Mystery Monday ~ Max and Gussie Levitt's First Child

Way back in the early days of this blog, I shared census records for my husband's great-grandparents, Max Levitt and Golda Segal in Woodbine, New Jersey. (See Mystery Monday ~ Levitts in Woodbine.)

Specifically, in the 1900 U. S. Federal Census for Dennis Township, Cape May County, New Jersey, I found the family of Max Levitt.

1900 U.S. Federal Census, Dennis Township, Cape May County, New Jersey; Roll: T623_960; Page: 18B;
Enumeration District: 113. Record for Max Levitt.

Max Levitt is listed as born in August 1868 in Australia (should be 1857-58 in Austria) and has been married for three years to wife, Rebecca (should be Gussie), who, in this census, was reportedly born in Russia in May 1877. (Her passenger list reports a birth year of 1869.)

The children living with them were Minnie (age 12), Rebecca (age 11), Davis (age 10), and Daniel (age 1, b. Dec 1898). The census indicates that the wife had given birth to one child, who was still living. It is logical that the wife's one child is Daniel and that the three older children were Max's from an earlier marriage.

My mother-in-law doesn't recognize Minnie or Daniel as siblings or half-siblings of her mother, Rose (not born until 1902), but perhaps Daniel died as an infant, so even Rose may not have known about him. (Minnie is still a mystery.) As I have shared previously, in the 1910 census, the family reports that Gussie had given birth to four children, and all four were living, so that makes one-year-old Daniel in the 1900 census even more mysterious.

Since George, the known oldest brother in the family, was not born until November 1900, this 1-year-old boy couldn't be him.

I recently found the New Jersey index to records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1848-1900 online at FamilySearch.org and I think I have partially solved this mystery. (Note that you do need to be at a Family History Center to view the images for births and deaths.)

The following image is from the Index Register of Births in Cape May County [New Jersey], 1899-1900.

The transcription below shows the handwritten entries bolded.

Township or City of Birth: D [Dennis Township]
Date, Mo. / Day: 10 / 3 [October 3, 1899]
Name: Ludah
Color: - [blank]
Sex: Male
Name of Father: Max Levin
Age of Father (Y. / M.): 35 - [35 years old]
Occupation of Father: Tailor
Mother's Maiden Name: Sigal G---
Age of Mother (Y. / M.): 22 [22 years old]
No. of Children: 1
No. Living: 1
Nativity of Parents (Fa. / Mo.): Aus / Rus [Austria / Russia]

Source: Division of Archives and Record Management, New Jersey Department of State, Trenton, "New Jersey index to records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1848-1900," database, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/312728 : accessed 15 November 2017), entry for Ludah Levin in FHL microfilm #494243, Births Atlantic-Essex, v. 61 1899-1900. p. 236, line 57.

I recently shared the marriage record I found for "Maik Levin" and "Lossie Siegel" where I suggest that they are Max Levitt and Gussie Segal who married just eleven months previously, on 26 October 1898. I suggest that this is a birth record for the child who appeared in the 1900 U.S. census as Daniel Levitt.

• The timing of a first child, eleven months after the parents' marriage, is expected.
• However, the birth month from the birth record (October 1899) doesn't agree with the birth month in the June 1900 census (December 1898). Is it possible that the census taker (Paul E. Carroll, not likely Jewish) couldn't understand the accent of the person providing him information and captured the date incorrectly? The year is hard to read - it looks like he couldn't decide whether to write 1898 or 1899.
• The child's name Ludah (possibly a mistranscription of Judah?) could be a Hebrew name and Daniel the name that was provided to the census taker.
• The father's name, Maik Levin = Max Levin = Max Levitt. This isn't unusual for a man who wanted to change his name from Levitas because he thought is sounded "too fancy" as the family story goes.
• The mother's name, Lossie Siegel = G--- Sigal = Gussie Segal. It's possible the name was transcribed to the marriage register incorrectly and, as I've noted before, Segal can be spelled in many ways.
• The father's age in his marriage record is 30 (b. 1868). It's 35 (b. 1865) in his son's birth record and 31 (b. Aug 1868) in the 1900 U.S. census. However, all sources suggest his birthplace was Austria.
• The mother's age in her marriage record is 24 (b. 1874). It's 22 (b. 1876) in her son's birth record and 23 in the 1900 (b. May 1877) U.S. census. Two of these three suggest her birthplace was Russia.

Immigrants had many reasons for misreporting their ages: they may not have known their exact birth date or wanted to appear older or younger for some reason. According to family lore, Max was about 15 years older than Gussie and due to her hearing loss from an injury, family lore also suggests that she was "less marriageable" and married at a later age than was usual. Perhaps Max didn't want to appear so much older than his wife and perhaps Gussie wanted to appear younger than she really was.

I have yet to find a death record for Daniel Levin / Levitt, but I believe that the report in the 1910 U.S. census that Gussie was mother of four children and all four children were living was incorrect.