Tombstone Tuesday: Joseph and Hannah Fell, Montefiore Cemetery, Queens, New York

Joseph and Hannah Fell are a couple of my mystery people. Most of their records indicate they and their sons resided in Odessa before emigrating. I have not been able to definitely link them to the Jewish community of Labun - the one honored by the First Lubiner Progressive Benevolent Association.
 

Here lies

5705   5627

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BELOVED HUSBAND

AND DEAR FATHER

JOSEPH FELL

1867-1945

The inscription on this stone threw me off a bit. I was not expecting the Hebrew calendar years of birth and death to be near the top of the inscription.* The year 5627 is equivalent to 1867 and 5705 is the first part of 1945. Joseph died on 11 May 1945.[1]

Josef (Joseph) and Chane (Anna/Hannah) Fell and their two sons, Schmiel (Samuel) and Aron (Aaron/Harry), immigrated to New York City on the S.S. Noordam on 11 April 1906.[2] Josef was identified as a tailor, although he became a furrier in New York City. In a 1917 New York City directory, his store was located at 73 E. Broadway in Manhattan.

Here lies

A trustworthy and beloved woman

Chane Sarah daughter of Eliezer Tzvi

Died 18 Kislev 5685

May her soul be bound in the bonds of the living

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IN MEMORY OF

MY BELOVED WIFE

AND OUR DEAR

MOTHER

HANNAH S. FELL

BORN OCT. 23, 1871

DIED DEC. 8, 1922

MOTHER

Samuel's World War I draft registration indicated that while he was born in Odessa, his father was born in Berdichev, a community about 56 miles SE of Labun.[3]

Hannah Sophie Fell's 1922 death certificate indicates that her mother's maiden name was Kargman.[4] Her father was listed as Louis Hirsch. However, Hirsch is unlikely to have been Hannah's maiden name or her father's surname. Her father's second name on Hannah's stone is shown as Tzvi. Tzvi and Hirsch are calques (translations of the same name in Hebrew and Yiddish). Both mean deer or stag. So, Eliezer Tzvi may have also been known as Hirsch in Yiddish. 

Samuel married in 1920 and Aaron in 1921. Their marriage certificates indicated that their mother's maiden name had been Furman.[5] And this is independently corroborated by the enumeration of the family in the 1915 New York State Census. Anna's mother, Rachel Furman was living with the family.[6]

Joseph married his second wife, Adele, in 1925.[7] Based upon information in the 1940 census (where Adele was one of the 2 out of forty people enumerated who were asked additional questions), Adele had had 6 children of her own.[8]

There are two possible relations through which Joseph and Hannah may have been associated with the First Lubiner Progressive Benevolent Association (FLPBA) landsmanshaft. Kargman is a surname that is represented by other members of the FLPBA who were born and raised in Labun/Lubin. Several of them are buried in FLPBA landsmanshaft burial plots: Joseph and Anna Kargman, Joseph and Fannie Kargman Norflus, Meyer and Goldie Kargman. I have not yet acquired a death certificate or burial information for Rachel Furman (Hannah's mother). If I do, I am hoping those records may provide information on Kargman relations.

The second possibility is that Joseph Fell is related to Yetta Fell Myers. Yetta was the wife of my great grandmother's brother, Myer Myers. Both Yetta and Myer Myers are buried in the Montefiore FLPBA plots. Unfortunately, neither Yetta's nor Joseph's death certificates or gravestones provide their father's names. So, I have not been able to match them as possible siblings or cousins.

Both Joseph and Hannah are buried in Montefiore Cemetery, Queens, NY, in block 89, gate 156N. Joswph is in line 7R, grave 1 and Hannah is in line 3L, grave 3.

Notes:
* Thank you to the following Tracing the Tribe, FaceBook, participants for setting me straight: Leah Cohen, Russell Gold and Robin Meltzer.
1. New York County, New York, death certificate no. 4931 (1945), Joseph Fell, 11 May 1945; Municipal Archives, New York City.
2. Manifest, S.S. Noordam, 11 April 1906, list 30 [stamped], lines 20-23, Josef, Chane, Schmiel and Aron Fell; images, "New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 13 December 2010).
3. "U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 August 2013), card for Samuel Robert Fell, no. 53, New York Draft Board no. 13.
4. Bronx County, New York, death certificate no. 7209 (1922), Hannah Sophie Fell, 8 December 1922; Municipal Archives, New York City.
5. New York County, New York, marriage certificate no. 3445 (1920), Samuel Robert Fell and Lillian Spierman; New York City Municipal Archives, New York City;  Bronx County, New York, marriage certificate no. 5245 (1921), Aaron Fell and Clara Schatz, 24 November 1922.
6. 1915 New York State census, New York County, New York, enumeration of inhabitants, Manhattan, assembly district 8, election district 3, p. 62, entries 48-50 and p. 63, entries 1-2, Joseph, Hannah, Sam and Aaron Fell and Rachel Furman; images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 August 2013); citing New York State Archives, Albany.
7. Bronx County, New York, marriage certificate no. 1925 (1926), Joseph Fell and Adele Bauk, 22 December 1925; Municipal Archives, New York City.
8. 1940 U.S. Census, New York County, New York, population schedule, Manhattan, enumeration district 31-2081, p. 7A, household 115, Joseph and Adele Fell; images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 August 2013); citing NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 2675.