I now turn to the fifth of the eight children of Abraham Blumenfeld II and Giedel Strauss, their fourth son Moses Blumenfeld IIA, named presumably for his grandfather Moses Blumenfeld, the brother of my 3x-great-grandmother Breine Blumenfeld Katzenstein.  He was one of six cousins named Moses Blumenfeld on my tree, all presumably named for their grandfather (or great-grandfather) Moses Blumenfeld I.  I am referring to this Moses as IIA, the A signifying Abraham II, Moses Blumenfeld I’s oldest son and father of Moses IIA.

Moses IIA was born on December 31, 1849, in Momberg, Germany.

On May 25, 1875, he married Fanny Bachrach. She was born in Rhina, Germany, to Kallman Bachrach and Jette Klebe on October 30, 1853.¹

Moses IIA and Fanny had five children. Their first was Antonie Blumenfeld, born March 8, 1876, in Momberg.

Second born was Hedwig Blumenfeld, born in Marburg on July 8, 1877.

Frida, a third daughter, was born on December 29, 1879.

She was followed by Moses IIA and Fanny’s first son, Karl, who was born on November 27, 1881, in Marburg.

Sadly, both Frida and Karl died in March, 1882, Karl on March 3 at three months of age, and Frida eleven days later on March 14 at age two . I can’t begin to imagine the family’s grief over losing these two young children. ²

Moses IIA and Fanny had one more child, another son, Ernst, born February 22, 1889, seven years after the deaths of Frida and Karl.

Fortunately, Ernst and his older sisters Antonie and Hedwig lived to adulthood.

Antonie married Morris Katz sometime before 1902. Morris was born in Mollenfelde, Germany, on October 28, 1870.³  Antonie and Morris had two children, a son Artur (Avraham) Katz, born September 6, 1902, in Goettingen, Germany,⁴ and a daughter Margarete Martha Katz, born in Marburg on September 17, 1906.⁵

Hedwig Blumenfeld married Moritz Kaufmann on March 16, 1900, in Marburg. Moritz, son of Jacob Kaufmann and Betty Mayer, was born on July 12, 1855, in Schotten, Germany. He was living in Paris when he married Hedwig.

Their two children were born in Paris where they settled: Rachel Gertrude Anna Kaufmann, born on January 12, 1901, and Albert Kaufmann, born on May 15, 1902.

Moses Blumenfeld IIA did not live to see his youngest child and only surviving son Ernst get married. He died on June 3, 1911, in Marburg when he was 61.

Ernst Blumenfeld married on December 12, 1921, ten years after his father died . He married Bella Tannenbaum in Bad Hersfeld, Germany, where she was born on March 2, 1900, to Levi Tannenbaum and Rosa Katz.⁶

Ernst and Bella had three children. Lore was born in Marburg on March 13, 1927.⁷ Her brother Franz was born two years later on March 21, 1929, in Marburg.⁸ The third child Paul was born three years after Franz on February 2, 1932, in Marburg.⁹

Fanny Bachrach Blumenfeld did not live to see the births of her last two grandchildren Franz and Paul. She died at 74 on April 9, 1928, in Marburg. She was survived by three of her children, Antonie, Hedwig, and Ernst, and by seven grandchildren.

Unfortunately, the three surviving children of Fanny and Moses Blumenfeld IIA would not survive the 1930s. More on their stories and those of Moses and Fanny’s grandchildren in my next post.