Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Wedding Wednesday ~ Lillian Levitas and Max Messing

Lillian F. Levitas, cousin of my husband's grandmother, and sister of Dr. Matthew Levitas, married a doctor. Following is the marriage certificate from New York City:

New York, Brooklyn Marriage Certificates, 1866-1937, Family History Library Microfilm 1613735,
Certificate No. 14741. Max Messing and Lillian F. Levitas, December 27, 1914.
Max Messing, of Philadelphia, married Lillian F. Levitas, of 2124 65th Street, Brooklyn, on December 27, 1914. They were married at her home in Brooklyn by Nathan Cantor of Temple Emanu El.

Max lives in Philadelphia and is a physician. His parents are Simon Messing and Clara Heiser (though I haven't found any record of his parents in the U.S.). Max was born in Russia and is listed as 30 years old, though other records I have found for him indicate that he may have been 34 at the time of his marriage.

Lillian lives in Brooklyn and her parents are listed as Emanuel Levitas and Sara Rabin. (However, I have found her last name listed as Rabinowitz on two of her children's birth records.) Lillian was born in Newark, New Jersey and is just 19 years old.

Witnesses to the marriage are Harry Berlin and Irving K. Schwab. I wonder if some research into those men would shed any light into where the Levitas family originally was from...

Monday, June 2, 2014

Celebrating Blogiversary #3

I started this blog three years ago because my other blog, From Maine to Kentucky, is about my ancestry, and researching my husband's ancestry is so different from mine that I thought it deserved its own blog.

I have not been as prolific during this past year, but I try to write at least a couple of blog posts each month.

In celebration of three years of blogging, I thought I'd share some of my favorite posts of this past blogging year.

I had fun finding records for Emanuel Levitas, brother to my mother-in-law's grandfather, Max Levitt. I am still trying to figure out where this family immigrated from!

And the fact that his wife, Sarah Levitas, had a patent in her name was a great find by my husband!

I enjoyed attending the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) Conference 2013, which was held in Boston last August and I blogged about my experiences in IAJGS Part 1 and IAJGS Part 2.

One of my favorite photos can be seen at Two Tone Tessie.

Another photo (one of many) of the "cousins in Israel" can be seen here.

And a photo of the uncle who remained in Romania and "became a Communist" can be seen here.

I do have several more photographs with Yiddish on the back that I should share...

Thanks for reading, even thought I haven't been posting much!