Finding John Costello – A DNA Journey: The Fried Family, John’s Family, Part 4

 

We left off with a few questions.

 

More than we can answer today.  But let’s try to get to the bottom of these two:

Would Samuel’s American story include Isidore?  Would Riwke and Sura make it to America?

 

Samuel Fried in America

 

We have already established that Samuel traveled to America with his daughter Anna and that they arrived in 1913.¹  We also know that he was living with his daughter Fannie and her family in 1915 when they were enumerated in the same household on the New York State Census.²

After that, things get a bit messy.  So let’s start with the records that everyone can agree are about Samuel Fried, father of Isidore, Fannie, and Anna–his certificate of arrival, declaration of intention, and naturalization record.

His certificate of arrival is a perfect match for his passenger list.  Here it is:

 

 

 

Schye Freid, arrived 13 September 1913, on the Ship Amerika.³ 

Here are the passenger list headings:

The S.S. Amerika, arriving in the Port of New York on 13 September 1913.⁴  Exactly what we expect.

And here is Samuel’s entry:

“Schije Freid” and “Hinde Freid,” ages 51 and 17.  Wife of Samuel and mother of Anna, is Riwke Freid who lives in “Przeslowo.”  We do have one conflict in this record.  “Moritz” Geier, Fannie’s husband, is listed as Samuel’s brother-in-law and Anna’s uncle.  The address is correct for Fannie and Morris on this date.  This is clearly just a mistake or miscommunication between Samuel and the person who recorded the information.⁵  Morris is Samuel’s son-in-law and Anna’s brother-in-law.

Okay.  So far, so good.

Next, we have Samuel’s declaration of intention that is dated 26 April 1921:⁶

 

Our next conflict.  Sam Fried, peddler, lists his wife as “Lina.”  Why is this a conflict?  Samuel’s daughter Anna’s descendants had no knowledge of a second marriage for Samuel.  But, they do believe that Riwke died in Europe so a second marriage certainly is not out of the question, just unexpected.

Now how about that petition for naturalization?  This record is dated 27 January 1926:⁷

 

 

This section is filled with interesting tidbits.  We have Sam Fried who lives at 67 Columbia St in New York City.  In the 1921 declaration of intention he was living at 68 Columbia St., a nice match in the same building.  He lists his occupation as peddler which agrees with the 1921 record.  He claims a birth of 20 December 1863 in Wolyn Russia.  He lists the passenger information that matches what we know.  Again he lists his wife as “Lena” and states that she was born in 1864 in Russia.⁸

Next comes the gold.

Samuel lists his five children:⁹

• Itzchor, born 25 July 1884 in Russia, resides in New York???!  This child is clearly Isidore.  Was he really living in New York in 1926?!
• Feige, born 24 December 1889 in Russia, resides in New York.  This is Fannie.
• Zilda, born 8 September 1892 in Russia, resides in Poland.
• Hinde, born 9 July 1896 in Russia, resides in New York.  This is Anna.
• Hudis, born 15 April 1903 in Russia, resides in Poland.

We added two children to what we already knew.  Zilda and Hudis, both daughters.  But we are missing Sura.  By 1926, it is believed that Riwke had died in Europe.¹⁰  Had Sura also died?  Possibly from the illness that prevented her from traveling to America with her father Samuel?¹¹  Currently, that is unclear.

What we DO have is a mention of Isidore.  Did Samuel really believe that Isidore was living in New York?

 

WAS he living in New York?!

 

There are a few more items of interest on Samuel’s petition for naturalization.  First the witnesses:

 

 

The first witness is Samuel’s daughter Fannie who in 1926 was living at 3 Clinton St with Morris and their children.  Notice also that the second witness lived on Pitt Street,¹² Isidore’s first known street of residence in America.

And then we have three signatures from Samuel:¹³

 

Please take a minute to notice a few unique elements of his signature.  First, the shape of the S in Sam.  He starts with a long and somewhat straight horizontal line before curling into the top of the S.  The bottom of the S has a curl. Now, look at the F in Fried.  We have a curl to start the top of the F and then a nice curved line.  The rest of the F is fairly distinct as well.  Keep this in mind.

 

Okay, so let’s recap Samuel’s timeline in America so far:

 

3¹⁴ or 4 September 1913, “Schije Freid” boarded Ship Amerika in Hamburg with daughter, Hinde.¹⁵

13 September 1913, “Schije Freid” arrived in America at the Port of New York with daughter, Hinde.¹⁶

1 June 1915, “Sam Fried” lived with daughter Fannie, son-in-law Morris, and granddaughter Sadie Geier at 210/212 East 2nd Avenue, New York.¹⁷

26 April 1921, “Sam Fried” filed his declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States.¹⁸

1 September 1923, “Schye Fried” acquired his certificate of arrival.¹⁹

27 January 1926, “Sam Fried” applied for Citizenship.²⁰

24 June 1926, “Sam Fried” granted Citizenship.²¹

 

We have a few holes.  Based on the address and spouse in his 1921 first papers, we can use that to identify Samuel and Lena in 1925:

 

 

They are living at 67 Columbia St in New York City.  Samuel is listed as a “Hebrew Teacher” and both Samuel and Lena are listed as aliens.  Notably, Samuel claims an arrival of 1913, which matches, and Lena of 1911.²²

Okay, so in 1915, Samuel was living with Fannie and Morris without a spouse and then in 1921 when he filed his first papers, he was married to a woman named Lina/Lena.  We see Lena and Samuel still together in 1925.  We need their marriage record!  We have a window between 1915 and 1921, most likely in New York City.

And what do you know?  There is a marriage for a Sam and a Lena in 1920.²³  It has a few conflicts though…

 

 

The first big one is Sam’s name.  “Sam Frid”?!  He uses an address we haven’t seen yet of “124 Sherrif St.”  He does say that he is widowed.  The next conflict is his occupation of “Furrier.”  So far we have a varied list of occupations for Samuel.  They look like this:

 

Furrier is new.  Hmmm . . . Let’s check out his signature on the marriage record.²⁴

 

 

“Shyia Frid.”  But look at the S and the F!  They are unmistakable.  This marriage record was signed by our Samuel.  Why did he use a different spelling for his last name?  And why did two people who lived in Manhattan get married in Queens?  Is it possible that Samuel didn’t have proof of Riwke’s death?  Interesting . . . Moving on.

Based on the information in this record, I did some more digging and found Samuel’s death record.²⁵

 

 

Oh boy.  This record is just loaded with conflicts.  We have Samuel Fried, of 82 Sheriff St. in New York City.  Born 20 June 1850 in Russia.  Death date of 24 February 1939.  This makes him 88+ years old at the time of his death.  His occupation is listed as “Cleaning & Dyer” in a store, 10 years at this occupation.  How long in the US and in the City of New York – 29 years.  Father Sandor Fried, Mother Gittel Rosen.  The informant is his wife Lena Fried of 82 Sheriff St.

So what’s in conflict?

His birthdate.  It doesn’t match the birthdate he used on his petition for naturalization.  But as we set out in the beginning, the Fried family members born in Europe didn’t know their birthdates and just picked dates when they filled out forms.  Okay.

His occupation doesn’t match anything on our list but it does work as a description for a “Furrier.”  Okay.

His age of 88 years, 8 months, and 5 days doesn’t match any of the other records.  In fact, lining it up with the marriage record to Lena, this is a discrepancy of 15 years.  Pretty big difference.

The statement that he had lived in the U.S. and NYC for 29 years gives Samuel a 1909-10 arrival, at least three years prior to his actual arrival.  Not too far off.

His father is listed as “Sandor Fried” which is a logical match to the “Sandor Frid” found on the 1920 marriage record to Lena.  The mother’s names of “Slattie Leah” on the marriage and “Gittel Rosen” on the death do not match in an obvious way.  This is okay-ish, understandable for an immigrant.

There is one more point of interest in this record.  It states that the deceased last worked in his occupation in 1923.  The 1925 NY Census is the record that lists him as a “Hebrew teacher,” and his daughter Anna’s headstone says that he was a Rabbi.  It is possible that he was a Rabbi and had another occupation that he gave up in 1923.

So how can we excuse some of these huge conflicts in the death record?  This is a quality of evidence issue.  The informant for this record is Samuel’s second wife Lena.  Samuel’s own descendants didn’t even know that she existed.  They also had no idea when he died.  Given that, Lena likely was working with very poor, limited information.  Additionally, all other plausible candidates for our Samuel in the New York City death records were eliminated.  Aside from having the same name or name variant, all information items in the other records were in conflict and could not be about our Samuel.

[Thank you FamilySearch for digitizing these images and putting them online in your catalog so I could check all of the possible death records for Samuel Frieds in NYC in a reasonable time frame!!]

Let’s consider Samuel’s addresses to see how they compare with the address at the time of his death.  Here they are in chart form:

 

What do they look like on a map?

The first address is Fannie and Morris’ 1915 address.  That address to Samuel’s first address on his own looks like this:

 

A whopping half mile.

The other addresses for Samuel are really only two addresses because the Sheriff Street addresses are to the same building and the Columbia Street addresses are to the same building.  They look like this:

 

A very tiny one-tenth of a mile.

Given the lack of other records that can possibly be Samuel’s death record, the poor quality of information likely given by a second wife who didn’t know Samuel’s family, and the tight proximity to the other locations in Samuel’s lifetime, that 1939 death record is for our Samuel Fried.

This means that we now, as of last night when I found this record, know where Samuel is buried–the Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens, New York.  So now, my dear cousin who I won’t name here, you may visit Samuel’s grave and offer the Mourner’s Kaddish that you have longed to accomplish for your great-grandfather.

 

So back to our questions.

 

Would Samuel’s American story include Isidore?  Maybe . . . ?  Samuel arrived in the U.S. in 1913, Isidore seems to have disappeared in 1911.  But in 1926, Samuel claimed that Isidore was living in New York.  Could that be true?

 

Would Riwke and Sura make it to America?  No.  Sadly, Riwke died in Eastern Europe.  Sura’s fate is still unknown, but there is no evidence that she came to America.

 

Samuel’s American story adds some interesting insight into the Fried family.  Aside from Fannie serving as one of his witnesses when Samuel petitioned for naturalization, the family seems very disconnected.  No Frieds served as witnesses to Samuel’s second marriage.  His death record is so inaccurate that it seems no Frieds were consulted by Samuel’s wife Lena when she gave the information regarding his death.  And no living descendants knew about Lena or when and where Samuel died and was buried.  We have a Fried family patriarch that does not appear to be close to his own children and grandchildren.  As Samuel’s only known son, was Isidore following in his father’s footsteps?  Would he stay connected to his own children and future grandchildren?

 

And, if Isidore really was living in New York in 1926, where were Sarah and the girls?  Were they in New York too?

 

 

to be continued . . .