Hannah Schwartz -

Hannah Schwartz was my great grandmother on my mom's dad's side of the family.  I'm going to do my best to keep track of who was who and related how....otherwise it's all too confusing!

I don't know much about Hannah.  I haven't heard many stories, or seen many pictures.  My mother remembers visiting her and that she had a toilet outside the house, or maybe an outhouse.  That would have been in the mid 20's.

Hannah was born in Hungary in about 1855 and died January 16th, 1926.  72 years old, not bad for those times.

I believe that the Schwartz family emigrated here around 1891-1894.  I had some difficulty with finding the early census as the 1900 census shows the Head of the Household as called "Rris" (married to Hannie).  Actually, this makes sense, as Hannah's husband's name was "Moritz" - often referred to as Morris in later census records.

The 1900 census, has the family as Rris - 50 years old  and Hannie - 45 years old, with Nettie, 23;  Rosie, 21; Sam - 18, Bennie (age 13 - my grandfather). Father was a cigar maker, which is consistent with later census records.  There should be a younger son listed, Harry who would have been around 10 years old, but you can tell from the handwriting on the census list that this census taker was either impatient or exhausted, so Harry got missed on this census.

Hannah lists 9 children born, and 5 living.   She could read, write and speak English.  They lived on Columbia Street, which runs between Houston and Delancy street.  You can be sure it was a typical tenement building; go to this site for a tour of what tenement living was like in those days.  A two or three room apartment for at least 7 people.

A public school on the corner of Broome and Columbia Street, I'll have to do some research to see where the younger kids in the family went to school - perhaps here.

A typical lower east side scene.

In the 1910 census, only Ben and Harry were living at home with their parents.

The only food story that I have about Hannah is that my grandfather loved her rolls, and claimed that his wife's rolls were never as good.  My grandmother went to visit her mother in law and asked about the rolls.  Turns out that Hannah bought them at a local bakery.

A rare photo of Hannah's husband Moritz (Morris) Schwartz.  The story is that he didn't allow his photo to be taken due to his religious beliefs.

I wonder what he's looking at thru those binoculars!

Link to Family Tree