Ringels of Rzeszow

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

I know it is hard to read because the columns don't align, but of the various Ringels here, Hermann Ringel's father Schija is shown in this index of the LDS microfilm records to have been born in 1856. His parents were Moses Ringel and Rose Lea Ringel (nee Reichman) and he had siblings Juda, Jakob, Reisel and Basze Sure.

Actually, there is a mystery here in that Reisel Ringel appears to have the same mother but different father from the other three. First I thought Moses might have died and she remarried before having her third child, but then Moses is back as the father of the fourth child. Something to figure out.

I learned that I can obtain copies of these and any LDS records where we have the index listings by visiting an LDS family history center, such as the one nearby here in the Oakland hills. I have meant to visit there for some time, but now I have a concrete reason to go.

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 Isaac Elchanon Spektor in 1888, but found an even greater treat elsewhere in the book. I will report in the next post.

In the evening, I visited the Mormon Family Research Center again, ready to locate and scan images of the Kaufler family vital records (described here in previous messages—use the label tags at right to find related posts). There are quite a few records to capture, so here I focused on a few "high-value targets."

The following images include the 1825 marriage certificate of Feigla Kaufler's grandparents, Schulim Kaufler and Reisel Bluma Singlust; the 1831 death record for Schulim's mother Bayla (also Beili), who was born the daughter of Abraham in 1773; and Schulim's own death certificate from 1847. All of those mentioned are our direct ancestors.

In each case, I will show the full size image and one or more detail sections of the image. Note that these are second-generation scans. I printed them at the LDS and scanned them at home—next time I will bring a thumb drive with me to the temple and save the scans directly, so the quality will get better when I redo them next time. But these are good enough to post now.

To keep things manageable, I will post the images in separate posts.

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.

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 several members of the extended Reich family who produced famous relations both in Rzeszow and in the U.S. (one example is former Cabinet secretary Robert Reich).

Also in the meeting was Logan Kleinwaks, whom I wrote about in an earlier post. In conversation, Logan said he had some Ringel members from a nearby town in his family, so I will want to follow that up later. Also, on the Reich thing, I didn't remember until later that Schija Ringel's mother had the maiden name Reichman. I wonder if there is a connection.

The meat of the meeting was Marian's report, with frequent amplifications from Eden, on the status of Rzeszow records availability. The gist is this: I probably have all the birth and death records that are available, but there is a slew of census data from various 18th, 19th and 20th century years that should contain Ringel family information.

There is a very formal process for obtaining the census data supplied usefully in the from of Excel spreadsheets, and it involves money—$180 to be precise—to be paid to JRI to fund the various indexing projects that it manages. That is separate from a mandatory contribution of $150 to obtain 20th century vital records that are available but are of limited interest to us at this time.

I certainly don't begrudge JRI's contribution policy and completely understand the logic behind it. I'll just note that of all the SIGs I have encountered, JRI is the most formal and organized in its pay to play policy. It should be said that it is also the biggest and probably most accomplished of all the JewishGen SIGs.

And, yes, I do want to get my hands on that spreadsheet. I guess my $180 check will be on the way soon.