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.

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.

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/ .

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.

Shael Efron of Amdur, Samuel Lowenstein of Frankfurt

Are there any living descendents of Shael Efron? He was born in 1823 and his story is told by his son, "Lazar Shael's," in Lazar's book, Khamishan Alfin . Lazar, more formerly known as Aharon Eliezer, tells how his father was put in the Grodno prison because he dealt in gold, which was forbidden by the Russian authorities.

Shael escaped from prison and went to Germany with his wife, Sarah. There, he settled in Frankfurt with the alias "Samuel Lowenstein." From the information in Lazar Shael's book, plus some information from Yedidia Efron's Amdur, Mayn Geboyrn Shtetl and a reference in Sam Effron's genealogy, I feel I've got to know this family pretty well.

I was thrilled to find the gravestones of Shael and his wife in the collection of photos of the Rat Beil St. cemtery in Frankfurt, posted by the JewishData.com folks. The photo requires a subscription to JewishData.com . The lengthy Hebrew text on the imposing monument erected for Shael "Samuel" is not legible, but it is transcribed in his son's book!

Publishing The Efron Genealogy -- The Game Plan

I am working hard to publish the research I've collected for the past 20 or so years. The Efron Genealogies will be published as a book, on DVD, and online. There will be Four parts:

Volume I -- The Efron Family of Amdur
Volume II -- Other Efron Families: Origins Other Than Amdur
Volume III -- Descendency Charts and Index
Efron Genealogies Appendix

I have just completed a review of all ship arrivals in Volume I, and in the process found about 40 additional ship manifest. I also reviewed Volume I to remove all confidential information about living individuals.

There are several more steps needed before Volume I will be ready for publication:
Moving reference information from the body of Volume I to the Appendix
Getting more family photos
Incorporating some interesting documents in Volume I, instead of just as part of the Appendix
Making the text more readable
Focus on interesting individuals

Why Genealogy? A Common Question. The Puzzling Answer

I've been asked many times, often by complete strangers who are contacted by me for information about their families, why I am "doing this." The answer can be long or short.

The short answer, a defense of genealogy usually given to those who ask accusingly and suspiciously why it is that I am building family trees of EFRONS, is:

"Some people collect stamps, some people collect coins -- I collect EFRONs"

This sort of explains the hobby of genealogy, because often it is the thrill of adding on to one's compilation of people that is satisfying -- just like any collection-type hobby. But there is a lot more to it, just as there is much more to stamp or coin collecting.

Here's what I think is my motivation: It's just darn interesting and fun and it is intellectually satisfying. Genealogy is the solving puzzles -- and I've always loved puzzles.

Well, I know I'm not the first one to say that genealogy is like a jigsaw puzzle. But more than that, it is a puzzle that at one time was far from being a puzzle, so it is like a treasure hunt. It is a puzzle that has only one, certain, true and eternal solution, so it is like scientific discovery. It is a puzzle that requires a multitude of skills and strategies to solve, and so it is like life itself. Sort of.

Think about this: at one time my great-great-grandmother, Rivka Rochel (nee EFRON) BRAWERMANN, was the daughter of two parents, had a spouse with two parents, had brothers and sisters, and had children. Now, I have little idea who her mother was and do not know the names of four of her daughters. But I have learned the first name of her mother, her father's name and some of her great grandparent's names, and the names of seven of her children and numerous descendents.

What skills are required to solve these puzzles? Good interviewing skills where the correct questions are asked; the ability to read, at least phonetically, in several languages; a lot of geography and in my Jewish genalogy a fair amount of Hebrew onomastics (the study of names). Persistence, patience and imagination are required to get to an evasive solution.

Example: an Israeli-American who was born in Russia tells me that his mother says that her Efron relatives - Yosef, Mottel and Shmuel -- had immigrated to Sao Paolo, my first step is to start searching Sao Paolo phone books. Then some searches through FamilySearch.org (the LDS Church's site) and in JewishGen.org. Nothing. Think. Think. Have I seen a family with these three names anywhere else in my research?

Of course I have! These are some of the brothers of the family that settled in St. Paul, Minnesota!! Not Sao Paulo, Brazil! And yet, the same place name.

I hope to post some current, particular puzzles to share, and invite you to sleuth along with me to solve them!