Although I couldn't find out what happened to Bertha Katzenstein Nathan Langebartels, I learned from her naturalization papers that Bertha had had a child with her first husband, Hermann Nathan, named Lotte. Lotte, according to the naturalization petition, was born on May 1, 1915, in Hamburg, Germany. She would have been only eleven years old when her mother and stepfather immigrated to the US in 1926, but she did not come with them.

An update of a seven year old post: Almost seven years ago I wrote about my grandmother Eva Schoenthal Cohen's second cousin, Bertha Katzenstein, the great-granddaughter of Seligmann Goldschmidt, my three-times great-grandfather. Bertha was born on April 23, 1892, in New York City, to Adolf Katzenstein and Bertha Metz, who died less than two weeks after giving birth to her namesake Bertha.

As we saw, Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt's daughters all were killed in the Holocaust. Their son Julius had died as a young man, leaving behind a young widow Julie Rosenblatt and their infant son Fredi. Julie and Fredi escaped to Uruguay, and thanks to Fredi's son Julio, I've been able to learn and share much of their story.

I lost a dear cousin on August 25, 2025, my cousin Sue (Leyner) Wartur (1938-2025). Sue was my third cousin and also my half second cousin, once removed, making us double cousins. Sue’s grandfather Julius Goldfarb was my maternal grandmother’s first cousin. And Sue’s grandmother Ida Hecht Goldfarb was the daughter of Taube Brotman Hecht, my grandmother’s half-sister. Sue and I were doubly bonded by our mutual family trees.

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, starts next week, and I am trying hard to find some way to be optimistic going into the new year, but I have to admit that I am struggling. I won’t go into all the reasons I am in despair about the future of our country and our world. But I think we all can agree that there is far too much anger and hatred out there.

Since it's been a while since I wrote about the Blumenfeld clan, let me recap where I was. I was writing about the family of Malchen Rothschild, the ninth child of Gelle Blumenfeld and Simon Rothschild. Malchen and her husband Daniel Rosenblatt had seven children, one of whom died as a child (Betti) and one, Julius, who died in 1920 as a thirty-six year old newlywed whose wife Julie Rosenblatt had just recently given birth to their son, Manfred or Friedel/Fredi (hereinafter "Fredi.")

I am back from a break after a great visit with our kids and then a week to recover! Before I return to the story of the family of Malchen Rothschild (as I am still waiting to speak with her great-grandson Julio), I have an update about how I discovered my great-great-grandmother's will. Earlier this summer Teresa of Writing My Past…

Although the three daughters of Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt were all murdered in the Holocaust, their two surviving sons Felix and Siegmund were able to escape Nazi Germany as was their daughter-in-law Julchen Rosenblatt Rosenblatt, the widow of their son Juda/Julius. I did not have a great deal of information about Felix or Siegmund because they escaped to Argentina, and I have limited resources for research there.

Of the five children of Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt who were still living when Hitler came to power in 1933, only two survived, the two sons Felix and Siegmund. Their three daughters—Julchen/Julie, Jette/Thekla, and Auguste--were all murdered by the Nazis. Julchen/Julie and her husband Max Wolf were first deported from Kassel to the Riga ghetto on the December 9, 1941, transport…

Having now completed the stories of the family of Gerson Rothschild and Fanny Kupermann, it is time once again to see where I am in the overall Blumenfeld family. Gerson was the eighth of the eleven children of Gelle Blumenfeld and Simon Rothschild. And Gelle Blumenfeld was the third of the three children of Moses Blumenfeld I and Gidel Loeb. And Moses Blumenfeld was the older brother of my three-times great-grandmother Breine Blumenfeld Katzenstein.

During the course of my emails and conversations with the descendants of Clara Rothschild and Moritz Katz, I received some photographs of family members about whom I’d previously posted. I will add these to those earlier posts, but since many readers will not be going back to posts they’ve already read, I also wanted to post them here. First, this is a photo of Gerson Rothschild and Frommet “Fanny” Kugelmann’s oldest child to survive infancy, Siegmund Rothschild, whom I wrote about…

Getting to know Hal Katz and his family and learning the stories about Clara Rothschild and Moritz Katz and their children and grandchildren has been a real highlight of the past few months. Now I turn to Clara’s two younger sisters, the seventh and eighth children of Gerson Rothschild and Fanny Kugelmann of those who survived to adulthood. And unfortunately there is no joy in telling their stories.

By early 1946, both Otto and Hal Katz had returned home from service in World War II, and life began to return to normal. Otto returned to his job at the Kenneth Miller Company (later Custom Bed Covers), where he worked for the rest of his career, eventually buying the company.1 Otto married Edith Alexander on June 27, 1948. Edith, like Otto, was a refugee from Nazi Germany.

Once again proving how valuable immigrants have been to this country, Clara Rothschild Katz’s two sons, Otto and Helmut (Harold or Hal) both did outstanding service for their new country against their old country during World War II. These memories of their service during the war were collected by Otto’s daughter and Hal’s niece, Judy Katz, and she generously shared them with me.

After Moritz Katz and his fifteen year old son Otto arrived in New York in August, 1937, they shared a furnished room in the Bronx that they rented from some cousins of Moritz. Moritz started working in a meat processing plant, and Otto, who was fifteen, went to school during the day and worked at a grocery store after school. In an interview with his daughter Judy in 2000, Otto told her that he didn’t know any English, and the teacher, who would occasionally speak to him in German, was not a good teacher and didn’t care if the students learned or understood the material.

Doing family history research is a labor of love. I have said that many times over the almost fifteen years that I’ve been engaged in this work. Being able to honor the memories of those I never knew but who are somehow related to me is a joy and a privilege. Connecting with and getting to know so many living "long-lost" cousins has given me great joy.

Turning now to Jeanette or Jenny Rothschild, the fifth of the eight Rothschild children who survived to adulthood, we saw that she married Salomon Abraham on November 11, 1920, and that they had two children: Walter, born in 1921, and Herta, born in 1928. Unfortunately, Jenny and her family suffered a fate like those of her older sisters Katchen and Auguste and not like those of her older brothers Siegmund and Max, both of whom survived the Holocaust.

As I move on now to the next child of Gerson Rothschild and Fanny Kugelmann, I am struck by the differences in the fates of their eight surviving adult children. Siegmund and his wife and all his children left Germany in time to escape death at the hands of the Nazis. Katchen and her husband and son were all killed by the Nazis.

Fortunately, the story of the third child of Gerson Rothschild and Fanny Kugelmann, their son Max, does not end as tragically as that of his sister Katchen. Max was born in 1886, and, as we saw, he married Johanna Katz on October 19, 1919, in Zimmersrode, Germany. They had three sons, Erich, Fritz, and Richard. According to his marriage record, Max was a merchant in Zimmersrode.

The second oldest child of Gerson Rothschild and Fanny Kugelmann was their daughter Katchen, born in 1885 in Waltersbrueck. As we saw, she married Adolf Hirschberg in 1914, and they had one child, a son Ludwig born in 1920. According to their marriage record, Adolf was a merchant and a butcher. They were living in Kassel, Germany, when Ludwig was born in 1920.

I am sad to report that my cousin Claire Booher Velzy passed away on April 15, 2025, at the age of ninety-three. Claire was my fourth cousin on my Schoenthal side. We both were descended from Heinemann Schoenthal and Hendel Beerenstain, our mutual three-times great-grandparents. Heinemann and Hendel were the parents of Levi Schoenthal, my great-great-grandfather, and Fanny Schoenthal, Claire’s great-great-grandmother.

It's been a few weeks since I wrote about the family of Gelle Blumenfeld Rothschild, given the breaks for some updates, Passover, and our trip to England. Today I return to Gelle's story, specifically the story of her son Gerson Rothschild. In my last post about Gerson, we saw he died in 1930 and was survived by his wife Fanny Kugelmann and eight children.

Before I started researching my family history back in 2010, I believed that I had no relatives who were killed in the Holocaust. Since then I have learned that there are so many of my cousins who were killed by the Nazis that I have lost count---babies, children, teenagers, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, the frail and the elderly---innocent people who were put to death for no reason other than their Jewish identity.

Almost five years ago I wrote about Alfred Meyer, son of Regina Goldschmidt and Aaron Meyer and my third cousin, twice removed. He was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 16, 1875, and that was almost all I knew about him. The only other records I could find for Alfred were two Holocaust era records on file at the Arolsen Archives.

Before I continue the stories of the children of Gerson Rothschild and Fanny Kugelmann, I have three updates to earlier posts that I'd like to share. All three are possible because other researchers and family members found this blog and contacted me. These are true gifts from the genealogy village. I am so grateful. Some of you may recall that…