Great Grandpa Abraham Shlomo Grave
One of my genealogy goals is to find the graves of all my great grandparents who are buried in the United States. Five are buried in the USA with four for sure in the New York, New Jersey metro area. Three of my great grandparents died in Europe, two during the Shoah, so finding their burial sites is impossible.
Since I live in the middle of the country it is difficult to search cemeteries on the east coast. But luckily for me I have willing helpers! I truly appreciate my family who understand my quest.
Last year during Covid, one of my first cousins went to Washington Cemetery in New York and took photos of my Goldman great grandparents. (See blog below.). In my mind he was the ideal person to search for the graves, since is named for our great grandfather, with the Hebrew name, Baruch Lev. It was perfectly apropos that he went to find the graves.
Now it was my brother’s turn. My brother’s Hebrew name is Avraham Sholmo for my Szenk/Shenk/Schenk great grandfather. Our great grandfather was born with the name Shlomo/Solomon. But when he was a child he became very ill. His parents gave him a second name, Avraham, to keep the Angel of Death from finding him.
Usually, the names given to fool the Angel of Death were names like Chaim and Chaya, which mean life. The idea was to confuse the Angel of Death because he would not be able to find a child with a different name. This superstition said changing the child’s name would save him/her.
In any case my great grandfather’s Hebrew name was changed, but his legal name remained Solomon, or Szlama, as he was known in Poland. His birthdate was September 1874 and he died in 1942. My great grandfather came to the USA in 1936 along with my great aunt. It was the work of my grandparents to get as many people out of Europe that they could. Unfortunately, it was only these two that they were able to actually bring over.
At first my great grandfather lived with my grandparents. But, although they had a kosher bakery and kept kosher, my grandmother did not cover her hair, and they did not follow the rules as they did in Europe. So my great grandfather moved into a Hebrew Home for the Aged
We did have the name of the cemetery where he was supposedly buried. I think my mother’s first cousin told us. My brother took over the job of finding the grave. He contacted the King Solomon Memorial Park in Passaic asking about our grandfather. (I do find it interesting and coincidental that Solomon was buried in the King Solomon Cemetery.) The response was positive, our great grandfather was buried in the Tuber Section through a gate that says Welloner Benevolent Assn.
The grave had the correct date of death. There is no date for his birth, probably because no one knew it. We thought he was born in 1870, but his Visa paperwork said 1874. However, the age on the stone matches what his age would have been when he died, 68 years old.
The staff at the cemetery even emailed my brother a map to the grave, which was exactly where my brother was told to look. Not only that, the cemetery and the gravesite were in excellent condition. So many old cemeteries are not kept up. Thank you to the King Solomon Memorial Park for keeping these graves in excellent shape.
My brother took photos of the entrance to the cemetery, the gate to the section and the grave itself. He also looked for other family members, but did not find them. Then he left three stones on the grave. This is the way to show that we remember and honor his memory.
https://yivo.org/Folklore-of-Ashkenaz?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0NL84bX59wIVfW1vBB1sGgIMEAMYASAAEgKhzfD_BwE
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