Pilgrimage to New Britain Cemetery

This week, I had a chance to visit the Beth Alom Cemetery in New Britain, Connecticut. The cemetery has been on my to do list for a long time. The small cemetery, is the resting place for Aaron Kranowitz, along with many members of his family. Apparently, Aaron is the first of the Kranowitz's to come to America well deserving a tribute visit to his grave. In addition, to saying a blessing in his memory, there was hope the stone itself could answer some research questions. I've driven past New Britain scores of times in the past few years. Usually, the car was packed with my family members who were eager to get home and had no desire to trample through an old Jewish cemetery, looking for forgotten ancestors.

My family is in the midst of a transition period. Only three weeks ago, my oldest son left home to begin his college journey. Turns out, he couldn't live without his keyboard. The nice mom that I am, I decided to make the two hour trip and drop it off. Clearly, I had ulterior an motive in agreeing to take the drive. Mostly, I just wanted to visit him. We had a lovely visit and a great brunch together (some of the best banana pancakes I've ever had). On the way home, I realized I had time for a short detour to New Britain and there was no one in the car to complain about the genealogy field trip.

There are a lot of research destinations on my New Britain/Hartford list: the public library (to look at New Britain High School yearbooks), various address where my ancestors lived and the Rose garden my great-grandmother loved. Since my time was limited ( I had another son who needed to be picked up from school), I decided that the cemetery would be the quickest and most productive stop.

Google had no problem locating the small cemetery at 48 Allen Street, only about ten minutes out the way home. The gate was wide open and I parked near the office. I was hoping to find a map, but as luck would have it, the office was locked and gave the appearance that it has been locked for many years. The search for the graves, took a bit longer than expected without a map, but eventually I did located most of the graves. Most importantly, I found Aaron Kranowitz's grave and next to him, his wife Sophie. I did my best to clear the overgrown grass, laid a small stone on each grave and said Kaddish for my relatives. Before heading back to Boston, I photographed all the graves.

The quick trip, was a reminder of how important it is to obtain original documents, in this case, the actual gravestone.
I had two questions regarding Aaron Kranowitz was:
1. What were his parents names?
2. What was his Hebrew name?

Aaron Kranowitz, is Moshe Aaron Kranowitz (my second great-grandfather)'s brother. While Moshe Aaron's parents according to our family tree (compiled by family elders including my great-grandmother) were Lazar and Chaya Bryna. None of Moshe Aaron's siblings were on the tree, but I've since learned the names of 4 brothers and 2 sisters from various sources. Aaron, was one of the brothers. The problem is that Aaron Kranowitz's entry on JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) (a database of names and other identifying information from cemeteries and burial records worldwide) listed Aaron's parent's names as Leibel and Bertha.

JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) about Aaron Kranowitz

Name: Aaron Kranowitz Birth Date: 1863 Death Date: 26 Dec 1916 Age at Death: 53 Burial Plot: G 30 Burial Place: New Britain, Connecticut, United States Spouse Name: Sophie Father Name: Leibel Mother Name: Bertha Cemetery: Beth Alom Cemetery Address: Allen Street Cemetery Burials: 2060

Since there is much proof that Aaron is indeed Moshe Aaron's brother, my sense was that the JOWBR entry was mostly a mistake. The way this database is entered on Ancestry.com it is not clear where the information came from. It is not specified whether it came from the cemetery or the burial record? Could there be a transcription error?  This is the reason for my first question. What were the names of Aaron Kranowitz's parents, Lazar and Chaya Bryna, or Leibel and Bertha?

The second question, concerning Aaron's Hebrew name, arrises from the fact that Moshe Aaron and Aaron Kranowitz, shared the name Aaron. It seemed unusual, yet not unheard of, that the brothers would have the same name. My great-grandmother Minnie, refers to Aaron as Oscar or Osher in her memoir, but in all the US records  (including city directories, census records, naturalization records), he appears as Aaron. I postulated that Aaron (though Hebrew) was the Americanized name he chose for himself. Possibly he chose the name in honor of his brother Moshe Aaron. My guess was that he had a different Hebrew and/or Yiddish name. Osher was probably his Yiddish name and the name my great-grandmother heard back in Russia. Often people continued to use their Yiddish names among the family even though on legal documents they used a more Americanized name. This would explain why my grandmother thought of him as Osher and maybe wrote Oscar in the memoir, thinking it was the Americanized version her readers would understand. On the Russian Voter and Tax registration list from 1875, Lazar is listed along with five sons. There is an Osher, son of Leizor (Yiddish for Lazar) in Belitsa (the Kranowitz' hometown). Is this Osher, indeed Aaron Kranowitz?

Tax and Voter's list 1875 (Litvak Sig) [Click to Enlarge]

The answer for both questions, was indeed on the gravestone:

The top Hebrew line is difficult to read (I should have done a better job with the grass), but the caption reads: Buried here is Asher son Eliezer (Hebrew for Lazar or Leizer). Aaron, is indeed Lazar's son. The JOWBR entry which is a secondary source, is less reliable and very likely incorrect. Aaron's Hebrew name is Asher (Hebrew for Osher). He indeed is the same Osher from the Russian Voter and Tax payers list.

Sophie Kranowitz lay next to her husband and her stone contained two new pieces of information as well:

Sophie's Herbrew name was Shifra, and she was the daughter of Abraham. Thanks to this new piece of information, I discovered another record for Aaron and Sophie, a marriage certificate index. I have not seen the microfilm of the original marriage certificate yet, but this is the index I found:

Index Lithuanian Marriages and Divorces, All Lithuania Database (Litvak Sig) entry for Osher Krainovich and Shifra Grozen, 13 Jan 1886 [Click to enlarge]

I had seen this record before, but since this was a record from Vilna and not Belitsa, and I didn't know Sophie was Shifra, I was unable to confirm this marriage corresponded to Aaron and Sophie. On the 1900 US census, Aaron and Sophie reported being married for 15 years which places their wedding date to about 1885, consistent with the above record dated 13 Jan 1886. Aaron also reported arriving in the US in 1886. Since he married in early January, we can assume he arrived shortly after he married. Aaron is listed as 27 years old, placing his year of birth as 1859, while the tombstone implies he was born about 1862-3. This four discrepancy can easily be explained by the fact that many people did not know their exact year or date of birth. They also had many reason to want to appear older or younger at certain points so it is not uncommon to see different years of birth for the same person on different documents. Aaron's date of birth is 1863, 1862 (1900, 1910 US census), 1859 (Hamburg ship manifest for Isser Krinowitz from Wilno, arriving 17 Aug 1886). Interestingly, the earliest record, the ship manifest, closes in date to the marriage record and the one most likely to have Aaron himself as the informant, is the most consistent with the year of birth in the marriage record. All of this evidence suggests that the marriage record indeed corresponds to our Aaron Kranowitz and his year of birth is likely to be in about 1859.

Luckily this microfilm from Vilna is available through LDS familysearch.org and I should be able to review it in a few weeks. This 1886 document promises to be the oldest original document for the Kranowitz family that I will be able to examine. For now, I look forward to returning to New Britain for further research.

If you haven't visited a cemetery on your list, I highly recommend you take the trip. Has a visit to a cemetery help move a long your research? Do share your story!

Back to Square One

On Monday Mystery Post, I presented a death certificate I received for a Max H Crane. The post was a call for help from my knowledgable readers. I was hoping to establish whether the certificate belonged to my great-great-uncle Max Hyman Crane. Immediately, I received several helpful replies, and would like to share two of them with you today.

One of two remaining photos of Max seated with his wife Frieda
to his right and baby Milton on his lap. In this photo, celebrating the return
of William Crane from WWI, the Max is the proud head of the family.
(My great-grandmother, his sister Minnie, is standing above Max and Frieda). 

The first reply arrived via e-mail from my cousin Martha who is, herself, an amateur genealogist and a wonderful collaborator. Martha writes:

"Dear Smadar,

 I just read today's installment of the Max Crane Mystery.  The reference to carbon monoxide poisoning which is mentioned might also have come about from an old-fashioned lighting fixture in the tenement.  Could that have been a source for the cause of escaping gas. Illuminating gas, instead of from a kitchen stove or room-type gas heater?

 This is such a dramatic story, and so sad.  If his end was really a suicide, there might be some question of where to bury him, if the family accepted the suicide theory. Without some kind of note or direct declaration to his wife or to others in the family, that might  have permitted him to be buried in a Jewish cemetery.  Usually suicides must be buried outside the walls of the Jewish cemeteries.  

Fondly,

Martha

Martha's assessment of the illuminating gas in the tenements is a reference to the cause of death mentioned in the death certificate (see Mystery Monday: Max Crane) which states the cause of death was "Carbon monoxide poisoning-Illumination-(an illegible word) suicide." I think this is an excellent thought and clearly comes from Martha's insight to life in the tenements. Thanks Martha for this clarification! Martha's other important point was about burial practices for suicide victims in traditional Jewish communities, and again, I'd like to thank her for bringing this up. I was aware of the practice of not allowing suicide victims to be buried inside the walls of the cemetery and kept that fact at the back of my mind when I discovered this grave at the Montefiore Cemetery, clearly marked as part of the I J Morris society (a burial society established by the funeral home I J Morris). I was not aware of getting around the rule when there is no note or direct declaration to the family. Thanks again for this helpful explanation!

The second important feedback I received, was an in-depth blog comment from one of my regular readers +Jacqi Stevens of A Family Tapestry who shared my doubts of the accuracy of death certificates, as well as commiserated with the difficulties of researching ancestors in the vast city of New York. She suggested I contact the cemetery for possibly additional records and recommended two resources I was not familiar with, which turned out to be extremely helpful:

• The Brooklyn Public Library online resources - The Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
• The Old Fulton Post Cards website, which hosts newspapers from the New York City area and beyond. 

The Brooklyn Standard Union,
Tuesday March 24th, 1925
(Click to enlarge)

Turns out, Jacqi was right! Even tough some families tend to keep suicide quiet, at times, the story makes the news. This one did! I found a mention of the suicide in three New York Papers: The Brooklyn Standard Union, the New York Times and the New York Sun!  

This short article lists a few important facts which are different or not present on the death certificate.

• Max Crane was a delicatessen dealer- the death certificate lists him as an advertising manager. Max Hyman Crane, my ancestor was neither as far as I know.
• Home address was 5113 New Utrecht Ave- The death certificate lists the address as 3113 New Utrecht Ave. Pretty sure we are talking about the same Max Crane from the death certificate. 
• Max Crane's wife was Mary Crane- the death certificate only lists her as Mrs. Crane. Max Hyman Crane' wife's name was Frieda (also spelled Fredda or Freda), not Mary. This pretty much confirms we are talking about another unfortunate Max Crane who committed suicide in New York in 1925 . 
• The description of how the body was found states that he was seated on two pillows, on a chair near the gas stove which was lit, but not burning. This led the police to conclude it was suicide. 
• The wife, Mary, stated he had no reason to commit suicide and did not mention it to her, therefore she doubted he took his own life. It's very possible she knew her husband was depressed and why he would have wanted to commit suicide but chose to protect the family from what could have been a very shameful situation. Her public denial of any connection to suicide would have allowed him to be buried inside the cemetery, which explains why the Max Crane from this article was buried inside the Montefiore cemetery. 
• Missing from this article is a mention of any children. Max and Frieda had an eight year old son. The omission of a child from this article also suggests a different Max Crane.

This finding takes us back to square one. The article confirms my worry that there was more than one Max H Crane who was believed to have committed suicide in New York around 1925. Unless Frieda used the name Mary as well, I am convinced this is not the Max I am looking for. I doubt the article would have changed Frieda's name to Mary in order to protect her privacy, since publishing her address suggest there was little concern for her privacy. Unless proven otherwise, I must assume that neither the death certificate nor the Montefiore grave belong to my relative. They belong to Max H Crane, delicatessen dealer from Utrecht Street in Brooklyn, husband of Mary Crane, who died of a suspicious gas poisoning. I now must re-examine everything I thought I knew about Max's death. 

Recap of the facts regarding my great-great-uncle Max Hyman Crane's death.

• Max died sometime between 1922 where he was listed in the 1922-23 Hartford City Directory  and June 1925 where his wife Frieda was listed as a widow in the State of New York Census.
• Max was not listed in the 1924-1925 Hartford City Directory. I assume they both moved, but I have not documented where they lived. They are not in the New York City directory from that period. 
• Frieda lived in Brooklyn with her brother and sisters as of 1925. I do not know where Max or Frieda lived between 1923 and 1925.
• It is possible Max died as early as 1923 or 1924 in Hartford and that he never moved to NY with his wife. 
• Apart from Brooklyn, they may have also lived in Atlantic City where the rest of the Crane brothers lived (since 1920), though they do not appear in the Atlantic City Directory.
• The family rumor is that Max committed suicide because he was in love with his uncles' wife. The aunt and uncle lived in Atlantic City. 
• The rumor is that he either drowned himself or died of gas poisoning. 

What next? 

At this point, I have to beging a new search for the whereabouts of Max Hyman Crane's elusive grave —sadly probably sitting outside a cemetery wall somewhere. My plan is to examine both Hartford Publications and Atlantic City. My next stop: Boston Public Library! I promise to keep you all posted.

To read more about Max Crane visit:
Mystery Monday: Max Crane
Should Genealogist Spill Family Secrets?

Roots Trip Gem of the Day

I learned a lot of things on my road trip! The Gem of the Day is: picking up documents in person will save you money, time and may have more information than what you will receive in the mail! Being an amateur genealogist, my learning curve is steep. I'm constantly learning new things! This monday, on my roots trip, I walked into three city clerks offices: Springfield Vermont, Windsor Vermont and Laconia NH. Previously, I had mistakenly assumed my ancestor, Moses Bloomfield died in NH. That fact, and the fact that his name on his death certificate was Moses Blumenfeld, made this record elusive to me, even though it available on Ancestry since 2010. In a collaborative effort with my cousins, last January, we stumbled upon this record and other Bloomfield family death records in the state of Vermont. Vermont Death Records (1909-2008) are online. 

Moses Bloomfield's Death Certificate from the Vermont State Archives available on Ancestry.Com
(Click to Enlarge)

Having Moses's Death Certificate was huge! In 1917 he was the first person in the Bloomfield clan to die in America. From the death certificate we learned several facts, most importantly that he died in Springfield Vermont, not in Laconia NH where he lived. His son Max was living in Springfield at the time, which would explain why Moses decided to die there. Maybe he was visiting Max? And so, we reasoned that maybe Moses is buried in Springfield. After all, it turns out, a lot of the Bloomfields died in Springfield. Moses, his wife Freida Toby, their sons Max and Benjamin and their respective wives Leah and Claire all died in the rural town of Springfield, Vermont. In fact, so many Bloomfields died in Sprinfield, that Springfield was our first stop on the road trip. We spent a lovely time at the Springfield historical society (more on that later) and then quickly found Benjamin and Claire's grave at the Oakland Cemetery (we knew would be there), but  if you read my earlier post: Three Tips for Genealogy Road Trips, you would know that the grand prize was Moses Grave. Unfortunately, we found no other Bloomfield in the Oakland Cemetery or anywhere in Springfield. Our theory (before they opened the Clerk's office on monday morning) was that since there was no Jewish cemeteries in Springfield, some of the older members of the family, must have cared more about being buried in a Jewish cemetery and therefore, went somewhere else. We suspected so even before we arrived in Springfield for various reasons. There is an Aaron and Alice Bloomfield buried at the Holy Hebrew Society in Burlington Vermont. This is quite far from where the Bloomfields live (about two hours on today's roads),  but we suspected that these were our Aaron and Alice Bloomfield and they chose this cemetery as it was one of the few Jewish cemeteries in Vermont, in 1939 (when Aaron died). Aaron's children were all buried in a newer and closer Jewish cemetery in Claremont, NH. Harry Bloomfield, another of the seven Bloomfield sons is buried in a Jewish Cemetery in NY. William Bloomfield, my great-grandfather and another of the boys is buried in a Jewish Cemetery in Houston, Texas where he lived. So this lead us to strongly believe that the missing Bloomfield graves must be in a Jewish Cemetery. Next door to the Oakland Cemetery, there was a headstone grave monument business. We walked into their office and inquired about the Bloomfields. The man was extremely knowledgable and helpful. He just about knew every tumb in the Oakland cemetery and the rest of Springfield, and he assured us, the graves we were looking for, were not there. The death certificates we had, did not include burial place, but he informed us, that to take a body out of Springfield, there has to be a permit and a paper trail, so the Clerk's office should know where a person who died in Springfield would be buried even in 1917. 

We asked ourselves the question: you were Jewish in chose to die in Vermont or New Hampshire, in 1917, where would you be buried? We spoke to some of the elders of the Jewish community of Laconia and asked them the same question. They all gave us the same answer. "Where you came from." What they meant was, if you came from Europe via New York, to New Hampshire, your family would bury you in New York, or Chicago or Hartford. It depended on where you spent time before, where you have family member and maybe where there was a benevolent society from your town in Europe, so you could be buried with your landsmen. Following this line of reasoning, we had a good hunch he was not in Springfield where he died, or Laconia where he lived. While we waited for the municipal office to open it's doors we visited some of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Vermont. Luckily Vermont is fairly rural, with a tiny Jewish community to speak of in 1917, so we could hit many of the cemeteries. We went to the Jewish Cemetery of East Poultney which is the first Jewish Cemetery in Vermont and to Ohavai Zedek and Holy Hebrew Society in Burlington. In Burlington, we were looking for Aaron but had a small hope Moses was near buy. He wasn't. 

First thing Monday morning we reported to the Clerk's office. In no time at all, she pulled out, all the indexed records for all the Bloomfields who ever lived in Springfield. There were quite a few index cards. She only charged us a dollar a page! Ordering the record, would have taken weeks, required an application and cost $10-25 dollars depending on the city. 

Copy Moses Bloomfield's death certificate from the city of Springfield.
Note the three discrepancies: the spelling of the name, informant and burial.  (Click to enlarge)

Most rewarding was Moses and Freida's death certificates. What surprised us was that these were not the same documents we found online. If you look at the state record, it is typed. This record, contains only part of the information from the original town record. It seems the town puts out the death certificate in the name of the state and is required to hold the original copy. Then the state archive must have a different form which is filled out from the original death certificate and filed on a state level. The discrepancy were remarkable in three ways. First, the spelling of the last name. Blumenfeld vs Blumenfield (Note: everywhere else Moses is known as Bloomfield). 

The second difference between the records is that the town's record contains the name of the informant: Max Blumenfield. This to me, sheds some light on the last name problem. In Europe the Bloomfield clan was known as Belous (I've also seen it spelled Belo-oose, which means white mustache). Harris, Moses's younger brother was the first to arrive in America (c1892) changed his surname to Blumenfeld. For some reason, Aaron, Moses' oldest son who was the first of the brothers to arrive to America around 1899, spelled his last name Bloomfield. Aaron was illiterate, a fact I know from Aaron's marriage certificate which states that the bride and groom and both sets of parents were illiterate at the time of Aaron's marriage in 1895 in Lomazy, Poland. I can picture him reporting to the officer as he boarded the ship heading to New York. By then, he must of known that Uncle Harris uses Blumenfeld in America, so as the clerk asks Aaron, what's your name he says Blumenfeld, which sounds a lot like Bloomfield and the offer asks, how do you spell it. Aaron doesn't know. Or maybe he has it spelled on a letter from Harris. He hands the letter to the clerk. Here is where the clerk, seals the fate of our family name. Bloomfield it is! Max who followed Aaron, adopted his uncle's spelling and was the only one of the seven brothers to use Blumenfeld. Since he was the one who registered his father's death, it's understandable that a misspelling was created. On the handwritten death certificate, it's neither Bloomfield or Blumenfeld, but a combination Blumenfield which is a spelling I've never seen. The family acquired some varying levels of spoken English when they came (although Moses is rumored to refuse to learn the new language at his age). But it's hard to imagine that they were good at reading, writing or spelling, which would explain why Max misreported the spelling of the family names.

Moses Bloomfield around 1912 

The third discrepancy is that the town's record contains the date and place of burial as well as the undertaker. Moses Bloomfield is buried in Brooklyn, New York, together with his wife! Jackpot! Not the coveted prize yet—the grave itself—but we learned that we were looking for Moses in the wrong states! To all of you expert genealogist out there who have more experience than me. Moses' grave remains a mystery. I have not found him in any where in NY yet, and I could use some help how to look next!

I always knew that going to the town clerk and getting the original document was essential. What I never planned on, was getting a copy of a document a thought I had, and finding out, it was a different version of the same document. This has made me re-evaluate all my previous research and think about which records would be worth going after again! Certainly, this trip has made me realize how important it is to visit each town or city my ancestors lived in which are within driving distance to me, rather than request the documents. With my knowledge of my family history, I knew for sure the death certificate belong to my great-great-grandfather, even though his name was misplaced and the Clerk did not find him under Bloomfield. She may have missed it, if I wasn't there. When we called the Laconia office on the phone, they told us all the records were in the state archive in Concord. We went anyways. Turns out, it's the same story. There are copies of the records in Laconia, it's free if you look yourself and copies are only 25 cents! 



More about the Bloomfields:
Roots Trips Series: Reports from a Vermont and New Hampshire road trip to research the Bloomfield family history:
Part I: Roots Trip Road-trip planning!
Part II: Three Tips for Genealogy Road Trips
Part IV: Why in the World New Hampshire?
Part V: Springfield Vermont Home of the Simpsons and the Bloomfields
Part VI: Which Ancestors to Research?
Where Was This Picture Taken?- Legacy Roots
Friday's Faces From the Past: Mystery Man
Hot Off The Press

Guest blog on Geni.com: How I Met The Bloomfields