Wahrsager & Unger

Elias Wahrsager and Malka Unger

Chyrów, Dobromil, Berlin and the Bronx

Elias (Elisha) Wahrsager was born on 23 May 1880 in Chyrów, in Austrian Galicia — his draft card of 1942 and his Social Security claim give 23 May 1879 — a son of HaRav Gavriel HaKohen Gottesdiener of Chyrów, whose name is on Elias’s gravestone (Confirmed). His wife Malka (Mollie) Unger was born on 2 March 1880 in Dobromil, a few miles away; her father was Aryeh Leib — in full, Yehuda Aryeh — Unger. Their eldest child, Sabina (Sara), was probably born on 1 September 1906 in Dobromil: her Social Security record, which carries both her names, gives that date, and the ship’s list of 1927 makes her twenty and born in Dobromil (Likely). Her husband’s declaration of 1934 gives 1 May 1908 in Berlin, but no Berlin birth of hers is indexed, and her sister Röschen was born in Berlin on 29 April 1908. Kallmann (Charles) was born in Berlin on 30 September 1909 and Anne on 1 November 1914.

Elias’s name appears in the Berlin address books every year from 1909 to 1919, except 1911, at Saarbrücker Straße 33 in the north of the city — in the second rear building, second floor — as a leather worker, in 1916–17 as a cardboard-box worker and in 1918 as a trader.

Elias and Malka Wahrsager and their children

• Elias (Elisha) Wahrsager HaKohen, b. 23 May 1880, Chyrów; son of Gavriel HaKohen; d. 11 Dec 1954, Bronx (17 Kislev 5715) = Malka (Mollie) Unger, b. 2 Mar 1880, Dobromil; daughter of Yehuda Aryeh (Leib) Unger; d. 3 Tammuz 5723 = 25 Jun 1963
• Sabina (Sara), b. 1 Sep 1906, probably Dobromil (1 May 1908, Berlin, in her husband’s 1934 declaration); d. Apr 1988, the Bronx = (14 Dec 1929) Paul Schiff, b. 10 May 1899/1900, Galicia; d. 18/19 Sep 1989, Bronx. Daughters: Rita, Arlene Likely
• Kallmann (Charles), b. 30 Sep 1909, Berlin; furrier, Bronx; d. 20 Mar 1996, Riverdale, Bronx = Ruth née Seltzer (d. 16 Mar 2012 Likely). Children: Stewart, Frances Marsha
• Anne (Chana Pessel), b. 1 Nov 1914, Berlin (1913, Germany, in her father’s petition); d. 23 Jan 1997 = Alex (Shimshon) Brecher

Earlier Wahrsagers and Ohers of Chyrów

An earlier Elias Wahrsager of Chyrów — Jacob Lische (Yaakov Elisha), a merchant — and his wife Chana Pessel née Oher (c. 1812–1898) were very probably the grandparents of Elias Wahrsager born in 1880, through his mother, a Wahrsager: he bore his grandfather’s name, and Anne’s Hebrew name, Chana Pessel, is her great-grandmother’s Likely. Their daughter Hinde Glasberg née Wahrsager, born about 1842, died at Drohobycz on 20 March 1905; when her son Jacob Elische was born there in 1882, his birth entry named her father as “the late merchant Jacob Lische Wahrsager” and her mother Chane as living in Chyrów. So Lische had died before January 1882 Confirmed. Hinde’s children were Chaja Lea (c. 1867–1934), Machle (b. 1877), Keile Sara (1879–80) and Jacob Elische (1882–90). Between about 1880 and 1882 several boys in Wahrsager-descended families were named Elisha or Jacob Elisha, among them Elias (born in May 1880) and Hinde’s son Jacob Elische (1882). As a child was named after a relative who had died, this suggests that Jacob Lische Wahrsager died about 1878–80, and that Elias was probably his grandson through his mother (Likely, from family naming).

Chana Pessel was the daughter of Hersch (Tzvi) Oher, timber merchant of Chyrów, and his wife Chaja, as her death entry of 1898 records; in the 1853 property survey of Chyrów, Hersch Oher held house no. 29, a dwelling with a workshop that he had inherited, and an earlier Elias (Lische) Wahrsager held house no. 207. The same 1853 survey lists a Jankel Gottesdiener holding houses 36 and 37, a dwelling and a workshop, as an established resident of Chyrów; whether he was related to R’ Gavriel Gottesdiener is not known. Source: All Galicia Database (Gesher Galicia), Chyrów Property Owners 1853 (Central State Historical Archives, Lviv, fond 186, opis 2, sprava 587) and Chyrów Tabula Register 1803–1855. Likely

The Gottesdiener Family of Chyrów

A family tree kept by descendants of the Gottesdiener family of Chyrów records Elias as “Elisha, Elias Gottesdiener (Wahrsager)”, with his wife Malka and the children Ann (wife of Alex Brecher), Kalman and Sabina (wife of Paul Schiff), and names his parents as Gavriel Gottesdiener (Katz) and Mindel; “Katz” is the Kohen name that Elias’s stone confirms. Possible

The Jewish birth, marriage and death registers of Chyrów itself are not known to survive, so Elias’s own birth entry, which would name his mother, has not been found.

Elias’s father, Gavriel HaKohen, is named in print as HaRav Gavriel HaKohen Gottesdiener, the Rav of Chyrów. The words come from the Tel Aviv paper HaBoker of 19 Jun 1941 (and the same report in HaSha’ah of 18 Jun 1941), announcing the early death in Jerusalem of Gavriel’s son Dr Avraham Ovadia (Gottesdiener), who was buried on the Mount of Olives. A Polish Jewish weekly of 1932, Tygodnik Żydowski of Tarnów, had already described Dr Gottesdiener as born in Chyrów, the son of the town’s rabbi, ordained himself, and later a doctor of the Lwów university and a teacher at the Tachkemoni schools in Białystok and Warsaw.

Todres (Theodor) Gottesdiener, born in Chyrów about 1876, was most likely Gavriel’s son and a brother of Elias (Likely). Dr Avraham Ovadia was Gavriel’s son by Feige (Feiga) née Dominitz. His marriage at Sambor in 1922 (act no. 10) records him as Abraham Dominitz, properly Gottesdiener, then preparing for the rabbinate, born on 27 May 1893 in Chyrów, son of the late Feige Dominitz, ritual wife of Gabryel Gottesdiener of Chyrów Confirmed. So Feige had died before 1922, while Gavriel was still living, and Avraham was Elias’s half-brother. A family tree kept by descendants of Todres Gottesdiener says more about her family. Per that tree, her brother Yehuda Leibush Dominitz married Feiga Wahrsager of Chyrów and had one son, Zvi Natan Nata (Hersz Natan Dominitz, b. Chyrów c.1869, who married Freida Reich in Przemyśl in 1898) Likely.

In 1911, at about eighteen, Avraham signed a letter from Chyrów printed in the Orthodox paper Machzikei HaDas as “Avraham Gottesdiener HaKohen” (Likely). He went to the Land of Israel in 1934 and worked in Jerusalem as director of the Jewish Agency’s department for artisans and small trade; he was one of the founders of the Mizrachi youth movement. He died in Jerusalem on the morning of 23 Sivan 5701 (18 June 1941), and the funeral left his home at 25 Rehov Aza at noon, with eulogies by Chief Rabbi Uziel, Rabbi Meir Berlin and Rabbi Fishman. The papers, which call him “son of Rabbi Gavriel HaKohen Gottesdiener, the rabbi of Chyrów”, gave his age as 44 or 45, which would place his birth about 1896–97; his marriage record of 1922 gives 27 May 1893. He is buried on the Mount of Olives, in the Kehillat Yerushalayim section, block ח, row 1, grave 14, and his stone reads: “the rabbi, scholar and author Dr Avraham HaKohen Ovadia (Gottesdiener), son of HaRav R’ Gavriel HaKohen, dayan of Chyrów (Galicia)” Confirmed.

Todres made wallets and leather cases. He lived in Kraków from about 1900 and in Vienna from 1909. His wife was Feige (Friga, Franja) née Kleinmann of Radomyśl, daughter of Mendel and Chaja Kleinmann; their civil marriage was registered in Vienna on 6 Sep 1914. Their sons Emanuel and Meilech (Emil) were born in Kraków, and the Kraków birth entries name Todres as “of Suszyca, district of Stare Miasto”, the villages beside Chyrów. Feige died in Vienna on 23 Apr 1931, aged 54, at Rembrandtstraße 24. Todres died in Vienna on 30 Oct 1941, aged 65, and was buried on 4 Nov 1941. An older family account gives his death as 1940; the cemetery register gives 30 Oct 1941.

Todres (Theodor) Gottesdiener

Born	c. 1876, Chyrów (from age 65 at death)
Father	HaRav Gavriel HaKohen Gottesdiener, Rav of Chyrów (Likely)
Trade	maker of wallets and cases, Kraków, then Vienna
Wife	Feige (Friga) née Kleinmann of Radomyśl, d. 23 Apr 1931, Vienna, aged 54
Her grave	Vienna Zentralfriedhof, Gate IV, group 16c, row 4, grave 19
Sons	Emanuel, b. 19 Jul 1900, Kraków; Meilech (Emil), b. 1902, Kraków
Died	30 Oct 1941, Vienna, aged 65; buried 4 Nov 1941
His grave	Vienna Zentralfriedhof, Gate IV, group 21, row 38, grave 55

A Gottesdiener Family in Przemyśl

Another family of the name lived in Przemyśl. Pesche (Pesia) Gottesdiener and her husband Naftali Reich, a merchant, had a son, Jacob Hersch, born there in November 1861 in house no. 241 Confirmed, and a daughter, Freida, who married into the Dominitz family in Przemyśl in 1898 — the family of Gavriel’s second wife. How Pesche was related to Gavriel is not known. Possible

Malka’s Family

Malka’s sister was very likely Jochwed Unger, born in Dobromil about 1889, daughter of Leib (Leibusz) and Ryfka Unger of Kniażpol. She married Izak Sauer of Chyrów, son of Majer and Feiga Sauer, at Dobromil on 31 Oct 1920, before Rabbi Abraham Markus Rimalt (Likely).

In America

Elias went ahead to America. He sailed from Antwerp to Canada on the S.S. Grampian in December 1920, giving his father, “Gawriel Warsager” of Chyrów, as his nearest relative at home, and crossed into the United States in January 1921, a leather worker leaving Malka in Europe; in 1922 he declared his intention to become a citizen, a pocket-book maker at 136 East Broadway, and he was naturalized on 14 March 1927, with Morris and Abraham Glasser of 1948 Prospect Avenue, the Bronx, as his witnesses. That September Malka sailed from Southampton on the SS Majestic with Sabina (listed as Sarah, aged 20), Kallmann and Anna, to join him at 48 Clinton Street (Likely). Anna, aged 13, became an American citizen through her father’s naturalization (Likely).

The family settled in the Bronx, a few streets from the Brechers. Sabina married Paul Schiff, a decorator from Galicia, at 953 Fox Street on 14 December 1929. In 1930 Elias, Malka, Charles and Anne were counted together in the Bronx; in 1940 Elias, Malka and Charles lived at 1035 Tiffany Street, and in 1942 Elias, then past sixty, registered for the draft from 1702 Clay Avenue, where he and Malka still lived in 1950. Charles, a furrier, married Ruth née Seltzer; in 1950 they lived in the Bronx with their son Stewart, and their daughter was Frances Marsha (1951–1995).

Their son Stewart married Sandra Winkler, and their daughter Frances married Mark Friedlander; both marriages are recorded in the New York City marriage licence index.

Charles died on 20 March 1996 in Riverdale, the Bronx, and is buried in Beth Moses Cemetery, in the plot of the Sinai Fraternal Order; Ruth (28 April 1920 – 16 March 2012) lies in the same society plot. In 1940 Paul and Sabina Schiff lived on East 172nd Street with their daughters Rita and Arlene; Sabina died in April 1988 and Paul on 18 September 1989 (19 September by his memorial), and both are buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery, Fairview, New Jersey (Likely). Elias died on 17 Kislev 5715 (11 December 1954, in the Bronx) and Malka on 3 Tammuz 5723 (25 June 1963) in the town of Ramapo, Rockland County, near Monsey, the date on her gravestone and in the New York State death index. Both are buried in Lakeside Memorial Park, Florida.

7 people across 4 generations. Tap a name for the family card. Dashed lines: the person is graded Likely. People graded Possible are not drawn. Open this chart full size · interactive tree

• Confirmed Todres (Theodor) Gottesdiener’s grave marker, Vienna Central Cemetery, Gate IV 21/38/55, reads “1876 – 30.10.1941” (the 1876 is kept as a variant of his 4 Oct 1875 birth).Find a Grave memorial 103933385, marker photo
• Possible Note: Charles (Kallmann) Wahrsager’s Find a Grave memorial gives Beth Moses Sec. 3, Block 26, Row 7, Grave 13 (Sinai Fraternal Order); the cemetery’s own search gave Section 2, with the same block, row and grave. To be re-checked.Find a Grave memorial 253378280
• Likely Todres (Theodor) Gottesdiener’s last address, in the Vienna burial index: 2nd district, Cumberlandstraße 4. The same index prints his wife Feige’s grave group as 16E (this site: 16c) — to be checked.JewishGen Worldwide Burial Registry (Vienna), via BillionGraves records 123006914 and 123006907
• Likely Sabina and Paul Schiff rest in Mount Moriah Cemetery, Fairview, New Jersey, United Hebrew section P, plot 2–3 (Sabina d. Apr 1988, Paul 19 Sep 1989). No stone photo is online.Find a Grave memorials 146937971 and 172082604
• Confirmed Correction: Elias Wahrsager died on 11 December 1954 in the Bronx; an earlier reading of the stone had given December 1955. His gravestone reads 17 Kislev 5715 (the last letter is ו, 5715, not ז), and the New York City death index has Elias Wahrsager, died 11 Dec 1954, Bronx.NYC Death Index 1949–65 (Elias Wahrsager, d. 11 Dec 1954, Bronx); his gravestone (17 Kislev 5715)
• Confirmed HaRav Gavriel Gottesdiener is now Confirmed as Elias’s father. Elias’s Canadian arrival card (S.S. Grampian, December 1920: a leather worker of 41, born in Chyrów) names his nearest relative at home as “Gawriel Warsager, Chyrów, Galicia” — so Gavriel was alive in late 1920. Elias was going to his brother-in-law (“Schwager”) at 41 Arcade St, Montreal; the surname is badly written (“Ch. Fellhart?”) and could not be read for certain. This was the leg before his crossing into the US at Vanceboro, Maine, on 27 Jan 1921.Library and Archives Canada, Canadian immigration records (Form 30A), S.S. Grampian 1920, p. 25, line 14, via FamilySearch (image 3:1:3Q9M-C34M-FSWR-K)
• Confirmed Why two surnames: in Berlin the family registered as Gottesdiener, Gavriel’s surname. Elias and Malka’s daughter Röschen, born 29 April 1908, is indexed at Berlin X a as “Gottesdiener recte Wahrsager”, daughter of a leather worker; she died as a baby in 1909. Another daughter, Erna, died as an infant in Berlin in 1916. Wahrsager was Elias’s legal name, from his mother.Landesarchiv Berlin, P Rep. 808 Nr. 84 (Berlin X a birth name index 1908, no. 765); Berlin births and deaths indexes 1874–1910 / 1874–1985
• Likely Elias’s mother was a Wahrsager of Chyrów: in Galicia a child of a religious-only marriage was registered under the mother’s surname, and Gavriel himself is “Gottesdiener” in every record. Her marriage to Gavriel ended between mid-1880 and late 1881. A descendants’ tree calls her (Sara) Mindel (name Possible).Round 56 research (22 Oct 2026)
• Likely Her parents — Elias’s maternal grandparents — were very probably Jacob Lische (Elisha) Wahrsager, merchant of Chyrów (house 207 in 1853; “the late trader Jacob Lische Wahrsager of Chyrów” by January 1882), and Chane Pessel née Oher, who died at Drohobycz on 7 January 1898, aged 86 (not at Chyrów). Elias bore Lische’s name and Anne bore Chane Pessel’s. Chane Pessel’s parents, Hersch (Tzvi) Oher, timber merchant of Chyrów, and Chaja, are named in her death entry (Confirmed as her parents).AGAD Warsaw, fond 300, Drohobycz Jewish deaths 1898, akt 5; 1882 Drohobycz birth of Jacob Elische Glasberg; Gesher Galicia AGD, Chyrów property owners 1853
• Confirmed Gavriel’s second wife, Feiga Dominitz, was the daughter of Abraham and Ester Dominitz, day-labourers in Chyrów: the 1913 birth certificate of her son Leib Jojna Dominitz (born at Chyrów 1 July 1882) enters her as “married by Jewish rite to Gawriel Gottesdiener”. Its back is addressed to “E. Wahrsager, Berlin N 37, Saarbrücker Strasse 33” — Elias. Two daughters of Gavriel and Feige were born in Kraków: Chana Marya (10 April 1885) and Bluma (26 August 1887). They are Elias’s half-siblings, not Anne’s ancestors.Archiwum Państwowe w Rzeszowie, fond 59/533, sygn. 27 (marriage papers 1925), scans 247–248; Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie, Jewish births 1885 akt 184 and 1887 akt 513 (Dan Hirschberg’s Kraków Jewish records index)
• Likely Malka’s father, Yehuda Aryeh Leib (Leibisch) Unger, very probably died at Kniażpol on 3 January 1918, aged 66 (so born about 1851–52). He and Rifke (Rywka) Unger were living in Chyrów about 1870: their daughter Chaja Lea was born there, as her civil marriage at Przemyśl on 23 August 1915 records — “daughter of Leiba Unger and Rywka Unger” (Confirmed). Rifke’s maiden name is still unknown. The Dobromil birth books were destroyed in the First World War, which is why Malka’s 1880 birth entry cannot be found.Archiwum Państwowe w Przemyślu, fond 56/1924, sygn. 36, scan 9 (Przemyśl Jewish marriages 1915, act 31); Gesher Galicia AGD, Dobromil deaths 1915–39, #229:356
• Likely Sabina (Sara) was probably born on 1 September 1906 in Dobromil, not in Berlin: her Social Security record gives that date, the 1927 ship’s list gives Dobromil, and no Berlin birth of hers is indexed (her husband’s 1934 declaration says 1 May 1908, Berlin — two days after her sister Röschen’s birth).Social Security record; SS Majestic list, Sep 1927; Berlin births index 1874–1910
• Confirmed Abraham Gottesdiener of Kraków (born Chyrów 18 July 1876, died Kraków 2 January 1920) was not Gavriel’s son: his Kraków marriage of 16 May 1910 (act 121) names his parents as Wello Gottesdiener, merchant in Chyrów, and Chana-Lea. Wello may have been Gavriel’s brother or cousin (Possible).Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie, Jewish marriages 1910, act 121
• Likely Malka’s 1927 “friend L. Saffern” was very likely Lea (Yeta Leah) Safern, second wife of R’ Zvi Hirsch (Harry) Safern of Bolszowce, Galicia — the Wahrsagers’ neighbours at Saarbrücker Straße 33. The Saferns moved to the Bronx; Hersch Safern died 26 Nov 1943 and Lea Yetta Safern was buried 18 Jul 1967, both at Mount Zion Cemetery, Queens, in the Bolszowce society plot (burials Confirmed; identity Likely).Mount Zion Cemetery interment records; Tzafnat Pane’ach Institute; Berlin address books 1914–1932
• Confirmed The Berlin Jewish yearbook of 1926 lists “S. Safern, Saarbrücker Straße 33” on the committee of the Zeirei Mizrachi youth group (who “S.” was: Possible). Picture in the gallery.Jüdisches Jahrbuch für Gross-Berlin 1926, Internet Archive
• Likely The index of The Unbroken Chain, vol. 7, lists Gavriel HaCohen Gottesdiener and Feiga Dominitz on the same page, 612 — very likely Elias’s father and his wife of Chyrów (index Confirmed; page not yet read).Neil Rosenstein, The Unbroken Chain, vol. 7, index p. 612
• Confirmed The house section of the Berlin address book lists E. Wahrsager, leather worker, and H. Safern among the tenants of Saarbrücker Straße 33 in 1914 and again in 1925 — four years after Elias left for America; Hirsch Safern, ship’s cook, is still there in 1927. Malka’s 1927 “friend L. Saffern, Berlin” very probably came from this household (Likely).Berliner Adreßbuch 1914 image 4852, 1925 image 5575, 1927 images 2921 and 5934 (Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin)
• Confirmed A Maria Wahrsager is listed at Saarbrücker Straße 33 in the Jewish address book of Greater Berlin for 1931/32 (not in 1929/30); her relation to Elias is Possible only.Jüdisches Adressbuch für Gross-Berlin 1931/32, image 536
• Likely Chaja Lea Unger, born in Chyrów about March 1870, daughter of Leib and Rywka Unger — the same parents’ names as Malka’s — married Szulim Leiba Goldberg at Przemyśl on 23 Aug 1915; very probably Malka’s older sister (Likely; strengthened by the 1893 Gródek birth entry below).Gesher Galicia, Przemyśl Jewish marriages 1915–1919, record 31 (Przemyśl State Archive, fond 1924, file 36)
• Confirmed Samuel Wahrsager of Chyrów, wood dealer (1891 directory, Likely), was a joint owner of the Rozłucz and Rypiany forest estates in 1901; in 1904 he founded a Chyrów timber-export firm with Bernhard Lebenschuss and Moritz Wahrsager. Kinship to Elias: Possible.Gazeta Lwowska no. 164 (20 Jul 1901) and no. 98 (1904); Galicia 1891 Business Directory
• Confirmed Malka’s parents were Leibisch (Aryeh Leib) and Rifke Unger, merchants in Dobromil: the 1893 Gródek birth entry of Ciwie, daughter of Schulem Leib Goldberg and Chaje Leie Unger, names Chaje Leie as “daughter of Leibisch and Rifke Unger, merchants in Dobromil”. Record Confirmed; Rifke as Malka’s mother and Chaja Lea as Malka’s sister Likely; Ciwie is Malka’s niece (Likely).AGAD Warsaw, fond 300, sygn. 2118, scan 0018 (Gródek Jagielloński Jewish births 1893, entry 193)
• Likely Chaim Jakób Dominitz of Chyrów, a butcher in Medenice, aged 32, “son of the late Feiga Dominitz, ritual wife of the late Gabriel Gotesdiener”, married Blima Dominitz of Sanok at Medenice in 1931. Record Confirmed; he is very probably Elias’s half-brother (Likely), and the record shows HaRav Gavriel had died by 1931.AGAD Warsaw, fond 300, sygn. 3358, scan 0001 (Drohobycz-district Jewish marriages 1931, entry 2)
• Confirmed Paul Schiff’s parents were Markus Schiff and [Genta?] née Brawer (mother’s first name uncertain) — which explains why he arrived in America as “Josef Brawer”.Bronx Certificate and Record of Marriage no. 232, 14 Dec 1929, p. 1 (in the gallery)
• Likely Michael Goldberg (b. 1915, Przemyśl), son of Shalom Goldberg and Lea née Unger — very probably Chaja Lea’s son and Anne’s first cousin: Holocaust victim, 1942, Bełżec.Holocaust memorial records, no. 1039678
• Likely Chaja Lea (Unger) Goldberg: Holocaust victim, 5 January 1943, Lwów (the record gives her birth as 1870, Dobromil).Holocaust memorial records, no. 1062034
• Confirmed Chaim Jakób Dominitz (Gottesdiener-Dominitz), son of Gavriel and Feige: Holocaust victim, date and place unknown. His link to Elias as half-brother stays Likely.Holocaust memorial records, no. 1095940
• Likely Meilech (Emil) Gottesdiener, born 23 May 1902 at Kraków: Holocaust victim, 16 April 1942 (record of the French Ministry of Defence) (the record is Confirmed; that it is Todres’s son is Likely).Service historique de la Défense, AC 21 P
• Confirmed Malka (Mollie) Wahrsager’s alien case file survives: A2342952, National Archives at Kansas City (entry 21 Sep 1927, New York); it gives her birth as 18 Mar 1879, a variant of 2 Mar 1880.NARA catalog NAID 608595110
• Confirmed Elias’s mother had a name: Sura (Sara). The 6 Sep 1914 Vienna Stadttempel marriage of his brother Todres Gottesdiener (1914 no. 348) names the groom’s parents as Gawriel Gottesdiener and Sura, and gives Todres’s birth as 4 Oct 1875, Chyrów. That Sura is also Elias’s mother is Likely: Elias was born in 1880 inside the same first marriage, and his eldest daughter Sabina was legally “Sara”. The family tree calls her (Sara) Mindel.IKG Wien marriage register 1914 no. 348, via JewishGen Vienna Marriages (Enhanced)
• Likely HaRav Gavriel Gottesdiener died in 1922, between January (alive at his son Abraham’s banns) and 25 October, when his grandson Gabriel Surkis was named for him.Sambor banns Dec 1921–Jan 1922 (AGD #206:1276); IKG Wien births 1922/II no. 2496
• Confirmed Bluma, Gavriel’s daughter by Feige Dominitz (b. Aug 1887, Kraków), married Hersch Karpel (Surkis) at the Vienna Stadttempel on 7 Apr 1920; sons Gabriel (1922) and Emanuel (1927).IKG Wien marriage register 1920 no. 305; births 1922/II no. 2496 and 1927 no. 161 (JewishGen indexes)
• Likely Chane Pessel’s mother was Chaja née Binderman: a Chyrów land-register deed of 1823 names Herszko Oher with Chaja Oher, maiden name Binderman. The Ohers appear on the Chyrów register from 1804 to 1840.Chyrów Tabula Register 1803–1855 (TsDIAL Lviv, fond 166, op. 1, sprava 2248), Gesher Galicia index #790:83, #790:201, #790:13
• Confirmed An older Unger family of Chyrów: Debora Limmer, aged 60, who died in Drohobycz on 13 Jan 1900, was the daughter of the late Salamon and Marjema Unger of Chyrów. Whether Salamon and Marjema were the parents of Malka’s father Leib is only Possible.AGAD, fond 300, sygn. 2114, scan 2 (Drohobycz deaths 1900, akt 6)
• Confirmed Malka’s niece Cilli (Ciwie) Goldberg, daughter of Schulim Leib Goldberg and Lea Unger, married Wilhelm Goldberg in Vienna on 8 May 1921; their son Manuel was born there in 1922.IKG Wien births 1922/I no. 478 (JewishGen index)
• Confirmed Elias’s crossing: his 1921 border card names his wife Malka, still at Chyrów, and a cousin, Samuel Alexander, in New York (the street address is hard to read). His 1926 naturalization petition gives his route — Montreal on 28 Jan 1921, then Vanceboro, Maine, by railroad on 29 Jan 1921 — and names Anne as “Annchen, born 1 Nov 1913”. His 1922 declaration gives 136 East Broadway; he stood 5 ft 1 in and weighed 125 lb.St Albans district card 27 Jan 1921 (NARA); SDNY petition 15 Nov 1926; NY County declaration no. 270571 (via FamilySearch)
• Confirmed Malka came with Sabina (listed as “Sarah”), Kallmann and Anne on the S.S. Majestic from Southampton, 14 Sep 1927; the list gives Dobromil as Malka’s and Sabina’s birthplace, Berlin for Kallmann and Anne.New York passenger lists 1927, S.S. Majestic (NARA, via FamilySearch)
• Confirmed Home in the Bronx: 1035 Tiffany Street in the 1930 and 1940 censuses (and on Anne’s 1938 marriage affidavit); Elias and Malka at 1702 Clay Avenue on his 1942 draft card and in the 1950 census.1930, 1940, 1950 U.S. censuses; 1942 draft registration (via FamilySearch)
• Confirmed Paul Schiff, Sabina’s husband, arrived on 26 Dec 1927 on the S.S. Deutschland as “Josef Brawer”; his 1934 declaration (no. 117029) carries his photograph.Bronx County Supreme Court declaration no. 117029 (via FamilySearch)
• Likely Mordche Schabse (Schabs) Oher is now Likely a son of Hersch and Chaja Oher, and so Likely a brother of Chane Pessel: named with them on an 1837 Chyrów deed, he was by 1867 the voter listed at house 29, the Oher family house.Chyrów Tabula Register #790:201 (1837); 1867 Chyrów voters' list, Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie 29/684/0/1/305, indexed by Gesher Galicia
• Confirmed Dr Avraham Ovadia (Gottesdiener), Elias’s half-brother: the National Library of Israel lists him as “Avraham son of Gavriel, 1893–1941”; Neve Ovadia, a rest home, library and culture house at Kfar Etzion, was dedicated in his name on 8 Sep 1946; Netanya’s Ovadia Garden and Avraham Ovadia Street are named for him.National Library of Israel 990022310300205171; Ein le-Etzion p. 39; Netanya municipality public-gardens page
• Confirmed Ruth Wahrsager née Seltzer’s burial is now Confirmed: Beth Moses Cemetery, Section 2, Block 26, Row 5, Grave 14; Kallmann (Charles) Wahrsager lies in Row 7, Grave 13 of the same block, both in the Sinai Fraternal Order plot.Wellwood–Beth Moses Cemetery interment search (wellwoodcemetery.com/search), read 22 Oct 2026
• Possible A second Gottesdiener family of Chyrów, of Gavriel’s generation: Nuta (Natan) Gottesdiener, a shoemaker, and his wife Sura née Mai. Their son Hersch, born 20 Apr 1873, a shoemaker in Lesko, married Chaja Lea Tink at Lesko on 17 Aug 1914; their daughter Freida, born 4 Apr 1878, married Chaim Nagel of Mościska, and her son Abraham Peisach was born there on 24 May 1906. Nuta may have been Gavriel’s brother or cousin, but no record joins them; his wife Sura is not Gavriel’s wife Sura.AP Rzeszów, Sanok branch, fond 60/448, sygn. 6, act 38 (Lesko 1914); AGAD fond 300, sygn. 2897, act 69 (Mościska births 1906); AGAD fond 300, sygn. 4272, p. 17, entry 2 (Mościska marriage 1906)
• Possible Chaim Jona Wahrsager, a carpenter born in Chyrów, son of Feiga Wahrsager, married Masza Mund recte Ringel at Przemyśl in January 1908. After his name the register has “falso Dominitz”, struck through — a tie to the Chyrów Dominitz–Wahrsager family.AP Przemyśl, fond 56/1924, sygn. 32, scan 135, act 1
• Possible Samuel Gottesdiener, born at Lesko on 13 Apr 1905, a merchant in Chyrów, son of David Gottesdiener and a mother née Spira (Elka, or Ryfka in one reading), married Beile Süss at Stary Sambor on 6 Mar 1938. If his mother was Elka, he was Wolf Gottesdiener’s (b. 1912) brother. A link to Gavriel’s family stays Possible.Galician Jewish register: AGAD fond 300, sygn. 4331, p. 20, entry 2
• Confirmed Dr Avraham Ovadia (born Abraham Dominitz recte Gottesdiener): his birth was entered in the Chyrów birth register, vol. III, p. 80, no. 31 (1893), and in 1922 his father Gabryel is called the “szkolnik” — a synagogue official — of Chyrów.Galician Jewish register: AGAD fond 300, sygn. 3698, p. 38, entry 2 (Sambor 1922)
• Likely Jochwed Unger married Izak Sauer at Dobromil on 31 October 1920 (not December, as read before); she was born in Dobromil about 1889 and lived in Kniażpol; her father is read “Leizer” in one transcription and “Leibus” in another.Galician Jewish register: AGAD fond 300, sygn. 4368, p. 37, entry 4
• Confirmed Samuel Wahrsager of Chyrów, timber merchant, two more records: in July 1894 he stayed at Karlsbad spa as “Samuel Wahrsager, Holzhändler (timber merchant) aus Chyrow in Galizien”; in May 1899 the Sambor court entered the firm “Samuel Wahrsager” in Chyrów, a timber business, in the commercial register. Kinship to Elias: still Possible. Page in the gallery.Curliste Karlsbad, 20 Jul 1894, p. 5; Wiener Zeitung, 9 May 1899, p. 23 (ANNO: https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=wrz&datum=18990509&seite=23)
• Confirmed Anne’s brother Kallmann (Charles) Wahrsager married Ruth Seltzer on Sunday 10 March 1946 at 10 PM, at 1440 Plimpton Avenue in the Bronx; Rabbi Osias Teitelbaum officiated (licence no. 2106). The licence names Ruth’s parents for the first time: Charles Seltzer and Sarah Rosenbaum, both born in Austria. Licence, certificate and index page in the gallery.NYC Municipal Archives, Historical Vital Records, Marriage Licenses, Bronx 1946, no. 2106 (L-B-1946-0002106); City Clerk’s Index to Marriage Licenses, Bronx 1946, scan 707
• Likely The first witness at Charles and Ruth’s 1946 wedding signed “David Brecher”, of 305 East Mount Eden Avenue — Eugene’s Bronx address in 1940 and on his naturalization papers — so very probably David Brecher HaKohen, Anne’s father-in-law. The second witness was Michael H. Zelig.NYC Municipal Archives, Historical Vital Records, Bronx 1946 marriage licence no. 2106, certificate
• Confirmed Hinde (Hinda) Wahrsager, daughter of Jacob Lische Wahrsager of Chyrów, married Samuel Glasberg of Drohobycz; the Drohobycz birth index gives their sons Hersch (8 April 1863), Nusen (26 June 1865) and Moses (12 July 1867), and a daughter Machle married Jozef Neger at Borysław. If Elias’s mother was Jacob Lische’s daughter (Likely), these were his first cousins.All Galicia Database (Gesher Galicia), index rows: Drohobycz Jewish births 1816–1869 (TsDIAL 701/1/39) #6:6971, #6:7692, #6:8387; Borysław births 1903 #46:101
• Confirmed More of Hinde Glasberg née Wahrsager’s family, from the Drohobycz Jewish registers: her children Keile Sara (1879–1880), Jacob Elische (1882–1890, named for his grandfather Jacob Lische) and Chaja Lea (c. 1867–1934, whose death entry names both parents); Machle’s birth (1877) and her 1901 marriage to Markus Josef Neger, with their children Lea Hinde (1905) and Israel (1906); and Nusen’s 1900 marriage to Beile Leichtmann of Gródek, which names his parents as Samuel Glasberg and Hinde Wahrsager, with their nine children born 1890–1909: Majlach, Freuda, Henia, Sara, Moses, Jakób Lische, Chana Pessel, Israel and Hinde. Freuda, Israel (1905) and Lea Hinde are Likely (name spellings in the index); the rest Confirmed.JRI-Poland index of the Jewish registers of Drohobycz (AGAD Warsaw, fond 300): births 1877 akt 295, 1879 akt 378, 1882 akt 32, 1890 akt 322, 1892 akt 56, 1893 akt 199, 1895 akt 126, 1897 akt 9, 1899 akt 5, 1902 akt 27, 1905 akt 25 and 179, 1906 akt 285, 1909 akt 311; marriages 1900 akt 68, 1901 akt 4; deaths 1880 akt 208, 1890 akt 78, 1907 akt 281, 1934 akt 60
• Confirmed Jossel Glasberg (recte Wahrsager), son of Samuel Glasberg and Hinde née Wahrsager: his 1901 marriage at Drohobycz, where he was 29, names his parents as Samuel Glasberg and Hinde Wahrsager. A Jossel Glasberg recte Wahrsager and Rifcze Ambach of Drohobycz were the parents of Lea Blima, who married Mendel Selinger in 1935 (very probably the same Jossel; All Galicia Database #178:8).JRI-Poland index of the Jewish registers of Drohobycz (AGAD Warsaw, fond 300), marriages 1901, akt 5 (sygn. 2113) (index row; image not viewed)
• Confirmed A second Oher family of Chyrów, one generation older than the site assumed: Schmil (Samuel) Elias Oher (c. 1800) and Feige née Gartenberg (c. 1803–1889; she died at Schodnica aged 86, daughter of Isak and Elka Gartenberg). Their children, all “of Chyrów”: Josel (c. 1824–1882), Leib (c. 1830–1894), Dawid (c. 1833–1910), Chaje (c. 1835–1895), wife of Nachman Lamberg, Isak (c. 1845–1887) and Israel (c. 1845/51–1919, later of Wolanka, m. 1906). The records are Confirmed (index); that this is the Elias of the 1837 deed is Likely; Elias is a Possible son of Hersch and Chaja (so Chane Pessel’s brother), or a Possible younger brother or cousin of Hersch; both placements are Possible.JRI-Poland legacy index of the AGAD (fond 300) and Przemyśl archive registers: Drohobycz deaths 1882 act 151, 1887 act 40, 1889 act 61, 1894 act 259, 1895 act 208, 1910 act 211, 1919 act 146; marriages 1906 act 48 (https://legacy.jri-poland.org/databases/)
• Confirmed The original register entries of two of Schmil Elias Oher’s sons, read on the scans: Israel Oher’s marriage at Borysław in 1906 (act 48) — born in Chyrów, living in Borysław, a watchman, 55 and single, son of the late Schmil Eliasz Oher and Feige née Gartenberg; the bride Freida Bruck of Borysław, daughter of the late Hillel and Leia Bruck — and Dawid Oher’s death at Drohobycz on 27 September 1910 (act 211), aged 77, a widower, son of the late Samuel Eliasz and Feiga Oher. Both scans are in the documents archive. No record names the generation above Schmil Elias.AGAD Warsaw, fond 300, sygn. 2548 (Borysław Jewish marriages 1906), act 48, and sygn. 2836 (Drohobycz Jewish deaths 1910), act 211; images via JRI-Poland / AGAD metrykalia album

• Possible Szmul Alexander stands in a Chyrów land deed of 1823 beside Sosia Wahrsager — perhaps a clue to Elias’s 1921 “cousin Samuel Alexander” (Possible).
• Possible Salamon Wahrsager of Chyrów was paid for a loss in the Chyrów fire of 19 May 1872 (record Confirmed; kinship Possible).
• Possible Gavriel’s father may have been a Todres Gottesdiener who died before July 1874: three Gottesdiener boys were named Todres in 1874–76, Gavriel’s own son among them (Possible — a naming inference only).
• Possible Earlier Gottesdieners of Chyrów, not linked: Nuta and Ester (1807–08); Elka Reysel with Chaim and Abraham Ber (1819); Chaim Hersz (1824); Jankel, houses 36–37 (1853). Rachel Reinhalt née Gottesdiener of Chyrów (b. c. 1834/40) in the Kraków 1890 census (Possible kin). Wolf Gottesdiener, born 9 Apr 1912 in Chyrów, son of David Gottesdiener and Elka née Spira (a 1941 record) — no link to Rav Gavriel is known (Possible kin).
• Possible Zelman Oher of Chyrów (on the land register in 1804) — a possible father of Hersch Oher, the 5th generation above Anne (Possible).
• Possible Salamon (Schloma) and Marjema Unger of Chyrów — possible parents of Malka’s father Leib Unger; no record joins them yet (Possible).
• Possible Elias (Schmil Elias) Oher of Chyrów (c. 1800), husband of Feige née Gartenberg; a Possible son of Hersch and Chaja (so Chane Pessel’s brother), or a Possible younger brother or cousin of Hersch. That he is the Elias Oher named with Hersch and Chaje Oher in the 1837 deed and in the 1840 Macuski deal is Likely (same rare name, same town, right age). His wife was born c. 1803 and his eldest son c. 1824, so he belongs to Hersch’s generation, not Chane Pessel’s; Zelman Oher (1804) would then be a candidate father of both men (Possible).
• Possible An 1850 Dobromil town list in the official gazette (Lemberg Gazette, official supplement nos. 294–295, 20–21 Dec 1850) names two young men, Jakob Ungar and Kolman Ungar, both at house no. 87, Dobromil. They were the right age to be Leib Unger’s father or uncles, but no record links them to him (Possible).
• Possible Oher households of Chyrów (Possible kin): Hersch Meier and Syta Oher, parents of Elias Salomon Oher (b. c. 1895, a merchant, m. 1925 Chane Mittelmann; AGAD fond 300, sygn. 3390, p. 102, entry 3); Mełes (Meilech) and Mirla Oher, parents of Izaak Oher (b. 27 May 1898 in Chyrów, m. 1923 Łaja Reizfeld; AP Przemyśl 56/1731/0/2/24, p. 21, entry 3). The names Hersch and Elias recur in Chane Pessel’s family, but no record joins them.
• Possible Searched, nothing found: the Chyrów burial society’s own papers (held at YIVO in New York, by appointment only, and from 1918 on); the society’s plot at Mount Hebron, Block 61 (15 burials, none of our surnames); the surviving Dobromil birth books (no Unger birth before 1912).
• Possible Marjem Wachs’s parents, Chaim Wachs and Chaja Itta, may be Chaim, son of Wolf Wachs (b. Podkamień 1852) and Malke Lahm (b. Bełz 1855), who married at Załoźce in 1893, and Chaje Jutte Teitelbaum (b. Mościska 1876), daughter of Aharon Teitelbaum and Jente Rosenfeld, married at Załoźce in 1902 (Possible — no record yet joins this couple to the 1922 bride’s parents; Załoźce marriages AGAD fond 300, sygn. 2985, scans 0013 and 0029; Załoźce births sygn. 1501, scan 0030).
• Possible Searched for Gavriel’s parents, nothing new (23 Oct 2026): Dr Avraham Ovadia’s own book, Divrot Rabbenu Moshe ben Maimon (Tel Aviv, Nisan 5695 = 1935, published by the Torah ve-Avodah movement; HebrewBooks 31131), was read: title page, the publisher’s preface and his foreword, signed “Dr A. Gottesdiener, Tel Aviv, 27 Nisan 5695”. It has no approbation and names no ancestors. Neil Rosenstein’s The Unbroken Chain, vol. 7, p. 612, indexes Gavriel HaCohen Gottesdiener beside Feiga Dominitz and Dr Avraham Ovadia; the page sits in a descendants’ list and seems to follow Feiga’s line (Avraham’s mother, not Elias’s); the page itself is not online and was not read (Possible relevance only).
• Possible Searched for the parents of HaRav Gavriel HaKohen Gottesdiener (23 Oct 2026, evening). The indexed Galician Jewish registers that are free to search have no Chyrów books. Their Gottesdiener entries are from Przemyśl, Lesko, Sanok, Mościska, Rudki, Stanisławów and Turka, 1889–1919, all too late for his parents. No Gottesdiener of Chyrów appears in the Austrian press before 1915. A 1915 refugee notice in Prague lists “Ernestine Gottesdiener aus Chyrow” among relatives being searched for; her tie to Gavriel is not known (Prager Tagblatt, 10 Feb 1915, pp. 14 and 21). Gavriel’s parents remain unknown.
• Possible Hinde Glasberg, born at Drohobycz in 1870 (index, no parents shown), may be a further child of Samuel and Hinde Glasberg. Possible (All Galicia Database #791:49).
• Possible Eliaz Unger, born 1881 at Kniażpol, with his wife Ida (b. 1884, Kresowice) and son Israel (b. 1 Feb 1923, Dobromil), of Dobromil 743, appears on 1941–42 Lwów lists. Malka’s father Leib Unger lived and died at Kniażpol, so Eliaz may be Malka’s brother; the record is Confirmed, the kinship Possible, leaning Likely (All Galicia Database #589:9575–9577).
• Possible Jankel Gottesdiener held houses 36–37 at Chyrów in the 1853 property list, with a workshop and five unbuilt parcels; a link to HaRav Gavriel Gottesdiener is Possible (TsDIAL 186/2/587, All Galicia Database #648:31–32).
• Possible Herszko Unger, merchant of Łacko, died there 22 Feb 1930 aged 69 (Dobromil Jewish deaths 1915–39, All Galicia Database #229:99): same district and generation as Leib Unger. Possible kin only.
• Possible Malie Oher (b. c. 1838; m. Izak Karp civilly at Sambor, 24 Nov 1897; son Abraham Karp b. Chyrów 1877) and Mojżesz Oher (b. c. 1842; m. 1895), both of Chyrów, children of Szapse (Schabse) and Welke Oher. If this Szapse is Mordche Schabse Oher, they were Chane Pessel’s niece and nephew (Possible; records Confirmed (index): Gesher Galicia All Galicia Database #137:580; JRI-Poland, Sambor births 1877 act 213 and Sambor-district marriages 1895 act 18).

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