Treasure Chest Thursday: Louis Myers' Death Certificate and Ida's Maiden Name

Louis Myers was successful in business as a glazier and was influential politically in the Jewish community in New York City. Like most of his siblings, he died rather young. [1]

Bronx County, New York, Certificate of Death number 9710 (8 November 1938), Louis Myers, 
New York City Municipal Archives, New York.

When Louis died of liver cancer at the age of 52, he was living with his second wife Yetta G. and his daughter Renee in the same apartment building they'd lived in since at least 1930. [2]

The most interesting information on Louis' death record is the maiden name of his mother: "Kesselina."

This agrees with other information about Ida's (Chaye Sarah) maiden name from several documents informed by a variety of relatives.

Kestelman - Chaye Sarah Meyers' death certificate (informant, husband)
Kestleman - Rebecca Myers Sotskess' death certificate (informant, brother Joseph Myers)  [3]
Kestelman - Joseph Myers' marriage certificate [4]
Kestleman - Harry Myers' marriage certificate [5]

The only conflicting record is Joseph Myers' death certificate where the informant, daughter Lillian Langer, identified her grandmother's maiden name as Cohen. [6]  

It is likely, considering that Lillian, who was two generations removed from her grandmother and about 8 years old when her grandmother died, was confused. This confusion, however might have coincided with two possibilities: that there were Kesselman/Kestelman relatives in the United States who had changed their names to Cohen and/or that the Kesselman's were Kohanim (members of the Jewish priestly caste [7]).

This far I have located a few Kesselmans in New York, but have not been able to make family connections. 

Notes:
1. Myer Myers, 60; Rebecca Sotskess, 60; Joseph Myers, 56; and Harry Myers, 58. The only sibling who lived a long life was my great grandmother Sarah Myers Morris, 80, who outlived not only her siblings, but also her eldest child, my grandmother Dora Morris Garber, 57.
2. 1930 U.S. Census, Bronx County, New York, population schedule, New York City, Enumeration District 3-178, sheet 17A, family 306, Louis Myers; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 March 2008).
3. New York County, New York, Certificate of Death number 2120 (24 january 1940), Rebecca Sotskess, New York City Municipal Archives.
4. New York County, New York, Certificate and Record of Marriage number 7674 (25 March 1913), Joseph Myers and Rose Adler, New York City Municipal Archives, New York. 
5. Kings County, New York, Certificate and Record of Marriage number 13551 (5 November 1916), Harry Myers and Malie Glickman, New York City Municipal Archives, New York.
 6. New York County, New York, Certificate of Death number 26865 (15 December 1945), Joseph Myers, New York City Municipal Archives, New York. 
7. Even if Ida's Kestelman family were Kohanim, this only follows the male line. So, Ida's offspring would not have been of Kohanim  descent via their Kestelman connection.