LEUBUSCHER Discoveries – I – Part 2

When we last heard from our blogger, he had just discovered the trail of the GOIDEL (GOIDELL) family in the 1920 census.  The family of Harry GOIDEL also appeared in the 1930 census with his second wife, children Marvin and Shirley from his first wife Lily geb. LEUBUSCHER, and his daughter Ruth from his second wife Ella.


Thanks to the prominence of Shirley’s husband and the foresight of the writers of his obituary (or the helpfulness of the family members who provided the information) to include her maiden name, I was able to find more information about this new family line.


Shirley GOIDEL married Hyman Harry ZARITSKY (1907-2007).  His name might already have been changed to ZARET by the time of their marriage in the early 1940s.  Shirley’s husband was the lyricist Hy ZARET who is most famous for writing “Unchained Melody” — a song I did not even know I knew until listening to recordings on YouTube (by the Righteous Brothers and by Willie Nelson).


And thanks to other clues in Hy ZARET’s obituary, I have learned that his widow is still alive and living in Massachusetts, and have gotten in contact with her son and niece.   Through her son, Shirley was able to confirm that her grandmother was born SICHEL, as noted in the Berlin Weissensee documents, and not SIEGEL as indexed in the New York City Brides Index.  Shirley recalled meeting her grandmother’s ship on a return from Europe; I am guessing the 1928 return, as opposed to the 1923 return after the trip on which Paul died.


These new distant (6th) cousins are double cousins through both the LEUBUSCHER family and the SILBERSTEIN family.  Paul LEUBUSCHER’s paternal grandparents were Heymann Benjamin LEUBUSCHER (1790-1863) and Nanette (Nuche) SILBERSTEIN (1793-1875).  Nanette’s father was Aron Joachim SILBERSTEIN (1768-1821) of Brieg who was a son of Chajim SILBERSTEIN haLewi (based on my educated conjecture) and so a brother of my great great great great grandfather Philipp Hillel SILBERSTEIN (1761-1837) who married into the LEUBUSCHER family — his wife was Amalie LEUBUSCHER (ca.1764-1835).  Amalie and Heymann Benjamin LEUBUSCHER were first cousins.

Still no solution to the mystery of the other Paul & Minnie LEUBUSCHER family living on the next block in Lower Manhattan in 1920…


[Written at the Caffe Capanna in Point Roberts, Washington, USA.]