Polish ancestor that is Jewish

[bolts99]

Okay I am trying to find more information about this man. Jacobus David Samuel Hirsch. All I know is that he was born in 1762 in Liza Prussia. But now that village is in present day Poland and the name is changed to Leszno. He was born and raised Jewish. One of two children that I know if per this page and he had a sister. From what I translated is that he left home when he was 21 and wanted to be Catholic instead of Jewish. So his father disinherited him. How do I go about finding out more information about his parents and even find a full date of birth for him. I have his records for when he was in Meppen Germany when get got baptized, married and even death.  I have attached a page that was in a book in Meppen Germany I  was able to get form a researcher.

[Ruskie]

Ive never used this site myself, and dont know if it might be useful of not, but I have heard it mentioned:
https://www.jewishgen.org/

[Caros1]

If he was born in Leszno you could have a look at Poznan Project website

https://poznan-project.psnc.pl

You'll find basic info there on parents names and dates but no cert itself. Still good place to start

[bolts99]

If he was born in Leszno you could have a look at Poznan Project website

https://poznan-project.psnc.pl

You'll find basic info there on parents names and dates but no cert itself. Still good place to start

Thanks but it states it's only from 1800-1899. Mine were before that time frame I am trying to find but I will still take a look to see if I can find anything else.

[bolts99]

Ive never used this site myself, and dont know if it might be useful of not, but I have heard it mentioned:
https://www.jewishgen.org/

Thanks but this site won't let me put in his first name. And nothing comes up for the village area I am looking for anyway

[Li_Za]

I understand that you want to confirm Jacob Samuel Dawid Hirsch's birth in Leszno (Lissa Polonorum or Polnisch Lissa), his conversion to Catholicism and find his parents (Hirsch) and siblings (Hirsch).
This would have to be looked for in Catholic record books (Catholic priests also registered Jews), which are kept in the Archdiocesan Archives in Poznań. There may also be conversion files. Unfortunately, you have to do it on the spot.
Information about Jacob's father can also be found in the files of the city of Leszno, all available on-line here
https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/zespol/-/zespol/19640?_Zespol_javax.portlet.action=zmienWidok&_Zespol_nameofjsp=jednostki&_Zespol_delta=200&_Zespol_resetCur=false&_Zespol_cur=1

[BartJSimpson]

Hi bolts99,
Jacobus David Samuel Hirsch is also my direct ancestor.

Unfortunatelly I also could not find out anything about his ancestors but because at least all Augustin born in Meppen between 1789 and 1900 are his direct descandents and therefore he is (most likely) the progenitor (german: Stammvater) of all Augustin in Meppen (including myself) I did a lot of research of his descandents.

He was married two times, on 18.11.1788 with Anna Catharina Coers and on 21.04.1805 with Euphemia Catharina Schleper. With both women he had four children (so 8 in total) and in total 34 grandchildren and at least 111 grandgrandchildren.

Regards,
Dirk

[crissi]

The man in the photo/painting is also my ancestor: Carolus Josephus (Karl Josef) Augustin from Meppen, formerly David Hirsch (the names Jacob and Samuel are new to me, his father is said to have been called Jacob, his grandfather David, which would speak a little in favor of "David ben Jacob Hirsch"). I am very interested in the photographed source from bolts99's post of August 12, I don't even know this variant yet. In my part of the family, the story goes that the man in the picture was born in Lissa and came to live with his godfather (Patenonkel, der älteste Bruder des Vaters) in Potsdam as a child after his parents (Jacobus and Elisa) died in a devastating fire in Lissa (that would probably be the one in 1767). In this story, the quarrel over the rabbinical studies does not concern the (dead) father, but the equally pious godfather. According to this, our ancestor would have first gone from Potsdam to Berlin and after a while from there somehow to Meppen (Hanover and Lingen are plausible, I would be interested in evidence. He was then recorded in Meppen, and his baptism can be found in the baptismal register,

https://data.matricula-online.eu/de/deutschland/osnabrueck/meppen-st-vitus/0185/?pg=34

the marriage too

https://data.matricula-online.eu/de/deutschland/osnabrueck/meppen-st-vitus/0053/?pg=15

Unfortunately, I have no proof of the existence of his parents, because if the family story is correct, his godfather must have been the silk manufacturer David Hirsch, whose family has been very well researched, also because the business documents from Potsdam and Berlin are now well researched.

Regards, Christoph

[BartJSimpson]

Hi Christoph,
thank you for these interesting infos.

I've found a 312 page pdf file in the internet which has a lot of info about the silk manufacturer David Hirsch:

https://medien.bwv-verlag.de/Open_Access/9783830542483.pdf

He lived from 1700 to 1773.

But unfortunatelly I couldn't find any remark that he adopted a nephew.

Would really be nice to find any evidences of the time before our ancestor came to Meppen and some more details about his parents and so on.

As I wrote before I did a lot of research of his direct descendants and I found out that nearly all of his descendant (if not all) which are living today will be descendants of him with his first wife. They together had four children:

1) Johanna Maria Elisabeth Augustin, *22.10.1789, married Ludwig Wahden. One of their children emigrated already 1837 to Cole County, Missouri, USA and renamed to "Watton". 

2) Carolus Josephus Augustin, *23.5.1792. One of his children emigrated 1870 to Portsmouth, Ohio, USA. I'm in direct contact with descendants of him which are still living in Ohio.

3) Johannes Bernardus Augustin, *22.6.1795, was major of Haselünne.

4) Johanus Henricus Antonius Augustin, *13.4.1799. One of his childs (my ancestor Nicolaus Augustin) was mayor of Meppen from 1871 till 1897.

Who of them is your direct ancestor ?

Regards,
Dirk