Talk:Seymour Rexite

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Date of birth[edit]

Our article dates Rexite's birth January 18, 1908 without any citation. Caraid O'Brien (who helped him organize his papers for Harvard) in her oral history interview for the Yiddish Book Center says Seymour Rexite "came to America when he was six years old, in 1920", which would put his birth date in 1913 or 1914. His New York Times obit (October 2002) gave his age at death as 91, meaning a birth date between October 1911 and October 1912. If the latter two citations agreed with each other, I'd simply change the date, but as it is I'm leaving it for the moment and asking if anyone has something more solid. - Jmabel | Talk 22:10, 9 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Amazingly, I just got a quick answer back from Caraid O'Brien. She says he "was born in Pietrokov, Poland on January 18, 1914, the youngest of six children. His age was listed as 6 when he arrived on Ellis Island, August 1920 and that is the first official record of his age that we know of." Apparently, possibly because he was younger than his wife Miriam Kressyn, he lied about his age, and it also looks like he gave a false birth date to the Social Security Administration. I realize that personal correspondence is not citable, but since the current date is not cited either, I'm going to edit accordingly but leave the "citation needed" in place. I've asked Ms. O'Brien if she's ever published that date somewhere that I can cite. - Jmabel | Talk 23:54, 9 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
OK, I've already had a further response, and believe I now have something to cite. - Jmabel | Talk 00:08, 10 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Just to clarify: I have not seen the ship manifest myself, but Caraid O'Brien, who helped organize Rexite's papers has a forthcoming book on him and his wife, provided the citation. At ellisisland.org, I could verify this spelling of the surname and that this manifest exists, but could not personally verify the date. - Jmabel | Talk 00:27, 10 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]