Herman Handler - Passenger List

Herman Handler's Naturalization Papers reported that he arrived in New York on the Vatterland. Ancestry happens to have images of some of the early 20th century passenger ships.

Image of S.S. Vaderland, Passenger Ships and Images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : viewed 30 August 2018);
Original data: Various maritime reference sources.

What can a passenger list tell you? Quite a bit. Herman managed to travel to Antwerp, Belgium, to depart on December 28, 1903, and he arrived in New York City on January 8, 1904, just as his naturalization papers reported.

Herman Handler is on line 19 of the following passenger manifest.

New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010), Ancestry.com, Year: 1904; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 0425; Line: 19; Page Number: 52. Record for Hermann Håndler.

Herman Handler - Birth Record

JewishGen's Hungary Database is a treasure, despite there not being digitized original source images available. These indexed birth records from the Historical archive Srem in Serbia have helped tremendously with piecing together the Handler family ancestors.

Following are search results after searching for Herman Handler and Erdevik:

There were two Herman Handlers who had their births registered in Erdevik during this period. Herman Handler, son of Filip [Philip] Handler and Jetti Hubert (born in Erdevik) and Herman Handler, son of Adolf Handler and Katrina -- [Fuchs] (born in Ljuba).

Sali Handler's Birth Record

As I noted in a previous post about Regina Handler, I have several images of records from Erdevik, Serbia, and Ilok, Croatia. These communities were both part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries and part of Yugoslavia for a good part of the 20th century - see Mappy Monday for details.

The following record is a collection of Jewish births from the Ilok, Croatia, Office of the Registrar (according to the Hungarian Databases at JewishGen).

There are five Handler births listed on this birth register and they "belong" to two different, yet related, families. This record is not an original source since the births are recorded in order by family; they must have been copied from other records. The births range in date from March 1849 to November 1854, but this is likely the closest I'm going to get to determining birth information for these relatives of my husband.

Mappy Monday ~ Where the Handlers Were From

Because I am sharing images of vital records for my husband's Handler family, I thought I should refresh my memory (and that of my readers) as to the area that the family lived in.

Surname Saturday ~ Handler Family of Yugoslavia is where I shared the following series of maps showing the border changes.

Macrohistory: Worldhistory is where I found a changing map of Europe from WWI to 2000. I took screen shots and showed where Ilok is situated: at the point of the arrow in each map.

1914: Ilok was in Hungary (Austro-Hungarian Empire)

1919-1938: Ilok was in Yugoslavia

1956: Ilok was still in Yugoslavia

2000: Ilok is now in Croatia, just north of the Serbian border.

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Resi Handler's Birth Record

Acquiring records and images is fun. Crafting an accurate citation, entering the information into Family Tree Maker, and analyzing the evidence sometimes gets put off way too long.

I have several images of records from the border area of Ilok, Croatia, and Ljuba, Serbia, where the Handlers lived for a good part of the 19th century and early 20th century and I have only shared a few:

Josef Handler's 1884 birth record is at Use JewishGen Family Finder.
Adolf (Aron) Handler's 1900 death record is at Adolf Handler's Death Record.
Adolf's and Sali's 1882 marriage record is at Wedding Wednesday ~ Adolf Handler and Sali Handler, 1882.

I will be sharing additional record images that I received from the researcher in Serbia who is indexing these records for JewishGen's Hungary Database. This database is growing! There are now records from the office of the registrar in Ilok, Croatia, in addition to those from Erdevik, Serbia.

Two and a half years ago, when I shared the transcriptions or index of birth records for my husband's grandfather, Josef Handler, I only saw transcriptions for Rose (Rosi, born 1883), Joseph (Josef, born 1884), and Sam (Salomon, born 1887). I wondered why their younger sister, Regina, born in 1891, didn't appear. The suggestions in the comments were great, but it turned out that her birth was recorded in Ilok, not in Erdevik, and it doesn't appear in the JewishGen Hungarian Database, but I found it in one of the digital images that was sent to me.

Wedding Wednesday ~ Adolf Handler and Sali Handler, 1882

Here is another one of the records that the researcher from Šid, Serbia, shared with me.

This record, along with other records in this archives, helps to confirm the story that my husband's great-grandparents were related.

I have split the horizontal record into two sections, for easier reading.

Sympathy Saturday ~ Adolf Handler's Death Record

As I recently noted, a researcher in Šid, Serbia, contacted me via JewishGen's Family Finder and shared with me some digital images from the local archives.

This is the death record for my husband's great grandfather, Aron / Adolf Handler. When he died, he left several adult children, but also four young children from his second wife: Rose, Josef, Sam, and Regina.

Again, I have taken the long horizontal entry and split it into two pieces for easier reading. And again, I got help with the translation from Google Translate.

Researching Jewish Ancestors? Use JewishGen Family Finder!

The Internet, and especially JewishGen, has made researching Jewish ancestors easier than it might have been just a few years ago.

In November, I shared Handler Birth Transcriptions at JewishGen with the news that the Hungarian Databases at JewishGen had added a new database of transcribed records from Erdevik, Serbia, which included some Handler ancestors.

JewishGen also has the JewishGen Family Finder (JGFF), where a researcher can enter surnames and places being researched. In August 2012, I added some of my husband's family names in the JGFF. I just added a couple of new ones. This is what my Family Finder list looks like:

I am very excited to report that the Serbian researcher from Šid, Serbia, who transcribed the records from the Historical archive Srem - Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia, contacted me after seeing my interest in family from Ilok, Croatia (in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries), which is a community just over the border from Erdevik, Serbia, where he is researching. He has provided me with a family tree of information about the Handler family!

Wedding Wednesday ~ Honevald-Weisz, 1854

I shared a piece of this marriage record at Surname Saturday ~ Honevald. Here is the full page. Record number 10, at the bottom of this image is the 14 November 1854 marriage record for Jacob Honevald and Mari Weisz.

Hőgyész, Tolna, Hungary, "Registers of Jewish births, marriages and deaths for Hőgyész (1842-1895)," 1854: Marriage no. 10. Jacob Honevald and Mari Weisz. November 14, 1854.; Family History Library microfilm.

I shared the left-hand side in my last post:

Surname Saturday ~ Honenvald of Hungary

I am using the Surname Saturday prompt to review the ancestral lines for my husband's family.

The surname Honenvald is also found as Honevald, Huniwald, Honenwald and Honiwald. (Remember, in the 19th century and earlier, especially in Eastern Europe, spelling was not standardized and those writing these records were writing down names based on how they heard them.)

Thanks to the Family History Library, which has been microfilming (and now digitizing) records from around the world, I have been able to trace my husband's Hungarian ancestors for several generations through the vital records found on FHL microfilms.

Some post-1895 Hungarian Vital Records are indexed and can be found at FamilySearch in the Hungary Civil Registration, 1895-1980 database. However, Tolna district is not yet included in the indexed records, so you have to browse these records at the browse page for Hungary Civil Registration 1895-1980.

Hungary records before 1895 are only found on microfilm (at this time) and I have explored them for Hőgyész and Bonyhád. I have previously shared a few records that I found.

The earliest in this line that I have found is Moses Honevald, born in the very early 1800s. He is listed on his son's marriage record with his wife, Hany Bruk. Their residence is also listed on this record, but I'm having trouble deciphering it. (See image below.)

I don't know how many children Moses Honevald and Hany Bruk had or when and where they died.

Generation 2: Their son, Jacob, is found in several records, including his 14 November 1854 marriage record, the only record I have that shows his father's name:

Hőgyész, Tolna, Hungary, "Registers of Jewish births, marriages and deaths for Hőgyész (1842-1895)," 1854: Marriage no. 10. Jacob Honevald and Mari Weisz. November 14, 1854.; Family History Library microfilm. (Left side of page)

Surname Saturday ~ Hollander of Hungary

I am using the Surname Saturday prompt to review the ancestral lines for my husband's family.

As far as I know, the only Hollander who came to America was my husband's paternal grandmother, Lena, after she married her husband, Joseph Handler.

Thanks to the Family History Library, which has been microfilming (and now digitizing) records from around the world, I have been able to trace Bubbie Lena's ancestors for several generations through the vital records found on FHL microfilms. Hungary records before 1895 are still only on microfilm.

Hungary Civil Registration, 1895-1980 is available online at FamilySearch.org, though for Tolna District, the records are not yet indexed; you have to browse through them (which is kind of like scrolling through microfilm).

When I searched the microfilm in late 2011 and early 2012, the earliest Hollander I could find was Samuel Hollander, whose name is mentioned in the marriage record and death record for his son Leopold.

Generation 2: Leopold Hollander was born in the 1830s in Bezdán, Bacs-Bodrog, Hungary, according to his marriage record. He married Babette Kohn on June 9, 1862, in Bonyhád, Tolna, Hungary.

The following part of his son's 1886 marriage record has the groom's name on the left: Samu (Samuel) Hollander with his occupation: Pipafaragó (pipe carver) and his birth place: Bonyhád. The next column lists the groom's parents' names: Lipod [Leopold] Hollander with his occupation, also Pipafaragó, and Betti Kohn, and their residence: Bonyhád.

Detail from 1886 marriage record of Samu[el] Hollander and Anna Honnenvald

Leopold's death record lists his occupation as házaló (peddler).

Birth records for Bonyhád, Tolna, Hungary, provide me with the names of the children of Leopold and Babette, born between 1863 and 1883: Samuel, Rosalie, Herman, Hanni, Moritz, Abram, and Ignatz. Another son, Adolf, has Leopold and Babette listed on his marriage record.

I previously shared the death record for Leopold Hollander, who died on February 8, 1907, in Bonyhád of végelgyengülés (old age).

Surname Saturday ~ Handler of Yugoslavia and Ohio

Surname Saturday is a daily blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers, the genealogy community’s resource for blogging. I have decided to use this prompt to review the ancestral lines for my husband's family.

The earliest Handler whose name I know are brothers Aaron Handler and Tzvi Hersh (or Harry) Handler. After Aaron's first wife died (they had four children together), he married the daughter of his brother, whose name I believe is Rozalia (She also went by Rosie, Szali, and Sally - see Different Names-Same Person.) According to U.S. records that I have found, they lived in or near Ilok, in a part of eastern Europe that is currently in Croatia, but has previously been considered part of Hungary and Yugoslavia. It is believed that Aaron was a large landowning farmer.

Here is a website (Macrohistory: Worldhistory) with a changing map of Europe from WWI to 2000. I have taken screen shots and done my best to show where Ilok is situated: at the point of the arrow in each map.

1914: Ilok was in Hungary

1919-1938: Ilok was in Yugoslavia

1956: Ilok was still in Yugoslavia

2000: Ilok is now in Croatia.

Handler Family ~ Another Generation Back

I recently shared my "aha" moment about my father-in-law's Hebrew name being Tzvi Hersch (צבי הרש) which often becomes Harry in America.

My father-in-law's paternal grandmother was Sally Handler. (Also known as Roza, Rozalia, and Szali, as I shared at Different Names-Same Person.) I shared some information about her at Mystery Monday - Finding a Jewish Great-Grandmother, where I noted that JewishGen's Online Burial Registry (JOWBR) has an entry for Sally Handler:

She is Chaya Sara bat [daughter of] Zvi.

In Great-Grandmother Handler Married Twice, I shared a 1911 marriage record for Rosalie Hendler [sic] and Samuel Goodman where her parents are listed as Harry Hendler [sic] and Anna Stern.

I therefore theorize that this Handler line is:

Harry Handler = Anna Stern

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Sally Handler

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Josef Handler

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Harry Handler

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My husband

And the awkward thing about this line is that Sally Handler married her father's brother, Aaron Handler who was about 20 years her senior and a widower with children.

More information on Bubbie Lena Handler

At about 44 minutes into the "Mishpacha Tape Helen and Esther" at YouTube, these cousins of my father-in-law tell the story about their Uncle Joe Handler and his wife Lena (Hollander) Handler (my father-in-law's parents). The statements from the cousins are in italics below, and my comments follow.

Joe was four years older than his brother Sam. That's relatively accurate. I show Joe's birth date as 24 August 1884, and Sam's birth date as 27 December 1887, based on their draft cards, naturalization records, and in Joe's case, his marriage record from Hungary.

Arthur and Lena

Rose Handler ~ An Older Sister

Another interesting piece of information that I learned from the video interview of Helen Solomon and Esther Goldstein was that their mother, Regina (Handler) Solomon, had an older sister in addition to her older brothers, Sam and Joseph.

Cousin Helen reports that her mother, Regina, remembers her father as an old man with a long white beard (her description begins here) and that he died when Regina was four years old. Just after that statement, Helen answers a question about who was the oldest of Regina's siblings here, reporting that the oldest Handler sibling was sister, Rose, who was twelve years older than Regina.

It looks like the family of Aaron Handler and his second wife, Sarah (Sally) looked like:

Rose Handler, born about 1879 or 1880
Joseph Handler, born 1884 (see his draft cards here)
Sam Handler, born 1887 (see his draft cards here)
Regina Handler, born in February 1891 or 1892

If Regina was four years old when her father died, it suggests that Aaron Handler died in 1895 or 1896.

Rose Handler married and remained in Europe (don't know where). Helen remembers that her children were Aaron or Arthur (likely named after her deceased father), Margaret, and other sons. None of this family came to America and as far as we know, they died in the Holocaust.

Regina (Handler) Solomon and Jake Solomon

Great-Grandmother Sarah or Sally Handler

At Connecting with a Handler Cousin, I shared the link to a 1988 video interview that my husband's second cousin did with his aunts, my father-in-law's cousins Esther and Helen Solomon.

At about 18:45 minutes in, the sisters start talking about their mother's father, Aaron Handler. Their mother's name was Regina (younger sister to Sam and Joseph Handler). According to Helen, her grandfather, Aaron Handler, was a wealthy farmer who owned a large farm. He had four sons with his first wife, whose name they don't know. The sisters share a little bit of what they remember of these older sons of Aaron (Herman, Leopold, Philip, and "the one who made his career in the service").

After taking a brief break, the video interview continues and it comes out that after Aaron's first wife died, he married his brother's daughter: his niece, whose name is Sarah Handler, as remembered by Helen and Esther. They don't know Sarah's father's name.

I have written about this great-grandmother of my husband's before at: Finding A Jewish Great Grandmother (which includes her death certificate) and Great-Grandmother Handler Married Twice. And at one of my favorite blog posts: Passenger Lists...And Following Up on Family Stories.

JewishGen's JOWBR (JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry) has a record for Sally Handler, buried in Lansing Avenue Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio. With some additional digging, I found that she is buried in row 15 of the Knesseth Israel section of the cemetery and I'm hoping someone will fulfill the FindAGrave photo request I have made.

JewishGen has this cemetery in its index and the record for "Sally Handler" indicates that her tombstone reads: "Chaya Sara bat Zvi."

If this is correct (and I'd love to see the tombstone to be sure), then Zvi Handler is brother of Aaron Handler and father of Sarah / Sally Handler.

Another interesting thing to think about: In looking up the given name Zvi at JewishGen's Given Names Database (for Hungary), the U.S. equivalent is Herman or Harry.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday ~ The Photo Genealogist Looks at Hollanders in Hungary

Last week, when I attended the IAJGS 2013 Conference, I had the opportunity to have Ava Cohn, the Photo Genealogist, take a look at a photo that I shared in May 2012. It is believed to be of the Hollander family in Bonyhad, Hungary.

As I noted in the original post, family members believed that the woman sitting on the left was the mother of Lena (Hollander) Handler, named Anna Honenvald (or Honevald). However, Ava took a look at this photo and the one I have of Lena with her first-born son, Arthur, which I also shared in May 2012,

Arthur Handler (b. 1910), and his mother, Lena (Hollander) Handler

and said that she couldn't be Lena's mother; there was no family resemblance. Ava does think that the woman who is standing in the group photograph is related to Lena and could be a sister. She also noted that the two men at the right look like father (sitting) and son (standing).

Ava agreed that the 1911 date of the photo of Arthur and Lena is accurate and feels that the group photo is from the 1920's, 1919 at the very earliest. As I noted when I originally shared this photo, I need to continue to explore Hungarian Civil Records at FamilySearch.org to learn more about the family who remained in Hungary and see if I can possibly identify anyone else in the above photo. My working theory is that this is Lena's sister and family and she sent the photo to Lena in Ohio to remember her family by.

Mystery Monday ~ Who Was the Father?

I have been researching my husband's paternal grandmother's family in Hungary, where the records have been microfilmed by the Family History Library. His grandmother's mother, Anna Honevald, was from Hőgyész, one of eleven children of Jacob Honevald and Marie Weisz.

Anna had an older sister, Betti. The last entry in the following image of 1878 birth records is a birth record for a child born out of wedlock:

Hőgyész, Tolna, Hungary, "Registers of Jewish births, marriages and deaths for Hőgyész (1842-1895)"
Birth no. 935. Salomon Honevald. February 20, 1878; Family History Library microfilm #642928.

Salomon was born on February 20. The mark in the column after the Hebrew indicates the baby is male. The following two columns indicate whether the birth is (ehelich) in wedlock or (unehelich) out of wedlock. You can see that Salomon has a mark in the "out of wedlock" column and the column for a father's name is blank.

The mother's name is Betti Honevald, of Hőgyész. The midwife was Regina Wimmer and the bris was 27 February.

The interesting thing about these birth records is that if a child died soon after its birth, the death date was recorded in the birth record. Salomon died on July 21, 1878.

I am able to confirm his death in this volume of 1878 death records on the same microfilm.

Hőgyész, Tolna, Hungary, "Registers of Jewish births, marriages and deaths for Hőgyész (1842-1895)"
Death no. 495. Salomon Honevald. July 21, 1878; Family History Library microfilm #642928.

The bottom entry here notes that Salomon Honevald died on July 21, 1878. The next marks note that he is male and unmarried. I'm not a reader of German or Hungarian, but I'm guessing the word in the next column (Unnfelich) means unknown or unnamed. Betti Honevald is the mother, living in Hőgyész.

Salomon died of Schwindsucht, which translates to Consumption. He was five months old, and was buried in Hőgyész cemetery.

Betti later went on to marry and have children, but there will always be a mystery as to who was the father of her firstborn son.

Honevald Family in Hogyesz, Hungary

Tolna County, Hungary.
Image courtesy Wikipedia

As I noted in my last post, I have been researching Bubbie Lena's mother's family in the village of Hőgyész, Tolna, Hungary by way of a Family History Library microfilm. The names in parentheses below are variations on the names I have found (and there are many).

From birth and marriage records, I find that Jacob (Jakob) Honevald (Honewald, Honenwald) and his wife Marie (Mari) Weisz (Weiss), who were married on November 14, 1854, had the following eleven children. Not all were born in Hőgyész.

• Johanna (Hany), born September 3, 1855. Married Salomon Heller on November 28, 1876. They moved to Bonyhád and had children born there.
• Betti, born about 1856. Married David Weisz.
• Moritz born about 1858. Married Sali Strasser.
• Lentsi (Anna) born November 6, 1861. Married Samuel Hollander on March 16, 1886. They moved to Bonyhád and had children there, including my husband's grandmother, Lina Hollander.
• Israel born June 5, 1863. Married Rozalie Fuhrmann on April 29, 1888.
• Leopold born May 14, 1865. Died December 3, 1866.
• Michel born November 15, 1866. Died December 15, 1866.
• Rosi born December 31, 1867.
• Rubi (Robi) born October 6, 1869.
• Josef born May 7, 1871.
• Sandor born November 23, 1873. Died August 23, 1874.

Wedding Wednesday ~ 1886 in Hungary: Hollander-Honevald

When I found Bubbie Lena's birth record in Bonyhád, Hungary, I learned that her mother was from Hőgyész, Hungary. So last month, I rented the microfilm from the Family History Library for Hőgyész and have been into my local Family History Library (NEHGS in Boston) to work my way through this microfilm to see what I can find out about this branch of my father-in-law's family. (I'm still not done.)

On March 16, 1886, in Hőgyész, Tolna, Hungary, Samu Hollander of Bonyhád married Lentsi Honevald of Hőgyész. Interestingly, I found that these records, unlike those from Bonyhád, included some Hebrew.

Groom's information: Samu Hollander, a pipafaragó (pipe cutter) from Bonyhád, son of Lipot Hollander and Betti Kohn, 23 years old, nőtlen (unmarried).

It looks like both Samu (Samuel) and his father Lipot (Lipod) were pipe cutters; they would have carved pipes from wood for smoking.

Bride's information: Lentsi (also known as Anna) born in Hőgyész, daughter of Jakob Honevald, a szabo (a tailor) and Maria Weisz, of Hőgyész.

Bride's information continued: born in Hőgyész, age 24, hajado (unmarried).

The next column indicates where and how many times the marriage was publicized. It looks like three times in both Bonyhád and Hőgyész. If my Hungarian experts want to weigh in on the exact translation, please do so in the comments. The next column notes the wedding date of March 16, 1886, and I would guess that the Hebrew below notes the date in the Hebrew Calendar (9 Adar II 5646?). (I use the Hebrew Date Converter at www.hebcal.com.)

The next column notes the wedding location in Hőgyész, and the last column notes the witnesses. Based on all of the other records I found, I believe Salamon Heller is Anna's brother-in-law and Lipod Hollander is, of course, Samuel's father.

From this marriage record, I learned Anna was also known as Lentsi, that she was born about 1864, and her parents' names were Jakob Honevald and Maria Weisz. From here, I found more birth and marriage records and still need to finish reviewing the microfilm for any death records.

My husband is descended from this set of second great-grandparents as follows:

Jakob Honevald = Maria Weisz

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daughter, Anna Honevald / Honenvald = Samuel Hollander

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daughter, Lena Hollander = Josef Handler

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Father-in-law

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Husband