Saturday, January 14, 2012

FOUND: More Children of Leopold & Fannie (Edelstein) Gardner

I thought that Leopold & Fannie (Edelstein) Gardner had three sons and two daughters born in New York City, including my maternal grandfather, Nathaniel Gardner.

Gartner Birth certificate 1890
Florence (Gardner) Weissberg, May 1879 – 19 February 1954
Nathaniel Gardner, 21 July 1882 – 7 December 1944
Arthur Moses Gartner, 15 June 1884 – After 1948
Albert Gartner, 11 December 1888 – c. 1920
Anna (Gartner) Bearman, November 1891

In researching the family I began with information from my mother, Alberta Joy (Gardner) Brown. US & New York State Census Records & NY City Directories helped me to document her stories.

Recently, on Family Search, I found two more children for Leopold & Fannie. I was looking for more sources to support my information on the family. I had hoped to find birth certificates for any of the five children and thought I found one for Anna. The search results there listed Johanna Gardner, b. 1 November 1890, and the parents’ names matched. That pointed at Anna. I assumed I had the wrong year form my previous research. I wanted to be sure. I sent off a request to the New York City Municipal Archives for a copy of the birth certificate.

Four weeks later the certificate arrived in the mail & I discovered two new children for Leopold & Fannie. The birth certificate was not for Anna. It said, “Sex – Boy”. The name is difficult to read but it does look like Johanna. Or could the ‘J’ be a ‘T’? [Does anyone know a male form of the name? I unsuccessfully looked on line for Jewish boy names.]This son must have been born the year before Anna. He is not shown in any census reports or city directories.However, I am very confident that he does belong with the family. Parents names match, including the mother's maiden name. Even Leopold's job as a Tailor matches.  I am guessing that this child died young. Will I be able to find a death certificate for him? If you can read the child's name, please tell me what you think it is.

Fannie Gartner
The birth certificate also reveals another child. Fannie, age 31, was the mother of six children, five living. Therefore, there had been another child. Will I be able to find a birth or death certificate for that child?

As is usual with genealogy, each time we discover a new fact it leads to more questions. If you have connections to this family I would love to hear with you.

1 comment:

  1. Johann is the Germanic form of John. Johann Sebastian Bach for example

    Johanna would be the feminine variation. This could be a possibility.

    ReplyDelete

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