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Third Generation
4. Herszel Joseph
MOSINGER18,19,20,21 was born in 1818 in Krakow.21,22,23 He resided at dzielnica X nr 203 in Krakow in 1857.24 from George Alexander's article
on Krakow Buildings: Aleksandrowicz Residences, 1802-1939 published on the internet
at http://www.ics.uci.edu/~dan/genealogy/Krakow/other/alex2.htm
The building Nr. 203 is a large three-story structure. The building is still
standing and is in good repair and inhabited by many families. I have reasons
to believe that its present address is Jozefa Street 22. When I visited the building
in October 1997 I was told by its current inhabitants that it is the oldest standing
apartment building in Kazimierz. The building is now open on one side, the neighboring
structure having been demolished. From that open side one can see that each floor
has an open wooden outside corridor and the building is rather attractive although
undoubtedly very old. The size of building 203 can be seen from its listing in
the careful Polish census undertaken in 1790-1792, entitled: "Spis ludnosci
w Miescie Zydowskim Kazimierzu, przy Krakowie, w Woiewodztwie i Powiecie Krakowskim
lezacym, przez Rabina Synagogi y Duchownych czyniony" (Population census
in the Jewish Town Kazimierz by Krakow, located in the District and Province
of Krakow, performed by the Rabbi and Clergy of the Synagogue) (Table I):
TABLE I
Listing of inhabitants of Building 203 in Kazimierz by Krakow
(as copied from the 1790-2 census located in the Krakow branch of the Polish
National Archives, in original Polish). . . .
Inhabitants of building 203 in Kazimierz/Krakow in 1790-2. (English translation).
___________________________________________________________________________________
Building No. Name Male Years White-haired
Years
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
203
Mayer Dranes 1 53
Wife Keila 1
50
Hershel the seal-maker 1 30
Wife Sorl 1
20
Feivel of the Kalmans 1 24
Wife Hinde 1
24
Moses son-in-law of Schmerl 1 30
Wife Rachel 1
40
Chaim son of Isaac 1 40
Wife Feige 1
36
Abram son of Hershel 1 45
Wife Rachel 1
40
Daughter Taube 1
22
Jebel son of the butcher 1 40
Wife Itl 1
36
Son Hershel 1
20
Moses the tailor 1 71
Wife Rachel 1
30
___________________________________________________________________________________
He died before 1870.18
This is an estimated date of death--he is not listed in the Krakow census of
1870, but the family may have moved.
Herszel Joseph MOSINGER and Hanny ALEXANDER ORGLEN were married before 1845.25
This is an estimate based on the birth records of their children. They are shown
as "not married according to the Civil Records" on all of their children's
birth records (1845, 1847, 1850). However, they are listed as the "spouses
Mosinger" on their daughters' death records (1849 and 1853).
Hanny ALEXANDER ORGLEN18,19,20 (daughter of Josef ALEXANDER and Dobrysz OF THE JACOBS)
was born in 1813 in Krakow.23,26,27
She died before 1870.18
This is an estimated date--she is not listed in the Krakow census of 1870, but
the family may have moved.
From George Alexander's article, "Searching for Roots in Krakow, Poland"
published on line at: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~dan/genealogy/Krakow/other/alex3.htm
and also in Avotaynu. He found a young woman, Hana, who might have used the Alexandr...
surname and who lived in the same Building 203 that Hanny Alexandruwny and Herszl
Mosinger were residents of in 1857. I have not been able to find any direct
evidence that Hanny is the daughter mentioned in the following excerpt.
In the book registering births in the Jewish Town in Kazimierz in the year 1818
Jozef Aleksandrowicz and Dobrysz, daughter of the Jacobs, had a son, whom they
named Samuel Aron. There are no further records of Samuel Aron, but many records
of a man who calls himself Menashe (Manasse) Aleksandrowicz, who was born on
the same date in 1818 and whose mother had the rather rare name of Dobrysz. I
am certain that Samuel Aron and Menashe are one and the same individual. According
to the birth certificate (see enclosed copy translated into English) in 1818
Jozef was thirty four, Dobrysz thirty two years old. They lived in Building 203
in the Jewish Town in Kazimierz. In 1821 Jozef and Dobrysz had a second son,
Izrael Eliasz. In 1818 they both were rather old to have a first child. When
we searched records prior to 1818 we found birth records of three daughters and,
eventually, a record of two more. In 1805 Jozef had a girl named Schoendel. In
1807 Jozef "Alexa...", living in Building 203 in Kazimierz, had a daughter,
Temerle. In 1809 another girl, Ryvka, was born, but the record of her birth is
missing. We know of her existence from her wedding announcement of 1831. In 1811,
also in building 203, Josef Alexander and Dobrysz, daughter of the Jacobs, had
a daughter named Gele, in 1813 another daughter, Hana.
The first record to mention the name Aleksandrowicz, or something approaching
it, occurs in 1807. The 1807 record is blurred and hard to read, the last name
given as Alexa... or Alexe..., the wife's name is not Dobrysz but what looks
like Freindel. In 1813, 1818 and 1821 this wife is listed as Dobrysz. However,
we found a later document, from 1827, where both names are shown and she is listed
as Freindel Dobrysz. In a still later document, from 1831, she is listed as "Dobress
z Gomplowiczow", i. e. as Dobress of the Gomplowiczes. This establishes
that her father was Jacob Gumplowicz. The name Dobrysz was new to me, as was
the name Temerle. However, I found that the name Temerl was fairly popular in
the 1800's. Indeed, in mid 1800's a nephew of Temerle Aleksandrowicz, Nachman,
son of Israel Eliasz, had a daughter whom he named Temerl. In the old Jewish
cemetery at the Remuh Synagogue there are two tombstones to Dobrosz or Dobrysz,
who died in 1642. She was the daughter of the famous Krakow cabalist Nathan Spira
(1585-1633). The Polish word "dobroc'", roughly pronounced "dobrotch",
means goodness. Thus, the name Dobrysz may be a Polish translation of the common
Jewish names Gitl or Guta. The name Alexander was also rare among Krakow Jews.
However, the historian Meyer Balaban, in his important book of history of Krakow
Jews, shows in the Remuh family tree, that Remuh's sister married Alexander ha-Kohen.
Another Alexander appears as the father of one of Remuh' students, Joshua Falk
ben Alexander ha-Kohen, author of a commentary to Shulkhan Arukh. In a book on
Jewish trade in Krakow in the 15-th and 16-th Century published by the Krakow
Academy of Arts and Sciences there is a listing of an Aleksander Jozefowicz,
i.e. Alexander son of Jozef. I have not been able to establish if there is any
connection between this prominent Cracovian merchant and the subsequent decision,
one hundred years later, by Jozef son of David to adopt "Aleksandrowicz"
as his family name.
There exists a family legend specifying that we are related to Remuh, not descended
from, but related. If we assume that Jewish names repeat themselves every two
or three generations, then our patriarch Jozef Aleksandrowicz may be a descendant
of Alexander Jozefowicz or of the Alexander who married Remuh's sister. His wife
Dobrysz may be a descendant of Dobrysz, daughter of Nathan Spira. Remuh claimed
that he established his descent from Rashi (c.1040- 1105), the great sage of
Troyes, Mainz and Worms. Rashi, in turn, claimed descent from the Royal House
of Judah. Allowing for a little poetic license, my ancestor Jozef Aleksandrowicz
may have been a descendant of King David. . . .
In my search for roots in Krakow, I have been able to establish that our family
name first appeared in official documents in Krakow 192 years ago, at first as
"Alexa" then as "Alexander" and eventually, in 1818, as "Aleksandrowicz",
but I did not find out how it was derived. I have been able to correlate some
events in the history of Krakow, the ancient coronation and burial site of Polish
kings and a free Krakow Republic (1815-1846), with events in our family. . .
.
Herszel Joseph MOSINGER and Hanny ALEXANDER ORGLEN had the following children:
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