How a DNA match + great German records = Blum family breakthrough!
Lena Blum is my father's father's mother. For years, the only information I had about her parents came from census records. Her father Robert died between the 1860 and 1870 censuses, which is too early for most kinds of death records that might have provided information about his parents. The 1860 census for Detroit, Michigan shows that Robert is a pedlar, and that he and his wife were both from Hesse Darmstadt. Their oldest child - my great grandmother Lena - is the oldest of four children. The younger three were all born in Michigan. Lena was born in New York, which provides a hint about their port of arrival when they immigrated from Germany. Robert Blum Headstone Lafayette Cemetery of Temple Beth El Detroit, Michigan Robert, his wife Regina (sometimes also called Gina or Lena), and their daughter Rose/Rosa are buried in the historic Lafayette Temple Beth El cemetery in Detroit. His headstone is large, with lots of text that is both foreign and faded. I have lon