Treasure Chest Thursday: Advertisement, Jack Lerner, 1949 FLPBA anniversary publication

I have to admit to being a softie for pathos, real or imagined. Records are, let's face it, pretty dry. It's our connecting dots and reading between lines that often evinces emotional reactions.

This advertisement in the First Lubiner Progressive Benevolent Association 1949 anniversary publication features Jack Lerner. Jack, born in 1905, immigrated with his mother and sister Sylvia to the United States in about 1921.[1] His father, Froim (Frank), had immigrated to the United States in 1913.[2] 

Lengthy gaps in immigration of family members during this time period were often due to disruptions caused by World War I and the Russian Revolution. Families left behind in Europe during war and occupation suffered, as those who'd made it to safety across the Atlantic worried. 

Once together, the family reacquainted and settled in Brooklyn. Like so many from Labun, Jack became a glazier. Lerner Glass was located at 573 Dumont Avenue, Brooklyn.[3]

In 1927, Jack married Edna Marcus (nee Etka Marczyk), an immigrant from Lomza. They had Irving (1928-?) and Raymond (1931-2009).[4]

I have a disheartening mystery with Jack and his family. He and Edna are enumerated together with Irving in the 1930 census.[5] But in the 1940 enumeration, Jack is shown with his widowed father, Frank, living with Jack's sister, Esther, and her husband Dave Lerman (a glazier), and children Louis and Evelyn.[6] Jack's wife Edna and their children were not living in that household. 

I have, I believe, located Irving and Raymond in Pride of Judea at 993 Dumont Avenue in Brooklyn.[7] While there is little identifying information on the census sheet, the names and ages of the boys seem correct. Pride of Judea Children's Home (an orphanage) was residence for 184 boys and girls when the census was taken in April 1940.

It is likely that the children were placed in Pride of Judea during a difficult time for the family. I have been unable to locate Edna Lerner in the 1940 census. 

Edna and Jack are buried side by side in the First Lubiner Progressive Benevolent Association plot in Beth Moses Cemetery, Pinelawn, NY. Raymond is interred near them, as well.

If it were my family, I'd contact family members to hear more about the situation that resulted in this apparent temporary family break-up. However, this is not my family - but one that emigrated, like mine, from the community of Labun/Lubin in the Russian Empire. One can only hope that they lived together again through better times.

Notes:
1. 1930 U.S. Census, Kings County, New York, population schedule, Brooklyn, enumeration district 24-1222, sheet 10A, dwelling 17, family 231, Jack and Edna Learner family; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 October 2015); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1493.
2. "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 18 December 2010), manifest, S.S. California, Liverpool to New York, arriving 12 March 1913, list 9 (handwritten), line 16, Froim Lerner; citing NARA microfilm publication T715, roll 2027.
3. "Brooklyn Telephone Directory, Winter 1939-40" (Brooklyn: New York Telephone Company, 1940), p. 376; "Direct Me NYC 1940," New York Public Library (http://www.directme.nypl.org/directory/Brooklyn : accessed 22 October 2015).
4. U.S. District Court, Eastern District, Kings County, New York, petition for naturalization 208428 (9 October 1935), Edna Lerner; digital image, "Selected U.S. Naturalization Records - Original Documents, 1790-1974," Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 October 2015); NARA microfilm series M1879, roll 791.
5. 1930 U.S. Census, Kings Co., NY, pop. sch., Brooklyn, ED 24-1222, sheet 10A, dwell. 17, fa., 231, Jack and Edna Learner family.
6. 1940 U.S. Census, Kings County, New York, population schedule, Brooklyn, enumeration district 24-2722, sheet 61B, household 270, Frank and Jack Lerner; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 October 2015); citing NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 2618.
7. 1940 U.S. Census, Kings County, New York, population schedule, Brooklyn, enumeration district 24-2734, sheets 82A and B, institution Pride of Judea, Raymond and Irving Lerner; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 October 2015); citing NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 2618.