Finding Little Lena - how to read a census

Little Lena Snyder was only 7 years old when she arrived in Cotopaxi.  Until now, I had not located her in any records after the resolution of the Colony.  I found her this week!  In order to make this rather difficult research a little easier, I'm going to start with the results, then share how I got there.

The Snyder family:

Abraham Snyder, born 1827.  
Married to Alta Greenspan.  She was also known as Zeesy or Zisel.  Born 1824, died 1910.

their children were:

Sarah 1857 - 1890.  Sarah came to America as a widow and I believe her first husband's surname was Friedman.  Then she married Morris Menkowsky at Cotopaxi.  And then she died before 1890 and is buried in Denver.

Sarah had a daughter, Lena Friedman, by her first marriage.  Lena was age 7 at Cotopaxi.  She married JJ Barnett and their son, Kallman S. Barnett married Helen Gumbiner.  At some point, Lena was "adopted" by Abraham and Alta (her grandparents) and was living with them as their adopted daughter.

Fanny 1865 - 1953 married to Max Shuteran.  They had Sarah and Solomon (Sam).  They quickly divorced and Fanny remarried Sam Friedman who adopted Sarah and Solomon.  They had 3 more children.  Fanny was also known as Hannah.

Reina.  She was married to Samuel Newman before coming to America.  The surname was also spelled Nieman and Namen.  

Samuel 1867 - 1929.  He married Hattie Frieden about 1895.   Their children were Libbie, Reina, Arthur, Sara Reeve and Cecilia. 

When I started, I did not know this!  So now, let's go back to the beginning and I'll share my research hints on finding Leah.

Flora Satt wrote in her thesis in a footnote 

Samuel Schneider, 48, with his wife Alta. 
Abrahan Newman, son-in-law of Schneider, with his wife Nechama.   
Berel Morris, son-in-law of Schneider, with his wife Sarah and daughter Helen. 

Elizabeth Roberts wrote this about the family (which came from the 1925 Spivak Interview):

Schneider, a tailor, his wife, Alta, and his two daughters,Nechama, age 20, and Sarah, age 30. The latter was a widow and had a daughter, Helen, who is the wife of K. S. Barnett, residing in Denver.Newman, son-in-law to Schneider, and his wife.A brother-in-law of Newman and his wife. Morris, a son-in-law to Schneider. 

Neither Satt or Roberts had access to the ships manifest which I was able to locate.  The Snyders arrived on the Assryian Monarch on Apr 10, 1882.

Abraham Snyders age 50
Zisel Snyders, age 50
Solomon Snyders, age 14
Sarah Snyders, age 25
Leah Snyders, age 7
Hannah Snyders, age 17
Solomon Nyman, age 24
Reina Nyman, age 20

a few passengers later I found: 

Moses Mankonsky, age 28

Do you see the differences in the lists?  Sarah's daughter is Lena, not Helen.  But there is a problem with all of this - Sarah was a widow, so her surname probably wasn't "Snyder".

Next, I found a marriage certificate  showing Sarah Snyder married Moses Menkowsky at Cotopaxi.  That totally confused me.  But it clarified that Abraham Snyders daughter, Reina (Nechema) was married to Solomon Nyman....which later became Newman and then Namen.

I found Sarah married to Bendal Morris, living in Chicago with their children

A couple of notes on this.  There is no daughter "Helen" and Lena is not listed.  Yet we know she is Sarah's daughter.

I contacted the descendants of this family (above image) and they can prove to me that this Sarah was not Sarah Snyder, but rather Sarah Epstein.  So I removed this family from my Snyder tree.

I knew that Abraham and Alta lived in Omaha NE.  I had found them in the 1900 census with no children.  So I hunted for them in the 1885 state census.  I found this:

I think you can read this just fine.  F. Lukeman - could that be Fanny Shuteran.  Look at the handwriting...it could well be Luterman.

When I teach genealogy, I explain to my students that you have to think how it might have been in 1882.  Probably a white, Western European, English speaking gentleman came to the door to take a census.  He would arrive at the house of a Jewish immigrant who came here from Russia, and perhaps was born in Germany.  The immigrant spoke German and Yiddish....and probably broken or heavily accented English.  I can easily see that Lukeman could easily have been Shuteran.  So I would transcribe this list as:

Abram Sneyder, age 54

Zesel Sneyder, age 54

Fanny Shuteran, age 22, daughter

Sarah Shuteran, age 1/3, granddaughter

Solomon Shuteran, age 2, grandson

Lena Friedman, age 11, adopted

all living in the same household.

Lena’s age lines up that she is the 7 year old daughter  Sarah Snyder (see ship's manifest above.)  

Where Flora has said “Helen” - I’m certain this is incorrect.  

Next, I decided to see who "Helen" married to K. S. Barnett was.  I found their marriage certificate and an announcement in the newspaper.  She was Helen Ruth Gumbiner.  Which left me even more puzzled.  How was this Helen related to Sarah?

My next step was to find the parents of K. S. Barnett.  Not too difficult with Jewish burial records, census records, etc.  His parents were J. J. Barnett and Lena.

Once I found that, it all fell into place.  Lena Friedman, Sarah's daughter, married J. J. Barnett and their son, K. S. Barnett was married to Helen.  

So now we know that those meeting in 1925 had this wrong.  But I can't blame them.  That meeting was 40+ years after the colony and I certainly can't remember the names and relationships of my neighbors 40 years ago!

I wonder if Sarah’s first husband was related to Sam Friedman.  Richard Friedman wrote a family history book in which he tells us that Sam Friedman was brought over from Russia to marry Fanny as she was single with 2 young children.  It makes sense that he was perhaps a brother or other relative of Sarah's first husband since the family knew him.

Additionally,  Lena Friedman Barnett’s death record says her mother was Snyder and her father was Friedman.

My software puts the person in each time they are married, so here is a view of what the tree looks like - color coded for each generation.  I've only used the first 3 generations so Helen and Kallman Barnett do not show up in this particular view.  So far, I have 121 people in this tree.  I'm sure there are more and I will continue to add them as I find them.

My lesson is to check those mid-decade census records.  A lot of states had them.  Check death records.  SSA records now list parents surnames.  Jewish burial records often give us the father's name.  Think about how the census taker might have spelled the name as he heard it.  Snyders, Snyder, Sneyder, Schneider - I've found their surname spelled like this so far.  

I was reading last night in some of the 1882/83 newspaper articles from Denver and found an article that states by Feb, 1883, Abraham Snyder had gone to Denver to find work as a tailor and took his daughter, Fanny Shuteran with him.  This tends then to corroborate my thoughts that the Snyders went to Denver for a few months before moving to the Council Bluffs/Omaha area.  My theory then is that Sarah and Morris Menkowsky also went to Denver where Sarah must have passed away.

I emailed my research friend, Terry Lasky, to see if he had information on a possible burial and here's what he sent back:

Sarah Menkowsky died before Fairmount Cemetery was formed (which was about 1890) and was buried in the Hebrew Cemetery Association (which was the Capitol Hill Cemetery that was later disbanded).  She was moved to Fairmount with the other Jewish burials when they closed Capitol Hill which was in 1923.  Problem is there was no gravestone for her so there is no record. 

Sarah's daughter, Lena, was adopted by her parents by 1885. So it would stand to reason that Sarah died sometime after early 1883 and before 1885.  Lena moved with her grandparents to Nebraska.  I do not know what happened to Morris Menkowsky.

I am also thinking that many Jewish men were called "Baer" or had that added to their names.  Could Morris Menkowsky have been known as Baer Morris.....and this then became Berel Morris?

Finally, let's take a moment to see what we know about Little Lena.  Her father died.  She and her mother come to America and are sent to Cotopaxi when she is but 7 years old.  Her mom remarries at Cotopaxi.  Her grandfather, Abraham, and Aunt Fanny leave a few months later and move to Denver.  She and her mom, Sarah, and new step-father Morris follow them.  Her mom dies.  Her grandparents adopt her and they all move to Nebraska sometime in 1883 where we find Lena as an adopted child of her grandparents in the 1885 census.  Wow!  What a lot of changes by the time she was 10 years old!  

Lena married in 1888 and had a very stable life after that.  She had 3 sons and a daughter and stayed married until her death in 1946.  I can only imagine the hardships of the first 10 years of her life, but I'd like to think that it ended up being a good life after that.  It was definitely worth finding Little Lena!  We can now add her descendants as members of the Cotopaxi Colony!

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