Amelia Oppenheimer

Life

References for this account: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

Where they lived

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The pins show approximate places. The line only joins them in time order; it does not prove the route travelled. 1 of the places listed above are recorded only as a county or country, so they are not pinned. Cemetery and burial places have red pins.

Historical context

These background articles explain the places, work, and events in this entry.

What we still don't know

• [WITHDRAWN THE SAME DAY — I WAS WRONG] Earlier on 21 August 2026 I added a note here calling this couple a pairing with three independent silences and saying it should be re-examined from the beginning. That was wrong, and it repeated a mistake this archive had already made and retracted. Two certificates already transcribed on these pages name this couple as parents — Louis Seelig's marriage, Manhattan 1906, certificate 5512 and Bernard Seelig's death, Manhattan 1939, certificate 11739, thirty-three years apart. And the age was litigated and retracted on 9 August, because two censuses independently give 61 in 1880 and 83 in 1900. The absent New York marriage is unremarkable for a couple who married about 1868, and the absent death for Amelia is what happens to a family the indexes file under Selig, Seelig, Oppenheim and Oppenheiman by turns. Three ordinary gaps are not three pieces of evidence. Finding 162.
• [NEGATIVE, and it means less than it looks] She would have died as Seelig, and the three Amelia Seelig/Selig deaths in the New York index imply births of 1881, 1859 and 1841, none fitting January 1850. This is not evidence against her identity: she was alive in 1900, the index runs to 1948, and this family is filed under Selig, Seelig, Oppenheim and Oppenheiman by turns — which is exactly how someone goes missing from an index. Finding 162.
• [A NEAR-MISS, OPENED AND REJECTED] Oppenheimer, Amelia married Aron Bakowen at Manhattan on 1 July 1891, certificate 9290 — the only Amelia Oppenheimer in the New York marriage index for 1866-1905. She is not ours, or at least nothing connects her: our Amelia's children by David Seelig were being born from 1880 to 1889. Recorded so the row is not mistaken for a find later. Finding 158.
• [A DNA TEST IN THE DIRECT FAMILY BEARS ON THIS] An autosomal test taken by a living descendant shows a small but unambiguous Ashkenazi Jewish component, reported as eastern European. No such ancestry is documented anywhere in this archive. Until August 2026 the archive believed its Jewish line ran through Samuel Selig and Gussie Nathanson — and finding 117 removed that family entirely, having shown they were attached through the wrong Florence. The Jewish ancestry is real; the paper trail for it is missing. This page is one of a small number that could carry it. Percentages and the test itself are deliberately not published here. Oppenheimer and Seelig are both names German Jewish families carried, which is why this was flagged as suggestive from the first day this line was built. Against it, her son Louis was christened — a Christian rite — which is real evidence and cuts the other way without settling anything.
• Her birthplace. The 1900 census records one and the index does not carry it; the sheet itself would.
• Her parents, her marriage record of about 1868, and her death.
• Seelig and Oppenheimer are both names carried by German Jewish families, and her husband came from Germany in 1852. That is suggestive and it is not evidence — her son was christened in a Christian rite, which cuts the other way without settling it. See finding 117.
• [NEGATIVE, CONTROLLED — NOT MARRIED IN NEW YORK CITY] Tested on 21 August 2026 against the New York City marriage index by intersecting both spouses' rows on county, certificate number and year. No certificate joins them. Two controls make the zero usable: the surname alone returns hundreds of rows, so the query works; and the GGG transcription of every record and the City's index of digitised records return identical counts, so this is a real absence and not a scanning gap. Within the index's coverage — five boroughs, 1866-1937 — they married somewhere else. Finding 158.

References

1. [1] Marriage of Louis Seelig and Sarah Moore, Manhattan, 21 February 1906Back to citation 1
2. [2] Christening of Louis Seelig, Manhattan, born 30 June 1876Back to citation 2
3. [3] Louis Seelig, Social Security application, February 1938 (NUMIDENT)Back to citation 3
4. [4] Death of Bernard Seelig, Manhattan, 19 May 1939Back to citation 4
5. [5] David Seelig household, 1900 census, Manhattan Ward 14Back to citation 5
6. [6] David Selig household, 1880 census, New York CityBack to citation 6
7. [7] NYC marriage index, 1866-1937 — controlled sweep of twelve archive couples, 21 August 2026Back to citation 7
8. [8] NYC death index — controlled negatives for Gina Cacace's frontier ancestors, 21 August 2026Back to citation 8

See also

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