My 3rd-grandfather Avigdor (or Victor) Grünberg was born in Mezritch, Poland, on 1802-12-10. This is very likely Veliky Mezhyrichi, a village in modern-day Ukraine, known for the its role in the spread of Hasidic Judaism. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velyki_Me…#AncestryHour
Victor moved to Brody, Austria (nowaday Ukraine). His father Aaron and his mother stayed in Mezritch, and it seems they lived in poverty according to Victor's testament. In 1821, Victor married in Brody with Mirel (or Maria) Schorr, daugther of Schachne Schorr. #AncestryHour
Victor and Maria had at least 4 children: Jochwed (maybe the same as Debora/Dorothea?), Jacub, Able/Abraham (or Adolf) and Ahron (or Arnold). In the end of the 1840s, Victor moved with his son Adolf Grünberg to Paris, where they settled as merchants. #AncestryHour
Jewlery trade was going rather well for Victor and Adolphe in 1850. They had a florishing business, and were importing thousands of pearls from Bombay. Then Victor fell sick. In 1851, surrounded by his children and wife, he wrote his testament. #AncestryHour
After Victor's death in the beginning of May 1852, his son Adolphe was in charge of terminating his affairs and took the lead of the jewlery. Maria stayed in Paris with him, while Dorothea and Arnold moved to Vienna. They were, after all, Austrian by nationality. #AncestryHour
This is how this branch of my family came to Paris and settled there for the next 150 years. #AncestryHour
By the way, if you are (or know of) a descendant of Arnold Grünberg or Dorothea Karmin (born Grünberg) from Vienna, I'd love to talk to you! #AncestryHour
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1. I was contacted by a lady who inherited a big pile of letters from ~1889, sent to her ancestor by a teenager friend from Paris. This friend often mentions her neighbor friends in her letters: my ggfather A. Dreyfus and his family.
2. My mom found ~50 letters from 1870-1871, sent from Paris to my ancestor Adolphe Grünberg as he was away with his family during the siege of the city by the Prussians. I only saw 3 letters so far, but it's very promising content!
There are in particular some letters about the children organizing theater plays and operas, with some fun scenes.
🧵 What are some genealogy mysteries you're hoping to solve this year? 🧵
1. I'm hoping to find out what really happened with the Fort Daspoortrand plans in Pretoria during the Boer War in 1900.
When Felix Zottier was found with plans of this fort in his home, he claimed to be the original designer and accused Leon Grunberg of copying his work...
This was never proved, and Zottier fled South Africa shortly after, apparently to Madagascar. I'm hoping I can find out what really happened...
I missed #ancestryhour yesterday as I was busy breaking a wall I've had for months. Thanks to a generous researcher who went through 700+ pages of census to help me find a family, I have now been able to put names on the people in these family pictures.
Better yet, I now know that Léonie Baranger was my great-grand-mother's (who appears on the first picture) cousin (1C1R actually), hence the reason I have this pic.
Next step: find descendants to send them the pictures!