52 Ancestors: Large - Marks Schwartz

Marks Schwartz was the older brother of my great grandmother, Bertha Schwartz Gunzendorfer.  According to this news article, he was born on 22 March 1870.

Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel
March 26, 1870, page 2

But according to his headstone, he was born on 23 March 1870.

Marks Schwartz
Brother Colman Schwartz
Home of Eternity Cemetery
Oakland, California

Marks Schwartz died at the age of just 7 years old.  So why, you might be thinking, is she focusing on a young boy of 7 with the blog prompt of LARGE?

Marks Schwartz has been LARGER than life for me this past week as I've learned a lot about him quite accidentally.  As part of my Top 10 Genealogical Finds of 2017, I wrote about my #1 find which was a book written about the Jews of Santa Cruz.  You can read about it HERE.  What a thrill to read about my peeps and the more I research, the more some of the other Jewish families are taking shape for me.

The author of the book, George Fogelson, has been working on a new book about the cemeteries in Santa Cruz and although my 'direct' ancestors aren't buried there, we've had some conversations about the history of the cemeteries.  So a week or two ago, George sent me a draft of his book and asked for any comments or revisions - I was thrilled to be able to help.

We've all had a case of Genealogical Serendipity and the day after George sent me the draft, a friend of my sister's posted on Facebook about her ancestors who were prominent in Santa Cruz and who were buried in the cemetery.  What?  Here I had the draft in my hand (okay, computer screen) and as she described her ancestors I WAS READING ABOUT THEM IN THE BOOK!  How's that for timing?  I was able to connect her with George, she shared new information with him, and he quickly added her information to the book.

Now you're probably wondering how that relates to Marks Schwartz?  George and I 'discussed' Marks which caused me to look closer at his headstone - why after all these years and a personal visit to his grave did I think he was born in 1873 when it clearly states 1870?

One thing led to another and George discovered that Marks was included in the document Voices of the Heart: Memorial Poems from the Diphtheria Epidemic of 1876-1878 by Phil Reader.  But it hadn't connected with him because he was listed as Marksey Schwartz!  So this told me that Marks did, in fact, die from Diphtheria.

I wish I had a photo of Marks.  The Schwartz family seemed to take more photos than most of that time and I have a few which are unidentified - could this young boy be Marks?

I have a photo from 1890 of Marks' brother, Colman.

Colman Schwartz, 1890

I also have this unidentified photo from the same studio and looks to be the same clothes - could this be Marks and then Colman wore the same clothes in 1890?  Or is it Colman?

Sadly, I'm not sure I'll ever know but I'll keep hoping.

Marks Schwartz, you are not forgotten.