Jeanette's grandfather, Henry Behr Wasserman, was a native of the Russian empire who came to the United States during the late 1800s, a period of heavy Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe. These are copies of some documents which provide information on Henry's origins and his life in the United States.
Citizenship. Henry became a United States citizen in 1911. We found his naturalization petition at the Ancestry.com web site. We were unable to locate his wife's petition. This is the only document we have which gives Henry's complete middle name. The birth dates of their children listed here vary greatly from the dates we obtained from family sources. The spelling of their names may reflect a clerk's attempt to understand Henry's accented English:
Military service. Henry enlisted in the U. S. Army, in Company E of the 3rd Regiment of Missouri Infantry, 13 Jun 1898 to serve in the Spanish-American war. The war ended before he had a chance to go overseas, and he was discharged 7 Nov 1898. This is his discharge certificate, which was reissued in 1915 to replace his original certificate. Jeanette's sister found it among some papers which Henry's daughter Elsie Cox left behind:
United Spanish War Veterans. Henry joined this organization after his discharge. This 1931 certificate of transfer from one USWV post to another in Los Angeles was also among Elsie's documents:
