Yitzchok Stroh. So if the family was from Vienna we should be able to find birth and death records for Juetl to confirm her parentage.

The Ketav Sofer’s younger brother Rabbi Shimon Sofer Rabbi of Mattersdorf and Krakow (1821-1883) had a son Akiva of Papa author of Tzuf Mdvash (1839-1903). Akiva’s son Avraham Shmuel Binyomin, obviously named after his great uncle, was married to Hena the daughter of Rabbi Akiva Schlesinger from Vienna.

It seems that this is the tombstone of their daughter. It is obvious why this young girl was buried in Mattersdorf near her dear ancestors.

Akiva Schlesinger of Vienna is the son of Yosef Guns Schlesinger and his wife Fradel Rodish the daughter of R’ Avrohom Kalischer. (She was a stepdaughter of the Chasam Sofer, her mother Serel, Rabbi Akiva Eiger of Posen’s daughter, married the Chasam Sofer. Fradel Rodish is also buried in Mattersdorf.)

Akiva Schlesinger of Vienna Married Rosa the daughter of Serel the wife of Rabbi Yaakov Leib Strasser of Tab.

Rabbi Strasser’s wife Serel was a daughter of the Ketav Sofer.

Yosef Guens who was a publisher in Vienna was a son of Rabbi Simcha Bunim Guens the Rabbi of Mattersdorf and a nephew of Rabbi Akiva Eiger of Posen (Rabbi Simcha Bunim’s brother).

It may sound confusing, but it is!

Many thanks to Yidel Steinmetz for his help in researching the above.

Johannes, you don’t know how much your work is appreciated. I hope you will have the time and energy to keep it up. you have my best wishes.

and I am happy we found out that הענא is indeed the correct yiddish spelling of hena.

On american name sites, it says that hena is a variation of anna – chana.

My friend says she does not think it is true.

whatever.

It is not taboo, but look at the spelling of יודא. The first HEY was deleted, as you say, as it connects to the YUD. But why was the last HEY exchanged for ALEF? Yehuda is a biblical name and it was sometimes changed (יהודה is also used) but יהושע stayed intact.

They use the ALEF at the end for A also for ביילא as against ביילע for E.
“הרבנית ביילא נולדה להוריה אדמו”ר האמצעי והרבנית שיינא”

Sorry, I do not quite grasp what the problem with the hey at the end should be.

If you say it is taboo to use hey, then you could not write anything correctly any more… I think what you are referring to are other letter combinations like alef and lammed or yud and hey, but they do not occur in this name…

Dear Suzie,

You are right. Looking at Jewish names on GENI I found Hena. Even the Yiddish spelling is the same הענא.

איילה or איילת are modern names. I think that at that period you got either a Biblical name that was a Hebrew name; otherwise you got a Yiddish or Judish name.

About the use of ה in a name, I think that they tried not to use it. We have Judith instead of יהודית=Jhudit or יודא instead of יהודה. Here they deleted two הs, the last one was replaced by a Alef. As you probably know, we have in Israel a city that is divided by name. One is called BETH EL and the other BETH KEL. Anything Godly, that for some includes ה are changed. We have for 15 טו and not יה.

From GENI
Hena-Nechama Topola, הענא נחמה טופולה, הי”ד (Bursztyn)
Place of Burial: Taraz, Zhambyl, Kazakhstan
Birth: circa 1887
Różan, Mazovia, Poland

If you write it strictly “yiddish style” it would indeed spell הענא, since ע was e and א was a in yiddish (where vowels were spelled out). However, I find the א instead of ה at the end of a female name a bit strange.

I first thougt it was like “henne” (hen), but someone told me it was the same as Hindi, also a quite frequent yiddish first name. Hindi is Hindin is female doe. So hebrew would be Ayala.

But according to my feeling, Ayala was not used in ancient times, it is a more modern israeli first name. (Perhaps to translate the Hena and Hindi of their forebears).

Dear Suzie and Johannes,

Is Henna or Hindin a Yiddish Jewish forename? I have never heard of them and even on Google I could not find them. You probably meant Hindel = Hind, female red deer, which translated into Hebrew can be, as you say, Ayala?

Hinda
Girl Yiddish Hind, female red…
Hindel
Girl Yiddish Hind, female red…
Hindelle
Girl Yiddish Hind, female red…

Hindi
Girl Yiddish Hind, female red…

Hindy
Girl Yiddish Hind, female red…

It still does not solve the name הענא. Could it be a Mason’s error? Maybe he wanted to write האנע for the name חנה (the same sounding) like in the Gitl-Chanelied (Grunwald Jahrbuch fuer Juedische Volkskunde, Berlin/Wien 1925).

Ginendel, as far as I know, is mostly a Central European (German inspired) Jewish female name. Just because it starts with a G does it mean it comes from the Russian?
I am not an expert on Russian but is Gitl from the Russian Hitl? What does Hinendel or Henendel mean?

From the Internet:

Genendel
That answer about the movie Robin Hood is absolute nonsense. If you enter the name in Google you will find many victims of the Holocaust. It is a Jewish name. A professor of Hebrew once explained it was probably related to the Jewish word for charm or charming.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_genendel_mean#ixzz1L2AX7VXe

@Suzie: Sehr schöne Erklärung, vielen Dank dafür! Und ich muss gestehen: Ich wusste bis eben auch die Erklärung des Namens “Gi/enendel” nicht ;)

Ich nehme an, dass Genendel die russische Variante desselben namens ist, da es im Russischen ja kein h gibt und deshalb als g dargestellt und und ausgesprochen wird.