Hi Jeannie,
Thanks for taking an interest.
I have the CDrom of Leeds Burials, and neither Esther or Moses appear on it, I am afraid.
I am not familiar with this CDRom. Does it include Jewish cemeteries in the area? Or just Leeds proper?
I suppose since they were fairly well off, they might have gotten buried in Israel? I had not thought of checking Israeli burials, some religious Jews have themselves shipped there for burial upon their demise.
The other more likely possibility is that they may have been buried in a Jewish cemetery somewhere in England but their burials not indexed.
One thing I have found though, is Moses , travelling from New York, and arriving at Liverpool, 5th March 1910 on board The Lusitania. He gave his birth place as Makowa , Russia. I think this is quite significant for you, as other members of your family were born there.
Yes, I have seen the associated arrival in New York, and appreciate your finding the date he returned to England. I was extremely interested in who he was going to see in the United States, as I do not yet know which of the Palestrants in the United States are related to my family.
Unfortunately, I think he was going to visit a nephew, Jack Cohen, in New York. That is an extremely common name, and the most likely match is a child at or near the address given on that manifest whose family I have not yet researched thoroughly.
There are two thrusts to my research. One is to figure out which Palestrants are related to Moses and Esther and how, and I have ordered a number of records from the GRO to help with this.
Many of the Palestrants who migrated to the United States had family members who lived in Leeds at some point, although some were born as Palestines! But residence in Leeds at some point does not tell me how they are related to Moses, or if they are related to my family.
So, the other goal is to figure out how Moses's family is related to my Vishnick and Feldberg families. For this, I am also hunting his mother Rosa's death and burial, although even if her tombstone has a familiar first name on it for her father, may not provide final resolution.
The BMD records for Makowa were destroyed in a fire in 1898, so I am not able to take the question back to Poland to find appropriate birth records in Makow. All I can do is see if I can turn up appropriate related records elsewhere.
With regards to Rosa's death, there is not a clear entry at FreeBMD for her, but some entries with odd Palestrant first names. These 1916 and 1918 Leeds death certificates for Arish and Rany are on the way to me. I wish we could see the original handwriting, I have found that the official transcriptions often misspell foreign first names. I hope I can tell who died on those dates!
Anyhow, I don't know if you saw that FamilySearch also has an 1897 record for a Moses Palestrant born Makow whose relation was Esther Segel, I think in a Belgian Passports database. It might be my Moses, but I did now know what to make of it, if this was giving me Esther's maiden name or was a different Moses.
If Moses owned his house, would there have been a will and letter of administration? I have not had the best luck ordering wills, but I wonder since we have a small range of years (early 1950's), and his is not a common name, if it would make sense to order a copy of his Probate file. If it can be found, it would give his date of death, and maybe the names of other relatives in addition to his brother Paul's family.
Thanks again for your input!