Finding family in the 1950 U.S. Census

Barney Roth Family in the 1950 Census

In the U.S. the census is taken every ten years as mandated by the Constitution, but the data is not released to the public for 72 years!  The 1950 census was released on April 1 of this year and for family historians, it was a VERY BIG DEAL.  Like all of the earlier census records, the 1950 census was not indexed prior to its release so in order to find someone and see the answers to the various questions asked that year, you had to know the address where they lived at the time that the census enumerator visited them.  Hundreds of volunteers are working to review and correct the indices prepared for the first time by artificial intelligence, so the time between release and the completion of the indices will be shorter than in the past, but for many, it's still too long to wait to see those records.

I was one of those who couldn't wait.  This would be the first census where I, myself, would appear.  I wasn't sure where we were living in April 1950 when the census was taken but I had seen photos of a bungalow with my grandparents proudly displaying the infant me, so I started there. I remembered that I had one of the announcements of my birth that my Mom had pasted into my baby book.  It had an address, 9 Penwood Ave in Trenton, NJ.  Using the tools provided by Steve Morse on his "one-step" web pages,  and maps of the city as well as a map of the enumeration districts in 1950, I determined which enumeration district (ED) had that address and proceeded to examine every page in the census of that ED.  We weren't there!

I remembered that my parents had said that we moved to a larger place shortly after my brother was born in June 1949.  I knew where that was - Brookville Apartments, a newly constructed complex of garden apartments between the old canal and the Delaware River. We lived there until I was about six. Back to the map to find a street address (the buildings are still there) and to Stevemorse.org to find the ED.  There were two that could have included this complex, so I began examining each page of the most likely ED, number 33-189.  On sheet 7 I found my family!  In building 1922, Apartment B-1 lived Barney Roth, age 40 born in NJ, his wife Eleanor (sp) Melba age 29 born in Pennsylvania, his daughter Mary Jane (me) age 2, and his son Armin Jeffrey born the previous June. Barney is noted as the proprietor of his own store selling wholesale and retail tires and televisions who worked 60 hours in the previous week, and Elynore was listed as keeping house. Unfortunately, none of us was selected for the additional questions at the bottom of the sheet.

Finding myself was exciting enough, but since I remembered that my father's brother Ben and his wife had also lived in that complex when I was a child, I thought I would look at the remaining pages in the ED to find them.  To my surprise, I not only found Ben and Alice Roth but also living nearby in the ED, his other brothers Aaron and Isidore, five other of his cousins and their families, as well as my maternal grandparents Nat and Ida Lieberman with their other daughter and grandson. I would not have known where to look for the others until the index was completed.

Finding these folks that I knew in the census gave me lots of information besides their address to help fill out their stories.  Finding Isidore confirmed my baby memory that he worked on a dairy farm  (a hazy memory since he died while I was still very young).  Finding my Aunt who was listed as "Separated" gave me a hint on when to look for her divorce. Alice and Ben's son Daniel was still single and working as a plastics molder - not the occupation of salesman that I always knew. Sam Lavinthal was retired, but his family living with him earned $6000 in the previous year. Ben Lavinthal served in the U.S. Armed Forces in WWII.

It will take me longer to find a family when I have no idea where they were living in 1950.  I'll have to wait for the indexes.  I still have lots of work to do with the hints I have already found, but I'm already looking forward to 2032 when the 1960 census will be released!

We don't see Polio much anymore

Me collecting for the March of Dimes at my room at Orthopedic Hospital

   I don't usually write about myself in this blog, but after two years of the COVID pandemic, I decided that a story from my life might put some things into perspective.

   On August 12, 1954, the front page of the Trenton Evening Times carried a story that Trenton had registered its third case of Polio.  The article listed my name, age, address, my parents' names, and the hospital to which I had been admitted. It also noted that I had attended the Jewish Community Center Day Camp and that the camp had been given permission to operate as usual for the few remaining days of its season.1 Clearly, the intention was to notify everyone with whom I had been in contact. I spent ten days at McKinley hospital in a coma, during which my parents were told to prepare for my death, and when I woke up, I was moved to the Trenton Orthopedic Hospital, an Art Deco structure at the corner of Brunswick and Cavell Avenues in Trenton.2  Many of the patients there suffered from Polio and its effects.  Many were children.  Like me many were confined to beds, unable to move, or were using wheelchairs. I was in a private room on an all adult floor, but when I was able to use a wheelchair often visited the other children in the ward, and most of us attended school in a one-room school the hospital provided.

   Polio was recognized as early as 1894 and there were periodic epidemics, mostly in the summer months.  The paralysis could strike anywhere in the body but often started in the legs.  The fatality rate was 2-5% for children and 15-30% for adolescents and adults.  If paralysis struck it was often permanent as it was for me.  If it struck the abdomen and lungs, the fatality rate could go as high as 75%.  There had been a widespread epidemic in the US in 1952 with more than 57,000 cases of which 21,000 had been paralytic.3.  There was no vaccine and no cure, and communities were on edge if the disease appeared in the summer.

   President Franklin Roosevelt who had been paralyzed by Polio as an adult in 1921 had campaigned since then to find a vaccine to combat the disease. In 1938 comedian Eddie Cantor had suggested on the radio that folks send dimes to President Roosevelt to aid the fight against Polio.  Within weeks nearly a 2.7 million dimes had been sent to the White House and the charity The March of Dimes was born with the aim of funding the search for a vaccine against Polio4 

   I spent more than a month at Orthopedic Hospital, receiving excellent if often painful physical therapy treatments.  Twice a day they would roll a machine full of boiling water and heavy wool Army blankets into my room.  They would wrap me in the hot wet blankets from neck to toes and leave me with a tray of iced drinks for what seemed forever.  I took treatments in a whirlpool bath that left me with a permanent dislike of hot tubs.  I learned to walk again.  I wore a brace holding my right arm up in the air for more than a year, and orthopedic shoes for longer. I had lots of visits from family and adult friends at the hospital (no children were allowed to visit so my brother spent hours in the car in the parking lot - different times), and as is shown in the photo above, decided to charge my visitors a contribution to the March of Dimes for the privilege of visiting me.  My plan was covered in the newspaper which noted that I had raised $6.29 in the previous week.5

    A vaccine against Polio was in trials in 1954 and was approved in 1955.  A massive effort has been underway since then to eradicate wild Polio worldwide.  It was declared gone in the Americas in 1991, Europe in 2002, and Southeast Asia in 2014,  By 2017 it was endemic in only three countries, but since then conflicts in Africa, Syria, Pakistan, and other areas have made it difficult to reach and vaccinate children so numbers have ticked up.6 The progress shows that a vaccination campaign can work against a disease that maims and kills. Recent vaccine skepticism has raised fears that other diseases will re-appear as children do not get readily available vaccines against them.

Get vaccinated.

1.  Mild Polio Case is Reported Here. Trenton Evening Times Thursday Aug12, 1954, Trenton NJ, page 1. Accessed from GenealogyBank.com 2/7/2022 

2.  North Trenton, New Jersey. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Trenton,_New_Jersey. Accessed Feb 7, 2022.

3.  Polio Vaccine  https://www.historyofvaccines.org/timeline#EVT_100335 Accessed Feb 7, 2022

4.  Polio Vavvine Loc. Cit. Accessed Feb 7, 2022

5.  Patient aids Polio Drive Trenton Evening Times Wednesday, Sept 1, 1954, Trenton NJ, page 4. Accessed from GenealogyBank.com 2/7/2022 

6. Polio Vavvine Loc. Cit. Accessed Feb 7, 2022

DNA Testing and My Family Tree

It's that time of year again and I just ended another whirwind of genealogy activity at the International Association of Jewish Genealogy Societies annual conference.  This year it was in Orlando FL. As usual, the schedule was packed with great sessions on all sorts of topics, but a highlight was a full track on the latest innovation in genealogy, using DNA to help build your tree.

You've probably seen the commercials for the DNA testing companies on TV.  "Find out where your ancestors come from", "Find your lost cousins."  Maybe you were intrigued.  (To my cousins:  If you have tested or are interested in doing so, please PM me!).  This can be really interesting but unfortunately, traditional techniques of using DNA to find relatives do not work well for Ashkenazic Jews.  It's much harder.  We are an endogamous population; everyone is related to everyone else.  Everyone who tests comes up as a match to everyone else who tests.  This problem was not addressed at the outset by the companies performing the analyses for general consumers, but with advances in analysis and the advent of two companies and many researchers that put a focus on Ashkenazi Jews, DNA analysis has been added to our toolbox.

I have been trying to incorporate DNA results into my research.  It can be especially useful where traditional document based research can't confirm a suspected relationship.  I have several places in my tree where everyone agrees that two branches are related but we don't know exactly how.  I have written about some, "the Other Roth Family" here, and the "Tepper Zimmerman" connection here.  My research indicates a common ancestor for these branches, or a family story says that a couple were close cousins, but there is no documentation.  That is where DNA may be able to help.

It takes a fair amount of work, and for many family members to test.  Because everyone has a 50/50 chance of inheriting any piece of DNA from either parent, after a few generations, the amount of shared DNA goes down significantly even among direct descendants.  In my family, I have almost reached the limits of reliable testing material since my missing connections are four or five generations back from me so it is important that as many of the oldest generations still alive test now so that their DNA is available for the future.  The test that I have found to be the most useful in my research is the autosomal DNA (or "Family Finder") test.  This isn't limited to only direct male line descendants (Y-DNA) and it can be more specific than MtDNA which can say that the person is in a direct maternal line, but not how far back the common ancestor is.

Over the past two years, I have been getting DNA tests from some relatives.  After the test (a quick cheek swab, no pain, no blood) either they administer the results themselves (look at matches, answer e-mails from potential matches, analyze the results etc) or I act as administrator for them.  At the conference, I  heard about how several companies now allow you to upload the results from one company to another and use their tools for analysis.  A representative from Family Tree DNA, the company I use, also told me how to group all of the kits that I administer into one private family project to streamline my analysis.  I've started that process and am looking forward to making my life easier.  When it is complete, I will also be able to invite others into the project, if I am not the administrator of their results.

I hope that with more family members testing, and more work on my part I may be able to confirm or deny some suspected relationships in my tree.  Several companies have sales on the tests going on right now so if you are interested in giving it a try, let me know.

Ben and Alice Roth

Alice and Ben Roth at Jeffrey Roth's Bar Mitzvah abt 1963
Ben's brother Aaron and his wife Pearl in the background.

     Although he later claimed to have been born on Independence Day, Beny Roth was born to my grandparents, Armin and Mary Roth, on July 6, 1896 in Manhattan[1], where Armin had first settled on arrival in the US, and where he and Mary had married.  As I mentioned in my post in April about Armin and Mary, the family soon moved to Trenton, NJ where Armin had cousins.
     Now called Benjamin, or Ben, The young man went to elementary school where he learned to play the piano.  He graduated from Trenton High School in the class of 1914.  After High School, Ben went to the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied dentistry, graduating on June 20, 1917[2].  The announcement that he had passed the state licensing exam was made on July nineteenth of that year[3].
     When he registered for the draft in June of the next year, he had already opened a dentist office at 129 S. Broad Street in Trenton[4].  In July 1918 he joined the U.S. Naval Reserve Forces, serving actively in the war until December 26, 1918.  After the war Ben worked on establishing his dental practice.  He maintained the office at 129 S. Broad for a while, then moved briefly 200 S. Broad St., before settling in at 37 West State Street in about 1928[5].  Ben was in the inactive Reserve until September 1921 when he again became an active reservist as a Captain in the Officers Reserve Corps, 119th Medical Regiment, 155th Hospital Company, of Trenton.[6]  Captain Roth participated in a recruiting exhibition of the Hospital Company's facilities held in Stacy Park, Trenton in July 1926.  The 50'x16' tent was fully equipped and contained "surgical units, dental units, first aid and shower baths" as they would be set up in time of action[7].   
     Daniel Block had come to the US in about 1880 from Wurttemburg, Germany.  He went to work for his uncle Simon Samler, already in Trenton, and later ran the Washington Market Clothing Company. He married Bertha Gutmann in Philadelphia in 1891[8], and had two children, Lester Gutmann Block in 1895, and Alice Block in 1898. By 1907 he owned the Daniel Block Clothing Company at 107-109 South Broad Street[9], a successful business that paid $9 in taxes in 1908. [10].   He was a successful businessman and active in many charities and civic associations as well as Har Sinai Temple[11].  Between 1900 and 1903, he and his family travelled back to Germany three times, the last trip with his son Lester, lasting from July to October 1903[12].  Lester joined the Naval Reserves in April 1917 and served on Submarine Chaser No. 243.  He nearly lost his life in an explosion aboard the ship on May 6, 1919 when it was docked in Bermuda on its voyage back to the U.S.  When he returned home  in June after treatment, Lester was made a partner in his fathers business[13], as Daniel was already confined to his home by the illness that took his life on September 10th, 1919[14].
     In October, 1923, Ben Roth became engaged to Daniel and Bertha's daughter, Alice Block. Alice had graduated the Model School (predecessor of the State Teachers College)[15]. Perhaps they met through Ben and Lester's shared Naval Reserve activities.  Lester chaired the committee that organized a bachelor dinner for Ben at the Hotel Sterling on the night before the wedding.  It featured several short talks and the gift of a vacuum cleaner[16].  On April 16, 1924, Ben and Alice were married in a quiet ceremony at The Hillwood Inn in Trenton attended by their immediate families.  Alice wore a gown of powder blue beaded crepe romaine and carried roses and lilies of the valley. Fanny Block, Lester's wife, wore a coral beaded gown.  Unusually for a wedding, both mothers, Alice's aunt Rose Samler, and the Rabbi's wife all wore black.  After the ceremony, the couple left on a motor trip through the South, returning to their new home at 24 Newell Avenue[17].

     On February 24, 1927, Alice and Ben welcomed a son to the family.  He was named Daniel Block

Ben Roth with son Daniel.
About 1935

Roth after Alice's father.  In 1934, after the death of Ben's father Armin, Ben's youngest brother Barney,, and possibly his mother Mary, moved into the house at 24 Newell Ave[18].  The house, a duplex, was too small for the family, and in 1935 Ben and Alice moved to a large freestanding home at 928 Edgewood Avenue, near the Cadwalader Park[19].  Ben's mother died in 1939, and by 1940  the three family members lived in the large home alone.  About 1949, after Daniel was grown, Ben and Alice moved into the newly completed Brookville apartments in "the Island"section of town between Riverside Drive and Clearfield Avenue.  The complex was advertised as providing "homes for 132 families who can afford to pay $85 a month rent."[20]  
     My family lived on the same court in Brookville between about 1950 and 1954, and my strongest memories of Ben and Alice are from that time.  I remember going to Ben's office to have my teeth checked, although if any of us needed work, he sent us to someone else because "you are family".  We were in and out of their apartment as kids.  Ben (the dentist) always had a stash of candy in a drawer of the breakfront and he gave it to us in quantities that I know our parents disapproved.  Alice often made meals the we kids ate sitting at metal TV Trays in front of the set in the living room.  She encouraged us to eat our vegetables (especially succotash) by suggesting that we mix them into the mashed potatoes and calling the mixture "chaserei", Yiddish for pig food.  Alice was very active in the synagogue and various women's groups, and enjoyed playing cards.
     Alice died on March 19, 1966[21].  Ben, who in my parents words, "did not know how to get himself a glass of water without Alice," moved to a smaller place at the Carteret Arms at 333 West State Street.  He died on June 15, 1970.[22]  Alice and Ben were buried at the Ewing Cemetery.

1.  Ancestry.com, New York, New York, Birth Index, 1879-1909 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2014) Ancestry.com. Record for Beny Roth
2.  Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, NJ) Monday June 18, 1917. "Roth to Graduate then Join Army" Genealogybank.com.
3.  Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, NJ) Thursday July, 19, 1917 p.4 "Two Trentoniana Pass as Dentists" Genealogybank.com
4.  Ancestry.com, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005) ancestry.com Database online. Registration Location;Mercer county, New Jersey; Roll 1754444; Draft board 3.  
5.    Ancestry.com, U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 (provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2011) Ancestry.com. Directories for Trenton New Jersey  1920, 1926, 1936
6.  Ancestry.com, U.S. Select Military Registers, 1862-1985- (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013) Ancestry.com, Record for Benjamin Roth USNRF.
7.  Trenton Evening Times, (Trenton, NJ), Tuesday, July 6, 1926 "Medical Company has Tent Exhibition"  Genealogybank.com
8.  Ancestry.com, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Marriage Index, 1885-1951 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011) Record for Bertha Gutmann.
9.  Ancestry.com.  Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, NJ), October 25, 1907. p. 11 "Advertisement for Daniel Block Clothing Co."
10.  "Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the State Board of Assessors of the State of New Jersey for the Year 1908, Part II"  Trenton, N.J. MacCrellish & Quigley, State Printers. 1909. p. 110. Accessed via Google Books.
11.  Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, NJ) p. 1, Wednesday September 10, 1919. "Daniel Block, Ill Long Time, Dead. Prominent Merchant Passed Away this Morning -- Confined to Home a Year" Geneaologybank.com
12.  Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, NJ). Monday, April 30, 1900. "Trentonians Off for Europe".; Tuesday, July 23,1901 p.5. "Personal". Tuesday, May 26, 1903. p. 1 "Will Visit in Germany" Genealogybank.com
13.  Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, NJ) Monday June 23, 1919. p. 2. "Hero Will be his Father's Partner. Lester G. Block , Naval Explosion Victim, Soon to Receive Discharge" Genealogybank.com
14.  Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, NJ) Wednesday September 10, 1919. Op Cit.
15.  Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, NJ) Wednesday, April 16, 1924. p. 8 "Miss Block to Be Bride of Dr. Roth" Genealogybank.com
16.  Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, NJ) Tuesday, April 15, 1924. "Dr. Benjamin Roth is Tendered Dinner" Genealogybank.com
17.  Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, NJ) Thursday, April 17, 1924. p.9 "Miss Alice Block Bride of Dr. Roth" Genealogybank.com
18.  Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011) Ancestry.com 1935 Trenton, NJ, City Directory.  Record for Barney Roth.
19,  Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012) www.ancestry.comYear:1940; Census Place Trenton, Mercer, New Jersey;Roll T627-2437; Page 1B; Enumeration District: 27-139 Record for Roth D. Benjamin.
20.  Trenton Evening Times (trenton, NJ) Friday, December 3, 1948. p. 14 "Island Apartment Project Progressing" Genealogybank.com
21.  Sunday Times Advertiser (Trenton, NJ) March 20, 1966. "Mrs. Benjamin Roth, Wife of Doctor." Genealogybank.com
22.  The Evening Times (Trenton, NJ) Tuesday June 16, 1970. p. 10. "Dr. Roth, 71, Dentist Here for 50 Years" Genealogybank.com

The Other Roths - a happy story

     In my last post, I discussed some families who were related to me on the Roth side, although I'm still not sure exactly how.  In preparation for that post, as I always do, I went back to the information that I have about that person or family, and reviewed how I know what I think I know.  At that time I also look for new records that might have become available since I last looked.
     In this case, I was looking at the Lavinthal Family.  The head of the family was Samuel Lavinthal, and his wife was Fannie Roth Lavinthal.  They had several children, among whom was a son, Bennie.  I knew that Bennie had married, and had a daughter, but he and his wife were divorced before I came on the scene.  Bennie and my father were very close growing up and as adults, and I remember him from my childhood.  I never knew his wife Rhoda, or his daughter Charlotte (or Charie as she was known).  I had no records for Charie except one census record from 1930, when she was a child.  A cousin had told me that she had lived in Washington, DC, and had died young and childless.
     When I looked at her record, a "hint" told me that there were new records for me to review.  The first was an index of Social Security applications and claims.  This index does not cover all SSA applications, so I was surprised when I examined it, to find that indeed it was for my Charlotte Lavinthal. It listed her parents (Ben Lavinthal and Rhoda Green) Check.  Her birth date.  Check. And a married name!
     When I entered the married name into my tree, more "hints" appeared.  First was a Virginia marriage record, which upon examination proved to be hers, but more interesting was a link to someone else's tree that had a person of that name in it.  When I looked at the tree, I wasn't sure that  it was the same person.  None of the other names in the tree were familiar to me.  Living people were only indicated by blank boxes, and there were a lot of those, but most intriguing was a blank box that came from Charlotte.  Everyone I had spoken to had said that Charie had no children, but I thought I'd ask anyway.
     I wrote a short note to the (unknown) owner of the tree explaining that if this was the same person, and there was a child, I would like to chat with him or her if they were interested.
     I quickly received an answer.  The owner of the tree was the child in question (I'll call her E.).  She explained that Charie had given birth to her when she was 18 and unmarried, and had given her up for adoption at birth.  Only Bennie and Rhoda had known about the child.  They were already divorced, and the pregnant Charie went to live with her mother in Chicago.  E had always known that she was adopted, but under the laws of the time could get no information about her birth family.  Subsequently, the laws were changed and the agency had told her what they knew, and had performed a search, determining that her birth mother was dead. Her marriage had ended in divorce after only a few years and she had not remarried.  E had made efforts to contact her mother's heir with no success, but she held out hope that she would find her other family.  She had entered her birth mother's name into her family tree along with her adopted family so that her children and grandchildren would know where she came from.
     The details of her story matched what I knew about Charie, but I am a distant relation and couldn't give her the details she longed for.  Making no promises, I contacted the few cousins from that family that I knew and told them what I had found.  They at once got in touch with her and they began trading photos and family stories.  Everyone is very happy, and I get to add a whole new twig onto my family tree.

The Other Roth Family - Part One

     In my post of April 17, 2015, I mentioned that I knew little about the family of my grandfather, Armin Roth.  I had documents that indicated that his father was Dov Roth, and his mother was Minna Prinz, and he came from the area of Kosice (yid. Kassa) now in Slovakia.  I also knew that there were other families in Trenton who were his cousins, but I did not know exactly how they were related.

Sam and Fanny Lavinthal

     These cousins, (the other Roth family) were the children of Isidore Roth and Esther Prinz[1], and they came from the town of Felso Mislye (today Vysna Mysla near Kosice Slovakia)[2].   Although I have no confirmation of the relationship, the name similarity between the two sets of parents sets up the possibility that this was two brothers marrying two sisters.  Five siblings arrived in the US between 1892 and 1913, and all ended up in Trenton, NJ, where they married and raised their families.  As a child I knew some of the children of these cousins, and their names recur in newspaper reports of our family events.
     The first of the siblings to arrive in Trenton was Fanny Roth.  She was born about 1870, and came the the US on 5 September 1887 aboard the Sorrento from Hamburg, Germany[3].  In December 1893, she married Samuel Lavinthal, a shoemaker, in Trenton[4].  She died in 1944, but I have fond memories of Uncle Sam from my childhood.  Fanny and Sam Lavinthal are the only members of that generation of whom I have photos.  (Hint: If you have photos of any others, I'd love to see them)
     The next to arrive was Minnie Roth (born betw 1878-1881).  I haven't found her arrival manifest, but census records indicate that she came to the US between 1892 and 1895.  She married Nathan Saaz, a milk dealer, and later saloon owner, about 1895[5] and they lived at 839 S. Clinton St.
     The first brother to arrive was Bernath Roth.  He was born in 1877 and arrived in New York on August 25, 1898 aboard the SS Sale from Bremen[6].  He moved in with Sam and Fannie Lavinthal at 191 Broad Street and also worked as a shoemaker[7].  In about 1902, he married a woman named Fannie and moved to 84 Pennington Ave[8], next door to my grandparents, Armin and Mary Roth at 86 Pennington Ave. Fannie died in August, 1918.
     Next to arrive was Agnes (Anna) Roth, born in 1884.  She came on August 21 1901 aboard the SS Grosse Kurfurst from Bremen[9].  She married Joseph Greenberger, a retail fruit merchant, in about 1906.  In 1910 they lived at 6 Third Street in Trenton, with their first child, Benjamin, and Joseph's brother Jacob[10].
     The last arrival was the youngest, Adolph Roth.  He was born in 1887, but didn't come to the US until June 4, 1913 when he arrived in New York aboard the SS Cleveland from Hamburg Germany[11].  Adolph was still single and a self employed butcher when he registered for the WWI draft.  He was living at 266 Jackson, in Trenton.[12]
     In later posts I will continue the stories of each of these families, or as much as I know of them.  Most stayed in Trenton until late in the 20th century and some remain in the area today. As more records become available from the area of Kosice, I hope to nail down exactly how all of these folks are related to me.

1.  Ancestry.com, Pennsylvania Death Certificates, 1906-1963 (Provo UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014) www.ancestry.comRecord for Bernath Roth. 
2. Diacritical marks have been omitted as this program does not support them. Felso Mislye is listed as a birthplace on several records including Bernath's WWI draft registration and naturalization, Agnes Roth's arrival manifest, and Adolph Roth's WWI and WWII draft registrations.
3.  Ancestry.com, New York Passenger LIsts, 1820-1957 (Provo UT. USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2006) www. ancestry.com.  Record for Fanny Roth
4. "Social Calendar" Monday, December 3, 1917. Trenton Evening Times.(Trenton, NJ) p. 10. " Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Lavinthal entertained a number of friends and relatives at their home, 266 Jackson Street, last evening, in celebration of their twenty-fifthwedding anniversary." accessed at www.genealogybank.com.
5.  Ancestry.com 1920 United States Federal census(provo UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc 2009) record for Winnie Saaz, and Ancestry.com 1930 United States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2002)record for Minnie Saaz.   Both www. ancestry.com.
6. Ancestry.com, New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006) www.ancestry.com Database online, year: 1898; Arrival, Microfilm serial 15, microfilm rollT715_ 29 Line 15. Record for Bernath Roth.
7.  Ancestry.com, 1900 United States Federal Census (Provo UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2004) www.ancestry.com Record for Bert Roth
8. Ancestry.com. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005) www.ancestry.com record for Bernath Roth
9. Ancestry.com, New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 (Provo UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010), Ancestry.com year  1901, New York, New York.; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll 0217; Line 24; Page number 272. Record for Anna Roth
10. Ancestry.com, 1910 United States Federal Census (Provo UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, INC., 2006) www.ancestry.com Year 1910; Census place : Trenton Ward 4, Mercer. New Jersey; Roll T624_896; 19B; Enumeration District: 0059; FHL Microfilm 1374909 Record for Joseph Greenberger.
11. Ancestry.com, New York Passenger LIsts, 1820-1957 (Provo UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006) www.ancestry.com  Database online. Year: 1913; Arrival: , ; Microfilm serial: T715; Microfilm roll: T715_2095; Line: 15 Record for Adolf Roth.  
12.  Ancestry.com, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (Provo UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011), www. ancestry.com Database online. Registration Location: Mercer County, New Jersey; Roll: 1754443; Draft Board: 2. Record for Adolf Roth   

Armin and Mary Roth

Mary Fried Roth and Armin Roth about 1920

     I wish I knew more about my grandparents, Armin[1] and Mary Roth.  I never knew them.  They were both gone before my Mother's family even moved to Trenton, NJ., and since my Father was much younger than his siblings, I never really even knew people who knew them.  I only have a few old photos, and some sketchy records to tell me anything, and they often leave more questions to be answered.
     According to his naturalization papers, Armin Roth was born in 1867 in Kassa, Hungary (now Kosice, Slovakia)[2].  His father was Bernard/Dov Roth and his mother was Minna Printz[3].  He left there about 1891, stopping in Vienna, before departing for the US from Rotterdam on August 10, 1891 aboard the S.S. Didam, bound for New York, and arriving there on August 29, 1891[4].  Like many Jewish immigrants he was a tailor.
     On February 10, 1895, Armin married Mary Fried.  Mary was also Hungarian, probably born in the town of Modor sometime between 1864 and 1876[5].  Her parents were Bernard Fried, and Rosi Friedman. She had a brother, Jacob Jeno.  Bernard had remarried after the death of Rosi, and Mary also had several half siblings.  She was the only one to emigrate, arriving in New York City sometime around 1889. Armin and Mary lived at 95 Goerke Street, at the time the center of the immigrant lower east side of New York, near the Williamsburg Bridge, but now disappeared under a housing development.  Their first child, Bennie, was born July 6, 1896.
     By 1897, Armin and Mary had moved to Trenton, NJ where their other three children (Isidore, Aaron and Barney) were born.  Armin had several other relatives there who will be the subject of another blog post as I have not been able to determine exactly how they were related. In 1900 the family was living in a rented house at 166 S. Broad Street in Trenton.  Armin was working as a tailor from the house.  Armin and Mary were naturalized on January 11, 1908, and were living in a house they owned at 86 Pennington Avenue, where he also had his tailor shop.  They lived there until his death on June 4, 1933, and her death on Feb 28, 1939[6].
     From what I can determine, they lived a quiet and moderately prosperous life.  Their two older sons went to college and the younger had their own businesses.  Armin and Mary were often noted in the social pages of the Trenton Times, but mostly for attending family events of their several cousins(?), the Roths, Saaz's, Lavinthals, Princes, Davidows and Greenbergers of Trenton, NJ, and nearby Pottstown, PA.  The newspaper notice of their 25th anniversary celebration, a dinner with dancing at a local restaurant, was filled with those names[7].

1.  Like many immigrants from Eastern Europe, Armin and his family had several names.  Although he went by Armin in most records, his tombstone says his Hebrew name was Areye.  On his marriage license he is listed as Leopold, an anglicization as both Areye and Leopold have "Lion" as meanings.  Armin's Father is listed on the certificate as Bernard, but on Armin's tombstone as Dov.  Again according to the JewishGen given names database, these are interchangeable, both having "Bear" as a meaning.
2.  New Jersey State Archives, R. Group: Mercer County; Subgroup: Court of Common Pleas; Series: Naturalization Records, 1838-1940; Petition (post 1906), Vol.1 (#1-#150) 1906-1909; No. 30.  Record for Armin Roth, original document.
3. State of New York, Bureau of Records, Health Department, City of New York Certificate # 2373.  Received Feb 14, 1895. Certification of marriage of Leopold Roth and Mary Fried on 10th day of February, 1895.
4.  Manifest of S.S. Didam arriving at New York on Aug 29,1891.  Ancestry.com, New York Passenger lists 1820-1957 (Provo, UT, Ancestry.com operations)record on-line
5.  Like many women of her time, Mary's date of birth was a moving target.  Her marriage license says that she was 20 years old in 1895 (b ca 1875).  The 1900 census says she was born in 1864 which would have made her about 36, but that she was only 25. Ten years later, the 1910 census says she is 33 and 44 in 1920.  In 1930 she owns to 55.   The 1875 date is most probable but this is something I hope to pin down in the future.  This also raises another question. If she was 20 years old in 1895, then she was only 14 when she arrived in 1891. What made a 14 year old girl emigrate without other family members? 
6.  Tombstones of Armin and Mary Roth, Brith Sholom Cemetery, Ewing Twp. NJ.
7.  "Roths Entertain on Anniversary" Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, NJ) Tuesday Mar 9, 1920 p.12.  Data online, accessed through GenealogyBank.com.

In the beginning...

  

Mary-Jane Roth Summer 1949

 As you may know, I began tracing my family tree about 20 years ago.  I had always enjoyed visits with our extended family, and listening to the stories told around many dinner tables.  As the years went by and older family members slipped away, my desire to record our stories for those who come after me got stronger and stronger.  As I have gotten older the task seemed more urgent, and I have put a lot of effort into collecting information about all of the branches of my family tree, Roth, Lieberman, Grosser, Tepper, Fried, Kandel, and their siblings, spouses, and in-laws.  Over time, I have learned a lot about documenting sources,  how to research all sort of records, and how to ask leading questions.  I have collected hundreds of photos and continue to track down and meet cousins who I had not seen in many years, or perhaps whose existence I had never suspected.   I have also expanded my search to include my husband Steve's family, the Crimes and Neumanns, Gormans, Fergusons, and McCanns.
    Today's technology has made it easier to share information with many people.  I have connected with many relatives over Facebook and with e-mail.  This blog is the next step in sharing my adventures in genealogy with everyone out there who may be interested.  As time goes on, I plan to highlight relatives I know about, sharing what I know of their stories, a photo if I have one, or a copy of some record I have found (naturalization, birth, tombstone, newspaper article etc), and my adventures in archives, libraries, and other repositories as I continue to work on the family history.  I hope that you will enjoy the stories I share, and perhaps add to my trove with some stories of your own about the person I highlight.  Feel free to share this blog with your other relatives if you think they will be interested.  I'd love to hear from them.