A documented family record · begun September 2026 · about this record
Four families, from Galicia, Šariš and Masovia to wherever their descendants live.
This is the shared record of the Hofstatters of Nowy Wiśnicz, the Lilings and Honigs of Stropkov and Košice, the Barks of Długosiodło and the Berliners and Morgensterns of Myszyniec — and of everyone descended from them. Every person here is tied to a record: a Galician civil register, a Page of Testimony, a DP camp card, a ship's manifest. Where the paper runs out, the page says so.
Read it as a story, chapter by chapter → · The town, in pictures →
The paternal line is documented back to Nachem Hofstatter, born about 1752, who died in February 1822 at house number 6 in Nowy Wiśnicz. His family was already in the town when Galician Jews were assigned surnames in 1787. His son Meyer lived to 82; Meyer's son Nochem married at 18 in 1841; Nochem's son Zev Wolf married Reisel Federgrün; their son Yaakov married Mindel Schmeidler of Oświęcim; and their son Nathan, born 22 August 1920, survived the war in Bratislava and came to New York.
The Czechoslovak side, the Lilings and Honigs of Stropkov and Košice, and the Polish maternal side, the Barks and Berliners of the Ostrołęka region, were both destroyed in the war. Gizela Liling survived Auschwitz. Rachel Berliner survived deportation to the Arkhangelsk forests and Kazakhstan. This site records what is proven, grades the evidence, and lists what is still being looked for.
Four founding families
Hofstatter · Nowy Wiśnicz
Nachem Hofstatter (c. 1752–1822) → Meyer → Nochem → Zev Wolf & Reisel FedergrünBranches of Zev Wolf and Reisel: Yaakov & Mindel (Bentzion's family in Melbourne, Israel and Antwerp; Nathan & Gizela's in Montreal, New York, New Jersey, Florida and Israel) · Chane Malke Scharfeld, Tarnów · Beile Stechler · Isser, Tarnów · Nachim, Kraków · Temerla Kalfus · Selig & Matel. Cousin lines from Meyer's second marriage to Sara Pitzele: Beinisch the rosh ha-kahal, whose ten children went to Vienna, Antwerp (the Hofstetters of Putte), Bochnia (Żupnik), New York and Israel · Israel in New York from 1886 · Nathan in Radomyśl; and the Tarnów Hofstädters of Lemel and Dine Keller. Photographs of Zev Wolf and Reisel are in chapter 4.
Liling & Honig · Stropkov, Roztoky, Košice
Yaakov Liling → Meir Liling (d. 1936, Stropkov) → Moshe Liling & Rochel HonigBranches: Gizela Hofstatter · Freida Schonfeld (Israel) · Edith Grunfeld · Goldie Winfield · the murdered: Etel Malka, Jakob, Ber Eliezer Dov. Meir's other children: Jacob (d. New York 1921), Giza Amsel; Judel's line, Stropkov.
Bark · Długosiodło
Avraham Yitzchak Bark & Fruma Zlata → Aryeh Dovid & Shayna Soroh → Yerucham Fishel & Rachel BerlinerBranches: Chani Hofstatter · Esther Dorfberger · Mel Bark · Fishel's sister Malka Stein.
Berliner & Morgenstern · Myszyniec
Moshe Eliyahu Morgenstern & Chana Feiga → Esther Hinda & Yaakov (Jankiel) BerlinerBranches: Manes Berliner (Winnipeg) · Rachel Bark · Miriam Losh (Kfar Chabad) · Chaya Kozlowski · Louis · Yossel. The Morgenstern cousins in Israel and Los Angeles.
An original record image or a repository-served scan was seen and is cited: Arolsen Archives documents, Yad Vashem Pages of Testimony, register scans supplied by the archive.
An index entry or a professional extract from an original record: JRI-Poland extracts by Howard Fink and Aron Kohn, Gesher Galicia indexes, Yad Vashem list-derived records. The original still needs to be ordered.
Family knowledge or secondary sources: Howard Fink's chart, memorial dedications, the family's own statements, Geni. Useful for direction, not proof.
The story
From a house in Wiśnicz to Brooklyn, one generation at a time.
Eleven chapters. Each one is built only from the records and photographs the family holds; where the paper runs out, the chapter says what is still being looked for. Use the arrows, or the arrow keys, to move between chapters. Click a picture to enlarge it.
The town
Nowy Wiśnicz: four hundred years, in nine pictures.
The town our family lived in for at least two centuries, from its founding to today, with the family's own dates set against it. Every fact here is traced to a source in the town history file; the pictures are public-domain prints, photographs and postcards from the Polish National Library and Wikimedia Commons, credited in each caption. Click a picture to enlarge it.
People
Every ancestor, with the record that puts them there.
Choose a line. Each card shows the person's dates, what the records say, and the source with its evidence grade. Item numbers open the original at Yad Vashem or Arolsen.
The Shoah
Who was murdered, who survived, and where the record of each one is.
Nowy Wiśnicz's Jews were moved to the Bochnia ghetto in August 1942; those not deported were shot in the Baczków forest on 24–27 August 1942. Košice's Jews were deported to Auschwitz in four transports between 16 May and 24 June 1944. The Berliner family was expelled from Myszyniec in September 1939 and deported by the Soviets to the Arkhangelsk forests in July 1940.
| Name | Relation | Fate | Record |
|---|
Nathan's wartime path. He was in the Bochnia ghetto in August 1942; how he reached Bratislava is not yet documented. Family knowledge is that he spent the war there with the Hellinger family, his brother Bentzion's in-laws. His January 1949 AJDC emigration card gives his address as Prešov, Lehotská 9, with Paraguay as intended destination. Arolsen holds an eight-document tracing file on him opened in 1962 (case 862.442), requested 17 September 2026; it should answer the missing years.
Rachel's path, in her own words on the Claims Conference questionnaire: expelled from Myszyniec September 1939 to Ogrodniki near Białystok; deported July 1940 to Shidrovo on the Northern Dvina, where her mother Esther died of hunger in May 1941 leaving six children; Kazakhstan near Chimkent from November 1941; Szczecin May 1946, eight months pregnant; DP camps Traunstein and Gabersee; sailed from Bremen on 4 October 1949 with Fishel, baby Moses, her father Jakob and her siblings Chaja and Josef.
Places
The towns, and what survives of their records.
Nowy Wiśnicz
Bochnia district, Galicia · 49.915 N 20.463 EA private Lubomirski town with a large Jewish community. Jewish civil registers survive from 1814 (births), 1821 (marriages) and 1814 (deaths) to 1942, held by Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie, Bochnia branch, fonds 29/4076/0, with 10,686 scans online. Gaps: no deaths 1853–1859, no marriages 1831–1833. The Jewish cemetery, first mentioned 14 June 1641 with its oldest stone from February 1639, has more than 600 surviving stones, mostly without surnames; the last burials were in autumn 1942. It was fenced in the 1980s by Abusch and Josef Hirsch, who built the ohel over Rabbi Naftali Rubin (1860–1939, rav of the town for 42 years after the first Bobover Rebbe; he officiated at Wolf and Reisel's 1904 marriage) and his grandson Elazar. Before the war Rabbi Rubin lived on Kazimierza Wielkiego street, on the right-hand side going from the Rynek toward the cemetery, old house number 241 (local memory). No Hofstatter stone is known. Visits via Muzeum Ziemi Wiśnickiej.
Košice (Kassa, Kaschau)
Czechoslovakia · 48.72 N 21.26 EMoshe Liling kept a delicatessen just off Hlavná, the main street — on Hunyadi utca, today's Timonova/Galenova, near the Orthodox synagogues on Zvonárska and Puškinova; the family lived on Bethlen körút, today's Kuzmányho ulica, and the Page of Testimony gives a wartime address on Josefova. Laser Liling's hiding place in 1944 was a cousin's house on Zvonárska, the street of the Orthodox community's synagogue, mikveh and rabbinate. Jewish registers 1844–1918 are filmed by FamilySearch; later records are at the Košice city and state archives. Deportations to Auschwitz: 16 May, 17 May, 3 June and 24 June 1944.
Stropkov and Roztoky
Šariš, Slovakia · 49.20 N 21.65 ERochel Honig was born in Stropkov; Moshe Liling in the village of Roztoky, Svidník district, in 1887. Stropkov Jewish births 1851–1901 and Svidník births 1862–1884 are on FamilySearch. The Stropkov community was deported in 1942.
Myszyniec
Ostrołęka county, Masovia · 53.38 N 21.35 EHome of the Berliner family; Rachel was born here on 15 September 1924. Almost nothing survives of its Jewish civil records: JRI-Poland holds only the year 1930. The family's story after 1939 is documented instead by Soviet deportation, DP and IRO records.
Długosiodło
Wyszków county, Masovia · 52.73 N 21.60 EFishel Bark's birthplace, 14 April 1915, written "Glogoschotle" by a DP camp clerk in 1947. Surviving Jewish registers: 1910–1911 and 1922–1938, held by the local civil registry office; 1912–1921 is a gap, so Fishel's own birth entry is probably lost.
Bratislava (Pressburg) and Prešov
SlovakiaNathan's wartime and immediate post-war home. The Hellinger family of Prešov, into which his brother Bentzion married, sheltered him. Lenka Hellingerová, born Prešov 1922, was deported from Poprad to Auschwitz on 3 April 1942.
Shidrovo, Arkhangelsk
Northern Dvina, USSRSoviet special settlement where the Berliner family was sent in July 1940 and where Esther Berliner née Morgenstern died in May 1941.
Brooklyn
New YorkThe Bark and Berliner families arrived on the USAT General M. L. Hersey on 4 October 1949, listed for 688 Rogers Avenue and 1158 Sutter Avenue in Brooklyn and 123 Beach 86th Street in Rockaway. Zevi was born in Brooklyn in 1995.
Family trees
The four lines, drawn out.
Each chart runs from the earliest known ancestor down to the living generations. Choose a name to light up that person's line back to the founder; dashed boxes are people known only from family charts, not yet from records. Wide charts scroll sideways.
Highlighted line Relative Family chart only Murdered in the Shoah
The Dukla branch
The Toronto Hofstedters, and the one name that ties them to us.
The family has always believed it was related to the Hofstedter family of Toronto, who came from Hungary and before that from Dukla in Galicia. On 17 September 2026 the records showed a real connection, though not yet a blood line.
The Toronto family is that of Sandy (Nosson Nota Yitzchok) Hofstedter, born 18 August 1924 in Mezőkövesd, Hungary, a survivor of the Hungarian labor battalions and Gunskirchen who came to Toronto in 1948 and died in December 2021; his son is Rav Dovid Hofstedter of Dirshu. Pages of Testimony filed by Sandy's great-granddaughter give the line: his parents were Zev (Willy) Hofstedter and Matel née Schwartz of Sárospatak, murdered at Auschwitz on 17 June 1944 with four of her children; his grandparents were Arye Leib Hofstedter, the shochet of Dukla, about 70 in 1944, and Feige Leah née Biron, both murdered at Auschwitz. Arye Leib's father was Eliezer Aharon.
Among our own family papers is a 1966 Jerusalem death notice for Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Hofstatter, son of Rabbi Eliezer Aharon, shochet u-bodek of Pressburg, buried 13 November 1966. Two ritual slaughterers, one in Dukla and one in Bratislava, both sons of an Eliezer Aharon Hofstatter, are brothers. So the notice our family kept is for the Toronto family's great-uncle, and Nathan was living in Bratislava, where Chaim Tzvi was the shochet, from 1945 to 1949. The two families knew each other and treated each other as family two generations ago.
What is not proven is a shared ancestor. No Eliezer Aharon appears in any Wiśnicz record, and Dukla's Jewish registers survive only from 1914, so his birth and marriage cannot be pulled from Polish archives. The memorial record for Matel Hofstedter that was earlier listed as a puzzle in our register is Sandy's own dedication for his mother and has been reassigned to this branch.
| Person | Facts | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Eliezer Aharon Hofstedter | Born c. 1830–1850, place unknown. Father of two shochtim. | Named on YV 13705894 and on the 1966 death notice |
| Arye Leib Hofstedter | Shochet of Dukla, b. c. 1874, son of Eliezer Ahron & Feigeleah; wife Feige Leah née Biron, dau. of Yitzchok & Reitzu. Both murdered Auschwitz 1944. | YV 13705894 · 13705895 |
| Chaim Tzvi Hofstatter | Shochet u-bodek of Pressburg, son of Eliezer Aharon; d. 13 Nov 1966 Jerusalem, survived by sons, daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren. | 1966 death notice, family papers |
| Zev (Willy) & Matel Hofstedter | Mezőkövesd. Matel née Schwartz, b. Sárospatak, dau. of Mordechai Zvi & Leah; murdered Auschwitz 17 Jun 1944. Murdered children: Moshe, Yakov, Rochel, Rivka and two unnamed. | YV 13705887, 13705888–93; memorial 9780692 by Sandy |
| Sandy Hofstedter | b. 18 Aug 1924 Mezőkövesd; survived; Toronto 1948; d. Dec 2021. Family book: Family Chronicles, Sandy & Aranka Hofstedter, ed. M. Mandelbaum. | NLI catalogue |
Sources
The record behind every claim.
Repository documents are linked to the original where the archive serves it online. Family-held scans are listed by their archive ID. The Claims Conference questionnaire (D1) contains private identifiers and is not reproduced here.
| ID | Document | Repository | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| D20 | Nathan Hofstatter, AJDC Emigration Service Bratislava index card, file PAR.2155, 21 Jan 1949 | Arolsen Archives 3.1.3.2 | 80198367 |
| X20 | Natan Hofstatter, ITS tracing case 862.442 (1962), 8 documents | Arolsen 6.3.3.2, not online; inquiry 2026-09-17-60239 | — |
| D21 | Rachel Bark née Berliner, DP registry card: father Jankiel Berliner, mother Ester Morgenstern | Arolsen Archives | 66509009 |
| D22 | Fischel Bark, DP registration card, Eschenstruth, July 1947 | Arolsen Archives | 66508931 |
| D23 | IRO nominal roll, Transocean Airlines convoy, München, Sept 1949, rows 318–323 (Bark and Berliner families) | Arolsen Archives | 81750221 |
| D24 | IRO nominal roll, USAT General M. L. Hersey, Bremen-Grohn, 4 Oct 1949, page 21, rows 292–299 | Arolsen Archives | 81664253 |
| D25 | Mindel Hofstatter, Page of Testimony by her son Nathan | Yad Vashem | 7180536 |
| D26 | Isser Hofstatter, Page of Testimony by his nephew Nathan | Yad Vashem | 7180537 |
| D27 | Moshe Liling, Page of Testimony by his daughter Gizela | Yad Vashem | 7180534 |
| D28 | Rochel Liling née Honig, Page of Testimony by her daughter Gizela | Yad Vashem | 7180535 |
| D13 | Etel Malka Liling, Page of Testimony by Dov Shenfeld | Yad Vashem | 838844 |
| D14 | Jakob Liling, Page of Testimony by Dov Shenfeld | Yad Vashem | 445074 |
| D30 | Roiza, Gitel, Kreindel, Matil Hofshteter — memorial dedications by their brother Bentzion | Yad Vashem O.41.3 | 14349926 · 14349912 · 14349920 · 14349923 |
| D34 | Meir Liling, gravestone, New Jewish Cemetery, Stropkov (photo 2003) | JewishGen JOWBR | J_SLOVAKIA_0004232 |
| K1 | Aron Kohn (Montreal), Ancestry trees "Mayer Hofstadter Nowy Wisnicz" (502 people), "Hofstadter Family Wisnica", "Kohn - Rosenfeld" and others; GEDCOM exports and gallery images, 23 Sep 2026 — incl. photographs of Zev Wolf and Reisel (shared by Davya Cohen 2021), Beila Stechler, and gravestones at Putte, Antwerp, Vienna, New York and Florida | Family archive (compiled tree, grade C; stones grade A) | — |
| — | Beila (Bajle) Stechler née Hofstädter, b. 18 Mar 1888 Leksandrowa: 1939 German minority census, Berlin-Mitte; Isser Stechler, b. 1916 Wiśnicz: Palestine naturalisation application, 1946 | Ancestry collections, via Kohn | — |
| O1 | Goldie Winfield née Liling, recorded telephone interview with Zevi Hofstatter, c. 2016, 49 min 53 s; transcript 2026 | Family archive (oral history, grade C) | — |
| — | KZ-Außenlager Augsburg-Michelwerke (Dachau subcamp): c. 500 Hungarian Jewish women from Płaszów/Auschwitz, 7 Sep 1944 – Apr 1945; Michel-Werke, Ulmer Str. 160, Kriegshaber; evacuated via Dachau and Mühldorf; liberated Seeshaupt 30 Apr 1945 | Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte, Dachau subcamp list; Stadtlexikon Augsburg; KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau; L. Bitton-Jackson, I Have Lived a Thousand Years | HdBG list |
| D35 | Bentzion Hofstatter, burial record and gravestone, Springvale Adass Cemetery, Melbourne | JewishGen JOWBR | J_AUSTRALI_0005906 |
| D33 | Lenka Golde Liya Hellingerová, deportation list Poprad→Auschwitz 3 Apr 1942 | Yad Vashem | 14759863 |
| R001 | Nachim Hofstatter marriage, Nowy Wiśnicz 1841, act 6 (scan supplied by Howard Fink, 2018) | Family archive; original at ANK Kraków 29/4076/0 | — |
| R003–R011 | Nine Nowy Wiśnicz register scans from Howard Fink (WeTransfer, May 2018): births of Jakob 1881 act 130, Chane Malke 1883 act 152, Sare 1886 act 3, Nachim 1892 act 42, Isser 1894 act 115, Temerla 1897 act 27, Selig 1899 act 89; death of Lemel 1892 act 4; marriage of Wolf & Reisel 1904 act 42 | Family archive; originals at ANK Kraków 29/4076/0 | — |
| R002 | Maier Hofstätter death, 30 Sep 1868, entry 1018, age 82, marasmus (scan supplied by Howard Fink) | Family archive; original at ANK Kraków | — |
| I1, I2 | Nowy Wiśnicz USC (1900–1942) and PSA (1814–1906) index extracts, Howard Fink and Aron Kohn, JRI-Poland | Family archive; personal-use terms | — |
| C1 | Hofstatter chart, Howard Fink | Family archive | — |
| D1 | Rachel Bark née Berliner, Claims Conference questionnaire, 7 pages, first-person account | Family archive; private | — |
| — | Nowy Wiśnicz Jewish deaths index book 1919–1942 (Yaakov, 1933, page 50 record 3) | Gesher Galicia; State Archive Tarnów fond 276 sygn. 81 | search.geshergalicia.org |
| — | Fonds 29/4076/0, Akta stanu cywilnego Izraelickiego Okręgu Metrykalnego w Wiśniczu, 1814–1942, 29 units | Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie | szukajwarchiwach |
Open questions
What is still being looked for, and who has been asked.
Aron Kohn's trees — eight questions. Whether he has anything before Meyer (Nachem, house 6, Nosson Nota); the Tarnów Lemel (his son of Meyer b. 1829 vs. the Lemel fathering children in 1817); Nochem's 1856 son (Isak or Jacob) and Nochem's second family; Wolf's death (1932 vs. 1928), Mindel's (1942 vs. 1940), Gitel Forscher's (1909 vs. 1906); his sources for the Tarnów-ghetto deaths; living contacts in Antwerp, Vienna and Ramat Gan; and who Davya Cohen is, who holds the originals of Wolf's and Reisel's photographs.
The four sisters' camp records. The Dachau memorial confirmed to Zevi that three Liling girls were transferred to Dachau; Arolsen should hold Dachau/Augsburg-Michelwerke cards for Freida, Gizela, Edith, Goldie and Rivka Liling, and Auschwitz/Buchenwald records for Ber Eliezer (Laser). Also wanted: Etel Malka's husband's name, and the Kassa 1944 ghetto and deportation lists for the Bethlen körút household.
Meir Liling — close the link. Goldie named him as her grandfather, so the Stropkov stone is Moshe's father; no record yet names both men. Moshe's 1887 birth entry (Roztoky) and Meir's 1936 death entry (Stropkov) are with the Svidník branch of the Prešov archive; either will settle it and may name Meir's wife. Then: photograph the stone afresh and look for Sara Lea's beside it.
Nachim's family after February 1941. Nachim, Ewa, Rosa and Mina Hofstätter entered the Kraków ghetto; Lea reached Stutthof in 1944 as "Lolla Brandys". The originals — the 1940 registration forms with photographs, the Kennkarte files, the Stutthof card and the Czechoslovak deportation list naming Nachman and Selig — were requested from USHMM on 22 Sep 2026. Then: Yad Vashem, Arolsen and the post-war survivor registers for Lea. Can anyone in the family remember an uncle in Kraków?
Yehudis (Jolana) Hofstatter's video testimony, USC Shoah Foundation interview 45352, recorded in Jerusalem in English. Her own account of hiding around Prešov and, presumably, of Bentzion and Nathan's arrival. Ask Yankel whether the family holds a copy; otherwise request it from USC Shoah Foundation or view it at USHMM.
Where Esther Hinda was buried. Her death at Shidrovo on 13 April 1941 is now documented; the burial place is not. Letters sent 22 Sep 2026 to the IPN (full source cards for all fourteen family entries in the Indeks Represjonowanych) and to KARTA (memoirs of Szydrowo and the burial grounds used in 1941). Direct requests to the Arkhangelsk police archive and civil registry are drafted but held.
Nathan's 1962 Arolsen tracing file (case 862.442) and Rachel's and Fishel's (953.433, 953.454). Inquiries 2026-09-17-60239 and 60243; replies take months.
Wiśnicz deaths 1827–1853 and the earlier books of residents. Digitisation or a paid search for Hofstätter and Obstfeld entries asked of Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie, 21 Sep 2026; Howard Fink is checking the Obstfeld family.
Who owned house 6 in 1788 and 1820. The Josephine and Franciscan cadastres for Wiśnicz Nowy, in the Lviv archive. Quote requested from Pamięć Bliskich.
Australian naturalisation files. Nathan and Gizela (NAA B78 1957/HOFSTATTER N and G), Bentzion, Jolana, Eva and Vera (B78 1956/HOFSTATTER B, J, E, V) and Etela Hellinger — not digitised; copies need a free RecordSearch account.
When exactly did Rabbi Rubin take the boys to Slovakia? Between the German entry on 8 Sep 1939 and the march to Bochnia on 21–22 Aug 1942. Mindel's death act (Jan 1940 in the register, Jan 1942 on Nathan's Page of Testimony) is the hinge: she was alive when they left. The Rubin family of Los Angeles and Yehudis's testimony are the living sources.
Was Laia Obstfelder (d. Feb 1822, house 6) Nachem's wife? If so, Meyer's mother was an Obstfeld, and Nochem's daughter Laje (1875) carries her name. Wiśnicz Obstfeld records are the test.
Nachem's father — Nosson Nota? Both Wolf and Meyer named sons Nathan (1837, 1843). Nothing before the 1787 surname adoption survives in Wiśnicz; the Lubomirski estate papers and the Bochnia kahal records are the only hope.
Two Wiśnicz Hofstetters without parents. Benzion (b. 15 Feb 1883, Vienna, died Łódź ghetto 1942) and the Majers born 1879 and 1885 who were in Kraków in 1940. Sons of Nochem's second family, or of Nathan (b. 1843)?
Chana Feiga Morgenstern née Friedman. Did she reach Eretz Yisrael, and where is she buried? Nothing found yet in Israeli burial or immigration indexes; IGRA and the Central Zionist Archives need a logged-in search.
Aron and Sheina Bark after 1949. Fishel wrote that his parents came to America with them. Ship manifest, New York death index and cemetery to confirm.
Moshe Liling's mother: Sara Lea, or née Honig? Stropkov and Svidník registers on FamilySearch; the Košice state archive has been asked.
Rubin Schöngut and Izaak Drenger. The family's regular witness at the Leksandrowa brissen and the witness to the 1904 legitimisation — relatives? JRI-Poland search pending a login.
Zaidy Nathan's recorded interviews (five recordings, 2017 and 2023, in Yiddish) still to be transcribed and indexed against the records.
Descendants
Everyone descended from the four founding couples, by branch.
Living people are listed by name only, with no dates or places; married names are in brackets. The dead carry their dates. The lists come from the family's Geni tree (September 2026), the civil registers and the memorial records; a branch that is short is short because nobody has sent its names yet — see how to add yours. Branches marked in red were cut off in the Shoah.
About this record
What this is, who keeps it, and how to add your branch.
What it is. A single documented record of four families — the Hofstatters of Nowy Wiśnicz, the Lilings and Honigs of Stropkov and Košice, the Barks of Długosiodło, and the Berliners and Morgensterns of Myszyniec — kept for all of their descendants. It is not one person's ancestry. Every branch that descends from the founding couples belongs here on the same footing, and the generations are counted from the founders down, not from any reader up.
Who keeps it. Compiled and edited by Mordechai Zev (Zevi) Hofstatter, Lakewood, New Jersey, from September 2026, with the help of the people credited below. An accountable editor is what keeps a family record honest: every fact on the site carries a source and an evidence grade, conflicts are shown rather than smoothed over, and anything not yet proven is labelled as such.
The rules. Grade A means an original record image was seen; B an index or professional extract; C family knowledge or a secondary source. Living people appear by name and relationship only — no dates of birth, addresses, documents or photographs of the living without their consent. The dead are given their dates, their places, their records and, where the family holds them, their pictures. Private papers (the Claims Conference questionnaire, birth certificates, the kvittel, passports, DP-camp cards) are described, never reproduced.
Add your branch. If you descend from any of these families and your line is missing, thin or wrong, write to zevih99@gmail.com with: the names of your line back to the ancestor you share; dates and places for those who have died; and any photographs, documents, gravestone pictures or stories. Say which living names may be published. Corrections are as welcome as additions — a record that cannot be corrected is not worth keeping.
With thanks to Howard Fink (JRI-Poland, Nowy Wiśnicz), Aron Kohn, Phyllis Rosner, Steve Orelowitz, Yumi Rosenbaum, Benzion London, Iwona Zawidzka (Muzeum Bochnia), Gabriel Szeghy (Archív mesta Košice), the Rubin family of Los Angeles, Chani and Robi Hofstatter, Annie Bark Hofstatter, and the archives and databases whose work this rests on: Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie, Arolsen Archives, Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, JewishGen and JOWBR, JRI-Poland, Gesher Galicia, the National Archives of Australia, the Štátny archív v Košiciach and the Prešov/Svidník archive.
Research log
How the record was built.
- 23 Sep 2026
Aron Kohn of Montreal opens his Ancestry trees. From them: photographs of Zev Wolf and Reisel Federgrün — the oldest faces on the record; Meyer's second wife named as Sara Pitzele; Beinisch's ten children and their descendants traced to Vienna, Antwerp, New York, Illinois and Israel, with gravestones at Putte, the Zentralfriedhof and Brooklyn; the "Benzion b. 1882" of the Shoah table placed as Nathan Nuta's son; Meyer's sons Israel and Nathan followed to New York and Radomyśl; the Tarnów branch of Lemel and Dine Keller; Beila Stechler found in Berlin in 1939 and her son Isser in Palestine in 1946. Chapters 2 and 4, the trees, the Descendants and People pages updated.
- 23 Sep 2026
Goldie Winfield's recorded interview (c. 2016) transcribed by Zevi and worked into the record: she names her grandfather Meir Liling and Roztoky; identifies Laser (Ber Eliezer Dov), Jakob's labour-service death and his widow Rivka, Etel Malka and her baby on the ramp; gives the sisters' route Birkenau – Płaszów – Augsburg – Seeshaupt and the Kassa addresses. The Augsburg camp identified as the Dachau subcamp at the Michel-Werke (electrical parts for Messerschmitt); Bethlen körút = Kuzmányho, Hunyadi utca = Timonova/Galenova. Chapters 6 and 8, the People, Shoah and Places pages updated.
- 2016–2023
Howard Fink (JRI-Poland, Nowy Wiśnicz area coordinator) supplies the PSA and USC extracts, his Hofstatter chart, and scans of Nochem's 1841 marriage and Meyer's 1868 death.
- Jan 2019
Iwona Zawidzka, Muzeum Bochnia, confirms no surviving Hofstatter gravestone in Wiśnicz.
- 17 Sep 2026
Arolsen: Nathan's 1949 AJDC card, Rachel's and Fishel's DP cards, and the two 1949 IRO transport lists located. Yad Vashem: Nathan's and Gizela's Pages of Testimony for their parents, Bentzion's dedications for his four sisters, the Liling family Pages. Mindel's maiden name corrected to Schmeidler from the register extracts; her parents named. Yaakov and Mindel's eight children listed in full. Nachem (c. 1752–1822, house 6) identified as Meyer's father from naming patterns and the house number. Fishel's birthplace resolved as Długosiodło. Inquiries sent to Arolsen, ANK Kraków, Muzeum Bochnia, Howard Fink and Pamięć Bliskich.
- 17 Sep 2026
Howard Fink's 2018 WeTransfer recovered from Google Drive: nine original register scans for Wolf and Reisel's family. Jakob's exact birth (24 Nov 1881, Leksandrowa 49), the 1904 civil marriage naming Wolf's parents Nuchem and Chana, Reisel's parents the tavern-keepers Isser and Gittla Federgrün, the ninth child Lemel (d. 1892 aged 2), and the first Bobover Rebbe as Jakob's sandek. Chani's Morgenstern, Bark and Rosenberg charts received and read; Geni tree cross-referenced (Mindel Barber/Schmeidler resolved; Aryeh Dovid's parents; the Stropkov Liling cousins).
- 17 Sep 2026
The Dukla branch: Arye Leib Hofstedter, shochet of Dukla, son of Eliezer Aharon, identified as Sandy Hofstedter's grandfather; the 1966 Pressburg death notice in the family papers recognised as his brother Chaim Tzvi. The Matel Hofstedter memorial record reassigned from our line to the Toronto family.
- 21 Sep 2026
Original pages read: the 1822 deaths (Nachem, 70, house 6, beside Laia Obstfelder, 65) and the 1880 Book of Residents, house 63 — Nochem's household of nine. NAA: the two families' arrival in Melbourne on the Surriento, February 1950. The NKVD card file for Arkhangelsk: the whole Bark and Berliner households at Shidrovo from 9 July 1940, Esther's death 13 April 1941, Fishel's parents Aron and Sheina named. Zaidy Bark's handwritten account transcribed. Košice city archive: no Liling in the domicile registers; Gizela's 1947 file ordered.
- 23 Sep 2026
The record reframed for all descendants: four family panels on the Overview, generations counted from the founders, a Descendants page built from the family's Geni tree (132 profiles exported 22 Sep) and the registers, an About page with the rules and how to add a branch, a tree control that highlights any person's line to the founder, and the closing chapter rewritten around every branch. Geni supplied three more surviving daughters of Moshe and Rochel Liling — Freida Schonfeld, Edith Grunfeld, Goldie Winfield — and Moshe's brother Jacob, who died in New York in 1921.
- 22 Sep 2026 (night)
JRI-Poland and JewishGen searched with a logged-in account. Two gravestones found in the JewishGen burial registry: Bentzion Hofstatter, Springvale Adass, Melbourne, d. 19 Nisan 5727 (29 Apr 1967) — parents Yaakov and Mindel on the stone; and R' Meir Liling son of R' Yaakov, Stropkov, d. 28 Av 5696 (Aug 1936) — a new generation on the Liling line. Index finds: Isser Federgrün d. 1894 (act 83) and Gitla d. 1898 (act 19); Nathan of Tarnów (the 1925 stone) d. aged 88, son of Wolf Beer, Meyer's brother; Pinkus's wife Ester Lieberman and his sons' Kraków birth acts; Dresel née Wohlman; Beinisch's wife Gittel née Vorscher d. 1906; a Nuchem and a Brajndul Hoffstätter in the Kraków cemetery register. Full list in the project file JRI_JewishGen_Search_2026-09-22.
- 22 Sep 2026
Second pages of the seven 1881–1899 register scans read (witnesses, mohels, midwives, the 1904 legitimisation notes; Reisel's egg-and-butter trade). Gesher Galicia and the USHMM database searched directly: Nachim's family in Kraków 1940–41 with a third daughter, Mina; Lea at Stutthof in 1944; uncle Pinkas expelled from Kraków; Majer son of Beinisch died Stanisławów 1938; Benzion b. 1883 died Łódź 1942; and Yehudis Hofstatter's Shoah Foundation testimony located. Letters sent to the IPN and KARTA on Shidrovo; USHMM document request drafted.
- 20 Sep 2026
Photographs from the family's August 2023 visit to Nowy Wiśnicz with the Rubin family of Los Angeles added: the cemetery board, gate, memorial to the murdered community, and the ohel of Rabbi Naftali Rubin — the rabbi who officiated at Wolf and Reisel's 1904 marriage. The story chapters written. The family\'s account of Yaakov\'s deathbed oath and the flight to Slovakia with Rabbi Rubin\'s son, corroborated by the Rubin family, recorded (Family_Oral_Histories).