Cemetery headstone deciphered
There are two recognizable Wohlgemuth headstone fragments in the old Jewish cemetery in Starogard Gdanski. I will talk about the other one in a separate post. Here is one where I couldn't exactly make out the first name and married name engraved on the stone, but I could clearly see her maiden name was Wohlgemuth. Her married name looked like Blau. It was great to find her but it didn't mean that much because I didn't know who she was or even what to call her.
Since coming home I have been able to mine a new set of records that gives the answer. First, I knew pretty quickly I was right about the surname Blau. It is one of 64 Jewish family names that were registered in Stargardt in 1812. Then I began digging into the trove of digitized LDS microfilms that I just recently discovered.
The whole family and all the relations are in there, including the answer to the identity of the Wohlgemuth-Blau gravestone. The third attachment is her marriage record from July 1862. I read her first name as Teile, which I find listed in at least one Yiddish name directory. She was the daughter of Salomon Wohlgemuth. As you recall, all of the Wohlgemuths in Stargard descended from either Salomon or, like us, his brother Herz. Teile's husband was Hirsch Blau.
Salomon was already in his 60s when Teile was born in 1832. Apparently he was then residing in the nearby town of Berent, today Koscierzyna. I have not yet mined the death records so as of now I don't have death dates for Salomon or any of the others. I assume Salomon had several wives, so I can't say yet who Teile's mother was.
Still I was able to identify and give a background story for the person in the grave at the Starogard Jewish cemetery. And that feels better than just having found the grave of an unidentified relative.
