Disappearance of Trail in Paterson, New Jersey???

[adam.cherson@gmail.com adam.cherson@gmail.com]

X-No-archive: yes
Dear Fellow Researchers,

I am seeking advice and guidance on a curious situation.

I am following the trail of a cousin of mine's family unit. I have found the
family with children described in the 1920 US Census (parents Bernard (aka
Yehuda Ber) and Lena RUBIN with children Harry, Celia (aka Tsipe), and Frances:
http://sharing.ancestry.com/8898527?h=9af489&o_xid=61782&_lid=6178=2&o_sch=Email+-+Programs),
(MODERATOR http://tinyurl.com/zeevrwb ) the 1930 US Federal Census (parents Barnet
and Lillie RUBIN with children Harry and Frances:
http://sharing.ancestry.com/8898540?h=d0870c&o_xid=61782&o_lid=3D6178=2&o_sch=Email+-+Programs)
(MODERATOR http://tinyurl.com/jun624v ) which include such facts as the residential
addresses in Paterson, NJ, the years of immigration (which I know from a family
source to have been from the Vilna Guberniya), US citizenship status, and the
birth of a third child in the US, among other facts. From the census data, the
second child, Celia (Tsipe) RUBIN is presumed to have been married between 1920
and 1930 (I know, via a living descendent, the names of the spouse (Louis
REINES) and children of Tsipe 'Celia' RUBIN). There is also a 1940 Census
entry showing only the parents (Barnet and Lena RUBIN:
http://sharing.ancestry.com/8898650?h=6f953b&o_xid=3D61782&o_lid=6178=2&o_sch=Email+-+Programs).
(MODERATOR http://tinyurl.com/jd2k4xp )
Based on the censuses I can determine that the father immigrated in 1906,
that his wife and two of the children immigrated in 1910, and that as of
1930 none of the persons listed on the censuses were US citizens (the 1940
Census does not include citizenship data). Then the trail runs dry! Despite
thorough investigations using approximate years and name variants, I have
found no immigration documents or manifests, no naturalization, no birth, no
marriage, and no burial records for any of the members of this family unit!??!

I wonder if anyone has ever run into this situation before and what I may
try to do to pick up the trail anew. Thanks for giving this inquiry your
deliberate attention.

Adam Cherson
NY, NY
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[Allan Jordan aejordan@aol.com]

X-No-archive: yes

-----Original Message-----
From: adam.c...@gmail.com
Then the trail runs dry! Despite thorough investigations using approximate years
and name variants, I have found no immigration documents or manifests, no
naturalization, no birth, no marriage, and no burial records for any of the members
of this family unit!??!

There are a variety of things to think about when the trail goes cold, especially
when it is the 1940s and newer/ First off if you did not find them in the 1940
Census for example they might simply have been missed. I have seen a lot of people
who have gone missing in a census or even two. Could they have changed the family
name in that time period? Could they have moved out of state?

Since it is New Jersey you need to explore the Archives in Trenton which has birth,
marriage and death records for the state. Very little of New Jersey's modern
records are on line. The Archives also has indexes of the probate records from
many New Jersey counties.

A very simple first thing to try would be city directories or old telephone books
for the city where they lived, ie Paterson. It might require a trip to the
Paterson library (also the NJ State Library in Trenton next door to the Archives
has a fairly good selection of both directories and newspapers) but you might be
able to figure out some thing on why they vanish. Find them in an earlier
directory and then work forward year by year till they disappear. Keep going for
a few years because some times people reappear in city directories. Also if there
is a reverse directory of addresses that might be worth a look. I have found
rarely things like where people moved in a city directory or even I found one entry
that showed the date of the wife's death in the city directory.

That is usually a good starting point if the modern trail have gone dry (some of
this works for earlier years say 1900 with the trail too but some things are
different on the earlier dead end trails).

Also make sure you search the various on line newspaper files to see if the people
show up in the papers. Try for example Fulton History. It is a long shot and if
it a common name it is mostly hopeless.

Also you can try things like if you find one death check the cemetery to see if
other family members are there too. Sometimes if you have birth dates you can
even use a first name and a birth date to search the Social Security Death Index.

There are more complicated things like checking court records or in some places
tax records or voter's records but I would not recommend those techniques as a
starting point.

Hope that helps

Allan Jordan

[Ann Rabinowitz arabinow@bellsouth.net]

X-No-archive: yes
It appears that perhaps it isn't a disappearance that is in order here with this
family, but not enough types of records have been checked. For instance,
considering it is 1940 which is the disappearance point, it is likely that male
members of the family were drafted or volunteered into the military for World War
II and the father would be listed in the old man's draft listing.

Usually, city directories have the names of individuals and/or their businesses or
residences and should be checked.

I know from my family in Paterson, they might have been considered "disappeared"
as they did the following things:
One son moved to Bridgeport, CT, to live with his aunt during high school and
another son moved to go to college at Rutgers. Later, one son moved to Florida to
work and then was drafted for the Air Force and moved to England and didn't return
until 1946 when he returned to Florida to work. Neither of the sons moved back to
Paterson.

In other Paterson "disappearances", cousins moved to nearby towns such as
Plainfield, Perth Amboy, and other suburbs of the towns which came into general and
popular use after the war in order to open businesses.

The most common "disappearance" was that of the women in the family who married and
moved to other towns or states following their husbands and trends to move to new
suburbs and places for better opportunities.

A final consideration of "disappearance" were those individuals in the family who
died and their spouses remarried thereby leaving no trail. In fact, I remember a
Paterson family whose husband died and the mother took herself and all of her
children to Plainfield to live and after that the children married and moved to
different places. This was also the case of individuals who retired and moved
usually to Florida. However, checking the Social Security records could find them
easily enough if they had signed up for it.

So, I suggest trying a greater array of records and places in New Jersey or even
Florida. For instance, Florida has a 1935 and 1945 Census.

Ann Rabinowitz
arab...@bellsouth.net

[adam.cherson@gmail.com adam.cherson@gmail.com]

X-No-archive: yes
Update on this thread for the benefit of others who may find themselves in
my position.

With the help of this benevolent community, I now have two new records that
at least for now have re-opened the trail: 1) a New Jersey Census from 1915
that is not in the ancestry.com databases, but is in familysearch.org
(lesson: do not assume that one search site contains the same records as
another, especiallly when it comes to State census records); 2) a 1945
Paterson City Directory that listed Barnet RUBIN (as deceased, giving his
DOD), listed his wife Lena RUBIN as a widow on a separate line, and his son
Harry RUBIN with his wife Rosie on yet a third line (lesson: look carefully
at city directories, for the same family may appear as several different
entries, and in rare instances, a DOD may also be given in the city directory).

In addition, it has been made known to me that local public libraries, as is
the case with Paterson, often maintain genealogical archives that cannot be
found online.

I will now be going offline in pursuit of further records such as death
certificates and obituaries.

Many thanks for the expert advice given on this inquiry.

Happy Hunting!
Adam Cherson