Wolf Jacobowitz Performs a Marriage Ceremony

Hi Dave,

I found your blog while searching for information on "Wolf Jacobowitz". I recently obtained a copy of my wife's great-grandparents marriage certificate from the NYC archives. They were married on Feb 19, 1906. The "person performing the ceremony" signed as "Wolf Jakubovitz Rabi of cong. Chebra Tachirim" (or something like that). The ceremony was performed at 359 E. 3rd St, and Wolf gives the same address as his residence. One of the witnesses was "B. Jacobowitz" - perhaps Wolf's brother, Bernath?

I could not find out anything about "Wolf Jakubovitz", which I also thought might have been "Wolf Takubovitz", but when I decided to try "Wolf Jocobowitz", picking up the spelling of the witness's name, I found your blog. Wolf's signature on this marriage certificate renders "Jakubovitz" nearly identical to how it is written in Elias' name on the address of the "postcard from Wolf", except the bottom loop on the J is shortened, which is why I thought it might be a T.  I see that the return address on the postcard is a stamp with "W. Jacobowitz", spelled the way you spell it now.

I doubt that I am reading the name of the congregation "Chebra Tachirim" correctly. Do you know what this should be?

The groom is Peter Drucker, living in Trenton, NJ and the bride is Gisela Klein. Both were from Hungary. I see that Wolf was from Szobranc, Slovakia, which before WWI was in the Hungary part of Austria-Hungary. Peter was from near Miskolc, in north-central Hungary, not particularly close to Szobranc. Gisela was from Budapest we think, but we are not sure. So they do have a Hungarian connection in common.

The other witness was Abraham Klein (perhaps related to the bride). Gisela's address on the certificate is 55 W. 111th St, which is only a couple of blocks from Wolf's address of 112 E. 111th St on the postcard in 1912.

Let me know if you want me to send a scan of the certificate, for the signature, if nothing else.

Thanks,

Bruce Blakely

Newton, MA

Detail

David,

The Drucker-Klein certificate is attached.

This is very interesting. Your grandparents were married on Feb 18, 1906, the day before my wife's great-grandparents were married on Feb 19, 1906. Your grandparents were married at 297 E. 3rd, and the Drucker-Klein marriage was at 359 E. 3rd.

I can't make out the signature on your certificate, and the ketubah is all Hebrew, so I can't really compare that to anything. Perhaps there is or was a law that Wolf couldn't sign the certificate for his own daughter's wedding even if he did officiate.

I don't know if the congregation name will lead to any other information. I assume the first word "Chebra" is a variant of "Chevra", which just means "fellowship". I can't decided what the first letter of the second word is, but I'm guessing "Tachirim" - I don't know enough Hebrew to make a better guess.

The Klein connection is interesting. Abraham Klein, in addition to being a witness at this marriage, is a boarder with Peter & Gisela in the 1910 census. This census shows that Abraham was born in New York about 1885 (I think I found his WWI draft card that gives his birthdate as July 19, 1884). You can find Abraham Klein in my ancestry.com tree, although he is not "attached" to anyone in the tree yet. There is more than one Abraham Klein in New York City in the early 1900s, but I've found a few records that I think belong to him.

It's possible that Bernath was a convenient witness for the wedding (and not related to our Kleins) and was "in town" because of your grandparents wedding the day before.