Tombstone Tuesday: Sam Braverman, Montefiore Cemetery, Queens, New York

Sam Braverman was, as far as is known, the eldest son of Isidore Braverman. He was an immigrant and came to the United States in 1906.[1] His father Isidore and his uncle Jankel (who met Sam at the dock when Sam arrived in New York) lived together at 306 Cherry Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Here lies

Shlomo

son of Yitzchak Aisik ha-Levi

Died 29 Shevat 5695

May his soul be bound in the bonds of the living

BELOVED SON

AND BROTHER

SAM

BRAVERMAN

DIED FEB. 16, 1931

AGE 32 Y'RS

SON

Sam's name on his passenger manifest was Solomon. He identified himself as a tailor. Except for one record when he worked in a stand selling stationery (1915 New York State census), he worked as an operator in a shirt factory.

While Sam's death record indicates that his mother was the same woman (Ida) who fathered Isidore's other, much younger children, it is likely that Sam was from an earlier marriage.[2] In the 1910 census, Ida reported that the "number of years of present marriage" was 13. Sam was 23 years old at the time and the next oldest child in the family was Hyman, who was 12.

Sam never married and died young. How young is a question. This gravestone indicates he was 32 (born about 1899). His death certificate shows he was 47 (born about 1883). Other records place his birth in the mid 1880s.[3]
 

I have not located Sam's World War I Draft Registration or his location during the 1925 New York State census. From the other records located, the information on the gravestone inscription is clearly an outlier.

Sam had been in Greenpoint Hospital in Brooklyn since 19 January 1931, suffering from hypertension. He was buried on 17 February 1931 in the First Lubiner Progressive Benevolent Association plot in Montefiore Cemetery, Queens, NY, block 5, gate 567W, line 1R, grave 2.


Notes:

1. Manifest, S.S. St. Louis, 28 April 1906, stamped list 8, line 18, Salamon Braverman, age 18; images, "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 March 2011).
2. Kings County, death certificate no. 4702 (1931), Sam Braverman, 16 February 1931; Municipal Archives, New York City.
3. 1910 U.S. census, New York County, New York, population schedule, Manhattan, enumeration district 98, sheet 1B, dwelling 1, family 9, Sam Braverman; images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 10 December 2010); NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 1008.
   1915 New York State census, New York Co., NY, enumeration of inhabitants, Manhattan, assembly district 9, election district 9, page 72, Samuel Braverman; images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 4 January 2015); New York State Archives, Albany.
   1920 U.S. census, New York Co., NY, pop. sched., Manhattan, E.D. 481, sheet 12A, dwell. 18, fam. 267, Samuel Braverman; images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 10 December 2010); NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 1195.
   1930 U.S. census, Kings Co., NY, pop. sched., Brooklyn, E.D. 14-1211, sheet 5B, dwell. 116, fam. 117, Sam Braverman; images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 November 2010); NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1492.