The Family of Emil and Herman MANSBACH from Turza, Poland
Ellis Island immigration records show that a fatherless MANSBACH family arrived at Ellis Island from Turza, Poland in June 1911 aboard the President Grant. The head of the family was the widow Rosa MANSBACH; born ca. 1881, accompanying two children who appear to be her grandsons: Hermann, born ca. 1902 and Emil, born ca. 1903. However, the family was "Held for Inquiry" and the children may not have been processed. The ship's manifest states that Rosa was going to be staying with her brother-in-law Isidore (or Wolfe or Willie) GAST [and his unnamed wife who was Rosa's sister] in Brooklyn, New York. However, the children may have been "Held for Inquiry" and the children may have been returned to Poland--I cannot find any trace of them in the U.S. documents but it seems that Rosa remained in American staying with a sister who was married to Wolfe, later Willie, later Isadore Gast, first in Brooklyn and then in New Jersey.
Several years later these Gasts are identified in the ship's manifest as the destination for Max MANSBACH of the Naphtali MANSBACH family. According to Bernard MANSBACH, a grandson of Naphtali, Max's mother was named Rose MANSBACH Gast. I think because they had a Rosa and a Rose MANSBACH living in the same Gast family unit, the sister who was married to Isadore became known as Mollie. The other sister, apparently originally named Rivka took the name Ruth.
In addition, a man named Isaac Joseph MANSBACH from Rezeppenik, Poland emigrated to the United States in 1906 . He too names a "W[illie] Gast," as a sponsor and Isaac Joseph's future home as being with his "sister living in Union Hills, New Jersey." That points to an inter-family relationship between the families of Naphtali MANSBACH and the Emil and Isaac Joseph MANSBACH families, all of whom are likely descendants of Jacob the Scribe.
Unfortunately, I was never able to find out more about the fate of Emil and Hermann MANSBACH. It is possible that they were turned back at Ellis Island and perished in the Holocaust. I also note that Florence Pesile, the daughter of Max MANSBACH said that her father Max had two brothers who perished before World War I. It is possible that these two brothers were Emil and Herman MANSBACH.
Turza, Poland is less than a mile from Rezeppenik and a few miles from Gorlice, the homes of generations of MANSBACHs from the family of Jacob the Scribe. I believe the Emil MANSBACH, the Naphtali MANSBACH and the Isaac Joseph MANSBACH families are inter-related; all are Levyim; and all descend from the family of Jacob the Scribe.
Above, Isaac Josef MANSBACH born c. 1886 in Rezeppenik from the Jacob the Scribe family staying with W. Gast "sister" in Union HIlls, N.J.
A Possible Family Tree:
Naphtali MANSBACH-----Rosa MANSBACH-----?--------------------------------------------?--------Unknown MANSBACH
I I I
Shlomo Peretz- Max b.1900----------?------Emil/Hermann b1902/1903 Isaac Joseph b.1886
I I I
Florence Bernard/Norman Harry/Francis/Robert/Ida
Max MANSBACH living with Isidore Gast, Uncle, in Newark
Emil and Hermann Mansbach
(c. 1903-1942?)
There are seven MANSBACH families today that descend from one of the following MANSBACHs:
Rosa MANSBACH with grandsons Herman and Emil from Turza leaving Hamburg
MANSBACHs who are related to the above but did not emigrate from Poland include: