[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Catholic Poles and Lutheran Germans

[Kenneth Browne]

On 09/14/2013 04:37 PM, Jerry Frank wrote:
> The letter written in Yiddish seems to imply a strong Jewish connection.  Many Germans would have some knowledge of Yiddish because of the need to communicate in the marketplace.  They would not normally use it to write a letter.  Are you certain it was Yiddish or could it have been low German?  There are some similarities.
I know neither Yiddish nor German but I was able to get the Yiddish 
letter translated after contacting a local woman thru the National 
Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA. In addition the later letter 
(1937) specifies that Samuel had not replied 'because I wrote 
Yiddish'. As far as I know Samuel did not know Yiddish. I suspect that 
Beile Lachmann must have been a sister-in-law via marriage, but have 
no indication of a male Lachmann named "Keyler". BTW, both letters 
were sent from Berlin and the return address had another name, 
Israelowicz.
> I am a little confused about your question regarding Samuel.  I only see an 1865/6 birth described, not one 13 years earlier.  If Samuel's birth is recorded in the Lutheran Church in 1865 and his parent's marriage in the Lutheran Church in 1852, where does the Jewish connection enter in?  The marriage record by the way would indicate if either spouse was anything other than Lutheran.
I'd love to have someone who can read Polish look at it and see just 
what it reveals. I was studying the document recently trying to see if 
I might be able to transcribe it into a computer file and then run it 
through Google translate. However, the writing is such that it would 
be a monumental task for me.
>
I've had the 1852 file for several years but had never noticed what 
looks like Samuel Lachmann in the writing. It's hard to decipher 
however. If someone knows Polish they'd have a much better chance to 
figure it out.

As for the two letters (there apparently was another letter (second in 
sequence) based on the context of the 1937 letter which states 'I 
wrote you twice before but you did not reply because I wrote Yiddish'. 
I've been seeking help understanding this situation through this list, 
a visit and emails to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., as well 
as the Yad Vashem website. I was able to contact a Connecticut 
resident whose father had submitted a Page of Remembrance for a Beile 
Lachman. This Beile Lachman's husband was named Josel, not Keyler.
> Jerry
>
Anyone who has any thoughts on this subject is welcome to email me 
directly and I will send copies of the pertinent documents either via 
an email attachment OR a Dropbox link.

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kenneth Browne" <kbrowne01518 at gmail.com>
> To: ger-poland-volhynia at sggee.org
> Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2013 12:52:43 PM
> Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Catholic Poles and Lutheran Germans
>
> On 09/14/2013 12:51 PM, Jerry Frank wrote:
>>    Jews also registered at Catholic churches until their synagogues were given permission to do registrations, I think in the 1830s or so.
> My ggfather, Samuel Lachmann, was born in Sept, 1865 in Rozhysche
> (sp?) and migrated to the U.S. (Chicago) in 1891. His first wife, my
> ggmother, Alvine Mroch died young and her origins are still a mystery,
> other than 1900 census which state
> place of birth as "Germany". Samuels place of birth is listed as
> "Russia."
>
> In re: the above citation, is it possible that Samuel's birth in 1865
> (or 1866) could have been recorded in a Lutheran church, even if he or
> his parents were Jewish? Seems unlikely except for the existence of
> letters written by his "sister in law" in 1931 and 1937. The first
> letter in Yiddish, the second in English with help of a friend
> states...'back to Poland we cannot go because we have no passport.'
>
> I also have a digital copy of Samuel's parents' marriage in 1852. I
> cannot read the Polish, but I can pick out some of the names and it
> appears to mention a Samuel Lachmann. Other keywords that I picked out
> of the document (a .TIF file) are Kielce, Antonielow, Gottfried
> Lachmann, Juliana Josefa Wolf, and at the bottom what looks like
> Pastor Kielecki.
>
> As far as I know, Gottfried Lachmann's father was a Karl Lachmann. So
> if I've deciphered these names correctly, who is this other Samuel
> Lachmann who existed some 13 years before my ggf's birth? Ah, the
> mystery of genealogy.
>