| Notes |
- RESEARCH_NOTES:
1. Important DNA information by email Nov 2014 from Professor Andrew M. Colman of Leicester, England, which confirms two branches of Latvian Herzenbergs being related to a common identifiable ancestor. The DNA of both lines were tested by Family Tree DNA which showed a predicted match of 3rd to 5th cousins. As of 18 Nov 2014, I am aware of only two Herzenberg DNA tests -- the one managed by Andrew Coleman for his sister Susan Sutcliffe and the one on my mother Irene (de Lanskoy) Petersen.
The two lines relate back as follows:
Andrew's: "My father's mother, Rose Hodes, was the daughter of Miriam Gana Herzenberg (1859-1945). Miriam was the daughter of Jossel Elias Herzenberg (1815-1881), Rabbi of Liepaja (Libau). He was the son of Elias or Eliahu Herzenberg (abt 1774-1844), Rabbi of Piltene. He was the son of Joseph or Jossel Herzenberg (abt 1750-abt 1815)...[*]"
Irene's: Her grandmother was Elizabeth Herzenberg who was the daughter of Eduard/Elias Ocipovitch Herzenberg (abt 1838-1910). He was the son of Joseph Herzenberg (abt 1808-aft 1877). He was the son Lemchen Herzenberg (abt 1779-1840). He was the son of Joseph or Jossel Herzenberg (abt 1750-abt 1815).
The two lines merge with Joseph or Jossel Herzenberg (abt 1750-abt 1815) who I shall call "Generation 1." Susan Sutcliffe is the 4gg-dau of Joseph of the 7th Generation. Irene is also the 4gg-dau of Joseph of the 7th Generation.
[*Note: Andrew then extends the line two generations further than what I do by noting "and Joseph (abt 1750-abt 1815) was the son of Lemchen Herzenberg (born abt 1720), the son of the postulated Joseph or Jossel Herzenberg (born abt 1695)." I do not concur with this additional genealogy and believe it mistaken.]
2. Archival Research Paper about Herzenberg Family prepared for Kerry Petersen 28 Feb 2011 and is report no. Nr. 3-P-272, 2816, 1927 N, by Latvijas Valsts Vestures Arhivs (Latvian National Archives), Slokas iela 16, Riga, LV-1007. Complete transcript is in the notes of Edouard/Elias Ocipovitch Herzenberg and the following is but a partial transcript:
"The recruits' enlistment registers of the Jewish families belonging to Pilten for 1842, 1848, 1854, 1871, the revision lists of the Jewish families belonging to Pilten, set up on August 15 of 1851, the merchant's lists of Goldingen for 1868, 1874, 1875 contain the following information about Herzenberg family (we would like to draw your attention to the fact that very often the age of person was determined by their outward appearance and was stated in some documents rather approximately):
1. Joseph Herzenberg, his sons:
1.1. Elias, son of Joseph Herzenberg, born in ca 1774 (aged 68 in 1842), died on May 22 of 1844. His wife Chiene, born in ca 1780 (aged 62 in 1842). They had children.
1.2. Chone, son of Joseph Herzenberg, born in ca 1792 (aged 50 in 1842). His wife Schore, born in ca 1792 (aged 50 in 1842). They had children.
1.3. Lemchen, son of Joseph Herzenberg, born in ca 1779/1780 (aged 54 in 1834), died 1840. His wife Schore (the age is not stated). Their sons…"
3. Transcription from Peter Bruce Herzenberg's website on the Herzenberg (Website no longer active as of 2007):
"The Early Herzenbergs.
Joseph I appears as a patronymic only in:
(1) the 1811 census as the father of Lemchen (39) born 1772 and as father of Elias (40) born 1771.
(2) the Latvian Archives Appendix 1 of 1842 as the father of Elias (68) b. 1774.
(3) Appendix 2 confirms this date.
From this we learn that Elias and Lemchen were brothers and very close in age.
Lemchen from the above was born in 1772
From the Feigmanis report, we have the 1818 list of Piltene Jews made for taxation purposes. This is numbered 96-1-433a of the Latvian State Archives. Lemchen son of Joseph appears as being 17 years old, therefore born in 1801. This represents a huge discrepancy. Elias appears as 40 years old, thus born in 1778, another new date for Elias although fairly close to those above. Also mentioned is Chone son of Joseph (the Yiddish for Elchanan and the civil name Elkan) - he appears to have been born in 1884 [Kerry's note: assume this is typo for 1784.]
The question [asked of Peter Herzenberg] is: were there two contemporary Josephs both of whom had sons named Elias and Lemchen, or is one of the dates for Lemchen patently wrong?"
4. Data from a copy captured of Peter Bruce Herzenberg's website of London, England, since relocated to South Africa (website is no longer functioning as of 7 Aug 2007). See more on his research and data in the notes of the earliest Herzenberg in this database. Sources for this individual are LA is Latvian Archives and YL for Len Yodaiken (Israeli researcher hired by Harold Hodes). In regards to this individual:
LA shows birth abt 1750, d. abt 1815 in Piltene, Kurland.
YL001 shows birth abt 1750.
YL013 shows birth abt 1750.
5. Received 30 Apr 2009 a copy of the following from Irene Gottleib Slatter entitled "Archival Reference about Brenson Family. It was prepared for Nina Kossman Dec 2006 and is report no. 3-K-7622; 7794N by Latvijas Valsts Vestures Arhivs (Latvian National Archives), Slokas iela 16, Riga, LV-1007. The following is only a partial transcript concerning this individual; please see the notes of Isidor Brenson within this database to see full and complete transcript including sources and documentation:
"The records of the archival fonds "Collection of Passports of Riga Prefecture," "Riga City House Registers," the birth records of the Jewish community in Mitau for 1854-1855, 1857-1858, 1862, 1864-1883,1886-1889, 1892, 1895, 1900, 1902-1904, the marriage records of the same community for 1854, 1856-1868, 1872-1873, 1875, 1884, 1886-1887, 1889-1891, 1893, 1895-1897, as available at our archives (the birth marriage and death records for other years have not survived), the birth marriage and death records of the Jewish communities in Riga for 1854-1905, the revision lists of the Jewish families belonging to Mitau for 1834, 1858, 1887, the recruits' enlistment register of the Jewish families belonging to Mitau for 1845, 1875, for Pilten for 1848 contain the following information:
"..We suppose that Klara's father was Robert (Ruben), son of Joseph (Jossel) Herzenberg a merchant from Pilten, born in ca 1826 (aged 22 in 1848, see Appendix No. 4) and mother Emilie (Amalie), daughter of David Kahn, born in ca 1830, died in 1903. Robert Herzenberg lived in Mitau and had his firm 'Robert Herzenberg,' he died before 1887 (the death records of the Jewish community in Mitau, as available at our archives do not contain information on his death).
Ruben had at least two brothers Laser and Jacob (unfortunately, females (daughters) were not registered in the recruits's enlistment registers of Pilten). His parents: father Joseph (Jossel), son of Lemchen Herzenberg was born in ca 1809 (aged 39 in 1848), mother Zippe (the age is not stated). His grandparents: Lemchen, son of Joseph Herzenberg, born ca 1780, died in 1840. He belonged to the Jewish community in Pilten at least since 1834, his wife Schore (the age is not stated)...
REFERENCE:
fond 5024, inventory 2, files 331, 351, 375, inventory 1, file 88.
fond 2942, inventory 1, files 4109, 2130.
fond 630, inventory 2, files 220, 221.
fond 4349, inventory 2, file 6.
fond 445, inventory 1, files 2035, 2038.
fond 2996, inventory 9, file 520, inventory 12, field 14498, inventory 7, files 25343, 25280, inventory 2, files 41162, 41163, 41164, 41171, 41175, 41185, 41186, inventory 15, file 4449, fond 472, inventory 5, files 628, 826, 1574.
Enclosure: genealogical table - 1 table, copies of the documents - 26 sheets.
Director: N. Rizovs, Head of Department: I. Veinberga., Researcher: J. Polovceva."
6. Peter Herzenberg in his 1999 (updated 2010) compilation of Herzenbergs created a fourth individual (who he names as Osher/Asher Lemel) as a son to the original Joseph (b. ca. 1750); the other three sons of Joseph, all proven, are "Rabbi" Elias, Lemchen, and Chone/Elkan. Peter gave his primary source for Osher as "CP," which is purported to be a Pilten Cemetery gravestone photo showing Osher b. Joseph Herzenberg, b. abt. 1794, d. in 1844 (there was no such photo or other documentation in the material received by me from Peter in 2010). I corroborated this against the Pilten Cemetery all name list that Feignanis included in his 1997 report to Harold Hodes as well as all Oshers/Lemels/Lemchens, etc. of the "All Latvian Cemetery" lists on the Internet as of 5 Dec 2011 without finding any match. My Latvian Research report dated 28 Feb 2011, which included the early Pilten Herzenbergs, failed to mention any element of Osher's family. I also have since personally extracted every Herzenberg name from every Pilten register from 1796 to 1879 without finding even one reference to Osher or his supposed children (see below).
Ron Lapid , another skilled family researcher, addressed in his email of 24 Aug 2009 another aspect of this problem of "...Joseph having four children including Lemchen and Osher." He comments: "In my opinion, this is very unlikely because Lemchen is Kinnui (vernacular, nickname) for Osher and you would probably not find brothers of the same name."
Before Peter proposed Osher as a son to Joseph, there appeared to have been some theorizing as to how Osher (if really even existed) would fit in. In a undated handwritten schematic and undocumented pedigree that Gail Herzenberg gave relatives in Israel (copy in my possession and perhaps somewhat based on early theorizing of family researcher Leo Herzenberg), Osher (with undocumented earlier dates of 1770-1820) was a brother to Joseph (b. ca. 1750) and linked to an imaginary father named Elihu-Elias (name based solely on the speculative thought that perhaps Joseph's oldest son Elihu-Elias was his grandfather's namesake). Gail then had another generation back with an imaginary name of Lemchen based solely on the name repeating itself often in later Herzenberg generations. Lastly there was a second branch of this oldest imagined Lemchen that led first to a son b. abt. 1740 named Joseph, then to a son Lemchen b. abt. 1771, and then finally to three sons. Peter corrected all this speculation by realizing that the new Joseph branch was actually just the original Joseph (b. abt. 1750 and still the earliest ancestor) and his sons - but it still left him the problem of Osher.
In attempting to reconcile Osher into the family, Peter's apparent thought was that there were two sons in Joseph's family named similarly with one Lemchen dying early before the subsequent one Osher was born and perhaps named in his memory. This thought was inadvertently fueled by the 1997 Alexandrs Feignanis reseach report for Harold Hodes wherein he quotes from his review of Latvian State Historical Archives 96-1-4330a 1818 Pilten tax list showing a young Lemchen: "Elias Joseph Herzenberg, age 40; Chonne Joseph Herzenberg, age 24; Lemchen Joseph Herzenberg, age 17.) Having two sons with the same name was messy and did not work well because even internally in Peter's compilation the first Lemchen was having children from 1798 to 1809 even after the second Osher was supposedly born abt 1794. In my comprehensive Dec. 2011 Pilten extraction work, it has become very apparent that the first Lemchen survived with his children and did not die until 1840; there was no younger Lemchen b. abt 1801 on any of the many subsequent lists. I have not seen the copy of the 1818 tax list that Feignanis says he attached to his report, but the bigger picture shows he either mistook a probable 37 for 17 (I have found Feignanis to be sloppy in some of his reporting) or the original censor miswrote the age. The 1818 tax list is not online; however, the 1811 and 1834 Registers shows Lemchen age 33 and 54 respectively.
I also reviewed Len Yodaiken's 2000 research report to see how he deals with the supposed Osher and his children. He really garbles this up badly by placing Osher (1772-1844) as the first of the two similarly named sons of Joseph (b. abt. 1750) and placing Lemchen (1801-?) second with only one son named Eleazer (?-1907). He then interchanges some children while randomly attaching unconnected branches. He does not document his work and more detailed modern research shows that his early generations are nothing more than rehashing work by others while forcing non-existent connections.
One of the other large factors that perhaps prompted Peter to add Osher was the Pilten cemetery tombstone lists from which he assigns several children to this Osher. From my recent extraction of eighty years of Pilten revision lists, there is not even one reference to Osher or any of his children - the only basis for this supposed family group are the gravestone transcriptions. These can be found online or in the Aleksandrs Feigmanis report (3 pages) to Harold Hodes - the latter being Peter's source. Apparently Feigmanis made the original transcriptions in Spring 1998 (perhaps only from films since he sources films 7786, 7789, and 7790); they then become exactly the basis of what we see on the Internet as of 2011. The accuracy of the transcription is unknown considering what Feigmanis had to work with in regards to poorly maintained tombstones (as reported by Nina Kossman from her trip to this cemetery). The entries for this family from the Pilten cemetery transcripts are:
-"Joseph b. Osher Herzenberg died 78 years old in 565" [Date missing one digit in transcription.]
-"Eliahu b. Osher Herzenberg"
-"Arye Leib b. Osher d. 5627" [1866/1867]
-"Lea b. Osher d. 5630" [1869/1870]
-"Dveire Arenson geb. Herzenberg d. 26.07.1864" [I believe geb. = nee]
-"Gutel Rebecca b. Osher Mersonb (Gerzon?) d. 5652" [1891/1892]
-"Yosel (Yete?) b. Osher died in age 45 years old in 5646" [1888/1886]
After reviewing these seven children, I do not find they make a good argument for the existence of the questioned Osher. In analyzing these seven entries, we can quickly eliminate the four who do not contain the name Herzenberg. I find other Oshers in the same cemetery who could just as likely be their father. The entry for Dveire could link her as a daughter to any Herzenberg father; unfortunately, the Registers do a poor job listing daughters since their main purpose is for military and taxation - if I had to hazard a guess I would place her in the Pilten family of Levin Lemchen Herzenberg (1800-1867) since his wife was named Dwuare/Dbuare. (Dveire m. Uriah Ahronson, and they had a child named Bernard Ahronson. "Uria" is buried in same cemetery.) This leaves us with two sons Joseph and Eliahu; however, both of these are names from our proven Lemchen (or Osher if going by a nickname). The tombstone inscriptions do not give us much to work with, but we do know that Lemchen's son Joseph was b. abt. 1809, spent most of his life in Pilten, and moved late in life to Kuldiga where we have record of him as a merchant up to at least 1877. He nor his wife appear in the Kuldiga (Goldingen) cemetery (not many do since I believe this cemetery was heavily destroyed by the Nazis), so there is a good chance he could have been buried with family in Pilten, which is only 23 miles away from Kuldiga.
Based upon the above analysis and the comprehensive Herzenberg extraction made 5 Dec 2011 from the online Latvian Archives, I suggest we drop Osher and his seven supposed children as a Herzenberg family.
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Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy
Abt 1750 - Abt 1815 (65 years)
