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Annie AltmanFrom The Peopling of New York City Anna Altman gave me a lot of grief. After looking through the census books in the New York Public Library (NYPL), I went to find the complete (photocopied) census data on their online sources. I was looking through the 1900 census records and I found an Anna Altman from Germany. I was very excited because it had all of her family members and their occupations, their nationalities, whether or not they were literate and fluent in English and a lot more information. After writing it all down and preparing to go on, I realized that Anna was identified by her brother, Morris, and this Anna had no such brother. Eventually I found her in the 1910 census records under Annie Altman. It seemed that she lived in Manhattan Ward 11, her parents were Austrian Jews. Her father was David, he worked in a Pin Factory, her mother, Julia, worked in a store. She had three brothers; Morris, William, and Max. Morris worked selling fruit (I think, it was very illegible). Annie also had four sisters; Gussie, Rose, Bella, and Helen. Gussie worked in a factory (though I am not sure which one, it was very illegible. The census also had all of their ages, whether or not they were born in the United States (it seems only Annie was), and other facts. After visiting the Municipal Archives (and being nearly stripped at the Municipal Building that I walked into by mistake)and recovering Annie's death certificate, I realized that the address and parents' names of this Annie Altman were wrong. Once again I went to the online census records and looked through hundreds of hits until I came across an Annie Altman who fit every criteria. I did find Annie Altman in a few books in the NYPL, or at least I think they were on her (they did not specify by name), but they had more of the same information I already had from census data, online databases, and other documents and articles (such as a book with documents of relief victims' families received that were in online databases). Anna Altman was born in Russia in 1895 to Louis Altman and Sarah (maiden name Driasdolph, I think, I may not have deciphered the handwriting correctly) Altman. Louis and Sarah were married in 1980 and had five children since, two boys and three girls. [1] Presumably, the family faced and feared anti-Semitism in the form of pogroms, beatings, and political and social oppression. The Altman’s must have heard rumors of the famed golden land and took the risk of the long voyage to America [2]. I am basing my presumptions on the political situation in Russia at the time and the experiences of other immigrant Russian Jews such as Rosie Freedman. When Anna was about five years old, in 1900, her father decided to move to New York City. He was 41 at the time. He most likely sent money home to bring his entire family to the United States because in 1904 Anna’s brother, then 21, came to join his father in New York. Louis began pressing cloak, probably in a factory. I am convinced that he did not work at a store or small business because pressing cloaks is a highly specialized yet unskilled job, he was a member of a worker’s union (though I am not sure which one[3]) and he did not deal with consumers, even after a decade he did not know how to speak English. He only spoke Yiddish and was unable to write (though he knew how to read). Morris and Louis did well enough to send for another son in Russia only one year later. In 1905, Harry, Anna’s 14-year-old brother, joined the two in New York City. Meanwhile, Morris became a contractor, making female shirtwaists. He could have began his business with as little as 50 dollars worth of capital, usually by stuffing as many sewing machines as could fit in a tiny tenement apartment, and began taking orders from large factories and exploiting new immigrants[4]. Throughout the next year the three of them made enough money to finance the trip of Anna, 11 years old at the time, her mother Sarah, then 49, her sister Mary, who was 13, and her sister Rebecca, who was nine. In 1906, the entire family was in America. I searched through all the searches of Stephen P. Morse on his website, including the searches that mandate ancestry.com and I searched through the website of Ellis Island but non of them yielded any matches. Even broadening my search generated many (170) hits but none of them ended up fitting this family. A problem was that Altman is a very common name. The Altmans lived in a small apartment that they rented in 33 Pike Street. Anna and Rebecca went to school while the rest of the children worked. Sarah was unemployed but the rest of the family was doing relatively well. Mary became an operator making shirtwaists in a factory. [5] Though I doubt she worked at Triangle, she had a union at her factory nonetheless. Anna was enrolled in school in September 1909 but probably dropped out to work at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, possibly after Harry lost his job. otherwise, she attended night school which is usually only slightly better than dropping out. Through their connections with factories, Morris, Anna, or Mary may have helped their brother, Harry, get a job as an operator in a factory making clothes. Harry had another job until 1910 when he was probably fired (because he was out of work for three months that year, including April). His new job, however, had a union. [6] By 1910, of the seven Altmans in Anna’s family, five brought home wages; Anna earned six dollars a week herself. [7] Four of those workers were union members[8], giving them a measurable advantage over the greenhorns who worked for pennies[9]. And Morris, the non-union worker, was a contractor who employed and exploited fresh immigrants [10]. At the time, becoming a contractor was one of the fastest ways to move up in class. Furthermore, the family had two boarders, Eva Schwartz and Rose Yellow who were 20 and 25 years old respectively in 1910, who generated some income for the household [11]. As the youngest, Rebecca was able to stay in school and continued her education even after Anna died in the Triangle fire on March 25, 1911. How exactly Anna spent her last minutes is unknown but she was found with a fractured skull. She was identified by her brother Morris that same day [12]. Because the Altmans were all in America, did not really support anyone in Russia, and had many relatively successful workers, the Joint Relief Committee consisting of the Red Cross, Ladies’ Waist and Dressmakers Union No. 25, International Ladies’ Garment Union, The Arbeiter Ring (Workmen’s Circle), The Women’s Trade Union League, and The Jewish Daily Forward deemed the Altmans only worthy of death benefit and in no need of aid. They got a total of 160 dollars for her death in January 1913[13]. On March 26, 1911, Anna Altman was buried in section U.H. of Ocean View Cemetery[14]; the Workmen’s Circle compensated the family for the cost of the undertaker and tombstone[15]. The Triangle Shirtwaist Company was only required to pay the family a mere 75 dollars for each victim by the courts three years after the tragedy [16]. I may have found Anna Altman's parents in the 1920 and 1930 census records. Her father is 70 years old, her mother is 72 years old, and they are both retired. If it is actually them, they never became citizens but continued renting out rooms to a Dora Helpen, age 25, and Etta Finkel, a 23 year old, in 1920, and an Alec Cohen and Charles Smith, both 40 year old men, in 1930. Louis remained a cloak presser, Sarah remained unemployed, and they never became citizens. they lived in Manhattan's Assembly District 1 [17]. I cannot find any of her other family members because of too many results. References
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