I have always, since an early age, been connected with writing and books.
My juvenilia were published in the New Zealand press, and even in some Enid
Blyton magazine (I forget which), my first slim volume of drama was published
when I was seventeenish … which must be about the same age that the work of my
poet brother, the now celebrated John Gallas, was unleashed on the world. It
was just something we ‘always did’, alongside music, athletics, theatre … I
blame our Jewish ancestry.
Well, I took an initial turn towards music and theatre, and notably musical
theatre, and was in my late twenties before, thanks to my mentor Ian Bevan, I again
began writing seriously. The bulging result can be seen on amazon or Wikipedia.
John has gone from prize to prize and volume to volume, and to the very
top of his tree.
It wasn’t until I dug further into our ancestry that the books in the
background started to appear, notably through our great-grandmother’s
connection with the famous Rosenbaum publishing and printing family of Vienna.
But today I found another author, also on the Jewish side of our family,
to whom we are related. Admittedly only by marriage. So far, he is only a name
to me, but I shall work on it.
Israel Gánsl of Mór, Fejér, Hungary had four sons. Abraham Hirsch
otherwise Hermann (1800), Joszef (1807), Ignáz (1813) and Fulop (1817). Joszef’s
grandson, also Jos(z)ef, was my grandfather. But the big boy of the family was
eldest son, Hermann. In the church registers, he can be seen godfathering and circumcising
a wide circle of local children. His son, Mór or Moritz also took a prominent
place in similar circles, and himself gave birth to five daughters and finally one
son, Aladár (1886).
I haven’t yet discovered why, but Aladár changed his name from Gánsl (just
as my father did), and called himself Aladár Gáspár, so that his daughter was
born Julianna Gáspár (1930). And Julianna married a gentleman named Miklós
Marót. Who, unless I have muddled my Miklóses, is the author of the standard guidebook
to Budapest.
He is apparently also the father of Edit Tüske, and Ezster Vincze and the
grandfather of Annamária Adrienn Tüske, who, if they are still around, would be
the first living descendants of the Gánsls of Mór, apart from John and myself, whom
I have ever tracked down.
Hello, cousins! ?
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