A grave day ...

.
Well, at last I know. After years of wondering. Great-grandmother Julie Ganzl lies in an unmarked grave in the Vienna Zentralfriedhof.   Sad, but comprehensible. She and Adolf were broke. But now, at least, I know. The gap in the line ... that's she.

But today -- oddly enough, my father's birthday -- brings a glorious heap more ancient evidence of his family. My friends Georg Gaugusch and Marie Theres Arnbom visited the village of Mór last year, and as they are reputed Jewish-genealogical scholars, they brought back with them a welter of photographs of the tombs in the local Jewish graveyard ...

Alas, although in my youth I delved into Latin and Greek inscriptions, and even ventured a touch of Linear B, Hebrew is a closed book to me, so I can read only stones like that of NAFTHALI LÖWY who are good enough to add a little German or Hungarian.

Wait a mo. Napthali Löwy? I know that name. Hasten to Geni. 'Nafthali Löwy is your third great uncle'. Oh wow, and there is his wife Elizabeth .. geborene GANSL ...  'third great aunt' ....  

and here is Lotti Schlesinger, third cousin

Lájos Gansl, second cousin twice removed, and his mother Teni ...

and, I need a whisky, here is Leni Gánsl, née Lippmann. My direct great-great grandmother. Died of tuberculosis in 1883 (17 July). 

Whisky opened ... on we go! Well, the Gansl/Ganzl grave markers have been sort of modest alongside some of the splendid monuments of their concitoyens. But here, at last, is a showy one. 

Mór Ganzl. Died, 1902 eh. Aged 60? Hmm. I'm pretty sure this was Moritz the son of 'Hermann'  (Abraham Hirsch Gansl) who married Emma Mandl and was a bit of a personage at births and circumcisions. Not sure within a year or two of the 'aged 60', but those Hungarians are usually right. He was our gg Abraham-Adolf's cousin. I'll keep on looking! And YES! Here is Emma!!!!!

But what is this? Auschwitz? The wife of F Viktor Gansl ...  I don't have a Viktor yet ... and I have too many Auschwitzes ...  I'll carry on through the graves of more civilised days ..

Here is poor Ottilie (first cousin thrice removed), who died at twenty three ...

And here is gggrandfather's brother 'Isák' and his wife Hany née Bader ...

and their eldest son, 'Henrik'

Well, if poor Adolf-Abraham and Julie lie in unmarked graves in Vienna, cousin Henrik, who stayed home, left himself a fine monument ...

So did Moritz Grünfeld, who, Geni tells me, is my first cousin thrice removed's wife's father ..

There pile is getting smaller, but here's another important one. Regina, daughter of Josef and Leni (above), and thus the eldest sister of my great grandfather Adolf-Abraham sans-grave. Regi married Sandor Schlosz and three of her children survived to adulthood ..

and her husband

I'm sure I've missed some. The larger number of the inscriptions are in Hebrew ... If great-great-grandma Leni is there, I'd expect husband Josef Gánsl (b 1807) to be there too ....

And wait a moment, I've got a stray. When does THIS lady fit in ...?

Pause, for the reassembling of thoughts! Ah! Got her. Philipp, uncle of my Abraham-Adolf, Ganzl married Julie Schönberger of Mór, daughter Betti in 1851 etcetera.  Julie died 21 February 1875 ...

And here's F Viktor. He I can't fit in ... maybe he wandered in from Lovaszbereny ...?

No. Here he is in 1924, in Mór ... a general merchant .. along with, good heavens, that's Emma Mandl! Oh dear, they would both be dead within the year ..

Post scriptum 2022. Since this article I have had little gravestones placed on the umarked Viennese plots of Julie and Adolf