My Great-Great Grandmother's Name--Back to a Mystery (And It's DNA's Fault)

In earlier posts, I discussed how in trying to discover the maiden name of Hinda Diamond, my great-great grandmother, I first discovered a document that had it as Christ--but I soon had a moment of epiphany and tied "Cousin Sam" mentioned in a letter written by my grandfather's first cousin to the Schmul Kreiss who emigrated to America with my grandfather's aunt and two cousins.  Schmul became Samuel Krise in America and lived in Detroit where he had three daughters.  I suspected that my great-great grandmother's maiden name had been Kreiss.

In September, I received an email from a woman named Lisa, who had found my blog posts--and who was a great granddaughter of Sam Krise.  And her grandmother is still alive.  Well, channeling Israel Pickholtz, I realized this was the perfect situation for DNA testing!  With my hypothesized relationship and the clues given in the aforementioned letter, Sam was likely a first or second cousin of my grandfather--definitely close enough for my father's, uncle's and probably my autosomal DNA to match.

Schmul Kreiss (Sam Krise)'s Ship Manifest (line 26); 1913

My great-great grandmother's maiden name--SOLVED (I think)!

I'd posted about 3 months ago about how my great-great grandmother's maiden name was given as "Christ" on her daughter Jenny Diamond Dorfman's marriage license--not quite the typical Jewish family name!  There were lots of ideas given via facebook, but it was all conjecture.

Last week, a cousin posted a letter that Jenny's daughter Ida Dorfman Hall had written in 1980.  I'd seen this letter before when we first figured out the connection to this branch because of DNA testing.  Ida had mentioned a cousin Sam who had left Europe along with her, her mother, and her brother.  I'd identified the cousin on the manifest, but the name meant nothing to me at the time, so I assumed he was likely related on Ida's paternal side.

But seeing the letter again made me pull up that manifest.

Schmul Kreiss Ship Manifest (line 26); December 1913

My great-great grandmother's maiden name was....WHAT?

Last week, I mentioned how getting the Declaration of Intention for my grandfather's aunt's husband (Morris Dorfman, husband to Jenny Diamond Dorfman) led to finding his ship manifest which contained the names of several other previously unknown relatives as well.  Well, it turns out his Petition for Naturalization opens up another avenue for research as well!

My grandfather had told me that his Diamond grandparents were Hillel and Hinda Diamond, but he did not know Hinda's maiden name.  When DNA helped to discover Jenny's large family in the Detroit area, I was hoping that Jenny's death certificate could help to solve that mystery.

Death Certificate, Jennie Diamond Dorfman; Detroit, Michigan, 1949

While the certificate did help to verify that Jenny was, indeed, my grandfather's aunt, it has her parents as Hillel and Hilda Diamond, with the maiden name for "Hilda" unknown.

But I noticed something very peculiar on Morris' Petition for Naturalization: