14 April 2015

Tombstone Tuesday: Meyer Loveshak (Loscher or Loschak), Montefiore Cemetery

It took me a while to figure out that this person, identified on his tombstone as "Myer Loscher" was the same person identified in the Montefiore Cemetery internment index as "Meyer Lovashak," and Meyer Loveshak, who I knew to be the son of Sarah and Baruch. 

Here lies
Meier son of Baruch
MYER
LOSCHER
DIED
FEB.19, 1964
AGE 64
MAY HIS SOUL BE BOUND IN ETERNAL LIFE

Meyer arrived at Ellis Island with his elder sister Leia (later called Lena) in 1911 from Labun.[1] Their surname on the manifest was Loschak.

I have found no evidence that Meyer Loveshak ever married. He lived his life with his mother and sisters (and later just his sisters), who also never married, in Brooklyn.

Meyer's sisters were Lena (2 March 1894 - March 1972) and Doris (12 December 1904 - January 1983).[2] There may have been an additional sister (Anna - born about 1907), but I have been unsuccessful in finding her after her one appearance (in the 1930 census).[3]

When I saw the name Loschak on Lena and Meyer's manifest, I searched on that name in the JewishGen Family Finder. Although that surname was not listed for the community of Labun/Lubin, it was listed for a researcher whose interest was Gritsev - a community 8 miles southwest of Labun.

I contacted that researcher and found that she had been looking for the descendants of Baruch Loschak - a sibling of her ancestor. My research on the Sarah Loveshak/Loschak family fit nicely with hers and we made a match. Sarah Alpern was from Labun and married Baruch Loschak from Gritsev. According to Lena and Meyer's manifest, the family (in 1911) lived in Labun. Baruch died after his eldest children (Meyer and Leie) left for the United States and sometime before Sarah and Doris (and, perhaps, Anna) emigrated about 1920.

Meyer is buried in the First Lubiner Progressive Benevolent Association plot in Montefiore Cemetery, Queens, NY: block 5, gate 567W, Line 3R, grave 7. I have not been able to find graves for Lena or Doris, nor probate records in the Bronx, Kings or Suffolk Counties for Sarah or her children.

Notes:
1. "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 July 2013), manifest, S.S. Lituania, Libau to New York, arriving 16 July 1911, list 8, lines 26 & 27, Leie and Meyer Loschak; citing NARA microfilm series T715; roll 1709.
2. "U.S. Social Security Death Index, 1936-2014," index, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 May 2013); entries for Lena Loveshak and Doris Loveshak.
3. Kings County, New York, 1930 U.S. Census, population schedule, Brooklyn, enumeration district 24-880, sheet 12B, dwelling 45, family 337, Lena Loveshak family; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 May 2013); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1538.

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