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| From the collection of S Smith |
Name: Leon Seneft
Birth: between 1849 and 1854, likely in Germany or Galicia
Death: I believe September 1931, Stepney, London, England
Marriage: 1871, probably in Galicia
Location(s):
Galicia;
London, England
Relation to me: Leon Seneft is my paternal grandfather's paternal grandfather, which makes him 5th generation before me.
Alias(es): His first name I have also seen recorded as Leib, Lewis, and Louis. His surname, I have seen spelled as Senft and Senefft.
Leon seems quite unusual for a Jew, so I lean towards the probability that Leib was his Hebrew name.
Seneft also seems unusual for a Jewish family, though I know that in the mid 18th century, they began to force Jews German sunames, so the name, which is distinctly German (it means "mustard seller") may come from this period, which would have been Leon's father or grandfather's time. Which also means that he may have another, more Jewish surname. I believe they used a Patrnonymic system, but I do not know enough about it or about his family at the time to guess what that other surname may have been.
Parents: unknown
Children: Isaac, Annie, Alex, Jennie, Jack
Other Family: A nephew also named Lewis Greenbaum, so possibly his or his wife's a sister's son.
Details: Leon Seneft was a Rabbi at some point. I'm not sure if this was when the family was living in London, or before, or both. According to the 1911 UK Census, he and his wife had five children. I believe those children were all born before leaving Galicia and taking their family to settle in London. I have an address that puts him living in London's south-east side, south of the Thames, though I am uncertain how long he lived there. According to most records, it lists them at living in "Mile End Old Town," though I am uncertain how these two correlate, so I need to look and see if that address would have been in that area. He and his family lived in London until the war, when Alex was sent to Camp Douglas, and many of his children left the country, which saw them as enemies at the time because they were German. Leon and Isaac stayed in England after the war, and one of his daughters did return as well after her husband died, but the others left England and never returned.
Proof:
1) Leon has always been part of my family tree that was given to me by my grandfather. Though he never met the man, he knew of him, and had a few pictures of him while growing up.
2) My second piece of proof on Leon came from a letter my grandfather wrote to someone of the name Hillinger in Belgium, who was hoping our lines might be somehow connected. It only briefly mentions him, but reinforces the information I have from the family tree I got from him. In it, he mentions that he never met the man, as Leon died before he was born, which was in 1922, giving me the outside edge of his possible death date, though I no longer believe this to be accurate--see below.
3) The next is the Hillinger family book. With my grandmother's death, I received the Hillinger Family book my grandfather got from Germany to confirm his birth date for the US government, which contained information on all of his family, including both Alex and Dora's parents. Again, he is not one of the entries in the book, but it refers to him tangentially as Alex's father, though the information is minimal as the German government did not recognize his marriage to Mindel because it was a Jewish ceremony.
4) We also have a copy of Alex and Dora's wedding invitation from the Hillinger family book, which does mention Leon, and makes it clear that he was still alive in 1919 when they married in Frankfurt. Because he's listed on the invitation, I assume he was also in attendance at the wedding, though that is only speculation at this time. This also gives my specific proof of his name as Leon.
5) I also have an Ellis Island record for Jennie Seneft, one of his daughters. It lists him as her next of kin back in England, and gives his address at the time.
New Proofs I have found of Leon:
6) I have one Census record listing Leon. In it his name is listed as Lewis, which estimates his birth year as 1849. The family is listed as Lewis, "Millie," Jinny (Jenny), and Lewis Greenbaum, who is listed as his nephew. They are living in Stepney, London, in Mile End Old Town. The Census lists his occupation as a greengrocer hawker.
7) From Grumpy's letter above, I assumed Leon had died sometime between 1919 and 1922, but if I have found the right record, apparently he died in 1931. I found his death listed in the England & Wales Death Index, which lists him as dying in the third quarter of 1931 in Stepney, London, which is definitely the right area. His name is listed here as Louis, and his birthdate as about 1854.
8) Then I have two versions of their son Alex's SS Application in the US, which lists his parents as Lewis and Mena in one version, and Leib and Mindel in another. I assume one is the original application, and the other is his claim on that money.
9) I also have a record of his son Jack's death in New York that lists his parents as Louis and Minnie.
10) My final proof comes from a cousin who is descended from Leon's son Isaac. He gave me lots of information about him. Isaac was a tailor, and owned a clothing shop in London. From him, I get the spelling of Senefft for the family name, as well as conformation of Leon and Mindel's son's name, Isaac, who was previously unnamed for me. He also sent me a new picture of our mutual ancestor that was so reminiscent of my grandfather that I literally teared up when I saw it. So I now have two pictures of Leon. I've added both to this post just so you can see them both, and see what living in London probably did to the man.
Needed:
I have no absolute birthdate for Leon, and would love confirmation of his marriage and death. I imagine if those records exist in strong form, they're likely in Hebrew, if they weren't destroyed during the war. I also don't know when he emigrated to England from Galicia, though I know it was in the late 1800s, after my great-grandfather was born. I do know that his son served in the UK military in 1899, according to a record from his grandson, so I have an upper edge of how long they had been there, but they would have been arrived sometime between 1884 and 1899. I imagine those records must be somewhere, in England if nowhere else. I don't know if he was ever naturalized in England (was that even possible at the time?), but if he was, that may be a good place to look.
Complicating things is the information on his name above. Unfortunately for this time period, especially for immigrant Jews, variations on their names are common, so I will just have to be very careful to check each record, and make sure to use correlating information to verify what I find in the future.
I would love to determine whether Lewis Greenbaum is his biological nephew or his wife's, as this might give more information on another generation back on either side, but so far, this is the only listing I have found of him. He is listed as a tailor on the census form, which means he likely worked with his cousin Isaac, but beyond that, I know nothing about him.
I know he was a Rabbi from family stories, but have absolutely no idea where even to start looking for that kind of record, particularly something that might tell me when and where he was trained, and if he was a Rabbi his whole life, or where he would have practiced. I also don't know what synagogue he might have worked at (is that even the right phrasing?) or if there were more than one.
I do know that his wife died many years before him, as I believe I have found her gravestone, though it lists only her name and her daughter's, so I am not 100% sure. It does lead me to wonder why his name is not on the stone, and where he might be buried as well.
The last piece of information I am currently missing is about Camp Douglas. I know that Alex was sent there, but I am uncertain if he was the only one, if perhaps one or both of his brothers were sent with him, or if Leon or even the whole family were sent as well. I believe there was some sort of arrangement where so long as one member of the family went, the others could stay where they were, but it is possible that meant all the male members of the family had to go. I will need to write to the Red Cross to get this information. Hopefully they will have a bit more than just names for me when I do.
That is all I have on Leon Seneft. Obviously, what I know now has grown, but it is still not nearly enough, and hasn't gotten me any further back on this line. As always, if you have any information on this man not listed here, or if you can answer one of the questions I've listed, please contact me. I'd love to get further on this branch of the family.
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