The
Steuer Original Family Name
I’m still looking for missing
pieces of this puzzle but I can now say that the Steuer Family Lore has been proven.
Two different people from two different branches of my extended STEUER family
tree mentioned a story about STEUER not being our family’s original name.
After virtually meeting a
cousin (now several years ago), he told me that the family name was originally Yitkowitz
and it was his ancestor (Bernhardt Steuer) who came to the states before Julius
and changed the name. One of his sources says that Bernardt’s mother-in-law’s
maiden name was Steuer, but it hasn’t been proven. He went on to tell me that his
family settled in New York and Julius Steuer came over afterwards and settled
in Cleveland. Later, Aaron Steuer (father of the famous Max D) came over and
their two families kept in touch.
This information
contradicts what I have with sources:
Julius
Steuer emigrated in either 1877 (a letter from his
granddaughter) or 1878, the 1910 Census.
Aaron
Steuer emigrated in 1877, according to his son’s (Max
D) passport application of July 1902. I also have a note that states that his
emigration was preceeded by Julius Steuer and his
family and that Aaron did not seek them out.
Max
David Steuer, Bernhardt’s son, emigrated in
Jan 1880, a letter from another cousin.
Bernhardt
Steuer emigrated in 1881
William
Steuer emigrated in 1884, 1920 Census
Rose
Keller Steuer, William’s mother, emigrated in
1885, 1930 Census
Rachel
Steuer Schiff, William’s sister, emigrated in
1886, 1900 Census
Sarah
Steuer Schwartz, William’s sister, emigrated
in 1889, 1930 Census
Rabbi
Urlich Bernhard Steuer emigrated in Sep 1938, 1938
Passenger List from Bremen
Eva
Steuer Halas emigrated from London to Canada
(after her marriage). She emigrated to London after being liberated from
Auschwitz.
When I heard this information about the name change, I immediately had
an Instant Chat with a cousin in Cleveland. He told me “once, a long time ago
my mother had the family aghast when she mentioned at a party that the family
name had been Utkovitch. We assumed she
was just making her usual confrontational remarks. Might it be true? I somehow, knowing my mother, had thought that she made up the story
just to get a reaction. Her mother
denied it, but you have to remember that Beckie was a Steuer by marriage and
might not have known too much.”
Later, he
told me that he heard that there was a wealthy woman who was going to marry one
of the brothers and he was asked by either her father if he would be willing to
take on Steuer as his family name since he (the father) had no one to carry on
his family name. This brother agreed. The other brothers took on Steuer so it
would be known that they were all brothers.
The other
branch of the family that told me about the original family name felt it was
from their ancestor, Bernhardt (Bernat) Steuer. He married Fanny Klein and her
father was Josef Jonas Klein and they felt his wife was possibly Minnie Steuer
because this is what was written on Fanny’s death certificate, although her
daughter Minnie Steuer was the informant.
I actually
think this was a maternal grandfather that made the request, although I have
not been able to prove it. Too many unknown maiden names. I did find the
Hungarian marriage record for Julius (Juda) with his third wife (1876) and it
already has his name and his father’s last name was also listed as STEUER.
The
spelling of the name is in question, since all information was verbal. Both
cousins did say the same thing, that it means son of a Jew. Is it Yitkowitz,
Yitkowits, Yidkowitz, Yidkowits, Yitkovits, Yudkovits, or Utkovitch.
What I do know is that the “Y” sound in Hungarian is spelled with a “J”. Where
to start?
I did just recently found the marriage record and birth records for
Bernhard and Fanny. Of course, it was Fanny’s Yiddish name – Feige and Bernhardt’s
Hungarian name – Bernat. And here it was! Bernat’s last name was listed as Judkovics.
His father was listed as Meier- no last name listed, but that is it is assumed
to be the same if not shown. No mother was listed for him. The birth records
for 3 of their children had their last name spelled Judkiewicz. The children
were Hanny (b. 26 May 1872), Ignatz (b. 04 Feb 1875) and Gerzon (b. 27 Mar 1876).
According to the 1900 census she had given
birth to 8 children and only 2 were still living (at the time she was living
with her daughter Mary, her son-in-law Morris Reich and grandchildren). I
assume they died in Hungary. As of now I haven’t found any death records for
any of the other children and no passenger lists for any of their children.
