Lisa Bracco <lisa5bracco4@...> wrote:

I am trying to find out how my grandfather was related to his oldest
sister, who was his half-sister. My grandfather's parents are Amalia
Charmatz (aka Amelia Sharmatz) and Meyer Kronberg (aka Mayer Kronberg).
I have just gotten hold of the death certificate of his sister and it lists
her parents as Myer Goldberg and Mollie Sharmatz, neither of whom are the
exact same names as my grandfather's parents.

Do you think that "Mollie" could be a nickname for Amalia, which would make
her my greatgrandmother, or do you think that Myer's last name was listed
incorrectly, which would mean he was my great-grandfather?

Both are very possible. It's very likely that Mollie is an informal
version of Amalia/Amelia. Going >from Kronberg to Goldberg seems a bit
more of a stretch, but could easily be the result of faulty memory [at
least the "-berg" was right, and "Kron" means "crown" which is made of
gold...]. Even if this was really a half-sister, the death certificate
might have listed a step-parent instead of a biological parent, so these
might both be your great-grandparents. Remember that someone giving
the information for a death certificate, especially for an elderly
person, might not be very well acquainted with the family history, and
might not be thinking very clearly at the time.

Robert Israel