Dear Czernovitzers;
My name is Sid Seidenstein. I have been reading the Czernovitz list serve for several weeks to get a sense of what it contains. I am very interested in obtaining any information that could lead to my familiy’s origins.
My father, Morris (Moritz), one of 8 children, was born in Czernovitz in either 1892, 1896 or 1898 depending on which source is used. He was brought up in Czernovitz, entered Gymnasium, and then the University of Vienna as a medical student. He was drafted into the Austrian Army Medical corp during WW I.
I know very little about his upbringing. He did comment that the family had a wet nurse, and that in his time, a bride would come with a dowry of a horse and carriage. From all this I assume his family was reasonably well off. He did comment on some anti-semitism.
After the war he was unable to continue his studies (Why, I don’t know) and came to New York in 1920. He became a pharmacist and lived in the Bronx N.Y. for the remainder of his life.
I was born in 1932, in the Bronx, and am now retired, living in Sunnyvale, California. I have one sister.
Our family name is relatively rare, and I have been searching for family for many years. Almost all my inquiries lead back to Czernovitz, Romania, or Austria as a place from which people came. There also seems to be some people with that name that originated in Russia. The earliest I have been able to find is a name in Czernoivitz dated 1861. I have found clusters of Seidensteins living in the US, but have not been able to trace them all back to a common ancestor or location of origin.
I have two cousins in Israel, Selma (ne Bartfeld) and Sylivia
Ben-Jacob, but they are not knowledgeable about early Czernovitz, and are reluctant to talk about the war years when one of them reamined in Czernovitz and the other was sent to Transnistria.
Iwill be very appreciative of any information any of you can provide.
Sid Seidenstein
Received on 2006-12-30 18:28:04
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