TO BE HONEST Appendix A - Ehrlichs—The Previous Generation

Appendix A

Ehrlichs—The Previous Generation

Among many vital records at the JewishGen.org website are databases of births, marriages, and deaths in Győr during the years 1846-1895. From these, along with the Hungarian census of 1869 (also available at JewishGen.org) and a few FindaGrave.com entries, I have assembled what appears to be two previous generations of Ehrlichs:

Samu/Samuel Ehrlich (born 1826) married Regina Grunhut (born 1830s[25], died January 16, 1898). In 1869 they lived in household 356 in Győr’s Belváros district (inner city, downtown). Samu and Regina had at least ten children:

       1. Ignac/Ignatz (born 1855; present in the 1869 census; died March 18, 1929)

       2. Ida (born 1857; present in the 1869 census; also in the marriage database, where she wed Alexander Deutsch in Győr on May 20, 1877)

       3. Mór (born 1859; present in the 1869 census)

       4. Simon (born May 27, 1860; absent from the 1869 census, but appears in the birth database)

       5. Mathias/Matthias (born September 3, 1861; absent from the 1869 census, but appears in the birth database—twice: as both “Mathias” and “Matthias”)

       6. Arnold (born December 30, 1862; present in the 1869 census [born “1863”])

       7. Risa (born November 1, 1864; died July 19, 1869; absent from the 1869 census, but appears in the birth and death databases)

       8. Gizela/Gizella/Gisella (born February 10, 1867; died November 27, 1881; present in the 1869 census [as Gizela], the birth database [as Gisella], and the death database [as Gizella])

       9. Oszkar (born June 27, 1870; died January 4, 1891; too young to be in the 1869 census, but appears in the birth and death databases—though parentless in the latter)

     10. Richard (born July 23, 1873; too young to be in the 1869 census, but appears in the birth database—with his mother’s maiden name truncated to “Grun”)

(Also living with the Ehrlichs in the 1869 census was Leny Spitzer, aged nineteen; possibly a maidservant.)

Half of these ten Ehrlich children are evidently buried in the Győr-Szigeti Temető cemetery: Arnold (grave A1-3-17), Mór (grave A1-2-4), Gizella (grave A1-18-49), Ignac (grave B1-2-11, with his wife beside him in B1-2-12), and Oszkar (A1-19-50). Their parents may also be here: a Samu and his wife are buried in graves O-1-6 and -5 respectively, and there is also a Samuel Ehrlich in grave B2-20-40. The cemetery list and photographs of some gravestones are available at the website GyorJewish.org/clist/e.htm; a couple of others, including Regina Grunhut Ehrlich’s, appear on FindaGrave.com.

Mór Ehrlich’s gravestone is especially unhelpful, looking rather like masonry discarded in the corner of a yard. Nor do the JewishGen databases shed further light on Mór, his wife or family, other than a single entry in the birth database and another in the death database:

Ehrlich, Samu (son of Mor Ehrlich and Sarolta Rottman [sic], born May 20, 1892—but “entry has a strike through line”)

Ehrlich, Iren (daughter of Mor Ehrlich and Sarolta Rothman [sic], died September 17, 1895 at the age of ten)

These unremembered children would appear to be two of the four older siblings whom József never knew. (If Mór did name a son Samu, that would imply that his own father Samu Ehrlich had died by May 20, 1892—given the Judiac tradition of not naming children after living ancestors.)

What about Mór’s sister Hermina Greenhute, with whom Józsi lived in Budapest circa 1907-11? “Greenhute” was how József’s wife would spell the surname many decades later. But Mór Ehrlich’s mother’s maiden name was Regina Grunhut; and a Hermine Grunhut (aged 22, daughter of Elias Grunhut[26] and Mari/Marie Reichenfeld) appears in the Győr marriage database, wedding Max Forst [sic], son of Adam and Eva Forstner, on February 28, 1875. In the Győr birth database we find Hermine and Max Forstner having three children: Aladar Forstner on May 27, 1876; Theodor Foustner [sic] on December 31, 1878; and Hermina Forstner on December 31, 1880. But just twelve days later, “Hermine Forst” (née Grunhut, wife of “Miksa Forst”) appears in the Győr death database—having died on January 11, 1881, aged only 28. She was buried in the Győr-Szigeti cemetery (grave A1-11-36).

Could Regina Grunhut Ehrlich have been the aunt of Hermine Grunhut Forstner, born 1852/53 in “R Szigett” [marriage database] or “Gyorsiget” [death database]? If so, we might further speculate that Regina took in and raised her late niece’s newborn namesake in 1881; and that young Hermina Forstner was living in Budapest by 1907. If so, József Ehrlich might very well have regarded her as an aunt, rather than his father’s cousin; and she might very well have been willing to offer young Józsi room and board for several years. Whether (as the mother of two daughters in 1915) she could have been surnamed Grunhut/Grünhut/ “Greenhute,” or would simply be remembered as such by Józsi’s wife, are questions without answers[27].

Notes

[25] In 1839 according to the 1869 census; but her partly-indecipherable gravestone carving includes a “67,” which if her age in 1898 would mean a birthyear of 1830-31, closer to Samu’s 1826.
[26] Elias is listed in the Győr death database as dying December 17, 1887, aged 79. His birthplace is recorded as Kispecz, later known as Kajarpec, which is in Győr county.
[27] An undocumented family tree at Ancestry.com states that “Hermin” Forstner, born Dec. 31, 1881 in “Gyor” to Miksa Forstner and “Hermin” Grunhut, married Lipot Rona (born 1880) in Budapest on March 25, 1906; and that her older brother “Tivadar” died in Budapest in 1936. However, there is no mention of Hermin and Lipot having had any children.

Illustrations

● Mór Ehrlich’s gravestone in Győr-Szigeti Temető cemetery

● Regina Grunhut Ehrlich’s gravestone in Győr-Szigeti Temető cemetery