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We know the MANSBACH family was living in Poland around 1800. But there is no documentation that shows whether our ancestors were living in Poland prior to that date, when they began to have the surname MANSBACH, or where they might have come from before living in Poland. Nor any documentation that shows how they were related to each other.

Fortunately, in the 21st century, we know that we carry information from our ancestors' origination within the cells of our own bodies, and this DNA proves a relationship between the Polish and “modern” MANSBACH families.

Within the last few years, members of the Shlomo Peretz MANSBACH, Jacob the Scribe MANSBACH, Joseph David MANSBACH, and Joel MANCBACH families submitted DNA samples for analysis.

In addition to evidencing the relationship between these MANSBACH families, these DNA samples have also given us a wider understanding as to the origins of the MANSBACH family going all the way back to the first syllables of recorded time.

First, with respect to the relationship between the four tested MANSBACH families, DNA analysis suggests that the Polish MANSBACH families shared a common paternal ancestor around 1700-1800, which is pretty much what we figured. The relationship between the four MANSBACHS who tested ranges between second and fifth cousins.

Perhaps most importantly, a DNA comparison between Jack MANSBACH, a descendant of Joseph David MANSBACH, and Paul MANSBACH, a descendant of Shlomo Peretz MANSBACH, suggests that the family of Shlomo Peretz MANSBACH and Joseph David MANSBACH are closely related—and indeed are likely ONE FAMILY. See the chart with the red arrows below.

A DNA comparison between Joel MANSBACH and Jane MANSBACH Fletcher (descendants of Jacob the Scribe) and Paul MANSBACH shows a more distant relationship, suggesting a common paternal ancestor one generation further back in time.

The Y-DNA carried by the male “Polish” MANSBACHS also shows that our haplogroup is R1a1 and our subclade is Y2630. My understanding is that I (and the other MANSBACH men from the Polish MANSBACH families) descend from a man who lived around the 10th century in the Rhineland or Mediterranean basin. Y-DNA, like surnames and Levite status, is passed down on the direct male line. The MANSBACH Y2630 Y-DNA subclade is shared by perhaps 35% of Ashkenazi Jews with a tradition of Levite descent, including members of the Horowitz Levite rabbinical family. We seem to be descendants of a particular bloodline that goes back to Rabbi Isaiyah ben Moshe Asher Ha Levy Horowitz (1440-1515), the supposed descendant of the Levite ha Yizhari family of Girona, Catalonia, Spain (namely, Shlomo ha Levi, 1005-1080), who trace their ancestry back to Prophet Samuel (who was an Ephraimite, hence originally of a non-Levite origin). Going back 1,500 years before the present, Levite MANSBACHs share a direct male ancestor with perhaps 60% of Ashkenazi Jews with a tradition of Levite descent. Those men, who belong to the Y2619 cluster, are known as R1a1a Ashkenazi Levites. Going back further, our DNA suggests we descend from a man known as MonteRotundo1548, who lived between 27 BC and 300 CE in the vicinity of Rome.

In addition, an extremely accurate DNA sampling shows that the MANSBACHS share a direct male ancestor with a man whose ancestor lived in Borrstadt, Germany, about 150 miles from the village of MANSBACH, Germany, around 1700. That places our paternal MANSBACH ancestor in Germany, not too long before Jacob the Scribe was living in Poland.

If we were in Germany prior to 1800, as seems to be the case, who were our ancestors, and where in Germany did they come from? There were a number of MANSBACHs living in Germany in the 18th century. Most of them seemed to have originated in the village of MANSBACH and then migrated to the areas of Maden, Gudensburg, and Frankfurt. But we don't know if those MANSBACHs were our ancestors. DNA evidence suggests that the Polish MANSBACHs have a distant common ancestor with certain of the MANSBACHs from Germany, but there is no definitive link. Nor does Jacob the Scribe or any Polish MANSBACH fit into the family tree of any MANSBACH whose ancestors came from Germany. Moreover, none of the MANSBACHs from Germany have a Levite heritage—with​ two exceptions.

Exception One: The MANSBACH Levite family of Hamburg:

• A MANSBACH/Levite family apparently originated in the village of MANSBACH, and were living in Hamburg, Germany (and Amsterdam) between 1600 and 1800. These "Hamburg" MANSBACHs were printers by trade.
• In 2010, a book printed in 1718 was auctioned, which contains the contemporary signatures of Aaron ben Moshe Ha Levy MANSPACH and his son Mordechi ben Aaron Ha Levy MANSPACH bearing the notation in their handwriting that they were from “the Holy Community of MANSBACH.” Perhaps they were our seventh or eighth great-grandfathers. Too bad I found out about the sale in 2013; I would have bought that. Book in a heartbeat!
• “Brit Shalom. Elucidation on the Torah and sermons. The sermons are interspersed with pilpulim on the sugyot of the Talmud. Authored by Rabbi Pinchas ben Pilta, Rabbi of Valadwi [?], Poland (1620-1663), a colleague of the Shach. His manuscripts were overlooked after his death until his son, Rabbi Yechezkel, brought the book to print with his own annotations. In his preface, the author's son thanks Rabbi Dovid Oppenheim for enabling him to publish the book. The book received many important approbations from the Rabbis of Ashkenaz, Poland, and Lithuania, including one from Rabbi Yaakov HaKohen Poppers of Frankfurt A.M. and Rabbi Yechezkel Katzenelenboigen of Hamburg. Frankfurt A.M. 1718. Leaves 1, 2,3, 5,40 bear the signature of אהרן בן משה הלוי מנצפך. The title page bears the signature of his son,, מרדכי בן אהרן סגל ק"ק מאנסבאך. [There was a noted Manspach family of printers in Hamburg and community leaders in Amsterdam. The Manspach families are always Leviites - like these signatories.]."
• The MANSBACH Levyim from Hamburg were buried in the local Altona cemetery between 1661 and 1784. Interestingly, the Hamburg Levite MANSBACHs had taken a surname long before many other Jews. And they appeared to have some money!
• But we simply don't know whether these MANSBACHs, whose tombstones say they were Levites, were our ancestors. Perhaps a MANSBACH from Hamburg emigrated to Poland and had descendants who were the ancestors of the Polish MANSBACHs. Indeed, there is some DNA evidence to suggest a connection between the Polish MANSBACHs and a descendant of one of the Hamburg MANSBACHs named Jehudah Ha Levy MANSBACH, who lived in Hamburg c. 1750. For the family tree of Jehudah Ha Levy MANSBACH of Hamburg, see http://www.calzareth.com/tree/p315.htm.

Exception 2: The MANSBACH Levite family of Jiftach Joseph Juspa MANSBACH:

• In addition to the Hamburg MANSBACHs, we also know that David Bacharach, the grandfather of Jiftach Josef Juspa Ha Levy MANSBACH, Shammesh of Worms, and his descendants were living in Germany in the 17th and 18th centuries. Conceivably, the Polish MANSBACHs descend from Jiftach Josef Juspa Levy MANSBACH, but from what I have seen, Jiftach's sons were not named MANSBACH.
• David Bacharach, a Levite, had a son named Naphtali Herz MANSBACH, and his son was the rather famous Jiftach Josef Juspa MANSBACH, shammesh of the Worms, Germany synagogue and author. But there is nothing to indicate that his sons were named MANSBACH. I don't believe myself that these were our MANSBACH ancestors, but who knows.
• In support of the theory that the Shammesh of Worms (Jiftach Josef Juspa) was the ancestor of the Polish MANSBACHs, the name Isaac Joseph MANSBACH (an alternative reading of Jiftach Josef Juspa MANSBACH) is carried down in the Polish family of Jacob the Scribe MANSBACH. But there is no other evidence to show that the descendants of David Bacharach and Juspa Ha Levy MANSBACH are the ancestors of the MANSBACH Polish families. Indeed, it is not at all certain that the name MANSBACH was carried down in the Shammesh family.

Other than the MANSBACHS from Hamburg and the MANSBACH descendants of the Shammesh of Worms, there is no record at all of any Levyim named MANSBACH living in Germany, which brings us to one other possibility and perhaps actually the answer as to how the Polish MANSBACHS came about:

• The analysis of my paternal DNA points to Eastern Europe and not Germany as the place where our MANSBACH ancestors came from. It is very possible that a woman named MANSBACH from the Gudensburg/Maden MANSBACH married a man who either had no surname or whose last name is lost to us. This man would have been an Ashkenazie Levite—and the children from that marriage could have taken the name MANSBACH and adopted the Levyim tradition. One of these children could have been the father of Jacob the Scribe or one of his ancestors. We cannot dismiss this possibility, especially if we are not related to the Hamburg MANSBACHs or the Shammesh of Worms.
• Indeed, as of 2019, this seems to be the most likely scenario—i.e., a German woman named MANSBACH married a Levite with no surname at all. And that's likely how the Polish MANSBACHs came to be THE MANSBACHs!!!
• DNA COMPARISON OF PAUL MANSBACH FROM THE FAMILY OF SHLOMO PERETZ MANSBACH TO OTHERS WITH THE SAME ANCESTRAL SURNAME: A RED ARROW INDICATES A MANSBACH OF KNOWN POLISH ANCESTRY.

A partial list of the MANSBACHs buried in the Altona/Hamburg Jewish Cemetery:

• Reine (genannt Sanwel MANSBACH d. 15 Jun 1661
• Jechiel ben Jokew Levi MANSBACH
• Jitche Rachel bat Schmuel GEWER of Berlin d. 12 Oct 1750 Hamburg
• Mosche Abraham ben Juspa Levi MANSBACH d. 8 Jan 1766 Hamburg
• Tamar Dina bat Eliha Levi MANSBACH d. 16 Apr 1784
• Reine (genannt Sanwel MANSBACH) bat Shmuel Segal 15 June 1661
• Jitche Rachel bat Shmuel Gewer of Berlin d. 12 Oct 1750
• Jechiel Levi MANSBACH d. 10 December 1750
• Moshe Avraham ben Juspa Levy MANSBACH d. Jan 8, 1766
• Jokew ben Joseph SeGal MANSBACH Nov 4 1784