Carol Harter of Claremont, Ca writes: <I've been told that my grandmother, Rosa
WALDES and her siblings, Anna, Max, Julius, and Ottokar were born in Linz in
the late 1800s. According to family story, the parents of these children were
Sigmund and Agnes WALDES >from what is now the Czech Republic.

Thanks to a second cousin, a grandson of Max, I know he and his wife
died in the early 1940s and are buried in Vienna. The internet has a listing
for Julius in the same cemetery. But none of our remaining family members
knows anything about this family before the early 1900s when Rosa and, a
little later, Anna came to America. How can I find information about this
family's history?>

Welcome to our SIG Carol; I suspect you are a new member. We really have a
problem here in an old-established group that knows the ropes! We cannot go
over the same ground over and over again, so I will give Carol a ring and tell
her what to do! May I suggest as a starter that all our new Siggers read:
Beginner's Guide to Austrian Jewish Genealogy:

http://www.jewishgen.org/austriaczech/ausguide.htm

There is a vast amount of data to follow up available on the internet re the
WALDES family most probably >from Czernowitz, Bukowina, not the Czech Republic.

Burials in Austria:

Zentralfriedhof Tor IV 20 12 27 [Vienna]
WALDES Aloisia age 68 died 05.04.1942
WALDES Max age 66 died 10.12.1940

WALDES Julius age 67 died 3.11.1939 Zentralfriedhof Tor IV 20a 19 12

WALDES Josefa 22.10.1918 Waidhofen/Thaya 6 4

Ottakar WALDES had an asset file deposited after April 1938 - dob Ottokar 14
October 1881. This can be ordered >from the Staatsarchiv, Vienna.

The biggest clue however comes >from Letter to the Stars
http://www.lettertothestars.at/

where two schoolboys have researched Ottakar's family who died in the
holocaust. It would be a very nice gesture to contact them: Michael Redl and
Dominik Rohrbock - tehn in class 4A, HS {Hochschule] Vitis

They want to the WALDES family to be remembered and brought back to life;
namely Ottokar WALDES and his wife Pauline nee SPITZ and their daughter
Gertrude. Ottokar was born on 14.10.1881 in Czernowitz, Romania. He was
Oberinspektor at the railways. Pauline was born on 16.09.1886 in Vitis, N.O.
[Lower Austria]. She was the sister of Emma HAHN nee SPITZ who also died in
the holocaust....

The Todeserklarung [death declaration, which can be ordered] of Ottokar can be
found at the Wiener Stadt und Landesarchiv 48T1311/47. Their daughter Gertrude
appears to have survived outside Austria. We may find out her whereabouts from
these death declarations.

On Yad Vashem you will find many POTs for this family network written in 1955
by Therese SCHLESINGER in Israel. Therese, I suspect was nee HAHN but there is
a big mix-up on the POT with the relationships. She knows little about Paula
WALDES so she cannot be her sister. She also says Otto [Ottakar] was born in
Linz, but I tend to believe the data >from the Vienna archives where they state
he was born in Czernowitz. There is always the possibility that Sigmund WALDES,
the father of Ottakar was also an employee on the Austrian Railways or
elsewhere] and was stationed in Czernowitz when Ottakar was born.

Yad vashem: WALDES extended family victims we remember here today: [year of
birth given]

HAHN Emma 1888
WALDES Wien 1886 [this is Paula]
SCHLESINGER Bertha Horn N.O. Austria 1893
SCHLESINGER Johanna Horn 1885
SCHWARZ Lina Graz Steiermark, Austria 1882
SCHLESINGER Stockerau N.O. 1877
WALDES Otto Wien 1881
HAHN Eduard Gross Weikersdorf, N.O. Austria 1883

There are also two listings in the Vienna phone book for 1933 for:

Otto WALDES; Verlag der Volkswirtschaft, Bratislava-Wien; Bergasse 16 Wien IX
WALDES und Co; Metallwarenfabrik [Depot] WipplingerStr 17, Wien I.

One would have to research these to see if they belong to the same family.

Celia Male [U.K.]

Footnote: Carol has listed the name WALDES, [Linz] on the JGFF. There you will
also find Albert Brookenthal, researching the same family. I assume he is the
descendant of Max referred to above. Although this name has been registered
since 2002, we have never had any query about it on our SIG before. It is
always best to follow up a JGFF registration with a query on the appropriate
SIG.