Johanna Mayer (1833-)

Johanna Mayer was born 21 Feb 1833 in Schifferstadt, Germany, daughter of Abraham Mayer (dutch link) and Amalia Wolff. She is my husband’s maternal great-grandaunt.

Was yesterday’s story one of lots of intermarrying, today’s is even more so. The Jewish community in the Pfalz was strongly interconnected, and the same surnames show up all the time. For instance:  Johanna’ mother was a Wolff, her brother Leopold’s 2nd wife was a Wolff, and her youngest brother Isaac’s wife was the daughter  of a Wolff. I know the last two were related (Leopold’s wife was the aunt of Isaac’s wife) but if and how Johanna’s mother was related is still not clear.

The German habit of multiple given names also show up here: an ‘official’ source has three daughters Johanna, while brother Isaac’s memorial book shows a Jeanette and a Johanna (the third Johanna was one of twins, and might not have survived to adulthood.

I don’t know much about Johanna; according to the Schifferstadt ‘Familien’ book she had a son, but did not marry. I don’t know when she died, or where she is buried. She might be buried in the Schifferstadt Jewish Cemetery; a memorial stone lists many Mayers. But the cemetery was destroyed in 1938 (see here), and while the data are being reconstructed (thanks to the International Jewish Cemetery Project), we may never know.

And of course, I don’t read German very well, and Jewish records from that time period are scarce and in Hebrew, which complicates matters even more. But by writing these little stories, I sometimes find something new, or am able to correct an error. And maybe come a little closer to understanding history.