Tombstone Tuesday: Samuel and Fannie Schwartz, Montefiore Cemetery, Queens, NY

Samuel Schwartz' tombstone translation was a challenge. Apparently, the Hebrew text just does not hold together very well. It took a collective of Tracing the Tribe FaceBook page translators to make sense of it.[1] Translations such as these are definitely an art. Ultimately, I chose the translation provided by Robin Meltzer as the one likely closest to the spirit and intent.

Fannie Schwartz' tombstone text was much simpler and did not pose any special challenges (I was able to handle it by myself).

As mentioned in a previous post, there are three men named Sam Schwartz interred in the First Lubiner Progressive Benevolent Association (FLPBA) plots at Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, NY. All three were glaziers in New York City. This is the Sam (and family) who purchased an advertisement in the FLPBA 25th anniversary commemorative publication. 
 

Here lies

My husband and our beloved father

crown of our heads and the most glorious of men

known as a man of acts of loving kindness

praised in all assemblies and congregations

Meshulam Zisye son of Eliyahu, the Levite

Died 22 Tamuz 5696

May his soul be bound in the bond of life

BELOVED HUSBAND

DEAR FATHER

SAMUEL

SCHWARTZ

DIED JULY 12, 1936

AGE 50 YEARS

---------

HUSBAND

The text on Fannie's tombstone was much more straight-forward. 

Here lies

Pesye daughter of David

Died 11 Sivan 5713

BELOVED MOTHER

AND

GRANDMOTHER

FANNIE

SCHWARTZ

DIED

MAY 25, 1953

----------

FOREVER

REMEMBERED

Sam (born about 1887 in Labun, Volhynia Gubernia, Russian Empire) and Fannie (born about 1889) were married in the old country and had their son, Harry (b. ca. 1911-12), there. 

GoogleMaps (28 Apr 2015)

Sam left for the United States in 1912, leaving his wife (then named Pesie) behind.[2] I have not located Fannie and Harry's manifest. But since USA-born younger son, David, was recorded as two years old in the 1925 New York State Census (then census date was 1 June 1925), Fanny and Harry likely arrived in New York in the early 1920s.[3] 

The family resided for many years in Queens at 109-06 103rd Avenue, Richmond Hill, Queens. [4] They owned their single family home.

Samuel is buried in block 89, gate 156N, line 5R, grave 5. Fannie is buried in line 8L, grave 1.

Notes:
1. Special thanks to Tracing the Tribe's FaceBook participants for sharing their expertise: Israel Pickholtz, Esther Chanie Dushinsky, Liba Zilber, Nurit Kraus-Frieberg, and Robin Meltzer.
2. "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 August 2010), manifest, S.S. Grant, Hamburg to New York, arriving 1 August 1912, p. 7, line 29, Sische Schwarzmann; citing National Archives Microfilm Serial T715, Roll 1906.
3. Queens County, New York, 1925 New York State Census, population schedule, Queens, assembly district 15, election district 49, page 6, entries 27-30, Samuel and Fanny Schwartz family; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 April 2015); citing New York States Archives, Albany.
4. Queens County, New York, 1930 U.S. Census, populations schedule, Queens, enumeration district 519, sheet 11A, dwelling 155, family 207, Samuel and Fannie Schwartz family; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 August 2010); NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1068.
    Queens County, New York, 1940 U.S. Census, populations schedule, Queens, enumeration district 41-1697, sheet 11A, household 250, Fannie Schwartz family; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 April 2015); NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 2751.