Obituary for Herman Handler

Herman Handler died on March 19, 1961, in Youngstown, Ohio. There was a brief obituary in the Akron Beacon Journal the following day, which wonderfully ties together much of what I've found about the family.

"Herman Handler," Akron Beacon Journal, 20 March 1961, p. 24, col. 1;
digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : viewed 7 October 2018).

City Directories Tell a Story for Herman Handler

Herman Handler appeared in a few city directories after he immigrated to America. Although I don't find him every year, I find him in enough directories that I can see that he moved several times and worked at a variety of occupations to support his family.

These city directories tell a story of a man whose occupation was affected when Prohibition was enacted, but he continued to do what he could in order to make a living and support his family.

All of these city directories were found at Ancestry in their U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 database.

Because I could find no Herman Handler in any other city directories in 1906-1908, I am only guessing that these two entries may be for Herman Handler:

City	Year	Name	Occupation	Address
Cleveland	1906	Herman Handler	porter	2554 (old 436) Woodland av
Cleveland	1907	Herman Handler	clk [clerk]	4735 Woodland av SE

Once he married Sarah in February 1909, when I see [Sarah] next to his name, I know I've got the right one:

City	Year	Name	Occupation	Address
Akron	1909	Herman Handler [Sarah]	Goodrich Co	897 S Main
Detroit	1910	Henry Handler	tailor	1031 14th av.

From the 1909 Akron, Ohio, City Directory.

He appeared to have moved to Detroit for a year or two, because that's where he was found in the 1910 census. This directory listed him as Henry Handler, tailor, living at 1031 14th Avenue, which was the same address as in the 1910 census. The occupation here was tailor; the occupation in the census was presser (a specific job in the tailoring industry).

From the 1910 Detroit, Michigan, City Directory.

Herman Handler - Census Records, 1910 and 1920

Previous posts about Herman Handler:

Herman Handler ~ Naturalization Record
Herman Handler ~ Birth Record
Herman Handler ~ Passenger List
Herman Handler ~ Marriages and Divorces 
Herman Handler ~ Draft Card WWI

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At first I couldn't find Herman Handler in the 1910 U.S. Census. He was easy to find in the 1920 census with wife and children, so I did some creative searching in 1910 and found his young family in Detroit, Michigan. It's no wonder I couldn't find Herman Handler; for some unknown reason, he was enumerated as Wilbur Handler.

1910 U.S. census, Wayne County, Michigan, population schedule, Detroit Ward 10, enumeration district (ED) 155, sheet 12B, dwelling 253, family 279, Wilbur [sic] Handler; image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 30 August 2018); citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 684.

Although the head of this household was "Wilbur," everything else matches the expected information for Herman Handler. He was 27 years old (implying a birth year of about 1882-1883) and born in "Hun. Magyar" (Magyar is another term for ethnic Hungarian), as were both his parents. He immigrated in 1903, had his papers (the first step to becoming naturalized), and was able to speak English. He worked as a Presser in the clothing industry, working for himself. He had not been out of work for the entire previous year. He could read and write and he rented his home at 1031 Fourteenth Avenue, which appears to have eight apartments in it, based on what is seen on the full census page.

Wife, Sarah, was 20 years old (implying a birth year of about 1889-1890) and born in "Aust. German" as were both her parents. "Aust" would refer to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire which, before World War I, covered a large area of Europe. Sarah and Wilbur / Herman were in their first marriage (M1) and she had one child who was living. She immigrated in 1905 and spoke English. Note that as a woman, she didn't have any notation by her name for citizenship because her citizenship status derived from her husband's status.

They had one child, a "daughter" named Arthur. Note that all subsequent records reported Arthur as a male so this one instance where he is listed as a daughter is an anomaly. Arthur was listed with an age of 4/12, which suggests a birth date in December 1909. The birthplace was Michigan, implying that soon after Herman and Sarah married in Akron in February 1909, they moved to Michigan.

This is not the Arthur (born January 1910) who was the oldest son of Joseph and Lena Handler of Akron, nor was he Arthur (born January 1912), son of Sam and Sadie Handler of Cleveland.

Herman Handler - Marriages and Divorces

This is a continuation of posts about an immigrant Handler relative and I will ultimately provide analysis of the evidence to show how he is related to my husband's family.

Herman Handler married twice in America and his marriage records provide additional information about who he was.

FamilySearch has wonderful records for Ohio. The Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013 collection includes records from the early 20th century, four marriage records on a page:

     Cuyahoga County Marriage records 1908-1909 vol. 72, p. 35, application number 61140, record for Herman Handler and Sarah Dick, 24 February 1909; digital image, “Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 25 September 2018).

A closeup of the record for Herman Handler and wife Sarah Dick reports that the license was issued on 20 February 1909 and that they were married on the 24th.

Herman Handler, age 27, residing in Detroit, Michigan, married 19-year-old Sarah Dick of Cleveland. He worked as a Presser and she as a Dressmaker, both in the clothing manufacturing industry. Sarah Dick was the one who applied for the license and she appeared to know the name of Herman's father: Philip Handler, but not his mother's name.

A little more than twenty years later, they divorced. A notice of the divorce was found in the Akron Beacon Journal, a newspaper found on Newspapers.com.