Here's another long-time-coming post from my blog archive, this one dating back to July when my cousin Andreas Oberndorfer first discovered this blog and contacted me. I wrote about Andreas's fascinating past, the missing links in his family -- and mine -- in the post Redheads, Resisters, & Red Light Districts, 1: Valerie Oberndorfer-Kornmehl. I have many excuses,
Kornmehl family
Dayenu: A Kornmehl Reunion in Vienna
Dayenu: It would have been enough. That phrase, repeated as a refrain in a Passover song that offers a litany of thanks for blessings piled upon blessings, has been going through my head sporadically since last October, when I gave a talk at the Freud Museum in Vienna. It's been an amazing journey, albeit one that's taken a rather meandering, bumpy path, from the inception of
Mystery Adoptions & Cryptic Crypts: Finding Cousin Erika
UPDATE: I was wrong. I hate that -- especially since it means the mystery of Erika remains unresolved. What happened? Sometimes I think that if I wait long enough, relatives will turn up to resolve all my genealogical issues -- or at least clarify them. The original post, below, posited that two childless members of the Kornmehl family, the Schweitzers,
Jewish Immigration, Part 2: Sponsorship & Family Rifts
This is Day 9 of the Family History Writing Challenge, 2018. In yesterday's post, I described the restrictions against immigrants, especially Jews, coming to the U.S. from Nazi Austria (an accurate term, I decided, for a country that welcomed Hitler and that was instrumental to putting his Final Solution into place--claims of being occupied notwithstanding). Adolph
Bertha Kornmehl Gets Married, Part 2
This is Day 7 of the Family History Writing Challenge. One week down, three to go, lord help me. As I continue my search for information on my great aunt and uncle, Bertha and Adolf Schweitzer, here's a wrap up of what I've discovered so far. Marriage No. 1 Bertha Kornmehl became Bertha Singer on March 18, 1894; she was divorced from Samuel Singer on December
It’s the Quinquennial Family History Writing Challenge!
Like many writers, I thrive on deadlines. That's not to say I don't rail against them and say many bad words when they close in, but without a strict time frame I tend to dither my time away. When I am paid to write, the incentive for meeting my deadlines is clear. When I am not...well, I have to come up with an artificial construct. Like the guilt or public shame that follows
A Grave Concern: Help Restore the Tarnow Jewish Cemetery
Fanning out. Contracting back. In my last post, I explored the story of a family member who fled halfway across the world from Vienna to escape Hitler--only to have to escape another dangerous dictator in his adopted home. Here I look back to my ancestral roots in a town I'd never heard of until I started this blog, and certainly never knew most of my mother's family came from:
Cemetery Schlepping in Vienna: A Shaggy Deer Story
I like cemeteries, especially big sprawling ones with famous people buried in them. It's always interesting to see different forms of remembrance and, for the most part, they are quiet, park-like places to stroll and contemplate mortality. Or dinner. Having visited Karl Marx and George Eliot in London's Highgate, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf and Jim Morrison in Pere Lachaise
Finding the Farbers: Best Genealogical Gift, Ever
I left you in New York so long ago, virtually speaking, that springtime finally arrived in the city. As I mentioned, at the end of that trip I at long last I met Jill Leibman Kornmehl, who has contributed to this blog in more ways that I can detail. At that meeting (the proof is in the picture next to this post's title; Jill is on the right), she gave me copies of
New York Report, Pt. 2: Family & Film, Pastry & Punctuation
I admit it: It sometimes takes me a while to unpack from a trip. On my recent return to Tucson from New York, I didn't need the winter clothes I'd brought with me (nyah nyah); only an underwear shortage inspired me to retrieve the contents of my suitcase. It sometimes takes me even longer to unpack my experiences, since there's never any shortage of stories -- only some of them
Family Trek, The Next Generation: Herbert Bratspies
I've been tracing the family of the third of the Kornmehl butcher brothers, Martin, a journey that starts in Vienna (see The Return of Martin Kornmehl) and takes us to Melbourne (see Detention of Jews in World War II: Et Tu, Australia?). Today I finish the story of the newly found Australian branch of my mother's family -- at least for now; in genealogy, you never know -- with
The Kornmehl-Schmerling Connection, Past & Present
I have a tendency to be a bit long winded. I can't quite make this a Wordless Wednesday -- or even an (Almost) Wordless Wednesday -- but I'm going to try to keep my foray into the past and present of the Kornmehl and Schmerling families as brief as possible. Kornmehls and Schmerlings, Past I wrote last week about how I was planning to participate in the family histories that
Freud’s Butcher, Year One: Five Highlights
It's hard to believe that a year has passed since I wrote my first post here, a speculation on whether Freud ate kosher. It's been quite the wild ride since then -- a statement that might surprise those who think that genealogy is boring. But if you use the term family history -- emphasis on family -- and realize that family historians deal with people who are alive and/or who
Survival in Paradise: Southern France
Get a cup of coffee or tea and settle in. I've got a great read for you today, courtesy of one of my talented relatives. I introduced Manfred Wolf briefly last week when he added information about his uncle Paul to an earlier post about the far-flung Kornmehl family. Today the spotlight is entirely on him, with an excerpt from an unpublished memoir tentatively called
Fish, Fungi & Funny Jewish Words: The Schmerling Name, Revisited
I thought that my recent post about the origin of the Schmerling name had laid the topic to rest. After going through a series of logical steps, I was certain that the source of the name, handed down matrilinealy, was "loach fish," chosen from a list provided by the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the Jews in 1787 when they mandated the taking of Germanic surnames. I subsequently