| Notes |
- RESEARCH_NOTES:
1. 28 Jul 2007 Http://www.herzenberg.net/leo/htmlrh/Content.html copyrighted by Leo Herzenberg:
"An meinen Sohn (To my son) Leonhard Herzenberg von (from) Robert Herzenberg. Memoirs written during the 1940's." Translated during the 1990's by Leonardo (Leonhard) Herzenberg. The entire memoir is quite lengthy and included in its entirety in my notes with Joseph Herzenberg, the original known ancestor, in this database. The following is only the portion dealing with this part of the family:
"Great Uncles on Mother's Side...
Great Uncle Jacob I saw a few times in Goldingen. He had several sons, of whom I knew only the youngest - Robert. He was a pharmacist, but we lost touch still before the first world war. He also had 11 daughters, known as the "elves" (eleven and elf are the same word in German). From the time I was with him in Goldingen I only remember the dinner table with the many, many girls; oddly enough they all became dentists. One of them married a dentist Friedman from Tashkent, the son of a [?] [Kantonisten] (Dubnow, Weltgeshichte odes Judishen Volks IX, p 191 ff.) I never heard anything more from the others."
2. In Kuldiga (formerly known as Goldingen, my mother and I stayed the the "Roberts Herzenberg" apartment on the main pedestrian thoroughfare the night of Oct. 8, 2016. I believe this apartment to have belonged to Robert Herzenberg, son of Eleazer and Amalie (Hirschman) Herzenberg, who would have been about 47 when he built it circa 1915. Alternatively, Robert may also be the son of Jacob and Dorothea (___) Herzenberg. The proprietor of the apartment rental is trying to contact the elderly descendant of Robert who sitll is alive and lives in Israel. Hopefully, I will be able to contact her for more information. Here is some communication from Mr. Vaitkus who we met and owns the apartment rental business. He is very interested in helping find out more about the history of the original Robert Herzenberg:
Email from roberts vaitkus 8 Oct 2016:
"Thank you for the time and the privilege to meet with you both. Thank you also for the amazing amount of the work and energy you have put to create the historical database of Herzenberg family tree line. I contacted my wife Aiga yesterday night telling what awesome people I have met. She and her sister will summarize all the detailed information about Robert Herzenberg we have at the moment and send it to you as soon they come back from UK. Please say hi to your Mom and I thank both of you for being willing to discover your legacy in such a adventurous way. I pray that God would open doors to people and places which will let you dig deeper than 5th generations back! Have a wonderful trip to Vilnius! With much love, Roberts Vaitkus +371 27710100.
The following are my comments and observations:
Photos of the apartment are are available on the Airbnb website https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/6864313 accessed 13 Oct 2016. It was built by Robert Herzenberg in about 1915 and included three floors. The bottom floor contained commercial space including a pharmacy and restaurant. A restaurant remains to this day. The building is owned by a Herzenberg descendant who is an elderly lady now living in Israel. The city also owns half the building as well probably due to past Communist confiscation prior to Latvia's Independence around 1990. The current proprietor leases the apartment and has renovated the main apartment on the top floor into a very highly-rated bed and breakfast. It is the apartment that Robert himself lived in and features a round room in a turret. Among original furnishings is cooking brick cooktop for cooking by charcoal or wood. The building was quite elegant in its days but the Communists put into it the poorest of poor family who were very rough on the building. It is being slowly restored. The apartment commands the best view on the best corner of the best street in Kuldiga which is called Liepajas Iela. This area is a favorite tourist destination for tour buses since it is the best preserved old village/town in all of Latvia. It was spared from the destruction of both World Wars and the ugly Sovietization that is so common in the Baltic Republics. The entire street was more or less built by the Jewish inhabitants and even the synagogue remains to this day. It is only a half hour drive from Piltene where all Jews first lived in Latvia before spreading throughout the country. Latvia in those days was under the domination of Sweden who persecuted the Jews. Piltene was owned by the Danes who were tolerant to the Jews. This area was the ancient center of the Duchy of Courland of the Livonian Order of the Teutonic Knights. In 1795 the Russian Tsar conquered Latvia and it remained Russian until modern days.
In another email from Roberts dated 19 Oct 2016, he provides the following information. He also provides some historical photos of the building, which I have since posted on Family Search in Robert Herzenberg's file. He notes [Kerry's comments in brackets]:
"I forwarded your e-mail to my wife and her sister [who do some historical research], so we have collected the information about Robert Hercenberg, which is not that much as I expected. Hope you can get something useful out of it.
Robert Herzberg - born in 1867, 09.11. in Kuldiga
Sofia Herzberg - born in 1875, 07.07. in Kuldiga
Georg Herzberg - born in 1901, 26.02. in Kuldiga
Leo / Leopold Herzberg - born in 1908, 02.09. in Kuldiga
The whole family before World War II lived in Kuldīga.
Herzberg Robert (Age of 74) and Sofia Herzberg (Age of 68) in the year of 1941 were sent out to the farm/field work on Kuldiga parishes.
Jacob Herzberg (buried on 9 March 1912). He has been an honorary citizen of Kuldiga. For many years he was a teacher of Jewish school, Jewish religious teacher, religious teacher of grammar school. Founded the Talmud - Torah school, which he led until 1911. [KP: Appears to be a separate Herzenberg from the family above -- not sure where he fits in.]
"[Photos of Robert Herzberg building:] Apartment house with shops Liepaja Street 8 is one of the most architecturally impressive buildings in the old town of Kuldiga. Owner Robert Herzberg built it in 1913 (the year number can be seen in the entrance door transom openwork metal grid) in place o fan old wooden house. Buildings spatial form and the artistic image corresponds to the later stages of Art Nouveau. The first floor occupied by shops. In turn, wing against the Katolu (now Raina) street in the interwar period was Birger E. pharmacy. Eduard Birger (born in 1864. Nurmuiza pastor's family) in 1913 bought Kozaka pharmacy on Baznicas and Policijas street corner in Kuldiga. Since it was located very close to Grabes pharmacy (Baznicas St. 20), in the same year he moved it to Herzberg house on the corner of Liepajas and Katolu street. Pharmacy was closed on 18th of November 1939, due the pharmacy owner repatriation. In late 20th century in the building' ground floor was opened the cafe "Staburadze". Also, now the building houses a café with the same name, as well as apartments."
SOURCES_MISC:
1. Leonardo Herzenberg http://www.herzenberg.net/
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Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy
Aft 1868 - Aft 1914 (> 46 years)