Ted Gostin Rpt Sept 08

Ted Gostin Genealogical Research

PO Box 56321 Sherman Oaks CA 91413 M 1321 Voice amp Fax (818) 501-5852 tedgostingenerationspresscom

wwwgenerationspresscomresearchhtml

September 5 2008

RECEIVED Craig W Walsh Lucies Farm Ltd 13 SEP 2008Colletts Green Worcester WR24RY ENGLAND C amp M WALSH (888) 880-1531 craighmdpcom

SUBJECT MORRISKING Genealogical Research Job 1116

Dear Craig

I have completed most of the initial research that we discussed and while I havent yet determined where Max Z KING was from in Europe I have found so useful additional information I now have obituaries for him and for Rachel and copies from his probate file I have determined approximately when he moved to Los Angeles and have some details about the hotel that he owned in Los Angeles after he moved here I have also reached some negative conclusions namely that Max was not naturalized in Santa Barbara County and that he was not listed in San Francisco city directories in the late 1890s We therefore have some question about where he was living before he married Rachel MORRIS about 1898 We will need to determine this if we are to have much success in locating his naturalization and arrival records

Research Assignment

In my proposal of June 16 I had suggested the following research on both Max KING and his wife Rachel MORRIS and on her family

1 Search for and obtain the death certificates of Max and Rachel KING 2 Photograph the headstones of both Max and Rachel KING or have someone at the

cemetery photograph them 3 Search for probated estates for Max and Rachel KING 4 Search for published obituaries of Max and Rachel KING 5 Search for the naturalization records of Max KING in California or a reference to his

naturalization in voter registration records 6 Search for the passenger arrival record of Max KING in the United States using clues

from the census and naturalization searches above and family information to narrow the search

Craig W Walsh September 8 2008 Page 2

7 Search for the divorce of Max amp Rachel KING in Santa Barbara County or other counties where they may have resided after they separated and before they died

8 Search directories and voter registration lists for Max KING after 1920 9 Search newspaper notices for information on Rachel MORRIS birth 10 Search for and obtain some sort of death record for Kieve amp Hattie MORRIS in San

Francisco 11 Search for Kieve and Hattie MORRIS in the 1900 and 1910 censuses since you do not

seem to have located them in these years 12 If the searches above indicate that Kieve and Hattie MORRIS were married in the United

States rather than in Europe then search for a record of their marriage 13 Search for some indication of whether Kieve MORRIS became a naturalized citizen of

the United States 14 Search for passenger arrival records of Kieve MORRIS and his wife 15 Search a variety of sources - census records vital records directories etc - for more

information on the other children of Kieve MORRIS 16 Search the surviving Jewish birth marriage and death records of Nakel Poland for

members of both Kieve MORRIS family and his wife HattieYettas family if we can determine her surname

17 Hire a Polish researcher to research the Jewish metrical books of Lobsens from 1823-1834 and 1841-1847

You agreed to most of the Us research although you had already conducted searches for some of the information You set a limit of on the research and sent a deposit of which I received on July 24 2008

Research Results

Ive reviewed the research done of Max Z KING and on the MORRIS family in separate sections below The bulk of the research was on Max Z KING but I was able to do a few things on the MORRIS family that might add to your overall knowledge

Max Z KING Family

As I noted in an earlier e-mail I encountered a delay in getting the death certificate of Max Z KING from Los Angeles County Normally what I would do is to search the indexes at the County Recorders office to obtain the certificate number and then review and abstract the certificate before ordering a certified copy Unfortunately however the death indexes for the 1930s are currently unavailable having been sent to an archival restoration firm to be rebound This is a part of a long-term project that the Recorders office has undertaken archival repair many of the old index books While I am glad to see the indexes restored (they were falling apart) it does create significant inconveniences when the indexes are sent out They are usually gone for at least 3-4 months The death indexes I needed to review for Max Z KING had just been sent out a couple of weeks before I went down to the office so they wont be back for some time

Craig W Walsh September 8 2008 Page 3

Without the certificate number from the index I cant review the certificate onsite There are several ways I could order the index or certificate but a couple (ordering the certificate through the state or ordering the index through the FHL) would take about as long as it will take for the indexes to come back to the Recorders office The other method is to order the certificate from the county without having first identified the certificate number which I did on August 26 The clerks will then have to search for the certificate number which they do by calling the archival firm and having them look up the number They can then make a certified copy for me This takes a little longer than a normal order but it should take less time than the several months it would take to get the certificate otherwise

One important thing to note about Max Z KINGs death as listed in the California death index is that the index listing included the initial of his spouse showing an R for Rachel in that column This means that her name was on the death certificate and suggests the possibility that he was still married at the time of his death However since the form of the question on the certificate in the 1930s was If married widowed or divorced name of husband or wife it may simply be that the informant was giving the information as asked We wont know what was reported about his marital status until we see his actual death certificate but the death index listing with the spouse initial was the first clue I saw that Max and Rachel may not have been divorced

I did locate obituaries for both Max and Rachel KING although they didnt provide much information above what was already known There was an obituary for Max KING in the Los Angeles Times which appeared on September 17 1935 in part II page 18 (see enclosed) It simply listed him as the beloved father of Geraldine Allen of San Francisco and Helen Wilkinson of Honolulu T H Services for him were at the Little Church of the Flowers clearly indicating a break from any Jewish identity There was no mention of a wife or of his marital status in his obituary

There was a similar obituary for Rachel KING in the San Francisco Chronicle published on January 7 1941 on page A-13 It described her as Rachel beloved wife of the late Max KING loving mother of Mrs John Allen Mrs Albert J Wilkenson of Honolulu devoted sister of Mrs Robert Salinger The beloved wife description further suggests to me that Max and Rachel King were not divorced at the time of their death since it would be unusual for a divorced woman to be listed as the beloved wife of her divorced husband in an obituary Despite references to a divorce in other places I have doubts as to whether they were actually divorced

I also found a probated estate for Max Z KING although I did not have the time to copy all of the pages from the probate file I copied a few critical documents and can copy more at a later date if desired Enclosed are the petition for probate several documents related to who was appointed administrator (there was no will) two inventories and two accounts of the estate listing what was done during the administration There is also a Petition for Authority to Continue the Operation of the Decedents Business filed by the Administrator that gives some details about Max Z KINGs business at the time of his death He owned a small hotel in Los Angeles called the Bonnie Dale Hotel located at 1027-1031 North Bonnie Brae Street The inventories indicate that he owned the property on which the hotel was located as well as

Craig W Walsh September 8 2008 Page 4

property in Los Alamos in Santa Barbara County (One inventory is for the Los Angeles assets and the other for the Santa Barbara County assets)

Given the location of Maxs hotel I searched Los Angeles City directories to see how and when he was listed and to confirm his address circa 1930 Max was still living in Los Alamos in January of 1920 according to the 1920 census Unfortunately Santa Barbara city directories did not include listings for Los Alamos and the Los Angeles Public Library does not have any Santa Maria directories (which might include Los Alamos) for the early 1920s I could therefore only search Los Angeles directories to determine when Max moved from Los Alamos to Los Angeles While I found listings for a Max KING in the 1921 and 1922 directories I think that this was probably a different individual The first time I can positively identify Max Z KING in a Los Angeles directory is in 1923 when he appears as Max Z KING machinist living at 102912 North Bonnie Brae This appears to be one of the addresses of his hotel (see the inventory in the probate papers which lists several addresses including this one) and so we can confirm this as the correct person There is also a listing in that year for a Max W KING machinist living at 2500 30th Avenue who would appear to be a different person This was the person who was listed in 1921 and 1922 in both years at this address once as a mach(inist) and once as an auto mech(anic)

Max was also listed the 102912 North Bonnie Brae address in 1924 but was not listed at all (that I could identify) in 1925 or 1926 In 1927 he is again listed this time at 1029 North Bonnie Brae a slight difference from the previous listings In 1928 through 1930 he was listed at 1031 North Bonnie Brae and he was listed as the manager of the Bonnie Dale Hotel for the first time in 1930 I did not search directories after 1930 since this was apparently the address at which he lived when he died

With his residential address from 1930 I searched the 1930 census by address for 1029-1031 Bonnie Brae Street I found that these addresses should have been listed in enumeration district (ED) 19-396 in Los Angeles County I found further that the addresses should have been on page 11B of the CD but that they skipped from 1027 to 1035 North Bonnie Brae and no later pages included the addresses 1029 or 1031 It appears that his hotel was simply missed in the 1930 census explaining why Max Z KING couldnt be found in the name index to that census on Ancestrycom I have enclosed a copy of this census page Note that there is another small residential hotel listed at the bottom of the page the Bonnie Vista Hotel at 1041 North Bonnie Brae

According to the 1920 census Max Z KING was naturalized in 1896 He therefore could not have been a registered voter before that year in California Up through 1898 the printed indexes to the Great Registers or voter registration rolls included information about the date and court of naturalization for foreign-born voters I therefore searched for Max Z KING in Santa Barbara County voter registration lists prior to 1900 but it appears that he was not a registered voter in Santa Barbara County until he bought the Los Alamos store around 1900 He does not appear in any of the county precincts in the 1896 or 1898 lists the last years in which naturalization information was included in the printed indexes to the voter registration rolls He may have just moved to Los Alamos about the time he bought the store Census records suggest that he and Rachel were married about 1898 (they had been married for two years at the

Craig W Walsh September 8 2008 PageS

time of the June 1900 census) If he married someone from San Francisco in 1898 then he was probably living in or near San Francisco at the time or at least traveling to San Francisco to spend time with her The challenge now becomes to determine where he was living at the time he became a United States citizen I also searched the San Francisco voter registration registers for the 1890s (there is a cumulative index which covers all of the registers from 1892 to 1904) but did not find Max Z KING in these lists under either the surname KING or KONIG (or its variants) So it appears that in the years prior to his move to Los Alamos he was not a registered voter in either Santa Barbara or San Francisco Counties It is still possible of course that he was a resident in one of these two counties during the 1890s but did not immediately register to vote after his 1896 naturalization

To continue the search for Max Z KING prior to 1900 I searched San Francisco directories for the years between 1896 and 1900 I did not find any listings for a Max KING or KONIG or KOENIG in these years (There were listings for a Max KONING who was also found in the Great Registers but he was much older being in his 70s around 1900) It therefore appears that Max Z KING was not living in San Francisco in the years leading up to his circa 1898 marriage to Rachel MORRIS or that if he were living there he was not listed in city directories

I ordered microfilm from the Family History Library with the Santa Barbara County naturalization indexes (FHL 1480058) but I did not find the name of Max KING or KONIG in these naturalization indexes It therefore appears that he did not become a naturalized citizen in Santa Barbara County

I next searched Santa Barbara County birth records to see if Max KINGs first daughter Geraldine was born in Santa Barbara County I found both of his daughters listed in the Santa Barbara County birth records and copies of both records are enclosed There were actually two sets of birth registers microfilmed by the FHL The first was a typed transcript made from the original registers and the second was the original registers themselves I made copies from both books but accidentally copied the wrong page for Geraldine KINGs birth from the transcript book It is the less important book though so Im sending the copies as they are I can go back and copy the correct page from the transcript book if you want it These books show that Max Z and Rachel (Morris) KING were living in Los Alamos when Geraldine was born on August 31 1899 which puts them there almost a year earlier than the date of the June 1 1900 census We still have the question of where Max Z KING was living prior to 1899 though and how he came into contact with Rachel MORRIS family (I know you said that this was an arranged marriage but even so the person who arranged it had to have had contact with both families and that would suggest that they lived in the same area)

I have ordered the grantorgrantee indexes for Santa Barbara County on microfilm to see if I can locate a record of the earliest property purchase that Max made in Santa Barbara County This will hopefully tell us two things when he first came to Los Alamos and where he was living before that The deed will normally list the place of residence of each party and so if we are lucky we will learn where Max was residing at the time he bought his first piece of property in Santa Barbara County His probate file indicates that he still owned property in Santa Barbara County at the time of his death