LEUBUSCHER Discoveries - I

The last two weeks have been very productive putting together pieces of the LEUBUSCHER puzzle.  Three loose strands of LEUBUSCHER have now been connected to the tree.

The latest starting point for LEUBUSCHER research came from Weissensee Friedhof burial documents copied in Berlin in the Archive of the Centrum Judaicum.  Just because they were there (and we were there), Don and I copied 8 of the LEUBUSCHER entries (which actually included 2 from burials in the older Schönhauser Allee cemetery in Berlin).  Among them were documents concerning Fanny LEUBUSCHER geb. EHRLICH, and Paul LEUBUSCHER.

The information about Fanny confirmed that the wife of Sigismund LEUBUSCHER (buried in Breslau) was the same person as Fanny, the daughter of Salomon EHRLICH and Charlotte SCHLESINGER, who was born in Brieg on 31 Mar 1825.  Her children in 1903, 6 of them, were listed as Rosalie, Tekla, Fritz, Kurt, Hedwig and Valesca.  (In 1881 when her husband Sigismund died, he left 8 children, 5 adults (born before 1863) and 3 minors (born after 1863) (I assume).)

Although it seems odd, I suspect that the listed children were just the local children -- and that there were 2 sons who had emigrated to the States who were still alive in 1903, but were not listed on Fanny's Bescheinigung.  One that still needs further clues is the son Carl LEUBUSCHER who was born in Myslowitz on 23 July 1849.  He seems to be the same person as Charles LEUBUSCHER (b.22 July 1851, Kattowitz) who emigrated to New York on the S.S. Cimbria in December 1867, married Mary COLEMANN in Chicago in about 1883, and had the sons Paul (1884-1917) and Ernest (1885-1983), but I am still looking for more confirmation that Carl and Charles were one and the same.

The other son appears to have been Paul LEUBUSCHER, who was born on 16 October 1862 in Kattowitz.  Information on Paul appeared among LEUBUSCHER burial cards from the Weissensee cemetery in Berlin.  He and his wife Minnie were visiting family in Berlin in 1923 when he suddenly died.  His address was listed as "Bambergerstr. 5 bei Schwester Leubuscher".  From the Berliner Adresbücher (online), I learned that Valesca LEUBUSCHER and her sister Hedwig HEYMANN geb. LEUBUSCHER, and probably their sister Tekla SANDHEIM geb. LEUBUSCHER, lived at that address.  That, together with the fact that those sisters were also born in Kattowitz, seems to confirm that Paul is the formerly unknown child of Sigismund LEUBUSCHER and Fanny LEUBUSCHER geb. EHRLICH -- even though he would have been very much alive in 1903 when his mother died.

(The same issue pertains to Carl / Charles who seems to have died in New York City in 1911, even though his existence was also not noted in the documents when Fanny died in 1903.)

But back to Paul...  After learning from the Berlin records about Paul's existence, that he lived in New York, and that his wife was named Minnie, he was easy to find in US Census records -- even though the LEUBUSCHER name is a routinely misread and mis-indexed name (as LENBUSCHER, LENBUSHER, LEUBUSHER, LENBURSCHER, etc.).

I am pretty sure that it was this Paul LEUBUSCHER who married Minnie SIEGEL in New York in 1886 and had the daughter Lilian (Lily) in 1888 and Ruth in 1894, and two other children before 1900 and one more before 1910.   Those other children may have been Jennetta (ca.1889-1894), Joseph (1891-1893) and Fred (1906-ca.1908).  Paul, of course, died on the trip to Berlin in 1923.   Minnie should be the Minnie LEUBUSCHER who died in New York in 1931.  (I will know for sure when I receive a copy of her death certificate.)

The only reason for any uncertainty is a surprise finding in the 1920 US Census.  Paul (57) and Minnie (56), with no children in the household (since Lilly got married in 1911 to Harry GOIDELL (not GOIDELT), were living in Manhattan at 324 East 4th Street.  But, it turns out that another Paul LEUBUSCHER (56) with a wife named Minnie (57), and children John (26), Max (21) and Bona (17), were living around the corner at 325 East 3rd Street.  I have not been able to determine who that other family is; it seems an amazing coincidence.

But, interestingly for the story-telling, in the process of reviewing the details on the 1920 census pages to write this note, I just found the family of Lilly and Harry GOIDELL -- without Lilly, unfortunately.   Listed just before Paul and Minnie, in the same building on East 4th Street, was the family of Harry GOIDELL (37), widower, his son Marvin (6) and his daughter Shirley (1 8/12 (on 22 Jan 1920)).

Before I write Part II of the "Leubuscher Discoveries", I will have to see if I learn more about my new 5th cousins once removed Marvin and Shirley.

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?