Tombstone Tuesday ~ Woodbine Brotherhood Cemetery (Part 1)

A week ago, we were visiting my husband's family in southern New Jersey. I spent much time (as I always do during these visits), asking my mother-in-law about memories of her family. We also visited the Woodbine Brotherhood Cemetery in Woodbine, Cape May County, New Jersey, where many relatives and friends of my mother-in-law are buried. Thank you to my husband for taking these great photos. (It's great when our hobbies can be shared!)

Morris Goldstein is my husband's grandfather. I have been trying to find him in the 1920 New York City census and in ancestry.com's immigration index, but there are an awful lot of Morris Goldsteins out there...

October 2011 update: I do have the 1914 passenger list for Morris (Moische) and his sister Anna. I also have his World War I Draft Registration card.

I believe that he lived in the lower East Side of Manhattan in 1920 and married Rose Levitt in Woodbine, New Jersey in 1922. Although they married in Woodbine, they lived in the lower East Side in the late 1920's where my mother-in-law and her brother were born. By the 1930 census, the family was living in Woodbine. My mother-in-law is sure that her father became a U.S. citizen in New York, before moving to Woodbine. The Hebrew reads:

Moshe Hersh bar Yitzchak Halevi

"bar" means "son of"
"Halevi" means that he is a Levite

According to Philip at Blood and Frogs Jewish genealogy blog, Hirsch/Hersh is Yiddish for deer. I have to remember to tell my mother-in-law that tidbit of information about her father's name.

Rose (Levitt) Goldstein was Morris Goldstein's wife. I knew Rose for a few years before she died and I got a chance to hear some of her stories of working in a hat factory and of living in New York City and in Woodbine, as well as about her memories of her family. The Hebrew reads:

Raizel baz Mordecai

"baz" is the Yiddish version of "bat" which means "daughter of."

Tradition in Jewish naming practices dictates that Hebrew names that children receive are from ancestors who have died. Rose died after her great-granddaughters were born, so none were given the name of Raizel. When I converted to Judaism four years ago, I took the name of Raizel in Rose's memory.

My grateful thanks to Rabbi Todd Markley of Temple Beth Shalom, Needham, MA for his assistance in the translation of the Hebrew.

Tombstone Tuesday is a daily blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers, the genealogy community’s resource for blogging. It is used by many genealogy bloggers to help them tell stories of their ancestors.