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#52Ancestors – Week 2 Favorite Photo

Writer's picture: Steven JaronSteven Jaron

This week’s prompt is about my favorite genealogical photo. Thankfully various family members took and kept great photos. Which makes choosing which ONE photo as my favorite to be challenging. I’d probably say I have different favorites for different reasons.

Oldest photographed ancestors.

Photo 1 – Thanks to my great aunt I have a scan of a copy of a photograph of my 3rd great grandmother Keetje Mozes Benjamins. Born on May 24, 1827 in Amsterdam to Mozes Benjamins Wing and Elisabeth Sprints van Lier. She died on December 12, 1913 at the age of 86, living almost long enough to see the births of some of her great grandchildren (such as the aforementioned great aunt.) Her husband Samuel Isaac Lob, born on March 11, 1830; died on April 27, 1867. This left Keetje to raise nine children by herself.

 

Photos 2 and 3 – Again thanks to my great Aunt I have two great pictures of a set of 3rd great grandparents. On the left is my 3rd great grandmother Roza Frank born on August 24, 1809 in Dordrecht to Barend Salomon Frank and and Helena Cohen. On the right is my 3rd great grandfather Andries Polak born on April 26, 1817 in Dordrecht to Machiel Jonas Polak and Kaatje Wijnberg. I don’t have any interesting stories about them in particular but a descendant of one of Andries’ siblings was one of my first successes in tracing a cousin branch and finding them on Facebook.

 

Picture 4 – Also courtesy of my great Aunt. Seated is my 3rd great grandfather Moses Levy, born on January 29, 1814 in Duisburg to Gompert Levy and Esther Markus. Moses’ family was one of the first two Jewish families in the town of Duisburg in the 1600’s after Jews having been expelled from that city for a few centuries. It’s possible the other Jewish family is also my ancestors but I have not figured that out yet. Moses died around 1890, I have yet to find his death record and its possible I am looking in the wrong year and/or the wrong town in or around Duisburg. I have spent the better part of the past 5 years researching the Levy family from Duisburg as well as my other ancestors in Germany. Which brings us to the lady who is standing, my 3rd great grandmother Regina Elisabeth Mendel born on August 29, 1821 in Randerath to Andreas Mendel and Amalie Benedict. I have some more digging to do, and I may never find the answer, but I believe that Amalie’s paternal grandmother Lisbet/Liberte Hirtz is related to the aforementioned Levy family. Amusingly Lisbet’s niece married Gompel’s brother Simon Levy/Epstein (that’s another story for another time.) Regina was one of 16 children which included 1 set of twins and 2 children born 11 months apart (there is a derogatory term for this I won’t use.) Of those 16 – four died as children and I have been able to trace 10. This leaves two children I cannot trace beyond their birth records, yet! Another interesting tidbit – Regina’s sister Henriette married Moses’ brother Abraham and their cousin’s cousin Rosette married a third brother Markus. Rosetta’s mother Jeanette had a sister Veronica who was married to Andreas’ brother Bernard. Veronica also had a brother David who’s grandson Abraham Albert who was married to the second cousin of Moses and Regina’s daughter Albertina, my second great grandmother. Are you lost yet? Jeanette’s husband Moses was also married to a Henriette Schönbrunn who was the sister of Andreas’ brother August’s wife Juliette.

Group Pictures

Picture 1 – Joseph Rothstein and Laura Krochmal Family portrait. I have shared this photo before but it still ranks as one of my favorites. Joseph and Laura are my second great grandparents and the young man standing in the back is my great grandfather Markus. Left to right the others in the picture are Gussie, Anna, Yetta, and Irving. To me Irving looks about 5, having been born in 1905, which means this picture was taken around 1910. According to Irving’s daughter his shoe had a hole in it which is why his leg is bent that way. Assuming this was taken around 1910 it was more than likely taken after the family moved to Vienna. The do appear in the 1910 Tarnopol census, so it is a little hard to judge.

 

Picture 2 – Tillinger Wedding Party group photo. Back Row: Richard Deman, Julius Tillinger, Harry Rothstein, Irwin Stein Middle Row: Markus Rothstein, Rose Garfunkel, Joseph Tillinger, Bertha Tillinger, Mina Tillinger, Regina Tillinger Front: Paula Rothstein, Harriet Tillinger, Ethel Lilker This picture is from my grandfather Harry’s first cousin Mina’s wedding in 1946 ased on who is and who isn’t in the picture. This is the only picture I have that has all the Tillinger siblings that came to the US. They were married a few months before Harry and my grandmother Judith Polak married which may be why she is not in the picture. Regina’s children and their spouses are not pictured but that may have been because Minnie and Gertrude’s children were infants and may not have been there.

 

Picture 3 – Tillinger Family Picture This picture may be my “most” favorite of my Tillinger related photos. In the summer of 2016 after the IAJGS conference in Seattle I flew down to San Francisco to visit some cousins. While visiting my grandfather’s 1st cousin I had the opportunity to look through her father’s photo’s as well as see various photos they had hanging on the wall. This is one of the two photos that I found that blew me away. I had never seen a picture of my 2nd great grandfather Aron Moshe Tillinger nor the three of his seven children that never came to America. In the front row is my 2nd great grandmother Hanna Mossler/Wachs, their youngest son Jozef, my 2nd great grandfather Aron, and my great grandmother Bertha. In the back is Solomon Isaak, Ernestyna and Israel Wolf. I had never seen a picture of these three either, at least as far as I know. I have some unknown pictures of my grandfather’s I will probably never be able to identify. Those three were all murdered in the Holocaust. This photo was probably taken some time after 1905 since their oldest daughter Regina and second oldest son Julius had immigrated to the US by 1905 and are not pictured. Jozef was born in 1897 and Bertha in 1893.

 

You would think at this point I favor my mother’s over my father’s side. That is not true. I just have not gone through all of his pictures plus I have yet to ask other family members for pictures. However there are two group photos on my father’s side I like of his.

 

The Photo above is of my father with 6 of 8 maternal first cousins with their grandmother Tillie (Farbman) Levy. This picture is probably from before 1961 since two cousins are not pictured and my dad (front right) looks younger than 12.

 

The above picture is from a Jurowsky (changed to Jaron) cousins club get together. Since my father’s uncle Nat is in the picture it would have to have been taken before 1963. When I take over my father’s Jurowsky research this picture will be a good guide.

I could probably go on but I have to hold somethings back for later posts.

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