Dear Israel,
Let me give you some background of my father's family.
My father was named Abraham (Avrum) Wolf, He was born July 23/4, 1894, in Dembica.
He had one sister, Clara (Chaika), born in 1893.
His mother was Malka Kornreich, and his father was Benjamin (Binyamon) Wolf.
That is all l know. My father did not like to talk about his childhood because of the poverty in Dembica and the antisemitism in Europe. After WW2, he refused to go back for a visit.
He felt Europe would always be corrupt and anti-semitic, and he never wanted to see it again. My father came to US in 1914, and on the boat passenger list he is Abraham Kornreich (his mother's maiden name).
Apparently, it was not unusual for Jewish boys to take their mother's name as a way of avoiding conscription.
In 1915, Ben Gurion came the US to recruit men for the British Jewish Legion, and my father signed up and was sent to Palestine.I'm not sure when he returned to the US.
My maiden name was Joyce Wolf.
I was born October 1, 1932 in New York, and we moved to Detroit in 1937.
I was married in 1953, graduated from college in 1955 and then my husband and I went Indiana University to do more graduate work in English literature, I also majored in Italian literature and social studies .
When you are in Dembica, if you could request the people in charge of vital records there to do a search of my family, I would be very appreciative.
They can contact me regarding payment of fees and the procedures to follow.
I am a member of The Galicia SIG on the jewishgen group, and recently in their publication,
The Galitzianer, they suggested that the vital records of Jews in Galicia were held in the Landesarchiv in Vienna, I wrote them months ago, but have received no reply.
( My mother is also a Galitzianer, from Stanislawow, now Ivano-Frankovsk in the Ukraine. Her maiden name was Kestenbaum.)
I envy you going to Dembica to search for your family and I wish you much success.
Best wishes and Shalom
Joyce Field
625 Avondale St
West Lafayette, IN 47906-1101
Tel :317-463-1746
jfield@nlci.com
Subject: Debica update
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997
From: Joyce Field (jfield@pop.nlci.com)
Dear Israel, I have recently received documents indicating what I had considered was likely--that my father really went under the name of Abraham Kornreich and that sometime after he came to the U.S. he changed his last name to Wolf.
I have some ideas why he chose Wolf, but that's another story.
I have a copy of his civil registration in Hamburg, where he stayed almost a year before boarding the ship to the U.S., and he is listed as Kornreich. On the ship manifest (1914) he is also. Yesterday I finally received a copy of the ship's manifest (1920) on his mother, who is listed as Malka Kornreich.
On all these documents his birthplace was Debica and his mother's was, too.
Joyce Field
