I had always been stifled in my research about Max Markheim (who married my great grandmother Ernestine's sister Cecelia) until just recently. I had not been able to find Max's immigration record. Thanks to my newly found "cousins" Robert Weber and Maxine Rudy and some detective work on my part, the "mystery" is solved. Max 's "real" name wasn't Max!

According to Max Markheim and Cecelia Bernstein’s Marriage Certificate, it states that Max’s parents were Robert Markheim and Poppy Huppert. Maxine also remembers that Max may have had a sister Bella and that some of the Markheims settled in Baltimore, Maryland.

With this information from a few months ago, I contacted a Jonathan Smith who had some unsourced info on ancestry.com about a Bella Markheim who had married a Max Wichner and immigrated to America via Baltimore.

Since Max was from Krakau (Krakow), I researched some Krakau records that another genealogist had done. There is a Markheim family referenced in the Krakow records and this is their birth information (and death info where known):


Rubin MARKHEIM Mar 7, 1852
m:Pessel HUPPERT (MojzeszAron+EsterMalka)

!o Chaja Sara MARKHEIM May 18, 1875
!x Moses Aron MARKHEIM Aug 26, 1876
!x Salomon MARKHEIM Mar 23, 1878
!o Chana MARKHEIM Jun 15, 1879
!o Gitel MARKHEIM Apr 3, 1881 - May 28, 1881
!o Beila MARKHEIM May 22, 1882
!x Abraham MARKHEIM Dec 28, 1883 - May 23, 1884
!o Szeindel MARKHEIM Jun 1885 - Jul 11, 1886
!o daughter MARKHEIM Jun 3, 1888 - Jun 3, 1888
!x Hirsch MARKHEIM Jul 10, 1889 - Nov 15, 1889

So follow my logic.

Rubin Markheim married Pessel Huppert. Since Rubin was often translated to Robert in America, it makes sense that this is the father. There is a 99%+ chance in my opinion that this Pessel Huppert is the same person as Poppy Huppert.

I believe the following about the children listed:

1. Chaja Sara Markheim is the same person as Sadie Markheim who married Samuel Koenigsberg and lived in Baltimore. Sadie was a common nickname for women named Sara. She came to America in 1897 and married Koenigsberg in 1900. The dates in the census for her age were off by 2 years, but women often lied about their age back then.

2. I believe that Moses Aron Markheim is indeed our Max Markheim. This is why. In many of Max’s documents (census, naturalization, etc. – he is listed as Max A Markheim. Although he went by Max – the A is consistent with Aron as a middle name. Also in his documents his birth year is 1876, which coincides with the date of birth above.

3. Pessel Markheim and Anna Markheim traveled to America in 1901 to visit Anna’s sister Mrs. Samuel Koenigsberg in Baltimore. I believe that Anna is an Americanized version of Chana.

4. Beila Markheim married Max Wichner in Krakau – they immigrated to the US in 1899 and eventually settled in Pennsylvania, although Beila died in Maryland. When they emigrated to the US – they were going to visit Beila’s sister Mrs. Samuel Koenigsberg. Her names in the census and emigration records were Bettie and other variations but I am positive that this is Beila.

I have also researched some Maryland cemetery records and have found a "Pepi Markheim" who died on December 13, 1903 and is buried in the B'nai Israel Southern Avenue Cemetery in Baltimore. I believe that this is Max's mother, "Pessel Huppert Markheim".

For some reason I have been "obsessed" with finding out more about the Braunhart family over the last three years. I first found out about the family when reviewing the death certificate of Sara Braunhart Bernstein, my great great grandmother. My cousin Clyde Pound made me aware of Sara's brother Samuel, who was a very successful (and outspoken I might add - but more about that in a future post) politician, when I first talked to him about genealogy about three years ago.

In a recent post I talked about the life of Levin Jacob Braunhart, the "patriarch" of the Braunhart family. So far it appears that he and his wife Minnie Zadek, had at least four children that I can name.


The first, Bernhard Braunhart, immigrated to America in 1857. He married Rosa Levison and had one son, Harry.

Sara Braunhart, my direct ancestor, married Aaron Bernstein, and it appears that after his death, she immigrated to America in 1898. She had seven children, 5 who lived to adulthood. 

They were:

The next Braunhart was Samuel Braunhart, the San Francisco politician - he immigrated to America in 1862. He never married.

The last of Levin and Minnie's children (that I know of) was Alex Braunhart. I do not believe that he immigrated to America - but at least one of his children - Anna did - in 1909. She married Harry Tulman and had at least 4 children - Mildred, Muriel, Stanley and Helene. I have not as yet been successful in tracking this family to find out more about Anna Braunhart. She had a sister Sara Selma Braunhart, who immigrated to America in 1946 at the age of 51. I do not know as yet what happened to her.

There are a few "stragglers" that I know are related but have not been able to place as yet. Brother and sister Jakob and Martha immigrated to America in 1904. I do not know what happened to Martha but Jakob ended up in San Francisco. He was the primary heir to Samuel's fortune when Samuel died in 1906 right after the San Francisco earthquake and fire. I know that he was there from 1910 to 1913 because of Census and City Directory info. He was implicated by the FBI as a German sympathizer during World War I when he joined the U. S. Army. He also was married but that is all I know about him. I do not know who Martha and Jakob's parents are - my suspicion is Alex Braunhart, but that is just a hunch from reading Samuel Braunharts' probate file.

There also was a Carl Gustav Braunhart who was born in Schubin - but I have no info at all as to his relationship to "our" Braunhart family.