Stella Birdie Rothchild

We are not sure when Stella was born. A newspaper in San Francisco reported "Rothchild, E.S. (37) ... marr. lic. in 1895 to Meyerstein, Stella B. (23)" which is roughly consistent with Edward S. being born in 1856 and Stella Meyerstein being born in 1872. The census of June 6, 1900 lists Edward as 43, Stella as 27 (married 5 years), and Lewis (Louis) as 1. If her birthday is June 9, 1872, she would have been 3 days short of 28 at the time of the census.

However, her passport applications list her birth year as 1884. Passenger lists on multiple cruise lines list her as being between 16 and 17 years older than her son Lewis, who was born in 1898. Was she a child bride or did she lie on her passport application?

In the census of 1930, Edward gives his age as 64 (married at 30) and Stella gives hers as 49 (married at 18). The difference is ages is 15, while the difference in age at marriage is only 12. Using ages, Edward was born in 1856 and Stella in 1881. She is never consistent in giving her age. (Interesting note: Edward is listed twice among the residents of the Ritz Carlton, once on each of two different pages.)

One hint is in passenger lists from 1937 and 1939 where she just gave her age as 70.