Compiled by

Richard E. Norton, Jr.

January 7, 2020

Welcome to the NORTON FAMILY TREE genealogy website.  The information contained in these pages has been obtained from various family members, as well as from various web resources, and is believed accurate.  However, please let me know of any information that needs to be corrected, added or deleted. 

I want to particularly mention the valuable contribution of my cousin, Ted Norton, who was able to provide me with information from the entries in the family record section of a Hebrew-English prayer book.  This book appears to have been purchased in the 1880's by Moses Norton, and kept up after his death by other family members, particularly Helen Norton.

To quote from Ted's notes,

"The family name was originally Nathan.  The first entries are in Hebrew.  A translation reads, 'My dear late mother Zolda born in Warsaw in 1803' - died in 1853, and 'Moses Nathan, my dear late father, born in Lublin in 1801' - died in 1872."

I was pleasantly surprised in March 2010 to hear from a cousin I never knew I had - Mel Roberts.  Mel is a descendent of Samuel Norton (who I had not discovered in my prior searching!).  Mel shared with me a wealth of information on part of the Norton history that had escaped my research. 

I have also had the pleasure of hearing from two other "lost cousins" in early 2010 - Stephanie Nordlinger and Jan-Joy Sax - who have contributed information concerning this ancestry - particularly with Samuel's line (I was unaware of his existence  before 2010). 

To make this website as interesting as possible, photographs of many of the family members may be viewed by clicking on the Family Picture Albums link above.  The pictures are grouped by family lines to make their viewing more meaningful.  If you have additional photographs that you believe would be a nice addition to the albums, please scan them into a JPG file and E-mail them to me (a link to my E-mail address is at the bottom of this page), along with a description of the photograph (who is in it, when it was taken, and where....), and which album(s) I should add them to.

This genealogy begins with MOSES and ZOLDA NORTON (approximately 1800).   Each generation is represented by its own color.   The first two generations are discussed on this page.  All subsequent generations will be on that generation's own web page.  Be sure to check out each generation's family picture album.  Pictures are being scanned and added often (it is a BIG task to do this!).  So, check back periodically to view the new additions!

Our journey begins with Moses and Zolda - the FIRST of NINE generations (counting my great grandchildren today as the Ninth generation).

History

MOSES NATHAN was born in Lublin, Poland in 1801, and died 1872.  His wife, ZOLDA, was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1803 and died in 1854.  As noted in the introduction, their last name was NATHAN.   When "Moses Jr." came to America with his wife, Deborah, they apparently changed their last name to NORTON.    The notes I read refer to Ellis Island as the port of entry.  However, in the 1850, all immigration was through Castle Garden (in New York).     I have been trying to confirm this with immigration records, but so far, I have not been able to prove the port and time of their entry.  Most of the information we have on Moses and Zolda is from their son, Moses (Jr.).

Offspring

MOSES and ZOLDA NATHAN had four children (Moses, Isaac, Samuel and Esther), 

• MOSES NORTON (I don't know if he was a "Jr"), who died in 1910.  MOSES (Jr) NORTON married DEBORAH GREENBAUM.  We believe she was the sister of EPHRAIM GREENBAUM.  EPHRAIM was the father of BERTHA GREENBAUM, the wife of ISAAC.  MOSES came to America around 1851.

• ISAAC NORTON, who died in 1917.  ISAAC married BERTHA GREENBAUM, referred to by the family at the time as "Aunt Bettie."  She was believed to be the first Jewish girl born in Los Angeles.   Some books refer to her as the first Caucasian woman bring in the Los Angeles area.   Bertha's mother, Ernistine Greenbaum, is recognized in books as the first Jewish woman resident in the Los Angeles area.   Isaac and Bertha were married for 42 years.  ISAAC was the secretary of the old Metropolitan Building and Loan Assn, one of the first in California.  ISAAC and BERTHA had the following children:

  • Florie Norton Desenberg

  • Samuel T. Norton (always called ST Norton) who was an architect,  Samuel T. Norton was the president of the Wilshire Blvd. Temple (Jewish) from about 1946 to about 1955.

   

• SAMUEL NORTON.  SAMUEL, born August 4, 1834 per his headstone,  is believed to have come to America with ISAAC around 1852.  He married ANNA LANDSBERG. 

• ESTHER NORTON, born around 1840, and died around 1915.  She came to California a short time after her brother, Samuel.  She was married to Bernard Cohn in 1861 (born 1838, died 11/1/1889) who was born in Prussia, and buried on Nov 1, 1889 in Home Of Peace in East Los Angeles, CA.  Bernard is buried in Home of Peace in the unincorporated area of East Los Angeles.

  They had the following children:

  •  Julius B. Cohn (born about 1860 - ?), born in California

  • Carrie Cohn (born about 1862, died ?) born in California

  • Caesar Casper Cohn (born about 1864, died 1917), born in California.  He was buried on May 2, 1917 in Home of Peace, unincorporated area of East Los Angeles, CA.

 Now we move to the next generation.  You will need an access code to get to the other pages.  Please e-mail me if you need access beyond this page. 

Note:  We have no pictures (yet) of Moses or Zolda. 

Click HERE if you have the access code...

If you want to hear the words to the background music song - Further Along - sung by Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton, click here.  

Please write me if you have questions or information for my tree

Dick