Poznan to Leszno
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2008
1
26
37
Trip End
Oct 05, 2008
Leszno,
Western Poland,
Poland
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Well I'm actually here now - somewhere I've been longing to come, since learning that Samuel SHUTER was born here, but I have good news & bad news.
The good news is that I've learnt a lot. The bad news is that there hasn't (yet) been a magical discovery. Perhaps ... just perhaps ... we have another possibility of the name they were known under, before leaving Prussia. It's clutching at straws, but even that is (so far) better than nothing.
We were out of our room bright & early this morning to go to the Poznan archives, and be there at their opening at 8 am. I was actually feeling quite nervous - I didn't expect a miraculous discovery, but I was hoping for something, and also full of doubts
Historical pictures on boards in Poznan
.The archivist said there couldn't possibly be any Jewish records amongst the civil records - the Germans took all those records away. Now that didn't fit with knowledge of what happened elsewhere, but we decided to go ahead & order the births records anyway. "They are stored in another building & there won't be any collection of those until 11 o'clock or later" - OK, we'll wait.
When we'd finally put in our order for various records of possible interest, there was still 90 mins to wait, so we went off to look at nearby Poznan. We found a markets first - David bought raspberries & I bought a table runner that David had seen & liked. Then we went back to the Old Town Square & took more photos & looked around, and finally ended up having hot drinks back in the restaurant we'd already been to twice. Then back to the archives.
As it happened, when the records arrived, Chris & I started looking at births books & David started looking at the "list of artisans". The instruction was to look for any Jewish names or Jewish religion specified, to see if there was any likely relevance.
Poznan Old Town Square
David was the first one to find a possibility. Chris came around to look at it. This book was all in German, so when the 2 of them couldn't work it out, Chris chatted up the guy researching at the next desk & got him involved. The 3 of them were poring over this book - and I was excluded! I tried to signal my frustration to David - and eventually made my meaning clear enough that the message got through - and he said "come & look". I couldn't. Eventually the 3 males separated somewhat & I said to David - here, you take this births book, I want to get my hands on that one!
These were books from 1700s on. I expect to only use a pencil anywhere close to such old documents, but apparently pens were OK here. Even if I didn't find "my guy" amongst them, these old books were lovely to leaf though.
Eventually I did find something of interest - a possibility - and asked if it was possible to get a copy or could I photograph it. (Even the index books of what was available looked interesting!) No, I couldn't photograph, but they could scan it for me.
When eventually there was 1 record that I wanted to scan, in order to check the record again later, that was a major exercise
Poznan hot chocolate
. It cost 4 zl for a scan, but that had to be put onto a CD for me - and that would cost another 2 zl (roughly halve it to $A). But they didn't have a cashier there - in order to pay something you had to transfer money to their account & when the money was there, then they would scan it for you. Chris went off to the local post office, where he paid an extra 2 zl in order to transfer 6 zl to their account - and I finally ended up with a CD. If I had known it would entail all that, I might not have bothered.Eventually we left the archives & walked back to the hotel & then drove to Leszno. The weather was sunny when we arrived so I was keen to get out in it. Chris drove us around in the town for a bit before he dropped us back at the hotel, and he drove off to get Dariusz.
Meantime David & I walked into Leszno. There were grey clouds although the sun came through from time to time. Not as photogenic as Poznan, still the old Town Hall is pretty & colourful & some of the surrounding buildings are also painted to look pretty & varied. On the outskirts of Leszno are the Soviet-style concrete blocks of apartments, but painted a variety of colours, they don't look quite so bad as grey concrete. In the Old Town Square the buildings are older style & more ornate
Leszno Town Hall & square
. However away from the main square, some buildings would look much better with another coat of paint.Having taken some photos (some in sunlight) that removed some of the urgency I was feeling, so then we walked back to the Tourist Office & obtained a map, bought a book (pictures of old postcards of Leszno) & found out where the old Jewish quarter was.
We then had time to walk to the Jewish quarter & briefly photographed what was the Great Synagogue & is now a Judaica branch of the Regional Museum. We also saw the oldest house surviving in the Jewish area of town - only the synagogue is older.
Then it was time to hurry back to our hotel to meet Chris & Dariusz. I know that, having only just met Dariusz I ought to refer to him by surname, still it is a long Polish surname & I never mastered the spelling or pronunciation. I was surprised that Dariusz is as young as he is. I knew he used to work at the Jewish museum here & is renowned for his knowledge, and now works for them no longer. I guess I expected someone much older. In fact Dariusz had to leave that job, and is now working on his Ph.D. about the Jews of Leszno from 16th to 18th century
Leszno street
. Sounds like anti-semitism isn't yet buried here.I knew that Samuel & older brother Isaac SHUTER went to London around 1849. Isaac married there in February 1850 & Samuel only a few months later. Yet they never appeared in any trade directories before 1850 but they did appear afterwards. I had never been able to find why they moved.
According to Dariusz, the various revolutions (in France & elsewhere) in 1848 led people to be dissatisfied & want to go to something better. At the same time the Prussian government removed travel restrictions for non-Jews, and also eased travel restrictions for better-off Jews. This area is primarily agricultural & there was not much town life here. But at that time, only people on the wealthier side were allowed to move - some only moved as far as Wroclaw, some, like brothers Isaac & Samuel moved as far as England. Their father was dead by then. Before then there had been allowed free movement only within the Poznan province (then called Posen, under the Prussians) but not free movement for Jews elsewhere. Even after 1848, people were only allowed to move if they could pay all their taxes and leave no debts behind.
At the end of the Franco-Prussian war, about 1871, Germany united and all movement restrictions were removed, so there was another mass exodus as well as flood of immigrants to England & elsewhere
old synagogue, now museum
. These were the poorer migrants, and in England at least, even earlier migrants looked down on the new arrivals.Dariusz had brought a lot of data in files on a memory stick. He tried running it on Chris' computer & had some problems so then ran it on David's. Various records looked interesting enough, and after I started writing it all down, I asked David could he copy & paste the info into another file for me. So he took over the computer operation, while Chris interpreted to & from Dariusz. At one stage I felt I was being cut out again - David caught my glare & got the message, and after that was great at trying to ensure I wasn't ignored.
Dariusz had lots of info on the CHARIG family. Now that is of interest to me, but not so much as trying to crack the puzzle of my SHUTERs. Dariusz said that SHUTER would not have been the name they had here - it is not a name in this region. So if SHUTER wasn't a name here it was anglicised to that on entering England.
I asked was (Samuel's father) Michael (Yechiel in Hebrew in London, Jechiel in Hebrew here) a common name - no, it was a rare name - so perhaps we could start searching for Yechiels of approximately the right age
Dariusz, Kerry & Chris
. We found one Jechiel of the right age, whose surname was SCHACHTEL. A few plausible possibilities with the name of his wife as well as children who died. Maybe ...Dariusz also brought the references to files of CHARIG wills held in the archives. He suggested that we check the wills at the archives tomorrow - it is not impossible that family members in London might be named, and just maybe in-law names mentioned too. Easy to check given the reference numbers anyway. I have some more information in databases at home about families who lived here & will certainly now look for SCHACHTEL & similarities.
Eventually Chris left to drive Dariusz back home & then we have just had a very late dinner - after a very early breakfast.
Oh I didn't tell you about the rooms here. I was under the impression that we were to have 2 rooms connected by a bathroom, which we would share with Chris. As it happens, it's a family room with a double bed in the lounge room & also a separate bedroom with twin beds - Chris has that one. I forgot to do my washing in Poznan & now don't feel I can hang undies in a bathroom shared with somebody I only met a few days ago. I'll wash a couple of shirts tonight (Chris has already showered) & encourage David to shower first in the morning & hopefully by then my shirts will have stopped dripping & can be removed from the bathroom.
I didn't sleep well or much last night & tomorrow will be full & it's approaching midnight now, so I need to stop. I'm very pleased to be here - it feels very special - but my emotions are a roller coaster. I really would much prefer not to be sharing this way with Chris, although he is doing his utmost not to intrude.
Ah well... Big day tomorrow so goodnight from Kerry & David in Leszno (160 years approximately after the family left)
