Gabriel (Gaby) Rechnitzer sent us the following inquiry:
I am trying very hard to trace our Family origins and if and how they were connected to the town of ‘Rechnitz’.
The earliest ancestor about whom we have detailed information in the town of Frauenkirchen was Avraham Moishe Rechnitzer. We have found his gravestone quite recently and it confirms that he died in Frauenkirchen on 11th August 1897 and we know from the Birth/Marriage Records that was married there in June 1843. We surmise that, as he died -as described on the gravestone ‘of ripe old age’ that he was born circa 1820-5-but we do not know where. We have not found as yet for certain the gravestone of his wife ‘Gittel’ (Levine).
The father of Avraham Moishe we know was called Herschel Rechnitz and was married to Maria(?) Rechnitz who died in Frauenkirchen in 1861. It appears that they also had a number of children in 1847/8.I would surmise that he was born circa 1800.
We have not been able to trace any further information about Him-ie where he was born and when he died. It appears however that he was not listed in the list of the village Jewish Community Kaufleite in 1828 and Herbett Brettl – the author of the very useful book on the Jewish Community in Frauenkirchen has not found any mention of the name ‘Rechnitz’ in any Town records in the early 1800’s.
We have always assumed that Herschell Rechnitz originated from the Town of Rechnitz and arrived from there sometime in the years 1820-30.
I have however also checked some limited Jewish Community Records of Rechnitz (in the Hebrew University Library) and this name does not appear on any Jewish Community lists in the early 1800’s. The name of ‘Philip’ Rechnitz and Arnold Rechnitz do however appear on these lists. But we have no clear connection to Herschell Rechnitz.
I would be grateful if you could circulate this email on your genealogy blog in case someone may be able to assist with some Information Resources to try and discover this link.
I need to update my information on the DEUTSCH families of Mattersdorf (now Mattersburg). There are three separate families. The first DEUTSCH who appears in the Mattersdorf records is Mandel Deutsch (1682-1751) the son of Mayer. Mandel was born in Rechnitz. Mandel married Ella and had 4 identified children. I can not trace any of their descandants in Mattersdorf.
The second Deutsch family is descended from Mordechai Hirschel who was a scribe born circa 1730. In the Hebrew records, he was given the Hebrew surname SOFER (meaning scribe). His descendants continued to use the Sofer surname in Hebrew but inexplicitly adopted the German surname DEUTSCH which is used to this very day in Israel and other parts of the world. The DEUTSCH-SOFER family is a subset of the the SCHISCHA clan from Mattersdorf.
The third DEUTSCH family came from Fraunkirchen to Mattersdorf in the late 1700s. They appeared in the Hebrew records as F”K (the abbreviation for Fraunkirchen). There was a great deal of intermarriage in this family with members of the BREUER family from Mattersdorf. Some people in this DEUTSCH family are also descendants of the SCHISCHA clan but not all.
Yitzchok Stroh and I have been able to trace this DEUTSCH-FRAUENKIRCHEN family back to the late 1600s in Frauenkirchen. I believe that this line is likely the same DEUTSCH family as Gabby Rechnitzer’s. What we know of the family is up on Geni.com
I am sorry that it took so long to sort this out. Yitzchok Stroh and I are dependent on the avalability of records.
To Traude Triebel
Thank -you for your introduction to the genteam site.I have checked this out and all the entries relate to the Rechnitzer family from Vienna.
We were not connected with this Family to the best of my knowledge and it is still a remaining mystery whether and if yes-when our Ancestors originated from Rechnitz.
Thanks again to anyone who may still be able to provide me with some clues.
I have only just had sight of the two replies to my Enquiry about the geanology of the Rechnitzer Family from Frauenkirchen.I am sorry that I have not replied earlier.
Many thanks to Carole Vogel for your information regarding the family name of Deutsch. My great- grandmother was actually called Klarel Deutch and was buried in Frauenkirchen in 1930 in front of her Father -Yehuda Leib Deutch(d.1909)-son of Klonimus Deutch.There were many members of this family recorded in the Town records throughout the 1800’s and many were still living in Frauenkirchen at the time of the Anchluss.From what you say it appears that this family may have originated from Mattersdorf ?
A town name used as a surname does not necessarily mean that the person was born there. It could mean that the person was raised in one place, spent time in another place, and then moved again. For instance, in the Mattersdorf records there is a family named DEUTSCH that appears in the secular records from the beginning of the 1700s to the Holocaust. At some point in the 1700s one family member must have moved to Frauenkirchen and then returned to Mattersdorf because suddenly the family was referred to in the Hebrew records as P”K the acronym for Frauenkirchen and occasionally in other records the name Frauenkirchen was actually written out in German.
In the early census there was a man named Hirschel NEUFELD who lived in Mattersdorf but census information clearly shows that he was born in Strassnitz, Moravia. Best guess is that he lived in Neufeld prior to coming to Mattersdorf.
So your ancestor may indeed have been born in Rechnitz (most likely explanation) but it is possible that he was born elsewhere and only lived in Rechnitz for a certain amount of time before moving elsewhere.
go to http://www.genteam.at (you have to be registered, free)
you find more than 100 Rechnitz(er) and 25 obits
good luck
traude