)
Death record for Molly Cohn
| Name | Mollie Cohn | |||
| Event Type | Death | |||
| Event Date | 10 Mar 1922 | |||
| Event Place | Manhattan, New York, New York, United States | |||
| Gender | Female | |||
| Age | 53 | |||
| Marital Status | Married | |||
| Race | White | |||
| Occupation | Housewife | |||
| Birth Year (Estimated) | 1869 | |||
| Birthplace | Russia | |||
| Burial Date | 12 Mar 1922 | |||
| Cemetery | Mt. Carmel | |||
| Father’s Name | David Lifschitz | |||
| Father’s Birthplace | Russia | |||
| Mother’s Name | Ida Palay | |||
| Mother’s Birthplace | Russia | |||
| Spouse’s Name | Hyman Cohen | |||
Citing this Record”New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949,” database, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2W1R-YLW : 10 February 2018), Mollie Cohn, 10 Mar 1922; citing Death, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 2,028,040.
Three years after the death of Mollie, 1925, Hyman Cohn (57) was now retired. Joe (30) still home with his father was now working in ‘loans’. Jacob had moved out. Hyman still employed a ‘domestic servant; her name was Methilde Ramberg (27) from Hungry. They were still at the 620 West 149th St address. A short five years later it appears that the partnership between Hyman and his sons had dissolved, not only had Hyman retired but now Joseph was in entirely different field, loans, but what happened to Jacob who was listed as John. With Cohn/Cohen an extremely common name it was impossible for me to pin down anything concrete for him however I did find 1 record that matched his age perfectly. Listed on the 1925 census for the Central Islip State Hospital there was a John Cohen listed, notes said born New York City, N.Y., white, male, 26, day laborer, nationality US and citizen. Could this be our Jacob who had been listed as John on the 1920 census? The spelling of Cohn had the added ‘e’ which was the original spelling. I can not be sure with any certainty. Central Islip was a psychiatric hospital that opened in 1899 and closed in 1996.
By 1930, Joseph (33) was still living with his father Hyman (62) at 143 73rd Street (between Columbus and Amsterdam) at the Hamilton Hotel. Hyman was listed as a retired merchant and Joseph as a salesman – bonds. The Hamilton Hotel was built in 1919 in the neo – Renaissance style fitting of the Upper West Side. By the 1970’s the building had become mainly a welfare hotel. The owner of the building wanted to turn it in to a luxury building but community groups lobbied the city to have it transferred to Project Find for Senior housing. You can read more about this building at projectfind.org
I can find no identifying information to locate Joseph or Jacob/John from this point on in my research. There are simply to many records that could be either of them. However I was able to locate Hyman (70) in the 1940 census. He was now living at the Jewish Sanitarium for Chronic Disease at 830 E. 49th Street, Brooklyn, New York. He was listed simply as widower.
Hyman would live another 3 years before passing away on the 29th of October, 1943.
Both Mollie and Hyman are buried at Mt Carmel Cemetery, section 1 at 83 -45 Cypress Hills Street, Glendale. I made a phone call to the cemetery to request photo’s and learned they are both interred in a family crypt with a contact name of Abraham Males. Who is Abraham? The burial society was Unity Synagogue. Along with them in the crypt is an Esther (d. 1945) Jack (d. 1952) Joseph (d. 1962) Samuel (unknown death date) and Sydney (d. 1953). I did locate a Jacob Cohn (with the e) buried in section 1 as well, not in the crypt, but with the same burial society with a death year of 1948.
Branches On Our Haimowitz Family Tree 
Wow, that is so interesting. I never thought about how hard it would be to trace someone with a common name, even if you had some information about them. So unusual not to have at least one of the sons with a marriage. I suppose that doesn’t mean they weren’t married – especially Jacob/John, since he did move out. Your family gives me a mental rest from mine. LOL I was doing well-documented family tonight, so it wasn’t so bad, but sometimes it is like looking for a needle in a pile of needles!
Hi- thanks for following along. The sons really proved difficult since I couldn’t find anything to help move forward with them, military, marriage, an address; that needle is there it just hasn’t pricked me yet – lol. I know something will turn up!
Great work here. I love how you discovered they were in the building when it was new. I tried to imagine what that would have been like! And hanging the name from Cohen to Cohn–it might have made it easier in some ways to be spelled that way. And it does start to separate them out in records from the rest of the Cohens (haha). But it also makes things more complicated, too.
That Abraham Males info is quite the mystery! Could it be part of the name of a burial society or are they sure it’s a person? (I realize the burial society is listed). I’ve never heard of a place for people with “chronic disease.” Do you think it’s like for TB?
Thank you Luanne. I love looking for the buildings and picturing the living conditions. The Sanitarium could have been for TB. It was most definitely for the aged with disease they would not recover from, like cancer…in fact there was a scandal associated with the place involving infecting no cancerous residents with cancer. You can google to read about it. I believe the cemetery worker was referring to a person when we spoke. Cohen/Cohn it has been impossible to identify anything on their son Jacob. Only because Joseph remained with his father could I track him up till the 40’s.
I am sitting at Sea-tac trying to catch up while waiting for our flight. Since I am starting with the earliest posts, perhaps you’ve found more since you posted this! My dad is John Cohen, so I know how hard that name is to track. And like Luanne, I found the fact that they were able to live in new buildings interesting. Hope you’ve learned more!
Safe trip home Amy.