Fannie Waronker Lemanowitz (Part 3)

Before coming to America, Simon and Fannie, who were married between 1870-1872, had 5 living children. The US Census' for 1900 and 1910 lists her as having had 6 children with the number of children living as 5. In order from oldest to youngest were Morris Ellis (Moishe Eli); Jacob/Jake (Yudah/Yankel/Jankel); Kate/Katie (Gittel); Harry; Elizabeth/Lizzie (Nechama/Nechame). While “Lemanowitz” often has variations such as “Lemanovitz”, I should note that Morris usually used “Lemanow” and Harry actually petitioned to change his name legally to “Lemanoff/Leminoff”—even though he continued to use Lemanowitz on documents such as draft registration cards for WWI and WWII. Many of these documents are on the immigration and citizenship page or on the documents and memorial page. On the Family Pictures (2) page you will see a few pictures of Morris Lemanow and his family.

Harry Lemanowitz (aka Lemanoff)

Included in the History Part 1 page is information about the immigration of Simon, as well as his two older sons, Morris (aka Moische) and Jake. On a passenger list provided to me by Ari Wigdor, we see that Fannie, along with her daughters, Katie and Lizzie traveled together to the US in 1889. Ari pointed out that a review of this passenger list reveals that passage was paid for by her husband (Simon). Ari added that “They emigrated on July 14-26, 1889, from Bremen, Germany to Baltimore, MD on the S.S. Dresden. The record spells the surname "Limonovitz" and includes some new information about their Jewish names: Feige, Gittel, and Nechame.” When I looked at the passenger list, I discovered additional confirmation that this was Fannie Lemanowitz. I saw that they stated they would be staying with their husband/father (Simon) at the home of Simon's brother-in-law “D Waronker” at 329 Catherine Street.” (Scroll all the way to the right.) Information about Jake Lemanowitz, Hannah Berkman Lemanowitz and Rose Lemanowitz and their children is detailed extensively on other pages of this site. As noted on those pages, Hannah died in 1915, Rose in 1955, and Jake in 1958.

Morris Lemanow (Lemanowitz) married Esther Ostrovsky in 1914. On the application for their marriage license, it stated that he had been married and divorced prior to his marriage to Esther. However, due to the handwriting on the application (that's nearly as bad as my handwriting), neither Ari or I could read the details of the prior marriage and divorce. (We've been unable to find any other online records pertaining to this as of this time.) It appears that Morris and Esther had three children, Bertha (born around 1915), Norman (born around 1917), and Roselyn (born around 1930). As noted previously, there are a few pictures related to the family of Morris on “Family Pictures (2). Esther died in 1936 and Morris died in 1947.

Katie/ Kate (“Gittel”) Lemanowitz married Benjamin/Bennie Brownstein (aka Braunstein) around 1901. They had 5 children: Mildred/Mollie (born around 1902), Hyman (born around 1904), Morris (born around 1908), Sylvia/Sara/Sophia (born around 1911), and Albert (born around 1925.) Tragically, Morris died at the age of 13 in 1921. As noted on his death certificate, as well as in this newspaper article, he died from electrocution which occurred when he was riding on top of a railroad car with friends. Katie died in 1943 and Benjamin died in 1951.

Elizabeth/Lizzy (“Nechama/Nechame”) Lemanowitz married Samuel Perlstein in 1908. As I began writing this I was aware that they had 3 children: Edward (born 1911), Arthur (born 1913), and Albert 1916. As I was confirming the information I noticed a birth certificate for a baby born in 1909. I couldn't find any other information on this baby—including on the 1910 census. Eventually, I found a death certificate indicating that the child had been listed as a “stillborn.” Elizabeth died in 1952 and Samuel died in 1968.

Harry Lemanowitz (aka Lemanoff/Leminoff) was born around 1882-1885. (I have also seen one document where his birth year is listed as 1892.) Harry's situation was particularly interesting to me. Aside from Jake, of the children of Fannie and Simon who I've written about previously, as I was growing up, the person I recall my mother speaking about the most was her “Uncle Harry.” (Possibly because he lived until 1972 when I was in my teens.) Donna and I recall our mother and her sisters going to see him at times and helping with things that he may have needed. I believe he may have lived with Jake and Rose for a time before I was born. (My sister, Donna and I, recall my mother saying that from time to time.) When we were younger, to our knowledge, he had always been single and had no children. As I prepared for this update and was getting ready to start researching his past and reviewing documents I had saved a few years ago, I thought I had saved one that indicated he might have been married at one point in time but wasn't sure. (I did recall that while he had changed his name legally to “Lemanoff” he had usually continued to use Lemanowitz on many documents such as draft registration cards, census reports, etc.)

Sure enough, in reviewing old documents I saw that Harry listed a spouse named Ida Lemanowitz on his naturalization petition dated 6/5/1917. He also lists her on his WWI draft card dated 12/19/1918. However, I didn't see her listed on any record anywhere else. Harry's WWII card lists his sister, Katie as his closest relative. Ari and I went back and forth a lot on this situation. At first, neither of us could find any record of a divorce or death of an Ida Lemanowitz—or any listing of her on a census report. Finally, I found a death certificate for an “Ida Greenberg.” She died in 1925. She was about 26 years old. Ida was listed as "divorced" and her ex was named “Harry Lamanoff” (or perhaps "Lemanoff"—the handwriting made it difficult to know for sure.) She died from Pulmonary Tuberculosis which she had for 1 year; 4 months. She was living in a facility called "PA State Sanatorium.” As was described in the website I linked to, that facility had developed into a place where people with Tuberculosis were sent for treatment. The facility was listed as the “informant” on the death certificate, so Ari and I were aware that some of the information (such as her being “divorced”) might not be totally accurate.

With that new information, we discovered that Harry and Ida were married in 1917. (We figured out that the handwriting on the applications and other documents led to sites such as ancestry, etc listing all the information that involved Harry's last name to be badly misspelled. The capital “L” often ended up as an “S” and other mistakes were made.) We also quickly found out that Harry and Ida had a baby that sadly was a stillborn in 1920. What we don't know yet is from the time of the death of their newborn in 1920, until Ida's diagnosis and admission to the Pa State Sanatorium sometime around 1923-24, if they ever were divorced (we've found no record of that), or if they parted ways before or when she became sick and the staff were told that Harry and Ida were divorced. As I noted, Ida passed away in the Sanatorium in 1925, and Harry lived until his death in 1972.