History (Part 2)
Rose Schwartz Lemanowitz is believed to have been born in Russia (or at least somewhere in Eastern Europe) in 1887 or 1888--although other records have her birth year listed as 1882. Before coming to the United States, she was married, and in 1909 or 1910 gave birth to a daughter, Anna (“Annette.”) It is believed that Rose also had a son who died in infancy. While rare at that time for the woman to request and be granted a divorce, with support from her husband's mother (Rose's mother in law) the local rabbis granted Rose a “Get” (Jewish Divorce) while Annette was still quite young. Wanting to make a better life for Annette and herself, she would soon immigrate to the United States.
The only way to make this move at that time, was to leave Annette behind with family until she could establish a life for herself and send for Annette to join her. In 2015, I had connected with a cousin, Mort Collier, who had lived with Annette and her husband, Jack, in NY for a couple of years. He sent me this incredible story of Annette's journey to the US as a very young child as she related it to him. You can read his email to me detailing her amazing journey here. In his email, he references a news article from 1930 that I sent to him explaining how Annette ended up living in NY. That article is also referenced with a link to it, further down in this page in the 2nd to last paragraph.
While I do not yet know exactly when Rose came to America, she would soon be introduced by a matchmaker to Jake Lemanowitz--who was now a widower with three young daughters of his own, Sylvia, Sarah (Sally), and Esther. Jake and Rose were married on March 9, 1918. In January 1920 Rose would give birth to their first child together, Bea. (I had been told by my mom that Bea was initially named “Bertha.” Sure enough, when I found them on the 1920 US Census, Bea is listed as “Bertha.” (This also took me a long time to find. The name “Lemanowitz” is transcribed as “Lementz.) It was also around this time that Jake and Rose would be able to arrange for Anna to be sent to America. At a very young age, Annette made the trip to America on a ship without any family members. She was reunited with her mother and her new family with the assistance of one of the Jewish organizations that assisted with Jews immigrating to the United States. She would soon be legally adopted by Jake. On the 1920 Census, Jake, Rose, and their children were still living at 739 S. 6th Street.
Incidentally, one small detail that I happened to see from looking at the World War I draft registration cards for Jacob “Lemonowitz”, Harry “Lemanowitz”, and Morris “Lemanow”, is that they all registered on September 12, 1918--which is the date listed on Jake’s card as his birthday. (September 12, 1879--on this document. As noted previously, his date of birth and birth year vary depending on the records you are viewing.)
In the 1920 U.S. Census is that I found that Simon’s wife, Fannie, now a widow, was living with her son Morris (who had first been listed as “Isaac” in the 1900 Census) and his family. Morris was now married to Esther, and at that time, they had two children Bertha and Norman. There is one twist to this which will be understood by our family. Fannie, Morris and his family all were using the last name “Lemanoff” in the 1920 census. At this point, Fannie, Morris, and the rest of their family had moved to 6145 Delancey Street, in West Philadelphia. I am not certain where Jake’s brother, Harry, or his sisters, Katie and Lizzie, were living in 1920. While I can’t say for certain that they are, in fact, the Lemanowitz family using the name Lemanoff, the information on that census sheet certainly indicates that this is the case. (As mentioned earlier, Harry changed his name to “Leminoff” in 1923.) The 1930 Census shows Morris, who was now using the last name of “Lemanow”, living with his wife Esther and their children, Bertha, Norman, and Roslyn.
In 1927 Jake and Rose celebrated the birth of their daughter Gladys. (Gladys is my mother.) The story I’ve always been told was that upon learning that he was again the father of yet another girl--the 6th--he stormed out of the room. But despite his initial feelings about having a sixth daughter (and no sons), he loved them all deeply, and was always their “Pop”.
The 1930 Census shows Jake, Rose, Sylvia, Sarah, Annette, Esther, Bea, and Gladys living as a family. It was also in 1930 that events would take place that would cause Annette to move to New York, where she would continue to live and eventually raise her family. As we were often told (well, at least some of us were often told), the story of why and when Annette moved to New York really was a front page news story. This headline from the front page of The Philadelphia Daily News from 2/12/30 and the accompanying article are linked here. This headline and the actual news story provides the details in the sensational style reminiscent of the Broadway show/movie “Chicago.” The PDF of the headline and article should be able to be downloaded, should you choose to do so.
We fast-forward about 76 years to a hot summer afternoon. As we gathered together as family to both mourn the loss, and celebrate the life of Bea, we found ourselves telling stories about Jake, Rose, and their six daughters. We struggled at times to remember the details of stories that we had told so many times in the past, and we looked at the many pictures kept in tins or sealed in albums that we’d seen so many times before. Except this time the pictures were turning yellow with age and some appeared ready to fall apart. We knew that it was important that the stories of Simon, Fannie, Jake, Hannah, Rose, Sylvia, Sally, Esther, Annette, Bea, and Gladys be preserved. However even without websites and photos, the love and lessons taught by Jake and Rose’s daughters and their husbands will live on through the lives of their many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
-Robert Westle