Genealogy Research Interests: Families and Towns

I have been fortunate, with the help of many others, to identify a large number of ancestral lines. Below are listed the surnames of my ancestors and the towns from which they came.  All of my known ancestors, going back as far as 11 generations are from Germany and the predecessor states. Some entries are well researched while others are known only by the name and residence of a spouse. I am happy to share information on these families and likewise would be especially grateful for help on those below that are in bold.  While everyone seeks their earliest ancestors, I am also interesting in adding distant cousins to my family tree.

Surname	Town
Abraham (pre-surname)	Puderbach
Aron	Neuwied
Ascher  (pre-surname)	Homberg an der Ohm
Baer	Wiesbaden
Berg	Brohl, Ahrweiler
Bockmann	Oppenheim
Bockmann	Stein-Bockenheim
Cantor	Riede
Daniel  (pre-surname)	Rengshausen
Fuchs	Gemünden (Rhein-Hunsrück)
Goldschmidt	Borken (Hessen)
Goodheim (was Gutheim)	Ungedanken
Gruensfeld	Riede
Gutheim	Fritzlar
Gutheim	Lohne
Gutheim	Ungedanken
Heilberg	Meudt
Heilbron	Frickhofen
Heilbronn	Frickhofen
Heilbrunn	Frickhofen
Heinemann	Niedenstein
Heinemann	Oberaula
Hirsch	Mandel, Bad Kreuznach
Isaak (pre surnames)	Quirnbach
Isaak (pre surnames)	Selters
Jacobi	Brohl, Ahrweiler
Jakob	Quirnbach
Jakoby	Brohl, Ahrweiler
Kahn	Flacht
Kander / Kanter	Riede
Kantor Ziegelberg	Riede
Katz	Guxhagen
Katz-Adler	Guxhagen
Kaufmann	Bonn, Poppensdorf
Kugelmann	Niedenstein
Kugelmann	Riede
Lahrheim	Meudt
Leiser	Gilserberg
Loeb	Bosenbach
Loeb	Steinbach
Loesser	Mainz (Bretezenheim)
Loewenstein	Meudt
Mayer	Argenschwang
Mayer	Bosenbach
Mayer	Gemünden (Rhein-Hunsrück)
Michel	Koblenz (Immendorf)
Plaut	Neuenbrunslar
Rosenbusch	Borken (Hessen)
Rothschild	Niederurff
Schoenfeld	Stein-Bockenheim
Schoenfeld	Wachenbuchen now Maintal
Seligmann	Niedenstein
Speier	Guxhagen
Speyer	Guxhagen
Steinhardt	Flonheim
Stern	Gilserberg
Stern	Meudt
Wirth	Gemünden (Rhein-Hunsrück)

Last Letters from Nazi Germany - 1938-39

Excerpt from the introduction:

In 2002 after my mother, Hilde Speier Aron, died, I found a small red plaid stationery box among her effects. Inside were several handwritten letters, folded in quarters, in German. A quick look told me they were from her mother in Borken (Hessen) during 1938-39.  At the time, I could not emotionally handle their contents so I closed the box and put it away, not knowing if I would ever read them, but knowing that someday I would need to deal with them...

The link below leads to a description of the letters and a translation.  Transcription of the original letters was kindly done by Hans-Peter Klein of Melsungen, Hessen, Germany.  Here are some excerpts from his comments as the finished this effort:

"It is very moving to read the letters and these are important and impressive documents of jewish life in the 30['s]"

"I couldn't stop reading and writing when I've seen the first letters. All the letters together are a very moving story about... a long distance mothering, and about a desperate attempt to get a permit to leave Germany. It is a very rare and authentic document in terms of content and stylistically. When I read the letters I remembered the title of a book written by Halina Birenbaum, a shoa surviver: The hope dies at last (Die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt.)."

Letters from my Perished Jewish grandparents in Nazi Germany - 1938-39

Rosenbusch family of Borken

Archive Record Access to Birth, Marriage and Death records for Hessen towns

In 2013, Hessische Hauptstaatsarchiv, the Hessen state archive in Wiesbaden, made available online, images of microfilmed records for a great number of Hessen towns. These include items from Bestand (a group of records in the archive) 365 and Bestand 915, 920, etc.

A caution:  My description below of these files is based on empirically gathered information and may not be representative of everything you may find.

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Bestand 915, 920 etc includes links to microfilm images of the records of the requested town and other nearby towns whose records were kept together.  For each town, there are three links to files for each year to the birth (in German: Geburts), marriage (Heirats) and death (Sterben) (BMD) record images. These records include all registered BMD events, Jewish and non-Jewish.  There is usually an alphabetical index at the end of each file.

For example if you query the town of Amöneburg you will find that for the year 1874 there are eight links provided: birth, marriage and death files for Amöneburg,  and the nearby towns of Mardorf(Amöneburg) and Rossdorf(Amöneburg.) There is no link for births in Rossdorf indicating either that there were no births that year or that that particular file does not exist or is not available.

A translation of the Birth, Marriage and Death Record form templates can be found here: http://dennisaron.blogspot.com/2016/04/german-birth-marriage-and-death-record.html

Bestand 365 includes links to a set of records known as the Gatermann films.  These records include BMD records for the Jewish communities of Hessen,  Here is a history of how these films came to be:  http://www.isragen.org.il/siteFiles/1/212/4873.asp

Volunteers for the German Special Interest Group (GerSIG) of http://www.jewishgen.org/ have indexed the names of the individuals mentioned in these records by to make them more useful to researchers.  The volunteers transcribed the old German script in which most of the records are written which makes more of the information available, even for German novices.  A description of the database and indexed records are available for searching here: http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Germany/Gatermann.htm with a link to the database.  Membership in GerSIG is required for database search access.

In the meantime, the great majority of Hessian Gatermann film image records is available, but unindexed, except by town name at http://www.lagis-hessen.de/en/subjects/index/sn/hadis. This link gives access to the the Bestand 915, 920, etc. records as well.

Here's what it looks like:

If for example you're looking for the records of the town of Amöneburg, then enter "Amöneburg" in the search box.  (You can type "oe" instead of "ö"

You will then get this page:

In this example, each line represents one year's records.  Line one links to the Amöneburg register for weddings in the year 1888.  You may alter the order by clicking, for example, on the "time span" button or one of the adjacent buttons.

While the records in Bestand 915 typically have more information, typically more than one page for each BMD event, if you're looking just for Jewish records in the Gatermann films, your query can include the town name and "Juden". but there will generally be multiple BMD events per page.  If you query "Amoeneburg Juden" here is the result:

Finally, if you click on item 2 in the screen above, you will be presented with the first page of the film:

Navigation is in the blue loop.  It's fairly easy but takes some getting used to.  The double arrow buttons will take you forward or back 5 images; or you can advance to a particular image by number.

Happy Hunting!

My Search for Heritage, July, 2011

In July 2011, I traveled to Germany to visit my ancestral towns.  I wrote a journal to describe my experiences:  My Search for Heritage.  

It may be of interest to those researching the families or associated towns listed below:

• Aron of Neuwied, Rheinland-Pfalz
• Aron, Michel of Immendorf (Koblenz), Rheinland-Pfalz 
• Heilbron/Heilbronn/Heilbrunn of Frickhofen, Rheinland-Pfalz 
• Hirsch of Mandel, Rheinland-Pfalz 
• Kander/Kanter of Riede, Hessen
• Katz, Plaut and Speier of Guxhagen, Hessen
• Löwenstein, Heilberg, Lahrheim, Stern of Meudt, Rheinland-Pfalz
• Rosenbusch of Borken, Hessen
• Wirth of Gemünden, Hunsrück, Rheinland-Pfalz 

Dennis Aron Ancestor research interests [dennisaron@comcast.net] Surname Town Abraham Puderbach Aron Neuwied, vicinity Gudensberg, vicinity Riede Ascher Homberg Baer Wiesbaden Berg Brohl Bockmann vicinity Wachenbuchen, Maintal, Mandel Cantor, Kander, Kantor Ziegelberg Riede Daniel Rengshausen Gella Vicinity Poppelsdorf, Bonn Goldschmidt Borken (Hessen) Gumbel Wiesbaden Gutheim Ungedanken Heilbrunn, Heilbron Dornburg, Frickhofen Heinemann Ziegenhain, vicinity Ungedanken Haium Meudt Isaak Quirnbach, Meudt, Selters Hirsch Mandel, Bad Kreuznach Jakob Muedt Jacobi vicinity Neuwied Kahn Flacht, vicinity Kellenbach Kanter Guxhagen Katz Obervorschütz, Guxhagen, Riede, Gudensberg Katz-Adler Guxhagen, Gudensberg Kaufmann Poppelsdorf, Bonn Kugelmann vicinity Riede Leisser vicinity Borken (Hessen) Levi, Levie, Levy Obervorschütz, vicinity Mandel, Vicinity Poppelsdorf, Bonn, Steinbach, vicinity Bosenbach Loeb Steinbach, Bosenbach Mayer Bosenbach, Argenschwang Michel Koblenz, Immendorf Plaut, Plaut-Koenig Fulda, Vacha,Obervorschütz, Soden, Neuenbrunslar Poley, Boley vicinity Neuenbrunslar Rosenbusch Borken (Hessen) Samuel vicinity Wiesbaden Schoenfeld Maintal, Wachenbuchen, Mandel, Stein-Bockenheim Schöngen Vicinity Poppelsdorf, Bonn Siemon vicinity Gudensberg Speier, Speyer Guxhagen Stern vicinity Borken (Hessen) Theia Nidda, Wetteraukreis, Neuenbrunslar Wirth Gemünden 

Useful sites for German Jewish genealogists

Germany Vital Records sites:

Vital records for many towns in Hessen.  Also included are the Gatermann films of Hessen town Jewish records which were produced under the the RSA program in the late 1930s. 

http://www.lagis-hessen.de/de/subjects/gsform/sn/hadis 

See the 12/13/2013 blog entry for a tutorial on access.

Access to the records available at the Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz, Landesarchiv Speyer, Stadt Archiv Neuwied and Landesarchiv des Saarlandes (on site - not on-line) : http://www.archivdatenbank.lha-rlp.de/

List of Hessen towns for which the Mormon Church has microfilmed records. For each town the categories of records are shown including Evangelisch and Jüdische Gemeinde. Some of the Jewish records for 1808-1812 are classified under Evangelisch. 

https://familysearch.org/search/image/index#uri=https://familysearch.org/records/collection/1768560/waypoints

The online collection of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon Church) is available: www.familysearch.org

Other German Research Sites

http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Germany/ The JewishGen Germany Database gives access to a wide variety of databases.

http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/ The Association for the Study of the History of the Jews in Southern Germany and Adjoining Areas. Search for Jewish communities, synagogues and cemeteries.

Juden in Nordhessen: http://jinh.lima-city.de/index.htm This site focuses on the Jewish communities of North Hessen and their families and has a substantial number of family trees assembled from original data sources and a wide variety of other Jewish culture research.

http://www.altdeutsche-schrift.de/adsschreiben.php#schriftfeld See how a phrase would be written in several German handwriting scripts.

http://lagis.online.uni-marburg.de/en Search for graves, synagogues and other information in Hessen.

http://archive.org/details/aufbau/ German American Jews placed ads in the Aufbau Jewish German/American newspaper seeking the fate of their loved ones, or announcing family events.

Ancestors and Descendants by Leo Honig includes families of Rheinland-Pfalz and the Westerwald: https://archive.org/details/AncestorsAndDescendants2002Revision

Koblenz town archive: Stadtarchiv Alte Burg Koblenz houses records of the area around Koblenz: 

http://www.koblenz.de/stadtleben_kultur/stadtarchiv.htmlLandeshauptarchiv Koblenz: a national archive with broad collections: http://www.landeshauptarchiv.de/

Obermayer German Jewish History Award: http://obermayer.us/award/ Awarded too non-Jewish Germans who have major contributions to preserving the memory of the German Jewish communities. Award winners are listed and can be valuable resources for research in their local areas.

The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP), Jerusalem: http://cahjp.huji.ac.il/

Reading old German handwriting: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Kurrentschrift

Victims of the Holocaust research sites:

http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Holocaust/ JewishGen's Holocaust Database is a collection of databases containing information about Holocaust victims and survivors. 

Yad Vashem http://db.yadvashem.org/names/search.html?language=en, This database includes information from the Gedenkbuch and Joods Monument as well as Pages of Testimony by family and researchers giving information on missing and perished individuals

Joods Monument http://www.joodsmonument.nl/search?q_mm=&q_search_form=person&q_advanced=1, This database focuses on Netherlands residents who perished or were missing in the Holocaust.

http://srs.ogs.nl/ Database of Dutch Holocaust victims

The International Tracing Service (ITS)http://its-arolsen.org/en/homepage/index.html  in Bad Arolsen is a centre for documentation, information and research on Nazi persecution, forced  labour and the Holocaust. The ITS archives document the fate of millions of victims whose names and memory are to be preserved. The ITS collection is also available at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

holocaust.cz http://www.holocaust.cz/en/main, The database contains names and fates of Jews deported from the Bohemian Lands and of the prisoners of the Terezín ghetto from other European countries. 

http://www.stiftung-bg.de/  Memorial site to Brandenburg, Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen Concentration camps.  Includes search for victims.

Memorial de la Shoah, Since 1999, Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation(CDJC) has worked to create a list of Jewish victims of the Holocaust in France. 

Stolpersteine are individual memorials to Holocaust victims are installed in front of their former homes to remind passers by that a Victim of the Holocaust lived within 
http://www.stolpersteine.eu/en/home/ 

http://auschwitz.org/en/museum/auschwitz-prisoners/ Database of those sent to Auschwitz

General Genealogy Research Sites:

www.Ancestry.com

www.cyndislist.co

www.Geni.com

www.ellisisland.org

www.jewishgen.org 

www.zabasearch.com/ for telephone numbers and addresses

www.google.com

www.findagrave.com

www.billiongraves.com

www.familysearch.org Mormon genealogy site with huge amounts of information, not just for Mormons

www.archives.gov/research/genealogy/

www.genealogybank.com

www.Google.com There are many websites covering the Jewish communities of individual towns, which I found by Googling for individuals who were mentioned in these websites. More often than not, I found new information on others in the community as well.

Impact of the Holocaust

Below are links to six documents, researched and prepared in 2012, detailing 600+ members of my family who were murdered or lost in the Holocaust and a list of those whose whose fate was unknown.  An update is planned for 2014.  Sadly the list of victims is now over 850.

An interim list is in the blog post dated 26 Apr 2014 Family Members who perished or were lost in the Holocaust

This project was undertaken to provide my grandchildren and generations beyond a sense of the Holocaust that is personally meaningful, to help them understand what their family experienced. 850 can be greater than 6,000,000 given the perspective of the devastation on one connected German family.

The danger to German Jews after the Nazis took power was clear. The circumstances of the time set huge barriers to those who sought to escape, leaving many trapped, but many, like my parents, were fortunate enough to find their way out of Europe.

In Eastern Europe the danger to Jews was less apparent;  the warning to run heard by few.  As a result, Eastern European Jewish families were likely impacted much more severely than mine, with a much smaller chance of a survivor's child left to document their fate.

Never forget.

1. Impact of the Holocaust on the Descendants of Salomon Speyer (b ca1660),  Moses Katz (b ca1670),   Joseph Plaut (b ca1590 in Vacha)  Jeremias Katz (b ca1720)


2. Impact of the Holocaust on the Descendants of Isaak Gumpel (b bef1750 in Wiesbaden)  including the Baer Family of Wiesbaden,  the Hirsch Family of Mandel, the Schoenfeld Family of Stein-Bockenheim and the Steinhardt Family of Flonheim


3. Impact of the Holocaust on the Wirth Family of Gemünden, the Mayer Family of Argenschwang and the Loeb Family of Steinbach


4. Impact of the Holocaust on the descendants of Jakob Moyses and Sara of Meudt


5. Impact of the Holocaust on the Descendants of Elchanan Rosenbusch of Borken,  Jonas Cantor of Riede and Levi Gutheim of Ungedanken


6. Impact of the Holocaust on the Descendants of Re'uven of Neuwied (Aron Family),  Hirsch Heilbron of Frickhofen and Michel Moses of Frickhofen (Michel Family)

Dennis Aron Ancestor research interests [dennisaron@comcast.net] Surname Town Abraham Puderbach Aron Neuwied, vicinity Gudensberg, vicinity Riede Ascher Homberg Baer Wiesbaden Berg Brohl Bockmann vicinity Wachenbuchen, Maintal, Mandel Cantor, Kander, Kantor Ziegelberg Riede Daniel Rengshausen Gella Vicinity Poppelsdorf, Bonn Goldschmidt Borken (Hessen) Gumbel Wiesbaden Gutheim Ungedanken Heilbrunn, Heilbron Dornburg, Frickhofen Heinemann Ziegenhain, vicinity Ungedanken Haium Meudt Isaak Quirnbach, Meudt, Selters Hirsch Mandel, Bad Kreuznach Jakob Muedt Jacobi vicinity Neuwied Kahn Flacht, vicinity Kellenbach Kanter Guxhagen Katz Obervorschütz, Guxhagen, Riede, Gudensberg Katz-Adler Guxhagen, Gudensberg Kaufmann Poppelsdorf, Bonn Kugelmann vicinity Riede Leisser vicinity Borken (Hessen) Levi, Levie, Levy Obervorschütz, vicinity Mandel, Vicinity Poppelsdorf, Bonn, Steinbach, vicinity Bosenbach Loeb Steinbach, Bosenbach Mayer Bosenbach, Argenschwang Michel Koblenz, Immendorf Plaut, Plaut-Koenig Fulda, Vacha,Obervorschütz, Soden, Neuenbrunslar Poley, Boley vicinity Neuenbrunslar Rosenbusch Borken (Hessen) Samuel vicinity Wiesbaden Schoenfeld Maintal, Wachenbuchen, Mandel, Stein-Bockenheim Schöngen Vicinity Poppelsdorf, Bonn Siemon vicinity Gudensberg Speier, Speyer Guxhagen Stern vicinity Borken (Hessen) Theia Nidda, Wetteraukreis, Neuenbrunslar Wirth Gemünden