Genealogy & General Subjects Blog



Thursday, February 21, 2008

More Kornhausers

A follow-up with some more information for those of you who are interested in the name:

Many Kornhausers seem to have fled Europe during or just before the Holocaust. Several families seem to have settled in Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Israel, and the United States. The Central Database of Shoah Victims lists a number of Kornhausers who died in the Holocaust. Many are from Slovakia, Poland, Romania, and Hungary. The ancestorsonboard website lists 7 Kornhausers leaving the United Kingdom in the 1930s and 1940s, all en route to either Argentina or the US.

Bernard, Hermann, and Rosalia Kornhauser were on Schindler's list and there is a 1946 photo of Hermann with Schindler. Andre, Janos, and Tamas Kornhauser are pictured here, with a brief article. Here is an article about Jan Kornhauser who owned a jewelry store in Poland before the war. Pal Kornhauser is pictured here.

The 1869 Hungarian census on JewishGen (which is incomplete) lists 120 Kornhausers, although this is a little misleading as they looked at maiden names as well, and some of these individuals are children of female Kornhausers.

By about 1920, the name was relatively common in the U.S. Based on a quick Ancestry.com search:
  • In 1900, 31 individuals were indexed as Kornhausers in the US census (this may be an underreporting, since many indexers have been unable to read the Kornhauser name and/or the original census enumerator misspelled it). All were in either New York or Cleveland, OH.
  • By 1910, 79 individuals were indexed as Kornhausers in the US census. Most were still in New York, but a few had moved to other states.
  • There were 31 young Kornhauser men who registered for the World War I draft in 1917-8. The majority were in New York. (Almost all men 45 years old or younger had to register for this draft.)
  • New York Passenger lists for 1820-1957 list 301 Kornhausers, many of whom are probably duplicates and some of whom are American citizens travelling to/from New York. (For example, there are 4 separate records of Blanche J. Kornhauser traveling.)
  • The 1920 US Census lists 133 Kornhausers.
  • The 1930 US Census lists 189 Kornhausers.
  • 142 Kornhausers are listed in the Social Security Death Index, meaning they probably died between about 1950 and the present. Women are listed under their married names, so some are Kornhausers by marriage, but women with Kornhauser names by birth are not represented.
Ellis Island, which did not open until 1892 lists 74 Kornhauser in the database. As noted above, many times the name was incorrectly spelled so this may be inconsistent with the number of Kornhausers travelling through Ellis Island. Some of these Kornhausers were US citizens.

Castle Garden, the site of an earlier immigration station that operated from 1830 to 1892, lists only 7 Kornhausers. One family, arriving in 1890 from Austria, is headed by Josef & Sali, with their likely son Blondin, age 10. Another, arriving 1888 from Germany, is headed by Heinr. & Doris with their infant Georg. The final traveler, Mali, apparently came over alone in 1889 from Austria.

Many Kornhausers may have come in using other ports, such as coming to Philadelphia, PA, Baltimore, MD, or Boston, MA.

Beginning in 1899, the American Jewish Year Book lists Kornhausers of prominence. 34 entries are included. In 1899, Mrs D.H. Kornhauser of 1428 Wilson Ave. was secretary of the Cleveland Jewish Women's Council. By 1900, she is listed as of 143 Arlington, Cleveland and is listed several additional years with varying addresses. In 1908/9, S.J. Kornhauser (Samuel J.) is listed in Cleveland as a member of The Educational League for the Higher Education of Orphans (the Jewish Orphan Asylum). David E. and Sidney I. Kornhauser make appearances in the 1922/3 list of Jews of prominence. David was a painter and Sidney was a zoologist.

Here are some additional records of Kornhausers that I found interesting.

NY Times Archives
February 5, 1903, Thursday; Page 16
Fanny Kornauser, age 9, of 54 East Third St, witness to shop murder of Mrs. Mary Fleischer, age 52, by Mary's brother Adolph Gross, age 38. Nathan and Harry Moskowitz, ages 13 and 11 of 57 Second Ave , were also in the store. Mary and Adolph spoke Hungarian; at least Nathan Moskowitz, and possibly all three children, did as well. Adolph shot himself following the incident. Mary's husband was Joseph Fleischer, a tailor at Broadway and 22nd St. The couple had three children.

NY Times Archives
July 11, 1902, Friday Page 14,
Charles Kornhauser, newsboy, witness to the death of another newsboy, Harry Ripkin, who was hit by an oncoming electric car

In 1911, the Madison, WI City Directory lists an Alexander Kornhauser and his wife Ethel. He is the proprietor of a dry goods store, milliner, dressmaking, etc. This is the same Alexander Kornhauser & wife Ethel who are listed as buyers in August 1906 in New York City by the New York Tribune.

The 1900 Cleveland, OH City Directory lists Albert Kornhauser, trav. agt. This is my gg-grandfather.

The Palo Alto, CA City Directory for 1926 lists Mrs. Kath Kornhauser.

The Elizabeth, NJ City Directory for 1921 lists Irving Kornhauser, a grocer, who resided in Newark.

Also, of note, in 1859 there were NO Kornhausers listed in the New York City Directory.

1900 Census, Manhattan
Series: T623 Roll: 1113 Page: 66
Joseph Kornhauser, age 36, married 12 years, b. May 1864 in Hungary, Picture Framer, immigrated 1880; of 5 children had with his wife Jennie (b. Jan 1872, age 28, b. Hungary), only 1 survives: Anna, b. 1891 in NY.

Joseph is mentioned in a variety of other records for NYC, including real estate transfers noted in the NY Times, the NY Tribune, and city directories.

This is also probably the same Joseph referenced in the New-York tribune (New York [N.Y.]): January 27, 1909, p. 10. He was being sued along with his wife and several others by the Woodhulls in the Supreme Court of New York.


A Few Patent Searches:
Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser was an artist. Arthur Kornhauser was a sociologist. Both wrote a number of books. Janos Kornai, a prominent Hungarian economist (who also taught at Harvard for a while), was born a Kornhauser and changed his name at age 17. Many other Kornhausers have gone into academia.

Some old pictures of Kornhauser families may be viewed at this website.

Here's another Kornhauser genealogy site by Henry Kornhauser.

Sigmund Freud apparently had a Hungarian son-in-law, Adolf Kornhauser who may have been a counterfeiter.

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