Jonathan, thanks for such a quick and detailed response.
Our best wishes for your fathers health, and also that he recovers any family data lost on his C drive (or what ever other problems have afflicted his computer).
As far as I can determine, in addition to your father, Ivor Zneimer, there have been as many as four other Zneimer descendants independently researching the history of the extended Zneimer family, and their efforts are now, hopefully, converging through the quick communication of the Internet. They include:
Mark Hertz, a first cousin of my mother, who lives in St.Paul, Minnesota, USA. He is the Hertz who was in contact with your father. He is the grandson of Frieda Zneimer Hertz, and he has been researching the Hertz's for some years, including a small amount of research on the Zneimers. His sister Anne lives in Los Angeles, and remembers Zneimer cousins, when she was growing up in St. Paul. This indicates that Frieda Zneimer must have had another sibling or nieces and nephews who also immigrated from Latvia to Minnesota. She also told me that her father and her five Hertz uncles never mentioned anyone left in Europe, or for that matter who had moved to England.
Mark's son Fred Hertz believes that Frieda had a brother David, who remained in Latvia, and who is the grandfather of Eleonora Zneimer, who has been in contact a number of Zneimer descendants she found through Internet research.
Mark can be reached through his son Fred and his wife Lorraine. I will "cc" them on this email, so you can pass their email addresses on to your father.
The other researcher is Chris Jamison of Duluth, Georgia, USA, who relied on extensive census data and other public data sources, as well as some family anecdotes to piece together a remarkable family history. I will also "cc" him, so your father can be in contact, in case that has not yet happened. Just to make this story more interesting, Chris is from a Zneimer branch which converted to Christianity around a century ago, and which came as a total surprise to all of us.
From the Ukraine is Eleonora Zneimer, who you report has been in contact with your father. She apparently is unaware of Moses Znaimer, whose family also escaped the Holocaust by going from Latvia to the S.U., as well as the cousin you discovered through the Yad Vashem files.
Finally, another Zneimer research was Caroyln Rosenstein Ryan, who I have not yet been in contact with, but who I will also copy this email.
Hopefully, now, all of this research will converge, and we can fully understand the entire family tree, and learn, exactly how remnants in the Ukraine, Israel (we believe), the UK, Canada (Mose Znaimer), and all over the USA are linked together.
I think it would be wonderful if we could get the distant relatives in the Ukraine over for a visit, either to the UK or the US, and then invite as many long-lost cousins as we could to this reunion. Chris Jamison has suggested we at least start with a listserver, such a Yahoogroup (electronic bulletin board), which I have set up before.
Here are the URL's of the most relevant websites that I am aware of: The first and third have the most information.
http://www.geocities.com/cujamison/genhtm/genzneim.htm?20051... http://genforum.genealogy.com/zneimer/ http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&affid=qIq2Q0... Regards,
Dick Platkin (great grandson of Frieda Zneimer Hertz)
dickplatkin@yahoo.com)
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Liz Z <
Liz@zneimer.com> wrote:
Hi Dick
Ivor is my father and Saul is one of my brothers. Ivor has researched the family history quite extensively and has had Latvian specialists to trace the Zneimer history is that part of the world. I do believe that we have had a visit from some of the Hertz family, my father will know and I will get him onto it!!
There is a number of Zneimers here in the UK all of whom are my close family. We recently discovered a lady living in South West London whose re-married name was Quick. She herself was a Zneimer and had lived in Latvia during the war and managed to survive various Nazi or Russian
purges - her husband not so fortunate. She then married an English RAF man (surname Quick) who 'saved' her when her boat was bombed by the English!! Anyhow her testimony we discovered on the Yad Vashem website in Israel just last year. Sadly she died before we managed to find her -
it was a huge shame as she lived only the other side of London.
Anyhow Ivor could give you a better overview. Unfortunately Ivor recently had some serious computer problems and is struggling to find his family files. We are hopeful that he will be able to do so soon. He has also been unwell recently but the family genealogy is something he has a passion for.
I'll let him know about your contact - if of course you have not done so yourself already. Although I did see him tonight - we broke the fast together. He did mention a 'flurry' of emails initiated by Eleanora coming in from the 'cold'!
Great to hear from you and hopeful we can keep in touch someway or other.
With all best wishes
Jonathan Z
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-----Original Message-----
From: Dick Platkin [
mailto:dickplatkin@yahoo.com]
Sent: 12 October 2005 09:23
To:
hello@zneimer.comSubject: Zneimer question
Jonathan, in the past few days we have had a flurry of excited emails in my family regarding a vast array of long-lost cousins we were either vaguely aware of or totally unware of, including
Elinora Zneimer of the Ukraine. We are descended from Frieda Zneimer Hertz (my maternal greatgrand mother), from St. Paul, Minnesota, US, who is the connection to the Zneimers in the UK. Not exactly clear yet on the connection.
Several question. How are you related to Ivor Zneimer? What about Rabbi Saul Zneimer?