Whispers of Jewish Heritage

Armin Hermann “aka Hirsh Tsvi” Feiler

I was about 4 months old when my parents moved from Ohio to Ashland, Kentucky where my father established his veterinary practice.  I grew up on Algonquin Avenue, known as the Indian Reservation because of street names.  Many in our neighborhood were of the Jewish faith.  The Josselson’s lived next door, the Polinski and Korros and Stones nearby.  My earliest memories include my mother saying she thought she may have Jewish ancestry.  World War II, though over, was a vivid memory with many still living with fear and prejudice.

My maternal grandfather, who I adored, Howard Clayton Feyler, died when I was eight years old in 1957.[i]  As I grew up mother shared several stories that she remembered.  Mother kept a small box with post cards and photographs that Dessie Clayton Feyler saved after husband Edward Lee Feyler’s death in 1900.[ii]  [iii] Edward Lee was a jeweler in Portsmouth, Ohio who had, according to family been born in Budapest, came to America and married Dessie in Bigelow Methodist Church in Portsmouth, Ohio.

Howard Clayton Feyler

The postcards were to Dessie and son Howard from cousin Hajnalka Feiler, uncle Alfred (who coincidentally was a veterinarian), and one cherished postal note and photograph of Alfred and Lee’s father Armin from Temesvar.  The photograph of Armin Feiler seemed to show him wearing a yarmulke but was a little difficult to ascertain or could be a shadow on the back of his head.  As mother would go through these treasure’s she often spoke of her father standing in the dining room with tears in his eyes saying “we have no more family” and then destroying some papers.

Along with the story, mother, Mary Helen Feyler Martin, would also pull out a picture of her and sister Betty holding rag dolls that they were given as young children mailed from Hungary. After I was married mother sat down and said that she had another memory to share with me.  She came home one day to find Mr. Shapiro talking with her mother on the front porch[iv].  As she approached, she heard him say “Katherine when are you going to tell her about …Jews?”  She did not catch every word and her mother immediately told her to get in the house.   Mr. Shapiro was a good friend of the family so the interaction puzzled her.  When she asked later what they were talking about she was told it was nothing to concern herself with.

Mother and Betty both said they were told their grandfather talked about going to Vienna to the Opera and were extremely educated.  They based the education factor because the family always corresponded in English. Betty thought that Edward was his way of having an American sounding name but always was referred to as Lee. Betty remembered a story that her grandfather had even been to Egypt.  She wrote an essay in school about the Egypt story and the teacher contacted her father questioning its truth.  He verified the story.   And there was one last little mysterious Feyler family tidbit.  Grandmother Dessie tucked a small slip of paper in her bible giving the ages of deaths of Lee’s parents, grandparents, sisters and brothers but not listing any names nor exact dates.  That piece of paper is another mystery.  Dessie knew at least some of their names because she corresponded with them.  Why didn’t she put their names down?

Mother and Betty were totally convinced they had no other living Feyler relatives.  I was starting out on a genealogy quest for this branch of family before computers were a household word with just a small box of postcards, pictures and a slip of paper with no names or dates. I was determined to find out what happened to Hajnalka, her husband and two sons whom I felt like I knew personally from reading and rereading those treasures.

We have a beautiful picture of great grand uncle Alfred Feiler in Military uniform taken in Temesvar in 1899.  Temesvar started my worldwide geography and pre-war boundary lesson.  An article in the Portsmouth, Ohio local newspaper stated  Edward’s young brother Alfred, was a captain of the first Hussar Regiment, Hungarian Army stationed in Temesvar.  Temesvar is now in Romania.  Father, Armin’s correspondence and photograph to grandson, Howard, was also from Temesvar marking the street where he and an aunt named Tame lived.  With maps I followed Alfred’s daughter Hajnalka’s journey after marriage, through World War I and the birth of two sons  Alfredi and Sandor.  She lived in Poszony, Rajka, Hungary and Hegyshalom. 

In 1926 she wrote to her Aunt Dessie, in America, sending not only pictures of her sons and home but stating “the Spring …again to Komarom to the grave of my poor papa…please write me soon my dear aunt…”  Pinpointing Komorom as Czechoslovakia I wrote the Embassy. Nearly a year later I received a letter and death record for Alfred to share with my mother who wanted to know more about the family. It would be the first sad information I would share with her.  The document showed he had changed his name from Feiler to Faltenyi and took his own life in December 1919.[v]

In 1939 Hajnalka continued to write Aunt Dessie, this time stating her sons were studying Law.  I spent hours trying in vain to locate her or either of the two sons, hopefully still living, through law directories. It would be many more years before the Central database of Shoah Victims Yad Vashem was created and internet research of actual documents began to surface.  This time as I showed mother the information both of us had tears streaming down our faces.  Hajnalka Feiler Richter a resident of Gyor es Pozsony, Hungary along with her husband, mother, and mother-in-law all died in 1944 at Auschwitz in Poland.   But through tears I also realized that the information for the database had been submitted and signed by Sandor Richter!  That document led me to Vienna and in 2005  I made contact with Sandor’s son named for  his father.  By 2005 my mother’s mind was clouding with the disease of Alzheimer’s  and I am not sure if she understand she has living cousins.  Sandor wrote:

My father (Sandor Richter sr received your letter …does not speak English  …. (... We were really moved while reading your letter, and I would like to let you know our family's saga beginning from the point where the information flow…. My father and his brother Alfred were conscripted to forced labour to the Hungarian army. My grandparents Imre Richter and Hajnalka and Hajnalka's mother Ilona were deported in MAY 1944 to Auschwitz where they were killed right after arrival. Alfred got to the concentration camp Mauthausen but he survived and returned to Hungary. My father deserted from the Hungarian army and was captured by the Russians. Though he was only forced labour unit of the Hungarian army he was sent as a prisoner of war to the Ural mountains where he spent four years before allowed to return to Hungary. ....I do not know too much about my grand grand father Alfred Feiler. We have a newspaper article written by him still before the first world war and published in a provincial newspaper. He was a veterinarian and his daughter Hajnalka married my grandfather Imre, who also was a veterinarian (a sort of genetic predetermination?...) According to collective family memory Alfred committed suicide after WWI because he got so depressed that Hungary lost the war and two thirds of the country's territory was attached to successor states of the Austrian- Hungarian Monarchy. Allegedly he jumped from the bridge in Komarom...into the Danube river. ..

 My father Sandor and his brother Alfred (in the family he was called Fredi) had to find their life in post WWII Hungary. Both of them left Gyor where they spent their youth and where their parents house was traceless destroyed by a bomb in the last days of the war. They moved to Budapest. More exactly, my father returned from the Soviet Union to Budapest). Fredi became clerk at a firm where he spent all his working years before he was pensioned. My father had more ambitions and learned book-keeping in crash courses and came to leading positions at various firms int he textile trade...a couple of members of the broader family left Hungary but our narrow family chose to remain. My father is now 87 years old, copes with all the problems ...He was very delighted to read your letter ...brother Peter is physicist, head of the Department of Atomic Physics at the Technical University in Budapest. He regularly visits American universities ....  ...Sandor

While the story is extremely sad, I was heartened to know and celebrated having cousins.  Sandor and I still communicate. Using genealogy methodology, I continued researching my great grandfather Edward Lee Feyler in America. I eventually located Edward Lee Feyler’s naturalization stating he was a native of Hungary but showing that his intent had been filed in Marion County, Indiana.  The document also distinctly marked out Feiler and changed to Feyler. [vi] City directories show that in 1884 Leopold Feiler lived in heart of the Jewish community in Indianapolis with occupation jeweler.  He was brought to Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio y Charles Cohen who had a jewelry store on 2^nd Street.  Within a short time Feyler owned his own store on 2^nd street. 

Eventually research provided migration information.  Leopold Feiler[vii], a watchmaker embarked on the ship Coblenz from Hamburg 10 August 1883.[viii]  This document shows he was born in Kenti, Galicia.[ix]  Coblenz sailed to Leith and on the 9^th August Leopold embarked from Leith to New York in steerage on the ship Ethiopia[x]. It is possible that a Jewish organization in New York guided him to Indianapolis. 

Edward Leopold “Lee” Feiler/Feyler

Documenting 2^nd great grandfather Armin Feiler, as with all the European research on this family was challenging.   Besides ordering microfilms in foreign language mother helped to financially hire several foreign researchers.  The first took our money, the 2^nd found no records.  A third researcher was more helpful.  Because of the wonderful records provided by LDS and a frame by frame search I located the funeral record in Hungary listing children and grandchildren including Howard in America![xi]  With the miracle of the internet the 3^rd researcher sent me a photograph of Armin’s tombstone in the Jewish Cemetery in Temesvar.  This would be the confirmation that indeed we did have more than a whisper of Jewish ancestry.  The tombstone written in Hebrew on one side and German on the other stated Armin aka HirschTsvi Feiler was a Super controller for the Hungarian Royal Railroads, son of Karpel Feiler.

Jewish Temple Cemetery, Temesvar, Romania

From paper to microfilm to computer.  I have witnessed research emerge and change.  DNA has opened more doors.  My mother’s DNA supports her whispered stories with ethnicity of European Jewish at 23% and mine at 13%.  As more and more test those values may change.    DNA matches have found new connections.   Karpel and wife Adel Hupper Feiler had at least four children.  Theresie Feiler Krieger migrated to Vienna and her grandchildren to New York and England.  We now have contact with her Billing descendent in England.   Fanny Feiler Nacher died in Moravia and at least one grandchild died in a concentration camp. 

The journey and story is never over.  My hope is that someone will add to the story and will continue where I leave off.

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[i] West Virginia Death Certificate 57 009658, Division of Culture and History, Charleston, West Virginia

[ii] Ohio Scioto Death Register, page 60. Courthouse, Portsmouth, Ohio.

[iii] Feyler, Leopold, Portsmouth Correspondent, 29 June 1900.

[iv] 822 Gay Street, Portsmouth, Ohio

[v] Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Ministerstvo Vnutra. Statny Oblastny Archiv V Nitre.

[vi] Ohio, Scioto Porbate Court, Naturalization. Courthouse, Portsmouth, OH.

[vii] This compiler has always wondered if he was named for Leopold II Emperor and King of Hungary.

[viii] Staatsarchiv Hamburg. Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934 , 373-7 I, VIII B 1 Band 055, page 967, Microfilm S_13142; lds film 1049069

[ix] Kenti town in Oswiecim Co lesser Poland Voivodeship

[x] Church of Latter Day Saints LDS, "FamilySearch," database, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org:, "United States Germans to America Index, 1850-1897.

[xi] Church of Latter Day Saints LDS, "FamilySearch," database, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org: Hungary Funeral Notices, 1840-1990 ), image 889.