Monday, December 5, 2011

Morris EFRON of St. Louis/Aiken, S.C. - Knyshin and Cordoba, too

I just discovered the arrival records for the Morris Efron of St. Louis family. Mother Chaje (Ida SURASKY Efron) arrived with her three children, Yankel (Jacob), Mordic(?) (Max) and Gerson (Harry) under the family name EFRAIM. The ship record can be found at http://www.ellisisland.org/ by entering a search for Chaje Efraim arrival in 1900. They sailed from Glasgow, and indicated their last place of residence was Rotterdam. Perhaps Harry was born in either Rotterdam, before they could board their ship, or in Glasgow -- or on the way to Glasgow. Oral history says that Harry was born en route to the U.S., but this ship manifest says he is two-years-old.

I also found the arrival for Morris, under the name of Moische EFROM, also in 1900. On his arrival record, sailing from Rotterdam, it says .he is going to join his cousin, "S. KAPLAN," of Essex St. in NYC. A search of Kaplans with origins in Knyshin located an arrival for a Sore Kaplan from Knyshin (or some spelling variation thereof). This Sore is going to her husband James and brings with her a son and daughter. The family was found in the 1900 and 1910 census. In the 1910 census, the family has living with them two single women in the early 20s, Rebecca and Sarah Surasky. Those two boarders verify that it is the correct Kaplan family! In 1910, the Kaplan family is comprised of James, Sallie (Sarah), Jennie (Dwore?), Hyman (Chaim) and Mamie.

My search and discovery of this new information was motivated by the naturalization papers of Harry Efron, which papers were newly available on Ancestry.com .

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Shael Efron of Amdur, Samuel Lowenstein of Frankfurt - Part II

This is the seond post regarding Shael Efron of Amdur, 1823-1897, who lived most of his life in Frankfurt, Germany as Samuel Lowenstein. In the first post, I included sources of information about Shael.

Despite knowing a lot about Shael's close relations, I have no information about any living desendents. Here's what I do know.

Shael's parents: Shael's father was Chaim Efron of Amdur, son of Leib and Tsinne. Chaim was born around 1780 and was married to Leah Katzenellenbogen, who was a descendent of Shaul Wahl Katzenellenbogen, the famous Polish King for a Night. In 1858, Leah lives with Shael and his family, and they are registered to Amdur. She is then a widow.

Shael's wife: Sarah Sayet was born in Vilna October 5, 1828, and died in Frankfurt an Main, August 31, 1901. Her father was Gabriel, born 1797, and he was the son of Aaron who in turn was the son of Benzion. Sarah's brothers were Yossel (Joseph) and Shmuel (Samuel) and she had a sister Rasa. Yossel was married to Ester Rivka, daugther of Bentsel. Shmuel was married to Sora, daughter of Baruch. Yossel Sayet had children Eliash, Rochel, and Sora. Shmuel has a son Zalman. Sarah Sayet Efron's mother's first name is unknown, but she came from the Berkowitz family. Sarah's maternal grandfather was Benzion Yudel Berkowitz.

Shael's known children are: Leizer Aharon Efron, Hermann, Chaia Peshe (married name unknown, Taube (Theresa?) Weinreich, Zlata (married name unknown) and Moses Lowenstein.

Leizer Aharon "Lazar Shael's" Efron was born in 1844 in Amdur. He married his cousin, Tsinna (or Zina) CHOZE, the daughter of Samuel "Monye" Choze and Tsipporah Efron. One child's name is known -- Berrill or Berel, as he was called in Amdur. Berrill became a dentist for the military in Vilna and also was in Buenos Aires. He died around 1950. He wrote a religious book in which he included extensive biographical details, including that his mother was a Katzenellenbogen descendent (as was his father, but no relation). See prior post on Shael Efron.

Hermann (Chaim) Lowenstein was born in 1855 in Vilnius and died January 1, 1914 in Frankfurt an Main. He once lived in the town of Burgel, Germany. This is all that is known about this child of Shael.

Taube married Fishel WEINREICH. His given names may be Fishel Meyer, or, he was Fishel, the son of Meyer. They were married in Bialystok in 1891. One child is known, Chisza, who was born in Bialystok in 1899. A Weinrach is listed as the owner of the Frankfurt house of Samuel Lowenstein (her father, Shael) after his death. Based on an index of births in Bialystok, Fishel Weinreich was the father of Malka, Gittel and Chesia. That is all that is known of this child of Shael.

Chaia Peshe. She had one daughter. This is all that is known of her and is based on the book written by her brother Leizer (see prior post on Shael Efron).

Zlata. She was born February 11, 1861. I need to locate where this information came from!!

Moses (Moshe) Lowenstein. He was a judge in Germany. He was born in 1864. His wife was Rosa Reinheimer, who was born in 1867 in Gross Zimmern, Germany. Moses and his family lived in Kirchen an der Sieg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. Before that, Moses lived in Wiesbaden and Heidelberg, maybe at the university there.

During the Holocaust, Rosa and two daughters were hidden in Moenchengladbach, Germany. There was another child of Moses, named Kurt Theodore, but he died in 1929.

See Chapter 5 of the Efron Family History for more information and sources.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Back to: EfronFamilyHistory.com

OK -- I've now reverted back to http://www.efronfamilyhistory.com/ . I will continue to edit and update the website, but at this point the basic structure is there, and nearly all of the source documents can be found within the appendixes.

My next major goal is to make the site easier to use.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

New.EfronFamilyHistory.com

I am in the process of revising my new webpage, but am doing so at a different location. So, find my more user friendly site, where I am now placing my updates (I might update every month or so). Sometime in the next month or two I will update what is now found on http://www.efronfamilyhistory.com/ with what you find on http://www.new.efronfamilyhistory.com/ .

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

New Efron Family History Website: EfronFamilyHistory.com

I have started a website for my hobby! Most of what I've done for the Efron Genealogy has been posted there, but it all needs work. Basically, I have to edit the documents and fix the hyperlinks. And of course, I need to make everything super easy! The website is EfronFamilyHistory.com.