The first of our Ringel family in America

Four of the five Ringel siblings from Rzeszow relocated to Berlin and the German capital became the center of Ringel family life for sixty years. The fifth sibling, Jakob Schia Ringel, went instead to Hamburg. I figured out his story a year ago, and it led to making a connection with a branch of American Ringel relatives that we had not known of. Someimes in this work there are happy endings. 

The rest of the Ringels from Rzeszow

Recently we've been learning more about the two daughters of Schija Ringel and Fanny Kaufler. Along with our grandfather Hermann, they comprise one branch of the Ringel family descending from the original family from the Austrian town of Rzeszow. Let's pull some new threads by looking at the other Rzeszow family members.

Some of the information I will cover is brand new. Another part is playing catchup from a revelation of a year ago. We'll begin with an accounting of the five children of Moses Ringel and his wife Rose Lea, nee Reichman. 

Pinkas Twiasschor's flight went through Slovenia and Italy's Asti province

The data above is given for Pinkas Twiasschor in an Italian web site Escape stories: from Vicenza to the United States about the Fort Ontario experience. There are several important details to note. First, under "Family ties" he is described as "Solo." There is no mention of having had a wife and two daughters. Second, the three locations given for "Place of residence or internment before Fort Ontario" give us an idea of the route of Pinkas' flight from the Nazis. 

Regina's husband changed his name

This item ran in The London Gazette on January 17, 1947.

Scott, Ernest Arthur (formerly Ernst Schoenwald); Germany; Manager; 6, Aldridge Road Villas, London, W.n. 7 November, 1946

That would be Regina's husband. As foreshadowed by the crossouts in the registry record, Ernst Schoenwald officially changed his name to Ernest Arthur Scott.

So Gina's new name will be Regina Scott, which I am looking for in Google but everything is about the romance novelist who goes by that name. 

Gina was Regina! The missing Twiasschor sister is found

I was looking again at the UK marriage listing for Betty Twiasschor when I saw that it was not the only Twiasschor record in the UK marriage listings. The first other one I noticed was Augusta Twiasschor, who married Lewis Weisberg in Prestwich, Lancashire in 1897. Next, there was a Regina Twiasschor who married in Barnstaple, Devon. I'm thinking, maybe it was a Twiasschor family tradition to go to England to marry.

Pinkas became Paul Twiasschor in the U.S.

We know that Pinkas Twiasschor was one of the 1000 specially chosen refugees who came to the U.S., spent 18 months in an Army camp in Oswego, New York, and were finally admitted as legal immigrants in January 1946. I have begun reading the 1983 bestseller Haven, by Ruth Gruber, about her role in the operation and her experiences with the refugees. It is a gripping read. However, Pinkas Twiasshor is not specifically mentioned in the book. I'll come back and write about the book in a future installment.

Edith Twiasschor's birthdate is given on a British security document

Edith Twiasschor was born in Berlin on December 20, 1911, a very proper 11 months after her parents married in London.

I have not yet found her actual birth record, the information comes on this British security document from November 1939, when she was 28 years old and already resettled in England. It provides her with an exemption from internment as an enemy alien. Although she is a German national, she has refugee status and is therefore exempt. 

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