The younger generation of Jews from the growing cities of Austrian Galicia in the 1880s were the first in their familes to aspire to somethiing other than traditional shtetl life. Schija Ringel came from the streets of the Jewish neighborhood of Rzeszow, able to seek his fortune in Germany's capital city. Fiega Kaufler did much the same in more modest fashion. She came from Krakow to Berlin to work as a housemaid. Schija and Fiega wed in 1890. Their eldest of three children was our grandfather Hermann Ringel.
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Ringel Roots in Galicia
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October 24, 2018 - 08:30
Until now, we didn't have much information about Hermann Ringel's sister Betty. We knew about Rosa Ringel Shatner, the mother of Zeev, who died with her daughter Margot after a roundup in Belgrade. We knew Betty had two daughters, Edith and Gena, who later lived in London.
Today I was searching in the Yad Vashem database in order to mention it in my article, Searching on Ringel and Rzeszow, the eleven matching records included one name, Zierel Apfelbaum, that was familiar to me, and another, Betty Twiasschlor, that just seemed weird. I checked up on Zierel and saw she was a daughter of Schija Ringel's brother Judah, thus Hermann's first cousin. She also came to Berlin and married Josef Apfelbaum. She was deported from Berlin 9/27/1942 and perished at Auschwitz.
At first I paid no attention to... more
July 11, 2009 - 22:55
Shalom, It is Danny here adding my deep sympathies for all of Ze'ev's wonderful family. I regret that I have not visited you in all these many years and that I did not renew my connection with Ze'ev before his passing.
One small contribution I can make is to review some of the knowledge of the Ringel family history that I gained during my research project into our family roots. Sad to say, that work has been on hold for most of the past year, but this solemn occasion might be the catalyst for me to take up that work again, just as our initial project was set in motion by the deaths of parents, Helga and Stan.
So here is some of what we learned: Ze'ev's grandparents on his mother's side were Schija Ringel (1856-?) and Feigla Kauffler (1854-1921). Schija was a merchant who had came to Berlin from... more
August 21, 2008 - 10:20
Continuing to focus on interactions at the conference directly relevant to our search (as opposed to sessions and discussions that were merely interesting), I'll mention the Tuesday morning meeting of the Rzeszow Research Group.
First of all, 20 lashes with a wet noodle — I need to work on my Polish pronounciation. It is voiced something like zhe-shov—there is not 'R' sound at all. Marian Rubin, the helpful leader of the group who had recently supplied me with photocopies of some of our Ringel birth records, teased me good-naturedly about my typical newbie's error.
She introduced me to Eden Joachim, a leader of the JRI-Poland SIG (later I learned also of the Litvak SIG) who was JRI-P's liaison to the Rzeszow group. Also in attendance were a dozen or so others with family from the town, including... more
July 25, 2008 - 00:27
The hits keep on coming. Marian Rubin's package arrived today with four printouts of Ringel birth records from the Rzeszow archives. I'll have some comments about this later. For now, feast your eyes on the June 13, 1856 birth record of another of our great grandparents, Schija Ringel, the man who would later move to Berlin, marry Feigla Kaufler, and raise three children, Hermann, Rosa, and Bette Ringel.
Schija's record is highlighted. Click to enlarge.
July 24, 2008 - 11:04
Schulim Kaufler was born in 1798 or 1799, son of Izaak and Beili (Bayla) Kaufler. He married Reisel Bluma Singlust in 1825 (see their marriage record in a previous post). They were very prolific, producing 10 children, including Abraham Mojzesz Kaufler, their third. Abraham was the father of Feigla, our great grandmother.
Schulim passed away in 1847 at age 48 or 49. Here is his death record.
July 24, 2008 - 10:41
Bayla, also called Beili in some records, goes way, way back. She is Feigla's great-grandmother, thus our GGGG grandmother. She was born in 1773, married Izaak Kaufler, had four children including Schulim Kaufler, and she died at age 58 in 1831.
Here is her death certificate, full size and detail.
... more
July 24, 2008 - 10:33
This is from June 20, 1825. Separately, there is also a marriage bann (a pre-marriage legal announcement) that I am not posting for now. The marriage record fills a full ledger page, as opposed to birth and death records that are partial pages.
The complete page appears first, followed by a detail section with the names of the bride and groom highlighted.
... more
July 24, 2008 - 09:49
Yesterday was another red-letter day for me, so I want to get some updates in here before other news arrives. I have to hurry, because there is lots to do today for Festival Preview.
Okay, first in the morning I got email from Marian Rubin of the Rzeszow Research Group that she has some of our Ringel birth records, including Schija's, and that she is making copies and sending them to me by mail. She warns in advance there is no new information beyond what is in the index data we have already seen. Even so, it will be exciting to have images of those records. I'll wait to discuss them in more detail after Marian's mail arrives.
Next came a delivery from Alibris.com of a book I had ordered, Ethical Wills: A Modern Jewish Treasury. I was thrilled to finally read the words written for posterity by... more
July 10, 2008 - 23:18
It was a big day today. I will save the most exciting news for the next post. First I want to report on a further exchange I had with Dan Hirschberg, the Krakow historian whose work led us to a trove of information about the family of our great grandmother Feigla Kaufler.
After Achikam Finkel used Geni recently to update information on the family of our mother's first cousin Zeev Sharon, I thought I should pass that information along to Hirschberg. He tracks all the descendants of Krakow Jewish families until 1945. So I wrote to him with the information that Feigla's daughter Rose Ringle's husband was named David Shatner. Also, that the surname of Rose's son Ze'ev's wife Penina was Dorfman.
Dan wastes no time. Within minutes, he replied that his Kaufler family page has been updated with the new... more
July 4, 2008 - 09:10
I'm very far behind in blogging. A lot has happened that I will try to fill in while I begin to catch up. One angle is that I have begun to order facsimile documents of existing vital records where available. The first of these has arrived: It is the Polish language document from 1854 that records the birth in Krakow of Feigla Kaufler, the mother of our grandfather Hermann Ringel.
I'll do my best to display the document in the confines of this blog. Here is a view of an entire ledger page that includes three birth records. Feigla's is the second entry, number 188.
June 11, 2008 - 23:41
Yay! This is the first time one of our names has matched someone else's family tree. After my nice find of Schija Ringel's family in Rzeszow, I thought I would see what more I could dig up on the Kauflers of Krakow.
As noted from a few days ago, I had already found the birth record for Feigla Kaufler. This time I did an ordinary Google search on kaufler, and, lo and behold, I hit the mother lode. A gentleman named Dan Hirschberg has done a tremendous service by compiling extensive family trees for 600 Jewish families from Krakow, including the Kauflers.
According to Hirschberg's research, the family name goes back to a Nachman Kaufler, born 1755. Yes, 1755. That is as far back as we have traced any branch of our family. Nachman's son Izaak (born between 1771 and 1775) married Beili (1773-1831,... more
June 11, 2008 - 23:08
Rzeszow 1835,41-1866 Births
Lwow Wojewodztwa / Rzeszow Province
Located at 50°03’ 22°00’
Last updated February 2001
Surname Givenname Year Type Akt Page Sex Father Mother Mothersurn Date Witness House Town Died Comments
RINGEL Jermias 1845 B 2 22 Hirsch Beile unknown illegible
RINGEL Golde 1849 B 18 40 Hirsch Beile unknown 2
RINGEL Schija 1856 B 9 80 Mos. Rose blank 299
RINGEL Juda 1859 B 10 105 M Moses Rose Lea REICHMAN 16-Feb-1859 299
RINGEL Hirsch Löb 1860 B 11 119 Abraham Witte KLEPEL 48
RINGEL Jakob Schia 1861 B 5 140 Moses Lea REICHMAN 299
RINGEL Reisel 1864 B 2 193 Hersch Rose REICHMAN 441
RINGEL Basze Sure 1866-1876 B 383 1870 55 F Moses RINGEL Roise REICHMAN... more
June 5, 2008 - 16:56
Krakow Births 1798-1855,71-89
Krakow Wojewodztwa / Krakow Province
Surname Givenname Year Type Akt Film Indexfilm Date House
KAUFLER Feigla 1854 B 188 718917
The right name, location and year. Photocopies can be obtained from a collection in Israel, and I sent in an order.
June 3, 2008 - 07:36
I should have posted this in March, but better late than never.
The German translator came through and we now have more information about Hermann's parents, including something unexpected. Here are the highlights:
Hermann Ringel's birth record shows he was born November 5, 1885 in Berlin, that his parents were Schija Ringel and Feigel Kaufler. Kaufler was Ringel's unmarried Jewish housekeeper. A notation on the birth record from two and a half years later indicates that Schija and Feigel married on July 2, 1888.
Feigel's death certificate from November 28, 1921 (three years before her granddaughter Helga's birth), describes her as 67 years old, a shopkeeper, born in Krakow and residing at the same address in Lothringstrasse as her son Hermann.
Hermann's death record from June 25,... more
