But first a little background to the background. From the family tree as researched and compiled by Dr. Richard (Dick) PLOTZ, our earliest RAPHAELSOHN ancestor was Jehuda RAPHAELSOHN, who died in 1822 in Allenstein and was married to Charlotte. They had the children Doris (Dore), Lotte (Chaie), Michael Hirsch and Helene (Laie). It always seemed problematic that Charlotte had a daughter named Lotte (presumably, short for Charlotte), though it was possible that mother and daughter had different Hebrew names, even if they did have the same secular name.
In 1999 when reviewing Allenstein Jewish community records from the LDS microfilm archive, I noted this death entry: "ist die Kaufmanns Wittwe Mirrha Cohn Fr. v. Raphaelsohn geb. Margolinsky von neunten (9ten) August 1865 ... in Alter von 86 Jahren gestorben". Being born about 1779, Mirrha seemed like a possible alternate candidate to be Jehuda RAPHAELSOHN's wife. In addition, her having re-married would fit with a first husband who died young.
A decade later in 2010, from Fordon Jewish community records, I thought I learned from the 1844 marriage entry for Michael Hirsch RAPHAELSOHN that his widowed mother was named Mine, and not Charlotte. That seemed to clear up the mother-daughter naming issue.
The next development came 5 years later. In May 2015, Don and I finally made a visit to Allenstein in East Prussia (now Olsztyn, Poland) where our grandmother was born and the RAPHAELSOHN family had lived since some time before Jehuda RAPHAESLOHN;s death there in January 1822. The trip was prompted by the 2014 opening of a new museum on 19th century technology that was housed in the former Raphaelsohn Brothers lumber mill. The creation of the museum provided the funding to save the dilapidated structure from what would probably been its eventual fate -- demolition.
We arrived in Olsztyn in the afternoon on 24 May 2015. We were met by Joanna Mariuk and given a quick walking tour of the old town as we worked our way to the museum. Along the way, Joanna pointed out the home just off the Ring (Rynek) where the RAPHAELSOHN family had lived in the 1800s (before the family of architect Erich MENDELSOHN (1887-1953) lived in the same home). After a very interesting tour of the museum, both the building of our great grandfather (and his brother) and the permanent exhibition with more context and details added in Polish by historian Rafal Betkowski and translated for us by Ms Mariuk, we were moving toward our good-byes when Mr. Betkowski mentioned that the widow of Jehuda RAPHAELSOHN and her children were living with a COHN family in Allenstein. I immediately jumped on that comment. Mr. Betkowski said that the information came from a city or Jewish community “census” or Familiebuch from the 1820s or 1830s.
With that confirmation, I updated the family tree to change the name of Jehuda's wife from Charlotte (with "Mine" added parenthetically in 2010) to Minna (Mine) MARGOLINSKI, along with adding her second husband COHN.
We had planned to visit the Polish State Archive in Olsztyn the next day to look at a file about Michael Hirsch RAPHAELSOHN's second wife Jeanette LIPPMANN. I had corresponded with the archive about that file in 2008/2009 and was told they could not copy the entire file, only specifically requested pages, and then only to a direct descendant since the content was less than 100 years old. I have forgotten how we communicated with the archivists; probably by showing them the catalogue entry I had copied for that RAPHAELSOHN file. But I know we also managed to ask for Allenstein Jewish community files as well.
We first received the file on Jeanette RAPHAELSOHN geb. LIPPMANN. While we looked at that file, they also brought us 3 folders with other files. The file was not too informative, though we could confirm when Jeanette died and got an idea of when her husband Michael Hirsch RAPHAELSOHN had died.
From there, we started looking at the other files. Fairly quickly, we found the 1825 Allenstein "Familienbuch" which Rafal Betkowski had mentioned the day before. After looking at it, we decided to transcribe all the information since we were not sure if we would be able to get photocopies of this old document. The best part was this family group:
"ohne No." [no family number]
Salomon COHN 14 Apr 1779 verh.. 19 May 1825 (residence date 20 May 1825) Rosenberg
Mirre COHN 24 Mar 1788
Stiefkinder
Dore RAPHAELSOHN 27 Oct 1814
Chaie RAPHAELSOHN 9 Jan 1818
Michael RAPHAELSOHN 23 Oct 1819
Laie RAPHAELSOHN 15 Nov 1820
So, "Charlottte" who seemed to be "Mine" was really Mirre, and now her second husband was known, and their birth dates and marriage date, and that Salomon COHN came from Rosenberg in West Prussia (now Susz, Poland). And the birth dates and Hebrew names of Doris, Lotte, Michael Hirsch and Helene. Knowing those birth dates, we could see that Mirre was a widow with 4 children between the ages of 7 and 1 when Jehuda died in 1822. It certainly made sense that she would have remarried, though that did not happen for 3 years. (The list was made in August 1825 just after Mirre married Salomon COHN. Mirre was about 37; did they have more children?)
Seeing Mirre's name clearly as Mirre in the 1825 document and Mirrha when she died in 1865, I went back to the Fordon Jewish community marriages entry for son Michael Hirsch RAPHAELSOHN and his first wife Elisabeth CARO to look at his mother's name. Knowing that it should be Mirre, I could see how it could read "Mire" and how I had read the script as "Mine" instead:
It only took a few weeks for the next step forward. A year ago last week, I found the Allenstein Standesamt Sterberegister entry for the death of "Laie" Helene LEHWALD geb. RAPHAELSOHN. Her son Adolph LEHWALD was the informant, and he identified Helene's mother as Marianne geb. HIRSCH. If he was correct, then the most likely explanation seemed to be that Mirre/Mirrha (known as Marianne) was the daughter of Hirsch MARGOLINSKY.
A couple weeks ago, I ran into the Sterberegister entry for Rahel LEHWALD geb. HERRNBERG in which her mother was identified as Maria HERRNBERG geb. MARGOLINSKI. It seemed likely that Maria and Mirre were sisters, with the father Hirsch MARGOLINSKY
In the 1812 West Prussia Citizenship / Name-Adoption list, I saw the names Israel Joseph MARGONINSKI, Witwe Hirsch Joseph MARGONINSKI and Nathan Joseph MARGONINSKI, all in Krojanke, where I had earlier concluded that Jehuda RAPHAELSOHN was also living in 1812 (as Lewin Raphael RAPHAELSOHN, having earlier been known as Lewin Abraham).
The shift from MARGOLINSKI to MARGONINSKI seemed odd, but I was willing to accept that.
The next clue from the 1774 Prussian Census. I had received an Excel file with a transcription of the Krojanke data from that 1774 census. It included a Joseph MARGALINSKI in Krojanke.
Then, I was surprised to find that the well-known genealogist Albert PHIEBIG (1908-2004) of Berlin and White Plains, NY, came from the MARGONINSKIs of Krojanke. His family history "Our Ancestors" identified Joseph Hirsch MARGOLINSKI as the same person as Joseph Hirsch MARGONINSKI who was the father of Israel, Hirsch and Nathan. This revealed an independent researcher who had overcome the L to N shift.
It was still curious that Mirre and Maria were known by their families to have had the maiden name MARGOLINSKY long after 1812. My assumption is that Mirre and Maria getting married ca.1812/13 and 1814, respectively, were born still as MARGOLINSKYs, and because they no longer used that name after they married, they never really transitioned to MARGONINSKY as their male family members did. Just my rationale for the lingering L in later records.
Next, I found a great MARGONINSKY family tree posted on the Family Tree of the Jewish People back in 2000. The submitter had Researcher No. 47868; all my searches in the JewishGen Family Finder came up blank in trying to identify who No. 47868 is. Looking at the family lines that had the most detail and came down to the present, I eventually found the new cousin who posted that information to the Family Tree of the Jewish People. The source of information on the early generations came from a MARGONINSKY family tree prepared by Albert PHIEBIG in 1936.
(Albert PHIEBIG factored into my genealogy research earlier. Back in 2010, I noticed a LEUBUSCHER question which Albert answered in 1935. His information allowed me to confirm the family connection to Nobel Laureate Paul EHRLICH.)
So, Mirre's father Hirsch turns out to be Hirsch Joseph MARGONINSKY of Krojanke. His wife was Chaie and they had the daughters Mirel, Freude, Gelle and Marje. The MARGONINSKY family tree had no information about husbands or children of those daughters.
Back to the the daughter of Jehuda RAPHAELSOHN and "Charlotte" (really Mirre) who was named Lotte (Chaie), it now looks like she was named in memory of her maternal grandmother Chaie. Chaie was a widow in Krojanke in 1812, but she must have died before 1818 when Lotte (Chaie) was born.
Now we have new ancestors Hirsch Joseph and his father Joseph Hirsch MARGONINSKY, originally MARGOLINSKI (and probably a new ancestor Hirsch, father of Joseph Hirsch). There are also new cousin lines to try to explore and update. And there is a new ancestral home, Krojanke, West Prussia.
