Following Up


 

    Family research is an ongoing evolving process. We continually try to find new facts and new information about people in our tree. Those genealogical brick walls sometimes fall after finding one small smidgen of data and then the facts and the stories bring light to a whole new branch to our family tree. I continually look over all of my research notes and sources and see if I can enhance the record of somebody who is just a name on my tree to a narrative of a compelling character. 

    In September I posted a story about Arlene’s grandfather, Philip Snyder and his brother, Morris. In that story I said that I couldn’t find Philip in the 1910 census but I have since found him living with Ben Gellerman. This was the person who paid for Philip’s fare to the USA and met Philip at Ellis Island. The ship manifest said he was an uncle but the census report lists him as a brother in law. Maybe I’ll clear that up and let you know about it in a future post. 

 

Ken and Mae Levin with father, Meyer

     In July of 2020 I posted a story “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou…” My great grandfather, Beryl Levine, had 4 brothers and a sister. I stated what I knew about each of these individuals which wasn’t a lot. Six weeks ago my third cousin, Beny Levin sent me an email about an exciting discovery he had made. It seems that Beny’s great grandfather, Meyer (Beryl’s brother) was married a second and third time. His second wife was Ida Cohen and they had three children by the names of Mollie, Mae, and Kenneth. The three children were born in Latrobe, Pa but eventually moved to Vancouver, BC, Canada. Ida died there and Meyer married Amelia Guttermman and had a son named Isadore with her. The family eventually moved to San Francisco where we found Mae and Mollie in the 1920 census. They were residents in the Pacific Hebrew Orphans Asylum. 


 Ida Levin nee Cohen

    Beny tried to get some information about Ida’s grave from somebody in Vancouver. A guy named Mike Harrison answered Beny and went way beyond the call of duty. He provided some newspaper articles about Meyer from when he was in an accident and when his son Isadore died in a fire. Thank you Mike, for all of your help. 


 

    Mollie and Kenneth never married but Mae married Roy Sexton and had two children, David and Bonnie. They are both still alive and Bonnie lives in California while David moved to Florida to be closer to his children, who all live in the eastern United States. Unbelievably, David lives in a community 2 miles from my house here in Ocala, Florida. We met for lunch a couple of weeks ago. Bonnie provided a picture of her mother, Mae, with her father and her brother Kenneth. This is the first picture that I ever remember seeing of anybody from that generation. Keeping that in mind I found this other picture among the documents that my Aunt Ruth had left for me. The name Davidson is written on the top of the picture and I believe this might be Bernard Davison and his wife Genashna Levine (Beryl and Meyer’s sister.) I will work on getting that fact confirmed. 


 

    Two months ago I knew very little about Meyer Levine. It is amazing how much you can learn about a person in such a short period of time.

Comments

  1. ron pasternakOctober 18, 2021 at 11:49 AM

    Thanks for sharing; congrats on your persistence in tracking your tree.
    Found out on yesterday’s zoom call, that your grandmother Ruchel had a delicatessen on York st in Hamilton, and that my brothers Len and Harry lived with Rose and Dave Kremer for a couple of weeks when their mother passed away.

    ReplyDelete

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