I need help finding more information about my father’s maternal grandfather, Samuel Sinberg (possibly Zinberg originally). Most of all, we would like to know where he is buried, where he was born, when he immigrated to the United States, and the names of his siblings. He died when my grandmother was four years old, and the family moved from Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia, when her mother remarried.

Here is what we know. My grandmother’s synagogue record shows a yahrzeit (memorial) date of July 6, 1906, born approximately 1871, a kohan. He was married to Lena Shylen. I have a manifest dated Dec. 11, 1901, for a ship going into Philadelphia that shows Lea Zinberg going to her husband S. Zinberg on 1224 Mc(something)y St. The names and ages of the two children closely match information I already have. The birth certificate of their third child in Baltimore on October 9, 1902, shows an address of 1235 McElderry Street.

I have searched Ancestry.com for Samuel Sinberg and, many years ago, ordered a search for a death certificate for him from the City of Baltimore, but have not received or found anything. Who knows where he may have died or been buried. I thought it would be useful to look through the Baltimore City directory from 1900 to 1913 for Sinbergs (Zinbergs) and Shlyens, but I have not been able to get to a Baltimore library to do this research.

David A. Leon

Virginia Beach, Virginia

Have you visited the offices of the various Jewish cemeteries in Baltimore? If an office has computerized burial records, you might want to do a database search for everyone buried on or soon after July 6, 1906. Perhaps the name was misspelled, and the misspelling will show up in the burial records for this time period. Similarly, I did a global search on Ancestry.com and JewishGen’s JOWBR and came up empty. (RD)

With limited resources to search, it has not been possible to find specific answers for you. Your thought to search Baltimore city directories makes sense as Samuel Sinberg (Zinberg) may be found there. Other searches that make sense given the information you have at this time are: citizenship records in Baltimore; Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore passenger manifest indexes; and manifests themselves for any name that is similar, especially for records pre-December 1901 when his wife Lena arrived and after June 1900 when Max was conceived. Search all Baltimore Jewish cemeteries for a burial around July 6, 1906. If cemetery records are not available, search death records in Baltimore and surrounding towns for the days before and including July 6, 1906. Determine if any Baltimore newspapers have been scanned to do an “every name” search in case he was mentioned in the English press. Is it possible that he was reburied in Norfolk after the family moved there? What was his occupation? Did he travel, such as a peddler, which could mean he died outside of Baltimore?

The manifest for Lena Zinberg in 1901 seems to say something about Samuel Zinberg’s citizenship status but it is difficult to read. If you can decipher it better by comparing handwriting on other pages it might be worthwhile to concentrate on arrivals before 1898. If Lena and her two children arrived in 1901 as citizens, it makes sense that her husband became a citizen before she arrived. In order for that to have happened, he would have had to arrive in America before 1895. He may have arrived in America in 1895 and immediately applied for citizenship, and he then may have returned home in time to impregnate Lena with Esther and Max. He may have returned home twice. Another search to undertake is the town of Ordnitzi in the Ellis Island records for others from this town. (EP)