FRIEDENSTEIN - A Possible Ancestor Sighting

27 November 2012

In Berlin two weeks ago at the archive of the Centrum Judaicum, I copied a couple hundred Todesanzeigen (death reports) from the Breslau Jewish community in the 19th and early 20th centuries.  Reviewing a couple of them from the CHOTZEN family, I was re-motivated to look for clues elsewhere about Manfred CHOTZEN whose connection to the large CHOTZEN family tree remains unknown.

I decided to look at one of the Breslau Jewish community files now in the archive of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw (online).  Looking (again) at the file "Heberolle 1913", I did not find any CHOTZEN clues, but I ran across an entry for a Doris SCHIFF who seems to be connected to the family of Wolff SCHIFF (of Wollstein and Breslau), but whose precise connection also remains unknown.

But sharing the new information about Doris SCHIFF with Irene in Dallas led to an unrelated question from her.  She sent me a copy of a page about one of her HAENDLER ancestors.  When I asked its origin, she said it was from another Jewish Historical Institute file she ran across while looking for the "Heberolle 1913" file I had mentioned to her.

So, I took a look at the file Irene had found:   "Alphabetisches Verzeichnis der im Hauptverzeichnis aufgenommenen Judenfamilien mit Angabe der Geburtsdaten, Hochzeitsdatum, Wohnort, Änderung des Wohnorts, Tod etc."  (File No.
105_1182).  After the index pages, the second page of family entries included this family:

Family No. 52
Joseph Friedenstein                                1781  Febr        }
                                    Weib Rifke           1790  Juny        }  1807 Juny
                                 Tochter Johanne     1808  Juny 24
                                 Tochter Antonie      1810  Febr 
                                 Tochter Lisette        1812  Septbr
                                    Sohn Ethan          1815  Febr 14
                                    Sohn Wolff           1818  May 4
                                    Sohn Marcus       1820  April 20

The family had lived in Schloß Goldmannsdorf and was living in Ober Goldmannsdorf at the time of the listing.  Later, in 1822, they moved to Schwirklan near Rybnik O/S.

This FRIEDENSTEIN family will almost certainly turn out to be the family of my great great great grandfather Marcus FRIEDENSTEIN who died in Zawodzie near Kattowitz on 9 July 1859 at the age of only 38 (b.ca.1821).  Name, birth date and general location (Upper Silesia) are all nice fits.  It only remains to find some direct evidence that the father of "my" Marcus FRIEDENSTEIN was named Joseph.

(And this FRIEDENSTEIN family seems to be the same as one I first learned about in July 2002 from Roger in Princeton.  That Josef FRIEDENSTEIN was married to Eva, but they both had children Johanna and Antonie (in the same years) and probably also Lisette (if she is Lea / Helene).) 

So, today probably included the discovery of a new set of great great great great grandparents Joseph FRIEDENSTEIN (b.1781) and Rifke (b.1790), but only time will tell.

29 November 2012 (Addendum)

Another page in the same document with information about the family of Baruch LOEBEL has a note at the bottom of the page that says: "Marcus Friedenstein geb. den 15 März 1819 ist zum Freund aus Neuberun gezogen."   Is this the same Marcus FRIEDENSTEIN (despite the difference in birth dates), or were there two?