Category Archives: Cemetery Sunday

Cemetery Sunday – Beth Yeshurun Post Oak, Houston, Texas

Sometime after obtaining the death certificate of my grandfather’s brother, I went through Houston to visit his grave. The death certificate says “Beth Yeshurun”, where I spent at least an hour walking around looking for him late on a Friday afternoon. When I finally gave up, I had to wait until Sunday because it was a Jewish cemetery and the office was at the synagogue.

At the synagogue, I learned that they have two cemeteries, and the people I was looking for were in the other one. With correct directions, I headed out and found them.

In this cemetery is my great-uncle, Jack “Yasha” Feldstein, his wife Annette nee Rothman, her sister Crusea, and her husband Paul Pinkenson. I think the cemetery office told me there were plots for ten people in the section but they didn’t know who else it was reserved for.

Even with directions and the huge stone with Feldstein carved across it, I still drove past, and you can see my car in the background.

I’m not sure why Jack’s stone lists his father as Shmoel Avraham when his father was Avraham, but it does. Jack died the year after his brother, Sidney.

Annette’s father’s name is also a curiosity: Yitzkhak Aizik. Those names are both the same.

Her sister’s stone shows only Yitzkhak as her father’s name. Crusea’s stone also doesn’t say that her father was a Kohen.

And finally Paul Pinkenson, Crusea’s husband, his father also listed as a Kohen.

Annette and Crusea also had two brothers, Israel “Sooya” Krasnoff and Jay Rothman, but I don’t have any more information about them besides their names.

Cemetery Sunday – Royal Palm, St. Petersburg, Florida

This week’s cemetery is also in Florida. I only visited once in 1999. Royal Palm Cemetery, as I recall, was a very large cemetery for multiple faiths. My maternal grandfather, Abraham “Abie” Rosenthal is my only relative buried there.

Abraham Rosenthal, Gravestone

Besides seeing my shoes reflected on the stone, you can see a row of stones across the top. Jewish tradition in America is to leave stones instead of flowers, to differentiate ourselves from other religions. In Israel, leaving flowers is normal.

Cemetery Sunday – Mount Sinai, Miami, Florida

I’ve been watching as many people on Twitter are following the daily blogging themes and making those posts to their own blogs. Not one to do what everyone else is doing (well, except actually start a blog), I’m going to try a theme, but I’m straying from the pack. I first considered Tombstone Tuesday, but I would feel like it goes by too slow, although doing one stone at a time would certainly fill a lot of blog entries.

So I’ve decided to take a crack at Cemetery Sunday. Looking at gravestones depresses my relatives, but I like them and so do other genealogists, so I’m going to share them on this blog.

Today’s cemetery is Mount Sinai located in Miami, Florida. I have four relatives buried there: my paternal grandparents Sidney and Mary Feldstein, and her brother Alex Miller and his wife Blanche. Mary remarried a few times after Sidney’s death, so her stone bears her final surname, Goldfarb.

I’ve included two images of Sidney’s stone just for fun. The first was taken in 1999 before I was using a digital camera. The second was in 2005.

blog - a - Sidney Feldstein

Sidney Feldstein, Gravestone

Sidney has two gravestones. The one below was erected by Mary. But my parents wanted to do better by him and put up the taller one just behind it. Notice the year of birth on the two stones? He was actually born in 1904.

Sidney Feldstein, Gravestone

Mary Goldfarb, Gravestone

Sadly, this family didn’t plan ahead very well. When Alex died, they purchased two plots together so Mary could be buried next to him. Sidney and Mary are both several rows in from the road, on opposite sides of the road.

Alex Miller, Gravestone

My parents question whether Alex served during World War II, which Mary put on his stone. I haven’t researched it yet.

Blanche Miller, Gravestone

Blanche is even farther away from Alex and Mary than Sidney is. They all used to be inline with a tree, as my mother told me to use the tree to find them, but it wasn’t there when I went to visit them. The last time I was in that cemetery before going for genealogy research was in 1990 at Mary’s funeral. I don’t recall going for the unveiling.

My last visit to the cemetery, I went looking for a couple of Gottesmans whom my mother believes are probably our cousins. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find them in the cemetery, even with directions from the office. Someday I’ll have to follow that lead again.