Saturday, January 12, 2008

Biography Challenge: Harriet Hoffman's GG-Grandfather Samuel Stiebel

Harriet Hoffman is the first member to answer the society challenge to write and read a one-page biography she's written about an ancestor. She chose Samuel Stiebel, her great-great grandfather. I've challenged each of our Honolulu County Genealogical Society members to write a one-page biography about a parent, grandparent, etc. as an incentive for them to complete it and as a way for the rest of us to hear about their family. Thank you Harriet!
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SAMUEL STIEBEL (1804-1878)

+Schanette "Jeanette" Bettmann(abt. 1810-1855)

+Regina Straub (1818-1869)

You, Samuel Stiebel, are my great-great grandfather. I have looked at and cherished your photograph on my family gallery wall for years and years. This is all I knew of you. I never dreamed in my wildest imagination that I would be able to "visit" you. But I am, and soon. I am coming to Langenschwarz, Germany in March of 2008. I have written the remarkable story of our discovery of you in a family history chapter titled, "Stiebel...Langenschwarz,Germany - Just Words On A Tombstone." I have found you...probably with a little help from yourself. I like to think so.
According to the Jewish records archived in "Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden", Germany, where Herr Hans-Joachim Ruppel, the local archivist in Burghaun County, obtained copies, you were born September 16, 1804 and died August 29, 1878. You married Schanette in Langenschwarz, Germany, June 10, 1834. That would have ma
de you 30 years of age when you married Schanette and she 24 years old. I would think you both would have been considered old to be married in those days.

Twenty one years after marriage and after ten children, your wife, Schanette (Jeanette), died. A photo of the stone of your wife, Schanette, is below. It has endured for over 150 years in this place.

Dorothy Ruppel provides a transcription from burial books of the Jewish Cemetery Project in Langenswartz , Germany:

"Jeannette Stiebel, geborene (nee) Bettmann,

Frau des Federhändlers (wife of feather-salesman) Samuel Stiebel,

45 Jahre (years), gestorben(died): 14.08.1855 morgens 5:00 Uhr (o'clock a.m.),

Beerdigt (buried) 15.08.1855"

Notes:" nächste beerdigte Person laut Synagogenregister (next buried person in synagoge-registry) , Tochter des Abraham und der Gütel Bettmann"

(Note: Does this mean that another Bettman was buried next to her?)

^^^^^^^^

Great-Great Grandfather Samuel you died on August 29, 1878, 23 years after your first wife. I have these names and dates from the Synagogue Records held by Dorothy Ruppel , and your stone is pictured here:

"Samuel Stiebel, born 16.09.1804 in Langenschwarz,
Married to Schanette / Jeanette Bettman on 10.06.1834 (had together 9 children),
After death of Schanette on 14.08.1855, he married again on 16.03.1858 in Langenschwarz,
His second wife: Regine Strauß, born on 15.01.1
818 in Rothenkirchen, died on 14.02.1868 in Langenschwarz (no children).
Samuel died on 29.08.1878
"

Great-Great Grandfather Samuel, I want to tell you about one of your great-granddaughters, Ruth Ginsberger Bergman, who wrote a most remarkable history* about your son Herz (Henry) Stiebel, his wife, May, and their daughter (your grand daughter), Julia Stiebel. It is a forty plus page, beautifully written novel, displaying great literary talent. It was typed on an old manual typewriter, using carbon paper for copies, way before 'white out' and 'Word' on our computers. Can you imagine the labor of love that went into that endeavor?

In her book, Ruth wrote that you, Samuel, and your wife, Jeanette, had agreed to let your eldest son Herz leave Germany and go to America in 1856 to join your brother, Mendel who had emigrated to Baltimore, Maryland. She believed that you felt that Herz should go because "G
ermany was the land of conscription, and the United States had proclaimed itself the land of the free." (Authors note: Schanette (Jeanette) died in 1855, however the decision that Herz could go to America may have already been made before Jeanette, died. Ruth actually wrote that Samuel's oldest "child" went to America, she probably meant oldest "son" who was Herz. Herz had two older sisters.)

Great-great grandfather Samuel, the German records indicate that after Schanette (Jeanette) died, you remarried to Regina Straub, from Rothenkirchen, on March 16, 1858. Certainly three years was a most appropriate time for you to mourn. You were 54 years old and Regina was 45 years old when she married you, and you did not have any more children. Perhaps she had an earlier family of her own too. You lived another nine years after Regina's death. How sad to bury two wives.

I am looking forward to "visiting" you and your parents, my great-great-great grandparents Isaac (Yitzchak bar Baruch Stiefel) and Roshen Goldschmidt Stiebel. I understand your homeland, Langenschwarz, where you were born and died, is magnificent. I want to "walk where once you walked", and to feel your presence. You, now, are so much more than just a picture on my wall.

*Complete text is in our family history chapter : "Henry and Jenny Stiebel Story as told by their daughter Julia Stiebel."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am indeed honored and privileged that Donna saw fit to put my biography of my GGGF Samuel Stiebel on our HCGS Blog.

I hope you will all take the "Biography Challenge" and support her in her efforts to teach us and encourage us to tell our family stories.

I am very proud and appreciative to be a part of our group.
Harriet "Hart"

spurensuche said...

wxjvdfo
Here is my comment:"nächste beerdigte Person laut Synagogenregister (next buried person in synagogue registry") means that she was the next one who died. However, it basically also says that the graves of the two women were next to each other since burials sites were chosen in a chronological order. Heinrich Nuhn, Rotenburg an der Fulda, Germany (35 km from Langenschwarz)

Anonymous said...

Hi to Hawaii :)
Maybe I should comment why I wrote "next buried person in synagogue registry"... On the tombstone there isn't written a concrete name, just to see it was a woman and comparing the infos of stone and registry they are most similar... So this stone no. 39 seems to be the stone of Schanette - add on in the chronical followings of the registry she was the next who died compared with the stone beneath her grave... So we can be sure that this stone belongs to her... :) sorry, if I confused you... Love, Doro

Unknown said...

We will also be in Langenschwarz next month. We enjoyed your story and look forward to meeting you.

Frederick (Ted) and Barbara Hecht