Obituaries and Detective Work

While trying to find the birth records of Shirley Levine Handelman’s children from her first marriage, I found her father’s obituary details. This didn’t give me his actual obituary, but it did list Shirley and her husband, along with 15 other people. The grandchildren were listed, but without last names. This made it difficult to know who the actual grandchild and who were their spouses.

This was helpful. It gave me the names of Shirley’s grandparents: Abraham Levine and Celia Pollack Levine. This also listed Shirley’s sister and brother-in-law. Shirley’s mother was listed as an unknown. I knew her name because of Shirley’s marriage certificate to Frederick J Lewis.

I was able to figure out that Brian and Corrin were married and so were Jules and Dana and Shayne and Annie. I also figured out that Aaron must have still been single at the time his maternal grandfather died. Now that I had first names of Samuel Levine’s grandchildren, I could start my search for birth records.

I know that Shirley and Frederick had two sons, so this was a big help. I did check both last names, since I don’t know which last name the boys grew up with. I actually started with Shayne, so I got lucky real fast. I found that Shayne lived in Virginia Beach in 1993. This also gave me his date of birth which led me to his birth record. I then went to see if I could find out where Aaron lived. I recognized one of the addresses – it was the same as Shayne! They must be related! I found Frederick and Shirley’s son’s! So glad I started at the bottom of the list of grandchildren.

Well, not so fast. I found out their names and were they were in 1993. I did find both of their birth records. I did find Shayne’s Nevada marriage record, so I got his wife Annie’s full name. I just found a listing for Shayne in St. Augustine, Florida. One of the people listed with this record has his mother, so I know I found the right Shayne! I just found him on Facebook and hope he will reply.

More family lines I still need to check for descendants. I still don't know if Hymie or Max Pollay ever married or had children. I know Mildred married Cookie Leibowitz, thank to my new found cousin. I know they had a son Jeffrey and a daughter - name unknown.

Unfortunately, the Forman's don't have a lot of descendants to try to track down. Only Tess and Henry married. I haven't been able to find out more on Henry. I do know that Tess and Sam Berson had one daughter, Marilyn. I also know that Marilyn Berson married Carl Steinberg, but don't know if they had any children.

Also the Krantz family - I have no information as to if Charles, Evelyn or Ruth married. This means I don't know if this branch of the family ended here or if it continued. The search continues…