Category Archives: Places My Family Has Lived

John Nusbaum Album: More Philadelphia People—Family, Friends, or Who Knows?

Posted on by
13

Having experienced some disappointment with the first batch of Philadelphia photographs from the Nusbaum album, I brainstormed with Ava about how to select the next group. In selecting the next group, I went through the album page by page, starting with the front of the second page. I looked for those that showed full body shots so that Ava would have more clothing to work with in dating the photographs. I also decided that since the photographs tended to be grouped on each page by photographer, I would select one from each page taken by a particular photographer in the hope that there would be some connection between the person I’d selected and the others whose photographs had been taken by that photographer and placed on the same page.

The second page in the album had one photograph taken in Philadelphia:

Since this photograph was taken by Robert Keely, the same photographer who took three of the photographs on the first page, I already knew the background and possible dating of this photograph to be around 1863-1864 (see my prior posts). Ava found additional evidence here in the fringed chair, which was introduced in 1864. She estimated that the little girl was about six years old so born in 1858.1 I theorized that she could be Miriam Nusbaum, John and Jeanette’s second daughter, who was born in 1858. She would have been my three-times great-aunt, Frances Nusbaum’s little sister. Can I be positive? No, since I have no known photograph of Miriam. But given the dating and the location and its placement on the second page of photographs, I think it’s likely.

I then turned to this page in the album. All the photographs on this page were taken by the same photographer, Edward P. Hipple of 820 Arch Street, Philadelphia. Three are head shots and one is a full body photograph of a man.

I asked Ava to analyze the photograph in the upper right.

Ava dated this photograph as taken in about 1863. She wrote, “Hipple operated a studio at 820 Arch Street from 1862 to 1866. In 1865, he opened a second studio in Norristown. Since only the Philadelphia studio is on the reverse of this photo, it is assumed that this is prior to the Norristown studio being added. The lack of a tax revenue stamp places the date before 1864.”  Ava also estimated that the woman in that photograph was about 25 years old, giving her a birthdate of about 1838.2

That conclusion sent me back to my family tree to see if I could find a woman born in about 1838 who was living in Philadelphia in 1863. The choices were limited. My great-great-grandmother Frances was born in 1845 and was living in Philadelphia in 1863, but Ava did not believe the photograph was of Frances, if we assume that the woman on the first page of the album was Frances. But we can’t be 100% certain. Ava tried AI, and it showed a high degree of similarity to the woman in the clip of the video of the portrait of Frances.

The only other family member who could have fit those criteria was Eliza Wiler, the daughter of Caroline Dreyfuss, Jeanette’s sister, and Moses Wiler. Eliza was born in 1842 in Harrisburg, but by 1863 she was married and living in Philadelphia. Eliza had one younger brother Simon (1843) and two younger sisters, Fanny (1846) and Clara (1850). Ava suggested that the four photographs on this page could be a father and his children. Perhaps then this is Moses Wiler at the bottom left with his son Simon and two of his daughters, Eliza and either Fanny or Clara. Maybe. But maybe not.

Turning to the next two pages, there are eight photographs all taken by another Philadelphia photographer, Frederick Gutekunst at 704 & 706 Arch Street, Philadelphia. Here are those two pages:

Ava had this to say about Gutekunst:

Gutekunst had a very prestigious studio in Philadelphia. He has been described as “America’s Most Famous Civil War Era Photographer.” Gutekunst photographed many famous people including Gen. Ulysses Grant, Major General George McClennan, Gen. Philip Sheridan, Walt Whitman, Henry W. Longfellow, Abraham Lincoln as well as other Civil War era celebrities and ordinary Union soldiers both before and around the time of the Battle of Gettysburg. He also photographed images from the Gettysburg battlefield itself.3

Who were these people photographed by this famous photographer? I asked Ava to focus on the woman in the upper left of the first page of Guntekunst photos since it was a full body shot with lots of clothing to help with dating the photo.

Ava thought that the woman was in her late 20s, 28-30, and that the photograph was taken between 1862 and 1864, meaning the woman was likely born in the early 1830s. Ava added these notes to her analysis:4

The woman in this photograph is wearing a ring, though it is on the wrong finger to be a wedding ring. Her hair and dress are also from this same time period.  The dark velvet applique trim on her skirt appears to have been added to an already made dress.  While there is no direct evidence that this has any meaning at all, it could be interpreted, given the time period, that this trim was added as a sign of mourning.

From the following page, I also selected a woman in a full body shot, the one at the lower right.

Ava thought this photograph was also taken between 1862 and 1864 and that this woman was a bit older than the one in a similar dress on the prior page. Comparing their clothing, Ava wrote, “Their dresses are similar, though this woman’s dress has Pamela sleeves which were fashionable at the time. The ruffles on her skirt have no added velvet trim.”5 If this woman was in her early thirties, she would have been born between about 1827 and 1830 or so.

I was at a total loss. There just weren’t any people on my family tree born in the late 1820s, early 1830s who were living in Philadelphia in the early 1860s. John and his siblings were too old; their children were too young. Jeanette Dreyfuss had two sisters born in the 1820s, Caroline in 1822 and Mathilde in 1825, and Mathilde was a widow after her first husband Maxwell died in 1851. But by 1862 she was remarried and presumably not wearing mourning clothes. As for all the other people on those two pages, I have no clues. They all look like adults in the 20s and 30s to me so also born in the 1830s and maybe 1840s, but who they could be is a mystery. Maybe family members, maybe not.

There were two more Philadelphia photographs I asked Ava to analyze, both on this page, the next one in the album:

I asked her to look at the little girl in the upper right and the couple on the lower left. Both were taken by yet another Philadelphia photography studio, Gihon & Jones, John L. Gihon and Alfred T. Jones, at 812 Arch Street, Philadelphia. Ava’s research found that Gihon and Jones were only in partnership at 812 Arch Street for one year, 1869-1870. She also concluded that the girl’s dress was from 1870. Since she thought the girl was between ten and twelve years old, she posited that she was born between 1857 and 1860.5

That means that this could be another photograph of Frances Nusbaum’s sister Miriam, who was born in 1858 and living in Philadelphia in 1870. Comparing this photograph to the one on an earlier page that also was possibly Miriam, I can see some similarity. Or it could be Lottie Nusbaum, the youngest child of John Nusbaum and Jeanette Dreyfuss and Frances’ youngest sibling. Lottie was born in 1863, however, so would have only been seven in 1870. Or…this could be any number of cousins or friends of the family.

1864 born about 1858 Philadelphia could be Miriam Nusbaum

As for the couple in the bottom left, Ava thought the man was around 21, the woman a bit younger, and that the photograph was taken in the year that Gihon and Jones were partners, 1869. That meant the man and woman were born around 1848-1850 or so. Ava ruled out that this was Bernard Seligman and Frances Nusbaum. That left numerous possibilities—too numerous to list and too speculative to list. Could be family, could be friends. We have no way of knowing.

At this point I decided to turn to the photographs from Sante Fe and stop trying to identify anyone in the Philadelphia photographs. There were only six taken in Santa Fe, and there were far fewer relatives who lived in Santa Fe during the mid-19th century. I figured these would be far easier to identify. I wish that were so.

  1. This and other information I received from Ava came from her second report on the album.  Ava Cohn, Analysis of Nusbaum Album #2, December 22, 2023. ↩
  2. See note 1, supra. ↩
  3. See Note 1, supra. ↩
  4. See Note 1, supra. ↩
  5. See Note 1, supra. ↩ ↩

John Nusbaum Album: Will the real Frances Nusbaum please identify herself?

Posted on by
13

As I wrote in my last post, I learned from Ava’s information and analysis of the photograph that might be John Nusbaum that without a photograph that was labeled “John Nusbaum” to use for comparison, there was no way to know for sure who that man really was.

Turning to the two photographs of women on the first page, I had hoped that the woman at the bottom of the page would be Frances Nusbaum. Let’s look at Ava’s analysis of this photograph:

It was taken by Keely, the Philadelphia photographer who took the photographs of the two men on this page, and, according to Ava, likely in the same time frame (if not at the same time) as those first two photographs, i.e., 1863 to 1864. Ava estimated that the young woman in the photograph would be 20-22 years old, meaning she was born in the early 1840s.1 Frances Nusbaum was born in 1845. She had no older sister, only older brothers. So this could be Frances.

But I have no other photograph of Frances, just a very blurry still from a video taken of a portrait made when she was much older. Ava didn’t find enough similarity between that blurry image and this photograph to conclude with certainty that this was Frances. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. The placement on the first page adds weight to the conclusion that this could be Frances, but there is no certainty.

I was further confused about whether this could be Frances when I asked Ava to analyze a different Keely photograph later in the project but worth discussing now. That photograph appears much later in the album, close to the end of the album. But it had a specific inscription on it, one of the very few in the album that did.

The inscription reads “Miss Nusbaum” in one handwriting, and then in a separate hand someone wrote, “Joan’s Great-great-grandmother.” The reference to Joan is almost definitely Joan Seligman, the granddaughter of Arthur Seligman and one of the last people to own the album, according to her granddaughter Jhette. Joan was the great-granddaughter of Frances Nusbaum. Her great-great grandmother with a Nusbaum surname would have been Jeanette Dreyfuss Nusbaum. Could this be either Frances or Jeanette?

Since this was a Keely photograph with no tax stamp, Ava dated it as either before August 1864 or after August 1866; based on the clothing and furniture, she narrowed it down to the earlier period, roughly 1861-1863. She also estimated that the woman in the photograph was a teenager between fifteen and eighteen years old, meaning a birth date between 1843 and 1848.

That meant it could not be Jeanette, who would have been much older than that by 1861, but it could be Frances, who was born in 1845. That seemed the logical answer to me, given the inscription on the back. The misidentification of her as Joan’s great-great-grandmother rather than her great-grandmother seemed minor.

But Ava was skeptical. She did not see a similarity to the woman she thought was Frances on the first page in the album. And she did not see a similarity to the woman in the blurred image from a video of a portrait supposedly of Frances. And she thought it unlikely that if Frances owned the album that her photograph would appear so late in the album.

But what if someone moved the photographs around? What if the photograph on that first page is not Frances? In my mind, the inscription carries more weight than the location in the album, but it’s also possible that the inscription is wrong. Maybe it was a different Miss Nusbaum. Maybe it wasn’t Joan’s ancestor. I don’t know.

Finally, the remaining photograph on the first page, the one I’d hoped was Jeanette Dreyfuss, my three-times great-grandmother, turned out to be the most confusing one of all to identify. It is the very first photograph in the album; it should be of someone very important, you would think. I sure was hoping so.

This photograph was not taken by Keely, who took all the other photographs on the first page, and it was not taken in Philadelphia, but in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. My three-times great-grandparents John and Jeanette (Dreyfuss) Nusbaum had lived in Harrisburg from about 1843 until about 1858. Frances Nusbaum, my great-great-grandmother, was born in Harrisburg in 1845. But by 1860 and thereafter, John and Jeanette and their children were living in Philadelphia. Thus, if this photograph was taken when my Nusbaum ancestors were living in Harrisburg, it had to be taken before 1860.

But Ava concluded that this photograph was taken after 1866. The photographer who took this photograph was Christian S. Roshon, located at “No. 424 (Old No. 110) Market Street Harrisburg, Penna.” By tracing the succession of photographers who worked at this location, Ava found that Roshon succeeded a photographer named Robert S. Henderson, who came after David C. Burnite.  Burnite (Burnite and Weldon’s) had been at 110 Market between 1864 and 1866, and Henderson was there with a photographer named Rogers from 1865-1866. That meant that Roshon didn’t occupy that address until 1866 or later, meaning that the first photograph in the album was taken after 1866. My Nusbaum ancestors were in Philadelphia by then, not in Harrisburg.

Since Ava estimated that the woman in the photograph was in her early 20s (20-22), she could not be Jeanette, who would have been far older than that by 1866. She might be Frances, who was 21 in 1866, but since Frances was no longer living in Harrisburg and was married to Bernard by 1866, that seemed unlikely.

So who could this young woman who holds the first spot in the album be? I searched my tree for a relative born in about 1845 who would have been living in Harrisburg in 1866. I could only find two women who came close to fitting into those parameters: Paulina and Sophia Dinkelspiel, daughters of Mathilde Nusbaum (John’s sister) and Isaac Dinkelspiel. Paulina was born in Germany in 1840, and Sophia was also born in Germany in 1849. Both were living in Harrisburg in the late 1860s. They were first cousins to Frances Nusbaum and John Nusbaum’s nieces.

Could that photograph be of Paulina or Sophia? Sure. But is the photo of either one of them? I have no idea. And if it is one of Frances’ cousins/John’s nieces, why would she be the first one in the album? It really doesn’t make much sense to me, but I also can’t disagree with Ava’s expert analysis of the dates of the photograph or the age of its subject.

Also, it’s important to remember that these CDVs could have been taken when someone was visiting from another town. Maybe Frances or someone else went to Harrisburg to visit her cousins and had her photograph taken while there. Of course, once you factor in that possibility, the photographer’s location becomes a less defining factor for identifying who was who in any of the photographs.

I decided to try a different approach with the next set of photographs.

  1. The references to Ava’s analysis in this post all come from her first report, Ava Cohn, Analysis of Nusbaum Album #1, December 16, 2023 ↩

Nusbaum Album: Is this John Nusbaum? Is that Bernard Seligman?

Posted on by
15

After retaining Ava Cohn’s services to help me with the album of photos (“the Nusbaum album”) I’d obtained from an antique dealer in Santa Fe and selecting, with Ava’s advice, where to begin, I waited anxiously to see what Ava could tell me about the album and the first four photos we’d decided to start with, the ones on the very first page:

First page in the Nusbaum album

I had been staring at these over and over while waiting to hear back from Ava. Could the two on top be my three-times great-grandparents Jeanette Dreyfuss and John Nusbaum? Could the two on the bottom be my great-great-grandparents Bernard Seligman and Frances Nusbaum? I was hoping so. Wouldn’t that be a logical assumption to make?

But alas, I quickly learned that hopes and assumptions are not a reliable method for identifying photographs.

Ava started her analysis by providing some background on the album itself. She wrote, “The album was manufactured and sold by Henry Altemus Company of Philadelphia. Altemus and Company first published photographic albums in 1862 and remained in business until 1936….The album is one of Altemus’ larger albums, holding four cartes de visite (CDV) photographs per page.  The photographs are CDVs measuring 2 3/8” x 4.”1

One thing that Ava explained is that cartes de visite, as their name suggests, were used as calling cards. When someone visited, they would leave their photograph as a memento of that visit. That meant that, unlike a modern photograph album where most of the photographs are likely to be of family members and close friends, this album could include photographs of anyone who stopped in to visit the Nusbaums and the Seligmans.

Ava shared this poem that illustrates how CDVs were used:

Ashford, Brothers & Co, Album Filler Poem, c. 1865

Ava’s report continued with some observations about the photographs and some of the issues involved in analyzing them, including the fact that most of the photographs in the album show only heads or heads and shoulders of their subjects. Because Ava did not have the ability to see other details of what they were wearing, it would be more challenging to provide exact dating of the photographs.

Nevertheless, Ava was able to reach several conclusions about the dates when the photographs on the first page were taken. She concluded that the three from Philadelphia were taken in the Civil War era, but not between August, 1864, and August, 1866. As she explained, “Tax stamps were issued by Union states and were required to be placed on the backs of photographs from August, 1864 to August, 1866 to raise money for the war effort.”2 Since these photographs did not have tax stamps on them, they had to have been taken either before August, 1864, or after August, 1866.

With that time period in mind, Ava then focused on the specific photographers who took these first four photographs. Three of the photographs on the first page of the album were taken by Robert N. Keely; his address, as indicated on the back of these three photographs, was “N.W. cor. Fifth & Coates Sts., Philadelphia.” Ava found Keely listed in Philadelphia directories at that address or at nearby addresses throughout the 1850s and 1860s and into the 1870s.

Knowing that these three photographs were taken during that era, Ava then focused on the three individual photographs on that first page that were taken by Keely. First, she looked at this one:

Based on her estimate of his age (50 years old) and the possible dating of the photograph between 1863 and 1864, Ava concluded that the man in the photograph was likely born around 1813-1814. John Nusbaum, my three-times great-grandfather was born on November 26, 1814, according to the family bible. Ava and I speculated that the man in the photograph could be John Nusbaum, given those dates and given the placement of the photograph on the first page.

I was excited by this analysis, but also realized that nothing could be certain. Without another photograph of John, we had no truly definitive way of being sure this was in fact John Nusbaum. That was an important first lesson I learned from Ava’s work on the album.

Another photo taken by Keely that appears on the first page of the album is this one:

Philadelphia c 1863, born about 25 years, could be Bernard or a Nusbaum son

I had hoped this was Bernard Seligman. But Ava was not convinced. She dated this photograph in that same 1863-1864 time frame and found that the man was 20-25 years old, meaning the man was born roughly between 1838 and 1844; Bernard was born in 1837 so within some reasonable margin of error of that estimate. But Bernard and Frances didn’t marry until 1865. Would they have had their photographs taken before they were married?

Possibly, but there was another obstacle. When I shared the photographs I do have of Bernard as a young man and as an older man as well as the blurry still from a video taken of his supposed portrait, I could see similarities, but Ava was certain that the man in the album was not Bernard.

 

Bernard Seligman

So who was he? Maybe one of John and Jeanette’s sons? Adolphus was born in 1842, Simon in 1843, and Julius in 1848. It could be any one of them, but I have no photographs of any of them. So who knows… It would make sense that John and Jeanette would have put one of their sons on the first page, but I can’t be certain.

What about the two women on that first page? Were they Jeanette Dreyfuss Nusbaum and Frances Nusbaum Seligman? That will be discussed in the next post.

  1. Ava Cohn, Analysis of Nusbaum Album #1, December 16, 2023 ↩
  2. See note 1, supra. ↩

The Nusbaum Album: An Introduction

Posted on by
17

Some of you may recall that last fall I received a call from an antique dealer in Santa Fe who had in her shop a photograph album with the names John Nusbaum and Frances Nusbaum engraved on the front and rear covers, respectively. I immediately knew that this album had belonged to my three-times great-grandfather John Nusbaum and his daughter Frances, my great-great-grandmother. Frances had married my great-great-grandfather Bernard Seligman and moved from Philadelphia to Sante Fe, where they raised their children, as I told in my family history novel, Santa Fe Love Song.

I agreed to purchase the album and when it arrived, I marveled at the collection of almost two hundred photographs of people I hoped were my relatives—or at least I hoped that some of them would be. But except for a handful of those photographs, there were no labels or names to identify the people in them. Almost all, however, had a photographers’ stamp that indicated where they were taken.

The largest group of photographs (43) were taken in Philadelphia, where John Nusbaum had settled after immigrating from Schopfloch, Germany, in about 1840. He had initially been a peddler traveling throughout Pennsylvania, but eventually settled in Philadelphia and established a dry goods store there. He married Jeanette Dreyfuss, another German immigrant, and had six children, my great-grandmother Frances being the third child and oldest daughter. Thus, I assumed many of the Philadelphia photographs were of John and his family as well as of other family members and friends. But who was who? I had no idea.

Not surprisingly, the next largest group of photographs were taken in Germany, including some taken in Mainz and some in Bingen, the two larger cities closest to Gau-Algesheim where Bernard Seligman and his siblings were born and raised. There were also photographs taken in other German cities, such as Stuttgart, Berlin, and Wiesbaden.

There were eight photographs taken in Santa Fe, where Frances Nusbaum had moved with her husband Bernard and their three older children in about 1870. Their youngest child Arthur Seligman was born in Santa Fe, but my great-grandmother Eva Seligman was born in 1866 in Philadelphia.

Three photographs were taken in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and several were taken in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, two locations where John and Jeanette’s siblings lived in Pennsylvania, so I assumed that those photographs were likely of those Nusbaum/Dreyfuss cousins. The remaining photographs were taken in other places such as New York City; Montgomery, Alabama; Wheeling, West Virginia; Peoria, Illinois; and St. Louis, Missouri.

Each page in the album has four slots for photographs. On the first four pages of the album, there are two photos, back-to-back, in each slot so that you cannot see the reverse of the photos without pulling them out of the slots. Then starting on the fifth page in the album, there are only four photos on each page, and the reverse of those photos shows through on the back of the slot on the back of the page.

What it took me a long time to realize is that all the photos squeezed into the back of those on the first four pages are photographs from Germany. I think that these photographs from Germany may have been added once all the other slots were filled. They likely belonged to Bernard Seligman and were added after he married Frances. I will get to these photographs in a later post, but my reason for mentioning this here is to indicate that I think that aside from those German photos, the others were probably placed by John, Jeanette, or Frances Nusbaum.

The photographs appear to be somewhat grouped together by the location where the photographs were taken and by photographer. The photographs seem to follow roughly this geographical order: Pennsylvania, including many from Philadelphia, but also Harrisburg and Lewistown; then two pages from Peoria, Illinois; then three pages of Santa Fe photographs; then some from New York City and other places; and then photographs from Germany (plus the ones on the reverse of the first few pages). There are also some that appear in random places within the album, but overall this is how the album is arranged.

Since I only had names on a handful of photographs and since I had no idea when the photographs were taken, I decided to retain the expert services of Ava Cohn, aka Sherlock Cohn, the Photo Genealogist. Long time readers of my blog know that I have had great success hiring Ava in the past to help me identify people in old photographs.

With the financial support of my brother and my cousins Marcia and Terry, I asked Ava to help me with this new project. I also agreed to sell the album after Ava and I were done with it to my cousin Jhette for the price I paid to the antique dealer; that way I had more money to hire Ava. Although I was sad to think that I would not be able to keep the album, I knew that Jhette, another descendant of Bernard Seligman and Frances Nusbaum, would take good care of it.

Because of the large number of photographs and my limited resources, I had to limit the scope of Ava’s work. I asked her only to date the photographs and to estimate the ages of the people in them. I was not asking her to do any identification of the people. I was hoping that with those two bits of dating information, I’d be able to deduce who the people were in the photographs—or at least narrow down the possibilities—by studying my family tree.

I also had to limit her work to about 20-25 of the almost two hundred photographs in the album. I decided to focus on those taken in Philadelphia, Santa Fe, Mainz, and Bingen because I knew that those would most likely be of my direct ancestors. As noted above, I figured that the Harrisburg, Peoria, and Lewistown photographs were of Nusbaum/Dreyfuss cousins. I had no idea who in the family (if anyone) lived in Berlin, Stuttgart, or Wiesbaden, Germany, or for that matter in St. Louis, Wheeling, or Montgomery. I knew of one branch that lived in New York, but not direct ancestors.

But because there were so many photographs taken in Philadelphia, I had to find some way to narrow down Ava’s work so that she could have the best chance of identifying the people in the photographs I chose. Based on her suggestions, we started with the photographs on the first page, figuring that those would most likely be the closest relatives if not the owners of the album; three of those were taken by the same photographer in Philadelphia. The fourth and the very first photograph in the album was taken in Harrisburg. There were two men and two women. In my wildest dreams, I was hoping that they were of John and Jeanette and Frances and Bernard.

Here are those first four photographs:

In my next two posts I will share what I learned from Ava about these four photographs and how I decided to choose the remaining 15-20 photographs for her to analyze. This will be a multipart series of posts devoted to the Nusbaum album.

 

Levi Rothschild’s Daughters Thekla Rothschild Weinberg and Frieda Rothschild Phillipsohn: One Survived, One Did Not

Posted on by
11

This is the story of the last two children of Levi Rothschild and Clara Jacob who lived to adulthood, their daughters Thekla and Frieda. Both have heartbreaking stories though Thekla survived and Frieda did not.

The fifth child of Levi and Clara, their daughter Thekla, married Manuel Edward Weinberg on August 19, 1907, in Borken. Manuel was born in Lichenroth, Germany, to Lazarus Weinberg and Karoline Oppenheimer on October 11, 1880.

Thekla Rothschild and Manuel Weinberg marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 843, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Thekla and Manuel had a son Hans Herbert Weinberg born in Frankfurt, Germany, on November 2, 1908.1

After Kristallnacht in November 1938, Manuel Weinberg was imprisoned at Buchenwald for a short time,2 and that may have motivated the family to leave Germany. By 1940 if not before, the family had left Germany for France, and according to Yad Vashem, Thekla’s husband Manuel was deported in 1940 to the internment camp near Toulouse, France known as the Recebedou camp.3

According to one website, the camp of Recebedou was created in July 1940 to receive refugees and those who had been evacuated. It was turned into a hospital camp in February 1941. But conditions in the camp deteriorated over time due to the lack of adequate medical care and a shortage of food. By late 1941, there were 739 interns, many of whom were over 60 and ill; 118 of them died in the winter of 1941-1942. Manuel Weinberg was one of those who died; he died on March 4, 1942.4

I don’t know for certain whether Thekla or their son Herbert, as he came to be known, were also interned at Recebedou because there are no documents I can find that indicate that they were. However, I do know that they must have been in France because Herbert and his wife, Edith Seckbach, had a daughter Yvonne born in Toulouse, France sometime in 1943.5  I could not find a marriage record for Herbert and Edith, but according to other records, Edith was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, in about 1918. 6

Wherever they were in France, somehow Thekla, Herbert, Edith, and their baby daughter survived. A document on Ancestry’s collection of Munich, Vienna and Barcelona Jewish Displaced Persons and Refugee Cards, 1943-1959 (JDC) indicates that as of November 1942, Thekla, Herbert, Edith, and Yvonne were in Vigo, Spain, which is almost seven hundred miles from Toulouse, France. How they got there in the midst of the war is a story I do not know.

Ancestry.com. Munich, Vienna and Barcelona Jewish Displaced Persons and Refugee Cards, 1943-1959 (JDC)

From Vigo they went to Madrid as of December 26, 1943. The Refugee Card lists two people as the “parents,” which I assume really means sponsors in this situation. One was Walter Hirschmann, Thekla’s nephew, the son of her sister Betti Rothschild Hirschmann.7 The other, Jacob Bleibtreu, was a banker and later a governor of the New York Stock Exchange who had immigrated to the US from Germany as a young man in 1909. He also was on the Greater New York Army and Navy Committee of the Jewish Welfare Board. Perhaps he knew Walter from the banking and broker business and agreed to help rescue his aunt and other family members.8

On March 23, 1944, Thekla, Herbert, Edith, and Yvonne all arrived in Philadelphia after sailing from Lisbon, Portugal. The ship manifest shows that they all had last been residing in Madrid, Spain, and were heading to Montreal, Canada under the sponsorship of the Joint Distribution Committee. Herbert reported that he was a chemist by occupation.

Thekla Weinberg and family passenger manifest, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Number: 4492386; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series: T840; Roll: 177, Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1798-1962

Herbert’s wife Edith must not have lived very long after their voyage from Portugal to Philadelphia because on September 8, 1946, Herbert married his second wife, Anna or Anya Grodzky, in Hochelaga, Quebec, Canada. Anna was born in Russia on June 18, 1910, and was a beautician. Herbert is listed as a widower on their marriage record and as a chemist by trade.

Hans Herbert Weinberg marriage to Anna Grodsky, Marriage Sep 8 1946 Westmount, Québec, Canada, Groom Herbert Hans Weinberg, Groom’s birth 1908 Germany, Bride Anna Goodsky, Certificate number upd46-128967, Quebec Marriage Returns, 1926-1997, found at https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10723-1831907/herbert-hans-weinberg-and-anna-goodsky-in-quebec-marriage-returns

The family all settled in Montreal, where Thekla died on March 11, 1962, at the age of 76.9 Herbert lost his second wife Anna on July 9, 1976.10 He died February 12, 2001, at the age of 92, and was survived by his third wife Sally Lazoff Bailen.11

I have not found any further information about Herbert’s daughter Yvonne despite searching everywhere I could and receiving help from members of Tracing the Tribe. I don’t know whether she died, married, or moved from Canada and changed her name. There just is no trace of her after a mention in her stepmother Anna’s obituary in 1976. She is not mentioned in her father’s obituary in 2001.12

Although Thekla Rothschild Weinberg survived the Holocaust, she lost her husband, her homeland, and, as we will now see, her sister Frieda to the Holocaust.

Frieda was born May 31, 1993, in Borken, Germany.  As we saw, she first married Leonard Marxsohn and was widowed and then married Paul Phillipsohn, with whom she had a daughter Hannelore, born December 3, 1926.

Unfortunately, I have no happy ending for Frieda, Paul, or Hannelore. On June 11, 1942, they were all deported to Theriesenstadt. None of them survived. According to Yad Vashem, Paul died on December 20, 1942. I have no exact dates for Frieda or Hannelore, only that they also died in about 1942.13

Thus ends the story of Levi Rothschild’s family. Although most of them survived the Holocaust and made it to the US, Israel, or Canada, they were scattered across the globe, and their lives were all forever changed. The family members who were killed must have left holes in their hearts forever.

 

 

  1. Hans Herbert Kaufmann Weinberg, Gender männlich (Male), Record Type Inventory, Birth Date 02 Nov 1908 (2 Nov 1908), Birth Place Frankfurt am Main,
    Last Residence Frankfurt am Main, Residence Place Frankfurt am Main, Father
    Edmund Weinberg, Mother Thekla Weinberg, Spouse Edith Seckbach, Notes Inventories of personal estates of foreigners and especially German Jews
    Reference Number 02010101 oS, Document ID 70370883, Arolsen Archives, Digital Archive; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Lists of Persecutees 2.1.1.1, Ancestry.com. Free Access: Europe, Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees, 1939-1947 ↩
  2. Arolsen Archives, 1 Incarceration Documents / 1.1 Camps and Ghettos / 1.1.5 Buchenwald Concentration Camp / 1.1.5.3 Individual Documents male Buchenwald / Individual Files (male) – Concentration Camp Buchenwald / Files with names from SYS and further sub-structure / Files with names from WECK /, Personal file of WEINBERG, EMANEL, born on 11-Oct-1880, Reference Code, 01010503 002.042.476, Number of documents, 1, found at https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/7388346 ↩
  3. Yad Vashem entries for Manuel Weinberg, found at  https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/13545516 and at https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/3229127 ↩
  4. See Note 3, supra. ↩
  5. Yvonne Miriam Weinberg, passenger manifest, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Number: 4492386; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series: T840; Roll: 177, Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1798-1962 ↩
  6. Edith Weinberg, passenger manifest, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Number: 4492386; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series: T840; Roll: 177, Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1798-1962. See also Edith Weinberg geb. Seckbach, Arolsen Archives, Digital Archive; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Lists of Persecutees 2.1.1.1, Description Reference Code: 02010101 oS,
    Ancestry.com. Free Access: Europe, Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees, 1939-1947 ↩
  7. It was Walter’s name on this card that led me to discover that he was the child of Betti and Emanuel Hirschmann. ↩
  8. “Jacob Bleibtreu, Former Governor of New York Stock Exchange, 90,” The New York Times, December 6, 1976. ↩
  9. Thekla Weinberg death notice, The Montreal Star, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Mon, Mar 12, 1962, Page 16. ↩
  10. Anna (Anya) Weinberg death notice, The Montreal Star, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Sat, Jul 10, 1976, Page 10. ↩
  11. Marriage of Herbert Weinberg to Sally Lazoff, Nov 15 1980, Côte St Luc, Québec, Canada, Groom Herbert Weinberg, Groom’s birth Nov 5 1908, Germany, Groom’s age 72, Bride Sally Lazoff, Bride’s birth Aug 15 1917, Québec, Canada, Bride’s age 63, Groom’s father Manuel Weinberg, Groom’s father’s birth Germany, Groom’s mother Thekla Rothschild, Groom’s mother’s birth Germany, Bride’s father Gedaliah Lazoff
    Bride’s father’s birth Russia, Bride’s mother Telia Brasgold, Bride’s mother’s birth Russia
    Certificate number upd80-141452, Quebec Marriage Returns, 1926-1997, found at https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10723-2419633/herbert-weinberg-and-sally-lazoff-in-quebec-marriage-returns. Herbert Weinberg death notice, The Gazette
    Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Mon, Feb 12, 2001, Page 35. ↩
  12. Anna (Anya) Weinberg death notice, The Montreal Star, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Sat, Jul 10, 1976, Page 10. Herbert Weinberg death notice, The Gazette, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Mon, Feb 12, 2001, Page 35. ↩
  13. See Yad Vashem entries at https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/11607287 for Frieda, https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/14969310 for Paul, and https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/11607287 for Hannelore. ↩

Mathilde Rosenbaum Rothschild: Why Didn’t She Leave Germany?

Posted on by
19

Several readers asked me whether I could learn more about why Mathilde Rosenbaum Rothschild did not go with her husband Hirsch Rothschild and their children to the United States in the 1930s, but stayed in Germany. Tragically Mathilde was eventually killed by the Nazis whereas her husband and children all survived.

I decided to dig a little deeper into Mathilde’s family to see if perhaps she’d stayed to care for elderly parents, but both of her parents died long before the Nazi era.1  Mathilde also had numerous siblings, including one who was killed at Auschwitz, but others escaped—to Israel, to the US, and to South Africa. In fact, this review of my research allowed me to realize something I had not noticed before. Mathilde’s sister Fanni Rosenbaum had married Hirsch Rothschild’s older brother Sigmund. They had escaped to South Africa.

I couldn’t trace all of her siblings, but given that her family was from Schluechtern and that Schluechtern is over 250 miles from Bremen, the city Hirsch listed as his wife’s residence on the passenger manifest, I don’t think that Mathilde was in Bremen to help with a family member.

I looked more closely at the address that had been added to Hirsch’s passenger manifest—Bahnhofsplatz 16, in Bremen, thinking that perhaps it was the address of a hospital where Mathilde might have been getting treatment.

Hirsch Rothschild, passenger manifest, p. 2, The National Archives At Washington, D.c.; Washington, D.c.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving At Miami, Florida; NAI Number: 2788508; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 – 2004; Record Group Number: 85 Description Roll Number: 086 Source Information Ancestry.com. Florida, U.S., Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1898-1963

But “Bahnhofsplatz” means a plaza or square where the train station is located, and as best I can tell, in the late 1930s there was no hospital located near there. Rather, it was a place where there were hotels for those traveling to Bremen, an indoor swimming pool facility, and other public and private buildings. Although I can’t be certain, Banhofsplatz 16 may have been the address for a hotel in the 1930s.

Bahnhofsplatz-1928 Bremen Germany

Why would Mathilde be living in a hotel in Bremen? When Hirsch left Germany in the late 1930s, he listed his last permanent residence as Delmenhorst, a village about ten miles from Bremen.  It’s possible that Hirsch and Mathilde had been forced out of their home in Delmenhorst by then either by force or for better opportunities and had moved into a hotel in Bremen. As a  Jewish doctor, by 1938-1939, Hirsch would only have been allowed to treat Jewish patients, and Bremen had a larger Jewish population than Delmenhorst.  Although the passenger manifest indicates that Hirsch’s last permanent residence was Delmenhorst, not Bremen, I would think that staying in a hotel near the train station would not be considered a “permanent” residence so Delmenhorst would still have been more accurate.

I still don’t know why Hirsch left without Mathilde. Maybe he thought he’d go first and settle in and then send for her. I also don’t know when Hirsch left Germany because the ship manifest listing his arrival in Florida on December 18, 1939, was for a ship arriving from Havana, Cuba. I searched the Bremen passenger manifests and found two of his children on them—Edith and Edmund—but not Hirsch. And I don’t know how long Hirsch was in Cuba before being allowed to sail to the US. So…anything I write is total speculation on my part.

The only way I’ll be able to find an answer to these questions would be to ask one of Mathilde’s grandchildren. I have located a few of them but have not yet contacted them. Somehow it just feels intrusive to ask them why their grandmother was left behind. For now I am letting this sit as an unanswered question.

  1. Her mother died in 1913. Jeanette Rosenbaum, Maiden Name Sondheimer, Gender weiblich (Female), Death Age 72, Birth Date abt 1841, Death Date 23 Okt 1913 (23 Oct 1913), Death Place Schluechtern (Schlüchtern), Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany), Civil Registration Office Schluechtern, Father Moses Sondheimer, Mother
    Marianne Sondheimer, Spouse Salomon Rosenbaum, Certificate Number 47, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 5999, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958. Her father died in 1925. Salomon Rosenbaum, Gender männlich (Male), Death Age 83
    Birth Date abt 1842, Death Date 14 Juli 1925, Death Place Schluechtern (Schlüchtern), Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany), Civil Registration Office Schluechtern, Spouse Johannatta Certificate Number 40, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 6011, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958 ↩

Levi Rothschild’s son Hirsch: Leaving Germany with a Heavy Heart

Posted on by
19

Levi Rothschild’s fourth child, Hirsch (also known as Harry) and his three children Gertrude, Edith, and Edmund all managed to leave Germany in time to survive the Holocaust. His wife and their mother Mathilde Rosenbaum, however, did not.

Gertrude, Hirsch’s oldest child, was the first member of the family to come to the US although her husband preceded her. She had married Gustav Rosbasch sometime before 1933, the year their first child was born. Gustav was born in Kremenchug, Russia (maybe now Ukraine?) on August 12, 1901. Gustav, a surgeon, came to the US on October 10, 1934, listing his last residence as Delmenhorst, Germany, a town in the Saxony state of Germany.  He reported his wife Gertrude as the person he had left behind in Delmenhorst, and his uncle Phillip Rosbasch of Rochester, New York, as the person he was going to in the US. 1

Gertrude arrived almost a year later with their two-year-old daughter. They arrived on September 8, 1935, listing their prior residence as Delmenhorst and listing “G. Rosbasch” in Rochester as the person they were going to; “H. Rothschild,” Gertrud’s father, was listed as the person they had left behind in Delmenhorst.2 Gustav and Gertrude had a second child in Rochester a few years after Gertrude’s arrival.

The next member of the family to escape to the US was Edith, Gertrude’s younger sister. She arrived in New York on May 28, 1937, listing her destination as Rochester, New York, where her sister Gertrude was living, and listing her father, “Dr. Rothschild” as the person she’d left behind in Delmenhorst, her prior residence.3

Edith and Gertrud’s brother Edmund arrived a year after Edith on June 24, 1938, in New York with his destination being New York City where his uncle Karl Rosenbaum, his mother’s brother, was living. Edmund identified his occupation as a physician, like his father and his brother-in-law Gustav, and listed his father “Dr. Harry Rothschild” of Delmenhorst as the person he left behind, but Edmund gave his last residence as Basel, Switzerland, not Delmenhorst.4

Thus, the three children of Hirsch and Mathilde Rothschild had all arrived before Kristallnacht in November 1938. Their father Hirsch did not arrive for over another year. His ship sailed from Havana, Cuba, and arrived in Miami on December 17, 1939, three months after World War II had begun. Hirsch listed his occupation as a physician and the person he was going to as his son “Edw. Rothschild” in Rochester, New York. He also listed his last residence as Delmenhorst.

Hirsch Rothschild passenger manifest, The National Archives At Washington, D.c.; Washington, D.c.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving At Miami, Florida; NAI Number: 2788508; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 – 2004; Record Group Number: 85, Roll Number: 086, Ancestry.com. Florida, U.S., Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1898-1963

There is a notation on Hirsch’s line on the passenger manifest that reads, “Admitted on appeal 1-3-40.”  Also for the section listing the person left behind in the prior country, where the word None had been typed, someone added in handwriting, “Wife Mathilde Rothschild” living in Bremen, Germany. Another handwritten change indicates that his son had paid his passage; “self” was crossed out.

Were these additions of Mathilde’s name and the fact that his son was paying his way what helped Hirsch win his appeal? Why wouldn’t he have listed Mathilde before? Why was she living in Bremen, not Delmenhorst? When did Hirsch actually leave for Germany? How long had he been in Cuba before sailing from Havana to Miami in December 1939?

These are questions for which I currently do not have answers, just some speculation. Was Mathilde ill and hospitalized in Bremen? Is that why she hadn’t come with Hirsch to the US?

I don’t know, but we do know that by early 1940, Hirsch and his three children and his son-in-law and granddaughter were all safely in the US. Gustav and Gertrude and their two children were living in Rochester, New York, where Gustav was a doctor.5 Edith was also in Rochester, working as a housekeeper for another family.6 Edmund was working as a doctor at the Monroe County (New York) Infirmary and Home for the Aged in Brighton, New York, only four miles from Rochester.7 I could not locate Hirsch/Harry on the 1940 US census, but on April 25, 1942, when he registered for the World War II draft, he was at that time living in Rochester with Gertrude and Gustav and unemployed.

Harry Hirsch Rothschild, World War II draft registraiton, The National Archives At St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; World War Ii Draft Cards (Fourth Registration) For the State of New York; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147; Box or Roll Number: 522, Name Range: Rosser, Roscoe – Rought, Walter, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942

But not long after that Hirsch/Harry must have moved to New Rochelle, New York, 350 miles from his children in Rochester, where he found work as the house physician for the Jewish Home for the Aged in New Rochelle. Harry died on April 18, 1945, in New Rochelle; he was 64. Heartbreakingly, his obituary revealed that as of that date with Germany’s surrender just a few weeks away, Harry and his children did not yet know what had happened to Mathilde, their wife and mother. The obituary states that Harry’s wife Mathilde “remained in Germany when Dr. Rothschild left the country. Relatives here have been trying through the Red Cross to learn her fate.”

“Death Claims Ex-Physician to Aged Jews,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, April 14, 1945, p. 17

Yad Vashem, however, reveals what had happened to Mathilde. On November 18, 1941, she had been deported to the Minsk ghetto in Belarus where she was murdered on July 28, 1942. She was 57 years old. It must have been devastating for the family to learn this.8

But Mathilde and Harry were survived by all three of their children and by their grandchildren. Their daughter Gertrude and her husband Gustav remained in Rochester, New York, for the rest of their lives, where Gustav continued to practice medicine. He died on January 7, 1992, at the age of 90.9 Gertrude outlived him by five and a half years; she died on July 4, 1997; she was 86 years old.10 They were survived by their children and grandchildren.

Gertrud’s sister Edith married Abram Solomon (Jalomek) in 1943.11 As far as I can tell, they did not have children as none are listed in either of their obituaries. Edith died July 28, 2003, in Rochester, at the age of 92;12 her husband Abram died many years before on June 9, 1971, in Rochester.13

Edmund Rothschild, the youngest child of Hirsch and Mathilde, had registered for the draft on October 16, 1940.

Edmund Rothschild, World War II draft registration, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For New York State, 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147, Name Range: Roth, Cletus-Rotonde, Nicholas
Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

He married Helene Lois Brown on August 17, 1941, in Buffalo, New York.  She was the daughter of David Brown and Lucile Manheim.14 Edmund and Helene would have two children. Edmund served in the US Army during World War II from August 27, 1943, until March 11, 1946.15 Edmund and his family then settled in Springville, New York, where he continued to practice medicine.16

Later Edmund and Helene retired to Fort Myers, Florida, where Helene died at age 71 on April 24, 1993.17 Edmund died in Cleveland, Ohio, almost exactly a year later on April 21, 1994; he was 81.18 According to his obituary in the Springville Journal, Edmund “was an old-fashioned family physician [who] cared not only for his patients but also for their families and their community. His home was always equipped to see patients after hours and house calls were made often.” The obituary also noted that he was a gifted artist. Edmund and Helene are survived by their children and grandchildren.19

The story of the family of Hirsch Rothschild and his family reminds me of how much the US gained when Germany’s persecution of the Jews forced so many to come here. Hirsch, his son Edmund, and his son-in-law Gustav were all doctors educated and trained in Europe. They came to this country as refugees, and Americans benefited from those skills and that education and dedication. But Mathilde Rosenbaum Rothschild’s death at the hands of the Nazis must remind us that the gifts we Americans may have received from those refugees were not given by them without enduring terrible heartbreak and loss on their part.

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Gustav Rosbasch, World War II draft registration, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For New York State, 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947; Gustav Rosbasch, passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ship or Roll Number: Scythia, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  2. Gertrude Rosbasch, passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  3. Edith Rothschild, passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ship or Roll Number: New York, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  4. Edmund Rothschild, passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ship or Roll Number: New York, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  5. Gustav Rosbasch and family, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Rochester, Monroe, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02848; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 65-232, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  6. Edith Rothschild, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Rochester, Monroe, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02842; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 65-22, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  7. Edmund Rothschild, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Brighton, Monroe, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02678; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 28-9, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  8. Yad Vashem entry found at https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/11619667 ↩
  9. Gustav Rosbasch, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  10. Gertrude Rosbasch, [Gertrude Rothschild], Gender Female, Birth Date 3 Sep 1910, Birth Place Gudensberg, Death Date 4 Jul 1997, Claim Date 17 May 1973
    Father Harry Rothschild, Mother Mathilde Rosenbaum, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  11. “Marriage Licenses,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, October 26, 1943, p. 12 ↩
  12. Edith Miriam Solomon, [Edith Miriam Rothschild], Gender Female, Race White, Birth Date 4 Jul 1911, Birth Place Gudensberg, Federal Republic of Germany, Death Date 28 Jul 2003, Claim Date 19 Jan 1976, Father Harry Rothschild, Mother Mathilde Rosenbaum, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. ↩
  13. Abram Solomon, Social Security Number 128-09-6834, Birth Date 18 Nov 1899,
    Issue year Before 1951, Issue State New York, Last Residence 14617, Rochester, Monroe, New York, USA, Death Date Jun 1971, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File,  Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  14. “Dr. Edward [sic] Rothschild to be Married Soon,” Bradford Evening Star and The Bradford Daily Record, Bradford, Pennsylvania · Friday, August 01, 1941, p. 5; Helene Brown Rothschild, Gender Female, Birth Date 30 Jul 1921, Birth Place Minneapolis, Minnesota, Death Date 24 Apr 1993, Father David Brown, Mother Lucile S Manheim,
    SSN 057382510, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. ↩
  15. Edmund S Rothschild, Birth Date 30 Jul 1912, Death Date 21 Apr 1994, Cause of Death Natural, SSN 114342498, Enlistment Branch ARMY, Enlistment Date 27 Aug 1943, Discharge Date 11 Mar 1946, Page number 1, Ancestry.com. U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010. ↩
  16. “Founder of Medical Group Dies,” Springville Journal, Springville, New York · Thursday, May 05, 1994, p. 6. ↩
  17. “Helene L. Brown Rothschild,” News-Press, Fort Myers, Florida · Tuesday, April 27, 1993, p. 19; Helene Brown Rothschild, Gender Female, Birth Date 30 Jul 1921, Birth Place Minneapolis, Minnesota, Death Date 24 Apr 1993, Father David Brown, Mother Lucile S Manheim, SSN 057382510, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. ↩
  18. See Notes 15 and 16, supra. ↩
  19. See Note 16, supra. ↩

Levi Rothschild’s Children Part III: Escaping The Holocaust to South Africa, New York, and Palestine/Israel

Posted on by
8

Of the six children of Levi Rothschild and Clara Jacob who lived to adulthood in Germany, amazingly all but one escaped from Germany in time to avoid being killed by the Nazis. Only the youngest sibling Frieda was not as fortunate. But that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t suffering and loss endured by the other five. This post will focus on the three oldest children: Sigmund, Betti, and Moses.

Sigmund Rothschild and his wife Fanny Rosenbaum escaped to South Africa. I don’t know when or how they immigrated there, but Fanny died there on August 20, 1942, in Capetown at the age of  62.

Fanny Rosenbaum Rothschild death record, Municipality or Municipality Range: Cape Town
Ancestry.com. Cape Province, South Africa, Civil Deaths, 1895-1972

Her husband Sigmund died in Capetown three years later on December 23, 1945; he was 71.

Sigmund Rothschild death record, Municipality or Municipality Range: Cape Town
Ancestry.com. Cape Province, South Africa, Civil Deaths, 1895-1972

As for Sigmund and Fanny’s son Kurt, I have very little information. An entry in the England & Wales Civil Registration Death Index on Ancestry shows that he died in Lancaster, England, and that the death was registered in September 1997.1 A FindAGrave entry shows his gravestone with the date of death as August 30, 1997.

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/81923216/kurt-rothschild: accessed April 19, 2024), memorial page for Kurt Rothschild (1910–3 Sep 1997), Find a Grave Memorial ID 81923216, citing Lytham Park Cemetery and Crematorium, Lytham Saint Annes, Fylde Borough, Lancashire, England; Maintained by ProgBase (contributor 47278889).

The Ancestry tree that appears to have been created by Kurt’s daughter-in-law shows that Kurt married Erna Erdmann and had one child, who is the home person on that tree. I have not been able to find a marriage record for Kurt and Erna Erdmann or a birth record for their child, so I am hoping that the owner of that tree will respond to the message I sent to help me find out what happened to Kurt Rothschild and his family. But since it’s been well over two months at this point, I am not optimistic that I will hear from her anytime soon.

The second child of Levi and Klara, their daughter Betti, lost her husband Emanuel Hirschmann on November 4, 1932. He died in Fulda, Germany, and was 64.

Emanuel Hirschmann death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 2470, Year Range: 1932, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Their son Walter had married Gertrud Hirschmann on August 6, 1924, in Hanau, Germany. Gertrud was born in Hanau on March 28, 1904, according to their marriage record, but that record does not include her parents’ names. It would appear that Gertrud was likely a relative given the surname and her birth place, but so far I’ve not found any way to connect her to Walter’s Hirschmann relatives.

Walter Hirschmann and Gertrude Hirschmann marriage record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, Standesamt Hanau Heiratsnebenregister 1924 (HStAMR Best. 913 Nr. 1894)AutorHessisches Staatsarchiv MarburgErscheinungsortHanauErscheinungsjahr1924, p. 328

Walter Hirschmann and Gertrude Hirschmann marriage record, p. 2

Walter and Gertrud and their twelve year old daughter immigrated to the US on a December 15, 1938. Walter listed his occupation as a banker and their last residence as Frankfurt, Germany, where his mother “B. Hirschmann” was still residing. They were heading to a friend, L. Schwarzchild, in New York.2

Walter’s mother Betti Rothschild Hirschmann immigrated to the US on March 25, 1939, with a cousin of her husband, Emil Hirschmann, and his wife Paula.

Betti Rothschild passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ship or Roll Number: Veendam, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

On the 1940 census, Betti was living as a lodger in the household of Helena Pessel in New York City, but in the same building as her son Walter and his family at 670 Riverside Drive in New York City. Walter was employed as a salesman.3

On his World War II draft registration, Walter identified his employer as Herbert E. Stern & Company. From his obituary I learned that Herbert E. Stern was also a refugee from Nazi Germany and an investment banker.4

Walter Hirschmann World War II draft registration, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For New York City, 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147, Name Range: Hirsch, Walfgang-Hobbs, Robert, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

In 1950 Betti was still living in the same building as her son Walter and his family. Walter was still working as a broker and banker. I am very grateful to Eric Ald of Tracing the Tribe who found the 1950 census record for Betti and also a listing on Ancestry in the New York, New York Death Index for a Betty Hirschmann who died on February 15, 1956.5

Walter Hirschmann and Betty Hirschmann, 1950 US census, National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: 6203; Page: 75; Enumeration District: 31-1900, Ancestry.com. 1950 United States Federal Census

Her son Walter Hirschmann died on June 24, 1977, at the age of 77.6 He had been predeceased by his wife Gertrud, who died in December 1966 7 and was survived by their daughter and grandchildren.

Sigmund and Betti’s brother Moses/Moritz Rothschild and his wife Margarete David ended up in Israel/Palestine in the 1930s along with their two children, Ruth, born October 8, 1914, in Magdeburg, Germany, and Herbert (later Yehuda), born December 10, 1921, in Magdeburg. The documents below are immigration documents showing that Moritz and Margarete were in Jerusalem by June 30, 1939; these and the others that follow were found at the Israel Genealogy Research Association website.

Registration form for Margarete David Rothschild reporting to the German Embassy Legation at the German Consulate General Consulate Bizekonsult in Jerusalem, A-B (טפסי הרשמה: A-B), part of the Residents 1938-1939 (תושבים 1938-1939) database, system number פ-500/5, IGRA number 1459. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), and found at the IGRA website.

Registration form for Margarete David Rothschild reporting to the German Embassy Legation at the German Consulate General Consulate Bizekonsult in Jerusalem, A-B (טפסי הרשמה: A-B), part of the Residents 1938-1939 (תושבים 1938-1939) database, system number פ-500/5, IGRA number 1459. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), and found at the IGRA website.

Registration form for Moses Moritz Rothschild, This record comes from the Meldeblaetter: A-B (טפסי הרשמה: A-B), part of the Residents 1938-1939 (תושבים 1938-1939) database, system number פ-500/5, IGRA number 1462. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), and found at the IGRA website.

Registration form for Moses Moritz Rothschild, This record comes from the Meldeblaetter: A-B (טפסי הרשמה: A-B), part of the Residents 1938-1939 (תושבים 1938-1939) database, system number פ-500/5, IGRA number 1462. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), and found at the IGRA website.

Their daughter Ruth had arrived by September 29, 1938.

Registration form for Ruth Rothschild reporting to the German Embassy Legation at the German Consulate General Consulate Bizekonsult in Jerusalem, A-B (טפסי הרשמה: A-B), part of the Residents 1938-1939 (תושבים 1938-1939) database, system number פ-500/5, IGRA number 1465. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), as found at the IGRA website.

Registration form for Ruth Rothschild reporting to the German Embassy Legation at the German Consulate General Consulate Bizekonsult in Jerusalem, A-B (טפסי הרשמה: A-B), part of the Residents 1938-1939 (תושבים 1938-1939) database, system number פ-500/5, IGRA number 1465. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), as found at the IGRA website.

Although I was unable to find a comparable record for Herbert/Yehuda, I found a record showing that he and his father Moritz were on the voter registration list and living at Kfar Yedidya in 1942:

Moritz and Yehuda Rothschild on 1942 Knesset register, This record comes from the Voters List Knesset Israel 1942 (פנקס הבוגרים של כנסת ישראל תש”ב), part of the Voters Knesset Israel 1942 (בוגרים של כנסת ישראל 1942) database, system number 001mush, document number 119, line 59, IGRA number 1107. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), and was found at the IGRA website.

Yehuda married Ruth Hesin, daughter of Avraham and Hava, on April 17, 1949, in Haifa, Israel. She was 22 years old, he was 27.

Yehuda Rothschild marriage record, Marriage/Divorce Certificates (תעודות נישואין / גירושין), part of the Marriages and Divorces 1921-1948 Palestine British (נישואין וגירושין 1948-1921 ארץ ישראל) database, document number 91714, IGRA number 507. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), and was found at the IGRA website.

At this time I have no further records for this family, but we know that at least they escaped from Germany in time to survive the Holocaust.

Thus, the first three children of Levi Rothschild and Clara Jacob all escaped from Nazi Germany in time, but look at what they lost. They were all spread across the globe: Sigmund in South Africa, Betti in the United States, and Moses in Palestine/Israel.

The fourth child of Levi and Klara, their son Hirsch Rothschild, also escaped. He and his wife Mathilde Rosenbaum and their three children Gertrude, Edith, and Edmund ended up, like Betti, in the US. I will write about Hirsch and his family in my next post.

  1. Kurt Rothschild, Death Age 87, Birth Date 30 Mar 1910, Registration Date Sep 1997, Registration district Lancaster, Inferred County Lancashire, Register Number A58B, District and Subdistrict 5871A, Entry Number 166, General Register Office; United Kingdom, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 ↩
  2. Walter Hirschmann and family, passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  3. Betti Hirschmann, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02671; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 31-1929, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census. Walter Hirschmann and family, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02671; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 31-1929, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  4. “Herbert E. Stern Dead, An Investment Banker,” The New York Times, August 6, 1973, p. 32. ↩
  5. Betty Hirschmann, Age 75, Birth Date abt 1881, Death Date 15 Feb 1956, Death Place Manhattan, New York, New York, USA, Certificate Number 3638, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Death Index, 1949-1965. Although there is a listing for Betti on the SSCAI with her Social Security Number, there is no listing on the SSDI for her under that number or under that date or under her name. Betty Sara Hirschmann, [Betty Sara Rohserild], Gender Female, Race White, Birth Date 14 Sep 1876, Birth Place Borken Hesse, Federal Republic of Germany, Father Levi Rohserild
    Mother, Clara Jacob, SSN 057200860, Notes Feb 1943: Name listed as BETTY SARA HIRSCHMANN, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. ↩
  6. Walter Hirschmann death notice, The New York Times, June 27, 1977, p, 30. Walter Hirschmann, Social Security Number 092-14-5701, Birth Date 30 Dec 1899
    Issue year Before 1951, Issue State New York, Last Residence 10023, New York, New York, New York, USA, Death Date Jun 1977 Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File,  Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  7. Gertrud Hirschmann death notice, The New York Times, December 16, 1966, p. 47. ↩

Levi Rothschild, Part II: His Children Marry and Have Children

Posted on by
13

Levi Rothschild’s wife Clara Jacob had given birth to nine babies, but only six of those children survived to adulthood: Sigmund, Betty, Moses, Hirsch, Thekla, and Frieda. All six of them married and had children.

Sigmund Rothschild, their oldest child, married Fanni Rosenbaum on May 28, 1906, in Schluechtern, Germany. She was born on December 21, 1879, in Schluechtern to Salomon Rosenbaum and Jeannette Sondheimer.1

Sigmund Rothschild and Fanni Rosenbaum marriage record, Arcinsys Archives of Hessen, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 766, p. 101

According to an Ancestry tree that appears to belong to their granddaughter-in-law, Sigmund and Fanny had at least one child, a son Kurt Rothschild, and although I have no birth record for him because the Borken birth records online do not go up to 1910, that tree reports that he was born on March 30, 1910, in Borken. I have reached out to the tree owner and hope to get more information if she gets back to me. So far after two months I’ve gotten no response. I am not optimistic, but people have found my messages even years after I’ve sent them through Ancestry, so you never know.

Sigmund’s sister Betti Rothschild married Emanuel Hirschmann on December 21, 1898, in Borken. He was born to Loeb Hirschmann and Malchen Strauss on April 12, 1868, in Gross Krotzenburg, Germany.

Betti Rothschild and Emanuel Hirschmann marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 834, Year Range: 1898, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

For many weeks I could not find records of any children born to Betti and Emanuel. And then I found the name “Walter Hirschman” as a sponsor on an immigration record for one of Betti’s siblings, Thekla, and I thought, “Maybe Walter Hirschman was related to Betti Rothschild and Emanuel Hirschmann?”

Ancestry.com. Munich, Vienna and Barcelona Jewish Displaced Persons and Refugee Cards, 1943-1959 (JDC)

Several clicks through the Hesse files and thirty minutes later I found this birth record for Walter, son of Emanuel and Betti, born in Hanau, Germany, on December 30, 1899.

Walter Hirschmann birth record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, Standesamt Hanau Geburtsnebenregister 1899 (HStAMR Best. 913 Nr. 1780)AutorHessisches Staatsarchiv MarburgErscheinungsortHanauErscheinungsjahr1899, p.323

That made me wonder whether Betti and Emanuel had had other children. Unfortunately, the Hanau birth records online only go up through 1900, and I did not find any other birth records for that couple in that year. If there were children born after 1900, I have not found any other evidence of such children.

The third child of Levi and Clara, Moses or Moritz Rothschild, married Margarete David. I don’t have a marriage record for Moritz and Margarete nor do I have birth records for their children from Germany, but I was able to track down records on the Israel Genealogical Research Association website that helped to fill in those gaps. Margarete was born in Hagen, Germany, on May 27, 1889, to Louis David and  Alwine Harff David.2 Moritz and Margarete had two children, Ruth, born October 8, 1914,3 and Herbert (later Yehuda), born December 10, 1921, in Magdeburg, Germany.4

Hirsch (also known as Harry) Rothschild, the fourth child of Levi Rothschild and Clara Jakob, married Malli (also known as Mathilda) Rosenbaum on November 29, 1909, in Schluechtern, Germany. She was the daughter of Salomon Rosenbaum and Jeanette Sondheimer and was born in Schluechtern on July 20, 1885.5

Hirsch Rothschild and Malli Rosenbaum marriage record, Arcinsys Archives of Hessen, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 766, p. 104

Harry Hirsch Rothschild and Malli Rosenbaum had three children. Gertrude was born September 3, 1910, in Gudensberg, Germany.6 Her sister Edith was born there on July 4, 1911,7 and their brother Edmund Siegfried was born one year later on July 30, 1912.8

The fifth child of Levi and Clara, their daughter Thekla, married Manuel Edward Weinberg on August 19, 1907, in Borken. Manuel was born in Lichenroth, Germany, to Lazarus Weinberg and Karoline Oppenheimer on October 11, 1880.

Thekla Rothschild and Manuel Weinberg marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 843, Year Range: 1907, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Thekla and Manuel had a son Hans Herbert Weinberg born in Frankfurt, Germany, on November 2, 1908.9

Finally, the last born of Levi and Clara’s children, their daughter Frieda, married Leopold Marxsohn on November 25, 1920, in Frankfurt. He was born on June 21, 1883, in Koenigstadten, Germany, to Abraham Marxsohn and Emilie Stern.

Frieda Rothschild Leopold Marxsohn marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903, Year Range: 1920, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

It appears that Leopold died before November 25, 1925, because on that date Frieda married Paul Phillipsohn in Frankfurt, and she is identified as a widow on their marriage record. I cannot find any death record for Leopold, however, and none of the other trees or other secondary sources have a date for his death. There is a FindAGrave entry for a Leopold Marxsohn who died in 1919 and is buried in Frankfurt,10 but that can’t be the same man unless the date on FindAGrave is incorrect. And there is a Leopold Marxsohn listed in the 1925 Frankfurt directory,11 but that also could be a different man. More exploration is necessary.

In any event, Frieda remarried as noted on November 25, 1925, and her second husband was Paul Phillipsohn. Paul was born on October 15, 1885, in Gandersheim, Germany. I have not yet found the names of his parents.

Frieda Rothschild Marxsohn and Paul Phillipsohn marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903, Year Range: 1925, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Frieda and Paul had one child, a daughter Hannelore, born in Frankfurt on November 3, 1926.12

Thus, by late 1926, when Hannelore Phillipsohn was born, there were eight living grandchildren of Levi Rothschild and Clara Jacob. Sadly, Levi did not live to see all of them born as he had died on October 15, 1913, in Borken at the age of 67.

Levi Rothschild death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 902; Laufende Nummer: 920, Year Range: 1913
Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

His wife Clara Jacob, however, lived to see all eight of those grandchildren born. She died on November 24, 1929, in Borken when she was 78 years old.

Clara Jacob Rothschild death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 913; Laufende Nummer: 920, Year Range: 1929, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

That brings us to the decade of the 1930s, and as you may expect, the lives of all six of Levi and Clara’s children, their spouses, and their children were drastically changed during that decade and the one that followed.

 

 

  1. Fanni Rosenbaum birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 913; Signatur: 5881, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901 ↩
  2. Margarete Sara Rothschild, [Margarete Sara David], Birth Date 27 Mai 1889 (27 May 1889), Birth Place Hagen, Last Residence Magdeburg, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, DC; Name Index of Jews Whose German Nationality Was Annulled by the Nazi Regime (Berlin Documents Center); Record Group: 242, National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized, 1675 – 1958; Record Group ARC ID: 569; Publication Number: T355; Roll: 7, Mosbacher, Eduard – Schafranek, Bruno, Ancestry.com. Germany, Index of Jews Whose German Nationality was Annulled by Nazi Regime, 1935-1944. Also, Registration form for Margarete David Rothschild reporting to the German Embassy Legation at the German Consulate General Consulate Bizekonsult in Jerusalem, A-B (טפסי הרשמה: A-B), part of the Residents 1938-1939 (תושבים 1938-1939) database, system number פ-500/5, IGRA number 1459. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), and found at the IGRA website. See also this Wikipedia article about Margarete’s brother Ferdinand and his life. ↩
  3. Registration form for Ruth Rothschild reporting to the German Embassy Legation at the German Consulate General Consulate Bizekonsult in Jerusalem, A-B (טפסי הרשמה: A-B), part of the Residents 1938-1939 (תושבים 1938-1939) database, system number פ-500/5, IGRA number 1465. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), as found at the IGRA website. ↩
  4.  Yehuda Rothschild marriage record, Marriage/Divorce Certificates (תעודות נישואין / גירושין), part of the Marriages and Divorces 1921-1948 Palestine British (נישואין וגירושין 1948-1921 ארץ ישראל) database, document number 91714, IGRA number 507. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), as found at the IGRA website. ↩
  5. Malli Rosenbaum birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 913; Signatur: 5887, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901 ↩
  6. Gertrude Rosbasch, [Gertrude Rothschild], Gender Female, Birth Date 3 Sep 1910, Birth Place Gudensberg, Death Date 4 Jul 1997, Claim Date 17 May 1973, Father
    Harry Rothschild, Mother Mathilde Rosenbaum, SSN 054385223, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. ↩
  7. Edith Miriam Solomon, [Edith Miriam Rothschild], Gender Female, Race White, Birth Date 4 Jul 1911, Birth Place Gudensberg, Federal Republic of Germany, Death Date 28 Jul 2003, Claim Date 19 Jan 1976, Father Harry Rothschild, Mother Mathilde Rosenbaum, SSN 071180622, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. ↩
  8. Edmund Siegfried Rothschild, Gender Male, Race White, Birth Date 30 Jul 1912
    Birth Place Gudensberg, Federal Republic of Germany, Death Date 21 Apr 1994
    Father Harry Rothschild, Mother Mathilda Rosenbaum, SSN 114342498, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. ↩
  9. Hans Herbert Weinberg, Gender männlich (Male), Record Type Inventory, Birth Date 02 Nov 1908 (2 Nov 1908), Birth Place Frankfurt am Main, Last Residence Frankfurt am Main, Residence Place Frankfurt am Main, Father Edmund Weinberg
    Mother Thekla Weinberg, Spouse Edith Seckbach, Arolsen Archives, Digital Archive; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Lists of Persecutees 2.1.1.1, Ancestry.com. Free Access: Europe, Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees, 1939-1947 ↩
  10. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/130472657/leopold-marxsohn: accessed April 8, 2024), memorial page for Leopold Marxsohn (unknown–1919), Find a Grave Memorial ID 130472657, citing Alter Jüdischer Friedhof, Frankfurt am Main, Stadtkreis Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany; Maintained by Athanatos (contributor 46907585). ↩
  11.  Deutsche National Bibliothek; Leipzig, Deutschland; Publisher: Scherl; Signatur: ZC 811; Laufende Nummer: 1, Ancestry.com. Germany and Surrounding Areas, Address Books, 1815-1974 ↩
  12.  Arolsen Archives, Digital Archive; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Lists of Persecutees 2.1.1.1, Reference Code: 02010101 oS, Ancestry.com. Free Access: Europe, Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees, 1939-1947; Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/109408821/hannelore-philippsohn: accessed April 8, 2024), memorial page for Hannelore Philippsohn (3 Nov 1926–unknown), Find a Grave Memorial ID 109408821; Burial Details Unknown; Maintained by IWPP Custodial Account (contributor 48586138). ↩

Levi Rothschild and His Family: Only Six of Nine Children Survived Childhood

Posted on by
9

Because I have no records other than those already mentioned for the two other sons of Seligmann Rothschild (Leopold and Hugo), I am moving on to the next child of Gelle Blumenfeld and Simon Rothschild, their son Levi.

Levi was born on August 23, 1846, in Walterbrueck, Germany.

Levi Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 18

Although I cannot find a marriage record, I can infer from various records related to his children and his wife that he married Clara (sometimes spelled Klara) Jacob. Clara was born on December 1, 1850, in Breitbarten, Germany, to Meir Jacob and Frommet Handel.

Clara Jacob birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hessen, Geburtsregister der Juden von Breitenbach am Herzberg 1838-1906 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 85)AutorHessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, WiesbadenErscheinungsjahr1838-1906

Levi and Clara must have married by early 1874 because their first child Sigmund Rothschild was born on December 19, 1874, in Borken, Germany. Although I do not have a birth record for Sigmund, his birthdate appears on his marriage record.1

For Levi and Clara’s second child, Betti, I was able to locate a birth record. She was born in Borken on September 14, 1876.

Betti Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 788, Year Range: 1876, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Their third child Moses (or Moritz) was born on February 12, 1879, in Borken.

Moses Moritz Rothschild birth record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, Standesamt Borken (Hessen) Geburtsnebenregister 1879 (HStAMR Best. 920 Nr. 791)AputorHessisches Staatsarchiv MarburgErscheinungsortBorken (Hessen)Erscheinungsjahr1879, p. 13

Hirsch, their fourth child, was born on April 9, 1881, in Borken.

Hirsch Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 793, Year Range: 1881, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Their fifth child and second daughter Thekla was born on January 29, 1886, in Borken.

Thekla Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 798, Year Range: 1886, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

She was followed by another daughter, Genni, born May 11, 1888, in Borken. Unfortunately, Genni died before her first birthday on January 28, 1889, in Borken.

Genni Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 800, Year Range: 1888, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Genni Rothschild death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 878; Laufende Nummer: 920, Year Range: 1889, 
Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

A seventh child was born on December 12, 1889, in Borken. Thank you to Cathy Meder-Dempsey for translating the side note for me; it states that “on the 12th of December of this year, a female child was born at 1 o’clock in the afternoon and that this child was lost at birth.” I am not sure whether this means the baby was stillborn or died shortly after birth.

unnamed female child of Levi and Clara Rothschild, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 878; Laufende Nummer: 920
Year Range: 1889, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Julius, their eighth child, was born in Borken on October 29, 1890, but did not make it to his second birthday. He died March 5, 1892, in Borken.

Julius Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 802, Year Range: 1890, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Julius Rothschild death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 881; Laufende Nummer: 920, Year Range: 1892
Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

And finally, Levi and Klara’s last child Frieda was born on May 31, 1893, in Borken.

Frieda Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 805, Year Range: 1893, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Thus, of the nine children to whom Clara gave birth, only six survived past childhood. And given the five-year gap between Hirsch and Thekla, I wonder whether there were other pregnancies that did not result in a live birth.

The stories of the six who survived will continue in my next post.

 

  1. See marriage record for Sigmund Rothschild at Arcinsys Archives of Hessen, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 766, p. 101. ↩