If Isadore's wife was Rose and their children were Adele, Allan, and Shirley
(ages 40, 39, 15, 11, and 5), they lived in the Bronx at the time of the 1930
census - which doesn't prove that he lived (or died) there in 1938.

For various reasons that we may or may not know, residents of New York City
traveled outside of the city and outside of the state - and even outside of the
U.S. to visit their countries of origin, as entries for the same person on
more than one passenger list show.

For people whose deaths occurred in any of the five boroughs of New York City
through 1949, the Municipal Archives has indexes and death certificates issued
by the Department of Health. The indexes also include deaths of New York City
residents who died outside of the city, as long as those entities notified the
NYC Department of Health. A letter code appears in place of the death certificate
number indicating where the death took place - the state of New York, any other
state, and, if I remember correctly, outside the U.S.

If you want to hazard a guess that he died in New York City, you can go to the
website of the Municipal Archives at
http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/vitalrecords/death.shtml for instructions
for ordering online. It helps that you have a death date.

Or if you or someone else can look at the index and a code number indicates that
he died outside of New York City:

-- for a death in New York State but outside of New York City, go to
http://www.health.state.ny.us/vital_records/genealogy.htm to see whether to
order the DC >from the New York State Archives or elsewhere in the state. Also,
the National Archives branch in Manhattan has microfiche of the death indexes
for the state of New York outside of New York City. They're arranged by year.
For a genealogy question, call (212) 401-1620 or e-mail newyork.archives@nara.gov
and find out if they will accept a request for a lookup in the 1938 New York
State death index. The death index will tell you which town he died
in and what his death certificate number is. You can then contact the appropriate
agency in that town.

-- if the death occurred outside of New York State (maybe New Jersey or
Connecticut, for instance), go to Cyndi's List at
http://www.cyndislist.com/usvital.htm#States for contact information for each
state.

-- if the death occurred outside of the U.S., go to the NARA website at
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/vital-records/american-deaths-overseas.html.

His probate file would show where he died, whether he left a will or not. But
you then have the predicament of deciding which probate court to contact!

Joy Rich
Brooklyn, NY
--