Treasure Chest Thursday: Zachary Myers Death Certificate

Zachary Myers was my great grandfather David Myers' brother. He arrived in the United States on the Finland on 4 January 1922. [1] This was several years after his two sons, Israel (1912) and Jacob (1908) had emigrated.

New York County, New York, Standard Certificate of Death, number 7469 (25 March 1933), Zachary Myers, New York City Municipal Archives, New York.

Place of Death  Borough of Manhattan, 118 Eldridge St.
Character of premises whether tenement, private, hotel, hospital or other place, etc.    tenement 
Registration No.  7469
2. Full Name Zachary Myers
3. Sex M
4. Color or Race W
5. Single, married, widowed or divorced: Widowed
6. Date of birth [blank]
7. Age 82 yrs
8. Occupation Farmer
9. Birthplace Russia
9a. How long in the U.S. 11 years
9b. How long resident in City of New York 11 years
10. Name of father Israel Myers
11. Birthplace of father Russia
12. Name of mother Minnie Saltzberg 
13. Birthplace of mother Russia
14. Special information [blank]
15. Date of Death March 25, 1933

16. I hereby certify that the foregoing particulars (nos. 1 to 14 inclusive) are correct as near as the same can be ascertained, and I further certify that I attended the deceased from February 23, 1933 to March 25, 1933, that I last saw him alive on the 25th day of March 1933, that death occurred on the date stated above at 9:30 P.M., and that the cause of death was as follows Chronic Myocarditis. 
duration 5 yrs.
Contributory Heart Block
duration 5 ds. 
Witness my hand this 26th day of March 1933
Signature M.M. Rubinstein M.D. 
Address 241 E. B'way 


17. Place of burial Montefiore Cemetery
Date of burial Mar 26, 1933
18. Undertaker Jacob Blum # 1765
Address 202 East Broadway

The second page (near bottom) indicates that the undertaker was employed by Zachary's son "Israel Meyers."

Comparison of this record with the death record for David Myers, shows that Israel was the father of both men. Malzmann is the likely surname. There is a discrepancy, however, regarding the mother's name: Dora Martman for David and Minnie Saltzman for Zachary. 

At this point, there is no way to adjudicate between the mother's names. We do not know who the informant was for David's death record. We may assume that Israel Myers was the informant for his father's record, but that is not certain. There is the possibility that David and Zachary had different mothers.

The name Martman may very well be a mistake based upon incomplete understanding of the name held by the family before coming to the United States: Malzmann. Neither Martman nor Saltzberg are names found in any other datasets (such as the JewishGen Family Finder, manifest records, Yad Vashem Shoah Names Database, and landsmanschaft burial records) I've viewed from Labun or the surrounding communities of Polonnoye or Gritsev.

Besides this record, his manifest and tombstone, I have located no other United States records for Zachary Myers. Thus far I have not located him in either the 1925 New York State Census or the 1930 U.S. Census. If there are any records in Ukraine, they may eventually help identify the name(s) of the mother of David and Zachary.

Notes:
1. "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 16 July 2009), manifest, Finland, Antwerp to New York, arriving 4 January 1922, Schorja Malcman, citing National Archives Microfilm Serial: T715; Microfilm Roll: 3068; Line: 21; Page Number: 7.