Harris & Esther Eizenberg
Genealogists are an extremely generous lot. They love helping newbies like me find their families, and for that, I am extremely grateful and extend a very public “thanks”.
When I joined the Australia Jewish Genealogy Society (AJGS) I went along to one of their monthly workshops. Now it may have been an advantage that I happen to be related to one of the movers and shakers at AJGS – Reike Nash – a profligate genealogist who had chronicled one branch of my family tree in some depth. She and her husband, Peter, welcomed me into the AJGS fold and showed me around the reference library.
Reike’s maiden name was Isenberg. My mother’s maiden name was Eizenberg. By a not-so-strange coincidence, they are actually descended from the same ancestors – Avraham and Yetta Devora Isenberg (or Ajzenberg, as it was spelled in Poland!) Avraham and Yetta had five children. Through my mother, I am descended from the eldest son, Harris Zvi Issac Eisenberg, born on April 8, 1853, in Wyszkow, Poland. Reike and her family are descended from their youngest, Mosche (Morris) Isenberg, born in Wyszkow in 1871.
In between Harris and Morris, Avraham and Yetta Devorah had another son, Israel (born about 1864), and two daughters – Feyge (born about 1858) and Shyfra (born about 1860). Reike has traced some branches of the family back even further.
So what is Harris Eizenberg’s story?
Harris left Poland for London around 1876. Here he met and married Esther Greenbaum, a native of Plotzk (now Plock) Poland. They wed on Valentine’s Day, 1877, in the Great Synagogue. It appears Harris had been married once before as his marriage certificate indicates he was a divorcee. However, the identity and fate of his first wife are unknown at this stage.
Not very long after his wedding Harris boarded the Rydelmere in Plymouth and set sail for Australia. Although his name does not appear on the manifest, he names this as the ship he traveled on in his application for a copy of his naturalization papers. Harris arrived in Australia, according to his testimony, on the 18th of August 1877.
A pregnant Esther remained in the UK. She gave birth to a son, David, on Boxing Day, 26th of December, 1877, in Mile End Town, Middlesex. Esther, with baby David, followed Harris to Australia in 1879 aboard the Peterborough. David was barely a year old.
In 1880 their second child, Hannah (Annie), was born in Sydney. These are the only two living children Esther gave birth to, but Esther’s death certificate indicates she had two other children, both of whom may have been stillborn, as I have found no records to date to indicate where these children were born.
In Australia, Harris worked as a Hebrew teacher and a “collector for the Hebrew Benevolent Society”. This occupation is also noted in a letter he wrote to obtain a copy of his naturalization certificate. In this letter, addressed to the Secretary of the Home and Territories Department, Harris claims:
“the only reason I can account for losing my paper is that my wife can neither read nor write and must have destroyed it in the washing of my coat… I have lost many important papers the same way”…
We can only imagine the conversations that went on after those incidents!!
Daughter Annie married Barnett Lampert in 1900. Son David married Ettie Diamond in 1902. That same year Annie’s husband died before the birth of her second child, whom she named Barnett Jr after his late father.
David and Ettie had three children; Hansey, Hyman, and the youngest, my grandfather Leo.
Esther died in January 1920 in Sydney. Harris followed her a year later, in March 1921.