Death Certificate for Joseph Handler

You often hope that a death certificate will give you lots of great information about an ancestor. For example, a mother's maiden name...

Sometimes it's not as helpful as you hope, but it gives you information nonetheless.

FamilySearch.org (a free online resource) has Ohio death certificates available for 1908-1953. Joseph Handler died of a heart attack on December 2, 1947, in Akron, Summit County, Ohio.

Death Certificate for Joseph Handler from the Ohio Department of Health, Ohio Deaths 1908-1953 at website: Family Search Record Search. www.FamilySearch.org

Information on the death certificate was provided by his youngest son, Harry Handler (see item 16), who was able to say that his father 's father was Aaron Handler, but did not know the name of his father's mother. He does provide the information that his father and grandparents were born in Yugoslavia, and that his father was born on August 24, 1883.

The death certificate also indicates that he was in the U.S.A. for 38 years (immigrating in 1909), and in the community (presumably Akron) for 35 years. This is helpful as I look for additional records.

A couple of things I know to be aware of: Eastern European boundaries changed a great deal during the 20th century (and before), so although the death certificate says Yugoslavia, I have other records that indicate that Joseph Handler and his wife were born in Hungary. I will share these other records in a future blog post.

The burial date is December 3, 1947, and the cemetery listed on the death certificate is Sand Hill Cemetery.

FindAGrave indicates that Sand Hill Cemetery is known as Ahavas Zedek Cemetery (also known as Hungarian Jewish Cemetery). However, when I search the  International Jewish Cemetery Project for United States>Ohio>Summit County, Sand Hill Cemetery has a "?" after the name.

My husband and I hope to visit Akron in the near future and visit his grandfather's grave, if I can confirm where the cemetery is. In the meantime, if anyone is familiar with this area and this cemetery, I would love to hear from you.