Another genealogical find

[rhu]

I found myself wondering: The stamp in my great-grandfather's machzor says "M. H. Bissinger -- Cigarren & Wein -- Ichenhausen". But we only ever knew his name as "Max". What did the H stand for?

Well, I've been doing all this genealogical research lately, right? And just the other day I found this awesome database at http://jgbs.org/ with lots of facsimile records from Bavarian Swabia, with many records (including all the ones from Ichenhausen) indexed. So tonight I looked him up; his birth record just says "Max Bissinger" but his marriage record says "Max Heinrich L Bissinger".

The Internet is an amazing place.

Comments

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Over on Facebook, a friend asked: You've moved the mystery back one step. What could the L stand for?

That, actually, is probably an easier question. Max's father was Heinrich Leopold, and died about two years before Max got married. And Heinrich's father was Leopold-Loeb. So what I'm assuming (for now) is that there was a tradition (in the family? in Ichenhausen?) that when a father died, his son (sons?) took his name(s) as their middle name(s). So I'm assuming that the L in "Max Heinrich L Bissinger" stood for "Leopold."

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

...and I was wondering the same thing. :-)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

That is very cool!