SAFER FAMILY HISTORY - PART 1

 

Who are the KATZ's and how are they related? . . .

CHAYIE-MALKA KATZ, daughter of LIPA HA'COHEN-KATZ and RACHEL YANOWITZ, married YITZCHAK-ISAAC SAFER in Pruzzeneh in 1881.

Ü KATZ FAMILY HISTORY ... or read on about the Safer's ...

 

Safer Name Origins

 

 

SAFER - Hebrew/Yiddish word for “book”

Variations: Seifer, Sojfer (Hebrew/Polish), Safir, Szafir

Meaning: scribe, especially of Torah Scrolls, Phylacteries and doorpost amulets

Supposedly, Yitzchak-Isaac Safer and his father were Torah scribes, and hence, the surname.

OTHER SAFER NAME ORIGIN COMMENTS:

SAFER: Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): ornamental name from northeastern Yiddish dialect safir and German Saphir ‘sapphire’. Compare Sapir.

SEIFER: 1. German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Siegfried. 2. Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a soap maker, from an agent derivative of German Seife, Yiddish zeyf ‘soap’.

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GENERATION No. 1

ZELIK ICKOVICH SEIFER (aka Isaacovich or Zelikovich)

Zelik Ickovich Seifer was born in PRUZZENEH in 1804 and died after 1857. He married, had at least two sons and may have had several daughters as well.

Children of ZELIK SEIFER and UNKNOWN UNKNOWN are:

i. HENACH SEIFER, b. 1827, Pruzzeneh; d. after 1872, Palestine.

ii. ICKO OREL SEIFER, b. 1836, Pruzzeneh

Source: Pruzhany 1850 & 1857 Revision List

 

GENERATION No. 2

HENACH SEIFER (aka Genach, Henoch, Chanokh, Enoch, Harry, Henry, Hyman)

Zelik’s older son, HENACH SEIFER was born 1827 in Pruzzeneh and died after 1890 in Palestine. Henach married FEIGE-GITTLE COHEN. Feige-Gittle was born in Russia, and died before 1912 in Palestine.

We believe Henach and Feige-Gittle had ten children. In 1852, Henach owned property in a school yard in Pruzzeneh. We know they were still in Pruzzeneh in 1872.

David Wittenberg reported Henach and Feige-Gittle moved to Palestine to be with their daughter Pesche Safer-Quatinsky sometime around 1890 and eventually died there.

Sources & Assumptions: Pruzhany 1850 & 1857 Revision List; Chaia Safer Blinderman’s death certificate lists her mother as Feige Cohen. I have made the assumption that my mother, Flora Pomerantz-Weller b. 1912, was named “Feige-Gittle” after her great-grandmother, Feige-Gittle Cohen and hence, have assumed Feige Cohen’s death date to be prior to my mother’s birth.

Children of HENACH SEIFER and FEIGE-GITTLE COHEN are:

i. LEAH SAFER

ii. SIMCHA SAFER

iii. UNKNOWN SAFER

iv. UNKNOWN SAFER

v. UNKNOWN SAFER

vi. ZIVYA SAFER

vii. CHAIA SAFER-BERESNYAK-BLINDERMAN, b. 10 Dec 1853, Pruzzeneh; d. 19 May 1928, NYC

viii. YITZCHAK ISAAC SAFER, b. 1858, Pruzzeneh (Pruzany); d. 30 Oct 1948, NYC

ix. CHAVA SAFER-SPELKE, b. about 1872, Poland; d. about 1950, Stamford, CT

x. PESHE SAFER-QUATINSKY, b. 1874, Pruzzeneh (Pruzany); d. 1954, Israel

ICKO OREL SEIFER (aka Isaac-Orel or Yitzko-Orel)

Zelik’s son, ICKO OREL SEIFER was born in Pruzzeneh in 1836 and was listed as a soldier— age 21, in the 1857 Pruzhany Revision List. As yet, it is not known whether he married and had children - or whether he ever returned from the army.

 

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