The LANDAU Monologues in Six Parts (1 of 6)

Part 1 of 6 — Amalie LANDAU

At the beginning of the modern history of genealogy when my brother Don was starting to gather information and prepare family trees with all known information, we thought that our mother’s mother’s mother’s mother was a FRIEDENTHAL; Ernestine FRIEDENTHAL.  Supposedly, this FRIEDENTHAL great great grandmother was from the family of R. Ezekiel LANDAU (1713-1793) of Prague, author of “Noda b’Jehuda”, the name of which is his frequent moniker.  In the 1980s and early 1990s, I did a bit of research trying to find a line descended from Rabbi LANDAU that included FRIEDENTHALs, but without success.  That would have been more or less the state of “knowledge” from the late 1960s or early 1970s until May 1996.

“Less” because at some point, possibly from reading the “Chronique Familiale” by my uncle Andreas FREUND  I was able to correct our knowledge about that great great grandmother with the information that she was Ernestine PERL get. FRIEDENSTEIN, not FRIEDENTHAL.  I think that same source identified our mother’s mother’s father’s father’s was Jakob BACH, a teacher of Jewish subjects in Upper Silesia (Oberschlesien).

In May 1996, my mother, my brother Don and I made a trip to Prague, Theresienstadt, Breslau, Brieg and Berlin.  In Prague, in addition to meeting up with my fairly new friend Mark LUDWIG, violist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and founder and director of the Terezin Chamber Music Foundation, we also met our grandmother’s first cousin Ja’acov BACH (1911-2006) of Tel Aviv (born Karl Adolf BACH in Tarnowitz).  He was on a trip to Switzerland, but he made a side visit to Prague to meet us.  Over dinner, we learned that Jakob BACH’s wife, Ja’acov’s grandmother, our great great grandmother, was Amalie LANDAU, and she was supposedly descended from R. Ezekiel LANDAU.
 
While we were in Prague, we eventually got ourselves to the Old Jewish Cemetery at Zizkov (on Fibichova Street).  It was at the base of the huge television tower that we had been seeing from every vantage point in the city.  The cemetery was closed and surrounded by a metal fence.  One metal post was missing and following our mother, Don and I also went through narrow opening.  We found the gravestone of R. Ezekiel LANDAU, and then made our way back out through that opening.
 
With great great grandmother Amalie, we now had a LANDAU ancestor who was said, in family lore, somehow to be descended from the Noda b’Jehuda, R. Ezekiel LANDAU of Prague.  Initial research on family trees of R. LANDAU again did not reveal a family line that including our Amalie LANDAU.

We had just been on a slight detour at the beginning.  Instead of looking for LANDAU ancestors in our mother’s mother’s mother’s mother's family, they were instead to be found in our mother’s mother’s father’s mother's family.

A BACH Family (or Families) Puzzle - Speculation Cubed

In August 2015, a search for BACH on a very useful online database “Juden im nördlichen Teil des ehemaligen Deutschen Reiches” introduced me to a man named Wolff BACH, Schneider in Kurnik, who was married to Dore and had a son Heymann Wolf BACH in Kurnik in 1844 and daughter Hannchen BACH in Kurnik in 1846.  (Heymann died in 1846).  There was no obvious connection to my BACH family from Inowroclaw (Hohensalza).

The thing that caught my attention was that Wolff was naming a son Heymann and a daughter Hannchen in the 1840s.  My great great great grandparents R. Moses Aron BACH (1809-1879) and Mathilde GOLDMANN (ca.1815-1888), in addition to my great great grandfather Jakob BACH (ca.1838-1924) (and Julie, Fanny, Sarah and Israel (Isaac)), had a daughter Johanna (Hinde) in about 1844 and a son Heymann (Chajim) in 1848.

And Moses Aron BACH’s sister Philippine (Frimet) FINK geb. BACH (ca.1820-1893) named her first son Haim (Joachim) FINK ca.1850 and named her first daughter Johanna (Hannah) in 1852.

And Moses Aron BACH’s sister Flora FRANKENBERG (later FRANK) geb. BACH (ca.1818-1902) named a daughter Hanne in 1851.  (Flora and Julius FRANK also named a son Hermann (1846-1850), but no son named Heymann / Heimann / Joachim / Chajim / Haim — upon a new reflection, that may be because Julius FRANK’s father was named Joachim (Heymann) (Chajim) FRANKENBERG.  Julius’ mother Jette died in 1834, but perhaps his father Joachim did not die until after 1846 (when Julius and Flora had their last son Aaron), more or less precluding Flora from naming a son Heymann.)

In view of that naming pattern for the children of Moses Aron, Flora and Philippine, the fact that Wolff BACH of Kurnik also named children Heymann and Johanna in the 1840s raised the possibility (maybe even a likelihood) that Wolff was another child of Menachem BACH and Dore CARO.

No additional information about Wolff BACH has come to light (yet).  His having children in Kurnik is not a problem.  R. Moses Aron BACH had children in Mieschkow, Czerniejewo (Schwarzenau), and Myslowitz.  Flora had children in Fordon (and later emigrated to the US).  Philippine had children in Hamburg.  So, it is clear the family was spreading out from Inowroclaw, with or without an outpost in Kurnik.

Speculation 1 - Wolff BACH of Kurnik is part of the family of Menachem BACH and Dore CARO.

Speculation 2 - Wolf BACH of Kurnik, who was the father of Isaac W. BACH (b.1850), Flora BACH (b.1854) and Leopold (Leo) Walter BACH (b.1857), was the same as Wolff BACH, father of Heymann and Hannchen.

Thanks to Ted's and Gary's family trees posted on Ancestry.com, I have learned of this family of Wolf (or Wolfe) BACH who had at least the son Isaac W. in Kurnik; quite possibly Isaac's sister Flora and brother Leopold (Leo) Walter were also born in Kurnik, though family lore is that Leo was born in Berlin.  These siblings came to the US early (by my family's standards); Isaac in 1863, Flora in 1865 and Leo in 1880.  Flora seems to have settled in New York.  Isaac was first in Denver, but then lived the rest of his life in New York.  Leo settled in Denver and remained there.

Gary's mother's baby book identified her great grandparents as Wolfe BACH and Johanna.  

Speculation 3 -  If that is correct, and if that Wolfe was the same person as Wolff who was the father of Heymann and Hannchen, then the simplest speculation would be that Wolff was first married to Dore and had children with her in the mid 1840s, and then, presumably after Dore's death, he re-married Johanna in the late 1840s and had children with her in the 1850s.

For now, it is just speculation upon speculation.  I will hope to update this story some day with some actual evidence.

All this speculation-to-the-3rd-power came after the earlier speculation that the parents of Menachem BACH or Deborah (Dore) CARO may have been named Heymann (Chajim) and Johanna (Hannah) based on the names of their childrens' children.  And that had led to the speculation-to-the-nth-degree, that the RAPHAELSOHN ancestor Elisabeth (Liebe) CARO's father Heymann CARO of Chodziesen (Kolmar) was somehow the same person as speculative-Heymann, father of Deborah CARO.