Family History

When Napoleon reorganized things in Bavaria in 1813-1814, jews were required to take surnames. According to the book Renate Höpfinger, Die Judengemeinde von Floss, 1684-1942 , family names in Floss were based mainly on first names, father’s names, mother’s or wife’s place of origin. Thus perhaps Isaak or one of his parents came from Steinhart near Fuerth. See this article on the origins of the Steinhardt name for German jews; http://www.steinhardts.com/STEINHARDT/Articles/Introduction/Arewe.html - another thing to remember is that spelling was phonetic and not set in Germany before about 1900 so there is no difference between Steinhart and Steinhardt.

Our STEINHARDT ancestor is Isaak STEINHARDT (1754-1840) of Floss, Bavaria, He was known as Isaak or Eisig Sheyer before the taking of surnames, thus his father's name must have been Sheyer. We are descended from his daughter Semele, whose portrait is to the left. She married Loeb Langermann and she is famous in our family for having said, "Raise dogs, not children, dogs are more grateful." A sentiment with which my husband agrees!

Of all our ancestors, Isaak has the most descendants interested in genealogy since I have heard from around twenty of them since creating this website. Click here for Isaak's descendant list at WIKItree or here for 7 generations of descendants at GENI.com

He was very successful as a merchant of goods like wool/leather/cloth; it also says he was a trader in both imports and exports." in German: "auslaend. Handel mit Woole, Tuch, Pferden, ab und zu inlaend. Handel mit Federb, Leder, Tuch;"

In a listing made in 1799 he is the 2nd richest man in the community. I have made a website to commemorate the Jewish community of Floss over at the Jewishgen website. There there is more information about that community and it's history there.

View of Judenberg from the stream of Floss in town (synagogue is on the far left)

 We have seen on old family tree which claims Isaak is the g-grandson of Eisig Feifas, one of the original jewish settlers of Floss, through several unknowns. There is no other direct evidence of this yet.