Three steps up my maternal lineage is my great-grandmother Emma Robinson, nee Rothschild. Emma was one of 9 children born to Moses and Sheyna (Kahano) Rotshild in Virbalis, Lithuania.
One of Emma's sons, my great-uncle Sam Robinson, wrote a family history that helped me rather easily learn about the six Rothschild brothers.
The history was less helpful with regard to her two sisters. The older sister, name unknown, was the only child who stayed behind. The other sister was Rose: “Mom’s baby sister passed away from cancer many years back.”
The older sister turned up in recently translated Virbalis death records, which included the names of both parents. Rachel Grinstein was born in 1875 and died of influenza in 1939.
Finding Rose should have been easier. I knew her first name and she came to America. My first break came from Agnes Rothschild (1903-2003), whose father-in-law Sol was one of the six brothers. Agnes seemed to have good memory when I met her in 1998.
Agnes believed that Rose was married once or twice. The last husband, Aaron Rosenberg, was at least ten years younger than Rose. "He caused her a lot of grief." They married in the 1920s or early 1930s. He did movie work, perhaps script writing or crane operating. Rose would have died under the name Rosenberg. She had no children.
It made sense the Rose would have lived in Los Angeles near her brothers Sol, Clarence and Abe. I searched county marriage indexes for a Rosenberg groom, preferably named Aaron, and a "suitable" bride, but nothing caught my eye.
My second break came from the computerized California death index, now online and free. Searching for maiden name Rothschild, I discovered Rose Farber, 1884-1949, whose mother's maiden name was Kahn (close enough to Kahano). This was a sure hit. The death certificate confirmed she died of cancer, which spread from her right breast to her spine despite the doctor operating on her in 1946. She was a widow who operated a children's clothing business.
After stating that the deceased lived in Los Angeles, the certificate said she had lived "in this place" four years. Perhaps she only moved to Los Angeles to have the support of her brothers during treatment. She moved to 2667 S. La Brea in 1945.
So who was this Mr. Farber who predeceased Rose? What was his first name? Did he work in the motion picture industry? Searching for Mrs. Rose Rothschild Farber in the Los Angeles marriage records, newspaper announcements and voter registration lists was just as futile as searching for Mrs. Rose Rothschild Rosenberg.
The best lead appeared to be a weak one. The Los Angeles Times carried an announcement of Morris Farber's marriage to an older woman named Rose. The date was May 10, 1933. Bride Rose Ettelson was 43. Our mysterious aunt Rose was at least 48.
With no other trace of either Rose Farber or Rose Ettelson, my next step was to request the social security application of the Rose Farber who died in 1949 . It showed that in 1944 she lived in University City, Missouri. She was already a widow.
"U City," as I knew it while attending Washington University, is part of St. Louis County, which is separate from St. Louis City. County directories listed Rose M. Farber in outlying Chesterfield from 1941 through 1946. If this was our Rose, she could have moved to Los Angeles in 1945 after the 1946 directory had been prepared.
I still did not know if the Rose Farber of the 1940s was the Rose Ettleson Farber of the 1930s. At first, searches for Rose Ettelson turned up several women, but the results did not reveal maiden names or places of origin. Ancestry, however, keeps adding new information, so in July 2012 I tried again. This time I found the 1931 naturalization record of Rose Ettelson, born 1884 in "Wirbalen, Poland" (German version of Virbalis), immigrated via London, England, and Port Huron, Michigan, in 1913, childless, and widow of Solomon of "Kebarte," present-day Kybartai, Lithuania, three kilometers west of Virbalis.
This was the record that broke open the dam. When Solomon arrived in New York, his destination was A. (Abe) Rothschild, who was still in Des Moines. From 1916 to 1922, Solomon and Rose lived in Canton, Ohio, where he was a cattle dealer, cattle buyer and butcher. Rose's brother Phil also lived in Canton until he died from the influenza epidemic in 1919.
Soloman Ettelman died in Los Angeles in 1927. As noted, Rose would marry Morris Farber six years later, but their years together remain a mystery. Though the 1940 census is now fully indexed, they are not found unless one considers a married restaurant manager who lived apart from his wife on Vine Street. About that time, the Los Angeles Times reported Morris Farber, a caterer living at that address, was charged with serving putrid chicken at a banquet of the Jewish Welfare Center. Was this an example of the "grief" Agnes said he caused Rose?
Rose was interred above ground at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
