Morris Pickholtz - born 1893, or 1892, or maybe both

Morris Pickholtz in London

Morris Pickholtz, Moshe ben Shemuel, married Miss Dora Deitch in London, 10 January 1928. The civil marriage record, from 16 December 1927, tells us that Morris was thirty-five years old and Dora thirty-seven. Both records say that it was the first marriage for each of them. The rabbinical record says he has no brothers.

I had a brief correspondence with some of Dora's family nearly twenty years ago and learned their death and burial information. They had no children.

Morris died in 1933 at age forty and Dora in 1948 at age seventy-three, so her age at marriage (37 in 1927) appears to be wildly false. Morris is buried in East Ham with a simple grave with no information. Dora is in Rainham with a normal tombstone that mentions her many family and friends. 

I was left to ponder who this Morris Pickholtz might be. I had his name Moshe ben Shemuel and a birth year 1892-3, which may be correct. Or not. 

Over the years I have accumulated a few references to people named Morris Pickholtz in UK whom I cannot connect to anyone else.

 

Morris the Woodcarver in Canada

We have a passenger list showing arrivals in Halifax 14 April 1911 which includes Morris Pickholtz, age 18. It says he is a woodcarver but there is a stamp over that saying "farm laborer." He is a Hebrew, born in England. We also see him at St. Albans which is a crossing point into the United States though I cannot tell which way he is going.

He also appears in the 1911 Canadian census, where it says he was born September 1892.

In 1914, he appears on a passenger list returning to England. He is listed as a farmer.

This could be the man who later married Dora Deitch.

 

Morris the Soldier

We have three documents indicating that he was awarded a medal for his service with the King's Royal Rifle Corps in France during WWI. No further information.