Cohens are members of the Levy tribe who trace their ancestry to one of the two sons (Eleazar
and Ithamar) of Moses' brother Aaron. The Cohens or Cohanim (the Hebrew plural for Cohen,
meaning priest) are known by the symbol of the blessing hands (touching of the thumbs with the
remaining fingers paired). Often this may be seen on the gravestones of our ancestors or other
Cohanim.
The earliest family member traced in this study is Jarwe ENGEL. He was born around 1760 and
died before 1808. According to his son's death announcement, he and his wife, Chaja, lived in
"Ozrazów near Radomsko". So far, no place with this name has been identified in the
Radomsko area, not even on various 19th century maps. However, a son of his, Abraham
ENGEL, resided at a house, commonly cited as "#33 w Rynku" (#33 on the Market) in the city
of Radomsko.
Based on several announcements in the Radomsko Jewish Community vital records, Abraham
ENGEL was residing there with his wife, Gnendel MOSKOWICZ, and her father, Mojzesz
HERSZLIKOWICZ, a widower and (retired) butcher. In the 18th century and prior to the
Napoleonic wars, most Jewish families did not use family names. Instead there was a wide use
of patronymics. Patronymics refers to family names taken after the father's first name. Hence,
MOSKOWICZ and HERSZLIKOWICZ, in these cases, are typical examples, since Gnendel's
parents were Fajgel and Mojzesz, and Mojzesz' parents were Sara and Herszlik from
Piotrków. Abraham ENGEL's profession is usually identified by: "handel lokciowych
towarów", "handel towarów lokciowych i korzennych", or "handel kramarszczyk" -
which I believe to be a dealer in mercerizing wares. HERSZLIKOWICZ died in 1819, aged 86;
Abraham ENGEL died in 1828, aged 46; and Gnendel ENGEL died in 1845, aged 70.
Abraham and Gnendel had at least eight children, five sons and three daughters. One son died
in childhood. All three of their daughters married in Radomsko and they had some children, but
there are no known living descendants of any of the daughters. Thus the four sons, who reached
maturity, form the basis of our current family. While birth announcements for the three
daughters and the son that died in childhood have been found in the Radomsko records, one
oddity is that no birth announcements have, so far, been found for the remaining four sons.
Based on their marriage records and birth announcements of their children, the four brothers have
been placed in the following birth order:
Every living family member traces his/her roots to at least one of these four brothers. A few can
trace their roots to more than one brother, because marriages between cousins also took
place.
As time passed and the children of the next generation married and produced their own children,
these three family branches grew rapidly. A significant part of the third generation reached
maturity just prior to the arrival of World War I. At that time and during the following several
years significant cultural changes influenced the family. Some members continued along
religious and often strictly orthodox lines, while others opted for a more "assimilated" lifestyle.
While some members were attracted to socialism others developed into ardent zionists. Several
family members emigrated from Poland. Prior to World War I they usually chose to settle in
Great Britain (England or Scotland), or the USA. After World War I members of our family
were among the first to emigrate to Palestine. A number of family members were very
successful with business ventures or the management and ownership of factories. The ENGEL
family also contributed its fair share of professionals to the disciplines of medicine, jurisprudence,
banking, and insurance. Some family members were politically active - even to the extent of
being arrested and imprisoned for their views and activities. During the 1920s, Stalin named a
street in Moscow for a young family member who was shot in a riot.
Many third generation ENGELs moved from their ancestral homes to other, usually larger,
surrounding cities. Prior to World war II there were several hundred ENGELs living in the area
(shown below, in Figures 1 & 2), and in spite of the significant cultural spectrum, usually
maintained close family bonds. Independent of where they were actually living, they all
identified themselves as belonging to either the Stawiszyn, the Slupca, or the Sieradz branch of
the family. The Stawiszyn branch was sometimes called the "Hochengels" (High Engels), tho'
the reason for this is not known.
No one in the above three branches seemed to be aware that there was a fourth branch formed
by the descendants of the eldest son of Abraham ENGEL, Hersz Dawid. This branch remained
in Radomsko until much later. The cause or reason of this obvious family split is not known.
For instance, my father, Adam ENGEL, who was exceptionally well acquainted with the whole
family, never mentioned Radomsko, the assumed birthplace of his grandfather. Nor did he ever
mention that his grandfather had a fourth brother, Hersz Dawid. I truly believe that he had never
heard about him.
Three generations after the three younger sons of Abraham ENGEL left Radomsko, just before
the advent of World War II a greatgrandson of Hersz Dawid ENGEL was living in Lódz.
His name was Mojsze (later Morris) ENGEL, a successful coal merchant. His family became
acquainted with another ENGEL family living in Lódz at the time and headed by Azrael
(Edward Józef) ENGEL, a greatgrandson of Israel Feiwel. They were even aware that both
families were Cohanim, but were never able to find a relationship link. Both families survived
the war. Morris ENGEL (ending up) in California and Edward ENGEL settled in Tel Aviv.
They even revived their "friendship" and visited with each other after the war without ever
realizing they were second cousins! Relatively recent genealogical research has revealed that
Hersz Dawid and his descendants were indeed part of Abraham ENGEL's family.
At the end of the 19th century, all four branches of
the Engel family lived entirely within a 18,000 sq. Km (75 x 83 mile) region of Russian occupied
Poland. In 1939 most of the family members still lived in a somewhat larger (75 x 125 mile)
area of independent Poland, except for those family members who emigrated to other countries.
This area is shown by the red rectangle on Figure 1 of post-World War II Poland. Several
hundred Engel family members were living in some fifty shtetls, small towns and cities within
that area.
Most of these can be found on the next map, which is an enlargement of this area with locations
associated with the family highlighted in yellow. (Figure 2, below) The scale of this map is:
1:750,000 (1 cm = 7.5 Km, almost 5 miles).
Figure 1, Source of the ENGELs
In 1946, the ENGEL family, as it had been known, appeared to be totally destroyed. Like an
old tree in a forest fire, it seemed to have disappeared without a trace. But seeds were scattered
while the tree was still alive.
In the first half of the 20th century, before World War II and the Holocaust, twenty-eight young
ENGELs left the family area (Figure 2) and emigrated to other countries to start a life on their
own. The "emigrant seeds" come from all branches of the family - the three cited previously,
as well as, from the descendants of Abraham's eldest son, which we shall call the Radomsko
branch. Some started small families on their own. Others convinced parents, siblings, aunts and
uncles to follow. They, in turn, sprouted larger families. For example, Shlomo ENGEL, went
to Palestine in 1929. Shlomo became a well known and highly respected journalist, founding one
of Israel's more important daily newspapers, Davar. He also wrote a book about the
ENGEL family. To see a table of the "emigrant seeds", click here.
After World War II twenty-seven survivor ENGELs settled outside Poland. So far no "survivor
seeds" have been identified as coming from the Sieradz branch. To see a table of the "survivor
seeds", click here.
At the end of World War II, the database formed by all known descendants of Abraham ENGEL,
was comprised of a few hundred members, the majority being deceased. If Abraham's generation
is number one, the database consisted of six generations of ENGELs, with the first infants of a
seventh generation just appearing (Myra ANGEL, SR.1981 was first in 1940). Tracking this
database for about sixty years, to February 2001, we arrive at the following figures:
| The Generation Number | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Members Living | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 133 | 429 | 527 | 295 | 11 | 1246 |
| Members Deceased | 2 | 18 | 78 | 218 | 363 | 134 | 21 | 4 | 0 | 793 |
| Perished in the Holocaust | 0 | 0 | 1 | 51 | 144 | 68 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 264 |
| Unknown Status | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 33 | 29 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 76 |
| All Members | 2 | 18 | 78 | 235 | 529 | 592 | 557 | 299 | 11 | 2115 |
Note that the number of family members do not necessarily add up to the figure
shown in the "Total" column. This is because some members are counted more than once in the
generation column, because of marriage between cousins, or certain adoptions of related
members. The "Total" column automatically ignores all such duplications.
Now, the database is comprised of nine generations and over 2115 members, a very impressive
growth rate in less than sixty years. The seventh generation is now the largest, in terms of live
members and the ninth generation was spawned by Myra ANGEL's granddaughter, Jenifer
STOLT in 1985.
These seeds were so widely scattered, that they took root on all but one of earths continents.
This is also the reason why we can travel widely all over the globe and still be near some of our
cousins.
Families are undergoing some significant structural changes. In the past, the ENGEL family
tended to be clustered around a central core in Poland. Today's descendants tend to polarize
around the family settlement site of their original emigrants or survivors. With the fragmentory
nature of this life style the ties to the rest of the family tend to loosen, and in some cases almost
disappear.
The nuclear family unit is also undergoing complex changes. The increase in divorces, the
absorption of non-blood line relatives as a result of second and subsequent marriages, and the
increasing instances of children born to single parents and unmarried couples living together, has
transformed the concept of what constitutes family.
Our family, of course, was never homogeneous. In the pre-World War I era, as I have stated,
there were family units that followed strict orthodox religious traditions, while others tended to
be more assimilated. Today, our family units exhibit a huge spectrum in lifestyles. On the one
end we have several units in both Israel and the USA that are headed by orthodox rabbis and
who lead a traditional religious life. On the other end, there are ENGEL descendants of mixed
religions or no religion, as well as of various races and even colors. While most of our members
still live in conventional family units, this diversity adds greatly to the tapestry of our family,
while some times requiring considerable expansion in our understanding and tolerance levels.
These are, fortunately, characteristics with which our family is well endowed.
If one considers the 1246 live members of the family as a social group, with some 824 persons
directly descended from the same single ancestor, it is truly fascinating to see the evolvement of
such an eclectically diverse group in only four or five generations.