To: @PIKHOLZ.PML Subject: Genealogy #50 Reply-to: IsraelP@pikholz.org Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 22:06:55 +0200 It has been more than six months since my last summary and all kinds of things have been piling up. Good thing we have holidays to keep things lined up, even though it is so easy to lose track of time. (There was an editorial in one of the Hebrew papers about a year ago that I wanted to quote for something I was doing recently. I couldn't get it from their archives because I didn't have a date or a title, so I called, hoping that the editor would remember the particular piece. He did and the secretary said they would find it for me. Turns out it was from the spring of 2001.) Two mazal tovs have been reported since last time. There are probably more, but no one ever tells me anything. <;-( Mazal tov to Arny and Sandy Pickholtz (IF1 and IF4 families) on the marriage of their son Seth to Skye Alexander in January. Mazal tov to Chaya and Eliezer Hakak (IF2 family) on the marriage of Sarah to Yaakov Yonason Laub in February. I started this story last time, but I'll take it now from the top. Dalia Kaplan, one our Israelis from the Buczacz family was invited some months ago to a wedding that a Pickholz second cousin of hers was making and she met there another Pickholz second cousin she had never heard of. Turns out, Dalia's grandfather had a sister Rivka who married a man named Bernstein and they lived in Radauti (aka Radatz) in nearly Bukovina, where he came from. Some of that family survived and now lives here. The cousin that Dalia met - also Rivka - is a grandaughter of Rivka Pikholz Bernstein and lives in Haifa. This Rivka, in addition to knowing her own family, also knew as fact that another brother of her grandmother was Berl (Dov) Pickholz, father of Dr Ephraim Fischel Pickholz-Ilan of Holon and Zygmund Pickholz of Nuremburg. People knew that this branch was connected to certain others, but no one knew quite how. So now, I have merged the ILAN branch into the BUCZACZ branch. And while we are in Bukovina, we have a couple of other connections. I mentioned earlier that there is a burial record for Lea Pickholz in Czernowitz in the year 1913. Turns out there is no grave marker, so we have no idea who this is, or even if this is a child or an adult. We also turned up a Page of Testimony in Yad Vashem submitted in 1999 by Berta Federmann of Mexico City, in memory of her father Joel Pfeffer/Pickholz, who was born in Kopicienice in 1885, lived in Czernowitz and Radauti and was killed in Germany during the Holocaust. We had a birth of this Joel from the records, but no idea what happened to him and most of his siblings. I have not succeeded in contacting any Federmanns in Mexico City, Berta was born in Czernowitz in 1912, so I don't know if we are now looking for her or for family members. Joel Pfeffer/Pickholz (his father was a Pfeffer and his mother a Pikholz from Skalat) belongs to the DORA family, together with the Rosenbaum and Marenus families. There is one brother of Joel who lived in New York. Leo Pickholz died in 1971 and we haven't a clue where he is buried or if he had children. Just last week, we found that he married in NY in 1931 (he was nearly forty by then) to a woman named Sophie Wechsler. I have identified some of her Wechsler family and am trying to find out about Leo through them. Our other big discovery regards the RISS family. One branch of that family includes the brothers Erwin and Egon who were last seen in England. Egon Riss was a well-known designer/architect and we know he died in England, but we had little detail and do not know where to find his two daughters. We knew even less about the older brother Erwin. So about a month ago, I received an email from Erwin's son, who lives near Hamburg and saw references to his father on our web site. He knew some things that we didn't and we knew much that he didn't and we are now putting our knowledge together to learn things that none of us knew before. I hope that this will develop well. As it turns out, this man knew Zygmund Pickholz from Nuremburg, while his Uncle Egon was active in the Zionist Organization in Vienna in the 1930's so would have known Zygmund's brother Ephraim-Fischel (later Ilan). We have found the son of Sam Pickholz of Erie PA. Turns out he died in 2001, apparently with no children, which leaves us with almost no place else to look regarding that family, save a first cousin named Betty Rubenstein who lived in NJ/NY and about whom we nothing at all. We also may have found a lead to the refugee brothers Jozef and Marian Pickholc, who were last seen in the southern Polish city of Bytom in 1946. We know they were from Podwoloczysk (near Skalat) and that their father was Mendel, which is an uncommon Pikholz name. I had decided that they were likely the sons of Mendel Liebergal (wife was a Pikholz) of the TONKA family, who was born 1890. Jozef and Marian were born 1929-30, so could well be alive, but we found nothing about them save that single 1946 reference. A few weeks ago, I had some conversation with a Polish researcher and she ended with "is there anything else I can do for you here?" so I told her the Jozef/Marian story. In almost no time, she found a 1954 reference to Jozef Pikholc who was receiving some kind of college diploma and another from 1974 for Dorota Pikholc who received a high school diploma. Both of these were in Krakow and I expect they are father and daughter and very likely the Jozef we have been looking for. Now we jahave to find where they are today, but my new Polish friend has some ideas about that as well. I have made no progress looking for Felix and Rosa Pickholz who applied for aliyah from Hungary in 1943. This reference has them and their two teenaged children and we have nothing else on any of them. But while making inquiries about them, I found some other brief Hungarian references. Sandor Herlinger, son of Janka Pickholz was born in Budapest in 1905. Bela Marton, son of Sarolta Pickholz was born in Budapest in 1919. Ilona Pickholz born in 1890, was the daughter of Nettie Herz and was married to Adolph Hollander. I haven't a clue who any of these are, but I believe the Martons are here in Israel. There were also references to two sisters from the IF3 family, about whom we know next to nothing. One - Violet Frida (Feige) - was married to a man named Roth and had a son Erno Roth in 1921. Another - Hermina (Mirl) - was married to a man named Istvan Deckner. Some years ago, one of our Israeli members was visiting the cemetery in Carlsbad (Czech) and found a grave of a woman named Sophie (Zisl) Pickholz from 1928. We have now identified her as the wife of Josef Pikholz of Grymalow (near Skalat). we do not know who his parents were, but we have identified several of their descendants. This family is now called MIGDEN. A woman in Australia wrote to tell me that she had relatives in England named Harris Pickles and Avraham Eliezer Pickles, brothers. Pickles is a Gentile name, but in this case, it is obviously from some Jewish source. (Harris' wife was Fagey.) It could be Pikholz, but also could be anything else. The interesting thing is that in the LAOR family, we have brothers Avraham-Luser and Herz-Getzel about whom we don't know a thing. The woman in Australia said she would check it out but nothing has happened yet. I feel good about this one. We turned up a 1926 note in the LA Times reporting a radio appearance by a singer named Aaron Pickholz. The only identification is that he began singing at age forty and that he came from Austria. I know of no Aaron anywhere near the right age for us. There is a new online site for Argentine Jewish burials and we found someone there we cannot identify. Chaya Pikholc de Dobisky, died in 2002. Her husband Leon Dubisky died 1997. I have no idea who she is and do not know which of the Dubisky in the argentine phone book might be related to them. I sent some letters but got no responses. On a website called savingjews.org, I found a Polish family named Dobrucki who sheltered some Jews during the Holocaust including someone named Stanislawa Pikholc from Czortkow. I inquired at Yad Vashem and they said they the Dobruckis were recognized as Righteous Gentiles in 1983, but they have no mention of Stanialawa or any other pikholc in their file. This morning they gave me an outdated Canadian address for the Dobruckis son and I am trying to locate him, to see if he can be of help. Needless to say, we know of no Stanialawa in our families. In fact we have exactly two other references to Pikholz in Czortkow, so that may indicate something. Of course, we don't know if this is an adult or a child. A few other loose ends and dead ends in the US - but probably not of significance. Robert P in Connecticut is participating in a DNA project which is meant to trace populations, rather than families. Have a look at www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic if you want to see more. He promises to report back on what turns up. The dates for the 2006 International Conference on Jewish Genealogy have been set - 13-18 August in New York City. I enjoyed the Jerusalem Conference last summer and am giving this one serious consideration. (The 2005 Conference is in Las Vegas. I gave that no consideration at all!) I think that is enough. Let me wish you all a happy, kasher and meaningful Passover and that "we recite before Him a new song" as he brings us "from bondage to liberty, from sorrow to joy, from mourning to festivity, from darkness to great light and from slavery to redemption." Israel P. -- End --