The Padawer Kohen branch of my friend appears suspiciously similar to Dan
Rottenberg's "Finding Our Fathers" book's description of the name Padawer
"French family whose name is derived >from Padua, Italy, its original home.
The family later migrated to Poland before moving to France." She's only two
generations French but she did talk of Padawer relatives having moved to
Polish Galicia. She said that the family in Italy lived in Padua and was
descended >from the Maharam MiPadua. Her Italian side she said was exclusively
Ashkenazic Italian. I don't know if she means just not Sephardic Italian or
if she means the Ashkenazic community that migrated south to Italy. She may not
know of the three division Italian system of Ashkenazic, Sehardic and Original
Italian. She also may not know of any Sephardim who may have leaked into her
family in the more distant past on her family tree if any did. I am the main
investigator for her. My problem is I don't know Dan Rottenberg's source or
have at least his email address to try and investigate if there is a link.
Yisrael Asper
yisraelasper@comcast.net
Pittsburgh PA