I know one day I will be posting “I found her” but not today. My search continues for the missing sister of my great grandfather Samuel Haimowitz and his brother Marks Hyamovitch – (our London Branch)
Unknown sister, Samuel and Freda (daughter of Marks) Bronx (abt. 1950)
This mystery, ‘The mystery of the unknown Haimowitz Sister’ haunts my dreams and wakes me at all hours of the night with search idea’s, whispers of what I may have missed and what I should recheck.
Todays hunt led me to a woman named Ethel Rosenthal. Using familysearch.com, I put into a general search the last name of Haimowitz, an estimate for a birth date based on her brothers ages, along with the known parents last names. Using both mother (Greenblatt) and father (Haimowitz) yielded nothing, a repeat search with simply the father’s last name Haimowitz, about 200 matches came up. From there I began looking for a woman, with a father last name of Haimowitz- first name Hyman.
The idea is; on familysearch, they have a very easy way to view family before looking at the record. In other words I am always looking for a woman who’s records list a father’s name of Hyman Haimowitz and a mother Ida or Edith Greenblatt, any combination or creative spelling of the names. Records are always being added and changes made so I revisit often.
On page 3, I spotted Ethel Rosenthal. Her father was listed as Hiam Hamowitz, mother unknown. Ethel had passed in 1949 at 64, which gave me a birth year of 1885 . This was in my search parameters of 1880 – 1890. Her death was located in Cincinnati, Ohio and while I was looking for a NY death, nothing was out of the question. Checking the record there was a death certificate I was able to view.
Could this be our missing sister? I was hopeful, I always am.
Back to ancestry.com I checked the census records and found her married to a Morris Rosenthal with a family of children ages 14 – 0 in the 1920c along with a hint that led me to a marriage certificate for a daughter, Mollie married – Nathan Stein; notice the informant on the death certificate. Another hint led me to an obituary listing in newspapers.com
American Israelite (Cincinnati, Ohio) . 22 Sept 1949, Thu . Page p9
The anticipation of learning if this was our missing sister was answered, it was not or was it still in question? There was no mention of Samuel or Marks. Of course the next question could be did ‘they’ have 3 more unknown siblings in this family? A brother Joseph, sister Sara and a Mrs. Ben Richman. Were Samuel and Marks unknown to this branch? A little too far out there to look into. I am feeling confident this is not the sister.
There have been many more hopeful searches in the quest to find our missing sister. Each one has been one of elimination so far which only brings me closer to her.
The hunt continues, hope is alive, the possibilities are endless.
You honor her memory just by your passionate hunt for her.
Thank you Joy 🙂
That was a very good search strategy, even if it did not reap the results you wanted. I assume you also used wild cards, not just the exact spelling of Haimowitz? Hang in there—something will eventually break through this brick wall.
Thank you Amy ~ I’ll keep chipping away and that brick wall will crumble 🙂
I sent you two emails.
Only got 1 email it looks like and I have emailed you back 🙂
You keep looking for her, using all those sources, and she will make herself known. She wants to be found and included.
I index records like that all the time. Thousands are being added every week. Something will come to show who she was.
Thanks Susan for the encouragement. I know records are added constantly so I am excited when she finally turns up 🙂
I hope you find her. Have you looked for it spelled Chaim? That’s the usual spelling, as Haim and variations are anglicized versions.
Thank you for the suggestion – I have used that spelling and all combinations I can think of and find used 🙂