Blumenfeld Family - Courland, Germany, United States, Australia, Israel, England, France, and Belgium

Introduction

This is the genealogical Web site for a branch of the Blumenfeld family which goes back to my great, great, great grandfather Simon Isaak Blumenfeld from Mitau, Courland (now Jelgava, Latvia). My great great grandfather Joseph and his son Mendel Joseph moved to Hamburg. Johanna emigrated with her sister to New York in 1888. She married my grandfather in 1892. The site contains some unique material, including a family history written in German in 1943 that references a Hamburg newspaper article about Simon Isaac Blumenfeld printed in 1825 and provides some family pictures. I have translated several documents into English; criticisms and corrections are welcome. Simon Isaac Blumenfeld is also referenced in a Jewish encyclopedia and Reuben J. Wunderbar's book on Liv and Courland published in 1853. A page is devoted to a narative summary about my grandmother Johanna Blumenfeld.

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Rootsweb.com and their sponser Ancestry.com for the free Web space on which to display, for the information they have provided, and for the invaluable weekly E-zine entitled Roots Web Review. I also wish to thank the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles, the JewishGen site for their search engine, family finder and wealth of other materials, the Courland special interest group site, the Ellis Island site, the Hamburg Passenger List site, and of course the Family History Centers for their free genealogical software, comprehensive Web site, their excellent facilities and their helpful service volunteers. I have a debt of gratitude to Gerry Winerman who first showed how to use the 1900 and 1920 US Census and pointed me to the series Germans in America, to Robert Back for his help with a still unidentified family picture and so many other things, to Tony of Kaisersbunker for his military expertise, to Edward Anders for his insightful translation of Steimanis' History of Latvian Jews. With the help of Kaiva Jansone of the national Library of Latvia, I was able to gain access to R.J. Wunderbar's bookLast but not least I want to thank my deceased grand uncle Julius Blumenfeld who painstakingly compiled a family history in the midst of a devasting war while England was still under attack. I admire his wisdom and courage in seeing that his immediate family escaped the devestating and merciless Holocaust. These are only some of the sites and people who have guided me along a road on which I have only begun my journey.

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Blumenfeld Family - Courland, Germany, United States, Australia, Israel, England, France, and Belgium

© 2002, 2003, 2004 Sonia Nayle, Woodland Hills, USA, all rights reserved, last updated 23 March 2004