Finding John Costello – A DNA Journey: The Fried Family, John’s Family, Part 3

 

The Fried Family was gathering in America.

 

Isidore, Sarah, and Leona were first to arrive in 1905 or 1906.¹  They were followed by Fannie & Morris in 1907.²  Then Samuel and Anna arrived in 1913.³  America was now the home to the Fried family patriarch, Samuel.  But the Fried family straddled the ocean with mother and matriarch Riwke in Eastern Europe⁴ with at least one child, Sura.⁵

 

Not only was the Fried family gathering, but Samuel and Riwke’s posterity was growing in America.

 

In June of 1915, Isidore was still missing and the fate of his wife Sarah and two daughters was unknown.  But they enter a quiet period while the other Fried family members find their place in a new country away from the troubles and persecutions of their homeland.

 

 

Anna Fried

 

Hinde, who would be known as Anna, is the youngest Fried family member that came to the U.S.  She traveled with her father, arriving in the Port of New York 13 September 1913,⁶ then she slipped quietly out of the Fried spotlight.  Her next appearance in the records is at the time of her marriage to David Haspel on 12 January 1919 in New York City.⁷

Anna and David were blessed with two daughters, Suzanne and Ruth.  Suzanne went on to have three children of her own and Ruth had one daughter.  Suzanne’s three children and one granddaughter are the individuals in my DNA cluster #2.⁸  Ruth’s daughter is my most recent DNA test taker.  [Can’t wait for those results!!!]

Because Anna’s descendants are excellent communicators who answer any question I can think of and have shared all sorts of details, memories, and facts with me, I have not yet given Anna the full research treatment.  But there are two notable details linked to Anna that quietly weave along through our tale to the finish.

First, Anna arrived after Isidore had left New York.⁹  She also arrived almost two full years after he skipped out on his parole.¹⁰  Anna likely never saw Isidore in the U.S.  Additionally, given the details about the Fried family dynamics shared with me by Anna’s descendants, it is entirely possible that Anna never heard one single whisper about Isidore, Sarah, and their girls from her sister Fannie or father Samuel.  This matters because of the story of the lost brother that lives in the memories of Anna’s posterity.¹¹  If Anna had seen Isidore or knew that he came to America–or could even remember his name–any of those facts would make the story a lie.  Anna had no motivation to lie about her unnamed older brother to her grandchildren.

Second, the Hebrew portion of Anna’s headstone reads, “Here lies buried Hinda daughter of the Rabbi Yehoshua Fried.”¹²  This provides helpful details about Samuel, the fact that he was a Rabbi and that his Hebrew name was Yehoshua.

One last note about Anna, she had a social security number.¹³  Her SS-5 form has been ordered and I am anxiously awaiting the scan of that precious card, likely written in her own hand, that will hopefully give us a specific birthplace and list the name of Anna’s mother, as Anna recalled it.  Now we offer a farewell tip of the hat to Anna and thank her for her wonderful descendants as we move along through the story of the rest of the Fried family.

 

 

Fannie & Morris in New York

 

After Fannie and Morris’ quick return to Europe and subsequent trip back to America, they settled into 212 E 2nd St. in New York City where they lived for several years.  Just six months after their re-entry into the U.S., on 18 February 1913, “Moris Geier,” declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States.¹⁴

Almost two years later, the Geiers were still living on 2nd Street with their young daughter Sarah and Fannie’s father Samuel when the New York State Census was taken on 1 June 1915.¹⁵  This record is interesting for several reasons. 

 

 

 

 

First, Fannie & Morris list the number of years they have been in the U.S. as “7.”  At first glance, this might seem like they are referring back to their first entry to the U.S. in 1907¹⁶ but not doing the math accurately and being off by a year.  However, with a more critical eye, it is stating that they have been in the U.S. a total of about 7 years when you subtract their time back in Europe.  A surprisingly accurate and insightful answer.  Sarah (Sadie on this record) is listed as being a “cit” for citizen and Samuel is listed as having been in the U.S. for 2 years.  The second item of interest in Samuel’s occupation of Peddler.  Is that compatible with the later note on Anna’s headstone that claims he was a Rabbi?

About a month after the 1915 NY Census, Fannie and Morris welcomed their second daughter Adele into their family on 3 July 1915.¹⁷  Like the rest of the family, Adele would be known by a few names.  On the index to her birth record, she was “Hettie Geier.”  On most records, she was Adele or a spelling variant of that name, but occasionally she was listed as Hattie.

Five months after Adele’s birth, on 6 December 1917, Morris filed for a copy of his certificate of arrival.¹⁸

Twelve days later, on 18 December 1917, “Moris Geier,” petitioned for naturalization in the County of New York.¹⁹  This record adds some important details to the body of knowledge about Fannie & Morris’ family.  In the family details section, we pick up several important facts.

 

 

Morris and Fannie were still living on 2nd Street.  Morris was a candy merchant.  He listed a birthdate of 20 March 1883 in Lublin, Russia.  When we pair the birthplace of Lublin, Russia with the birthplace on his 1907 ship manifest of “Tomaszow, Russia”²⁰ and the birthplace on his 1912 ship manifest of “Tomaczow, Russia,”²¹ we get the only precise and easily identifiable place in Eastern Europe for the entire Fried/Geier family.  Present day, Tomaszów Lubelski, Poland, was part of the Russian Empire at the time of Morris’ birth, as well as the birth of all of the Fried family members in our story.  We have a place people!  A place in Europe to get us across that big ol’ pond called the Atlantic Ocean.

Near the bottom of Morris’ Petition for Naturalization, we pick up two more important details.

 

 

 

First, we see Morris’ uniquely awful signature which can then be compared to his WWI and WWII Draft Registration signatures.

And second, and perhaps most notably, the first witness listed on Morris’ petition is “Pincus Bennison of 164 Stanton St.,” New York City.  Pincus Bennison or Pinchas Benenson or, more accurately, Pincus Benenson, as his signature reads, is the friend or relative that Morris & Fannie listed as the person they were joining in the U.S. when they re-entered America in August of 1912.²²  The Stanton St. address in NYC is identical or three numbers different, depending on what numbers you see on that 1912 record.

With Morris associating with Pincus in August of 1912 and then again in December of 1917–a five-year span–Pincus and his family become our first candidates to have cared for little Sarah Geier while her parents rushed off to Europe.

Morris is not initially successful in achieving U.S. citizenship.

 

 

But, a bit more than six months after the continuance, Morris becomes an American citizen on 4 October 1918.²³

 

 

Life after that seemed to sail along fairly smoothly for the Geiers with no obvious interactions between them and Fannie’s family.

On 6 January 1920, Morris, Fannie, Sarah, and Adele were living at 223 E 3rd Street in New York City.²⁴

Four years later, on 16 October 1924, Morris Geier, resident of 3 Clinton St., Manhattan was included on the voter list for the 21st election district of the Borough of Manhattan.²⁵

Then on 1 June 1925, Morris, Fannie, Sarah, and “Hattie,” were living at 3 Clinton Street in New York City on the 1925 New York State Census.²⁶

About five years later, on 5 April 1930, Morris, Fannie, Adele, and married daughter Sarah and her husband “Hyman Bronstein” were living at 2255 85th Street in Brooklyn.²⁷

Ten years later, on 9 April 1940, Morris, Fannie, Adele, and married daughter Sarah and her husband and son, Hyman and Stanley Brownstein, lived at 2215 83rd Street in Brooklyn on the 1940 US Federal Census.²⁸

Our last confirmed record for Morris and Fannie is in 1942, when Morris Geier, resident of 2215 83rd St. in Brooklyn, registered for the WWII draft registration.²⁹

Likely headstones have been found for Fannie and Morris along with death indexes.  Death records need to be ordered.  The descendants of Fannie offer one good candidate for DNA testing–Adele’s living son–and two less useful candidates–Sarah’s two living granddaughters.

 

 

And so ends Fannie’s part of the Fried family story with the exception of one very small, but important, interaction with her father Samuel.  Fannie’s early years in the U.S. were riddled with connections between herself and Isidore.  She and Morris listed Isidore as the person they were joining in the U.S. when they first arrived in 1907.³⁰  Fannie is referenced as Isidore’s “sister” in several newspaper articles in 1909 and 1910.³¹  Isidore and Sarah, or maybe more accurately, Sarah named their third daughter Fannie,³² likely after Isidore’s sister.  Both Fannie and Isidore named a child Sarah,³³ possibly after Isidore’s wife Sarah, but also possibly after their sister Sura who was treasured and cared for by the Frieds as a child with some unknown type of disability.³⁴  And then, after the 1911 return to Europe by Fannie and Morris, all obvious connections between Isidore and Fannie cease.

 

 

Did Fannie see Isidore again after she went to Europe?  Would Samuel’s American story include Isidore?  Would Riwke and Sura make it to America?  Would this fractured family ever be made whole?

 

 

 

to be continued . . .