Research is ongoing — new records, people and photos are added daily.
BThe Brecher Family
Always hereThe BookContentsYear by YearTree viewsRelationship finderSearchYahrzeitsContribute

Chyrów, Dobromil, Berlin and the Bronx

Wahrsager & Unger

Chyrów · Dobromil · Kraków · Vienna · Berlin · the Bronx · Jerusalem

New research · 27 October 2026

Newly found records

  • 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). Confirmed — Find a Grave memorial 103933385, marker photo
  • 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. Possible — Find a Grave memorial 253378280
  • 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. Likely — JewishGen Worldwide Burial Registry (Vienna), via BillionGraves records 123006914 and 123006907
  • 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. Likely — Find a Grave memorials 146937971 and 172082604
  • 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. Confirmed — NYC Death Index 1949–65 (Elias Wahrsager, d. 11 Dec 1954, Bronx); his gravestone (17 Kislev 5715)
  • 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. Confirmed — 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)
  • 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. Confirmed — 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
  • 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). Likely — Round 56 research (22 Oct 2026)
  • 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). Likely — AGAD Warsaw, fond 300, Drohobycz Jewish deaths 1898, akt 5; 1882 Drohobycz birth of Jacob Elische Glasberg; Gesher Galicia AGD, Chyrów property owners 1853
  • 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. Confirmed — 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)
  • 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. Likely — 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
  • 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). Likely — Social Security record; SS Majestic list, Sep 1927; Berlin births index 1874–1910
  • 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). Confirmed — Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie, Jewish marriages 1910, act 121
  • 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). Likely — Mount Zion Cemetery interment records; Tzafnat Pane’ach Institute; Berlin address books 1914–1932
  • 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. Confirmed — Jüdisches Jahrbuch für Gross-Berlin 1926, Internet Archive
  • 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). Likely — Neil Rosenstein, The Unbroken Chain, vol. 7, index p. 612
  • 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). Confirmed — Berliner Adreßbuch 1914 image 4852, 1925 image 5575, 1927 images 2921 and 5934 (Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin)
  • 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. Confirmed — Jüdisches Adressbuch für Gross-Berlin 1931/32, image 536
  • 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). Likely — Gesher Galicia, Przemyśl Jewish marriages 1915–1919, record 31 (Przemyśl State Archive, fond 1924, file 36)
  • 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. Confirmed — Gazeta Lwowska no. 164 (20 Jul 1901) and no. 98 (1904); Galicia 1891 Business Directory
  • 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). Confirmed — AGAD Warsaw, fond 300, sygn. 2118, scan 0018 (Gródek Jagielloński Jewish births 1893, entry 193)
  • 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. Likely — AGAD Warsaw, fond 300, sygn. 3358, scan 0001 (Drohobycz-district Jewish marriages 1931, entry 2)
  • 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”. Confirmed — Bronx Certificate and Record of Marriage no. 232, 14 Dec 1929, p. 1 (in the gallery)
  • 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. Likely — Holocaust memorial records, no. 1039678
  • Chaja Lea (Unger) Goldberg: Holocaust victim, 5 January 1943, Lwów (the record gives her birth as 1870, Dobromil). Likely — Holocaust memorial records, no. 1062034
  • 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. Confirmed — Holocaust memorial records, no. 1095940
  • 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). Likely — Service historique de la Défense, AC 21 P
  • 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. Confirmed — NARA catalog NAID 608595110
  • 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. Confirmed — IKG Wien marriage register 1914 no. 348, via JewishGen Vienna Marriages (Enhanced)
  • 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. Likely — Sambor banns Dec 1921–Jan 1922 (AGD #206:1276); IKG Wien births 1922/II no. 2496
  • 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). Confirmed — IKG Wien marriage register 1920 no. 305; births 1922/II no. 2496 and 1927 no. 161 (JewishGen indexes)
  • 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. Likely — Chyrów Tabula Register 1803–1855 (TsDIAL Lviv, fond 166, op. 1, sprava 2248), Gesher Galicia index #790:83, #790:201, #790:13
  • 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. Confirmed — AGAD, fond 300, sygn. 2114, scan 2 (Drohobycz deaths 1900, akt 6)
  • 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. Confirmed — IKG Wien births 1922/I no. 478 (JewishGen index)
  • 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. Confirmed — St Albans district card 27 Jan 1921 (NARA); SDNY petition 15 Nov 1926; NY County declaration no. 270571 (via FamilySearch)
  • 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. Confirmed — New York passenger lists 1927, S.S. Majestic (NARA, via FamilySearch)
  • 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. Confirmed — 1930, 1940, 1950 U.S. censuses; 1942 draft registration (via FamilySearch)
  • 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. Confirmed — Bronx County Supreme Court declaration no. 117029 (via FamilySearch)
  • 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. Likely — Chyrów Tabula Register #790:201 (1837); 1867 Chyrów voters' list, Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie 29/684/0/1/305, indexed by Gesher Galicia
  • 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. Confirmed — National Library of Israel 990022310300205171; Ein le-Etzion p. 39; Netanya municipality public-gardens page
  • 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. Confirmed — Wellwood–Beth Moses Cemetery interment search (wellwoodcemetery.com/search), read 22 Oct 2026
  • 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. Possible — 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)
  • 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. Possible — AP Przemyśl, fond 56/1924, sygn. 32, scan 135, act 1
  • 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. Possible — Galician Jewish register: AGAD fond 300, sygn. 4331, p. 20, entry 2
  • 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. Confirmed — Galician Jewish register: AGAD fond 300, sygn. 3698, p. 38, entry 2 (Sambor 1922)
  • 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. Likely — Galician Jewish register: AGAD fond 300, sygn. 4368, p. 37, entry 4
  • 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. Confirmed — 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)
  • 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. Confirmed — 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
  • 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. Likely — NYC Municipal Archives, Historical Vital Records, Bronx 1946 marriage licence no. 2106, certificate
  • 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. Confirmed — 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
  • 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. 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
  • 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). Confirmed — JRI-Poland index of the Jewish registers of Drohobycz (AGAD Warsaw, fond 300), marriages 1901, akt 5 (sygn. 2113) (index row; image not viewed)
  • 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. Confirmed — 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/)
  • 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. Confirmed — 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

Leads still being checked

These are possibilities only. They are not on the tree until a record proves them.

  • 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). Possible

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

Possible Chyrów on the Austrian cadastral survey of 1853. House no. 207 in the town centre belonged to an earlier Elias (Lische) Wahrsager, not Anne’s father, a generation or two before the Elias Wahrsager born in Chyrów in 1880.Cadastral map of Chyrów, 1853, Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Lviv, fond 186 (Gesher Galicia Maps Project)
Possible The death of Chane Pessel Wahrsager, née Oher, widow of Elisha (Lisch) Wahrsager, a merchant of Chyrów, recorded at Drohobycz on 7 January 1898 at the age of 86. The names Elisha and Chana Pesel return in the next generations as Elias Wahrsager and his daughter Anne (Chana Pesel).Jewish civil registers of Drohobycz, deaths 1898, Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych, Warsaw, fond 300 (JRI-Poland)
Confirmed The death of Hinde Glasberg, née Wahrsager, recorded at Drohobycz on 20 March 1905 at the age of 63. The register names her parents as Lische (Elisha) and Chana Wahrsager of Chyrów — the same couple as Chane Pessel Wahrsager. Her place in the family of Elias Wahrsager is possible but not established.Jewish civil registers of Drohobycz, deaths 1905, p. 16 no. 80, Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych, Warsaw, fond 300, album 2400 (JRI-Poland)
Confirmed Birth of Jacob Elische Glasberg, Drohobycz, 1882: his mother Hinde is entered as the daughter of “the late merchant Jacob Lische Wahrsager” and of Chane, living in Chyrów.Jewish civil registers of Drohobycz, births 1882 (JRI-Poland)
The wooden synagogue of Chyrów, the town of Elias Wahrsager’s birth.Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The synagogue of Dobromil, the town of Malka Unger’s birth, on a postcard of about 1910.National Museum in Lviv, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The market square of Dobromil around 1910, with the printing house of Abraham Turk.Postcard published by Abraham Turk, Dobromil, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Jewish shops on the main street of Dobromil in the 1920s.Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Dobromil, Malka Unger’s birthplace, in Adar I 5689 (February 1929): the leaders of the Agudath Yisrael youth, photographed for the wedding of their chairman.Holocaust memorial records, Photo Archive, Jerusalem, 3393/4
Possible Gavriel Gottesdiener (Katz) of Chyrów, named in the same family tree as Elias’s father; Elias’s gravestone names his father as Gavriel HaKohen.Family tree photograph (MyHeritage family tree, copied to Geni.com, 2015)
Likely Elias (Elisha) Wahrsager as a young man, cut from a group photograph. Identification: family tree kept by descendants of Todres Gottesdiener.Family tree photograph (MyHeritage family tree, copied to Geni.com, 2015)
Likely Sara Mindel Gottesdiener, identified in a descendants’ family tree as the mother of Elias.Family tree photograph (MyHeritage family tree, copied to Geni.com, 2015)
Confirmed The Berlin address book for 1909: “Wahrsager, Elias”, leather worker, Saarbrücker Straße 33, Berlin N 37. He is listed at the same address every year until 1919.Berliner Adreßbuch, Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin, 1909
Confirmed The Berlin address book for 1914, the year of Anne’s birth in Berlin: Elias Wahrsager, leather worker, Saarbrücker Straße 33.Berliner Adreßbuch, Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin, 1914
Confirmed The Berlin address book for 1917: “Wahrsager, Elias, Kartonnagearbeiter” (cardboard-box worker), Saarbrücker Straße 33.Berliner Adreßbuch, Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin, 1917, p. 3118
Confirmed The Berlin address book for 1918: Elias Wahrsager, now “Handelsmann” (tradesman), still at Saarbrücker Straße 33.Berliner Adreßbuch, Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin, 1918, p. 3009
Confirmed The Berlin address book for 1919, the last year in which Elias Wahrsager appears at Saarbrücker Straße 33.Berliner Adreßbuch, Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin, 1919

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.

Confirmed Marriage of Abraham Dominitz (properly Gottesdiener), Sambor, 1922, act no. 10: born 27 May 1893 in Chyrów, son of the late Feige Dominitz, ritual wife of Gabryel Gottesdiener.Sambor civil marriage register, 1922, act no. 10 (Polish State Archives)

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.

Confirmed The Mount of Olives burial card of Dr Avraham HaKohen Ovadia (Gottesdiener), son of HaRav Gavriel HaKohen, dayan of Chyrów: died 23 Sivan 5701 (18 June 1941); Kehillat Yerushalayim block, plot ח, row 1, grave 14, with the words of his stone.Mount of Olives grave register (City of David), card 33138
Confirmed The death of Dr Avraham Ovadia (Gottesdiener), “son of HaRav Gavriel HaKohen Gottesdiener, the Rav of Chyrów”, reported in HaBoker, Tel Aviv, 19 Jun 1941.HaBoker, 19 Jun 1941 (National Library of Israel, Historical Jewish Press)
Confirmed Obituary of Dr Avraham Ovadia in HaOlam, 1941, naming his father Gavriel, rabbinic judge of Chyrów.HaOlam, 1941 (National Library of Israel, Historical Jewish Press)
Likely A letter from Chyrów signed “Avraham Gottesdiener HaKohen”, printed in Machzikei HaDas in 1911.Machzikei HaDas, 1911 — National Library of Israel, Historical Jewish Press

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

Bornc. 1876, Chyrów (from age 65 at death)
FatherHaRav Gavriel HaKohen Gottesdiener, Rav of Chyrów (Likely)
Trademaker of wallets and cases, Kraków, then Vienna
WifeFeige (Friga) née Kleinmann of Radomyśl, d. 23 Apr 1931, Vienna, aged 54
Her graveVienna Zentralfriedhof, Gate IV, group 16c, row 4, grave 19
SonsEmanuel, b. 19 Jul 1900, Kraków; Meilech (Emil), b. 1902, Kraków
Died30 Oct 1941, Vienna, aged 65; buried 4 Nov 1941
His graveVienna Zentralfriedhof, Gate IV, group 21, row 38, grave 55
Confirmed Birth of Emanuel, son of Todres Gottesdiener “of Suszyca, district of Stare Miasto, wallet-maker in Kraków” and Feige Kleinman, Kraków, 19 Jul 1900.Kraków Jewish birth register 1900, entry 541
Confirmed Birth of Meilech (Emil), son of Todres Gottesdiener and Feige Kleinman, Kraków, 1902.Kraków Jewish birth register 1902

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

Confirmed Birth of Jacob Hersch, son of Naftal Reich, merchant, and Pesche Gottesdiener, Przemyśl, November 1861 (entry 222, house no. 241).Przemyśl Jewish birth register, 1861

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).

Likely Marriage of Izak Sauer and Jochwed Unger, daughter of Leib and Ryfka Unger of Kniażpol, Dobromil, 31 Oct 1920.Dobromil Jewish marriage register 1915–1940, entry 11 of 1920

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.

Confirmed The passenger list on which Elias Wahrsager entered the United States from Canada in January 1921: a leather worker, aged 41, last resident in Chyrów, whose wife Malka remained in Europe.St. Albans District manifests (NARA M1464), U.S. National Archives (FamilySearch)
Confirmed Elias Wahrsager’s border-crossing card, St. John, New Brunswick, 27 January 1921: born in Chyrów, Galicia; his wife Malka at home in Chyrów; bound for his cousin Samuel Alexander at 63 Lewis Street, New York.U.S. border crossings from Canada, U.S. National Archives (FamilySearch, host)
Confirmed The second page of Elias Wahrsager’s 1921 border-crossing list (line 11) describes him as 5 ft 2 in tall with brown hair and eyes, and gives his birthplace as Chyrów, Poland; he was going to a cousin in New York.Manifests of passengers arriving in the St. Albans, Vermont, District (National Archives M1464), via FamilySearch, Vermont, St. Albans, Canadian Border Crossings, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-9981-Q31K-V
Confirmed 136 East Broadway, Manhattan, about 1940: Elias Wahrsager’s address in 1922.NYC Department of Taxes photographs, c. 1940, NYC Municipal Archives
Confirmed Elias Wahrsager’s Declaration of Intention, New York, 28 January 1922, with his certificate of arrival: pocket-book maker, aged 41, born 23 May 1880 in Galicia; his wife Mollie then living in Germany.U.S. National Archives, naturalization records, Southern District of New York, petition file 91265 (FamilySearch, host)
Confirmed Elias Wahrsager’s Petition for Naturalization, no. 91265, filed 15 November 1926: his wife Mollie, born 2 March 1880, and their children.U.S. National Archives, naturalization records, Southern District of New York (FamilySearch, host)
Confirmed Detail of the 1926 petition: the children’s names, dates and places of birth.U.S. National Archives, naturalization records, Southern District of New York (FamilySearch, host)
Confirmed The witnesses on Elias Wahrsager’s 1926 petition for naturalization: Morris Glasser, a manufacturer, and Abraham Glasser, a tailor, both of 1948 Prospect Avenue in the Bronx, who swore they had known him since February 1921.U.S. National Archives, naturalization records, Southern District of New York (FamilySearch, host)
Confirmed Elias Wahrsager’s oath of allegiance, admitted to citizenship 14 March 1927, certificate no. 2393822.U.S. National Archives, naturalization records, Southern District of New York (FamilySearch, host)
The White Star liner Majestic leaving Southampton in 1925, two years before Malka Wahrsager and her children crossed on her to join Elias in New York.Central News / Agence Rol, Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Confirmed Malka Wahrsager crossed from Southampton to New York on the Majestic in September 1927 with three of her children, Sarah (later Sabina), Kallmann (Charles) and Anna (Anne), aged 13. The list gives Dobromil as the birthplace of Malka and Sarah (Sabina), and Berlin for the two younger children.New York passenger lists (NARA T715), U.S. National Archives (FamilySearch)
Confirmed The second page of the 1927 list: Malka and the children were going to Elias Wahrsager at 48 Clinton Street on the Lower East Side.New York passenger lists (NARA T715), U.S. National Archives (FamilySearch)
Confirmed 48 Clinton Street, Lower East Side, about 1940: the address to which Malka Wahrsager and her children came in September 1927.NYC Department of Taxes photographs, c. 1940, NYC Municipal Archives
Confirmed Certificate and Record of Marriage of Paul Schiff and Sabina Wahrsager, Bronx, 14 December 1929. The bride, born in Berlin, is the daughter of Elias Wahrsager and “Maly Unger”.NYC Municipal Archives, historical vital records, Bronx marriages, no. 232 (1930)
Confirmed The Wahrsager household in the 1930 census of the Bronx: Elias, his wife Mollie (Malka), and their children Charley (Charles) and Annie.1930 U.S. Census, Bronx, sheet 81A (FamilySearch)
Confirmed Paul Schiff, 27, and his wife Savina (Sabina), 21, born in Germany, in the 1930 census of the Bronx.1930 U.S. Census, Bronx, sheet 2B (FamilySearch)
Confirmed Paul Schiff, 39, house painter, born in Austria, and his wife Sabina, 31, in the Bronx in the 1940 census.United States Census, 1940, Bronx, ED 3-566, sheet 11A (FamilySearch), https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQ5J-WN2
Confirmed Paul Schiff, from his 1934 declaration of intention, Supreme Court, Bronx County.New York, U.S. District and Circuit Court Naturalization Records, 1824–1991 (filed with his petition); FamilySearch
Confirmed Paul Schiff’s Declaration of Intention, Bronx, 6 February 1934: born 10 May 1900 in Galicia; married Sabina Wahrsager on 14 December 1929.U.S. National Archives, naturalization records, Southern District of New York (FamilySearch, host)
Confirmed The certificate of arrival filed with Paul Schiff’s declaration records his landing at New York on 26 December 1927 on the SS Deutschland, under the name Josef Brawer.New York, U.S. District and Circuit Court Naturalization Records, 1824–1991 (FamilySearch), https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9HN-9RY7
Confirmed On the reverse of his petition Paul Schiff signed the oath of allegiance, renouncing allegiance to the Republic of Poland; he became a citizen of the United States on 24 November 1936.New York, U.S. District and Circuit Court Naturalization Records, 1824–1991 (FamilySearch), https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9HN-9R44
Confirmed 944 Rogers Place, Bronx, about 1940: the address of Paul and Sabina Schiff in 1934.NYC Department of Taxes photographs, c. 1940, NYC Municipal Archives
Confirmed Elias, Malka (here “Monia”) and their son Charles at 1035 Tiffany Street in the Bronx, 1940 census; Charles was a cutter in the fur trade.1940 U.S. Census, Bronx, ED 3-603, sheet 9A (FamilySearch)
Confirmed 994–998 East 172nd Street, Bronx, about 1940: the home of Paul and Sabina Schiff in the 1940 census.NYC Department of Taxes photographs, c. 1940, NYC Municipal Archives
Confirmed Charles Wahrsager’s draft registration card, 16 October 1940: 1702 Clay Avenue; born 30 September 1909 in Berlin; the person who will always know his address, his father Elias Wahrsager.U.S. World War II draft registration cards, 1940, U.S. National Archives (FamilySearch, host)
Confirmed The reverse of Charles Wahrsager’s card describes him as 5 ft 4 in and 150 lb, with brown eyes, black hair and a sallow complexion.United States, World War II Draft Registration Cards (FamilySearch), 1940–1947, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C341-DSPY-N
Confirmed Elias Wahrsager’s draft registration card, April 1942: 1702 Clay Avenue, Bronx; born in Chyrów, Galicia; signed.U.S. World War II draft registration cards, 1942, U.S. National Archives (FamilySearch, host)
Confirmed The reverse of Elias Wahrsager’s 1942 card describes him as about 5 ft 1 in tall and 155 lb, with brown eyes and a sallow complexion.United States, World War II Draft Registration Cards (FamilySearch), 1942, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-67ZQ-8NG
Confirmed Paul Schiff’s draft registration card, 15 February 1942: born 10 May 1899 in Poland; contact, his wife Sabina Schiff.U.S. World War II draft registration cards, 1942, U.S. National Archives (FamilySearch, host)
Confirmed The reverse of Paul Schiff’s card describes him as 5 ft 9 in and 185 lb, with gray eyes, gray hair and a light complexion.United States, World War II Draft Registration Cards (FamilySearch), 1940–1947, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3WP-DSTC-1
Confirmed 1702 Clay Avenue, Bronx, about 1940: the Wahrsager home on Elias’s and Charles’s draft registrations.NYC Department of Taxes photographs, c. 1940, NYC Municipal Archives
Confirmed Charles (Kallmann) Wahrsager’s service card in the New York Guard, 1945; he lived with his parents at 1702 Clay Avenue.New York State National Guard records, New York State Archives (FamilySearch)
Confirmed Elias and Malka Wahrsager at 1702 Clay Avenue in the Bronx, 1950 census; at seventy he was still working in the leather-goods trade.1950 U.S. Census, Bronx, ED 3-131, sheet 74 (FamilySearch)
Confirmed Charles Wahrsager, 40, born in Germany, with his wife Ruth in the Bronx in the 1950 census.United States Census, 1950, Bronx (FamilySearch), https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6XY3-LYBW
Confirmed Paul Schiff, 48, a painting contractor, and his wife Sabina, 41, in the 1950 census, the Bronx.United States Census, 1950, Bronx, New York, ED 3-648, sheet 11 line 30 and sheet 12 line 1, dwelling 131 (FamilySearch records https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6X5S-W62L and https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6X5S-W62P ; images https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHN-GQHW-M94X-G and https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHK-SQHW-M9WJ-P ).

Labels — Confirmed, Likely, Possible — exactly as the family book gives them. Tap any picture to enlarge it.

Generations

The direct line, generation by generation. Tap a name for dates, label and notes.