Person:Louis Brautman (1)

Louis (Leib Yitzchak) BRAUTMAN, son of Koppel (David ha Levi) BRAUTMAN and Leytza (Rachel) SPERBERG, was born 31 Dec 1864 in Kishinev.^N1 Kishinev is present day Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. During the time that Louis and his parents lived there, it was the capital of Bessarabia, an oblast (province) in the Russian Empire. (Later, between the World Wars, it became part of Romania, which may explain why sometimes Louis said he was from Romania.) When Louis was born, Kishinev was a multi-ethnic city, and over 18,000 Jews represented over 20% of the city's population.

Family lore has him as probably an only child, with his parents dying when he was only 7 years old, leaving him orphaned and without other family. He apprenticed himself to a goldsmith, learned that trade, made his way to England (not sure if he stayed for a bit or just passed through), and came to New York around 1889, where he met his wife, Bertha (Bluma) "Betty" LITTMAN.

Louis came to New York probably around 1889, but the details are unconfirmed. He filed a "declaration of intention to become a citizen" in August 1899, which seems to be almost exactly ten years after when he was supposed to have arrived. In August 1901, he followed up with a petition for citizenship (which can only be filed two years after a declaration of intention), and was granted citizenship in Sept 1901. In those papers, he specifies 20 Aug 1889 as the date he entered the US and New York. However, a search of the New York Passenger List database does not find any entry for "Louis Brautman", nor does he turn up in a careful manual search of all of the seven ship's passenger lists that arrived in New York on 20 Aug 1889.

Louis married Betty Littman in 1892, and they had five daughters. The family lived in the Lower East Side of Manhattan through the 1890s, 1900s, and 1910s. In the 1920s, they lived in "Jewish Harlem" (Madison near 104th), and by the 1930s, they lived in the Bronx. Louis practiced as a tin smith and ran a hardware store. Some silver candlesticks made by him are still in the family.

Louis died in 1934, not quite 70 years of age, and a couple of years after his wife. They are buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Queens. (They are buried in a landsmanshaft plot for immigrants from the shtetl of Makhnovka in Ukraine. They had no apparent affiliation with that place. It is possible that Louis' parents or grandparents came from there, though it is also possible that there were just part of the small percentage of Jews who belonged to a landsmanshaft organization without actually being from that place.)

1935 order for his gravestone

1889 declaration of intent to become a citizen

Betty and Louis Brautman

Louis Brautman

Louis Brautman gravestone

1. ↑ Бессарабия / Кишинев / Кишинев, Еврейская община / 1865 дело 247 Рождения, in Orthodox Consistory of Kishinev (Bessarabia). Metrical books : Kishinev district, 1812-1940. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1996-2002)
   fond 211, op 3, num 247, entry male/10, 1865.

   Leyb Itsik, born in Kishinev, 31 Dec 1864 / 14 Teves 5625, circumsized 8 Jan / 22 Teves 1865, son of Kopel Broytman middle-class of Kishinev and Leytsa. FHL film 2086507 item 6 image 7.

   1865 birth registry in Kishinev
2.   We know Louis' parents names as Koppel Brautman and Rachel Sperberg from his 1892 marriage certificate, and we also know his religious name (Leib Yitzchak) and his father's religious name (David haLevi) from Louis' gravestone.
3. ↑ Per the 1865 Kishinev Jewish birth register in the Moldovan archives, Leyb Yitchak was born on Dec 31, 1864 / 14 Teves 5625, with his bris on 8 Jan / 22 Teves. Note that these are Julian calendar dates, as Russia did not switch to Gregorian until 1918. The corresponding Gregorian birth date is 12 Jan 1865. In his 1899 naturalization application, he attests to his birthdate as 15 Dec 1865. However, a handwritten list of family vital dates handed down from his daughter Fanny has him born on 15 Dec 1864 (same date, different year), and the age given on his gravestone reflects that.
4.   Louis was inconsistent in reporting the place of his birth, which made it quite a mystery until his birth record was located. There are many records of the Brautman family in New York. Some say he was born in Rumania (1892 marriage cert, 1923 daughter death cert, 1926 daughter marriage cert), some say Russia (1901 naturalization, 1910 census, 1920 census), some say Austria (daughter birth certs 1893, 1902, 1904), and his 1934 death cert says Bohemia (that may just be a mix-up with his wife's family). Adding to the puzzle, he and his wife are buried in a landsmanschaft plot associated with the shtetl of Makhnovka (near Berditchev, in modern day Ukraine). His granddaughter insists that he was not Russian (nor Galizianer), yet he's buried in an association plot with people from this Russian shtetl. (It is true that about 10% of people in landsmanschaft societies joined for social reasons, but were not from the town of origin that the society was organized around.)
5. ↑ Louis Brautman, abt 1890
6. ↑ ^6.0 6.1 Gravestone of Louis Brautman, in Mt Zion Cemetery, Queens, NY
7. ↑ ^7.0 7.1 1901 petition for citizenship
8. ↑ 1901 order of citizenship