Tombstone Tuesday: Edwin Morris

Used by permission: DistantCousin.com. Edwin Morris gravestone, digital image, Distant Cousin.com (http://www.distantcousin.com : accessed 14 February 2008), Red Bank Hebrew Cemetery (Congregation Bnai Israel), Tinton Falls, Monmouth County, NJ.

Here lies

Eliyahu son of Baruch Mordechai

14 Tishri 5737

HUSBAND•FATHER•GRANDFATHER

EDWIN MORRIS

JULY 2, 1928 - SEPT. 27, 1996 

Dr. Edwin Morris, my father's first cousin, was born in New York City to Max and Irene RatnerMorris. He was their third child to live to adulthood.

Eddie attended Red Bank High School and then Penn State. He received his medical degree at Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia in 1952.[1] [2] 

In the U.S. Army, Eddie trained at the Medical Field Services school at Fort Sam Houston, San Antoni0, Texas. He then was stationed in New York City as the Chief Medical Officer of the Armed Forces Examination station - the main recruiting station in New York City.

Upon completion of his Army service in 1955, he moved back to Red Bank, New Jersey with his wife Elaine Meersand and opened his general medical practice office.

Eddie and Elaine had two children: Tina and Amy.  

Notes: 
1. In 2002, the school was merged into Drexel University and is now the Drexel University College of Medicine.
2. "Dr. Edwin Morris Receives Degree," Red Bank Register (New Jersey), Vol. LXXIV, no. 51, Thursday, 19 June 1952, page 1; digital image, Red Bank Register Newspaper Archives (http://rbr.mtpl.org/rbr/ : accessed 1 December 2013).
3. "Dr. Edwin Morris Resumes Practice," Red Bank Register (New Jersey), Vol. LXXVIII, no. 12, Thursday, 15 September 1955, page 1; digital image, Red Bank Register Newspaper Archives (http://rbr.mtpl.org/rbr/ : accessed 1 December 2013).

Consider Pioneer Day When Planning for the IAJGS Conference Travel

My initial thought for my Salt Lake City International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies Conference travel planning was to arrive several days early and make the most of my research time at the Family History Library. If you were planning something similar, beware that the FHL will be closed Thursday, 24 July 2014 in honor of Pioneer Day - a Utah State holiday. The Library is also always closed on Sundays.

The IAJGS Conference team took Pioneer Day into account in their planning and decided to avoid that date during the Conference. I guess that's a measured decision, but, frankly, Thursdays at the Conference are usually, for me, jam-packed with sessions, meetings and, then, the Thursday evening banquet. So, I would not have had any problem with the FHL being closed that day.

If you were planning an early arrival, Thursday, 24 July, might be a great day to explore the beautiful mountainous outdoors in the Salt Lake City area or take in a parade. Either that, or adjust your travel schedule accordingly.

Call for papers - IAJGS 2014 Conference, Salt lake City, Utah

The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies website now features a Call for Papers for the 27 July - 1 August 2014 Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Proposals are due by midnight 15 January 2014.  Those whose submissions are accepted will be notified by 15 March 2014.

The site also provides information about the conference hotel. One may now reserve a hotel room. Conference registration will open toward the end of December 2013.

Waxing Philosophical: Final Elizabeth Shown Mills NY Times Genealogy Advice

The past Wednesday, the New York Times Booming Section ran the fourth and final installment of genealogy questions answered by genealogy methodology maven Elizabeth Shown Mills.

In part 4, Mills covered questions regarding:

• Research Stalemates on the American Frontier

• Identifying an Immigrant’s Place of Origin

• Why Genealogy?

The answers to the first two include the FAN principle and exhaustive searches - themes Mills explores successfully throughout her research and teaching career.

I was particularly drawn to the second question because this is a topic I have explored for several years - first, in an article published in Avotaynu in 2011, and more recently in my August 2013 International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies presentation in Boston.[1] [2]  

My specific interest is in determining which location from among villages of similar-sounding names is the correct one. My research methodology (as reported in the Avotaynu article) included the FAN principle on steroids - analysis of all immigrant families in two landsmanshaft (community association) burial plots in a New York City cemetery. I have not yet explored this subject in this blog, but should - and will.

Mills struck a philosophical note in response to the last theme: why genealogy? Her words are absolutely correct for me and my research: "Acknowledging our personal pasts, reconstructing the lives of our ancestors and restoring them to human memory can validate the struggles they invested in creating the world we now enjoy." 

For me, the Holocaust, long an abstraction, has become much more personal since I began my research. One of my greatest thrills was sending a large family tree to a Holocaust survivor relative whom I have not yet met. The fact that our family has grown, thrived, and continued to contribute to our society was an excellent and satisfying response to those who pictured a world free of Jewish people. 

Notes:
1. Garber, Emily H. "Using Landsmanshaft Burial Plots to Discover and Confirm the Location of a Family Shtetl," Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish  Genealogy, Volume XXVII, Number 1, Spring 2011: 3-9.
2. Garber, Emily H. ""Beyond the Manifest: Methods for Confirming One's Ancestral Origins," Presentation 6 August 2013, International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies Conference, Boston, Massachusetts.

Tombstone Tuesday: Bernice Morris

Bernice Morris gravestone, digital image, Distant Cousin.com (http://www.distantcousin.com : accessed 14 February 2008), Red Bank Hebrew Cemetery (Congregation Bnai Israel),  Tinton Falls, Monmouth County, NJ.

Here lies

Batsheva daughter of Baruch Mordechai

17 Elul 5756

WIFE • MOTHER • GRANDMOTHER

BERNICE MORRIS

JUNE 27, 1922 - SEPT. 1, 1996 

Bernice, Max and Irene Morris' first child, born 27 June 1922 in New York City. [1] The family moved to Monmouth County, New Jersey (initially Red Bank and, later, Rumson) in about early 1930. Bernice attended Red Bank High School (class of 1940). [2]

Bernice married Mel Stern and had two children: Steve and Ilene (Lana). She and Mel divorced about 1950. Stern died 24 August 1959.

On 25 December 1960, Bernice married Daniel Gallop, with whom she had Judy. Dan adopted Bernice's first two children. [3]

Bernice and Dan later divorced and Bernice returned to her maiden name.

I found this photograph of Bernice's tombstone (as well as those of her siblings and parents) in the Red Bank Hebrew Cemetery on DistantCousin.com. [4] 

Notes:
1. 1925 New York States Census, New York County, New York, population schedule,  Enumeration District 18, Assembly District 7, sheet 21, Max and Irene Morris; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 10 January 2013), New York State Archives: Albany, New York.
1930 U.S. Census, Monmouth County, New Jersey, population schedule, Red Bank, Enumeration District 13-104, sheet 1A, family 10, Max Morris, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 March 2008), citing Family History Library microfilm 2,341,107.
2. The Log, Red Bank High School Year Book, Red Bank, Monmouth County, New Jersey, Bernice Shirley Morris, page 22, 1940, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 25 November 2013).
 3. I have no records in support of this information. The informants are her children. Recently, I read a post on Jersey Roots Genealogy blog that explains the intricacies of requesting genealogical copies of vital records. I may have to consider that route for some members of the Morris family.
4. I'd actually located this photo (and several other Morris family tombstones) early on in my genealogical research, failed to cite my source (mea culpa!), and could not relocate them again. I'm not sure what I had queried on originally, but searching on their names did not work during my recent quest. Once my cousin told me the New Jersey cemetery in which the Morrises were interred, I was able to find them on DistantCousin.com.