The Mitochondrial DNA of My (Other) Great-Grandmothers

Following my recent discussion of the near-extinction of the mitochondrial DNA (U1b1) of my mother's maternal great-grandmother Etta Bryna, let's have a look at my other great-grandmothers.

Chana Kugel, my mother's paternal grandmother,

One of my second cousins on that side did a MtDNA test, so we know that Chana's haplogroup is R0a4. There are sixty-four people who have a perfect MtDNA match

Chana had two sons, my grandfather and Uncle Frank, who (being male) did not pass on any MtDNA.

The younger of Chana's two daughters, Aunt Rose, had three daughters. The eldest had two sons and a daughter and the daughter had only two sons. Aunt Rose's middle daughter had a son (who has declined to talk to me, even though we have a DNA match on Ancestry) and a daughter I know nothing about. Aunt Rose's third daughter had two children but no grandchildren.

Chana's first born, Aunt Mary, had three daughters and a son. The eldest had two daughters and two sons and one of the daughters has no children. The other daughter had eight children, six of them girls. One has two daughters, each of whom has one daughter. Three others have one daughter each. Of those one has only sons, and two are not married, but one is engaged. So Aunt Mary eldest daughter has at least three descendants who may keep the mitochondrial DNA going.

Aunt Mary's middle daughter died at age 20, with no children.

Aunt Mary's youngest daughter had two daughters and each of those has a granddaughter from a daughter.

So we have at present five carriers of Chana's mitochondrial DNA through Aunt Mary and maybe one from Aunt Rose. We know that Chana herself had two or three brothers, but do not know of sisters. Her mother's maiden name is unknown.

Regina (Rivka) Bauer, my father's maternal grandmother

This great-grandmother had two daughters. One had one daughter who had two sons and a daughter - but the daughter has no children.

The other, my grandmother, had two sons and a daughter and the daughter had only sons. The daughter (my aunt) did an MtDNA test and the haplogroup is H10a1b. She has twenty-four perfect matches.

So Regina's mitochondrial DNA is gone. She had four sisters. One died at age thirty and married but we know nothing about children. I visited her grave in Hungary two years ago and it mentions the husband (in both Hungarian and Hebrew) but no mention of children, so I am guessing there weren't any.

Another sister lived in Pittsburgh. She had a daughter, but my grandmother , who knew her well, never mentioned her son but not that daughter, so I assume the daughter died young.

The other two were killed in the Holocaust in their sixties. We have no knowledge of children.

Regina's mother, Fani/Feige Stern, had two sisters that we know of. One had four sons. The other had two sons and five daughters. One of the daughters died at age five and we know nothing about the other four. Feige Stern's mother was a Grunwald and her mother was a Hercz.

So for all practical purposes, we assume that Regina's mitochondrial DNA is gone. Or at least not accessible.

Jutte Leah Kwoczka, my father's paternal grandmother

Nearly ten years ago, the son of my grandfather's middle sister did a MtDNA test for me. The haplogroup is V7a. He had no exact matches but there were thirty-odd one step away. It occured to me that perhaps there had been a personal mutation - he or his mother - so I asked the granddaughter of my grandfather's eldest sister to do the test as well. I was right. She matched all those others. There are now 128 exact matches.

Jutte Leah had ten children: three sons who died in infancy or childhood, three sons with descendants, one son with no descendants and three daughters. Aunt Becky (#5), Aunt Mary (#6) and Aunt Bessie (#8) all were married with children. Aunt Becky had a son and a daughter and the daughter had a daughter with no children. She is the one who did the MtDNA test for me. But the mitochondrial DNA goes no further.

Aunt Mary had a daughter and two sons. Until recently, we had though that the daughter had no children, but we have learned that she had a son who was adopted out. He has been positively identified but there was no one to pass on the MtDNA.

Aunt Bessie had two daughters and a son. One daughter had no children; the other had a son and a daughter and the daughter has only a son.

So none of Jutte Leah's descendants can pass on her mitochondrial DNA. Jutte Leah herself had three brothers but no sisters that we know of. her mother's maiden name is Pollak.

Does any of this matter? I don't really know.

The Sterns from Paks - The Impossible Dream

My third-great-grandfather Zelig Stern lived in Kalocsa, but in fact he was born in Paks. Those two towns are not far apart, but they are separated by the Danube so getting from one to the other is a longer drive.

His father is Izak Leib. We don't know his mother's name. Zelig named his eldest son Izak Leib (Ignacz), so we know that Izak Leib died before 1840.

I figured there may be Sterns among the ~500 marked graves in Paks, maybe even Izak Leib himself. We had planned to go Tuesday but Rona suggested we move it to Monday. Good decision.

This must be the place

Keep in mind that after the disappointment in Apostag, I had no illusions, but we arranged for the cemetery to be opened and off we went.

A brief history of the community is here. Paks is different from the other towns we visited - it is hilly, while the others were all flat.

It began with a good sign - an old plastic chair was just inside the entrance. We took it with us both for resting and to make note-taking easier.

The burial area is very large. I can only speculate on how much of that open area contains graves with no tombstones.

I had no illusions about finding my fourth-great-grandfather in a grave from before 1840, but I thought I might see him named as the father on one of his children's graves. So I was looking for Sterns and and for any reference to Izak Leib or one of its variations.

We were not inside for long before I saw this group of eleven stones set aside from the others. Not fenced, just separate. Most are Sterns and a few are Engels. I suspect the two families are related by marriage.

Front row: Sandor/Israel Engel, Rosalie Engel, Peretz/Moritz Stern, Meir/Marcus Stern, Keila Stern (Meir's wife), Mordecai/Miksa Stern.

Second row: Israel Stern, Hana Stern (Peretz' daughter), Esther Stern (Israel's mother), Shalom Stern (Israel's father), Henich/Heinrich Engel, Johanna Engel Behr.

I shall show the most significant ones below, some on both sides, some just one. I will not provide full translations, only the relevant genealogy information. (Esther's is fabulous!)

Shalom Stern died 28 Second Adar 5619 (1859). Mother is Esther. Father not named. No age given. Esther Stern, Shalom's wife, died 30 Sivan 5616 (1856). Mother is Chana. Epitaph is an acrostic. Israel Stern is their son and predeceased them both. He died at twenty-four on 14 Shevat 5611 (1851)

Peretz Stern, known as Moritz, died in 5623 (1863). Mother is Esther. Chana Stern is his daughter. She died 16 Av 5616, 16 August 1856. Her epitaph is in Yiddish. Meir Stern, known as Marcus, died 1 Tammuz 5630 (1870). Mother is Esther. Keila Stern, Meir's wife, died 27 Tishrei 5740 (1879) at age 61. Her mother is Slava.

Note that Shalom, Peretz and Meir seem to be contemporaries and their mothers are all Esther. It would be a small jump to say that they are brothers. It would be a bigger jump to say that their father is Izak Leib.

We saw maybe another dozen Sterns throughout the cemetery, but with no fathers' names it was impossible to pt them together into a whole. One is a kohen, so is not one of ours.

A large number of the graves are legible, some much older than what I was used to. This couple both died in 5595, 1835, which gave me some hope I might find my Izak Leib.

The weather was hot so after nearly four hours we quit and came back the next day.

We also took some pictures for people who were registered in the JewishGen Family Finder with Paks families.

There was a moment of excitement when I found a grave for this Izak Leib, with a nice acrostic as  his epitaph. But his surname was Blumenstock and he died in 5610 (1850), too late to be ours. 

 

 

 

After three and a half hours the second day, I had enough. Izak Leib Stern, my fourth-great-grandfather is undoubtedly in that cemetery, but even if he had a legible tombstone, I was not going to find him.

I headed back towards the exit and told Rona I would meet her there. Along the way, something pulled me towards a row I had not looked at and suddenly there was this.

Here lies buried

A man of faith, [unclear phrase]

Ate from the work of his hands.

Worked all his days.

Accepted by all his brethren,

all of his life.

The honored man Izak Leib, son of the honored man Meir.

Died and buried on the eve of the Holy Shabbat, 5 Shevat 5586.

May his soul be bound in life.

 

 

 

This stone is 196 years old. Like it was waiting for me.

Now there is no surname here, so all we have is the name Izak Leib and a date before his grandson was named for him in the late 1830s.

But this really felt right. This was the very end of my research trip and I wandered straight to him.

Paks was never a large community and even in 1869 there were fewer than 1200 Jews. Were there multiple Izak Leibs? Aside from Blumenstock?

I have a rule for myself. When I do not have enough proof yet I am quite sure of something, I want to have one more piece of supporting evidence.  The three putative brothers, all Sterns and sons of Esther,  from the group of eleven graves are Shalom, Peretz and Meir. This man's father is Meir.

I think I am going to claim this man as my fourth-great-grandfather. That puts a cap on the trip.

But I will nonetheless go through the Paks records at Family Search.

Apostag and Kalocsa

 Apostag

I mentioned earlier in this series that at least that at least ten of the Bauers in Kunszentmiklos had been born in Apostag and there are quite a few Bauer records there. So I figured we should have a look at the ~400 graves there, just to see what shows up.

That became our Sunday project, partly because the cemetery in Apostag has a coded lock and there is no need to bother anyone about a key on a Sunday. We began Sunday a bit later than usual as the Steelers played Saturday night and I stayed up for that.

This was definitely a fishing expedition. We did not know which Bauers are buried there. We did not know the condition of the tombstones - certainly the older ones.

We let ourselves in and walked around for a couple of hours, seeing some families we recognized but no Bauers. A lot of stones in poor condition but many of which were easily legible. Just not of interest.

Gaspar Bauer

And as we had already discovered, many Hungarian tombstones do not reveal the father's name. So even if we were to find Bauer graves, they might not tell us anything useful. It made for a frustrating way to start the week.

In the end, we did find one Bauer - Gaspar/Tanhum, who died 9 August 1930 at age 69. Which tells us exactly nothing.

Apostag

Kalocsa

I was ready to go back to Dunaujvaros but Rona wanted to get more of a feel for the places my ancestors had lived, so we went back to Kalocsa, the home of my third-great-grandparents Zelig and Bluma Stern. When we were there last week, I mentioned it to Linda - remember she and I had been here five years ago - and she said I should send her regards to Andrej from the Club Hotel, where we had stayed.

So Rona went looking for Andrej and found him with some effort. He definitely remembered Linda. (Linda is like that - memorable.) Andrej got into the car with us and directed us to the larger, newer, locked cemetery not far away and then took us to the shul. I took him home while Rona walked around and I actually managed to find her afterwards.

Then we went to the new cemetery. It was indeed locked, but the neighboring Hungarian cemetery was open and there was a breech in the wall between them and we pretty much walked right in.

And once into the Jewish cemetery, who is the first person we see? Ignacz Stern, the older  brother of my second-great-grandmother Fani Stern! Called Izak Leib after his paternal grandfather. We knew of Ignacz and his approximate age from his 1871 Kalocsa marriage record to Betti Schneider and now we know that he died at age 68 on 20 March 1905. According to the stone, this was "Esther Taynis," the way my grandmother always said it.

But there was one important bit of information that surprised me, on the very last line. "And his mother's name is Rivka." Not Bluma. We know that Fani (who was born maybe three-four years later) was the daughter of Bluma because it says so on her grave in Kunszentmiklos. And Fani herself is named for Bluma's mother.

Now it could be that there are errors on one or more of the tombstones. And it could be that Fani's mother was Rivka but Bluma brought her up so she was considered to be her mother by the family. And it could be that Bluma and Rivka are sisters, so Fani would be the mother of them both. But I am going to go with Occam's Razor here and say that Ignacz was the son of Rivka and the others were from Bluma. All of them, of course, the children of Zelig Stern.

Not all the stones in the new Kalocsa cemetery were in such pristine condition, but I was not able to identify and other Sterns. Nor did I see either of Fani's two younger married sisters.

But the Kalocsa cemetery had not yet given up all of its surprises. As I discussed earlier, Bluma is a Grunwald from Perkata. That's about seventy kilometers away today. Not very far but not close either.

There are a number of Grunwalds buried in this Kalocsa cemetery I cannot help but wonder if this is Blima's family. None that I can connect to Bluma, but it would not surprise me to know that there is a close connection. This will take some serious work in the Kalocsa records.

Grunwalds in the newer Kalocsa cemetery

The Bauers of Kunszentmiklos

Regina Bauer Rosenzweig

Five years ago, my cousin Linda and I visited the cemetery in Kunszentmiklos Hungary. Our great-grandmother, Regina (Rivka) Bauer was born there. Her father too.

I remember my great-grandmother, who died when I was nearly three. She lived with our grandparents and used to give me M&Ms. She and her husband are buried at the Poale Zedeck cemetery in the Sheraden neighborhood of Pittsburgh. My grandparents and other family members are buried there as well.

There are dozens of Bauers buried in Kunszentmiklos including the parents of my great-grandmother and her brother, who is my father's namesake. But when Linda and I were there five years ago, it was badly overgrown and we could not see anything of use, although many of the stones themselves were in very good condition. I wrote about that visit as part of an eight blog series describing that trip.

So here we were, Wednesday morning headed from our Airbnb in Dunaujvaros to Kunszentmiklos thirty-six km away, to meet Imre, the keeper of the key to the cemetery. They truly did an excellent job cleaning up the cemetery and making the existing 189 tombstones accessible to visitors, though it is not easy walking around. 

By the way, all the Bauers are written בויער in Hebrew, pronounced Boyer.

The state of the cemetery - five years ago (above) and now (below).

The whole foreground area and to both sides has signs of graves, but there are no tombstones.

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I had come with four goals in mind for this visit.

1. Visiting and photographing the graves of my known relatives.

2. Clarifying the source for my father's name.

3. Clarifying the name of my second-great-grandfather's mother.

4. Gathering whatever information I could about the many members of my great -grandmother's Bauer family.

 

My known relatives

I knew from cemetery records that my great-grandmother's parents and brother were buried in Kunszentmiklos. This would be Simon (Shemaya) Bauer (died 1902), Fani (Feige) Stern Bauer (died 1911) and Lajos (Eliezer) Bauer (died 1917).

I expected that my great-grandmother's older sister Ilona (Dobrisch) Bauer Wiesel (died 1893 at age 30) was also there because I have seen her death record. This even though I have not seen her in cemetery records.

Simon and Fanny are side-by-side, with Hungarian on one side and Hebrew on the other. The Hebrew sides did not photograph well, because of both the quality of the work and the direction of the sun. But I bring it all here.

 

 

I find it interesting that Simon is called Shemayahu on his stone and his wife's, but the simpler Shemaya everywhere else, including my father's cousin Simon who is named for him. 

And Fani is called Feigele rather than the more formal Feige on all the stones.

 

Their son Lajos is right behind them in the next row. (You can see his stone between theirs.) He is called a young man (bachur) at age 42 because he never married. My grandmother always said that my father was named for him. Lajos' epitaph is all on one side, with both Hebrew and Hungarian.

A bit later, as we were looking at some of the older, more difficult stones, I saw this, which Rona enhanced with a bit of water.

 

Wiesel Lipotne (Mrs. Lipot Wiesel)

Bauer Ilona

Age 30

Died 20 August 1893

The other side is in Hebrew. Here is a partial photograph.

The educated woman, crown of her husband

Pride of her family and beloved of her acquaintances

Plucked away in her youth, age 30

Mrs. Dobrisch 

Dear to her husband Lipman Wiesel

From the Bauer family

Died 5 Elul 5653

Her mother's name is Feigele.

This is the eldest of Simon and Fani's children and Regina named her daughter Helen after her in 1896.

I shall address more of my Kunszentmiklos goals probably tomorrow.

Narrowing It Down Using The X

As I have mentioned before, every few months I review the newest autosomal matches on my many Family Tree DNA kits to see which are the best candidates to investigate further with GEDmatch. Maybe a third of those respond to my inquiries and of those perhaps one or two, maybe three, will show anything useful. On this last round, I sent out about eighty-five inquiries and was surprised how many people got back to me in the first forty-eight hours. This is the story of one of these.

The match is a woman named Donna who was adopted and is looking for information that might lead her to her birth parents. One of her two matches with my families was this, a quite ordinary segment of 16 cM with seven Pikholz descendants.

Jean, Sarajoy, Judith and Amy are my sisters. Uncle Bob is my father's brother. Roz is my second cousin on my grandfather's side. Marshal is my double second cousin - our grandfathers are brothers and our grandmothers are sisters. The seven matches triangulate; they all match one another. So this looks to be pretty straightforward. This segment comes from either my great-grandfather Hersch Pikholz or my great-grandmother Jutte Lea Kwoczka.

But this segment is from chromosome 23, the X.The chromosome that never passes from father to son.

Roz gets to our great-grandparents through her mother and grandmother, so both Kwoczka and Pikholz are viable sources for her segment. But the others are all from sons of our great-grandparents, so they would have no X from Hersch Pikholz. Which means this is a Kwoczka segment.

But that cannot be right either. Uncle Bob would have to have received the segment from his father, which is clearly impossible. Uncle Bob received this segment from his mother. That option works for my sisters and for Marshal, but Roz has nothing to do with my grandmother's Hungarians and Slovakians. The Pikholz and Kwoczka families lived in the Tarnopol area of east Galicia.

If this sounds familiar, it should. Three and a half years ago, I discovered a segment shared by two supposedly unconnected parts of my families, one being my grandmother's Hungarians and the other the Galicianers on the non-Pikholz/Kwoczka side of the family of my cousins Rhoda, Roz and Pinchas. 

I have since found about forty strangers who share this segment with matches of anywhere between twelve and twenty centiMorgans. I wrote all of them, but have not gotten any firm leads on how, when and where my two families connect. It is a good ways back, as the families have been in the same places since the mid or late 1700s, but it's recent enough to preserve this 20+ cM segment intact.

Wendy and Carolyn, at JGS Maryland, 2016,

my earliest cousins on this segment

I have also written about this segment of chromosome 21 here, here and most recently here.

My guess is that the same ancestor who gave us the segment on chromosome 21, gave us the newfound X segment, though I cannot prove it. Until now, I have had seven surnames to work with, five from the Hungarians and two from the Galicianers. Of course there was no reason to assume that the common ancestor actually used one of those seven names - if he (or she) used any at all. But they were starting points. 

Now, we know that two of those lines are completely irrelevant. The X cannot be from my third-great-grandfather Lasar Bauer or his wife Rosa Lowinger, because it could not have been passed to Cousin Shabtai Bauer. One of the forty "strangers" has a Bauer ancestor, so that was a candidate for chromosome 21. But it cannot be for the X.

The others are still possibilities simply because we do not have other known descendants of those families who might share the segments in question. We can neither confirm nor eliminate them. Here are the earliest known ancestors in each family.

On the Hungarian side:

Salomon/Yehoshua Selig STERN ~ 1805-1862, son of Izak Leib of Paks could have received this segment from his unknown mother.

Jakob GRUNWALD of Perkata whose daughter was born about 1806 could have received the segment from his unknown mother.

Fani/Feige HERCZ, Jakob Grunwald's wife, could have received the segment from either parent.

On the east Galician side:

Shimon Leib ZWIEBEL, ~1825-1910, son of Isak, from the Tarnopol area, could have received the segment from his unknown mother.

Ester Chava LEWINTER, ~1831-1907, from the Tarnopol area, could have received the segment from either parent. She is Shimon Leib Zwiebel's wife.

I would love to see some tests from any of these families. Zwiebel is probably the easiest place to start.

It feels like progress. I'll certainly notify the forty-odd strangers.

Developments in Chromosome 21

Some months ago, Jessica Feinstein, the editor of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain quarterly Shemot, asked me to write a brief piece for their winter DNA issue. That publication came out recently and my article is reproduced below.

There is, however, something new which came in after Shemot was already closed. I have added that here in red.

Chromosome 21 – Perhaps My Favorite Brick Wall

Israel Pickholtz

Background  - The Bauers and the Sterns

I manage DNA kits of over 120 people – about two-thirds of them Pikholz descendants and most of the rest known members of my other families. Those include two grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren of my father’s maternal grandmother Regina Bauer Rosenzweig and one grandson (Shabtai) of her brother. Regina Bauer was born in 1870, one of five daughters and two sons of Simon (Shemaya) Bauer (1833-1902) and Fani (Feige) Stern (1842-1911).

The Bauers were a large family in Kunszentmiklos Hungary, about an hour south of Budapest;  in the 1700s they had lived in Apostag, about half an hour further south. We have many Bauer records from both places.  Fani Stern was born in Kalocsa, another half hour further south, and her father Salomon (Selig) Stern (~1805-1862) was from nearby Paks. Fani’s mother was a Grunwald from Perkata, which is across the Danube from Kunszentmiklos.

Regina’s paternal grandmother was probably a Lowinger and Fani Stern’s maternal grandmother was a Hercz, so I have five of Regina’s ancestral surnames to work with. Jewish research being what it is, I have no other great-grandparent with that many ancestral surnames.

When I first learned of DNAPainter.com nearly two years ago, I mapped out twelve segments where Shabtai matches multiple descendants of Regina with at least 18 cM. The largest of these are 61, 57, 47, 38 and 35 cM.  Using the “Segment Search” tool on GEDmatch Tier1 (this was previously known as “Matching Segments Search”), I was able to see other people who match those specific segments. Most of my larger segments of interest had few outside matches, but I wrote to the matches where I could and none of them knew anything helpful.

Robbie

While reviewing my Family Tree DNA match alerts, I found Robbie from Chattanooga Tennessee. Robbie showed matches with my father’s sister, my second cousin Susan, my brother, one of my sisters and me – and Shabtai. The match was 19-21 cM on chromosome 21 (where our segment with Shabtai is only 23 cM) and clearly showed that Robbie had a common ancestor with Regina Bauer. It is his only match with us. I asked Robbie about his ancestry, but he is adopted, so could not tell me anything.

But this is only half the story.  Here is Robbie’s full match with us on chromosome 21.

In addition to the six Bauer descendants, he matches three of my cousins on my father’s paternal side – Pinchas, Rhoda and Roz. Rhoda and Roz are my second cousins, first cousins to one another. Pinchas is our third cousin.  But it’s more complicated than that. Pinchas is a third cousin of Roz and Rhoda on a second path that has nothing to do with the Pikholz family. That second path is almost certainly what is in play here.

The great-grandmothers of Pinchas, Rhoda and Roz are the sisters Beile and Jutte Zwiebel and their mother is Ester Chava Lewinter. The Zwiebels and the Lewinters are from the Tarnopol area of east Galicia and have nothing to do with anything Hungarian, since 1800. Nonetheless, the three of them triangulate with the six Bauers – everyone matches everyone else on this segment.

This is a classic case of Jewish endogamy, where my Hungarian family and my Galician cousins have some sort of common ancestor. Maybe on the Bauer side, maybe on the Stern side. Maybe on the Zwiebel side, maybe on the Lewinter side. Who knows! But a common ancestor there is – recent enough that the match between the groups survives yet far enough in the past that it predates the known geography of the families. The fact that Robbie has only this one segment with us sounds like it is further back than the 20 cM segment might otherwise indicate.

We have no cousins of either Regina Bauer or Beile and Jutte Zwiebel, so we cannot determine whether our segment 21 comes from their fathers’ sides or their mothers’ sides.

The Other Matches

Recently I went back to the Segment Search tool on GEDmatch Tier1 to see who else matches on that segment. There are about three dozen who match our chromosome 21 with more than 12 cM. Five of those have a match of 18.0-18.2 cM and another’s match is 16.8 cM. The rest are 12.0-15.1 cM. Robbie’s match of 19.3 cM is still the largest. A few of them are managed by people I know as researchers – or even know personally. A few are related to one another. By and large, these are kits that – like Robbie’s – don’t have significant matches with us outside of chromosome 21.

I wrote to all of them. Fifteen responded.

One – Andrew – has a Bauer grandmother. He writes:

My line of the Bauer family, and most likely yours too, originated from Moravia, and from there Northern Hungary (what is now Slovakia), particularly in Hluboka, Nyitra County. In the early 19^th century, there was a great movement of Jews (and also Slovaks, or Tóts) to south-eastern Hungary, where more opportunities opened up at that time. Your Bauers were not that far there from  my Bauers, they may have visited each other, but how they were related, I don’t know; perhaps you can find out. I have looked at your Kunszentmiklos Bauer database, many names are similar to my list, but they are clearly not the same people.

Regina Bauer spoke German, in addition to Hungarian, so there may be something to this. And if it is real, it may or may not include chromosome 21.

 Andrew has no Bauer candidate for a Y-DNA test, so we cannot compare his line to mine.

Another match is the daughter of a woman named Zendel and suggests a similarity to Zwiebel. I don’t think so.

Another dozen said they did not have any of the seven surnames on my side or any geography of real interest. The rest of the matches never replied.

Nava

Last week, I received a note from a woman named Nava, with whom I had corresponded earlier about chromosome 21. Nava's match to us on chromosome 21 is small, about 10 cM with Robbie and a bit smaller with my six Bauers. It does not match Pinchas, Rhoda and Roz who start a bit further to the right on this segment, but that does not bother me.

Nava writes:

I've built out much more of my family tree since we communicated last, at which point I was just beginning the research. I took a look again at the info you shared in your email and have noticed a possible connection. 

I've followed my mother's line back to my great-great-grandmother. Her name was Szara Hercz, born 1830 in Berczalja, Saros, Kingdom of Hungary (current-day Slovakia). I wonder if that could be the link we share on your Hungarian branch as you mentioned the name Hercz? She married Saja Czigler (born 1829) and their daughter, Anna (b. 1859) emigrated to the states in 1892. One of her daughters was my great-grandmother, Blanche Zuckerman, who died in New York when I was a child.

So perhaps this segment come from a common Hercz family. Or not. Our relevant towns are 156 miles apart which proves nothing one way or another. (Actually, her Hercz family lived quite near my great-grandFATHER's family.)

Nava has no one with an MtDNA line to her second great-grandmother so the fact that I have one to my fourth great-grandmother (H10a1b). 

Nava has no matches with our six Bauers (or Robbie) over 10 cM on any other segment, though she does have a small match with my brother and my cousin Susan on the same segment.Of course, that needn't be from the same ancestor as the one on Chromosome 21.

This brick wall will fall

How, I don’t know. More testers, more patience by me, more DNA analysis tools – for the DNA itself and for the test results – more older records, more traditional genealogy research to find additional descendants of these families, even cleaning up the Kunszentmiklos cemetery.

When, I don’t know that either. I’d like to think it will be in my lifetime.

For now I need to keep shining a light on this corner of my family genome. We never know what will prompt a breakthrough.

But this brick wall will give up its secrets.

Israel Pickholtz is a US-born professional genealogist who has been living in Israel for forty-six years. His flagship work is The Pikholz Project, which means to identify and reconnect all Pikholz descendants. He blogs at http://allmyforeparents.blogspot.com, writes and speaks on genealogy in Israel and abroad as the opportunities arise and is a member of the Israel Genealogical Society, Gesher Galicia, the Guild of One-Name Studies and a number of SIGs and research groups and a two-time alumnus of the Genealogy Research Institute of Pittsburgh. In 2015 he published his book "ENDOGAMY: One Family, One People" about his successes with DNA and lessons that are relevant to all genetic research. He has recently relocated from Jerusalem to Ashkelon and can be contacted at IsraelP@pikholz.org .

Where Are All The Sterns From Kalocsa?

Eleonora Stern, wife of Ahron Schiffer

Bluma
After visiting the old cemetery in Kalocsa Hungary the week before last and finding several Stern graves, including my third-great-grandparents, I decided to see what Jewish vital records are available for the town.

I was particularly interested in the death record for my third-great-grandmother Barbola (Bluma) Grunwald, the wife of Salamon (Zelig) Stern. At least I thought she was my 3-g-gm. Fani (Feige) Stern Bauer's mother could have been someone else and this woman a second wife. There are, after all, no records before 1850 and Feige was born in 1841. For that I needed additional information.

It turns out that Family Search has birth, death and marriage records for Kalocsa for the period 1850-1895, on line and at no charge. The film number is 624855.

I found the death record for Bluma Grunwald easily enough because the tombstone itself gave me the date of death.

The record is on the second line. She is listed as Grunwald with no mention of her husband's surname Stern

She died of "exhaustion" at age eighty, a widow originally from Perkat. Her death was 27 January 1887 and she was buried the next day. Her parents are Jakob Grunwald and Fani Hercz. My fourth-great-grandparents? I think so. My 2-g-gm is Fani like Bluma's mother.

Salamon's children
I spent several days downloading the whole set of records from Family Search and reviewing them. We knew that Salomon Stern (assuming there is only one!) had a daughter Fani (~1841), a daughter Sali (1851) and a son Wilhelm (1853) but nothing else. The first breakthrough came with the marriage records, which all have age and father's name. Here are Salamon's children as they appear in the marriage records.

• Fani Stern, age 21, married Simon Bauer in February 1862 - my second g-gm.
• Sophie Stern, age 20, married Avroham (Adolf) Schein in June 1863.
• Michael Stern, age 24, married Leni Braun in December 1868.
• Ignatz Stern, age 31, married Beti Schneider in April 1871.
• Rosalia Stern, age 20, married Joseph Spitzer in May 1871.

The age for Roslia fits Sali.

I had now identified two children between Fani and Sali and became much more comfortable claiming Bluma as the mother of all of them. Still, there is a break of seven years between Michael and Sali/Rosalia.

There are eight other Stern marriages, including Fani, the daughter of Michael, in 1892. Four others are children of Ahron Stern who is about fifteen years younger than Salamon and could be his brother or nephew. The others are children of "M. Hersch" and David.

So based on a family of six children, I went through the birth and death records. Wilhelm had died at age three.

Salamon Stern [Zelig] b. Abt 1805, Paks, m. Barbala (Beti) Grunwald, [Bluma] b. Abt 1806,

Perkata, (daughter of Jakob Grunwald and Fani Hercz) d. 27 Jan 1887, 2 Shevat 5647, buried

Kalocsa.  Salomon died 6 May 1862, 6 Iyyar 5622, buried Kalocsa.

I.   Ignatz Stern [Izak Leib] b. Abt 1840, Kalocsa, m. 20 Apr 1871, in Kalocsa, Beti

Schneider, [Bluma] b. Abt 1842.

A.   Hermina Stern b. 15 Mar 1872, Kalocsa.

B.   Salomon Stern [Zelig] b. 3 Nov 1873, Kalocsa.

C.   Rosi Stern [Rivka] b. 11 Sep 1875, Kalocsa, d. note.

D.   Josefina Stern [Frumat] b. 26 Dec 1876, Kalocsa.

E.   Izidor Stern [??????] b. 9 Jan 1880, Kalocsa.

F.   Matias Stern [Menahem Mendel] b. 31 Mar 1882, Kalocsa.

G.   Jolan Stern [Chana] b. 20 Dec 1884, Kalocsa.

II.  Fani Stern [Feige] b. 1842, Kalocsa HUNGARY, m. 20 Jan 1862, in Kalocsa HUNGARY,

Simon Bauer, [Shemaya] b. 1833, Kunszentmiklos HUNGARY, (son of Lasar Bauer and WOMAN

xXxXx) d. 20 Jul 1902, 15-16 Tammuz 5662, buried Kunszentmiklos HUNGARY.  Fani died

16 Mar 1911, 16-17 Adar 5671, buried Kunszentmiklos HUNGARY.

A.   Ilona Bauer [Dobrisch] b. 1 Jan 1863, Kunszentmiklos HUNGARY, m. Lipot Wiesel.

Ilona died 21 Aug 1893.

B.   Sigmund Bauer [Yehoshua] b. 28 Feb 1865, m. Rozsi Stern, [Sherl] b. Abt 1873, d.

29 Jul 1928, 13 Av 5688, buried Neolog Cemetery Budapest.  Sigmund died 29 Apr

1938, 28-29 Nisan 5698, buried Budapest HUNGARY.

C.   Regina Bauer [Rivka] b. 1 Jul 1870, Kunszentmiklos HUNGARY, m. 8 May 1890, in

Kunszentmiklos HUNGARY, Moritz Rosenzweig, [Moshe] b. 26 Nov 1858, Domanis

SLOVAKIA, (son of Isaak Leib (Ignacz) Rosenzweig and Mari Zelinka) d. 1/2 Nov

1928, 19 Heshvan 5689, buried (photo), Pittsburgh PA (Poale Zedeck-Sheraden).

Regina died 5 Sep 1950, 23 Elul 5710, buried (photo), Pittsburgh PA (Poale

Zedeck-Sheraden).

D.   Louisa Bauer [Leah] b. 1 May 1873, Kunszentmiklos HUNGARY, m. (1) Mano Steiner,

[Menasche] d. YES, m. (2) Christopher Andrea, d. YES.  Louisa died 8 Dec 1951, 9

Kislev 5712, buried Troy Hill, Reserve Twp, Pittsburgh.

E.   Lajos Bauer [Eliezer?] b. 3 Mar 1875, Kunszentmiklos HUNGARY, d. 17 Jul 1917,

17-18 Tammuz 5677, buried Kunszentmiklos HUNGARY.

F.   Hermina Bauer b. 31 Mar 1877, Kunszentmiklos HUNGARY, killed in the Shoah

G.   Zsuzsanna Bauer b. 28 May 1884, Kunszentmiklos HUNGARY, killed in the Shoah.

III. Sophie Stern [Scheindel] b. Abt 1843, Kalocsa, m. 17 Jun 1863, in Kalocsa, Adolph

Schein, [Avroham] b. Abt 1840, Rigiza Hungary?.  Sophie died note.

A.   Stillborn b. 10 Jun 1870, Kalocsa.

B.   Isidor Schein [Israel] b. 21 Aug 1871, Kalocsa.

C.   Dezso Schein [David] b. 9 Sep 1874, Kalocsa.

D.   Szilard Schein [?????] b. 10 May 1878, Kalocsa, d. 24 Apr 1886, 19 Nisan 5646,

buried Kalocsa.

E.   Salomon Schein [Yehoshua Zelig] b. 23 Feb 1880, Kalocsa.

IV.  Michael Stern b. Abt 1844, Kalocsa, m. 2 Dec 1868, in Kalocsa, Leni Braun, b. Abt 1848

A.   Fani Stern b. 9 Sep 1869, Kalocsa, m. 15 May 1892, in Kalocsa, Ignacz

Sonnenschein, b. Abt 1866.

B.   Scharlota Stern [Scheindel] b. 24 Sep 1870, Kalocsa.

C.   Salomon Stern [Zelig] b. 9 Oct 1871, Kalocsa, d. note?.

D.   Rosa Stern [Rivka] b. 9 Jun 1875, Kalocsa.

V.   Rosalia (Sali) Stern [Sharl] b. 20 Feb 1851, Kalocsa, m. 29 May 1871, in Kalocsa,

Joseph Spitzer, [Yosef] b. Abt 1844.

A.   Neti Spitzer [Esther] b. 4 Mar 1872, Kalocsa, m. 16 Dec 1888, in Kalocsa, Nachem

Friedman, [Nahum]

B.   Siga Stern [Yehoshua Zelig] b. 19 Jun 1876, Kalocsa.

C.   Mari Stern [Miriam] b. 15 Apr 1878, Kalocsa.

D.   Rozsa Stern [Rivka] b. 10 Oct 1880, Kalocsa.

E.   Ilona Stern [Leah] b. 10 Aug 1882, Kalocsa, d. 11 Aug 1887, 21 Av 5647, buried Kalocsa

F.   Zsofie Stern [Scheindel] b. 22 Mar 1885, Kalocsa.

G.   Mihaly Stern [YomTov Yehiel] b. 25 Jun 1889, Kalocsa.

VI.  Wilhelm Stern b. 2 Feb 1853, Kalocsa, d. 30 Jun 1856, 27 Sivan 5616, buried Kalocsa.

Regina in red is my great-grandmother and Sigmund in blue is Cousin Shabtai's grandfather.

Salamon as Zelig
As I wrote last week, Salamon's tombstone gives his Jewish name as Zelig, and Bluma's identifies her as "the wife of Zelig Stern." Ignatz and Michael named their first sons Salomon with the Jewish name Zelig. Sali Spitzer named her first son Siga (a form of Sigmund) with the Jewish name Yehoshua (=Joshua) Zelig and Fani's first son Sigmund was Yehoshua. Sofie Schein's youngest is Salomon and Yehoshua Zelig.

And my great-grandmother Regina Stern Bauer named her first son Sigmund and Zelig.

As I mentioned last week in a different context, Zelig is the Yiddish kinui (=nickname) for Asher. But it's not so simple. My friend Rabbi Dovid Shapiro tells me that the book on names, the Beis Shmuel, gives Zelig as an official kinui for Yitzhak, Yaakov, Reuven, Yehudah, Asher, Pinchas, Yehoshua, Yekutiel, Gershon, Chaim, Azriel, Nathan and a few more. Truly a multi-purpose nickname.

So it appears that my 3-g-gf was Zelig based on Yehoshua and his grandsons were given one or both of these Jewish names, with secular names Salomon or Sigmund.

I would like to see Shabtai's grandfather's tombstone in Budapest. Perhaps he too has both names.

Some of the other Sterns used these names at the same time and they too may be grandchildren of our Salomon/Zelig. Or nephews.

The other Sterns in Kalocsa
What about the scores or other Sterns in those Kalocsa records? Some are clearly identified families. Ahron and his wife Fani Kramer had nine children and I have identified fourteen grandchildren. But perhaps Anton Stern, with nine children, is also a son of Ahron. And others - Beti Weisz, for instance, may be from our Salomon.

Birth record with three given names

The incomplete information, the repeated given names and the various nicknames makes it hard to know. Answers may lie in the post-1895 records, particularly the deaths.(I actually have sixty pages of those, but very poor quality.)

Here is what I have recorded.

I.   M. Hersch Stern m. WOMAN.

A.   Jakob Stern m. Rosi Straser.

1.   Wilhelm Stern b. 12 Apr 1855, Kalocsa.

2.   Joachim Leopold Stern b. 15 Mar 1857, Kalocsa, d. 1912.

3.   Emanuel Stern b. 1 Nov 1860, Kalocsa.

4.   Maximilian Stern [Meir ???] b. 1863, d. 1 Nov 1863, 19 Heshvan 5624, buried Kalocsa

B.   Leopold Stern m. 2 Dec 1868, in Kalocsa, Mari Schiffer, (daughter of Aharon

Schifer and Eleonora (Leni) Stern).

1.   Mikal Stern [Yehiel Michel] b. 4 Jul 1870, Kalocsa.

2.   Gisela Stern [Gittel] b. 27 Dec 1871, Kalocsa, d. 9 Sep 1873, Elul, buried Kalocsa

3.   Rosa Stern b. 31 Dec 1873, Kalocsa.

II.  Aharon Stern b. Abt 1821, m. Fani Kramer, b. Abt 1829, d. 2 Jan 1892, buried Kalocsa.

Aharon died 16 Aug 1873, buried Kalocsa.

A.   Rosalia Stern [Sharl] b. Abt 1853, m. 19 Feb 1877, in Kalocsa, Samuel Salomon [Shelomo]

1.   Adolf Salomon [Aharon] b. 22 Nov 1877, Kalocsa.

2.   Sandor Zsiga Salomon [Yehoshua] b. 11 Sep 1879, Kalocsa.

3.   Bercsi Salomon [Issachar] b. 25 Apr 1882, Kalocsa.

4.   Rozsa Salomon [Rachel] b. 25 Mar 1885, Kalocsa.

5.   stillborn son b. 26 Apr 1888, Kalocsa.

6.   Mariska Salomon [Yenta] b. 29 Apr 1889, Kalocsa.

B.   Hani (Johanna) Stern [Chana] b. 15 Dec 1856, Kalocsa, m. 12 Mar 1884, in

Kalocsaa, Jakob Gamsz, [Yaakov]

1.   Armin Gamsz [Aharon] b. 5 Dec 1884, Kalocsa.

2.   Rozsa Gamsz [Rachel] b. 10 May 1886, Kalocsa.

3.   Orzse Gamsz [Esther] b. 24 Mar 1889, Kalocsa.

4.   Berta Gamsz [Deicha??] b. 4 Mar 1890, Kalocsa.

5.   Ferencz Gamsz [UriShraga (Feiv] b. 21 Jun 1894, Kalocsa, d. 16 Jul 1894,

buried Kalocsa.

C.   Pepi Stern m. 4 Aug 1890, in Kalocsa, Fulop Schwarcz.

1.   Vilmos Schwarcz [Binyamin Zeev] b. 20 Jun 1891, Kalocsa.

2.   Nandor Schwarcz b. 28 Mar 1893, Kalocsa.

D.   Julie Stern m. 25 Jun 1870, in Kalocsa, Joseph Friedman.

E.   Leni Stern b. 19 Jan 1859, Kalocsa, d. 16 Feb 1859, 12 Adar 5619, buried Kalocsa

F.   Bernad Stern b. 25 Mar 1860, Kalocsa, m. Regina Ullman.          1.  Berta Stern [Beila] b. 3 Jun 1885, Kalocsa.

G.   Rosi Stern b. 4 Dec 1862, Kalocsa.

H.   Simon Stern [Shimshon] b. 14 Jan 1865, Kalocsa, d. 0114 1865, buried Kalocsa.

I.   Kati Stern b. 21 Mar 1866, Kalocsa, d. 2 Mar 1868, buried Kalocsa.

III. Simon Stern m. WOMAN.

A.   Mari Stern [Mindel] b. Abt 1814, m. Jakob Engel, b. Abt 1816, d. 23 Nov 1882.

Mari died 8 Dec 1872, 6 Kislev 5633, buried Kalocsa.

1.   Szali Engel b. Abt 1847, m. Fulop Klein.  Szali died 17 Nov 1892, buried Kalocsa

IV.  David Stern m. Fani Breuer.

A.   Vilmos Stern [Binyamin Zeev] b. Abt 1870, m. Hani Roth, [Hindel]

1.   Regina Stern [Rivka] b. 4 Aug 1891, Kalocsa.

2.   Helen Stern b. 1 Jun 1893, Kalocsa.

V.   Eleonora (Leni) Stern [Leah] m. Aharon Schifer, b. Abt 1821, d. 9 Oct 1887, buried Kalocsa

A.   Mari Schiffer m. 2 Dec 1868, in Kalocsa, Leopold Stern, (son of M. Hersch Stern

and WOMAN).

1.   (see children above in purple).

B.   Jacob Schifer b. 21 Apr 1851, Kalocsa.

C.   Josef Schifer b. 26 Apr 1855, Kalocsa.

D.   Ignatz Leopold Schifer b. 6 Aug 1857, Kalocsa.

E.   Emanuel Schifer b. 12 Mar 1861, Kalocsa.

F.   Rosi Schiffer b. 16 Sep 1862, Kalocsa.

G.   Salomon Schiffer b. 17 Mar 1865, Kalocsa.

H.   Abroham Schoffer b. 17 Mar 1865, Kalocsa.

VI.  Beti Stern m. Leopold Weisz.

A.   Fani Weisz b. 1 Oct 1851, Kalocsa.

B.   Bernhad Weisz b. 24 Dec 1856, Kalocsa.

C.   Abraham Weisz b. 18 May 1859, Kalocsa.

D.   Salomon Zsiga Weisz [Zelig] b. 6 Nov 1862, Kalocsa.

E.   Ida Weisz b. 2 Apr 1868, Kalocsa.

F.   Ignatz Gustav Weisz [Yehudah] b. 7081871, Kalocsa, d. 1896?.

G.   Isidor Weisz [Israel] b. 26 Jan 1874, Kalocsa.

VII. Joseph Stern m. Cilli Grunspan.

A.   Philip Stern [Lipa?] b. 11 Aug 1864, Kalocsa.

VIII Juli Stern m. Lowy Braun.

A.   Gesa Braun [Eliezer?] b. 20 Oct 1865, Kalocsa, d. Maybe 188?.

B.   Ilka Braun b. 31 Aug 1868, Kalocsa.

C.   Arpad Braun b. 30 Nov 1870, Kalocsa.

IX.  Anton Stern [Naftali] m. Neti Reh, [Esther]

A.   Rosi Stern [Shifra] b. 16 Mar 1876, Kalocsa.

B.   Adolf Stern [Aharon] b. 3 Oct 1877, Kalocsa.

C.   Bela Stern [Issachar Dov] b. 31 May 1879, Kalocsa, d. 3 Aug 1879, buried Kalocsa

D.   Margit Stern [Miriam] b. 3 Jun 1880, Kalocsa.

E.   Markus Stern [Meir] b. 30 Nov 1881, Kalocsa.

F.   Lajos (Lazar) Stern [Eliezer] b. 26 Apr 1883, Kalocsa.

G.   Imre Stern [Meir?] b. 21 Sep 1884, Kalocsa, d. 13 Sep 1885, buried Kalocsa

H.   Jolan Stern [Yentel] b. 20 May 1886, Kalocsa.

I.     Malvin Stern [Miriam] b. 24 May 1889, Kalocsa.

X.   Helene Stern [Leah] m. Joseph Strasser, [Yosef Zvi]

A.   Emil Strasser [Yehiel Michel] b. 9 Sep 1876, Kalocsa.

B.   Scharlota Strasser [Charna] b. 9 Sep 1876, Kalocsa.

XI.  Sigmund Stern [?????] m. Nina Czabel.

A.   Rozalia Stern [Sarah] b. 29 Nov 1878, Kalocsa.

XII. Mathilda Stern [Miriam] m. Salomon Schwartz, [Shalom?]

A.   Scharlota Schwartz [Charna] b. 1 Jan 1888, Kalocsa.

XIII Wilmos Stern m. Emilia Steiner.

A.   Wilma Stern [Feige??] b. 4 May 1881, Kalocsa.

XIV. Mari Stern [Miriam] m. Ignatz Klein, [Yitzhak]

A.   Bela Klein [Binyamin] b. 27 Dec 1881, Kalocsa.

B.   Riza Klein [Reizel Leah] b. 18 Feb 1884, Kalocsa.

C.   Moritz Klein [Meir] b. 16 Dec 1884, Kalocsa.

D.   Salamon Sandor Klein b. 23 Jan 1877, Kalocsa.

XV.  Salamon Stern [Shelomo Zvi] m. Johanna Silberberger, [Chana]

A.   Ilonka Stern [Gittel] b. 27 Feb 1888, Kalocsa.

XVI Johanna Stern m. Salamon Zilberberg.

A.   Riza Zilberberg [Rivka] b. 20 Feb 1891, Kalocsa.

XVII Eugenia Stern m. MAN.

A.   Margit Stern b. 24 Aug 1895, Kalocsa.

XVIII. Mozes Stern m. Rozalia Braun.

A.   Hani Stern b. Abt 1880, d. 18 Jul 1886, buried Kalocsa.

XIX.  Rosa Stern b. Abt 1860, d. 23 Feb 1877, buried Kalocsa.

XX. Hanni Stern b. Abt 1842, d. 6 Sep 1884.

So what happened to all these people?  Where are their descendants? WHO are their descendats?

The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names at Yad Vashem has almost no Sterns from Kalocsa. Most of their Kalocsa victims are from "lists of murdered Jews" not the more anecdotal Pages of Testimony.  So if they were killed in the Shoah, they should be represented there.

Steve Morse's gold page shows no Stern at Ellis Island among sixty-three Kalocsa entries.

The JewishGen Family Finder has ninety researchers for Stern from Hungary, but only one besides me has registered Kalocsa. He has also registered Paks, where our Salamon was born. And he has logged in recently. Looks promising. I'll contact him with a link to this post.

There is also one person who recently listed Sterns from Paks and Kalocsa at the Family Tree of the Jewish People. That is another good place to start.

There are some records cited in the H-SIG database but some of them are not clear and I have not recorded them.

There is obviously a lot of work to be done but putting it online with some social media magic may get the ball rolling.


Housekeeping notes

Skalat memorial
The annual Skalat memorial at the Holon Cemetery outside Tel-Aviv is generally the day after Shavuot - this year Thursday the first of June. I have not yet been notified of the time, but it is usually five o'clock or five-thirty. Watch this space for the time.

Coming presentations in Israel
I am giving two presentations here in Israel in the coming weeks.

4 June 2017, 7:00 PM – IGS “Shorashim BaGalil” Kiryat Tivon, Library and Memorial Center, Migdal 2

and

19 June 2017, 6:30 PM – IGS Rishon Lezion, Museum of Rishon Lezion, Ahad Ha’am 2.

Both are the Hebrew version of
Lessons in Jewish DNA – One Man’s Successes and What He Learned On the Journey

Presentations in Orlando
I have now signed up introducers for all four of my presentations at the IAJGS Conference in Orlando 23-17 July. Two of them are people I have never met - but they are Pikholz descendants, one from Skalat and one from Rozdol.