Genealogy - what of it?

One of my posts recently received a comment from Kathy, (see "Massage, Fishing, Genealogy and ????") someone who was a relative, for a while.

Let me explain.

Kathy finally pulled the plug on the notion that we were family, long after Leanne and I had visited England, to meet her and her family and reunite a family broken by the tyranny of distance.

England? Yes you all know the place. It's that island off the coast of France, normally our real destination, and one we usually visit, because it is filled with eye popping antiques as well as charming people, a lovely new language and good food to boot. Leanne of course would add fabulous castles, sights, markets, paintings, churches, the Tour de France, museums, etc

Alas, while this country has all these benefits, Leanne's family's name does have other connotations in France and in French that are less desirable and no, I am not going into that

Further research had apparently revealed that we were not related, Kathy wrote, after a period of time when we had returned to Australia.

Australia, a country to which alas, her ancestors had not been able to gain the 1 pound one way trip that other, more privileged migrants like those in Leanne's family had been able to acquire, a trip that cost 10 pounds for my family, probably because of inflation or because of government policies which saw Alexander Downer's father as the Minister of Immigration. (No I am not going to explore the "like father like son" nature of this portfolio.)

Furthermore she did not have ancestors who had earned a FREE trip to Australia, courtesy of the government, a 'reward' if you like, for the work they had done in the home country, not unlike some other of Leanne's ancestors.

It turned out though, that the trip to England was not wasted. All of the now, suddenly non family members, were a joy to meet and get to know. Whether they were family or not did not matter at all.

Furthermore, Kathy is a serious researcher in genealogical matters, unlike myself, who merely has pretensions in this regard, she was and remains a fabulous person to get to know. You will note her offer to assist in the genealogical research when Leanne's mother comes to stay with us for a while. Alas, you will not be able to see the blog where all of this work will be published as it is reserved and secured for family members and of course for friends who have a need to know.

But I digress, while doing some genealogical research myself today, I needed an idle moment, a happy moment, not a frustrated moment and so just for the heck of it and because you always start searching alphabetically, I asked Google to find me connections with the word Auspitz, this being the name of one of the families that make up my genealogical background.

Wikipedia led to at least at least one connections that was of the right era, the right overall location, but at first sight less than useful. Allow me to list it below:

"Auspitz's sign is the appearance of punctate bleeding spots when psoriasis scales are scraped off, named after Heinrich Auspitz. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auspitz%27s_sign)

Heinrich Auspitz (1835 in Nikolsburg, Moravia – 1886 in Vienna) was an Austrian dermatologist. Trained at the University of Vienna, he specialised in dermatology and syphilis. He was part of the famous Vienna School of Dermatology, and studied and worked with other eminent dermatologists of the time, Ernst Wilhelm Ritter von Brücke (1819-1892), Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky (1804-1878), Josef Skoda (1805-1881), Johann Ritter von Oppolzer (1808-1871), and Ferdinand Ritter von Hebra (1816-1880). From 1863 to 1886 he worked as a professor of dermatology at the University of Vienna. He was also the director of the general policlinic from 1872 and became the chief of a clinical station upon the death of Hermann Edler von Zeissl (1817-1884).

A pioneer in tissue pathology, he described the pinpoint bleeding on removal of a psoriasis scale that bears his name: Auspitz's sign.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Auspitz

It is unlikely that this Auspitz was a family member though as we will see the time and place where he was born, has connotations for families with a Jewish background.

Then came the "Auspitz Family Tree" published on line. I was amazed to find this, then quickly disappointed. It was close. Once again it had the right names, the right location and even the right religion with a history of some members incarcerated in German concentration camps and so on.

Alas, still no connection to the Auspitz twig (I am now thinking of it as a mere sapling or a tiny branch of a much larger tree,) to which I and many others that have been located, do belong.

On one site there was a connection simply trawling for people who would pay big bucks to consult their 'superior' databases. As a teaser they listed some free data bases. Of these, some would not connect, others had a simple message, "no results", but then came a link to the US Social Security death index data base and this had names that were either the same or similar to those in my data base, but completely unrelated as they were in the USA and mine were not (for the same period).

Since I had neither the time nor the inclination to pay the big bucks, I kept on trawling myself and found the Lieben - Auspitz Palace in the heart of Vienna. I simply could not resist a look.

The Palais Lieben-Auspitz at the Ringstraße in Vienna, next to the Burgtheater. Former residential seat (Ringstraßenpalais) of the Jewish aristocratic Lieben and Auspitz families. The Nazis "aryanised" the building in 1938 and forced the owners to flee, many of whom died in exile or the concentration camps. The palace used to house a famous literary salon, a plaque next to the Café Landtmann points to it. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Palais_Lieben-Auspitz_Vienna_June_2006_391.jpg

This was more like it, I thought, these people were the sort of relatives one would want to have. Not knowing any among them however I will have to ask the other relatives.

Sadly, but with a little more hope I scrolled on.

There appears to be a place called Auspitz in the Czech Republic at: Longitude: 16° 44' 0" East
Latitude: 48° 56' 0" North. There was mention of Jewish families in the area, but when there were references to an aristocratic family called Auspitz von Artenegg I simply knew I had probably wandered into the wrong space.

The history of the Jews in Hungary (and what is now the Czech republic) is mixed. Some people loved them, some needed them for commercial purposes and then eliminated them when things were better. Read all about it at the following link: http://www3.sympatico.ca/thidas/Hungarian-history/outline.html

So perhaps my family have a connection with a bunch of tobacco traders who started out from Nikolsburg and ended up in Pest and of course there is a mention of a Simon Auspitz who was a leading member of the Jewish community in Moravia, perhaps not.

But once again I digress, though I could go on , this period is really interesting.

The point I am trying to make is that the search for ancestors, for family can be, an exciting and absorbing hobby not to mention an exciting though often frustrating history lesson. When it really comes right down to it, I am just as interested in Leanne's family history as I am in mine.

My family history teaches me about one large chunk of European history and the start of the new lands of America and to a lesser extent Australia, while Leanne's teaches me about England at its hey day and all those places this little country managed to conquer.

All in all I learn a little more about the world through the multiple lenses of those who came before us.

When the search throws up really nice and helpful people like Kathy and her family, the experience is just fantastic.

However be prepared for rejection too.

The experience also enables me to think about how the wheel turns and about how likely (or not) it is that I may yet see the changing of the guard when what were then the new worlds of Australia and America experience what it was like for the Chinese and the Indians and others around the world who had their empires in former days, and who may now have another "go".

Iran is making noises once again, Russia is pulling together a cartel like OPEC, but with gas supplies, the Chinese have just finished their blockbuster advertising session with the Olympics and through this exercise shown the world what they are capable of. The Indians, once with an empire of their own may not be ready just yet but their turn may yet come again to be the "leader of the pack." After all, they are winning at cricket at last!

I just hope I am around to see the fall out of the current economic gloom and doom, protected in my cocoon by "Kevin 07" in 09 and on.