Tag Archives: Rothschild

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

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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

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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

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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. ↩

Irma and Hilde: The Power of Love

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In my last post, I shared the story of my cousin Erwin Rothschild and his wife Irma Simon. As we saw, Erwin died from typhoid fever at Bergen-Belsen, but Irma survived. Erwin had done everything he could to keep Irma, her sister Hilde, and Hilde’s husband Simon Eisenmann alive, but in the end only Hilde and Irma survived. They were two young widows in their thirties as the war drew to a close in Europe.

As recounted by Irma in her moving testimony for the Shoah Foundation,1 in the spring of 1945 Irma and Hilde and about 2200 other prisoners at Bergen-Belsen were put on cattle trains by the Nazis with nothing to eat but one turnip each and taken on a long and twisting trip through Germany. When they saw the planes of the Allies flying overhead, they hung white shirts out the window, trying to save themselves from being bombed. As the train neared Frankfurt an der Oder near the Polish border, the Nazi guards abandoned the train, and the Russians came to liberate the people on the train on April 23, 1945. The Russians told the prisoners that they should go to a nearby village called Trobitz, which had been emptied of its residents and would be safe for the survivors.2

They had to walk to the village, but Hilde, who weighed only 70 pounds, was too weak to walk. So Irma and another woman found a wheelbarrow and pushed Hilde to the village. They settled into the village where there was shelter and food. One man died from eating too much food too quickly. Many others—about 600 people—died while living in Trobitz. But Irma and Hilde survived.

Memorial listing the names of those from the Lost Train who died in Trobitz, LutzBruno, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The people living in Trobitz were taken later by the Allies to Leipzig for a week and then they were allowed to go “home.” Irma and Hilde went back to the southern part of the Netherlands, where Hilde, a Dutch citizen by marriage, lived in a cloister and Irma was interned in a school. They could not return to Amsterdam because northern Holland had not yet been liberated. Once the war ended, the sisters moved to Amsterdam and then immigrated to the US in 1947 with the help of their brother Julius, who lived in Philadelphia. They traveled on the Queen Elizabeth and were able to get kosher food on the ship. Irma and Hilde settled in Washington Heights in New York, and Irma continued her career as a kindergarten teacher.

Both Irma and Hilde remarried in the 1950s, Irma to Nathan Haas, and Hilde to Nathan Meyer, both also German Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. Neither had children. They lived in adjoining apartments in Washington Heights. In 1967 the two couples moved to one house together in Englewood, New Jersey. They all became active in the Orthodox Jewish community there. Their second husbands both died in the 1970s, but Irma and Hilde continued to live together for the rest of their lives.

As reported by Joseph Berger in The New York Times on December 29, 2004,3 Irma and Hilde decided when they were 97 and 94, respectively, that they wanted to live the rest of their lives in Israel in a home for senior citizens in Jerusalem called Beit Barth. Berger described their special relationship and recounted their long lives together during and after the Holocaust:

The two sisters were inseparable….[He then described much of what I’ve reported earlier about their lives during the Holocaust.]

They came to the United States together and lived with their second husbands in adjoining apartment buildings in Washington Heights. … As if that were not close enough, they moved in 1967 into a single suburban ranch house in Englewood, N.J., which they continued to share after their husbands died.

Until yesterday. That was when Irma Haas, 97, and Hilde Meyer, 94, set off from Kennedy International Airport for Israel to spend the remainder of their lives in the same residence for the elderly in Jerusalem.

… With canes across their laps, they sat next to each other in wheelchairs as El Al security hurriedly examined their passports and put them through the requisite grilling about who had packed their bags and whether they had received any gifts. Much of the time, Hilde, looking frightened, clutched Irma’s left arm with her right hand.

“She cannot let go of me,” Irma said, mentioning their wartime terror. “She is afraid she would be brought somewhere and I would not come.”

…Both sisters are slight of build and wear gray shaytls, or wigs. Irma is hardier, Hilde more easily rattled. They were born in Londorf, a town in Hessen, a German state where their family’s roots stretch back hundreds of years. …Irma promised her mother that she would always take care of the more delicate Hilde….

Judy Marcus, their second cousin, who accompanied them on the flight, said the two sisters seemed to have eluded the arrows of sibling rivalry. “They were never jealous of each other,” she said. “They were always happy whatever the other one had.”

About two years ago, Hilde was briefly hospitalized and pleaded that Irma remain at her side. Mrs. Marcus said she told a hospital official: “They are Holocaust survivors. They can’t be separated.”

“They made a special dispensation to allow Irma to sleep in Hilde’s room,” Mrs. Marcus recalled. “But Irma would not have left anyway, even if it meant sitting up in a chair all night.”

Only death separated these two amazing sisters. Hilde died first on May 8, 2005;4 she was 94 and had been in Israel for only five months. Irma Simon Rothschild Haas, who had done so much to care for her younger sister and whose strength got them through the camps, liberation, and immigration to the US, died on April 17, 2009, just six months before she would have turned 102.5 She had outlived her parents, all her siblings, and two husbands. Neither Irma nor Hilde had had children, so there are no direct descendants to remember these two remarkable women. But I will forever, and I hope that you will also.

I wish I had some photos of Irma and Hilde I could share. All I found is this one small photo from the New York Times in 2004 when they moved to Israel. But If you haven’t already, please watch Irma’s Shoah Foundation testimony—if for no other reason than to see Irma with Hilde together near the end of that testimony. I guarantee it will both bring you to tears and lift you up with joy. The power of their love was immeasurable.

 

 

  1. Haas, Irma. Interview 32295. Interview by Miriam Horowitz. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation, 04 August 1997. https://vha.usc.edu/testimony/32295. Accessed 18 Jan 2024. Almost all of the information in this post came from Irma’s testimony, except where noted. ↩
  2. You can read more about the “lost train” from Bergen-Belsen to Trobitz here, here, and here. ↩
  3. Joseph Berger, “A Bond the Holocaust and Time Couldn’t Break,” The New York Times, December 29, 2004, page B1. See also “Holocaust Survivors from Englewood Begin Their New Lives in Jerusalem,” The Hackensack Record, December 31, 2004, p. A5. ↩
  4. Hilde Meyer, Gender Female, Birth Date 30 Sep 1910, Death Date 8 May 2005,
    Claim Date 13 Jul 1972, SSN 081242610, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  5. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/254917717/irma-haas: accessed 18 January 2024), memorial page for Irma Simon Haas (9 Oct 1907–17 Apr 2009), Find a Grave Memorial ID 254917717, citing Har HaMenuchot Cemetery, Jerusalem, Jerusalem District, Israel; Maintained by DTWer (contributor 47953179). ↩

Moses Max Rothschild and His Family: One Daughter Escaped to America

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Returning now to the family of Gelle Blumenfeld, what do I know for certain about the life of her grandson Moses Max Rothschild after his marriage in 1897 and the births of his children in the years that followed? As you may recall, the records for this family were quite limited and trees provided few or no sources. So I know very little for sure about Moses Max Rothschild, but more about two of his children.

I know that his wife Helene Hoechster died on December 26, 1921, at the age of 51, and that she is buried in the Alsfeld Jewish cemetery.

Helene Hoechster Rothschild death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 34; Laufende Nummer: 921
Year Range: 1921-1925, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/172987583/helene-rothschild: accessed 11 January 2024), memorial page for Helene Höchster Rothschild (3 Sep 1870–26 Dec 1921), Find a Grave Memorial ID 172987583, citing Alsfeld Jewish Cemetery, Alsfeld, Vogelsbergkreis, Hessen, Germany; Maintained by Looking For Loved Ones (contributor 50883347).

Geneanet says that Moses died in 1938, but I have no source for that despite searching in the online records for both Alsfeld and Nordeck. There is no entry for Moses on FindAGrave at the Alsfeld Jewish cemetery, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t buried there, just that no one has added a listing for his gravesite on FindAGrave.

As for the children of Moses and Helene, as noted in my prior post, although some trees show five children, I only have records for three of them that tie them to Moses and Helene: Gertrude, Erna, and Erwin. According to Geneanet, Gertrude married Eric Voos and ended up in Israel where she died in about 1980. But I found no records for them at the Israel Genealogy Research Association website, and sadly the Israel State Archives was the subject of a cyberattack and their records are not online at this time. So I have no sources for Gertrude after her birth record.

For her sister Erna, however, I have had better success. On February 25, 1930, in Berlin, she married Rabbi Moritz Winter. He was born on November 9, 1886, in Magdeburg, Germany, to Salomon Winter and Hulda Abraham.1

Erna Rothschild and Moritz Winter marriage record, Landesarchiv Berlin; Berlin, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Heiratsregister, Register Year or Type: 1930 (Erstregister), Ancestry.com. Berlin, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1936

Moritz Winter had been previously married to Ernestine Abraham, who died on November 8, 1929, in Berlin.2 Four months later he married Erna Rothschild. Moritz had a son Salomon Fritz Winter with his first wife; he was born on December 11, 1914, in Konigsberg, Germany.3 Moritz and Erna then had their own child, Walter Theodor Winter, born on April 3, 1931, in Berlin.4

Fortunately, Erna, Moritz, and Walter all left Germany early enough to survive the Holocaust. According to one article, they left after Kristallnacht when Moritz’s synagogue was burned. They first escaped to Shanghai, China, but then immigrated to the US, arriving in San Francisco on October 27, 1939.5

Moritz Winter and family ship manifest, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving At San Francisco, California; NAI Number: 4498993; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85, NARA Roll Number: 358, Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1959

Meanwhile, Erna’s stepson Salomon Fritz Winter immigrated to Uruguay where he was, like his father, a rabbi. He was interviewed by the Shoah Foundation, but his interview is in Spanish, so I need to find someone who can translate it for me.6

Erna, Moritz, and Walter settled in San Francisco, where they are listed on the 1940 US census, Moritz’s occupation being described as a rabbi at a “Jewish church.” 7 On April 26, 1942, Moritz registered for the World War II draft and listed his address in Santa Cruz, California, and his employer as the Jewish Community Center there.

Moritz Winter, World War II draft registration, The National Archives At St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; World War Ii Draft Cards (4th Registration) For the State of California; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147, Name Range: Franceschini, Francesco – Woehl, Charles, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942

By 1947, Moritz was working at the Oakland, California, Jewish Community Center, where he was an instructor in Hebrew studies, customs, and rituals. In 1950 the family was living in Oakland, and Moritz was a Hebrew teacher and librarian at the Jewish Community Center.8

Their son Walter went to the local Oakland schools and then to the City College of San Francisco and Golden Gate University School of Law; he passed the California bar exam in 1957. Walter became a highly successful divorce lawyer, litigating thousands of cases. If you Google “Walter T Winter,” you will see many cases where he is listed as one of the lawyers. Walter also wrote three books on divorce law. He also served in the US Marines.9

His mother Erna Rothschild Winter died on June 29, 1969, in Oakland. She was 69 years old.10 Her husband Rabbi Moritz Winter died in Oakland two years later on July 14, 1971; he was 84.11 They are buried next to each other at the Home of Peace cemetery in Oakland.

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/159031124/moritz-winter: accessed 11 January 2024), memorial page for Dr Moritz Winter (9 Nov 1886–14 Jul 1971), Find a Grave Memorial ID 159031124, citing Home of Peace Cemetery, Oakland, Alameda County, California, USA; Maintained by Stephen C. Miller (contributor 47963213).

Their son Walter did not live a long life. He died on April 15, 1985, when he was only 54.12 He was survived by his two children and his half-brother Rabbi Salomon Fritz Winter in Uruguay.

The third child of Moses Max Rothschild and Helene Hoechster for whom I have records was their son Erwin, and I do have information on Erwin’s life and death. I will tell his story in my next post.

 

 

 

  1. Moritz Winter birth record, Ancestry.com. Magdeburg, Germany, Births, 1874-1903 ↩
  2. Ernestine Abraham Winter death record, Landesarchiv Berlin; Berlin, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister, Registration Year or Type: 1929 (Erstregister), Ancestry.com. Berlin, Germany, Deaths, 1874-1955 ↩
  3. Salomon Fritz Winter, Gender Male, Marital Status Married,Birth Date 11 de dez de 1914 (11 Dec 1914), Birth Place Konigsberg, Arrival Date 1961, Arrival Place Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Father Moritz Winter, Mother Ernestine Abraham, Traveling With Children No, FHL Film Number 004920148, Ancestry.com. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Immigration Cards, 1900-1965 ↩
  4. Walter Winter, Gender Male, Race White, Birth Date 3 Apr 1931, Birth Place Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany, Death Date Apr 1985, Father Moritz Winter, Mother Erna Rothschild, SSN 550383707, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  5. “Rites Held for Erna Winter, 69,” Oakland (CA) Tribune, July 2, 1969, p. 22. ↩
  6. Rabbi Fritz Salomon Winter, [Rabbi Rav ben Moshe Winter], [Rabbi Shlomo Winter], Gender Male, Birth Date 11 Dec 1914, Birth Place Königsberg, Germany
    Interview Date 9 Jun 1997, Interview Place Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay
    Relationship Self (Head), Role Interviewee, USC Shoah Foundation; Los Angeles, California; Visual History Archive: The Holocaust, Free Access: USC Shoah Foundation, Holocaust – Jewish Survivor Interviews ↩
  7. Moritz Winter and family, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Roll: m-t0627-00319; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 38-522, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  8. “Summer Program of ‘Fun’ Camp to be Previewed,” Oakland (CA) Tribune, 26 Jun 1947, Thu ·Page 7. ↩
  9. “Walter Winter,” The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, California , Fri, Apr 19, 1985, Page 27 ↩
  10. Erna Winter, Social Security # 567300066, Gender Female, Birth Date 25 Nov 1899, Death Date 29 Jun 1969, Death Place Alameda, Mother’s Maiden Name Hoechster, Place: Alameda; Date: 29 Jun 1969; Social Security: 567300066, Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997 ↩
  11. Moritz Winter, Gender Male, Birth Date 9 Nov 1886, Death Date 14 Jul 1971, Death Place Alameda, Place: Alameda; Date: 14 Jul 1971, Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997 ↩
  12. Walter Theodor Winter, Gender Male, Birth Date 3 Apr 1931, Birth Place Other Country, Death Date 15 Apr 1985, Death Place Marin, Mother’s Maiden Name Rothschild, Place: Marin; Date: 15 Apr 1985, Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997. See also Note 9, supra. ↩

Seligmann Rothschild’s Sons: The Challenges of Trees without Sources

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When he died at age 40 in 1884, Seligmann Rothschild was survived by his four sons and his second wife, Emma Rothschild.  Just nine years later, his son Emil died when he was just eighteen, leaving the three other sons: Moses Max, Leopold, and Hugo. These three sons had suffered so many losses in such a short time; for Moses, his mother when he was two; for all three of them, their father when they were all ten or younger; then their brother Emil, and then their grandparents Gelle Blumenfeld and Simon Rothschild.

Unfortunately, I have hit many a brick wall in trying to research the lives of Moses, Leopold, and Hugo. There are lots of trees on Ancestry, MyHeritage, Geni, etc., for this family, but very few have any sources, and I have not yet been able to find the sources to back up the information on those trees. Because I try not to include unsourced information on the blog, I am reluctant to share the information included on all those trees. I will keep searching, but for now this is a post that should have a big asterisk next to it, warning readers that some of the information here may not be correct. I will indicate below where there are places that are not yet verified by records or at least some direct family confirmation of the facts.

Moses Max Rothschild, Seligmann’s oldest son, married Helene Hoechster on July 8, 1897, in Nordeck, Germany. Helene was born in Nordeck on September 3, 1870, and she was the daughter of Salomon Hoechster and Jette Loew.

Moses Rothschild and Helene Hoechster marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 905; Laufende Nummer: 1070, Year Range: 1889-1899, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

I have been able to find records for three children of Moses and Helene: Gertrude, born June 23, 1898, in Nordeck, Erna, born November 25, 1899, in Nordeck, and Erwin, born December 4, 1904, in Nordeck.1

Gertrude Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 905; Laufende Nummer: 1068, Year Range: 1888-1899, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Erna Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 905; Laufende Nummer: 1068, Year Range: 1888-1899, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Several unsourced trees include three other children born to Moses and Helene, but the online records for Nordeck do not include the birth records for the years of the births of those other children. For two of these children, there are records that show that they were born in Nordeck, but nothing that ties them to Moses and Helene.

For example, there is a death record for a Siegfried Rothschild who was born in Nordeck on April 8, 1901, and died on January 15, 1936, in Hanau, Germany.2 But that record does not include his parents’ names. Could this be a son of Moses and Helene? Certainly. But is this record reliable evidence of that? No.

Similarly, there is a Holocaust era record for a Fritz Rothschild, born in Nordeck on June 1, 1906.3 Could this be a son of Moses and Helene? Sure. But this record in no way establishes that connection.

Then there is another son included on these trees, Walter, born July 6, 1903, and there is no record at all for this person or even a reference to his birthplace, let alone his parentage.

These children—Siegfried, Fritz, and Walter—could indeed be children of Moses and Helene Rothschild, but on Ancestry, the trees that include them all cite Geneanet as a source (as well as other Ancestry trees). The listing on Geneanet for this family has no actual sources either. I wrote to the person who submitted the information on Geneanet, and he said he had no sources and had just taken the information off other trees. So it’s like going in a circle—each tree relies on another tree that relies on another tree, and none have any real sources.

I also have sent a message through Geni to a profile manager there for this family. I am hoping that person will respond because they seem to be family members. Maybe they can help me break through this brick wall not only for Moses and his family, but also for his two half-brothers, Leopold and Hugo. But it’s now been well over a month, and I’ve heard nothing.

Leopold Rothschild, the second surviving son of Seligmann Rothschild, married Zipporah Birkenruth on September 28, 1906, in Fulda, Germany. Zipporah was the daughter of Josef Birkenruth and Roschen Grief and was born in Wehrda, Germany, on January 5, 1876.

Leopold Rothschild and Zipporah Birkenruth marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Signatur: 2363, Year Range: 1906, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Leopold and Zipporah had one child for whom I have a record with a birth date, but no reference to his parents: Siegfried, born on September 13, 1907, in Halberstadt, Germany.4 Although there is no specific official record tying Siegfried to Leopold and Zipporah, there are some secondary sources that have convinced me that he was their son.

A story on Yad Vashem mentions that Leopold and his family moved in 1913 from Halberstadt to Dinslaken, Germany, to run an orphanage there. The story refers to and quotes a son Pinchas, who was six when the family moved to Dinslaken, thus born in 1907. I assume that Pinchas was the Hebrew name of Siegfried, who was born in 1907, as noted above. And I have found a Shoah Foundation interview with Pinchas Rothschild. Unfortunately, it is in Hebrew, so I am waiting for a cousin to translate it for me. But the index for this interview on Ancestry identified his father as Leopold Rothschild and his mother as Zipporah Birkenruth. 5

According to other unsourced trees, Leopold and Zipporah had three other children, Judith, Naftali, and Mirjam, but I have no records for those three. Until I can verify the birth dates for these three, I have nothing more I can add.

As for Hugo Rothschild, the third surviving son of Seligmann Rothschild, several unsourced trees list his spouse as Hannah Adler. I did find Hugo Rothschild, married to Hannah Adler, on a citizen register for the city of Lubeck, Germany. The birth date and birthplace match that of our Hugo Rothschild, so I see this as fairly reliable evidence that Hugo did marry a woman named Hannah Adler. The register also indicates that they had two female children at that time. But what I can’t determine is when this register was created. It says that Hugo became a citizen on June 24, 1911, but is that necessarily the date that Hugo was listed on the register? Does it mean that as of June 24, 1911, he was married to Hannah and had two female children? Or does it only mean that that was his family status as of the time he was listed in the register—which could have been years after June 24, 1911?

Hugo Rothschild Lubeck register, general_subcollection: Verzeichnis der in den Lübeckischen Staatsverband Aufgenommenen, 1903 (Mai)-1919, Ancestry.com. Lübeck, Germany, Citizenship Register, 1591-1919

The reason that this is important is that those unsourced trees for Hugo have conflicting dates for when Hugo married Hannah; some say 1908 in Baden-Baden, some say December 14, 1918, in Nordrach, Germany. I am inclined to think that the 1908 date makes more sense, especially since those trees also list four children for Hugo and Hannah born between 1907 and 1917. But alas, none of these trees includes a marriage record, nor have I found one.

As for those four children, two were allegedly born before June 24, 1911: a daughter Judith in 1907, making me wonder about a 1908 marriage, and a son Eli born in 1909. The register, however, says that Hugo had two daughters. So something is not right either on the register or on those trees. The unsourced trees list two more children for Hugo and Hannah: Chava, born in 1914, and Naomi, born in 1917, both in Lubeck. But again, no records support any of this information. A profile on Geni lists a descendant of Hugo and Hannah, and I have sent a message to that person and am hoping for a response. But again, it’s been over a month, and I’ve gotten no response.

So where do I stand? Frustrated for sure. I will move on to finish what I can of the stories of Seligmann Rothschild’s sons and their families based on the records I have, and if later I can find more sources, I will update the information with later posts.

  1. Erwin Rothschild death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 135; Laufende Nummer: 926, Year Range: 1951, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958 ↩
  2. Siegfried Rothschild death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 2100, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958 ↩
  3. See 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 ↩
  4. Siegfried Rothschild, Gender Male, Birth Date 13 Sep 1907, Arrival Date 25 Oct 1943, Nationality I Deutschland, Nationality II Deutschland, Ancestry.com. Switzerland, Jewish Arrivals, 1938-1945 ↩
  5. Dr. Pinḥas Zigfrid Roṭshild, Birth Date 13 Sep 1907, Birth Place Halberstadt, Germany, Interview Date 5 Oct 1995, Interview Place Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    Relationship Self (Head), Role Interviewee, USC Shoah Foundation; Los Angeles, California; Visual History Archive: The Holocaust, Free Access: USC Shoah Foundation, Holocaust – Jewish Survivor Interviews ↩

Seligmann Simon Rothschild’s Tragic and Short Life

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In 1861, Gelle Blumenfeld Rothschild gave birth to her eleventh and last child, Meier, as we saw in my earlier post. Two of those eleven children had died before their third birthdays, but the other nine were still living although for one of those children, Isaac, born in 1850, I have no records after his birth record.1 Thus, I can only report on what happened to the remaining eight children. I will tell their stories one at a time, starting with the oldest child of Gelle Blumenfeld and Simon Rothschild, Seligmann Simon Rothschild.

Seligmann Rothschild was 28 when he married Gelle Karoline Rosenberg on November 7, 1871, in Zimmersrode, Germany; she was the daughter of Jacob Rosenberg and Belle Kauffman and was born on September 11, 1850.2

Seligmann Rothschild marriage record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 884, p. 15

Seligmann and Gelle had two children. Moses (Max) Rothschild was born on January 18, 1874, in Waltersbrueck, Germany, and his brother Emiel (or Emil) Rothschild was born there on April 27, 1875.

Moses Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 40

Emiel Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 42

Sadly, Gelle Rosenberg Rothschild died less than two years later on August 26, 1876, in Waltersbrueck. She was only 25 years old and left her husband Seligmann with two children under three years old.

Gelle Rosenberg Rothschild death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 8453; Laufende Nummer: 920
Year Range: 1876, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Seligmann did not wait too long to remarry. On January 8, 1878, in Waltersbrueck, he married Emma Ernestina Rothschild, the daughter of Moses Rothschild and Caroline Baum. Emma was born on September 2, 1848, in Angenrod, Germany.

Seligmann Rothschild marriage to Emma Rothschild, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 8404, Year Range: 1878, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

One question nagging at me is whether Seligmann Rothschild, son of Simon Rothschild, was related to his new bride Emma Rothschild, daughter of Moses Rothschild. Emma and her family were from Angenrod, which is only 22 miles from Waltersbrueck where Seligmann lived. I have tried to trace back the lineage of Moses Rothschild and Simon Rothschild, but so far have not found any overlap. Yet it seems somehow likely that these two families were related and that when Seligmann’s first wife died, Emma was selected to help him raise his two little boys. But I have no proof so it remains just speculation.

Emma and Seligmann had two children together. Leopold Rothschild was born on March 20, 1880, in Waltersbrueck, and his brother Hugo was born in Waltersbrueck on July 5, 1882.

Leopold Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 8382, Year  Range: 1880, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Hugo Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 8384, Year Range: 1882, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

And then tragedy struck the family again when Seligmann, only forty years old, died on May 25, 1884, leaving Emma alone to raise the four little boys, the first two the children of Seligmann’s first wife Gelle, the other two Emma’s children. When Seligmann died, Moses Max was ten, Emil was nine, Leopold was four, and Hugo was two. It’s hard to imagine how Emma managed to cope with so much loss and with four little heartbroken children.

Seligman Rothschild death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 8461; Laufende Nummer: 920, Year Range: 1884, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Seligmann’s mother Gelle Blumenfeld Rothschild lived to see the births of all four of these grandsons, but also had to endure the heartbreak of losing her first-born child, Seligmann, who was the third of her eleven children to predecease her. Gelle died in Waltersbrueck on December 2, 1887, when she was 65 years old.3

Gelle Blumenfeld Rothschild death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 8464; Laufende Nummer: 920, Year Range: 1887, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Rothschild, Gelle nee Blumenfeld (1887) – Haarhausen”, in: Jewish Graves <https://www.lagis-hessen.de/de/subjects/idrec/sn/juf/id/2291&gt; (as of June 5, 2012 )

Gelle was spared the heartbreak of seeing that Seligmann’s second child, Emil, died when he was only eighteen on December 13, 1893, in Alsfeld, Germany, where he was then living and working as a merchant. I don’t know what his cause of death was, but when I think of all he’d endured—loss of his mother when he was one, the remarriage of his father and births of two half-brothers, the loss of his father when he was nine, and then the loss of his grandmother three years after that—I have to wonder what impact all that had on his physical and mental well-being.

Emiel Rothschild death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 27; Laufende Nummer: 921, Year Range: 1891-1894, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Two years later Seligmann Rothschild’s father Simon Rothschild died on July 21, 1895, in Zimmersrode. He was 82

Rothschild, Simon (II) (1895) – Haarhausen”, in: Jewish Graves <https://www.lagis-hessen.de/de/subjects/idrec/sn/juf/id/2213&gt; (as of June 5th. 2012)

The futures of the three surviving sons of Seligmann Simon Rothschild will be discussed in the next post.

  1. There is a notation on Isaak’s birth record that says, “war noch nicht eingetragen, geschieht nachtraeglich,” which translates to “Not yet registered, will happen later.” Someone on Facebook pointed out that Isaak’s birth record is out of chronological order in the register and so was recorded months after his birth. ↩
  2. Gelle Rosenberg Rothschild death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 8453; Laufende Nummer: 920, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958 ↩
  3. She also lived to see the births of nine other grandchildren, but we will get to those other grandchildren in later posts. ↩

Gelle Karoline Blumenfeld Rothschild, Part I: Eleven Children in Eighteen Years

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It’s been quite a while since I have written about my Blumenfeld relatives. Other things—photos, a photo album, updates from cousins—have filled my blog. But today I can finally return to the Blumenfeld tree. And it’s time for a new branch of that family.

After a year and a half researching and writing about Isaak Blumenfeld I and his large family, I can now turn my attention to Isaak’s younger sister Gelle (Karoline) Blumenfeld, the third child of my three-times great-uncle Moses Blumenfeld. To give you a sense of where I am in telling the story of my Blumenfeld family, here are two charts.

The first one shows where I am in writing about all the descendants of my earliest known Blumenfeld ancestors, Abraham Katz Blumenfeld and Giedel Katz Blumenfeld, my four-times great-grandparents.

The second one shows where I am in my writing about Moses Blumenfeld I, their oldest child–not quite two thirds done.

Now on to the third and last child of the oldest child of Abraham and Giedel, my first cousin, four times removed, Gelle Karoline Blumenfeld.

Gelle was born in about 1822 in Momberg, Germany.1 She married Simon Rothschild on November 15, 1842, in Neustadt, Germany, when she was twenty years old. Simon was the son of Seligmann Rothschild and Terz Gutheim, and he was born in Waltersbrueck, Germany, in June 1813.2

Marriage of Gelle Blumenfeld and Simon Rothcchild. Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 629, S. 6

Gelle and Simon had eleven children together. Although the birth records for the children are listed in the records for the town of Zimmersrode, a larger town close to the very small village of Waltersbrueck, I assume based on later records that the family lived in Waltersbrueck and that the children were actually born there. But their births were registered in Zimmersrode.

First born was Seligmann Rothschild II on September 9, 1843.

Seligmann Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Hesse Archives, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 15

Seligmann was followed by Abraham, born December 22, 1844; sadly, Abraham lived just a few months. He died on February 16, 1845.

Abraham Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 17

Abraham Rothschild death record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 896, p. 16

A third son was born on August 23, 1846. His name was Levi.

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

He was followed by yet another boy, Moses, born August 30, 1848.

Moses Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 20

Then came Isaak, born January 15, 1850.

Isaak Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p.23

Finally, Gelle gave birth to a daughter, Gitel, on January 7, 1852, but Gitel lived just a little over a year, dying on February 11, 1853.

Gitel Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 24

Gitel Rothschild death record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 896, p 21

Gelle and Simon’s seventh child was another girl, Beschen, born June 22, 1853. Fortunately, she survived and became the oldest living daughter in the family.

Beschen Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 25

Another boy followed Beschen. Gerson was born May 1, 1855.

Gerson Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 27

The ninth child was Malchen, born March 3, 1857.

Malchen Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 28

Sara, the tenth child, was born on January 6, 1859.3

Sara Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 30

And finally, Gelle gave birth the eleventh and last time to another son, Meier, born on May 9, 1861.

Meier Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 32

Gelle was 21 when she gave birth to her first child Seligmann in 1843 and 39 when she gave birth to her last child Meier in 1861. She had been having babies for almost twenty years, sometimes in consecutive years. I am not sure how she did it, especially enduring the loss of two of those children at such young ages while raising all the others.

But fortunately, at least eight of the other nine children lived to adulthood, and I will be telling their stories in the posts to come.

  1. Rothschild, Gelle geborene Blumenfeld (1887) – Haarhausen“, in: Jüdische Grabstätten <https://www.lagis-hessen.de/en/subjects/idrec/sn/juf/id/2291&gt; (Stand: 5.6.2012) ↩
  2. „Rothschild, Simon (II) (1895) – Haarhausen“, in: Jüdische Grabstätten <https://www.lagis-hessen.de/en/subjects/idrec/sn/juf/id/2213&gt; (Stand: 5.6.2012). ↩
  3. Although Sara’s marriage record gives her a different birth date (January 3, 1860), I am assuming that this birth record, though difficult to read, is more accurate. See Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 8409, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930 ↩

Heartbreak after Heartbreak: Eight Tragic Deaths in Less than Eight Years

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As seen in my earlier posts, by 1900 Levi Goldsmith and his wife Henrietta Lebenbach had both passed away, but they were survived by eight children. Thank you to my cousin Julian Reinheimer for this photograph of the headstones of Levi and Henrietta:

Courtesy of Julian Reinheimer

(I note that Levi’s name is spelled Levy on both stones; records are inconsistent about how he spelled his name, and since I’ve thus far used Levi, I have decided to stick with that spelling for consistency’s sake.)

All of Levi and Henrietta’s children except for their son George were married by 1900, and almost all of those who married had at least one child. Five grandchildren had died very young, but twelve were still living as of 1900. That would not be true in seven years.

The year 1900 saw the births of two more grandchildren. Felix Goldsmith and his wife Bertha Umstadter had their fourth child in Virginia in May 1900, a daughter named Minna.1 And Blanche Goldsmith and her husband Max Greenbaum also had a baby in May of that year, a son named Levis Greenbaum, another grandchild named for Levi Goldsmith.2 He was their third child, but their first two—Ethel and Leah—had died very young.

As of the taking of the 1900 census in June, Eva Goldsmith had separated from her husband Nathan Anathan. On the 1900 census, Eva is listed as a widow, living in Philadelphia with her two daughters, Helen (21) and Bessie (17) and eight boarders. Helen was working as a school teacher, and Bessie was still in school. I assumed that Nathan had died, but then I found him living in Chicago, working as a tobacconist and reporting that his marital status was single. I am quite sure that it is the same Nathan Anathan since he listed his birthplace as Philadelphia, he is the right age, his surname is quite unusual, and he was still in the tobacco business. Further searching revealed that Nathan died (under the name Nathan Nathan) in Chicago on April 9, 1907.3

Eva Goldsmith Anathan and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 29, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 2; Enumeration District: 0710; FHL microfilm: 1241470
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

Nathan Anathan, 1900 US census, Census Place: Chicago Ward 1, Cook, Illinois; Page: 3; Enumeration District: 0020; FHL microfilm: 1240245
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

The 1900 census reported that Estella and her husband Solomon (listed as Samuel here) Rothschild were living in Philadelphia with their three sons, Jerome (16), Leonard (12), and Herbert (6), and two servants.  The boys were all at school, and Solomon reported his occupation as “gentleman.” He is also listed without an occupation in the 1899 Philadelphia directory, though earlier directories list him as being in the millinery business.4

Rothschild family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 29, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 6; Enumeration District: 0711; FHL microfilm: 1241471
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

Levi and Henrietta’s oldest son, George Goldsmith, was living in Philadelphia as a lodger and working as a druggist in 1900.5 His younger brother Felix was living with his wife Bertha in Norfolk, Virginia, with their four children Frances (Fannie here, 11), Lee (7), Hortense (2), and the newborn Minna, who was a month old at that time. Bertha reported that she had given birth to six children, four still living, but I have not yet been able to find the other two children, so there must have been two more grandchildren who died very young. Felix was in the clothing business. They also had a nurse and a cook living with them.

Felix Goldsmith, 1900 US census, Census Place: Norfolk Ward 1, Norfolk City, Virginia; Page: 5; Enumeration District: 0086; FHL microfilm: 1241735
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

The third oldest son, Isadore, and his wife Mary were living as boarders in Philadelphia. They had no children. For his occupation, Isadore listed that he “lives on income.” 6 I wondered where that income came from. More on Isadore in my next post.

Isadore’s next youngest sibling was Helen Goldsmith, and she and her husband Harry Loeb were living in Dubois, Pennsylvania, with their two children, Armand (6) and Henriete (4); Harry was working as a lumberman. They had one servant living with them as well.

Harry Loeb and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Dubois Ward 2, Clearfield, Pennsylvania; Page: 5; Enumeration District: 0071; FHL microfilm: 1241396
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

Blanche, the youngest daughter, was living with her husband Max Greenbaum and her newborn son Levis in Philadelphia, where Max was a dentist. They also had a servant living with them. Although Blanche had lost two children before 1900, she reported that she had only given birth to one child. 7

The youngest Goldsmith sibling, Sylvester, was living in Addison, Indiana, with his wife Ida and their two children Henrietta (4) and Louis (1), as well as Sylvester’s mother-in-law. Sylvester was working as a clothing salesman.8

Unfortunately, during the next seven years the family suffered loss after loss of many of its members including far too many children as well as adults who died too young.

First, on October 30, 1900, just five months after the birth of his daughter Minna, Felix Goldsmith died. He was only 37 years old and left behind not only his infant daughter, but three other young children.

“Mr. Goldsmith’s Funeral,” Norfolk Virginia-Pilot, November 1, 1900, p. 2

According to his obituary in the Norfolk Virginia-Pilot of November 1, 1900 (p. 2), Felix died after being quite ill for two years. The paper described him as a “well-known and highly-esteemed citizen.” It also reported that after high school, Felix had taken “a medical course of study with the intention of being a physician.” Instead he became “an excellent businessman and was quite successful in his enterprises.” What a terrible loss this must have been for his family and his community.

1901 brought two new babies to the extended family in the same week. Harold Goldsmith was born on February 2, 1901, to Sylvester Goldsmith and his wife Ida in Indiana.9 Then six days later Helen Goldsmith Loeb gave birth to her third child, a boy they named Leonard Loeb, presumably for Helen’s father Levi.10

Whatever joy that may have brought to the extended family must have been dashed when little Levis Greenbaum, son of Blanche Goldsmith and Max Greenbaum, died in Philadelphia five months later on July 15, 1901.  According to the death register, he died from toxemic collapse.  With help from my brother and some people in Tracing the Tribe, I’ve determined that Levi most likely died from what today we would call septic shock from a bacterial infection. He was just over a year old when he died. And he was the third child of Blanche and Max to die before reaching age five. I can’t imagine how devastated they must have been.

Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-65Y7-7PQ?cc=1320976&wc=9FRH-C68%3A1073327701 : 16 May 2014), 004047862 > image 394 of 687; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

 

And then, just seven months after the death of little Levis, his cousin Leonard Levi Rothschild, son of Estella Goldsmith and Solomon Rothschild, died on February 2, 1902. He was only thirteen years old. Within the space of just seven months, two of the namesakes of Levi Goldsmith had died as children. Leonard died from gangrenous stomatitis or noma, which according to Wikipedia is “is a rapidly progressive, polymicrobial, often gangrenous infection of the mouth or genitals.” Today it is associated with malnutrition, poor hygiene, and unsafe drinking water. Given the family’s status on the 1900 census, it is hard to imagine that Leonard was malnourished or had poor hygiene.

Leonard Rothschild death certificate, “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-63B7-4Z1?cc=1320976&wc=9F5C-L2S%3A1073221501 : 16 May 2014), 004009533 > image 376 of 1778; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Sylvester Goldsmith and his wife Ida Simms experienced both a tragic loss and the birth of a new child in 1903. On February 15, 1903, their seven-year-old daughter Henrietta died from the measles. She was the eighth grandchild of Levi and Henrietta Goldsmith to die as a child.11

And then eight months to the day later, Ida gave birth to a boy they named Blanchard. 12 Was Ida already pregnant when Henrietta died? That must have been a very bittersweet and frightening pregnancy.

Fortunately 1904 brought no deaths to the family (as well as no births), but the heartbreak began again on January 9, 1905, when Estella Goldsmith Rothschild died from mitral regurgitation and pulmonary edema at age 45.She left behind her husband Solomon and her two surviving sons, Jerome (21) and Herbert (11). Had the loss of her two other sons, Stanley and Leonard, affected her health? It certainly is possible.

Estella Goldsmith Rothschild death certificate, “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-68KD-GL?cc=1320976&wc=9FRY-W38%3A1073113702 : 16 May 2014), 004008757 > image 316 of 534; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Estella’s memory was honored a year later when her brother Sylvester’s wife Ida gave birth to another child on February 8, 1906 and named her Estella Rothschild Goldsmith.

Estella Rothschild Goldsmith birth certificate, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Box Number: 5; Certificate Number: 14402
Source Information
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Birth Certificates, 1906-1910

April 1907 started out with good news when Blanche Goldsmith and Max Greenbaum had a new child, Helen Estelle Greenbaum, on April 7, 1907, also named in memory of Estella Goldsmith Rothschild.

Helen Estelle Greenbaum birth certificate, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Box Number: 100; Certificate Number: 104056
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Birth Certificates, 1906-1910

Two days later Nathan Anathan, Eva’s estranged husband, died in Chicago.13 Then Mary Wheeler, Isadore Goldsmith’s wife, died on April 17, 1907, from a stroke; she was 54.14

Six months later on October 11, 1907, Isadore himself died from a cerebral hemorrhage to which acute alcoholism was found to be a contributing factor. He was only 43 years old; from the death certificate it appears that he died after about a day in the Gibbons Sanitarium in Philadelphia. When I saw that, I decided to look further into Isadore’s life. More on that in my next post.

Isidore Goldsmith Death Certificate, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-68DJ-WR?cc=1320976&wc=9FRT-N38%3A1073183102 : 16 May 2014), 004008905 > image 483 of 536; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Looking back on what the extended family experienced between 1900 and 1907 is mind-boggling. Three of the children of Levi and Henrietta Goldsmith died before their 50th birthdays. Felix was only 37, Estella was 45, and Isadore was 43. In addition, Isadore’s wife Mary and Eva’s estranged husband Nathan died in April 1907.

Even more tragic, three more of their grandchildren died: Levis Greenbaum was only a year old, Leonard Rothschild was thirteen, and Henrietta Goldsmith was seven. That meant that eight of the grandchildren of Levi and Henrietta died as children.

What would the next decade bring for the five children of Levi and Henrietta who remained and for the surviving grandchildren? More to come in a subsequent post.

  1. Minna Goldsmith Goodman, ship manifest, Year: 1932; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 5138; Line: 28; Page Number: 182. Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 ↩
  2. Levis Greenbaum, 1900 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 29, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 1; Enumeration District: 0710; FHL microfilm: 1241470. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  3. Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878-1994,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7HF-SQZ : 8 March 2018), Nathan Nathan, 09 Apr 1907; citing , Cook, Illinois, United States, source reference 10463, record number 37, Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm 1,239,756. ↩
  4. Philadelphia city directories, 1879, 1881, 1889, 1890, 1894, 1899, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995. ↩
  5. George W. Goldsmith, 1900 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 20, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 8; Enumeration District: 0418; FHL microfilm: 1241462. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  6. Isadore Goldsmith. 1900 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 32, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 5; Enumeration District: 0808; FHL microfilm: 1241473. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  7. Max Greenbaum and family, 1900 US Census, Census Place: Dubois Ward 2, Clearfield, Pennsylvania; Page: 5; Enumeration District: 0071; FHL microfilm: 1241396.
    Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  8. Sylvester Goldsmith and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Addison, Shelby, Indiana; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0104; FHL microfilm: 1240402. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census. ↩
  9.  Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. SSN: 288073757. ↩
  10. Leonard Loeb, World War II draft registration, The National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 1495. Ancestry.com. U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 ↩
  11. Death record of Henrietta Goldsmith, February 15, 1903, Clearfield County, PA Death Records, 1893 – 1905. PAGE: g-89-1 & g-89-2. NO: 3. Found at http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/vitals/deaths/goldsmith-henrietta.txt ↩
  12.  Number: 138-03-2325; Issue State: New Jersey; Issue Date: Before 1951.
    Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014. (An eerie note: On the 1910 census, Sylvester is listed with four children, and he and Ida did have four living children at that time, but the names listed on the census included Henrietta, who had died, instead of their still-living son Louis. Sylvester Goldsmith and family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Du Bois Ward 1, Clearfield, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1331; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0074; FHL microfilm: 1375344. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  13. See Note 3, above. ↩
  14. Mary Goldsmith death certificate, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 038171-041450. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966 ↩

The Many Namesakes of Levi and Henrietta Goldsmith

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As I wrote here, when Levi Goldsmith died on December 29, 1886, he was survived by his wife Henrietta and their eight children. Three of those children were already married, as we already saw.

Their oldest child Eva had married Nathan Anathan in 1875, and they had two daughters, Helen (1879) and Bessie (1883) after losing their first two children, who died as babies. Thank you to Sherri Goldberg of Tracing the Tribe for pointing out that Nathan Anathan was a first cousin to Theresa Anathan, whose daughter Nellie Buxbaum was married to Philip Goldsmith, son of Jacob Goldsmith. 

Their second daughter Estella Goldsmith had married Solomon Rothschild in 1883, and by the time of Levi’s death had two children, Jerome (1884) and Stanley, born on January 29, 1886; Stanley died, however, shortly after his grandfather died; he was a little over a year old when he died on March 30, 1887, from gastroenteritis.  Estella then gave birth to a third son, Leonard Levi Rothschild; he was born in 1888 and presumably was named for his grandfather. A fourth child, Herbert Hirsch Rothschild, was born February 3, 1894, in Philadelphia.1

The next child of Levi and Henrietta who had married before Levi died was Felix Goldsmith. He married Bertha Umstadter in 1886, and their first child, Frances Lee Goldsmith, was born in 1889 and may have been named for Levi. Felix and Bertha had a second child on October 28, 1892, a son named Lee Goldsmith, who was likely named for Levi. 2

The two remaining daughters of Levi and Henrietta were both married in 1893. Helen, the older of the two, married Harry Loeb.3  Harry was born April 28, 1859, in Philadelphia.4 His father, Moses, was born in Germany and was a butcher; his mother Pauline was born in France. In 1880, Harry was working as a clerk in a store in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he was boarding.5 Helen and Harry Loeb had their first child, Armand, on April 25, 1894, in Dubois, Pennsylvania, a town located about 270 miles west of Pennsylvania, where Harry and Helen had settled.6

Helen’s younger sister Blanche also married in 1893. She married Max Greenbaum, who was born in either Germany or Austria in about 1868 and immigrated to the US in about 1871.7 His father Philip Greenbaum was a tailor in 1880, and Max, who later became a dentist, was in school.8

Blanche and Max suffered two terrible losses in the early years of their marriage.  Their first child, Ethel, was born in 1894 and died from pneumonia on December 29, 1898. 9 Their second child, Leah, named presumably for Levi, was born on January 19, 1895.10 I have not been able to locate a death record for Leah, but she is not listed with her family on the 1900 census or afterwards. Although Blanche reported on the 1900 census that she’d only had one child, on the 1910 census she reported that she had had four, only one of whom was still living. I have to believe that Leah died sometime between January 19, 1895, and 1900. Thus, the family of Levi Goldsmith suffered the deaths of two more very young children.

Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DTVH-TC?cc=1320976&wc=9F5N-RM9%3A1073210101 : 16 May 2014), 004009439 > image 1295 of 1741; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

The next sibling to marry was the youngest child of Levi and Henrietta, their son Sylvester. He married Ida Simms on March 21, 1895 in Allen County, Ohio.11 I could not find any definite records for Ida’s life prior to marrying Sylvester, but according to her death certificate,10 she was born in Michigan to John Simms and Sarah Mott on December 21, 1874. According to Sylvester’s obituary,12 she lived in Lima, Ohio, before marrying him.

Three months after Sylvester’s marriage, his mother Henrietta Lebenbach Goldsmith died on July 3, 1895, in Philadelphia from “congestive apoplexy.” She was 60 years old and was survived by eight of the nine children to whom she had given birth. She was buried at Mt Sinai cemetery in Philadelphia where her husband Levi was buried.

Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JXRJ-MH6 : 8 March 2018), Henrietta Goldsmith, 03 Jul 1895; citing cn 371, Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; FHL microfilm 1,862,809.

Then three months after Henrietta’s death and six months after Sylvester married Ida, Ida gave birth to their first child, whom they named Henrietta. She was born in September 1895 in Lima, Ohio.13 She was not the only baby presumably named for Henrietta Lebenbach Goldsmith. Helen (Goldsmith) and Harry Loeb had a second child in January 1896 named Henriete Loeb,14 and on June 4, 1897, Felix and Bertha Goldsmith had a third child born in Norfolk, Virginia, whom they named Hortense Lee Goldsmith.15 In addition, Sylvester and Ida had a second child born on November 12, 1898, in Shelbyville, Indiana. They named him Louis Sylvester Goldsmith.16 Could he be yet another child named in memory of his grandfather Levi?

Meanwhile, in 1896, Levi and Henrietta’s son Isadore Goldsmith married Mary R. Wheeler.  Strangely, there are two different marriage records for Isadore and Mary. One, dated October 17, 1896, shows they married in Camden, New Jersey. 17 A second shows they married on November 18, 1896, in Washington, DC.18 That story will be told in a later post. Mary was born on December 23, 1852, in Pennsylvania, making her twelve years older than Isadore and 43 when they married. She was the daughter of John and Caroline Wheeler.19

Thus, by the end of the nineteenth century, both Levi Goldsmith and his wife Henrietta Lebenbach had passed away and were survived by their eight children and many grandchildren, many of whom were named for either Levi or Henrietta. Tragically, two more grandchildren died as babies, Blanche’s daughters Ethel and Leah. As of 1898, there were twelve surviving grandchildren: Eva’s two surviving daughters, Helen and Bessie Anathan; Estella’s three surviving sons, Jerome, Leonard, and Herbert Rothschild; Felix’s three children Frances, Lee, and Hortense Goldsmith; Helen’s two children, Armand and Henriete Loeb; and Sylvester’s two children, Henrietta and Louis. Levi and Henrietta must have been well-loved to have been so well-honored.

The next decade would bring more births, but far too many tragic deaths.

  1. Herbert Rothschild death certificate, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-63B7-4Z1?cc=1320976&wc=9F5C-L2S%3A1073221501 : 16 May 2014), 004009533 > image 376 of 1778; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. The sources for the other facts in this paragraph can be found in my earlier post linked above. ↩
  2. Lee Goldsmith World War I draft registration, Registration State: Virginia; Registration County: Norfolk (Independent City); Roll: 1984907; Draft Board: 2. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. See prior post for sources for other facts. ↩
  3. Ancestry.com. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Marriage Index, 1885-1951. Original data: “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Marriage Index, 1885–1951.” Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009. Philadelphia County Pennsylvania Clerk of the Orphans’ Court. “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia marriage license index, 1885-1951.” Clerk of the Orphans’ Court, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Certificate 59231. ↩
  4. Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records; Reel: 1112. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013 ↩
  5. Loeb family, 1860 US Census, Census Place: Bellefonte, Centre, Pennsylvania; Roll: M653_1090; Page: 307; Family History Library Film: 805090. Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census. Harry Loeb, 1880 US Census, Census Place: Scranton, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1139; Page: 243B; Enumeration District: 063. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census ↩
  6. Armand Goldsmith Loeb, World War I draft registration, Registration State: Pennsylvania; Registration County: Philadelphia; Roll: 1907649; Draft Board: 29.
    Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 ↩
  7. Ancestry.com. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Marriage Index, 1885-1951 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Marriage Index, 1885–1951.” Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009. Philadelphia County Pennsylvania Clerk of the Orphans’ Court. “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia marriage license index, 1885-1951.” Clerk of the Orphans’ Court, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Certificate 65035. ↩
  8. Greenbaum family, 1880 US Census, Census Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1169; Page: 173A; Enumeration District: 084. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census ↩
  9.  Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DTVH-TC?cc=1320976&wc=9F5N-RM9%3A1073210101 : 16 May 2014), 004009439 > image 1295 of 1741; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. ↩
  10. Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 114001-116700. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966. Certificate Number: 114311-60 ↩ ↩
  11. Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XDW2-5XC : 10 December 2017), Sylvester Goldsmith and Ida J. Simens, 21 Mar 1895; citing Allen, Ohio, United States, reference pg471cn192; county courthouses, Ohio; FHL microfilm 901,416. ↩
  12. “Sudden Death of Well Known Citizen of DuBois,” DuBois (PA) Daily Express, Friday, October 9, 1914. ↩
  13. Clearfield County (PA) Death Records, found at http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/vitals/deaths/goldsmith-henrietta.txt ↩
  14. Henriete Loeb, 1900 US census, Census Place: Dubois Ward 2, Clearfield, Pennsylvania; Page: 5; Enumeration District: 0071; FHL microfilm: 1241396.  Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  15. Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. SSN: 305037627. ↩
  16. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania Veterans Burial Cards, 1929-1990; Series Number: Series 2.
    Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Veterans Burial Cards, 1777-2012 ↩
  17. Ancestry.com. New Jersey, Marriage Records, 1670-1965. Original data: Marriage Records. New Jersey Marriages. New Jersey State Archives, Trenton, New Jersey. ↩
  18.  Ancestry.com. District of Columbia, Compiled Marriage Index, 1830-1921.Original data: District of Columbia, Marriages, 1830-1921. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013. ↩
  19. Mary Goldsmith death certificate, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 038171-041450. Certificate Number Range: 038171-041450. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966 ↩