MS 180 Rosa Fineberg Midwife Records

Post author By Admin
Post date 04/13/2011

Midwives display in “Voices of Lombard Street.” The text panels and objects mostly reference Rosa Fineberg

The following collection is one of my favorites (mostly because of my interest in the history of medicine), but it’s also a very useful tool for genealogists (as long as the genealogists’ ancestors were born in East Baltimore around 1900). Rosa Fineberg acted as a midwife during the early twentieth century. She delievered hundreds of babies, and her record books include the names of the parents (only sometimes the name of the baby she delivered), dates, addresses, occupations, and national origins.

Thanks to one of our very dedicated volunteers we are in the processes of creating a spreadsheet with all of the information from the books. When that document is complete (we have several months yet to go as it takes a VERY long time to type up hundreds upon hundreds of names, dates, addresses, etc.) researchers will be able to use it to find information faster, rather than having to leaf through the actual record books.

Two of the records books (left) are on display in our exhibition “Voices of Lombard Street” as is Rosa’s midwife certificate.

While this collection has a lot a value to genealogists, it doesn’t tell us much about Rosa herself. We know that she was extremely busy and that she must have been trusted since so many families called her in for the deliveries, but we know little else. Luckily we have an oral history in our collection, conducted almost thirty years ago in which Rosa’s granddaughter, Pearl Bagan, recounts what she remembers of her grandmother’s life and work. The combination of the oral history and the record book collection creates a much richer story than we could tell with just one or the other.

Rosa Fineberg (d. 1926) Midwife Records

1895-1919

MS 180

The Jewish Museum of Maryland

Accession and Provenance

The Rosa Fineberg Midwife Records were donated to the Jewish Museum of Maryland by Pearl Bagan as accession 1966.003 and Leonard Sollins as accession 1985.072. Jennifer Vess processed the collection in November 2009.

Access to the collection is unrestricted and is available to researchers at the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the Jewish Museum of Maryland before publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library’s usual procedures.

Biographical Sketch

Rosa Fineberg was born in Russia as Rosa Edelhurst, the only girl in a family of seven children. Her brothers became doctors and rabbis, and it is thought that she learned her midwifery from her brothers. Rosa married the chief rabbi of Katrinaslav, Russia, but later she immigrated to United States without him. She settled in Baltimore despite having all of her relations in New York, and, once established, Rosa brought over her three daughters – Sarah, aged sixteen, who married Max Siegal, Rebecca who married Harry Sohffer, and Pearl (the youngest). Rosa’s husband never came to the United States and the family lost touch with him after World War I. In Baltimore Rosa acted as a midwife, her records spanning the years 1895 through 1919. Rosa attended B’Nai Israel.

Information from: OH 0167

Scope and Content

The majority of the collection is made up of record books, containing the date of birth, gender, birth order, and place of birth of the child as well as the mother’s married and maiden names, mother’s place of birth, and the father’s name, occupation and birthplace. Not all of the records indicate the child’s name or gender. The record books are organized chronologically. The collection also includes a computer printout of the information from the record books and Rosa Fineberg’s midwife certificate.