The Braunhart family patriarch and matriarch Lewin Jacob Braunhart and Wilhelmine Zadek Braunhart had four children, Bernhard, Samuel, Sara and Alexander. Between these four - twenty one grandchildren were born, and 17 lived to adulthood.

What are some facts about the 17?

• One lived his life in a mental institution
  
• One committed suicide
• One was nearly murdered at his business
• One escaped the Nazis by traveling to Shanghai and Palestine
• One escaped the Nazis by traveling to England
• One was born in California
• Two were murdered in Nazi concentration camps
• Two were in the German army in World War I
• One was in the American army in World War I
• 11 immigrated to America
• Two never married
• Two were tailors
• One owned a hardware store
• One owned a barber shop
• One owned a bicycle shop in Germany and America
• One was a gambler
• One was a cook in a convalescent home
• One owned a dry cleaners
• Only one stayed in Germany after World War II
• The first to immigrate to America was a seventeen year old girl - all by herself with no one to meet her at her destination.

Every one of these 17 had a story.

Their names, in order of birth date (from 1870 to 1902):

• Ernestine Bernstein
• Max Bernstein
• Amalie Bernstein
• Cecelia Bernstein
• Hedwig Bernstein
• Moritz Braunhart
• Jacob Braunhart
• Martha Braunhart
• Julius Braunhart
• Harry Braunhart
• Carl Braunhart
• Cecelia Braunhart
• Anna Braunhart
• Philipp Braunhart
• Sara Selma Braunhart
• Theodor Braunhart
• Frieda Braunhart

Every one of these 17 matters.  Every one of these 17 deserves to be remembered. 

Documenting their lives and their stories is why family history research is so important - in EVERY family.  If we don't, who will?

This site, Braunhart Mania, especially created for the Braunhart family and its descendants and cousins everywhere, was launched 9 days ago. So that you are aware of what has been uploaded to the site and available for you to see are the following:

1. Photos of  the following: Braunhart, Bernstein, Tulman, Sternbach, Heyman, Markheim,  and Brunn families
2. Photos of Gravestone Markers
3. US Census records from 1860, 1870, 1900, and 1940
4. An overview of the names and relationships of the first 4 generations of Braunharts after Lewin and Wilhelmine Braunhart
5. A timeline of events in Braunhart history from the 1800s and early 1900s
6. Two maps of where the family was located, including Berlin addresses from the 1920s through the 1940s, as well as birth locations
7. Draft Cards from World War I and II
8. German Passports
9. Naturalization records
10. Shoah records
11. Shanghai Refugee records
12. Travel Records - non Immigration

Take a spin and click away!

I have never met any of my Braunhart ancestors.  The only person older than my grandmother Celia Heyman Marks who I met, was Celia's father Isidor Heyman, who was married to a "Braunhart" - Ernestine Bernstein. Ernestine died in 1944, two years before I was born. She was the granddaughter of the Braunhart patriarch and matriarch Lewin Braunhart and Wilhelmine Zadek Braunhart. I was too young to make much sense of what Isidor had to say and I didn't see enough of him to develop much of a relationship.

All I know about these ancestors are the stories that have been told and the letters that are nearly a hundred years old that we have had translated.

I have posted often about my great great great uncle Samuel Braunhart, who was beyond feisty, and his convictions coupled with his "loud mouth" often got him in trouble. But he was an honorable man who cared for the "little people." If anyone happened to know both Sam and myself, it would be quite easy to make a connection between our two personalities.  So I am quite drawn to his story and his exploits.

Yet, there is one more Braunhart (of many) that I would loved to have met - and that is Lilly Braunhart.  Lilly was the daughter of Julius Braunhart and his wife Dorka Asch Braunhart. Julius has been identified as brilliant, but also a gambler who deserted his family. Dorka, Lilly, and Lilly's younger brother Lothar, escaped from Germany and were refugees in Shanghai. After ten years, they left Shanghai, then spent part of their time in New York City, but soon moved to San Francisco, the place of my birth.  The unfortunate thing is that I was alive for over 20 years that Lilly and I were both in the San Francisco area.  And we never met, since I didn't know anything about the Braunhart family.

Lilly was a very smart lady.  She left New York City, because her relatives did not understand that she wanted to use her brain in any chosen vocation. I do not know if her brother Lothar and her mother Doris (as she was known) were already in San Francisco when Lilly moved there but they lived together until Lilly married her second husband.

Lilly was married twice - first to a journalist, Alexander Hoorin, who was in Shanghai with her, until Alexander was captured by the Japanese during World War II. Nothing is known about the circumstances of their divorce, but it appears that they were married less than five years. Lilly was also not married for very long to her second husband Jack Rains - it appears that it was less than three years.

Lilly was quite involved with the group of Shanghai survivors who met often. She was educated as a statistician, a rare occupation for a woman in the 1950s. She worked primarily for non-profit and charity organizations, such as the Jewish Relief organization and the United Bay Area Crusade (a precursor to the United Way). From a letter that Lilly wrote in 1984 about her career - "I was able to always make a good living in my field of statistical analysis. That is with the exception of the time after I arrived in New York, when several of my relatives pushed me into jobs which were underpaid. When I started out in San Francisco, my first salary was more than double of the one with which I ended up in New York. Aside from good money, these jobs I held (there were only two over a period of 23 years) offered prestige. Well, the time I lived in New York wasn't one I like to think about. Being an independent person, I hated to be told what to do, but some of the relatives never gave up to do just that."

Lilly was one of the few "Braunharts" that kept in touch with Theodor's widow Lucie Braunhart, who remained in Germany after the war and after her husband died in 1951. From a letter that Lilly wrote in 1983 - "As to Aunt Lucie, I am truly the only one who seems to care about her. Aunt Selma had been the other one. The rest of the family behaved badly and never showed any appreciation for the many sacrifices she made on behalf of the old father and all the Jewish relatives who stayed and later were killed in Germany. She was separated from her husband for 10 years, so that someone stayed behind to look after the old father. When he died, she could no longer leave Germany.  This is quite a story and cannot be told in a letter."

She owned a home quite near the ocean near the Presidio and lived there until she passed in 1997. Lilly was a smart, independent woman, who lived her own life.  Definitely a woman I would have loved to have known.

Why didn't Alexander Braunhart stay in America? Alexander traveled to New York City from his home in Schubin, Germany twice!  His first trip was May of 1881 and the second was February of 1882.

His brothers Samuel and Bernhard were living in California at the time, Samuel in San Francisco and Bernhard in San Bernardino.  Is it possible that they didn't travel to New York and Alexander was alone? He had no other relatives to meet him at the port.

He had his wife Helene and sons Moritz and Jacob at home in Schubin.  Was he scoping out America to possibly have his family immigrate?  Perhaps we will never know.

Another Braunhart who visited and did not stay was Theodor's widow Lucie Braunhart.   Theodor had escaped to Shanghai in the late 1930s or early 1940s. Theodor was of course Jewish, but Lucie was not.  Lucie stayed in Berlin to take care of Alexander during the Nazi reign.  She hid the old man from the Nazis until he died in 1941. Because of the Japanese blockade, Theodor traveled from Shanghai to Palestine and unfortunately contracted tuberculosis and suffered from malnutrition.  After the war, he returned to Germany to find Lucie.  Because of his poor health, Theodor finally succumbed in 1951.

Lucie stayed in Berlin for the rest of her life.  As of this posting, we do not know her date of death, but she regularly corresponded with her niece Lilly and the last correspondence was dated in 1984.

Lucie traveled to New York City in October of 1956.  No one alive today in America remembers her visit.  She is remembered by Philipp Braunhart's granddaughters in Berlin as a woman with a great sense of humor and that she was well-liked.

Perhaps someday we will know why Alexander and Lucie traveled to America and why they returned home.  For Alexander, it was likely especially difficult to have half of his children in America and half in Germany.

WELCOME to this new site - dedicated solely and totally to the BRAUNHART family.  It includes family stories, as well as photos, many documents - including census records, immigration records, draft cards and many other artifacts. 

Braunhart Mania began all because of this little guy, Samuel Braunhart, who I was "introduced" to by my Dad's cousin Clyde Pound back in 2004.  When I tracked down Clyde then, he offered a document that his mother Mynette Heyman had saved, about her great uncle, a politician that served in San Francisco.  Before then, I had never heard the name "Braunhart."

Since that time, dozens of ancestors and relatives named Braunhart have appeared to me.  As a result, I have communicated with Braunhart relatives in Berlin, and found many descendants in California, New York and New Jersey.  I have also communicated with a gentleman from Szubin, Poland, which when it was Schubin, Germany/Prussia, housed the Braunhart patriarch and matriarch in the early 1800s up to the early 1920s.

There have been many who served in World War I and II, both in the American military, as well as the German military. There were several who escaped the Nazis and traveled to Palestine, Shanghai, and England, and tragically three Braunharts were murdered in the concentration camps.

Have I been obsessed with finding out as much about the Braunharts as I can - YES!  Are there more than two hundred people with Braunhart "blood" - YES!

Remember right after Hurricane Katrina hit and leveled New Orleans in 2005? Michael Brown was in charge of FEMA and was complimented with the phrase "Heck of a job, Brownie" by President Bush.  Formerly Mr. Brown was the Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association.

It was obvious at that time that Mr. Brown was unqualified to be placed in charge of FEMA.  But this happens all the time in politics. Politicians feel that they owe favors to those who are their cronies, or who have helped them in the past.

This happened in my own family. Samuel Braunhart, my great great great uncle - who was also the venerable politician from San Francisco, was appointed Port Warden of the Port of San Francisco by then Governor Budd.  There were three Port Wardens on the Board and two of the three were supposed to be Master Mariners.

Samuel Braunhart was NOT a master mariner, or a junior mariner or a mariner of any shape or form.  In fact, I believe that the only time that Sammy was on a ship or boat was in the early 1860s when he immigrated to America, definitely a challenging voyage, but not one as a passenger that qualified him for any political appointment relating to shipping.

As evidenced by the article below, it is obvious that Sammy was a landlubber.

What is it about the men that some of my female ancestors chose in the late 1800s?

I have written previously about Hattie Isaacs, whose boyfriend was George Permien in 1899. The crass way to put this is that George knocked her up, promised to marry her and then deserted her.

Hattie responded by having George arrested for felony betrayal and then he spent time in jail, as the court case took several months. Hattie ultimately lost the case and their child Geraldine Isaacs was born in Oakland, California June 12, 1899.

Well folks, we have another one. This time the deed was done in New Orleans, Louisiana where Salome Carillon, who is the grandmother of my Dad's cousin Gloria Metzner, was knocked up by Joseph Mott Jr.   Salome had him arrested and charged with abduction for the purposes of prostitution.

Below is one of the newspaper articles from that case.

As you can see, her impregnator was quite the popular fellow as he impregnated ANOTHER woman and quickly married her.

In New Orleans, daughter Pearl was born on June 12, 1893. Salome married John Metzner on February 25, 1894 and he became Pearl's father.

Being a teenage single mother in that era must have been very difficult, even though both Hattie and Salome married another man quite soon after the birth of their daughters.  It did affect them obviously, as both had multiple marriages.

What is it with these guys?  Responsibility was definitely one of their strong points.  They deserved their time in the slammer, just for being so irresponsible and unaccountable.

Max Bernstein, my great great uncle, had a number of mishaps in his life.  Born in Schubin, Germany in 1873, he came to America in 1890 and settled in New York City.  After his uncle Samuel Braunhart, the San Francisco politician, died shortly after being injured in the Great Earthquake and Fire, he moved, along with his mother Sara Braunhart Bernstein to California.

First of all, Max, who was one of the two executors of his Uncle Samuel's will, was so eager to take charge of his uncle's body, that he forgot to check if Sam was indeed....dead!  The newspaper article below describes the embarrassing situation:

After settling in Oakland (actually in what today is Emeryville), Max bought a pool hall and ran it for several years.  His first brush with trouble was in 1913, when he was arrested for allowing underage boys to partake in the entertainment found in early 1900s pool halls. 

Although trained as a barber, Max hung in there with his pool hall until he decided to sell it in 1916. The new owners ended up not being too happy with the terms of the sale, as the wife of the new owner took matters into her own hands and attempted to murder Max.

This is where the surprise ending comes into this story. The woman, Ellen Stewart, shot at Max four times and wounded him.  When the Police chased her, she then took a vial of poison in the street and dropped dead on the spot.  Here's the article describing the traumatic events of the day - but keep reading.  Wait until the husband finds out!

When the husband, Horatio Stewart found out about the goings on, he, with great deliberation and planning, took his own life the next day.

Max retired to his barbering, lived with his mother Sara until her death in 1930, and passed away suddenly in  Lakeport, California in 1932.  He never married.  And so ends Max's saga. 

Bernhard Braunhart, the very first Braunhart to come to America (in 1857), settled in Southern California in San Bernardino.  He married Rosa Levison in San Francisco in 1884.  They had one son, Harry Braunhart, born in 1885.  Unfortunately Harry was committed to a state hospital for the mentally incompetent for most of his adult life.

Ben, as Bernhard was called, had several businesses, including saloons and grocery stores in San Bernardino.  He created an elixir called "Braunhart's Tropical Sauce" and won an award at the very first San Bernardino County Fair in 1880.

This sauce was sold by him in his stores and after his death in 1890, it continued to be manufactured and sold in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego for over 25 years:

Unfortunately for Ben, sales of his"Tropical Sauce"and business failures led to marital problems and ultimately to his death by suicide in 1890.

It is surmised that my great great great Uncle suffered from depression and possibly his mental woes were passed on to his son.  Perhaps we will never know.