THE AMAZING COUSIN I NEVER MET

THE AMAZING COUSIN I NEVER MET

compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber, Nov. 2019

I cannot count the times people have said to me they have no remaining relatives.  If you accept the fact that your immediate family are your only relatives then the statement could be true.  Both my mother and aunt believed they had no family left in Europe and certainly no male Feyler/Feiler family members in America.  They loved that the family talked about music and Opera in Vienna.  As children they visualized the elegance not seeing the tragedy and struggles that were occurring in the family. Oral history has a way of getting misconstrued while holding clues and truths. Stories have a way of evolving with genealogical research.

After the death of my second great grandmother, Armin Feiler married Josefa Ehrmann in Vienna.[i]  Their son Gustav was born and married in Vienna.  A daughter. Dr. Margaret P. Feiler was born there in 1906[ii].  In 1940 Margaret managed to escape via train and ship aiding children to freedom coming to New York where Ehrmann relatives had already settled in Manhattan.  Deposits could be made to pay passage and arrange some transports with assistance of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Center based in New York.  In 1941 Margaret deposited funds for the ship Mouzinho from Lisbon to New York for her parents, Gustav and Johanna Wipper Feiler. 

Gustav lived first in Manhattan then East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.   From 1941 until his death in 1960, we had Feiler family living within driving distance without ever knowing.  Since Gustav’s half-brother, Leopold died in 1900 in Portsmouth, Ohio he probably did not realize there were still cousins who would have greeted them with open arms. 

I got to know Margaret posthumously through her closest and dearest friend, Mary Kerrick who was executor of Margaret’s estate in 2002.  Mary and I have had several telephone conversations.  Margaret was blessed to have such a wonderful friend. 

Margaret went to work for the Joint Distribution Center, in New York.  Among the archive’s depositor cards are more deposits made by Margaret assisting others. The Holocaust Memorial Museum includes an oral history interview with Margaret describing her work with emigration issues.[iii]

In the interview she tells how she went to Lisbon, Portugal with the children before arriving in New York where there were arrangements for their care.

“Dr. Feiler states that "she is one of those people" who when she came to the US from Vienna never talked about her "tribulations" and how she got out. "I always hated to talk about it." Says how her parents also never talked about it, and how they figured that everyone around them had had a similar experience, so there was no sense in "rehashing it." "I don't think people are interested in this... Recounts how she received a cable from her parents in February 1941 that the Poland transports were starting and to deposit 400 dollars. How she got the money from the second cousin of her father. How she took the money to the Joint to send to Vienna and how she ran into the Joint's Executive Vice Chairman and how she informed him that the deportations to Poland had begun and how he replied "Well, if they deport them, they deport them." Dr. Feiler says that she, too, did not know that "they would exterminate them," that at the time there was no Auschwitz yet, no indication "that they intended to liquidate everybody." She only knew that it would be terrible to be in a camp somewhere in Poland,[iv]

 Mary Kerrick says Margaret never liked to go on a ship because of seasickness again.  Margaret would make several trips back to Vienna while working for JDC during peace time.

When she retired Margaret moved to Pocono Pines, Pennsylvania where she had renovated a cottage that she said reminded her of home.  She and friend Mary loved to knit and do needlepoint together.  It is obvious she was a very strong woman. She lost both her legs, due to illness, after retiring and continued to live alone as long as she could.  Mary helped care for her.  Margaret left her personal effects to Kerrick and the residue to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.  Kerrick in turn had an auction of the personal effects and those funds were also given to JDC.  She died in the Jewish Home of Eastern Pennsylvania at Scranton.  Mary Kerrick scattered her ashes, as requested in a lovely field between their two properties where they would go for picnics and read.

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[i] GenTeam, Die Genealogische Datenbank. https://www.genteam.at/index.php, Index of the Jewish Records of Vienna and Lower Austria. 1879.

[ii] Six years after the death of Edward Lee (Leopold) Feyler in America.

[iii] Feiler, Margaret. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Oral Interview. Accession #2014.537.2/RG Number: RG-50.862.0001

[iv] ibid

TERESA

TERESA

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber November 2019

Stock photo supplied by dreamstime.com

The given name Teresa derives from Greek for harvester.  I like to think it is an appropriate name for me because at least one definition of harvest is to “collect or obtain (a resource) for future use.”  Maybe that is why I love Fall so much when we celebrate our harvest. 

My daughter-in-law, from Siberia, let’s my name roll across her tongue as Tereza which is also the Romanian pronunciation. When I was younger, I asked my mother if I was named for someone special.  She informed me that while pregnant she had seen the movie The Red Shoes (1948) and I was named for a character she liked in the movie.  Later I looked it up. One of the actresses played Terry (Jean Short).  As a child I was always called Terry. As a teen I morphed it to Terri.  The name Teresa in the list of baby names in 1949/50 was 81^st. All my school friends still call me Terri, while professionally I go by Teresa.  Mother never explained why they chose Teresa instead of Terry.  But I love the given name. 

It was an extremely exciting serendipity to discover, during maternal Feiler research, that Armin Feiler’s wife, the mother of Edward Lee Feyler was named Terez Pollacsek/Pollaczek.[i].  Terez died in 1878 when Leopold “Lee” was 18.[ii]  She is buried in the Salgótarjáni út. Salgotarjani Street Jewish Cemetery in Budapest.  A birth date is not given, but if a notation in the family bible is correct, her birth was about 1836.  The burial record states she was born in Jalshovitz.

As research for Terez expanded, a tree was discovered and shared on a wonderful web site created by a gentleman in Canada named Peter Rohel.[iii]  He cited a handwritten tree created by Leo Feliz Pollaczek.  With Peter’s information I was able to introduce myself to Pollaczek’s daughter Magda Pollaczek Tisza, via telephone, in 2009.  Magda is a third cousin (once removed).  Magda’s husband Laslo Tisza was considered a giant of modern physics having developed a model in 1938 that explained the unusual behavior of liquid helium.[iv]

Magda’s father, born in Vienna, later became a French citizen who migrated to the United States in 1962, a well-known mathematician receiving the John von Neuman Theory Prize.[v] I asked where he got his data for the family tree.  Magda indicated she knew nothing more than what was written.  The tree indicates that Terez Pollacsek Feiler’s father Phillip “Feiwel” Pollacsek died in 1839 from the kick of a horse while working as a “margestate[vi] of Archduke Albrecht of Habsburg”.  If the information is correct Terez was only three years old when her father died.  This information contradicts a slip of paper here in the United States written by Dessie Clayton Feyler and tucked in the Feyler bible.  It states, her husband, Lee’s maternal grandfather died age 65 from a paralytic stroke.

It is possible that one or both are valid or equally invalid.  One scenario to consider is Terez may have had a stepfather that raised her and died from the stroke and both the tree and the bible notation then would be correct.   Another mystery to be solved. 

What I do know is that Terez had at least three siblings, Joseph, Samuel and Moritz.  Samuel was born in January 1834 in Jawiszowice, Oswiecim County, Poland.  He was a general inspector for the Austrian Railroad.  Terez husband Armin Feiler was comptroller of the Hungarian Royal Railroad. The death record for Terez is in Hungarian and Jalshovitz may well have been Jawiszowice where brother Samuel was born.  Jawiszowice is just north of Biala in the Teschen region where I have confirmed that two of Armin and Terez Feiler’s children were born.

Archduke Charles Louis John Joseph Laurentius was Duke of Teschen and was succeeded by his son as Duke of Teschen during the time frame in question.   Charles was the third son of Emperor, King of Hungary, Leopold II.

Feiwal along with four siblings were children of Samuel Pollaczek.  Their grandfather was named Wolf Pollaczek. The family was from Boskovice, Blansko District, South Moravian Region of Czechoslovakia.  A published account (that loses a bit in translation) of the Jewish family says Samuel was a canvas handler who travelled with his wife.  During the Napoleonic Wars[vii] his wife Rosalie Salie managed to save golden ducats.  She apparently used the ducats to receive an escort (papers) to leave Stecken[viii], where they traveled, crossing the camp of French, safely returning to Boskowitz[ix] where the family resided.  Twenty-nine years later in 1834 a fire stuck the town of Boskovice and again she rescued her sick husband however the excitement of the fire, killed him, the day before the Jewish New Year.  When the woman saw Samuel being taken to his grave she also “fell dead.”[x]

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[i] Compiler’s second great grandmother.

[ii] Anyaknoyvek 1836-1895, Register of Jewish Births, marriages and deaths for Pest, LDS #0720185 Halottak 1876-1878.

[iii] https://sites.rootsweb.com/~prohel/names/names.html

[iv] Laszlo Tisza at 1010; professor at MIT considered a giant of modern physics," Boston Globe, 21 April 2009

[v] "Obituary: Felix Pollaczek," Journal of Applied Probability (Vol 18, No 4 Dec 1981), page 959-963

[vi] Magistrate?

[vii] 1803-1815

[viii] There was a battle in Stecken in December 1805

[ix] Boskowitz (German) Boskovice (Czech)

[x] Jews and Jewish Communities of Moravia (Hugo Gold; 1929) , Wien Familien 14; Familie Pollaczek

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.

Looking at Minuscule Genealogy Clues

compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 

March 2012

Tucked away in ornate lacquered box in my mother’s possession was a red season’s ticket to the Monarch Roller Rink.  When I discovered the ticket I immediately noted that it was assigned to “Feiler Reporter” and dated July 1885.   Two aha clues! I already knew that the box was from Portsmouth, Ohio.  But was the ticket from Portsmouth or had it traveled with “Feiler”?

I had worked diligently on my Feiler/ Feyler heritage.  Edward Leopold Feiler made his way to Hamburg from Hungry and boarded the Ship Coblenz on 10 August 1883.  The ship list calls him Leopold, a watch maker from Kenti, Galicia.  The ship sailed to Glasgow where he then boarded the ship Ethiopia and arrived 29 August 1883 in New York.

City directories usually have a lag time of six months to a year on individual listings.  Thus a person could be deceased yet show up as a resident in the same year of death.  The 1884 Indianapolis [Indiana] City Directory lists Leopold Feiler boarding at 84 S. East Street.     This is not far from Union Station and the Jewish Community.  On 29 March 1884 Feiler appeared in Marion County Circuit Court to declare an oath of allegiance.  

The next three years of Feiler’s life in America are murky.  According to his obituary published in the Portsmouth Correspondent, 29 June 1900 he migrated to America in 1884.  We know from the ship lists the newspaper clipping is incorrect by one year.  The same article says he got a position in Indianapolis and came to Portsmouth in 1889 as a help to Mr. C. Cohen.    Again erroneous information as we plow deeper into minuscule details.  While there is error in this German newspaper it was well worth my time to locate it by doing a physical search of the original microfilm.  In 2000 Jeffrey G Herbert abstracted and translated many of the death notices from this paper and after editing by Barbara K. Gargiulo it was published as Translated Abstracts of Death Notices in the Portsmouth Correspondent 1894-1908.  However they completely missed this almost column long obituary of my ancestor.  Thank goodness I follow up, when possible, with the original source material.

Tucked away in my jewelry box is a beautiful blue garnet ring inscribed 17 December 1887 E. L. F. to D. M. C.  D. M. C. is his future wife Dessie Mae Clayton.  There is no indication that she was in Indianapolis in 1887.  She became a member of Bigelow United Methodist Church in Portsmouth, Ohio in August 1885.  There are no family stories of how they met. 

 

On 26 March 1888 Edward Leopold Feiler appeared in Probate Court of Scioto County, Ohio to finalize his naturalization.  The clerk wrote his name as Feiler and then penned over the I with a Y.  With the stroke of a pen his surname became Feyler and all subsequent documentation appears to carry the surname as Feyler.  

And now I am directed back to the two clues on the Monarch Roller Rink Ticket. #1. The spelling is Feiler and #2. The date is July 1885.  When filling a chronology of an individual’s life no one wants a three year gap.  Where was Monarch Roller Rink and where was Feiler in 1885?  I searched the city directories of Indianapolis and found no listing for a roller rink of this name.  I searched for histories of Roller Rinks and yes I searched NewspaperArchives for “Monarch Roller Rink.”  And there is the minuscule computer search error that almost left my trail cold.  

I recently posted the ticket on the popular social network, Facebook on a created wall “You Know You Are From Portsmouth Ohio If?”  With 2120 active members I felt certain if this roller rink were in the area someone would know.  Chris Lewallen jumped in and after a search came back with no location found for “Monarch Rink.”  Not discouraged after several hours he pops back with a rink in Distel Hall in 1917.  When Chris wrote “Monarch Rink” I realized my error in research tactics. Shame on me!  I immediately hit the search engine again.  The Portsmouth Times at NewspaperArchives.com came back with many hits by removing the word “roller” from my search. The search term Monarch was too broad.  The earliest hit is for 5 December 1885 when the city solicitor announced that Monarch Rink had already taken out a license for the skating rink and opera house.   

My chronology now shows that Edward Leopold/Lee Feyler was in Indiana in 1884 and was in Portsmouth, Ohio in 1885.  

The same year he naturalized, 1888,  the Portsmouth Times announced that Ed Lee Feyler who had been associated with Charles Cohen accepted a position with E. Corriell.  The following year he opened his own store on West Second Street.  In 1890 Dessie and Edward Lee Feyler were married at Bigelow Church.  A son, Howard Clayton Feyler was born in September 1893.  Deeds, advertisements, and personal items fill in the years of his short life in America.  Edward Leopold Feiler/Feyler died 25 June 1900 from stomach cancer.  

From articles Feyler had an interest in bicycle racing.  But for now being a reporter at Monarch Roller Rink remains a bit of a curiosity.  Through the years the Monarch held balls, banquets even Temperance Meetings.  The 17 November 1888 Portsmouth Times describes the building as “The old barn like Monarch Rink…”  That same year they ran ads to rent the Rink to responsible parties for fairs, festivals and political meetings.  

My grandfather was just a 3 months short of his 7^th birthday when his father died.  His mother, Dessie, kept postcards that had been exchanged with a cousin and his grandfather in Europe.  Those few minuscule lines sent across the ocean from one country to another have opened doors to learn more about my European heritage and to be introduced to surviving cousins from the Holocaust.  They have led my research from Temisvar now Rumania, Budapest in Hungry,  Bielitz, Austria Silesia and even Komarom Czechoslovakia.  

To date I have not found a record of Edward practicing his Jewish faith in Indianapolis or Portsmouth.  He married, as I have mentioned at Bigelow  United Methodist.  Yet once again I find a minuscule clue  buried within the pages  of the History of Scioto County, Ohio by Evans in 1903 “…and to this day most of the members of the choir at the Temple are also members of the choir of the Bigelow M. E. Church.”

Minuscule clues open the door to wonderful genealogy and historical avenues.