How Can Henry Schandler Help Find Sarah Goldsmith’s Family?
Resolving an Identity
Clark R. Taylor III
What we know about Sarah’s life before her marriage to Samuel Goldsmith is fairly
sparse. We know she had a sister, Freda - married name Freda Yaffe - who lived in Canada,
and we also know she had another sister who was the mother of Pearl Rose (who George
Goldsmith had been in contact with for his genealogical research).1 We also know that
Sarah’s first child, Philip (Yiddish: Iokhel) was born in 1898, so she must have married
Samuel Goldsmith sometime before then.
That meager amount of information does provide us with a valuable clue in our
search for Sarah - the fact that she had (at least) two sisters, one of which was named
Freda. When her husband, Samuel Goldsmith, immigrated to the US, he was destined for his
cousin, Henry Schandler.2 Because Samuel was the first of his family to come to the US, this
must have been a blood relative of Sarah’s. Now, for that to have any further value to us,
Henry must have been the son of an uncle of Sarah’s; if that was the case, Henry’s last name
would be the same as Sarah’s maiden name. A search of the Lithuanian database for last
names like Schandler - variations without the “c” or the “ch”, or with other vowels in place
of the “a” - in Biržai provides two results of particular interest.
First, we get a birth record of a “Shora Sandler”, born in Biržai on August 6th, 1874.3
(From here on, I will refer to Sarah Goldsmith as Sarah, and Shora Sandler as Shora, until
they are proved to be the same person). That is close to the birth date we have from US
Censuses: 1876. More importantly, though, is the fact that the birth record also lists the
person’s father, mother, and both grandfathers. For Shora, it lists her father as Iokhel, her
mother as Nekhama, and her father’s father as Shlioma. In the listing for Sarah Smardon
(once she was married and living with Sam and his family) in the Lithuania Revision List
(like the Census), her father is listed as Iokhel as well.
The second record of interest is the family listing matching that birth record. We
find the family of Iokhel Sandler (son of Shlioma), and his wife Nakhame, in Biržai.4
Accounting for different transliterations of Yiddish names, it is clear that this is the same
family as the one listed in the birth record. We then find three children listed: Gena, 20;
Freida, 20; and Shore, 12. Each record is from 1887, which again gives us a birth year for
Shore of about 1885, close to our original estimate. Additionally, Gena and Freida are both
listed as married (still listed under their maiden name and not yet living with their
husbands). We do know Sarah had a sister Freda and another sister, which matches the
record for Shora. In the marriage records, there is listed another sister, Sheine Lyya, who
married Shmuel Khast in 1878.5 This is surely another sister, as her parent/grandparent
record matches. Perhaps the most important part of the record, however, is a comment
next to the name of Iokhel Sandler. The comment states, “Brother of Kivel”. This means
that Shore would have had cousins with the last name Sandler - hopefully, one of them is
Henry Schandler.
Searching deeper into the Revision List, we can find the listing for Kivel Sandler, his
wife Mikhle, and their children. Unfortunately, there is a disheartening comment at the top
of this listing: “list of family incomplete; page in poor condition”. Searching through the list
of Kivel’s children and grandchildren, there is no recorded Hirsch or Hillel - possible
Yiddish equivalents of the English name Henry.6 However, our US records can help us get
around this roadblock. If we find more of Henry’s immediate family, we have a better
chance of positively matching them to one of Kivel’s children or grandchildren.
We first find the immigration record for Harry F Sandler, or as we know him, Henry
Schandler, arriving in Baltimore in 1898, destined for Harrisburg. His contact is A.
Sandler.7 Further research reveals this to be Abraham Isaac Sandler, believed to be a first
cousin of Shora (an uncle of Henry), who arrived in the US in 1894.8,9 In the 1910 Census,
we can again find Schandler, this time as “Henry Shondler”. He is married to Lena, and has
three children. But more importantly, his brother, Morris Shondler, is living with him.10
We can find his immigration record as well, using the Yiddish version of his name: Moses
Sandler, arriving in 1910 for his brother Harry. Now, we have two other people to look for
in the Lithuanian records.11
Back in the record of Kivel Sandler’s family, we do find a Movsha Girsh Sandler,
born in 1879. This matches our estimate from the 1910 US Census of 1880 (he is listed as
30 years old). He is the grandson of Kivel Sandler, making him a first cousin once removed
of Shora. He is married, which also matches the 1910 US Census. His father, Shlioma
Sandler, was born in 1852, meaning he would have been 30 in 1882, our estimate for when
Henry Schandler was born.
At this stage, we now have five points of comparison between Sarah and Shora:
1) Sarah was born around 1886. Shora was born between 1884 and 1886.
2) Both Sarah’s and Shora’s father’s names were Iokhel.
3) Sarah was married ca. 1890. Shora last shows up in 1887.
4) Sarah and Shora both had at least two sisters, one of which was named Freda.
5) Sarah’s cousin Henry Schandler had a brother named Morris, born in 1880.
Shora had a cousin named Movsha, born in 1880.
For those of you who have studied geometry, you may know that any lines passing
through the same two points must be the same line. Taking into account the possibility of
an incomplete Lithuanian record, and the absence of conflicting evidence, the five above
matches prove that Shora Sandler married Samuel Goldsmith and became Sarah Goldsmith.
1
“Letter to Yaffe Family from George K. Goldsmith”, Goldsmith Family Archives.
“Smuel Smerdon”, 2/5/1905, Border Crossings: From Canada to U.S., 1895-1954, Ancestry.com
3
“Shora Sandler”, 8/6/1874, Lithuania Births, The JewishGen Lithuania Database, JewishGen.org
4
“Iokhel Sandler”, 1887, The All Lithuania Revision List Database Part 2, The JewishGen Lithuania Database,
JewishGen.org
5
“Shmuel Khast & Sheine Lyya Sandler”, 6/5/1878, Lithuania Marriages and Divorces, The JewishGen Lithuania
Database, JewishGen.org
6
“Kivel Sandler”, 1890, The All Lithuania Revision List Database Part 2, The JewishGen Lithuania Database,
JewishGen.org
7
“Harry F Sandler”, 10/14/1898, Baltimore, Passenger Lists, 1820-1948, Ancestry.com
8
“Isaac Sandler”, 1910 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com
9
“Abe (Isaac) Sandler”, U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989, Ancestry.com
10
“Henry Shondler”, 1910 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com
11
“Moses Sandler”, 7/4/1910, Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1900-1945, Ancestry.com
2