The earliest known record of my Wudl/Woodle family in the United States was of B. Wudel who arrived in New York aboard the Washington on July 30, 1845, accompanied by his wife and one-year-old daughter, L. Wudel. New York city directories, the 1880 U. S. census, and his death certificate reveal that Bernard Woodle (aka Wudel) resided in New York City from 1845 until his death in 1891. L. Wudel did not appear in any of these records.
Bernard Woodle had five more children born between 1846 and 1864. Family members are buried in a family plot in Linden Hill Cemetery owned by the Central Synagogue of Manhattan. A visit revealed the graves of the parents and four children. Missing was L. Wudel and the youngest son, Morris Woodle. A search for Morris, born in 1864, produced an excellent candidate who had lived in Cleveland until his death in 1933. Further research successfully traced his family to the present-day descendants who are scattered around the country. None of Morris’s descendants were aware of an L. Wudel or the rest of Morris’ New York family.
About two years ago, I revisited JewishGen’s Family Tree of the Jewish People (FTJP), a practice I subscribe to, to see if additional material has been added. I entered the Wudl/Wudel spelling and came away with no new insights. For some reason, this time I decided to enter the Woodle name as well. I had never looked under the Woodle spelling of our surname as it has English origins, people from Woodleigh. The genealogical mantra springs to mind: leave no stone unturned.
Surprisingly, seven matches appeared, five of which I recognized immediately as the family described above. The other two were for Lottie and Charlotte Woodle. I realized that Lottie and Charlotte were one and the same and, more amazingly, this was L. Wudel, the year-old infant, who had appeared only once in my ten years of extensive research. I had assumed she had died in infancy. Immediately, I contacted the researcher who had posted this information. He helpfully filled in some blanks, even though he was not related in any way, including a copy of Charlotte’s 1899 obituary.
Looking at Cleveland Records
The focus of my research immediately turned to examining the city and county records available in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County. The city of Cleveland which boasts first-class medical facilities, universities, museums, music, professional sports and, of course, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, may be less well known for its great archives, online databases containing all manner of genealogically useful records, and its thriving Jewish community.
Within a few days I had traced the descendants of Charlotte Woodle and her husband, Louis Bondy, four generations. Her children and grandchildren were deceased, but I found two likely great-grandchildren. I wrote to one of them, and he replied almost immediately and put me in touch with the family historian, Loe Cowan Goldwasser, granddaughter of Charlotte’s daughter, Lillian Bondy. She contacted me by e-mail, and we hatched a plan for me to visit my Cleveland cousins in spring 2009.
I also made plans to visit the Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS), the Cuyahoga County archives, and two cemeteries where my cousins were buried. Searches online produced numerous databases of vital records, indexes, probate information, and obituaries. The Jewish Genealogical Society of Cleveland’s website was invaluable as well. At WRHS, I found information on the naturalization of Louis Bondy, who emigrated from Prague in 1870. A visit to the Cuyahoga County archives yielded his naturalization papers.
Four great-grandchildren of Charlotte Woodle Bondy, my first cousin, four generations removed, attended the family get together. It was a wonderful experience to exchange stories and information, but the 1870s-era photographs of my long-lost cousin, L. Wudel, her husband, and her siblings, people I had only known from paper records, were astonishing.
In hindsight, I realize that Charlotte Woodle’s fate may have been determined earlier if I had found the 1860 and 1870 federal census of her family in New York, but so far these documents have eluded my research. The moral of this story is never stop looking, follow up hunches, and leave no stone unturned.
Alexander Woodle is a member of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston and former Director of the New England Historic Genealogical Society’s (NEHGS) Circulating Library. He has published articles on Jewish genealogy for NEHGS, AVOTAYNU, and Mass-Pocha and presented talks at local, regional, and international genealogical conferences. He is currently a freelance genealogical researcher.
