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| Photo by Emily Garber, 7 September 2008 |
Here lies
Boy
Meier son of Yakov
MEYER MYERS
BORN NOV. 28, 1915
DIED SEPT. 12, 1916
Meyer was Jacob and Bertha's second child. He was likely named after Bertha's father, Meyer Goldman.
Bertha's marriage certificate indicates that her maiden name was Goldman, her father was M. Goldman and her mother was Anna Chale [likely shortened from Chalewsky].[1] Her death certificate indicates that her father was Meyer Chale.[2] It is likely that Bertha was accurate regarding her maiden name and that her son Fred, who provided the death certificate information, was mistaken.
Tombstones for children often feature the lamb, symbolizing youth and purity.[3] In Jewish cemeteries, children are usually buried at the edges of the plots. This burial was at the back of the First Lubiner Progressive Benevolent Association plot at Block 89, Gate 156N, Montefiore Cemetery, Queens, New York. In fact, this burial is not indexed within Montefiore Cemetery's online locator.
Notes:
1. New York County, New York, Certificate and Record of Marriage no. 29954 (20 December 1911, Jacob Myers and Bertha Goldman, Municipal Archives, New York.
2. Kings County, New York, Certificate of Death no. 1421 (19 January 1954), Bertha Myers, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York.
3. Joshua L. Segal, A Field Guide to Visiting a Jewish Cemetery (Nashua, New Hampshire: Jewish Cemetery Publishing, 2005), p. 58.
I saw that sad little marker and noted that it was the same as the name of the person who started the fad of changing from Maltzmann to Myers, and also thought he might have fallen victim to the influenza pandemic of that time.
ReplyDeleteI have not yet acquired Meyer's death certificate. I will probably do so on the next week or so. I think his death was a little early for the Flu epidemic.
ReplyDelete