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Chasing Krochmals, Going After Goldbrums, and Searching for Sass


One of my more successful research projects outside of my researching my extensive Dutch ancestry has been my work on my Krochmal family. For the longest time my oldest known ancestors along that line were Hirsch Leib Krochmal and Pessie Goldbrumm. Hirsch Leib and Pessie are my 3rd great grandparents and they had nine children - Chaje, Lea, Chana Breyne, Ester, Hinde, Scheindel Riwe, Aron, Hudel, and Jakob Simon.


Chaje was born on April 10, 1862 and she married Moses Hillel Fruchtmann. In 1893 they had a son by the name of Aron Jakob. Unfortunately I have not been able to find anything more but with more sources being released perhaps one day I will know what happened to them. Chaje was Moses' second wife but I never got around to tracing the descendants of his first wife.


Lea, my 2nd great grandmother, was born on January 17, 1864 and she married Jozef Rothstein. Together they had five children - Gussie, Yetta, Markus, Anna, and Irving. I wrote a little bit about Markus a few weeks ago, where you can read more here. Sometime after 1910 they moved to Vienna and then New York.


Chana Breyne was born on August 18 1866 and died on February 17, 1878. She was the only child that didn't make it to adulthood.


Ester was born on February 1, 1868 and she married Szymon Seid. Together they had five children - Moses, Jacob Rubin, Lazar, Markus, and Schlome. Their branch remained in Tarnopol up until and through World War II. Jacob's branch made their way to Canada, Lazar's branch ended up in Argentina and then Israel, and unfortunately Moses' branch was murdered in the Holocaust along with one of Jacob's children. I had been looking for Lazar's descendants for a while and finally found them in 2019. Ester died on January 25, 1942.


Hinde was born on February 11, 1870 and was married to Dawid Salmen Bilker. They had six children I know I of - Sara Golde, Marcus, Ester, Oskar, Cila, and Samuel. I have not had much luck in finding any descendants of their children.


Scheindel Riwe was born on June 20, 1872 and was married to Manuel Kaczer. They had eight children that I know of - Marjem, Mendel, Meschulim, Nechamka, Fenia Tanie, Hirsch Leib, Samuel and Eugenia. In 1940 Mendel was an officer in the Polish army who was murdered in the Katyn Forest Massacre. From what I have been able to tell this branch was wiped out in the Holocaust.


Aron was born on April 5, 1874 and was married twice. His first wife was named Bluma Hudel Krochmal, who it turns out was his first cousin once removed. They had two children - Fanny and Rosa. His second wife was Chancia Bluma Axelrod with whom he had three children - Hirsch Leib, Henryk, and Helene. I have not been successful in finding out what happened to this branch.


Hudel was born August 29, 1876 who was married to Simon Sirkus, her first cousin once removed. They had four children - Celia, Lieber, William and George. They were the first from this family group to come to the US having immigrated in the first decade of the 1900's. Hudel died on October 19, 1958.


Jakob Simon was born on October 18, 1878 and was married to Adele Broch. Jakob was a jeweler and according to family story did work for the Hapsburgs. Together they had three children - Heinrich, Rudolf, and Erene. After Jakob died in 1936 Adele, all three children, and their families immigrated to the US.


However aside from knowing who most of their children's descendants were for the longest time I did not know who Hirsch and Pessie parents were.


 

As I was gathering what information I could about my Krochmal ancestors my mom's third cousin told me he had at some point discovered that Hirsch's father was named Abraham Aron. When Gesher Galicia released the Zloczow birth records I finally found Hirsch's record which showed his parents father's name and house he was born in.

This led to me finding his siblings - Markus, Rachel, Moses, Lazer, Rebeka, Chaim, and Marjem as well as the name of his mother, Udel.


Markus was born around 1819 and was married to a Bine Lea. They had two children - Malka and Abraham Aron.


Rachel was born around 1829 and was married to Schimson Sirkus. They had five children - Markus Hirsch, Abraham Aron, Sara, Kelman, and Chane Brane. It was Markus' son Simon who married the above mentioned Hudel Krochmal.


Moses was also born around 1829 and was married to Lybe Wegweiser/Schorr. They had six children - Schulim, Abraham Aron, Rifke, Samuel Hersch, Chaym Jankel, and Belia Henia. Schulim's son Meier would eventually make his way to Pittsburgh.


Hirsch is described above. Lazer died at the age of 35 and from what I can tell was unmarried. As for Rebeka and Chaim I have not been able to find anything out.


Lastly, Marjem was born around 1846 and was married to Leiber Kibrik. They had three children - Abraham Aron, Meite, and Udel. Thus far I have been unsuccessful at finding anything more about this branch.

 

A somewhat recent discovery was possibly finding the name of my fourth great grandmother's father when looking at birth records for her children. Specifically their child Schlome, the youngest brother of Pessie.

I discovered that Pessie's mother Jite Rifke's father, my 5th great grandfather, was named Berl Sass. While doing some digging I found who believe to be Jite Rifke's sister, Chana Frime. Chana was married to Abraham Lorber and they had five children - Moses, Asriel, Solomon, Marjem, and Ester Lea. I did manage to find some of their descendants, however I have not reached out to any of them, nor have I found if any have taken a DNA test. I still have some digging to do but feel good about this find!

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