In Memory Of Esther Estelle Joffe nee Lifshitz and her father Solomon Simon Lifshitz

In Memory of 

Esther Estelle Tonis nee Lifshitz 

8 November 1898, New York, New York ~ 26 Jan 1943, Bronx, New York 

Daughter of Solomon/Simon Lifschitz and Annie Dinofsky

Esther was my 1st cousin 2x removed. Daughter of my great grandfather Benjamin Lipshitz brother Solomon Simon. She was one of five children born to Simon and Annie. She was first married to Samuel Joffe on 28 Dec 1920 but by the 1925 census, she was back home with her parents with her son Charles born in 1901, most likely named after her brother Charles. Sometime between 1925 and 1930, Esther married Daniel Tonis. She was listed with him on the 1930 census while her son remained with her parent’s and continued to up until the 1940 census then 19. Esther died in 1943 at the age of 43. She is buried at Beth David Cemetery, in Elmont, New York.

May Her Memory Be A Blessing

 

In Memory of

Solomon Simon Lifshitz  

Dec 1873, Russia ~ 27 January 1941, New York

Son of David Lipshitz and Ida Paley

I have written quite extensively on the Lipshitz/Lifshitz and all variants of spelling used by this family. From Russia, he arrived on the 5 October 1888 at about 15 years old. Simon married Anne Dinofsky on 24 November 1895, New York, New York. They were the parents of five children, Esther Estelle, who he is sharing this post with, Moses, Rachel, Doris, and Charles.

When I think about the fact that Esther Estelle died in 1943 at the age of 43, so young, I am comforted to know that Simon preceded his daughter in death and was spared this sorrow.

Simon was the brother of my great grandfather Benjamin Lipshitz. So much of their story was lost of so long. It is an honor to be able to know this family through the records that have been discovered, and remember them on the anniversary of their passing.

 

Solomon Simon was laid to rest at Washington Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York

May His Memory Be a Blessing  

 

 

 

©2019, copyright, Sharon Haimowitz – Civitano. All rights reserved.

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Mollie Lifschitz: Updated

In my last post I wrote about Mollie Lipschitz daughter of David Lifshitz and Ida Paley. I had been waiting on her death certificate to arrive, which it has. Quickly recapping ~

Mollie was born sometime between 1869 and 1872, with dates differing depending on the document. She immigrated from Poland/Russia between 1888/1889. I can not find any records for her immigration.

Mollie married Hyman Cohen/Cohn on Dec. 24th, 1892. At the time of her marriage she was living at 72 Orchard St., N.Y.C., and Hyman was at 47 Henry St. Witness  to the marriage was a Abraham and Jacob Goldberg (I have no clue who these men were)

We know from the wedding announcement for Mollie’s brother Ike (1903) that their mother Ida was alive and in New York attending Ike’s marriage. I could not locate anything that indicated Ida was here for Mollie’s marriage.

Clearly recorded beside  ‘Number of Bride’s Marriage’ is the address 177 E. Broadway. I just had to stop and take a look at this address. This address, is the church to the left of The Forward Building, home to the socialist newspaper begun in 1897 by 50 Yiddish speaking socialist who had formed three months prior as the Forward Publishing Company. Wikipedia reports “it was one of the most influential American Jewish Publications” wikepdia.org  You can see the cross at the top of the building which I imagine back then housed the Congregation Ezras Achim Anshei, Kiev.

Hyman and Mollies first son Joseph was born in 1897 and their second son Jacob was born in 1899.

Mollie Cohn nee Lifschitz passed away on the 10th of March, 1922. Her death certificate says she was 53 and passed due to chronic myocarditis with acute gastritis contributing. She was buried at Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Queens, New York.

Please meet Mollie ~

Photo courtesy of Jane

Mollie Lifschitz daughter of Davis/David Lipschitz and Ida Paley

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)

according to occupationalinfo.org

“Performs any combination of following tasks in foundry concerned with melting metal, pouring metal into molds, removing castings from molds, dressing castings, moving foundry materials, and cleaning equipment and work areas: Moves sand, castings, flasks, or other materials about foundry by hand, using wheelbarrow or …” 

133 Henry Street 

A quick google search also revealed this building was built in 1900. It seems they were one of the very first residents in this new building of its time.

By 1910, remaining in Manhattan, the family had relocated to 550 West 144th St. Another google search on this location revealed it was built in 1910. I found it interesting, a move to another newly built building. Hyman (42) and no longer working at the foundry and 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.

550 West 144th St. 

1920 arrived and the family again made another move to 620 West 149th St., N.Y.C.. Hyman was in 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.

 

DNA Connected: Something Clicked

This post has been updated and changed from its original posting.

In my last post I wrote about Fanny Lifshitz, daughter of David and Yetta. At the suggestion of Amy Cohen of   The Brotmanblog: A Family Journey  https://brotmanblog.com/   I created a simple chart to try and bring some clarity to my thoughts and help with some of the confusion.  What in the world had I been trying to say?  Simply, I believe that Fanny Lifshitz (daughter of David and Yetta) may have married a cousin named  Israel Lifshitz. All we know about him from the death certificate shared in the previous post is that his father was named Benjamin Lifshitz and his mother Eva.

This chart shows the children of David Lifshitz and Chai Palley, along with the grandchildren. Solomon is shown alone as his mothers name is different. Solomon is connected to this family in some way. Benjamin was living with him in 1913 prior to getting married to Kate Rosen.

I contacted Debbie, another DNA found cousin who I have been corresponding with for a few years now. She has had Fanny and Israel on her family tree since we first connected. However, we  had no idea how we tied in together. Up until now, we simply had a 3/4 cousin match that we believed was with our Lipshitz name and no other connecting information.

 

Something  clicked after the last posting – Jane realized if ‘we’ had this close DNA match and I had a close DNA match with Debbie and her mother Ann, granddaughter of Fanny, then Jane would have a match with Debbie and Ann as well. Of course, why hadn’t I thought of that already – well actually I had looked and saw the shared matches but it had not clicked. We both took a look and it all clicked. Jane, Judy, Debbie, Ann and myself all have very close cousin matches.

Jane had also shared with me when we first began this research that she believed one of Fanny’s daughters had married a Puchkoff.  Infact it was one of Fanny’s daughter’s who married George Puchkoff – daughter Esther. That is an interesting last name and one not easily forgotten, again helping to tie this all together. I feel very comfortable with the connection of Fanny as a sibling to Isaac/Ike, Simon, and my great grandfather Benjamin.

Meet Fanny Lipshitz Lifshitz and all combinations of spelling

Photo Courtesy of Debbie ~ Thank you so much for allowing me to share this fantastic photo of Fanny.

 

 

 

 

 

Fanny Lipshitz daughter of David Lipshitz and Yetta Palley

While fresh, I wanted to continue with the discovery of the siblings of Benjamin Lipshitz. In my last post I wrote about brother Simon Lifshitz and his wife Annie Dinofsky.  Still left to research is Mollie, who married to Hyman Cohen, another brother named  Samuel along with a sister named Rachel/Rae. For a while now, I have been stumped on this sister named Fanny which has totally thrown a wrench in my research. In fact I am still stumped on a few things and this post is a way to sort through the information I have.

If you have been following this family you may remember that recently I had connected through a DNA match with a 3/4th cousin on Ancestry named Jane. That led to a internet intro to her 1st cousin Judy. From this match we realized our connection was through our shared Lipschitz/Lifschitz family and from there we were able to begin to round out the family/siblings for my lone ancestor, my great grandfather Benjamin Lipschitz. I will be concentrating on his sister Fanny in this post. I found a record for her on familysearch.org.  I immediately noticed the names of her parents, which matched my Benjamin’s parents and this was my first clue I was on the right track. But the age difference between Benjamin and Fanny raised a flag.

The marriage certificate for Benjamin

Looking at Fannie’s and Benjamin’s records I was able to see that there was a almost 20 year gap in there ages. Fanny was born 1867 and Benjamin in 1887 ( however I do have records placing his birth year as far back as 1883) Not impossible to be siblings with that age difference but it raised the question.  – was the birth year be off?  Had they made an error listing Fanny’s parents?  If it was correct, could Benjamin and Fanny be siblings? It appeared so from the names of the parents as listed. Fanny was a Lipshitz before marriage and had married a Lipshitz.  If the document was right Fanny was clearly a Lipshitz when she married.  My next thought was how and were and could Israel and Fanny be related? cousins? I remembered I had a death certificate for an Israel Lipschitz from some research I had been working on before? Could this be the same person? I got that record out and after finding the record for Fanny on familysearch.org, I was able to locate a death record on ancestry.com and sent away for her death certificate. Once received I was able to  connect them both together.

Below are the death records for Fanny and Israel.

 

From these two documents we have both sets of parents names. Israel was the son of

Benjamin Lifshitz m Eva LNU

And Fanny was the daughter of  David Lipshitz m Yetta Palley

Now the question really was were the parents of Israel (1866) and Fanny (1867) ; Benjamin Lifshitz and David Lipshitz brothers making them cousins? I don’t have that answer.

The age for Israel seems to confirm that the age recorded for Fanny is correct which leaves the huge difference in ages between my Benjamin and his presumed sister.

(Just to confirm, my DNA connected cousin Jane did confirm a sibling with the name of Fanny  (however she was not aware of Benjamin).

I had done some pre research on Israel and Fanny and had them and their family in my radar for some time. I had however no idea that Fanny was ‘their Fanny’  I had mentioned working on the Israel Lipshitz earlier.  I connected with an other DNA cousin through Ancestry (2014).  Her name is Debbie and she descends off of Israel and Fanny. We had never been able to find our connection. And now it seems the connection continues to be a mystery because Jane is not sure this is her Fanny. From Debbie I had learned that

Israel Lifshitz (15 Jan 1867) was born in Slutsk, Minsk, Belarus (same as my Benjamin) and Fanny (Abt 1870) simply Russia, were the parents of 5 children, Esther (1890 Slutsk), Jacob/Jack (1894 NYC), Samuel (1895 NYC), Benjamin/Barnett(1900 NYC) and Dorothy (1906 NYC – who Debbie descends from)

I had shared this information with Jane and Judy (their parents both brothers, sons of Ike Lifshitz) I shared photos of the children of Israel and Fanny and all the information I had but Jane was sure this was not her family or had no knowledge of them.

Let me back up just a moment: I want to add one more person into the information and his name is Solomon Lifshitz (b. abt 1867/73 d. 1935) Solomon is important because he lived at the 1268 Park Ave NYC  address that Benjamin lived at with Solomon and family at the time Benjamin  married Kate Rosen. From Solomon’s death cert. his parents are recorded as David Lipshitz and Rachel Rifkn not a Pallay I have never been sure of the connection between Benjamin and Solomon, was he his uncle? a cousin? a brother?

Many turns and twists with this research. Jane had said/thought there was a sibling named Rae. What I did find for the name Rae was a daughter named Rachel aka Rae, of Solomon/Simon and his wife Anna Dinofsky, who I wrote about in my past post. Rae married Samuel Charles Aaronson on 16 Aug. 1916.

Samuel Charles Aaronson New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940

birth: 1894 N.Y. City marriage: 16 August 1916 Manhattan, New York, New York, United States

father: Louis mother: Sarah Aaronson spouse: Rae Lifschitz other: Simion, Anna Dannefsky

The questions for me at this point are: was there a sister named Rachel/Rae? or was she the daughter of Simon and Anna? Was this daughter named after a sister?

The name Rachel certainly ties in with the family. Especially taking into account that on Solomon’s death certificate his mother’s name was Rachel Rifkin.  The question continues with was this a daughter named after an aunt or the grandmother?

Back to this stretch of birth years and parent names. Could Solomon’s (1867) father David Lipshitz have lost (death) his wife Rachel Rifkin, then David remarries our Pallay going on to have the other children? This could explain the large age differences. If so that could make Solomon a sibling, but nothing is proven.

I feel like I am left with more questions than answers and this is getting very confusing.

Going back to Ida Lipshitz nee Palley,  mother of this clan. She was  alive, and on the marriage invitation for son Isaac/Ike. We know that her husband David had passed away, when and where remains unknown.

On the 1915 census record Ida (70) was still alive and living with Israel (50) and her daughter Fanny (50)  at 59 E. 102nd St. NYC,  however she was listed as ‘sister in law’ to Israel (mislabeled?) If Fanny and Israel were cousin’s she was Israel’s mother in law and also the wife of his Uncle David. That is not sorted out yet. In fact if Ida was David’s 2nd wife and Fanny was the daughter of his 1st wife Rachel Rifkin then what would that make Ida? Would that be recorded as sister in law, I feel that is an error. I have not located a death record for Ida either.  That is a key piece of info that I hope to locate.

1915 Census

The story continues with this Israel Lifshitz and Fanny Lipshitz connection. Their family connects with me through the information and connection with Debbie and the family connects with me through the information and connection with Jane. In addition I connect via DNA with a few others falling off of the descendants of Israel and Fanny. I feel very confident in saying at this point that this is the Fanny Lipshitz daughter of David and Yetta Palley, aka Ida, Gittel and Edith; sister to Isaac/Ike, Solomon/Simon and Benjamin….I still need to continue to gather information on the others to connect this whole family together. This post and all these thoughts have had my head spinning for the last 2/3 weeks.  I hope there was so clarity and not a confusing mess of jumbled thoughts. In my next post I will continue with their story and hope to sort some of the questions out. I would love to hear from you, your thoughts, ideas, and direction.

 

 

 

 

Simon and Annie Lifshitz DNA Twist and Son Moses and the Big Surprise

The rabbit holes I have fallen into continue to get deeper, totally taking me off task and into new directions. After the last post, I heard from another DNA connected cousin (with an unproven line of connection) regarding a few things that rang a bell for her. Her name is Gail Samowitz and we met via the FB genealogy page Tracing The Tribe back  about 2015. We have corresponded off and on over the last few years but have never established our shared connection. Fast forward to the last post when we began looking at records together and sharing thoughts and ideas.

1940 Bronx Census Simon & Anna Lifshitz 

Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, Bronx, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02477; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 3-654 Source Information Title 1940 United States Federal Census

Above is the census document for Simon and Annie. The address is 1422 Minford Place, Bronx. They were occupying this address since 1935 according to the census. This was the home they came back to after living in New Jersey where Simon was tending to the chickens business.  Simon had resumed his profession as a tailor and their grandson Charles Joffe was living with them. Charles was listed as a new worker.

They were renting at this address from the owners of 1422 Minford Pl., Bronx.

The owners were Benjamin (59) Saltzman and his wife, his new bride, Dora Saltzman (58).  They were also living at this address with Simon and Annie. Benjamin was the proprietor of a candy store. However, the home at 1422 Minford Pl., actually belonged to Dora and would be passed down through her family. Gail and I have established that Benjamin and Dora were married sometime between 1933 – 1935 after the passing of her husband Israel Schulman on April 13, 1933. No marriage certificate has been found at this time for Benjamin and Dora Saltzman.

Living at this same 1422 Minford Pl. address was Dora’s sister Goldie (55), her husband Benjamin (55) Samowitz and their son Abraham (28). Benjamin was a machine operator in a cloak factory and Abraham was a stock clerk at a knit good factory. What connects all this is that Benjamin and Goldie are Gail Samowitz’s grandparents and Abraham is Gail’s father. The home at 1422 Minford Pl. belonged to Dora and her husband Israel and not to Benjamin Saltzman, that is why it passed eventually to her nephew, Gail’s father Abraham.

Lets not forget that Gail and I have a DNA connection.

Coincidence or family connection? That is what we are trying to figure out.

From 1915c up to some time prior to 1925c Dora and husband Israel were living just 2 doors away from – yes, Simon and Annie at the 1422 Stebbin’s Ave at 1426. What kept these two families living so close together?

Goldie and her son Abraham arrived in 1922 joining her husband Benjamin Samowitz who was already here establishing a home for them. As if I haven’t already established an interesting connections – Benjamin’s WWI draft record throws an additional interesting twist into the story. Benjamin’s last name was originally Chanowitz. Very similar to Haimowitz, often seen as Chaimowitz, and all variants of endings vici, vitz, witch, vitch, the m as an n, the i missing…..I know I am stretching; but trying to look at everything. At some point the name was changed. I don’t want to get to far off track with this post but here are the two draft registration records Gail believes are for her grandfather. I agree.

Gail reported that a Frieda Samowitz Blum lived at the 394 New Jersey Ave., Brooklyn address. Gail has a definite DNA match with the Blum family as well. Below, the 1920c record lists Benjamin Samowitz living at the 38 Jefferson St. address, the same as on his WW1 draft record. The only reason I am adding this record at this time is to point out that Benjamin is living with Sam and Rose Lippman. Could Lippman have been Lipschitz It just seems to open up and continue the dialog of between the connection of these families.

http://www.ancestry.com

So the question remains and Gail and I will continue to try and put together the possible connection of the Lipshitz and Samowitz families and our DNA connection.

Now on to ~~~~~~~~Moses with the discovery of the most interesting information

 

Moses/Moe Lifshitz, oldest child of Simon and Annie Lifshitz

While rechecking and working on the ‘above’ somehow and I don’t know how, I noticed a record on ancestry for Moses, the oldest and first son of Simon and Annie Lifshitz that peeked my interest. Simon is the brother of my great grandfather Benjamin, my great uncle and Moses is my 1st cousin 2x removed. Born 24 March, 1896, he passed away on 24 July, 1955 in Seagoville, Texas.

But first let me tell you a little bit more about Moses before he died.

As I began digging into his life I was able to piece together quite a story. Born in 1896 at the age of 26, Moses now using the name Moe, married Fray (Fay) Parrer. Moe’s age was not 26 but more like 34 at the time. The error with his age will come clear later in the story. (this record seems to have a wrong marriage date)

Moe Lifshitz

Name	Moe Lifshitz
Event Type	Marriage
Event Date	16 Jan 1930
Event Place	Manhattan, New York, New York, United States
Event Place (Original)	Manhattan, New York, New York
Gender	Male
Age	26
Marital Status	Single
Race	White
Birth Year (Estimated)	1904
Birthplace	N.Y.C.
Father’s Name	Siman Lifshitz
Mother’s Name	Anna Danufsky
Spouse’s Name	Fray Parrer
Spouse’s Gender	Female
Spouse’s Age	26
Spouse’s Marital Status	Single
Spouse’s Race	White
Spouse’s Birth Year (Estimated)	1904
Spouse’s Birthplace	N.Y.C.
Spouse’s Father’s Name	Louis Parrer
Spouse’s Mother’s Name	Anne Aeronson

Citing this Record “New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940,” database, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2487-Z8F : 10 February 2018), Moe Lifshitz and Fray Parrer, 16 Jan 1930; citing Marriage, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York City Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,653,973.

Below is the 1930 census for Moe Lefshitz (34) and Fay (26) with 1 son, David (6)  They are living at 1818 79th St. Brooklyn. He was working as a clothing salesman. Married in 1930, son David was already 6 yrs old. At first I thought perhaps Fay had David before marriage or from a previous marriage. (David’s age seems to confirm the wrong marriage year with other evidence to follow)

1930 Census for Moe and Fay Lifshitz 

Title1930 United States Federal CensusAuthorAncestry.comPublisherOnline publication – Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.Original data – United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626,

By 1940, another picture had begun to emerge. Fay (36) was now divorced and working in Millinery as a saleslady. Son David was 16 and her sister Shirley Luskin (31), married, was living with then at 1511 Sterling Pl., Brooklyn. So where was Moe?

1940 Census Fay Lifshitz 

Title1940 United States Federal CensusAuthorAncestry.comPublisherOnline publication – Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.Original data – United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627

 

Moe (44) was living at Clinton Prison in Dannemora, New York. “It is the largest maximum security prison and the 3rd oldest prison New York” From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1940 Census Clinton State Prison, Dannamora, New York  

“United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQM5-B1D : accessed 7 April 2018), Moe Lilshitz, Dannemora, Dannemora Town, Clinton, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 10-18, sheet 15B, line 71, family , Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 – 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 2516.

 

This of course led to the question – what in the world did he do? Why had Fay divorced him?

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle 16 Oct 1936 Fri pg 15 

https://www.newspaper.com/image/52700007

I was totally blown away after finding this article, rereading it quite a few times. There were a few things that stood out in the article for me. The year of their marriage (1922 according to the article) contradicted the marriage record for them (see record) 1922 would make more sense siting the marriage date to Betty Wexelman of Feb. 1, 1930 and the age of son David.

Rebecca Wexelman Joseph M. Schiffman Marriage

Name	Joseph M. Schiffman
Event Type	Marriage
Event Date	01 Feb 1930
Event Place	Manhattan, New York, New York, United States
Event Place (Original)	Manhattan, New York, New York
Gender	Male
Age	34
Marital Status	Single
Race	White
Birth Year (Estimated)	1896
Birthplace	N.Y.City
Father’s Name	Samuel
Mother’s Name	Hannah Leibowitz
Spouse’s Name	Rebecca Wexelman
Spouse’s Gender	Female
Spouse’s Age	21
Spouse’s Marital Status	Single
Spouse’s Race	White
Spouse’s Birth Year (Estimated)	1909
Spouse’s Birthplace	N.Y. City
Spouse’s Father’s Name	Hyman
Spouse’s Mother’s Name	Sarah Klabyak

Citing this Record”New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940,” database, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2487-6QB : 10 February 2018), Joseph M. Schiffman and Rebecca Wexelman, 01 Feb 1930; citing Marriage, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York City Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,653,974.

Locating the 1930 census (April 24, 1930) for Betty Wexelman (21 & married) I found her  living back at home with her parents Hyrum (Hyman)  and Sarah at the 85 Penn St. address.

 

Before I found the newspaper article I had asked myself, had Moe learned his lesson?  The answer was undoubtably no. Bigamy and the forging of a $20 check led to a life of crime and prison. It was in Seagoville, 1955, at the Federal Correctional Institution that I found the death record for Moses/Moe, now under the name of Morris Lifshitz. He had only been in prison for 6 months before he passed away. Notice his parents names of Simon and Annie (Danufsky) confirming our Moe. It also appears his body was removed and returned to Hartford, CT.

Death Certificate for Morris (Moses/Moe) Lifshitz: July 14, 1955  

 

 

Finding these type of family stories seem to give a jolt of adrenalin to push forward to see what else can be uncovered. It also reminds me that the ancestors of my past were truly flesh and blood, experiencing true joys and very deep lows in their lives just as we do. Their parents and siblings, children were real and deeply affected by each others actions. What happened to Fay and their son David? What led to Simon forging a $20 check…..$20 and bigamy that led to Sing Sing and Dannemora which led to the Federal Correctional Institution at Seagovolle, Texas. Looks like I am falling down that rabbit hole again.