By 1861 when their last and ill-fated daughter Sara was born, Isaak and Gelle (Straus) Blumenfeld had nine children plus Isaak’s son Abraham III, who was born to his first wife Frommet Kugelmann who died shortly after giving birth. Because there are so many children and because some of them had many children, I’ve decided that rather than go decade by decade as I often do, I will need to examine each of the eight children who survived to adulthood separately, starting with the first-born child of Isaak, his son Abraham III.
As we saw, Abraham III was born on March 13, 1842, and his mother died five days later. Isaak did not remarry for ten months, so I don’t know who helped him care for the newborn baby. Isaak’s mother Gidel died a year after the baby’s birth, so perhaps she helped through that first year. Or maybe Frommet’s family helped. I don’t know, but somehow little Abraham survived.
On December 16, 1868, Abraham III married Friedericke Rothschild, the daughter of Abraham Rothschild and Gelle Baum, born in Angerod, Germany, on December 18, 1845.1
Marriage record of Abraham Blumenfeld III and Friedericke Rothschild, Arcinsys Archives Hessen, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 628, p. 12
Abraham III and Friedericke had nine children (you can see why I had to break this family down a bit!).
Dina Blumenfeld was born on February 1, 1871, in Momberg, Germany.
Dina Blumenfeld birth record, LAGIS Hessen Archive, Geburtsregister der Juden von Momberg (Neustadt) 1850-1874 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 608), p. 7
Her sister Auguste came next on June 13, 1873, in Momberg.
Auguste Blumenfeld birth record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, Geburtsregister der Juden von Momberg (Neustadt) 1850-1874 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 608), p. 7
Then came Katincka, born February 5, 1875.
Katincka Blumenfeld birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 6458, Year Range: 1875, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901
Nanny was the fourth child, born January 3, 1878.
Nanny Blumenfeld birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 6461, Year Range: 1878, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901
After four daughters, Abraham III and Friedericke had two sons. Hermann was born on April 17, 1880. Since he is the youngest of the three Hermann Blumenfeld’s on the tree, I will refer to him as Hermann Blumenfeld III.
Hermann Blumenfeld birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 6463, Year Range: 1880, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901
And his brother Hugo was born August 30, 1882.
Hugo Blumenfeld birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 6465, Year Range: 1882, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901
Bertha came next. She was born on May 4, 1885.
Bertha Blumenfeld birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 6468, Year Range: 1885, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901
The eighth child was another boy and yet another Moses Blumenfeld to add to the family tree. He was born on September 28, 1887, and was known as Moritz, as were three other men on the family tree (not to mention all the men named Moses Blumenfeld). I will refer to this cousin as Moritz Blumenfeld IV because he was youngest of the four cousins who used that name.
Moses (Moritz) Blumenfeld birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 6470, Year Range: 1887, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901
Finally, Abraham III and Friedericke’s ninth and final child arrived on November 7, 1892. Her name was Emma.
Emma Blumenfeld birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 6475, Year Range: 1892, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901
Thus, Friedericke was pregnant and giving birth from 1871 until 1892. She was 47 when she gave birth to her last child Emma in 1892. I cannot begin to imagine it. Her first grandchild was born just three years after the birth of Emma, so Emma was an aunt at three.
More on the next generation in the posts to come.
Brotmanblog: A Family Journey 
Friedericke was an earth mother, a natural. Luckily little Abraham survived. What a gene pool! In my own lineage, every female gave birth in her 40’s on both sides and this didn’t seem unusual.
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Nowadays many people don’t even start a family until they’re in their 40s. But giving birth every other year for over twenty years—can you imagine?? And that was before disposable diapers!
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LOL – no I can’t even imagine 🙂
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What happened to Emma, happened to my father. When he was born the 16th child of Emma Klopp he was already an uncle. How people managed to feed and raise so many children is truly unimaginable in our modern times.
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I know—or from a woman’s point of view—carry and give birth to them all, nurse them all, and feed and bathe them all.
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Poor Friedericke. She didn’t even know what her body was like without being pregnant or lactating!!! She must have had help caring for the children. Not for certain, but likely, right?
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Well, at a minimum her older daughters must have helped with the younger siblings. I hope….
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At a minimum. But it wasn’t necessarily prohibitively expensive to employ a woman or girl to help in those day.
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True.
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Yeah to all that about multiple pregnancies. When my 3rd great-grandmother gave birth to her final (12th) child, the baby girl already had two nieces! Only one of the 12 did not survive to adulthood, so my ancestor really did well!
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I just can’t imagine HOW they did it—not get pregnant (!), but how they carried, gave birth to, and raised so many children.
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Pingback: Abraham Blumenfeld III’s Children: Sisters and Brothers Marrying Sisters and Brothers, and Down the Rabbit Hole I Fell | Brotmanblog: A Family Journey
I can’t even imagine having so many children at any age but to have your last at 47??? That’s the age I was when I became a grandmother for the first time.
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You were a young grandma at 47 for “our” generation. I was 58 and felt like a young grandmother! (My mom was 49 when she became a grandmother.)
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I had my first child at 20 so I had a head start 🙂
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I was 28, and my daughter was almost 30 when she had when she had her first.
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I think we all have families where the youngest was born an aunt or uncle or became one soon after their birth. They just kept having those babies. If all survived or most then it was often because the family was better off than most.
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Or just damn lucky! Or both…
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