Tombstone Tuesday: Reuben and Ray Dansker Minkowitz, Montefiore Cemetery, Queens, NY

Rachel daughter of Tsvi

RAY

MINKOWITZ

BELOVED WIFE

MOTHER

GRANDMOTHER

APR. 14, 1898

JAN. 11, 1952

FOREVER LOVED

Last Tuesday, I posted about Harry and Ethel Dansker. Today we note the burial of one of their daughters, Ray, and her husband, Reuben Minkowitz. Like Harry and Ethel, they are also interred in one of the First Lubiner Progressive Benevolent Association plots at Montefiore Cemetery, Queens, NY.

Ray or Rachel was born in Labun, Volhynia Gubernia, Russian Empire.[1] The birth date listed on her tombstone (14 April 1898) does not match that shown on her naturalization record (10 March 1897).[2] On the manifest for her arrival in the United States with her mother and siblings in June 1905, she is listed as eight years old.[3] That would calculate to birth in 1897.

Harry and Ray married on 6 June 1922.[4] She reported being 22 (for a birth year of 1900).

Here lies

Reuven son of Eileya

Died 18 Tammuz 5730

May his soul be bound in the bonds of the living

REUBEN

MINKOWITZ

DIED JULY 22, 1970

AGE 78 YEARS

BELOVED HUSBAND

FATHER-GRANDFATHER 

Reuben was one of at least eight children born to Elias and Yetta Minkowitz. His father was a tea merchant in the USA.[4] Reuben, his mother and several siblings emigrated from Vilna, Russian Empire and landed at Ellis Island on 17 May 1904.[5]

Reuben worked in the garment industry as a cutter. He and Ray had three children who lived to adulthood: Sylvia (born 1924), Arthur (b. 1927) and Harriet (b. ca. 1937). In the 1940 census, Ray was one of the two people on her census page who was asked to respond to supplemental questions.[6] She reported that she had had four children - although only three are listed on the page. I have not located any listing for the death of a child of Reuben and Ray Minkowitz in New York City. 

Ray is buried in block 89, gate 156N, line 4R, grave 4. Reuben is in line 11R, grave 6.

Notes:
1. Kings County, New York, marriage certificate no. 6221 (6 June 1922), Reuben Minkowitz and Rachel E. Donsker, New York City Municipal Archives, New York.
2. Ray Minkowitz, naturalization petition number 184619 (1933), Eastern District of New York; Records of the District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; National Archives - Northeast Region, New York City.
3. "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 18 December 2010), manifest, S.S. Patricia, Hamburg to New York, arriving 16 June 1905, p. 40, line 6, Rachel Danzker; citing National Archives Microfilm Serial T715, Roll 589.
4. 1905 New York State census, New York County, New York, population schedule, Manhattan, assembly district 4, election district 12, sheet 18, Elias and Yetta Minkowitz family; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 December 2010); New York State Archives, Albany.
5. "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 18 December 2010), manifest, S.S. Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, Bremen to New York, arriving 17 May 1904, list B , line 8, Ruben Mankowitz; citing National Archives Microfilm Serial T715, Roll 459.
6. 1940 U.S. Census, Queens County, New York, population schedule, Queens, numeration district 41-635, sheet 6B, household 152, line 68, Ray Minkowitz; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 May 2015); NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 2733.