Peter Strauss of Oakland, California wrote: "Seeking any information anyone
might have about William Elisha KOLBER, of Graz, Austria, or his twin brother
Sam(uel). They were born in 1882.

There was a (younger?) brother, Joseph, and a sister, F(r?)annie. Sam
never married, and lived in Harvey, Illinois. Joseph married Lena,
maiden name unknown.

They became COLBERT sometime between leaving Graz and settling in
Chicago. We think they came here in 1892."

Welcome to our SIG Peter; I leave the Chicago side post-1892, to others. I will
look at the past history, so first I will pick up at the last remark. "They
became COLBERT sometime between leaving Graz and settling in Chicago".

There are three COLBERT/KOLBERT buried in Vienna

KOLBERT Bertha age 59 died 13.10.1941 Zentralfriedhof Gate IV, Gp 20E Row 2
grave 10
KOLBERT Jeno born 19.11.1869 age 4 died 0.06.1873 Wahringer Friedhof 7 1145

COLBERT Klara buried 19.11.1911 Zentralfriedhof Gate I. Gp 19 Row 56 Grave 36

but not a single COLBER or KOLBER and there are *no burials* in Graz.

Furthermore there are still KOLBER[T] in Austria in April 1938 - as these had
asset files [dates of birth given], which can be ordered:

KOLBER Hermann 25 May 1899
Viktor 7 May 1912
Hans 9 June 1899

KOLBERT Bertha 11 Aug 1882
Julius 2 Oct. 1886

I have an instinctive feeling that this may be one of these changed Hungarian
names: it occurs frequently [29] in the Radix index of Hungarian Businesses and
may have been KOHN: http://www.radixindex.com/databases/rx001/rx001sxk.shtml

This hunch was amazingly born out by the first Yad Vashem POT I looked at:
Ferdinand KOLBERT >from Aussig, {Usti N.L. Bohemia}. His granddaughter >from the
US writes *very clearly* that his name was really COHEN!

However checking on Yad vashem there are very few COLBERT KOLBERT [mainly from
Austria]. One Vienna-born Ernst COLBERT {20 Nov 1891] was a holocaust victim.

However, there were many KOLBER victims >from Galicia. Whether these Galician
KOLBER were originally KOHN before they took family names, I do not know. The
Hungarian name changes would have been 100 years later. We remember all these
victims here today - whatever their names.

Peter will obviously have to try and find out where his family originated from
via the Graz archives - http://www.jewishgen.org/austriaczech/ausguide.htm

or if he fancies a trip to Moscow he will find these Graz file there [taken to
Moscow in the War - perhaps they have already been returned?]

RG 709, Israelitische Kultusgemeinde, Graz [Jewish Community, Graz] 45 files

from the years 1871-1938

RG 710, Krankenbesuchs- und Unterstuetzungsverein, Graz [Bikkur Holim (Visiting
the Sick) and Aid Society, Graz] 22 files >from the years 1919-1938

RG 711, Juedische Verbindung 'Charitas', Graz [Jewish "Charitas" Society, Graz]
29 files >from the years 1908-1938

see: http://www.research.co.il/moscow.html

Had I not researched this subject, I would never have come across this archive
listed on the www. We will all have to look at it very carefully. >from my own
family history experience, I have had some dramatic finds via returned Moscow
files on Vienna Freemasons.

Celia Male [U.K.]