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Margulies Family History

Snippets and Stories

This is a collection of stories (hearsay, "vaguely remembered", unconfirmed oral history)
and some snippets I have found, here and there.

The Spanish Rabbi

Source : Meine Mutter

One of Hans' ancestors was a/the (?) Head Rabbi in France at the time of Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642). He then moved to Spain, to be the Head Rabbi there. He and his family 'disappeared' without trace.

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The Royal (Habsburg) Connection

Source : Meine Mutter

A female of the family (her mother's side ?) was a Lady in Waiting at the spanish court. She had an affair with a courtier there and had a child, born 'on the wrong side of the blanket'. She was sent home (to Hungary ?, Austria ?, it was probably all Habsburg, then) in disgrace.

Does this mean that we are illegitimate Habsburgs ???

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Habsburg, Shmabsburg !   King David Rules, OK !

If you think that was something, wait till you hear this !

In the U.S.A. it is the big thing to claim descent from one of the original 99 "Came over on the Mayflower" settlers. If you believe all claims, then there must have been several thousand people on the Mayflower !

But a mere 350 years ?? This is nothing in jewish genealogy ! Among jews it is the big thing to claim descent from one of the famous rabbis or torah scholars. One of the most famous of these was

Rashi / Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitskhak (1040-1105)

Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitskhak (1040-1105)

usually known as Rashi.

The Margolioth family is said to be descended from Rashi.

There also exists a large body of scholarship, proving or disproving, that Rashi was descended from

King David !


If anybody is interested, there is plenty to read on this subject on the Internet:
see: "Can We Prove Descent from King David ?" by David Einsiedler (Search in text for "Margoliot")
and: The Rashi Descent (Search in text for "Margolis")
Both open a seperate window. Close the window, to return here ...

We have a family tree of the Margulies, which starts with a photocopy of the family tree of Samuel Margolioth, dayyan (rabbinical judge) in Posen in 1550. This continues down to Ephraim Zalman Margolioth (1762-1828). It is then continued by hand through Elyakim Getzel Margolis to Moritz Margulies and his childen.

So, if you believe that Samuel Margolioth was descended from Rashi
and if you believe that Rashi was descended from King David, ....

then we have another(!) connection to a royal family,
compared to whom, the Habsburgs were mere "Johnny-Come-Latelys" !

P.S. Could it be, that you also believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny ?

P.P.S. Whether Rashi actually did look like that picture is anybodies' guess,
It could just be an artist's impression of what a learned jewish Rabbi would look like !
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Telegrams from Krakow - 1908

In 1908, the wedding of Jacques MAHLER and Anja MARGULIES took place in Berlin. Since the bride was from Krakow, and the groom - who was born in Krakow - was from Antwerp, they married halfway, in Berlin.

They received hundreds of telegrams from family and friends, most of them from Krakow and Brunn (Neu Bruen). These sentimental telegrams were bound in two leather books. Years later, they were saved by a neighbor when the Germans threw them away after deporting the family to Auschwitz. Their son managed to retrieve these two books after the war.

The telegrams contain many names of Krakauers, among them several doctors and lawyers. Many of the Antwerp names are also originally from Krakow. There are also a few original KKL telegrams - one of them from Emil Margulies the well known Zionist. Source: http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Krakow/kra_telegram.htm

Apart from Emil Margulies, Isidor, Hans and Clara Margulies are also mentioned.
The name Margulies is fairly common, so we cannot say for sure that these are "our" Margulies family, but as Emil, "the well known Zionist" is definitely "family", it is a definite possibility.

As they only sent telegrams, rather than going to the wedding, it suggests that Anja Margulies was just a distant relation.

Update Jan. 2007:

We are now in touch with Charles, a descendant of Jacques Mahler and Anna Margulies, and we now know that Hans and Anna were first cousins. Charles has supplied me with copies of the telegrams, which I am reproducing here, with his kind permission.

Krakauer Telegram from Isidor Margulies
Krakauer Telegram from Emil Margulies
Krakauer Telegram from Hans Margulies
Krakauer Telegram from Heinrich Margulies
Krakauer Telegram from Clara Margulies

Both Isidor and Emil sent KKL-Telegrams. KKL is Keren Kayemeth L'Ysrael, the Jewish National Fund (Jüdische Nationalfonds, JNF). It was founded by Theodor Hertzl at the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1901, with the goal of collecting money to buy and develop land in Palestine.
Apart from donations, one could also buy stamps, which were attached to official documents and private papers. The proceeds of the stamp sales were also put in the JNF.
Each of the KKL-Telegrams has a JNF stamp attached.
http://www.jnf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=history


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Margulies & Sussman ! - but not ours !!


An Internet search for 'Elyakim Getzel Margulies' (my Greatgreatgrandfather) found a website with a Margulies family from Krakow ...  http://www.shoreshim.org/en/trees/

In this family Getzel Margulies had a son Moses (Maurycy), born 1849, who married a Kaila (Karoline) Sussman, born about 1851.

They had two children: Alan and Harold Kessler.


In our family, Elyakim Getzel Margulies had a son, Moritz (Moses, Maurycy ??), born 1849, who married Clara Sussman, born 1852

They had eight children: Anna, Isidor, Julius, Siegismund, Bella, Emil, Hans and Heinrich

Probably just a coincidence . . . . but . . . two Getzl Margulies, each with a son, Moritz / Maurycy, of similar age, and both sons married a Sussman ??

I have been in touch with the webmaster of this site (in 2006), but all he can say is that it was contributed to the site about 4 years ago and he can't remember from whom.

So, if that contributor should see this page:
Please, please, get in touch with me, I would love to hear from you.

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Zug der Erinnerung / Train of Commemoration


From April 2008 a train drove through Germany. Not a regular train service, but a special train to commemorate the many trains which, in the Nazi-era, took many thousands of jews, gypsies, communists, and other "un-people" from their homes and families and deported them to concentration camps. ....

And in particular, to commemorate the children, who were deported on these trains.

Zug Der Erinnerung #1
The Train of Commemoration   :   Press Releases, in english

In April 2009 the train stopped in Berlin and I went to see it. I didn't want to go on my own, so I put a topic on the genealogy forum and asked if anyone else wanted to come. After we managed to agree on a time, we ended up as a group of seven.

On 18th. April we met up at Westhafen Station and walked down to the siding, where the train was parked.
Four coaches on a a railway track, an old steam train was gently steaming nearby.
First of all, get in line and wait. The queue was alongside the coaches, and we could see flowers and small mementos, that earlier visitors had hung from the door knobs and other projecting bits.
Good, that we weren't alone there: as we slowly shuffled nearer to to the entrance door, we swapped stories of persecutions, forced emigrations, deportations and deaths of various ancestors.

Finally it was our turn, to enter the coaches.
In the first three coaches we could see large posters on the walls, with photos and short biographies of many, far too many, children, who had been ridden on such trains, on their (often) final journey to the concentration camps.
Here and there, visitors had left flowers as mementos, or, sitting under a poster, a child's teddy bear - a memento ? the remains of a life ?

Region Altmark x thousand
Region Posen y thousand
Region XYZ z thousand
: :
: :
Total numbers: 11,000,000


In between the biographies and photos we could see copies of the "official documents", that had preceded these transportations, about the logistics, or excerpts from the "Wannsee Protocols", neatly typed columns of names and numbers ...


In one coach there were also descriptions of some of the railway employees responsible for the organisation of these trains. Most of these documents ended with "no criminal offence proved" i.e. they were just doing their given jobs.


In the last coach we found a "Holocaust Book", a list of those children who had journeyed on such trains.

... with five Margulies names !
Bela 15.03.1939, Leipzig
Erich 08.03.1935
Manfred   29.10.1930
Manfred 12.02.1931, Leipzig
Thea 19.06.1926, Berlin

Margulies is a relatively common name. We know that Hans and his siblings and their families were able to flee in time. And we don't know of any specific branches of "our" Margulies, who settled in Germany, but .... were these children distantly related to us ?


On the way out, a request for a donation. The Deutsche Bahn (DB, German Railways) is charging the organisers for the use of it's tracks. This led to many protests in Germany: the DB is the successor to the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR), the "German Railways" of the Nazi-era, and has always been silent about it's role in the Holocaust. The least they could have done - so the feeling of many - is to allow the train to use the tracks free of charge.

Four coaches, not many, but enough to cause a sad, heart-rendering feeling.


There is a searchable list of all victims here: Gedenkbuch (Memorial Book)


One of the group took some photos. They are shown here with his kind permission.
Zug Der Erinnerung #2
Zug Der Erinnerung #3
Zug Der Erinnerung #4
Zug Der Erinnerung #5
Zug Der Erinnerung #6
Zug Der Erinnerung #7
Zug Der Erinnerung #8
Zug Der Erinnerung #9
Zug Der Erinnerung #10


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Are we descended from Ephraim Zalman Margulies ?

Sometimes researchers contact me through this website to ask whether we might be related. They believe they are (or might be) descended from Ephraim Zalman Margulies, but haven't yet managed to prove or confirm it.

Unfortunatels, I have to say: No, we are not descended from Ephraim Zalman Margulies ...
And we are not descended from Ephraim Zalman Margolioth or Ephraim Zalman Margolis either !

Ephraim Zalman Margulies / Margolioth / Margolis (EZM) was a very well known Rabbi[1].
In his book[2] about Emil Margulies Meir Faerber says this ..
Von Jacob [Margolioth] in gerader Linie stammt im späteren Jahrhundert der große Talmudgelehrte [Ephraim] Salman Margulies ab, eine historische Zierde von Brody. Sein Enkel Moritz Margulies, [...]
Jacob Margoles was the direct ancestor of the great Talmud Scholar Salman Margulies, a historical adornment of Brody. His grandson, Moritz Margulies [...]
That is not true ! My greatgrandfather, Moritz Margulies, is descended from Elyakim Getzel Margulies (b.1765) - the brother of EZM !

Out of interest I compiled this descendant chart for EZM.

1- R' Menachem Menish Margolioth b. 1740, d. 1801
   +N.N. Rabinowitz 

   2- R' Ephraim Salman Margolioth b. 1760, d. 1828
      +N.N. Segal
       3- R' Chaim Judah Leib Margolioth; 
          +Rosa Bick
           4- Zelda Margolioth; 
           4- Hena Beile Margolioth 
           4- Nechama Margolioth
          +Sarah Frankel-Teomim
       3- Sarah Parnas; 
          +R. Haim Nachman Parnas	 
       3- N.N.
          +R' Benjamin Wolf (Zeev) Löw; 
           4- Yoel Natan; 
           4- Yetla Löw 
           4- Malka Löw
       3- Sima Horowitz;   
          +R' Jacob Joshua Horowitz, A.B.D. Zalozhtsy
           4- Dreizel Zussman; 
           4- R' Pinchas Menachem Moses Horowitz; 
           4- R' Zvi Hirsch Horowitz; 
           4- R' Alexander HaLevi Horowitz und 
           4- Jaret Zussman
       3- N.N.
          +R' Zvi Hirsch Kallir  (the son of R' Zvi Hirsch David HaLevi und Rebecca Kallir)
           4- Alexander Sender Kallir

      +Leah N.N. Segal

   2- Elyakim Getzel Margolioth b. 1765, d. 1824
      +Gitl Katz Lopatiner b. 1780, d. 1825
        => unsere Stammeltern !
   :      
   :      

    ??   3- N.N. = evtl. Sirkin 
    ??   3- N.N. = evtl. Ginsburg 
    ??   3- N.N. = evtl. Auerbach 
This information comes mostly from details entered on www.geni.com[3]
It is noticable that (according to what I have found so far) mainly daughters have been born and that the Margulies-/Margolioth-Surname dies out after a few generations.

References:
  1. http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10405-margolioth#527
  2. Dr. Emil Margulies, Ein Lebenskampf für Wahrheit und Recht, Faerber, 1949, Tel Aviv
  3. http://www.geni.com/people/Ephraim-Zalman-Margolioth-of-Brody/6000000015271924723
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The Katzenellenbogen Family

We are (vaguely) related to the KATZENELLENBOGEN Family.

The name sounds like a joke - remember the song "Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen by the sea"? - but it is actually a corruption of "Kazim Elim Bochen" - (Sole leader of the tribe.)

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