Finding Simon & Fannie Lemanowitz
At the time of my initial creation of this site in 2007, little was known about the death and burial location of Fannie Lemanowitz (Jake’s mother) and even less about the death of Simon Lemanowitz (Jake’s father.) As you’ll see, I eventually learned more about both Fannie (see my addendum of 2009) and Simon, along with Hannah--the first wife of Jake and mother of Sylvia, Sally, and Esther. (See my 2011 addendum.)
July 2009: While I still have not learned much about where Fannie was at the time of the 1930 census, I do know that she died at the reported age of 82, on May 17, 1935. When I found her burial information, I also learned that while she was called “Fannie” when she came to America, her name was actually “Feige Dvora Waronker (b. Shmaryahu.)” I was quite surprised to learn she is buried in Jenkintown, PA--right on the border of Philadelphia--A long way from the West Philadelphia and South Philadelphia neighborhoods where the family had lived. There does not appear to be any other family at this cemetery (Montefiore). I have not, as of yet, found where Simon is buried. Her burial information also provides us with details about her reported “town & country of origin”: Kelme, Lithuania. The images below, as well as gravesite pictures are at the bottom of the Documents and Memorials Page.
June 2011: At some time, after not having much success in getting any further on the Lemanowitz search, I remembered that a few people had told me that The Church of Jesus Christ-Later Day Saints had a pretty strong data base of material related to people of all religions and backgrounds. I checked it out (www.familysearch.org)--and sure enough, I not only found a death certificate and burial information for Simon Lemanovitz, but found the information related to Hannah Berkman Lemanowitz--Jake’s first wife. (See the bottom of the History (part 1) page for more details.
Simon died on March 26, 1913. He is buried in Har Nebo Cemetary, in Northeast Philadelphia. Har Nebo is Philadelphia’s oldest, privately owned, Jewish Cemetery (1890). Oddly, this cemetery is even closer to my home than the cemetery that Fannie is buried in. My sister, Donna, and I have driven by Har Nebo countless times over the years, never knowing that this is where he was burried. I was a bit uncertain at first if this was really him, since his death certificate lists him as 49 years old. By all accounts (the U.S. Census, ship logs, etc), he was born around 1850 - 1852, which would have made him around 63 or 64 at the time of his death. However, I knew he had died after the 1910 census, but before the 1920 census. His name was listed as Simon Lemanovitz in other areas, and more importantly, the address on the death certificate is the address that the family was at in the 1910 census. And then, when I visited his grave, it states that his age was 64 years old. Finally, I found buried directly behind him, two graves back, is Hannah Lemanowitz.
Pictures of his grave site and death certificate are now found on the Documents & Memorials page.
-Robert Westle