Social Security Application Question?

Question

I recently sent away for a Social Security Application Form of my Great Great Aunt's, Mary Shomidie Hertel. She was the sister of my great grandpa, Frank Shomidie. The reason I sent for it was because I desperately needed to find out where they were born. They were from Austria-Hungary, I think modern-day Hungary. I can't find their passenger list or anything. Their name got changed from some Hungarian form once they got to America, so that's why. I sent for it because I thought it would tell the town in Hungary where she was born. Instead, the form I got, signed on December 9, 1941, said that she was born in Pheonixville, Pennsylvania. I know for a 100% fact that this is the right person, and I am 99.9% positive that Mary and my great grandpa, Frank(who was about 4 years younger), were born in Hungary. Mary was born on May 3, 1898. Her and Frank, along with their parents, and their 3 older sisters, Fannie, Katie, and Esther, all came over from Hungary in about 1906. He told stories about how he was on the boat and stuff. I was wondering if she lied or something on her form, possibly so she could get social security. None of her other siblings, including Frank, got social security. Can someone please help me figure this out?! This was really discouraging to me, because this was about the last hope to find out where they came from. I don't know what else to do. Thanks ahead of time for any help.

Answer 1

Here is where it pays to know a bit about Hungarian given names as well as Hungarian customs. For instance S has a sound like SH as in wish, while SZ has a sound like S as in snake.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_alphabet



Frank may be Ference, even if they were ethnic Germans (as the census would seem to indicate)



Married women would use a derivative of their husband's given name, except it would have the ending NE... in this case Mrs SHMOIDIE would be Ferencne SHMOIDIE



Also even though the name was change once they settled in America the ship manifest WILL have the name as it was in Hungary (of course some minor errors may have been made)



These may be your SHMOIDIE ancestors

First Name: Anna

Last Name: Szomdi

Ethnicity: German

Last Place of Residence: M. Polany, Hungary

Date of Arrival: May 17, 1906

Age at Arrival: 42y Gender: F Marital Status: M

Ship of Travel: Prinzess Alice

Port of Departure: Bremen

Manifest Line Number: 0004

she is traveling with children



0004. Szomdi, (Ferenczne) overwrtten with Anna F 42y M German M. Polany, Hungary

0005. Szomdi, Eszter F 8y S German M. Polany, Hungary

0006. Szomdi, Hana F 5y S German M. Polany, Hungary

0007. Szomdi, Ferencz M 3y S German M. Polany, Hungary



NOTE number 0006 is actually Maria... in this part of Europe there is no name Mary it is Maria AND the name on the manifest is really spelled SOMOGYI ... it was the modern day transcribers who made the error NOT the steamship agent at the Port of Departure (where manifests were written)



M. Polany or Mala Polany may now be located in Slovakia which until 1918 was part of northern Hungary



Robert Jerin

Croatian Heritage Museum

Cleveland Ohio

Answer 2

My great-grandfather was born in Canada, and he listed his Canadian birthplace on his Social Security application. I'm not sure why your Mary would've done that. It's never been a requirement to be a natural born citizen to apply for Social Security. But maybe Mary didn't know that, and thought it was safer to say she was born in the U.S.? Or maybe she'd already fibbed about her birthplace for some other reason, and figured she better keep up the charade? Or maybe she just didn't understand the form?



That IS discouraging, though!



I see in your notes that jan51601 found that you reference Frank Sr. and Frank Jr.'s naturalization records. Have you looked at the actual documents? Do they not give a specific birthplace?



What about death records? Have you checked the death certificates for Frank's parents and all of his siblings? And the death certificates for all of their children? That's how I found the hometown of one ancestor... out of 13 kids, only one had a death cert. that gave his mother's specific home village. The rest just said "Ireland."



The only other thing I can think of is... have you found obituaries for each family member? Obituaries of immigrants sometimes list their hometown: "Frank Shomidie, native of Szolnok, Hungary..."



Besides the regular newspapers, you can sometimes find obituaries or memorials in church records, or in the records of clubs or organizations your ancestors belonged to. If they belonged to a church or club whose members were primarily Hungarian immigrants, an obituary/memorial could very likely have included their hometown because that would be of interest to the other members.



Wish I could think of some more suggestions. Don't give up, though... something will surface eventually. It always does!

Answer 3

[NOTE: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSmid=46986805&GRid=32048881&

has a close-up picture of her.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Shomidie&GSfn=Frank&GSby=1902&GSbyrel=in&GSdyrel=in&GSst=16&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=25368968& --brother Frank, with picture. [Clicking link "Find all Shomidies in:

• Roselawn Memorial Park" takes you to a page listing his wife and son.]



http://www.ancestry.com --

Mary May Shomidie

Birth--May 3, 1898, Austria-Hungary

Death--July 9, 1983, Springfield, Sangamon, Illinois, United States of America

Burial: Roselawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Springfield, Sangamon, Illinois

[PARENTS: Frank Shomidie (B. 1860, in Devecser, Veszprem, Hungary – d. 1932, Springfield, Sangamon, Illinois) & Anna "Annie" Dubies (6 Aug. 1863 – 17 Dec 1929; her parents were György "George" Dubies & Theresa Kfritch)

Anna's Marriage to Frank Shomidie--1886, in Austria-Hungary It was an arranged marriage for them, by their parents. Annie was in love with another man. She never did end up liking Frank.]

Married

1. Reuben Clifford Thienes (1886 – 1929)

2. John Prim Hertel (1890 – 1986) in 1936 in Petersburg, Menard, Illinois; Burial: Roselawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Springfield, Sangamon, Illinois (he was 95).



NOTE: Arrival

New York, New York, United States of America: When they came over from Austria-Hungary, their name was changed. A 13 year-old-girl that knew either Fannie, Katie, or Esther, was in New York. When the Shomidies got there, the girl changed their name from "SZOMOGY" into a more English form, "SHOMIDIE".



Mary & Siblings:

Fannie Shomidie 1888 – 1959

Katie Shomidie 1890 – 1989

Esther E. Shomidie 1896 – 1958

**Mary May Shomidie 1898 – 1983

Frank Shomidie --April 6,1902, Austria-Hungary – September 18, 1979, Springfield, Sangamon, Illinois; MARRIED: Georgia Loretta Brandenburg 1907 – 1991; THEIR CHILDREN: Frank William "Bill" Shomidie 1925 – 1999;Loretta Louise Shomidie 1926 – 2000;George Robert "Bub" Shomidie 1928 – 2009; and Barbara June "Barb" Shomidie 1929 – 1998.



1910 United States Federal Census

Name: Mary Shomidie

Age in 1910: 12

Estimated birth year: abt 1898

Birthplace: Germany

Relation to Head of House: Daughter

Father's Name: Frank

Father's Birth Place: Germany

Mother's Name: Annie

Mother's Birth Place: Germany

Home in 1910: Woodside, Sangamon, Illinois

Marital Status: Single

Race: White

Gender: Female

Year of Immigration: 1906

Household Members: Name Age

Frank Shomidie 46 (worked in a brick yard)

Annie Shomidie 42

Fannie Shomidie 23

Katie Shomidie 20

Ester Shomidie 14

Mary Shomidie 12

Frank Shomidie 7

[All listed as being born in/spoke Germany/German.]



Family stories: "A Little About Frank Shomidie"

"Frank Shomidie came from Austria-Hungary when he was a little kid, about 5. He grew up and became a coal miner. He met and married Georgia Brandenburg on February 5, 1925. They had four kids; Frank William, Loretta Louise, George Robert, and Barbara June. He was apparently an extremely funny guy who always cracked jokes. He also loved to drink. Frank also had a huge garden where he would plant just about anything. One of his main things that he would plant were, Hungarian Hot Peppers, which are very good! He was a really good dancer and was a wiz at math. One time he bet a guy he could beat a calculater at getting an answer to a math problem. So they did it and they got two different answers. It ended up being that the guy had punched something wrong into the calculater and Frank was right!"



"Firewood-- 1930's , Springfield, Sangamon, Illinois"

"Back in the '30's, Frank Shomidie took his family over to go visit his sister, Fannie, and their children. They all walked there from their house in the freezing cold. Once they got there it was still cold. So Frank Kohlrus, Fannie's husband, decided to put on a fire in the fireplace for everyone. So he put the firewood in the fireplace and lighted it. As soon as Fannie saw what he had done, she took a big bucket of water and threw it on the fire and said that they needed to save the firewood!"



NATURALIZATIONS:

FRANK SR.--2 Jan 1923--Springfield, IL.; age 62

FRANK, JR. --18 Dec 1941--Springfield, IL; age 39



Applied for Social Security--Mary--9 Dec. 1941, age 43; Springfield, IL:

Social Security Death Index

Name: Mary Hertel

SSN: 351-18-9984

Last Residence: 62702 Springfield, Sangamon, Illinois, United States of America

Born: 3 May 1898

Died: Jul 1983

State (Year) SSN issued: Illinois (Before 1951)



John Prim Hertel's PARENTS:

Joseph Hertel (1854 – 1921) & Anna Louisa Stauffer (1869 – 1933)

1st wife: Ida E. Payne (1896 – 1935)--married 1918.

2nd wife: Mary Shomidie, in Petersburg, Menard, Illinois, in 1936.

Answer 4

Social Security Disability Information - http://DisabilityHelp.siopu.com/?Lbp

Answer 5

http://dna.ancestry.com/welcome.aspx