Ida Lifshitz nee Paley Death Certificate

It’s been some time since I have checked in and shared any family history, documents or stories. It came to my attention that I had not shared the death certificate for Ida Lifshitz, which I will do in this post.

Ida Paley was the wife of David Lifshitz. I have little to no information about David. She was the mother of my great grandfather Benjamin Lipshitz (he spelled it with the p ) and his six siblings, Fanny, Molly, Solomon (Simon), Rachel, Isaac (Ike), and Samuel all spelling it with the (f) With the exception of their father David, they all immigrated to the U.S. From census records for Ida, she immigrated some time around 1893, as a widow. She remained an alien until her passing on June 23, 1921.

Death Certificate of Ida Lifshitz

On this record her birth date is given as June 16, 1838 – Russia. We also learned her fathers name and her mothers first name. I love on the back side of the document the signature of her son Simon which is off to the side.

Ida Paley – Death Record Found

In my last posting, I had shared my working assumption that Ida Paley had passed away some time between 1920 and 1925, Bronx, New York. Ida, also known as Yetta and Edith, was my 2x great grandmother. She was married to a David Lipschitz. They had 7 children, Samuel, Fanny, Molly, Solomon/Simon, Rachel, Isaac and my great grandfather, Benjamin.

Having gone back into the records looking for Ida, I discovered her living with her daughter Fanny and husband Israel Lifschitz (spelled Lipschidt on the census) at 1330 Franklin Ave., Bronx. Ida was listed as mother, 77, wd.. Listed as mother and not mother in law, I was still convinced this was Fanny’s mother and not Israel’s.

Continuing to work on learning when she passed away, I have had another breakthrough discovery and confirmation that I was right she was Fanny and not Israel’s mother.

Found under the last name spelling of Lifshitz, Ida (Ida Paley) was her death record.

Name:	Ida Lifshitz [Ida Paley]
Gender:	Female
Race:	White
Marital status:	Widowed
Age:	83
Birth Date:	16 Jun 1838
Birth Place:	Russia
Years in US:	22 Years
Death Date:	23 Jun 1921
Death Street Address:	1330 Franklin Ave
Death Place:	New York City, Bronx, New York, USA
Cause of Death:	Cardia Failure Chronic Arteriosclerosis Chroni Myocarditis Chronic Interstitial Nephritis
Burial Date:	24 Jun 1921
Burial Place:	Washington Cemetery
Father’s Birth Place:	Russia
Mother’s Birth Place:	Russia
Father:	Jacob Paley
Mother:	Esther Paley
Executor:	Simon Lifshitz
Executor Relationship:	Son
Certificate Number:	3791

New York, New York, U.S., Index to Death Certificates, 1862-1948 Ancestry.com

The option was given to purchase the certificate, which I have done and will post it once it is received.

Fanny was still living with her daughter Fanny and family at the 1330 Franklin address when she passed away. Executor was her son Simon, and an added bonus was the names of her parents. Also a birth date was given on this record.

Ida passed away on 23 June 1921 and is buried at Washington Cemetery.

Still on my ‘to find’ list is for Samuel. He is the only sibling that I have no information on other than his name. With only his name, it has been impossible to identifying any match.

Fannie Lifshitz (1896 – 1992) and Abraham Ordin (1890 – 1957)

It is time for me to go back and address the Lipshitz branch of the family. Most recently, through the blog, I connected with two distant cousins and while DNA has confirmed the connection, I am still unable to connect our dots. They both connect to me through Solomon and Sarah Maria Lifshitz. I was delighted to be gifted this wonderful wedding photo of the marriage of Fannie Lifshitz and Abraham Ordin.

Abraham Odin and Fannie Lifshitz ~ Courtesy Ordin Family

Fannie Lifshitz was the daughter of Solomon (Zalman Hillel) Lifshitz and Sarah Marie Kinoy. She was born on July 18, 1896, Gomel, Russia. On January 17, 1915, N.Y.C., Fannie married Abraham Ordin. He was the the son of Hersh Ordin and Minnie Rosenbloom (info from family search.org) Abraham was born abt. 1890 Gomel, (Belarus) Russia The photo above is the first photo I have for this family branch.

• I need to make note of the spelling of the last name. While my immediate branch spelled it with a ‘p’ most all other branches spelled it with a ‘f’

My great grandfather was a man named Benjamin Lipshitz. He was born November 10, 1883, Slutsk, (Belarus) Russia. His date of immigration is still unknown however it was prior to November, 1913 in N.Y.C., when he married Kate Rosen born the 10 January, 1889, Sompolno, Poland. Both Benjamin and Kate were born hearing but both became deaf from childhood illnesses.

They had three daughters Myra (b. 1914) my grandmother, Esther (b.1916) and Mary (b.1918).

Prior to the beginning of my family research very little to no information was known about Benjamin’s family, parents, siblings. All the information/knowledge seemed to be lost.

By obtaining marriage and death records for Benjamin I learned that his parents were

David Lipshitz and Ida Paley. I am estimating their birth years 20 years prior to their first child, to be about 1847 – 1850. For Ida I have numerous first names on documents, Ida, Yetta, Edith, Gittle as well as Pallai/Palley for the last name. With this information, some DNA matches and purchasing marriage and death documents, along with using familysearch.org, I was able to confirm these 4 siblings with 1 still unconfirmed.

Benjamin’s siblings were

Fanny (b.1870), Molly (b.1872), Solomon (b.1873), Isaac (b.1880) and Samuel.

Fanny married Israel Lifshitz (same last name) and went on to have Estelle, Jacob, Samuel, Benjamin and Dorothy.

Molly married Hyman (Harry) Cohen and they went on to have two sons, Jacob and Joseph.

Solomon (Simon) married Anna Dinofsky and they had Moses (Moe), Rachel (Rae), Esther (Estelle), Stella Dora and Charles.

Isaac (Ike) married Rebecca Leff and they had two sons David and Naphtali

The last of the siblings was Samuel but I have no information at this time for him.

Also connected through DNA is the family of Fannie above. Her siblings were

Samuel (abt 1885) Elias (b.1887), Isaac Isidore (b.1890), Ida, Annie, Fannie (b.1896), Minnie (b. 1900) and Emaunel (b. 1905)

Samuel – I have no information

Elias married Maria (Manya) Golden they had Ruth Rachel, Murray (Moses), Jean, Anne Constance, Betty, Edith and Edward

Isaac Isidore married Bertha Deitch and they had daughter Frances and son Bernard.

Ida and Annie – I have no information on either of them

Minnie Michele married Julius Delan they had children Daniel, Hannah, Edith, and Ira Arthur

Emanuel married Eleanor Rosen and they had Martha, Howard and Susan

These two families connect, just how I have not been able to figure out. When my great grandfather Benjamin married Kate Rosen (an arranged marriage) he was living at 1268 Park Ave. N.Y.C. as noted on his marriage license. On the 1915 census living at that same address was Solomon and Sarah Marie with children Annie, Minnie, Mendel (Emanuel) and Isaac. Solomon and Sarah would remain at that address up until Solomon passed in 1935.

Also at that same address in 1910c and 1915c was Benjamin’s brother Isaac (Ike) wife Rebecca and their two sons David and Naphtali.

Solomon’s (Zalman Hillel) parents, as listed on his death certificate were David Lifshitz and Rachel Rifkin. Using the age of Solomon at his passing of 62 we can estimate his birth year as about 1873. Going back 20 years we can estimate his fathers date of birth as about 1853. Doing the same with my great grandfather and his siblings estimating his father David Lifshitz born between 1847 – 1850. The overlap of ages for children rules out David as having been married to Rachel Rifkin then Ida Paley (or vice versa). So we need to go back a generation if not more for our shared ancestor. With out more information for now I am stuck.

But connections with families means the possibilities of more information and answers so I have never been more excited to connect with the descendants of Fanny Lifshitz and Elias Lifshitz.

Moe Lifshitz/Joseph Schiffman Continued

In my last post I wrote about Moe Lifshitz aka Joseph Schiffman my 1st c 2x r. He was a man who walked on the wrong side of the road, convicted of bigamy and forgery he spent a good part of his life in prison from Sing Sing to Dannemora and then Seagoville Correctional Facility in Texas where he passed away in 1955. I must make note that he was sent away for a $20 check forgery for 5 years in the 1930’s. That seems like such a stiff sentence for $20, but coupled with the bigamy charges – had there been more to it – to him?

Recently shared with me by Cheri, is the marriage certificate for Joseph M. Schiffman to Rebecca Wexelman. This is an amazing document because there was no such person as Joseph M Schiffman – he actually was Moses/Moe Lifshitz and yet here it is – a legal government document that he got away with. (This record is for the second wife that Joseph (Moe) married.)

Courtesy of the Rebecca Wexelman Family 

Once received I took a good look at it, the addresses, his parents names –

Living at  85 Penn Street Brooklyn, the address for ‘Joseph’ actually belonged to Rebecca’s parents Hyman and Sarah Wexelman. They owned the 2 family home. Listed as Betty on this census it says she was born in Russia immigrating at the same time, 1912, as her parents. I checked the the 1920c and the family was at the same address then, with Betty as Rebecca and again the Russia birth location, also confirmed with the naturalization papers for Hyman. (note this document says she was born in New York City.)

I have seen the addresses mixed up on marriage documents before so I wasn’t very concerned. My next step was to discover who lived at the 110 E. 17th Street NY City address. This proved a bit more difficult. I had no luck just using Ancestry. I then tried Stephen P. Morse street name changes, thinking that might be a reason, was it listed as 17th or Seventeenth? but forgot to check the ED listings (enumeration districts)  I turned to the FB page of Tracing The Tribe for help. With more direction from Amy Cohen of  Brotmanblog: A Family Journey   https://brotmanblog.com   I returned to Stephen P. Morse this time using the ED finder and there it was – what I was looking for, the address

110 E. 17th Street, N.Y. City —-Because the enumeration was done in April and they married in Feb., it is possible the address listed on the marriage certificate was for Joseph Schiffman in this home

 

 

Looks like this is a boarding house run by owner, a 70 year old widow, Katherine Jar. Living there was Helen Buckingham (60), Jesse Morris (42), Fred Broege (44) and Arthur Cawtha (64)

It appears the addresses for the two of them were transposed and written in the incorrect box, or was it a ploy of Joseph’s to confuse the facts on the certificate?

Then we have the parental names used by Joseph Schiffman for his parents. Who were

Samuel Schiffman and Hannah Liebowitz

Had Rebecca ever met his parents or his family/siblings? Question I would love to find answers for.

Had he made these names up or were they real people he knew and was ‘borrowing’ their names?  Using ancestry, familysearch and Italiangen (a wonderful resource) I located a naturalization record for a Samuel Schiffman now using Schiff married to a Hannah, -however this Samuel was born in 1893 – which is only 3 years older than our Joseph (Moe) he could not be his father as written on marriage certificate. I began thinking about it and turned to newspapers.com locating two articles that interested me. I found quite a few articles for a Samuel Schiff, 38, placing his birth year 1891, two years difference.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Nov. 26, 1929 – page 4

The Standard Union (Brooklyn, New York) 27 Nov. 1929, Wed . Page 7

What I found most interesting with this was the reference to Sing Sing prison. Checking the date it was not consistent with Joseph’s (Moe) term at Sing Sing but with a stretch of the imagination, pick pocket, petty crime, Moe, check forgery conviction, petty crime could there be a connection between these two? Had they possibly known each other?

Checking back with newspaper.com using the name Hannah Leibowitz – a little surprised, I found numerous articles with her name in connection to ‘bigamy’. Here are just two of them recounting the court proceeding.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 14 Apr 1937, Wed . Page 32

Marriage year to Hannah had been 1927 and to Henrietta 1936.

DailyNews (New York, New, York) 12 Apr 1937, Mon . Page 458

While neither of these articles connect Joseph (Moe) to them – I found it ‘interesting’ to say the least that using these names – there was a connection to the crimes (and I use that loosely) we have found for Jospeh (Moe)

As I continue to research and hopefully uncover more documents for Moe Lifshitz/Joseph Schiffman it will be interesting to see if I can get a clearer picture of his life. I have yet to find any other information regarding the additional alias that were sited for him: Morton Gibson, Martin Brown, Moses Cohen, and Moe Howard… and if that last name sounds familiar it should, as that was the name of the famous ‘Moe’  Howard of “The Three Stooges”

 

 

 

 

 

Moe Lifshitz aka Joseph Schiffman

It is impossible to begin this post without stating that with each new record found, it only added to the mystery of the story behind Moses/Moe Lifshitz.

Moses Lifshitz born 24 March 1896, New York, was my 1st c 2x removed. He was the first son born to Solomon/Simon Lifshitz and Anna Dinofsky.  (Solomon was brother to my great grandfather Benjamin Lipshitz. (the spelling on the last name was often different between many of the family members)

Moses was known as Moe as well as Morris on many records however, he had quite a few alias throughout his life time including using Morrey Lifshitz. He was incarcerated for bigamy at Dannemora Prison, New York, 1932, when he was sued for bigamy by his wife Fay alleging he had married Rebecca under the name of Joseph Schiffman. In addition to using Joseph, Moe used the aliases of

Monte Gibson, Martin Brown, Moses Cohen and Moe Howard. 

I have written about his life, his incarceration at Dannemora and Sing Sing and his marriage to Fay Parver and Rebecca Wexelman before. I had put the story of Moe to rest, that is until now.

Quite some time ago, back in 2018, a cousin, Jane, had written to me to mention a DNA match she noticed asking if I knew of the connection. I had not, but wrote to the match with the usual inquiry to a Lifshitz connection. Learning his name was Lewis, his answer was he knew of no Lifshitz in his family but if anything turned up he would be in touch. This week I received an email from him stating he believed there was a connection and that his father may be the 1/2 brother to David Lifshitz, son of Moe with Fay Parver. His father descends from Moe’s marriage to Rebecca Wexelman.

Let me explain first by sharing this article from newspaper.com The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 16 Oct 1936 – page 15 

Lewis had not known that Joseph Schiffman, who married Rebecca was indeed Moe Lifshitz until Cheri ( his nephews wife) had discovered my blog post with the story of  Moe Lifshitz. As the day progressed I heard from Cheri too and also learned of Lewis’s sister Marci, also on my DNA connected radar.

In our renewed attempt to now learn the story of the possible 1/2 sibling connection between David and Lewis and Marci’s father, Martin, our trail stalled at learning that David passed away 3 June 1979. I have not been able to find any additional information on David, a marriage or offspring.

In an attempt to figure this all out Cheri shared that Rebecca (Schiffman-Lifshitz) Wexelman had been 4 months pregnant with Moe’s baby when she married him on Feb. 1st, 1930.  Her marriage null and void to Moe due to bigamy, Rebecca in 1935 married a man named Benjamin who went on to adopt their father and he took his last name.

So we had a man, convicted of bigamy, married to two different woman, having a son with each, each knowing nothing of the other it appears.

The connection was made through DNA and a newspaper article that finally figured it out.

But the story does not end there – as I continued to look for information on David and Moe I came across another marriage index record for a Moe Lifshitz, on Ancestry. This may actually be the first marriage for Moe that took place on 24 Oct, 1916 in Greenwich, Connecticut. Moe was 20, married to a woman named Lillian Aaronson, 25. (Why had they married in Ct ?)

I discovered this marriage after revisiting some of the records I already had. While looking at his WWI draft record (1917) I noticed it said he was married. His marriage to Fay had been in 1922.

 

First I doubled checked that the WWI record was for our Moe Lifshitz. His birth date and year matched. Checking the address it matched the 1915c and 1920c for him and his parents. The next question was is this the same Moe Lifshitz marrying a Lillian Aaronson. I knew that last name of Aaronson.

Going back to the marriage of Fay Parver to Moe Lifshitz, in Jan of 1922, there it was -Fay’s parents were Louis Parver married to a woman named Anna Aaronson. Coincidence comes to mind but the name Aaronson seemed even more familiar to me and a look at Moe’s siblings didn’t let me down.

Moe Lifshitz had a sister named Rachel/Ray Lifshitz. Rachel married a man named Samuel C. Aaronson. A look at his parents and siblings and I discovered he had a sister named Lillian Aaronson. A quick look at the 1910c listing Lillian, she was 18. Six years later getting married her age was listed 25. Depending on actual dates/months its totally in the range of being her. Moe was born in 1896, listed as 20 at the time of the marriage his age is right on. Had Moe married the sister of his sisters husband?

By 1920 Moe, (24) was back listed with his parents working as a bookkeeper with no mention of Lillian. Lillian was not listed with her parents and I could not find her under Lifshitz (all variants of the spelling) or Aaronson. However a leaf/hint on ancestry led me to an obituary for a Lillian Vainer married to a Samuel Vainer. From the obit Montreal,  Quebec, Canada. The Gazette 20 dec 2003 I learned she had 1 son Mark Vainer and 1 other son named Dov Lifshitz.

This could mean that there was possibly another  1/2 sibling out there.

The lid was off the can and even more popped out as I continued to search. Fay Parver had another sister named Molly (1898) In an attempt to try and locate possible descendants of any of Fay’s siblings that might have some information I began looking at all of them. It turned out Molly Parver married a man named Pincus Shapiro yet a son with the name of Myron Schiffman was associated with her. I have not even begun to delve into that connection, if in fact there is one.

I can’t help but think – what the heck is going on here? The important thing to keep in mind is that ‘Lifshitz, Aaronson are common names and without the proper documentation it is all still just ‘possibilities’.

Moving on to his WWII draft registration I had located the record below. I had not given it much thought when I first attached it to Moe a few years back. The birth date was his – married, unemployed but the name now meant more than before.

Who was Rose?

I found a marriage license record for a Rose Ginsberg to Moe (spelled) Lifshetz for 20 January, 1942, Brooklyn. There was no connecting information with the record.

Name:	Rose Ginsberg
Gender:	Female
Marriage License Date:	20 Jan 1942
Marriage License Place:	Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Spouse:	Moe Lifshetz
License Number:	1940

 

I needed to look at a time line of events for him. In 1930 he was in Brooklyn married to Fay with David then 6 years old. By 1932 he was in Dannemora Prison for bigamy, 1935 he is doing 5 years in Sing Sing for check forging; 1936 Fay filed for divorce. If he did his 5 years from Dec. 1935 he would have been released by/in Dec. 1940 – a Jan. 1942 marriage was not out of the question. But I have nothing else to prove or disprove this is for him.

Moe Lifshitz Sing Sing Admission record – ancestry.com

If it was him married to this Rose then something had to have happened and true to his tract record he ended up in Seagoville Federal Correctional Institution, Texas where he passed away in 1955 at age 59. It does state that he was divorced. I could find no record for a divorce from Rose.

From the Hartford Courant, Hartford Connecticut, 30 July, 1935, Sat . Page 4 

There are still so many unanswered questions, so much let to prove. The search for answers will continue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rachel (Rae) Aaronson nee Lifshitz and her brother Moe

Switching gears slightly, I want to get back to my Lipschitz family and update with a newly received record. * My Lipschitz family/families have taken on many of the different creative spelling variants with this branch using Lifshitz.

The birth certificate of Rachel Rae Lifshitz

Notice on the certificate the spelling of her mothers maiden name was written Dinowsky with most records record with an ‘f” instead.

Rachel was my 1st cousin 2x removed. She was the daughter of Solomon aka Simon Lifshitz b. Dec. 1873 Russia d. 27 Jan 1941 New York and Annie Dinofsky b. abt 1875 Russia d. date unknown.  Solomon/Simon was the brother of my great grandfather, Benjamin. They were joined by 2 other brothers, Isaac and Samuel along with 2 sisters, Fanny and Molly. Their parents were David Lipschitz and Ida/Edith Paley. The Paley connection has remained a mystery yet to be discovered. There has been a number of DNA connections of which has led to nothing concrete at this time.  

Rachel, 19 yrs old married Samuel C. Aaronson on 16 August 1916, New York City. Samuel was the son of Lazar Aaronson and Sarah Leah LNU. Samuel and Rachel had 4 children of which 3 survived, Morton b. 1917, Edith b. 1922 and Lawrence b. 1931.

While doing some searching of newspapers.com for any marriage mention for Samuel and Rae, I stumbled upon an obituary for Rachel’s brother Moses aka Moe Lifshitz. I have written about him before, however, I had not spotted his obituary. Always interesting, they provide a wealth of information to help move forward with research and this obit did not fail me.

 

Newspapers.com – Hartford Currant, Saturday, July 30, 1955 – Page 4 

I have seen his mother’s last name spelled Dinufsky as opposed in Dinofsky before, as well as Rachel’s birth certificates spelling of Dinowsky which I mentioned above. I had only known his sister Dorothy as Dora and learned her married name, Friend, her home in Easton, Ga., along with his brother Charles using Lipton instead of Lifshitz.

What I do find interesting in the obit was his death in Texas and the mention of his long illness. It was the omission of where he passed away that got my attention.

 

In a prior post, I had written about his wife, Fay Parver, who sued him for a divorce on the grounds of Bigamy. At the time Moe was serving a five-year sentence for forgery in Sing Sing Prison, 1935. This was after being sentenced in Dannemora Prison in May 1932.  She had charged that he had married a second time under the name Joe Schiffman to a woman named Betty Wexalman. I must make note that the forgery charge was for forging a check in the amount of $20.

While this was 64 years ago, in many ways it seems close in time to me and I am sure to his immediate family and those who may remember him and might find this, too. His family loved him despite his transgressions and brought him home with love and affection. This I am sure of.  Finding the obituary for Moe was a blessing for me as it closed the book on him with love and that is truly the greatest blessing of all.

Moe Lifshitz was laid to rest at

John Hay Memorial Park

May His Memory Be a Blessing

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

https://goo.gl/maps/W9YW9qED1a3zkhEc7

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 …” 

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.

DNA Connected: Something Clicked

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.

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

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