My father recently used Google to discover a whole set of relations in Australia and New Zealand. He and I had a happy time on the phone and the internet last night, doing some geneaological digging about.
Despite the current spelling of my name, I have no Swiss ancestry. The original spelling, "Schwitzer", was an exclusively Jewish name. Why my ancestors — whom we have traced back to a town called Breclav (formerly Lundenburg) in the Czech Republic – were named for the German verb "to sweat" is beyond me, though given my proclivity for exercising, I suppose it is appropriate. In any case, honoring the power of search engines, I am sticking the four major spellings of the family name in one post. Any descendants of sweaty ones from the Habsburg empire should drop me a line…
New Zealand? Really? Where?
Wellington. The last name is Lang for most of my distant relatives down there…
At what point did your family stop being Jewish, if you know? One generation before or after immigration is quite common…..
Well, my grandfather apparently converted as a young man. He was belonged to a Jewish Kulturgemeinschaft in Vienna in the 1920s, but by the time my father was born in 1935, he had converted to Catholicism. My grandmother, his wife, was only half-Jewish, and a non-practicer (she was a Communist). My father did not even realize he was Jewish until he was in his 20s!
Hugo, you seem like such a nice fella. I just found your blog and am enjoying it immensely. I have access to a ton of genealogical data, so if you would like anything looked up (or need a push down the right path to find some data), feel free to drop me a line.
Thanks, JM — when I get a break this summer from summer school, I’ll do that!