Amanuensis Monday ~ Bonyhád, Hungary Birth Record

An Amanuensis is a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

My husband's mother, known as Bubbie Lena, was born in Bonyhád, Tolna District, Hungary. Bonyhád is 87 miles SSW of Budapest, Hungary. Lena married Josef Händler in Hungary and followed him to America with her first-born son, Arpad in 1911. Those passenger lists were very helpful in providing me with her birthplace and her father's name, Samuel Holländer.

As well as obtaining the book written about Bonyhád, (Bonyhád: a destroyed community: the Jews of Bonyhád, Hungary, by Leslie Blau (1994)), I also found that the Family History Library has a microfilm of Jewish records covering the period from 1851 to 1895, which I borrowed and examined last month.  (Hungarian Civil registration began in October 1895.)

Registers of Jewish births, marriages and deaths for Bonyhád, Tolna, Hungary.
Text in Hungarian and German.
FHL microfilm no. 642923, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

This is the page from the FHL microfilm that shows Lina Hollander's birth record. The headings are in Hungarian and German.

Simche Segel's Death Certificate

My husband's second great grandfather, Simche Siegel, died on July 7, 1919. Although the name on the death certificate is Samuel Segel, enough other information matches that I know this is Simche, whom I have already written about.

New Jersey, Department of Health of N.J.; Bureau of Vital Statistics, Death Certificates,
Wildwood, Cape May County. Samuel Segel, died July 7, 1919.

He lived at 5006 Arctic Avenue in Wildwood, Cape May County, New Jersey. The death certificate states that his age was "about 70" when he died, implying a birth year of 1849. However, his passenger list record suggests a birth year of 1835 and his naturalization records suggest a birth year of 1845. Therefore, he could have been as old as 84 when he died.

Samuel's wife is Rebecca Segel. She is remembered by family members as Blume. His occupation at his death is Junk Dealer. His birthplace is Russia and name of his father is Israel Segel, but unfortunately, his mother's name is unknown.

He died of Arteriosclerosis (and something else I can't read) which he had suffered from for two years with a contributory cause lasting one year. The handwriting is challenging. Update on June 2, 2015: Thank you to tkrupar who notes that the secondary cause is Nephritis. (Initially I couldn't read it.)

Item 19 indicates that he was buried in Woodbine on July 7. We have looked in the "older" cemetery in Woodbine, where it is believed he is buried and have not been able to find his gravestone. I believe he had at least six children survive him. Although family tradition is to visit family gravestones in Woodbine a couple of times a year, it is not remembered if his daughter, Golda (Segal) Levitt or his granddaughter, Rose (Levitt) Goldstein ever visited his gravestone.

The informant (the person providing personal information for the record) is Benj[amin] Katz, who also lived at 5006 Arctic Avenue with the Segels. Benjamin ended up marrying Simche's widow Rebecca, and in the 1930 census, I find them at this same address as husband and wife.

I again thank Robert, my husband's second cousin once removed, for providing this death certificate and helping me piece together this family.

Naturalization Record for Simche Siegel

My husband's second great grandfather, Simche Siegel, immigrated from Russia to New York City in 1891. He made his way to southern New Jersey and became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1899. Following is his Declaration of Intention and his Petition for Naturalization, filed in Cape May County, New Jersey.

Declaration of Intention for Simche Siegel

The first page (of three) is the Declaration of Intention, made on November 1, 1892 before the Clerk of the Common Pleas Court of Cape May County, in the State of New Jersey. Simche Siegel, an alien, a native of Russia, aged about 46 (indicating that he was born about 1846), declares his "intention to become a citizen of the United States of America." He declares that he arrived in the United States on the "First day of August A.D. 1891." (However, the family's passenger list indicate that he left Hamburg, Germany in November, arriving in New York City on December 15, 1891 and that he was born about 1836.) It wasn't until 1906 that these kinds of things were more closely checked by immigration officials.

Mystery Monday ~ Where was Morris Goldstein in 1920?

Morris Goldstein immigrated from Romania to New York in July 1914. I have posted about Morris Goldstein's marriage in 1922 and that he is found in Woodbine, Cape May County, New Jersey in the 1930 Federal census.

For years I have tried to find "my" Morris Goldstein in the New York City 1920 Federal census in various census indexes, and using various census search strategies, but have had no luck. I know that he was born in 1897, lived in the lower East Side, and worked as a tailor. In fact, his World War I draft card indicates all this and that he was living with and working for his brother, Max Goldstein, at 138 Forsyth. However, it looks like they both had moved by the time of the 1920 U.S. Census.

One Goldstein Family in 1930

In 1930, Morris Goldstein's family had settled down in Woodbine, New Jersey, where his wife, Rose (Levitt) Goldstein had spent most of her youth. The following image is from the 1930 U.S. Federal Census.

1930 U.S. Federal Census, Woodbine, Cape May County, New Jersey; Roll: 1325; Page: 12A;
Enumeration District: 28; Record for Morris Goldstein.

The previous page of this census lists Rose's parents. In fact, they lived across Jackson Avenue from each other.