Minnie (Schönberg) Marx
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Miene Schoenberg (Schönberg) Marx (1865 - 1929)

Miene Schoenberg (Minnie) Marx formerly Schönberg
Born in Dornum, East Frisia, Kingdom of Hanover, Germanymap
Wife of — married 18 Jan 1885 in New York, NYmap
Descendants descendants
Died at age 63 in New York City, New Yorkmap
Problems/Questions
Profile last modified | Created 22 Apr 2015
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Biography

Notables Project
Minnie (Schönberg) Marx is Notable.

Minnie Marx was born Miene Schönberg in Dornum, Germany. Her parents Fanny née Salomons (1829–1898) and Levy/Levi "Lafe" Schönberg (1823–1919) were members of the local Jewish community. The fifth of Levy Schönberg and Fanny Sophie Salomons's nine children. Her younger brother Abraham Elieser Adolf "Al" was born in 1868. About 1878 the family emigrated to New York City, Levy and Hänne travelling ahead together in 1877, where Minnie married Samuel "Frenchie" Marx in 1884.

While managing the Marx Brothers, she also went under the name of Minnie Palmer, so that booking agents would not know that the agent representing the Marx Brothers was actually their mother. She played the harp as did her mother and her son, Harpo Marx.
Care should be taken to not conflate Minnie Marx's "Minnie Palmer" with the Broadway actress, Minnie Palmer (1857-1936), who had started her theatrical career when Minnie Schönberg was only ten-years-old in Dornum. Numerous articles at the time, and since, did conflate the two, incorrectly attributing Minnie Palmer's acting credits to the mother of the Marx Brothers.


On the 8th June 1900, the Marx family was living at East 93rd Street, Manhattan. Home at the time were Samuel (40), a merchant, and tailor; his wife, Minnie (36); their children: Pauline* (15); Leo (13); Adolph (12); Julius (10); and Milton (8);and Minnie's mother: Fanny Schönberg.[1]

On the 25th April 1910, the Marx family were boarders in lodgings on Cabernet Avenue, Chicago. Home at the time were the head of the household: Pennsylvania-born Jennie G Home (41); her nephew: Pennsylvania-born Richard J Lillis (26), an electrician with a telephone company; the Marx's: Samuel (48), a commercial traveller selling cloaks; Minnie (45), an actress on circuit; Adolph/Harpo (21); Julius/Groucho (19); Milton/Gummo (17), all actors on circuit; and the youngest: 9-year-old Herbert (not yet known as Zeppo); and Minnie's sister: 47-year-old Hänne, known at the time as Anna Scheckler, an actress on circuit; and Hänne's (second) husband: German-born Julius E Scheckler (44), also a commercial traveller selling cloaks.[2]



Research Notes

  • * The 1900 census states that Minnie had given birth to five children - and that all five were living. There is no mention of Manfred, but listed as a member of the family is daughter Pauline, born about 1885. According to Pauline's Find a Grave memorial, and other records, Pauline (born 10 Jan 1884 (although an extracted birth record says 23 Mar 1884)) was actually the illegitimate† daughter of Minnie's sister Hänne (Hannah / Johanna). The relationship between Pauline and Hänne is stated more clearly in the 1930 census, where Hänne, as Johanna Scheckler, widow, was living with Pauline and her husband and children, and was listed as Simon Muller's mother-in-law.
  • The 1910 census correctly states that Minnie had given birth to six children, five of them still living.
  • † Further research has located a birth record for Pauline that shows she was the legitimate second child of Johanna Schönberg (name rendered as "Pauline") and her husband Max Lefevre.

Sources

  1. "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSKY-DYD : accessed 8 June 2021), Adolph Marks in household of Samuel Marks, Borough of Manhattan, Election District 1 New York City Ward 32, New York County, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 879, sheet 8B, family 167, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,120.
  2. "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKCQ-JY9 : accessed 8 June 2021), Adolph Marx in household of Jennie G Horne, Chicago Ward 6, Cook, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 350, sheet 9A, family 185, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 246; FHL microfilm 1,374,259.




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