Halt! Were they Russian or German?

There happens to be a (slight) discrepancy about the origins of Samuel and Sarah Glasser. Here is the scenario, a 1905 New York State Census was found, which indicates that they are both from Germany. However, federal censuses indicate they are both from Russia. This is a rather delicate situation, and there may be several factors to take into consideration.

In this blog post, I wish present the censuses at issue here, and propose one or two possible scenarios on why this might be the case.

The first census is the 1900 U.S. Census:

This census dictates that the parents, Samuel and Sarah Glasser are from Russia.

And this is the 1905 New York State Census:

This census dictates that Samuel and Sarah Glasser are from Germany.

What the two census records above have in common with each other are the members within the household: Samuel and Sarah, along with their four sons, Harry, Samuel (Jr.), Martin, and Louis. In matters with how long Samuel and Sarah have been living in America, and everyone's age, the math adds up correctly within the five year time span.

Something more to include from last weeks blog post with family business, the 1905 New York Census shows that Harry was a glazier at the age of 15, and it appears that he held an apprenticeship under his father.

And then there is the 1910 U.S. Census.

This census also indicates that Samuel and Sarah Glasser were from Russian, and the only census to indicate they were Yiddish.

It's likely that the individual responsible for taking the New York census made an error concerning the national origins of Samuel and Sarah. There might have been confusion with the name Glasser since it is a spelling variation of Glaser. Glaser happens to be a German-Jewish name, and it would be doubtful to think that any spelling variation of the name was uncommon.

An interesting fact which was common for Ashkenazi Jews in Europe to assimilate with the people they were living among. In fact, it was also common for Jewish names to be related to the types of work which they pursued. Glaziers went by the names Glazer, Glass, or Sklar.

Perhaps if a marriage record for Samuel and Sarah could be found, I might be able to get a better idea of where they were born. My assertion is that they came somewhere from the Russian Empire.