--- title: "Malke Noel" url: https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/malke-noel/ lang: en work: "The Smud Family: A Jewish Family History from Ludza, Latvia to Entre Ríos, Argentina" author: "Mateo Smud" licence: CC0-1.0 summary: "Felix's wife went by many names: Ester Malka in her son's birth record, Malke or Molke in the family, María Esther Noel in Argentine papers. All of them are the same name." --- # Malke Noel **Evidence status: documented.** Felix's wife went by many names: Ester Malka in her son's birth record, Malke or Molke in the family, María Esther Noel in Argentine papers. All of them are the same name. c. 1874 – c. 1915 · Crossed the Atlantic alone with three children ## Other spellings Ester Malka, Molke, Malka, María Esther Noel, Esther ## Summary - Born: around 1874 - Died: around 1915 - Married: Berdyansk, around 1896 - Arrived: Buenos Aires, 23 December 1904 - Documented in: Mariupol birth record, 1899 · immigration register, 1904 ## Family - Father: Meyer — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/meyer-padre-de-malke/ - Married: Felix Smud — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/felix-smud/ - Children: Alejandro Smud — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/alejandro-smud/ - Children: Marcos Smud — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/marcos-smud/ - Children: Aida Smud — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/aida-smud/ - Children: Julio Manowsky — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/julio/ ## What is known We know little about her family, and almost all of it from oral tradition. The one exception is her father: her son's 1899 birth record names her as Ester Malka and names him, Meyer, without a surname. The child registered in that record was also named Meyer. Malka means “queen” in Hebrew. That is why Malke was rendered interchangeably as María, as Reina or as Reina Esther, and also why the names María, Esther, María Esther and Felisa recur so often among her descendants. She met Felix in Berdyansk and they married there around 1896. Berdyansk was a port on the Sea of Azov, with an active Jewish community and a great deal of trade. The family lived there, and Alejandro and Aida were born there. She had been born around 1874, so she was considerably younger than her husband. In August 1904 she left Berdyansk alone with the three children —one of them a baby a few weeks old— and crossed half a continent to the port of Bremen. After Felix's death she remarried and had a fourth child, Julio, half-brother to Alejandro, Marcos and Aida. She died around 1915, still young and before the end of the First World War. She saw her children grow up in Buenos Aires, but did not live to see them as adults. ## Photographs ![Oval head-and-shoulders portrait of Ester Malka (Malke Noel): hair gathered in a high bun, a dark high-necked dress and a light bow at the collar.](https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/fotos/ester-malka-noel-retrato.jpg) **Portrait of Malke Noel (Ester Malka).** Ester Malka —Malke Noel—, recorded in Argentine papers as María Esther Noel. Oval portrait, undated. (documented.) ![Studio portrait of the Smud family: Ester Malka seated, in a dark dress with a lace front; beside her Aida, in a light dress; Marcos and Alejandro in short suits and bows, one of them holding a cane; and Felix standing, his hand on one of his sons' shoulder.](https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/fotos/felix-smud-ester-malka-y-familia.jpg) **Felix Smud and Ester Malka with their children.** Felix Smud and Ester Malka with their three children: the girl is Aida; the two boys are Alejandro and Marcos (Meyer), though it is not known which is which. Undated. (documented.) ![Studio portrait of Felix Smud and Ester Malka: she stands in a long dark dress, holding a fan and light gloves; he sits beside her in a dark suit and white bow tie. On the left, a tulle veil over a small table.](https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/fotos/felix-smud-y-ester-malka-noel.jpg) **Felix Smud and Ester Malka.** Felix Smud and Ester Malka (Malke Noel). The card mount bears the printed name of the studio, José M. Silva, and the city, Paraná. Undated. (documented.) ## Parentage, version by version - What the documents show (https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/documents/) — father: Meyer — documented. Ester Malka, daughter of Meyer. ## Surname variants - Zhmud — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/name-variants/zhmud/ - Smud — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/name-variants/smud/ ## In the timeline - c. 1896 — Felix and Malke marry in Berdyansk - 1899 — The Mariupol birth record - August 1904 — Malke leaves Berdyansk with the three children - October 1904 — Sailing from Bremen on the Borkum - 23 December 1904 — The ship docks in Buenos Aires - c. 1908 — Malke returns to Russia with Aida - c. 1915 — Malke dies and the siblings move to Entre Ríos ## Places - Berdyansk — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/places/berdyansk/ - Buenos Aires — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/places/buenos-aires/ - Mariupol — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/places/mariupol/ - Bremen — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/places/bremen/ ## Where this comes from - Marcos's birth record (documented) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/sources/#partida-1899 - Rubén's document, October 1996 (family memory) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/sources/ruben-1996/ ## In FamilySearch's collaborative tree (not a source) https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GLQK-9KR --- The Smud Family · genealogical research by Mateo Smud, published under CC0 1.0. Machine index: https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/llms.txt