Ancestry predicts that my wife and I are 6th to 8th cousins with 10 cM shared. I have slightly more with her maternal uncle. We have two very healthy and successful adult children. We also discovered that both of our maternal great-grandmothers came from Vilkaviskis, but have not found the paper trail linking our two families. Known surnames from Vilkaviskis in my family were Rousuk and Ephraimson. In her family, the family name was Ringel.

I also found a distant link on another branch of my mother’s family going back about 12 generations, where we have found a common ancestor with my wife’s paternal family:  Moses Auerbach, A family of scholars, the progenitor of which was Moses Auerbach, court Jew to the bishop of Regensburg, about 1497. He is my wife’s 13x Great-Grandfather and my 15x Greatfather.  Moses' daughter Gittel Isserles is my 14x great-grandmother and his son, Simon Wolf Auebach is my wife’s 12x great-grandfather.  

•  M.L. Blitzstein and Co.
• M. Rosenbaum and Co.
• Pennsylvania Company for Banking and Trusts
• Rosenbluth Brothers

A digital collection of forty-four ledgers that record the sale of tickets by steamship agents operating in Philadelphia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The four agents represented in this collection, M.L. Blitzstein & Co., M. Rosenbaum & Co., Pennsylvania Company for Banking and Trust, and Rosenbluth Brothers, are a mix of private immigrant and state run banks, and travel agencies. The steamship ticket purchase ledgers are document the purchase of tickets for passage to and from America primarily for the purposes of immigration, Passengers were booked to arrive at various ports including New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore.

•  M.L. Blitzstein and Co.
• M. Rosenbaum and Co.
• Pennsylvania Company for Banking and Trusts
• Rosenbluth Brothers

A digital collection of forty-four ledgers that record the sale of tickets by steamship agents operating in Philadelphia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The four agents represented in this collection, M.L. Blitzstein & Co., M. Rosenbaum & Co., Pennsylvania Company for Banking and Trust, and Rosenbluth Brothers, are a mix of private immigrant and state run banks, and travel agencies. The steamship ticket purchase ledgers are document the purchase of tickets for passage to and from America primarily for the purposes of immigration, Passengers were booked to arrive at various ports including New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore.

 Molly Arost Staub

Greetings,

My wife's family has only recently learned that my wife's grandfather (Abraham Louis Snader) was briefly married before his marriage to my wife's grandmother.  This is a surprise.  The first marriage did NOT end in the death of the first wife.

What I know:
* Abraham Louis Snader sometimes went by A. Louis Snader or Louis Snader or Louie Snader.
* 1928.  First marriage; marriage certificate index.  Abraham L. Snader married Lea H. Fleysher in Philadelphia in 1928.  The marriage license number is 563815.  This marriage has only recently come to our attention.
* 1930.  The 1930 census, Abraham Louis Snader not found; Lea found; they are not together.  I cannot find Abraham Louis Snader in the census for Pennsylvania.  Yet Lea is there and is enumerated elsewhere.  In 1930, Lea was twenty-six years old (b. 1904) and was living with her parents, Hamsey Fleysher (b. 1874) and Sophie Fleysher (b. 1878).  The family lived at 2946 Columbia Ave. in Philly.  Lea, born in Russia, was listed as single.  She immigrated in 1906, was naturalized, and was working as a stenographer in an office.  That she was employed in 1930 is interesting.  
* 1931.  Second marriage.  Abraham L. Snader married Celia Baseman in Philadelphia in 1931.
* 1935.  Death of first wife, Lea Fleysher.  According to an index of obits in the Jewish Exponent, Lea H. Fleysher died Feb. 17, 1935.
* 1935.  Burial of first wife, Lea Fleysher.  According to findagrave, Lea H. Fleysher is buried in Montefiore Cemetery in Jenkintown (Mont. Co.), Sec. 8, Lot 5, Grave 3.  Phila. Lodge Society.  Lea is buried with Hansley Fleysher (DOD April 9, 1934) and Sophie Fleysher (DOD Dec. 5, 1947).  Hansley and Sophie are likely Lea’s parents.  
* 1935.  Lea is buried as Fleysher, so she did not take the Snader name, at least after 1931 and it is likely she did not remarry in the four years from Abraham Louis Snader's second marriage to Lea's death.

What I need:
* Marriage certificate index. I sent a letter to the Philadelphia Marriage License Bureau requesting a copy of the marriage record.
* I am still looking for Abraham Louis Snader in the 1930 census.

What I need and where I can use help (I am in DC and not local to Philly)
* Does anyone know how/where to request a death certificate for Lea Fleysher (Feb. 17, 1935)?  In obtaining the certificate, does it matter that she is the first wife of my wife's grandfather and is not directly related to my wife or my wife's parents?
* Does anyone know how/where I can obtain a copy of the obituary for Lea Fleysher (Feb. 17, 1935) from the Jewish Exponent?
* Divorce was quite rare in 1928-1931, of course.  Does anyone know how/where I can learn if there was a divorce and obtain that divorce record for Abraham Louis Snader and Lea Fleysher?  The divorce would have been in or between 1928-1931.
* It is possible that the Depression might somehow be connected to the dissolution of marriage, but I would not likely know that unless there was a divorce proceeding.

Eric J. Ellman
North Bethesda, Maryland

An ancestor of mine died in 1895 and was buried in the Mt Sinai section of Cypress Hills Cemetery in Queens. 

According to the Mount Sinai Archives: "Initially plots to bury indigent patients were donated to the Hospital by Jewish congregations and benevolent societies. In June 1878, land was acquired in Cypress Hills Cemetery for Mount Sinai through the efforts of Samuel M. Schafer, Esq. There were 110 lots, measuring 20 x 20. Most of the 20th century correspondence relates to the management and upkeep of the cemetery plots."

The hospital placed simple gravestones at the head of each plot stating only the grave number and name. It seems that later (some) families, when they could afford one, came back and placed fuller horizontal tombstones on top of the graves.

Most of the hospital's stones are illegible after years of weather beating against the slate engravings and only a few of the fuller tombstones are uncovered enough to be read. Many of them have sunk leaving only a few words or letters visible and presumably there are many more completely covered by dirt and grass.

The cemetery office does not have a plot map with names or records detailing who was interred in which grave. Mount Sinai's archive provided me with a society map, but this too has no names on it.

I have visited the section numerous times trying to spot a name or some words indicating which plot is my ancestors but have been unsuccessful.   

Wondering what can be done here, if anything. I suspect there is a tombstone for her somewhere in this section which has just sunk below the the grass. It is sad that neither the hospital or cemetery cared to maintain actual plot records.