I found my great-grandfather Bernard Shapiro in several Pittsburgh city directories from 1907-1914. His identity may possibly be mixed up at one point with a Benjamin Shapiro, but it appears that he is correctly identified for the most part as being a teacher living at 65 Roberts Street. Pretty amazing. More amazing still is the piece of information (see image above) in the 1930 edition of the city directory. It is a wonderful bit of evidence speaking to my great-grandparents' presence in that town. The notation (wid Bernard) is a beautiful touch. As Bernard had died a decade before, I find it wonderful that Fannie would still be so identified (in what was basically the phone book of that day) as a widow.
At some point after the family left 65 Roberts Street, they moved into 534 Herron Avenue. I don't think my grandfather Jake Shapiro was still living with them, but Fannie was living there with my Aunt Rose and Uncle Philip. Rose was apparently not yet married to Jerome "Jerry" Cohen, but she was working as a bookkeeper. There is no occupation listed for Philip because, I believe, he was already very ill with tuberculosis and would not live much longer, dying in 1933.
(Thanks to Eve and Don Krieger of Pittsburgh, PA for their efforts in making these directories available online.)
