Joseph Schneider (1892-1945) and Mary Fila (1895-1938) lived in Newark, New Jersey from the 1910's until their deaths. They were buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in East Orange.
I did not find a marriage record for this couple. The strategy is to start with the first child and work backwards. Locating birth certificates for all the children was difficult because the surname was spelled a different way for each of the five children: Snajder, Snaider, Shnyder, Schneider, and Snyder.
All five birth certificates were located by sifting through the geographic birth index. In New Jersey, birth certificates for the years in which these children were born are filed alphabetically by year on microfilm in the Archives in Trenton. Instead of spending hours looking at the microfilm, I used the index at home. This index is indexed at Ancestry; however, not all names on the page were transcribed into Ancestry's index. This is a very important consideration when a name cannot be found in an electronic database. Death records helped narrow down the date of birth. All were born in Newark, which also helped immensely.
You can view the New Jersey Geographic Birth Index at The Internet Archive or Family Search.
Baby Josephine died September 12, 1916 from acute gastro enteritis. She was six and a half months old. She was buried at Holy Sepulchre in a plot where her parents would later join her. Already in this plot was another baby, discussed at the end of this article.
The midwife signed her name "Antonia Wakova." This was a feminization of her husband's surname, Wak. In the 1910 census, she was from Bohemia. In 1920 and 1930, she was from Czechoslovakia. No profession was given in the census entries, again making the city directories invaluable for finding this midwife.
Stanislau became Stanley John. He married and has living descendants. He died October 30, 1988.
Another mystery about this couple arises because of a baby buried with them.
The image is of very poor quality. "O.W." is written after Katie's name. This stands for Out of Wedlock. The names of her parents appear to be Stanislaw Floczyiski and Mary Fila, both of Poland. Katie's birthdate is given as August 19, 1914 and her age 2 months, 27 days. Perhaps the month of birth would be more accurate as July. Either way, I did not identify a listing for Katie in the birth index in Newark for this time.
The couple's first child was Josephine Madlin, born on Leap Day, February 29, 1916. The midwife was K Zamlynska. The birthplace of Joseph and Mary was Austria. He worked as a button maker.
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| Birth certificate of Josephine Madlin Snajder. Born February 29, 1916 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey. 87 Richmond Street. |
The midwife signed her name "K Zamlynska." In the 1920 census in Newark, the birthplace of Caroline Zamlysnki was Austria and she spoke Polish. This could be indicative of the origins of the parents of the baby. Her profession in the census was "none," which is why the city directories are so helpful for finding midwives.
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| City directory entry for Karolina Zamlynski, midwife. 115 South Orange Avenue in Newark, New Jersey. |
Baby Josephine died September 12, 1916 from acute gastro enteritis. She was six and a half months old. She was buried at Holy Sepulchre in a plot where her parents would later join her. Already in this plot was another baby, discussed at the end of this article.
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| Death certificate of Jozefa Schneider. Died September 12, 1916 in Newark. 87 Richmond Street. Cause of death acute gastro enteritis. |
The birthdate on the death certificate is February 29, 1916. This is how her entry was located in the birth index, leading to her birth certificate, even though the surname was spelled differently on the death certificate versus the birth certificate.
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| New Jersey Geographic Birth Index Josephine M Snajder born February 29, 1916 in Newark. |
The couple's second child, Stanislau, was born April 2, 1917. He was child number two, one alive. He was the living child; Josephine had died over six months earlier.
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| Birth certificate of Stanislau Snaider. Born April 2, 1917 in Newark. 87 Richmond Street. |
The midwife signed her name "Antonia Wakova." This was a feminization of her husband's surname, Wak. In the 1910 census, she was from Bohemia. In 1920 and 1930, she was from Czechoslovakia. No profession was given in the census entries, again making the city directories invaluable for finding this midwife.
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| City directory entry for Mrs Antonio Wak, midwife. 82-17th Avenue in Newark, New Jersey. |
Stanislau became Stanley John. He married and has living descendants. He died October 30, 1988.
The couple's third child, Edward Shnyder was born July 21, 1918. He was incorrectly listed as the second child on his birth certificate.
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| Birth certificate of Edward Shnyder. Born July 21, 1918 in Newark. 30 Lones? Street. |
In 1936 Edward's surname was modified from Shnyder to Schneider via an official correction to the birth certificate. These are filed with the birth certificates.
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| Corrected birth certificate of Edward Schneider, born Edward Shnyder. |
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| Correction to birth certificate of Edward Shnyder, changing surname from Shnyder to Schneider. |
Edward Jacob married and has living descendants. He died October 2, 2001.
The couple's fourth child, Sofie Anna, was born September 26, 1920. This was the only birth certificate to use the Schneider spelling. The first name became Sophie and she married Alphonse Peter Anthony Ulinski in 1939. She died in 1995 in Florida.
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| Birth certificate of Sofie Anna Schneider. Born September 26. 1920. 119 Broome Street. |
The couple's fifth and final child was Joseph Snyder, born December 11, 1921. He married and has living descendants. He died in 1974 in Alabama.
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| Birth certificate of Joseph Snyder. Born December 11, 1921 in Newark. Beth Israel Hospital. |
Baby Josephine, born and died in 1916, appears to be the first child of this couple. They probably married in 1916 or 1915. I found no record in New York or New Jersey. This could be because the names were butchered in the index, or they married in a different state or country.
Another mystery about this couple arises because of a baby buried with them.
In the same plot as Joseph Schneider and Mary Fila is a two-month old baby name Katie Fila. I don't know who this is, but based on the surname Fila and the address- 85 Richmond Street- she is related. Baby Katie died October 17, 1914 at the Babies' Hospital in Newark. The cause of death was enteritis and malnutrition.
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| Death certificate of Katie Fila. Died October 17, 1914 in Newark at The Babies' Hospital. "C. H. S." is Cemetery of the Holy Sepulchre. |
Could Baby Katie have been a child of Marie Fila, wife of Joseph Schneider?
