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.