Person in this family
Samuel Selig
2 December 1876 – 1 November 1941
Samuel Selig was born on 2 December 1876 in the Russian Empire, the son of Zelig Selig and Freida Lapsig, and died in Brooklyn on 1 November 1941; he was buried two days later. He married Gussie Nathanson and they raised at least six children in Brooklyn — Florence, Sydney, Arthur, Bernard, Edward and Mildred. Three censuses find the family there, in 1910, 1920 and 1930. He came to America in 1893 and sold beer for a living. He is buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens, in ground held by the Adlers Young Men society. His stated birthplace moves: Germany in 1910, Russia thereafter, which is the ordinary experience of someone from a border region whose country kept being renamed around them.
Proved by a record
Samuel Selig was born on 2 December 1876 in the Russian Empire, the son of Zelig Selig and Freida Lapsig, and died in Brooklyn on 1 November 1941; he was buried two days later. He married Gussie Nathanson and they raised at least six children in Brooklyn — Florence, Sydney, Arthur, Bernard, Edward and Mildred. Three censuses find the family there, in 1910, 1920 and 1930. He came to America in 1893 and sold beer for a living. He is buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens, in ground held by the Adlers Young Men society. His stated birthplace moves: Germany in 1910, Russia thereafter, which is the ordinary experience of someone from a border region whose country kept being renamed around them.
Died at Brooklyn, New York City, New York
How is this person related?
Andrew John Leahey’s no relationship found in this archive
Gina D. Cacace’s no relationship found in this archive
Abigail Ann Leahey’s no relationship found in this archive
Marie C. Fitzgerald’s no relationship found in this archive
Kevin Leahey’s no relationship found in this archive
Worked out from the recorded parents and marriages. No sex is recorded for anyone in this archive, so the wording stays neutral.
Life
A written life story has not been added for this person yet.
Family
Parents
Spouse
Children
See this family in the family treeWork and occupation
- Beer salesman
Where they lived
Use the place list first. The map below is optional.
Places listed on this page
- New York City, New York
- New York
- Germany
- Queens, New York City, New York
- Russia
- United States
- Mount Hebron Cemetery, Flushing, Queens, New York Cemetery or burial place
- Brooklyn, New York City, New York
The map could not load. The complete place list is above it.
The pins show approximate places. The line only joins them in time order; it does not prove the route travelled. 3 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.
Timeline
Arrived in the United States
The 1920 census gives his arrival as 1893 and his wife's as 1889 — they crossed separately, four years apart, and married in America.
Proved by a record
Brooklyn Ward 4
The 1910 census finds the family in Brooklyn Ward 4 with four children — Florence, Arthur, Sidney and Bernard — and gives Samuel's birthplace as Germany.
Proved by a record
Still in Brooklyn, six children
By 1930 the household holds six: Florence, Sydney, Arthur, Bernard, Edward and Mildred. The 1920 and 1930 returns both give Russia as his birthplace.
Proved by a record
Died at Brooklyn
New York City municipal death record: died 1 November 1941 at Brooklyn, born 2 December 1876 in Russia, buried 3 November. His parents are named as Zelig Selig and Freida Lapsig, and his wife as Gussie.
Proved by a record
Buried at Mount Hebron, in the Adlers Young Men plot
Mount Hebron Cemetery, Flushing, Queens: block 45, section 1, D, row 7, grave 8, in ground held by the Adlers Young Men society. Mount Hebron is laid out in society blocks, and the neighbouring graves in his row belong to unrelated families — Bernstein, Berger, Alpert — so these graves were sold singly rather than in family groups. Gussie is not among the sixteen Seligs the cemetery lists.
Proved by a record
What the records say
2 records transcribed.
Record exhibit
Samuel Selig interment, Mount Hebron Cemetery, Flushing, Queens
This old record gives information about the person or family named here.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
SAMUEL SELIG | 45-1-D-7-8 | ADLERS YOUNG MEN | 11/1/1941
Record exhibit
Samuel and Gussie Selig household, 1920 United States census, Brooklyn
A census is a government list of the people who were living in a home.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
Brooklyn Assembly District 12, ED 701, sheet 4B, household 88, line 67. Gussie Selig, wife, 38, born Russia, arrived 1889, both parents born Russia. Samuel Selig, husband, 40, born Russia, arrived 1893. Fannie Nathanson, mother, 73, born Russia.
Historical context
These background articles explain the places, work, and events in this entry.
Sgt. Peter Cooney and the Fighting 69th
The Peter Cooney buried in France was a sergeant in Company M, 165th Infantry—the wartime number of New York’s celebrated 69th Regiment. His unit belonged to the 42nd “Rainbow” Division, assembled from National…
How to Read the Evidence on This Site
Family history is full of statements that look equally certain on a screen but are not equally supported. This site keeps the difference visible. The confidence badge tells you how firmly a life or relationship…
What we still don't know
- [BRANCH NO LONGER CONNECTED] This family was attached to the archive only through Florence Selig's supposed marriage to August William Mayer. That marriage belonged to a different Florence — Florence Rose Seelig, daughter of Louis Seelig and Sarah Moore. The Selig and Nathanson people are kept, fully documented, as a deliberately separated group: no relationship to this family is currently established. See finding 117.
- [PRIVACY FLAG CORRECTED] This person was marked as possibly living, which suppressed everything about them. Nothing in their record refers to any year after 1908, so they cannot be alive: even somebody born in that year would be over a hundred and ten now. The flag was a default that had never been revisited, and it was hiding a nineteenth-century person as though they were a contemporary.
- Where Gussie is buried. She is not among the sixteen Seligs at Mount Hebron, and Samuel's grave neighbours are unrelated families, so she was not buried beside him.
- His 1893 arrival, from the 1920 census, is a year to search passenger lists on — with his wife's 1889 crossing it is the closest this line comes to naming a place in Europe.