I was reading the catalogue >from the Jewish museum of Vienna exhibit of a
few years ago on the author Richard BEER-HOFMANN and wondering again on the
legend in my family that my grandfather Eric ZEISL was somehow related to
BEER-HOFMANN. In the various short descriptions next to the family
portraits of Beer-Hofmann's family members I found a clue. Richard's
adoptive father was Alois Hofmann, the "cousin" of Richard's father
Hermann Beer. In the description of Alois Hofmann it says that in
1808 the family had acquired a site for the erection of a cloth factory
">from the Lomnitz estate"

Now Lomnitz (Lomnice) is a town I have been looking at because it
is very near to Rassoch (Rozsochy) the birthplace of my gg-grandfather
Emanuel ZEISL. Although the Jewish records for Lomnice no longer exist,
the entry on Lomnitz in Hugo Gold's book on Moravia (based on a history
written by Michael ZEISEL) has a great many details including a list of
all the Jewish families who lived in Lomnice in the first half of
the 19th century. See

http://www.jewishgen.org/austriaczech/towns/lomnice.htm.

About 25% of the 140 families listed include a spouse named ZEISEL or ZEISL.
So Lomnice figures to be the birthplace of a large ZEISL/ZEISEL clan that
would include my gg-grandfather Emanuel. I have suspected that my
gg-grandfather's family is listed in the article as

115. Moses (Mosche) Zeisel, mercery.
His wife Idel.
Children: David, Berl, Emanuel, Gittl (Fischer), Liebe (Schmeidler).

With the new Beer-Hofmann information in hand, I looked again at the list
of families and found these interesting entries which revealed further
information about the BEER-HOFMANN family:

12. H. (Herz) Beer (Radomuehl), destiller of spirits.
His second wife Chaile, borne Hofmann.
Sons: Gobrisch and Simon.

39. Gerson (Gerschon) Hofman, manufacturer in cloth.
His wife Feigele, daughter of Josef Koenig >from Myslice.
Children: Abraham, Wolf (blind) died, Berl and Chaile Beer Radomuehl.

40. Abraham Hofman, grocery shop, Factory of woolen goods.
His wife Anna Beer, daughter of Herz Radmuehl.
Children: Alois and Agnes Beer.

There was also at least one Zeisel-Hofmann connection

101. Israel (Kasriel) Wohlmuth, destiller.
His wife Perl, borne Hofmann.
Children: Mosche, Klaerl (Bass), Chailer (Wassertrilling), Rachel (Engler),
Mirl (Zeisl), Fradl (Skutetzki).

from the second marriage: Wolf and Pepi.

116. Abraham Zeisel, various occupations.
His wife Mirl, borne Wohlmuth >from Bodenstadt.
Children: Getzl, Kasriel, Gerschon, Leib, Perl Kreinndl, Liese and Katti.

So, while not establishing any direct connection, I do now have
confirmation that the ancestors of Richard BEER-HOFFMAN came >from Lomnice,
a town where at least 25% of the families were connected to the
ZEISL/ZEISEL family.

As an aside, the level of interrelationship in the BEER-HOFMANN family is
staggering. Richard's mother died shortly after he was born and he was
raised by his mother's sister, who was married to his father's uncle,
so his paternal family tree looks like this:

1 Josef KOENIG
b. Mislitz, Moravia
| 1.1 Feigele Fanny KOENIG
| & Gershon HOFMANN
| | 1.1.1 Katherina Chaile HOFMANN
| | & Herz Naftali Radomuehl BEER
| | | 1.1.1.1 Anna Nanette BEER
| | | & Abraham Albert HOFMANN
| | | | 1.1.1.1.1 Alois HOFMANN
| | | | & Berta STOECKERL
| | | | | 1.1.1.1.1.1 Richard BEER-HOFMANN
| | | | | b. 11 Jul 1866, Vienna, Austria
| | | | | d. 26 Sep 1945, New York, N.Y.
| | | | | & Paula LISSY
| | | | 1.1.1.1.2 Agnes HOFMANN
| | | 1.1.1.2 Simon BEER
| | | 1.1.1.3a Hermann Gobrisch BEER*
| | | & Rosa STOECKERL
| | | | 1.1.1.3a.1 Richard BEER-HOFMANN
| | | | b. 11 Jul 1866, Vienna, Austria
| | | | d. 26 Sep 1945, New York, N.Y.
| | | | & Paula LISSY
| | | 1.1.1.3b Hermann Gobrisch BEER*
| | | & Rosa GOLDSTEIN
| | 1.1.2 Wolf HOFMANN
| | 1.1.3 Berl HOFMANN
| | 1.1.4 Abraham Albert HOFMANN
| | & Anna Nanette BEER
| | | 1.1.4.1 Alois HOFMANN
| | | & Berta STOECKERL
| | | | 1.1.4.1.1 Richard BEER-HOFMANN
| | | | b. 11 Jul 1866, Vienna, Austria
| | | | d. 26 Sep 1945, New York, N.Y.
| | | | & Paula LISSY
| | | 1.1.4.2 Agnes HOFMANN


Note that to match the information form the Zeisel article in the Gold book
with the information in the catalogue form the Jewish Museum of Vienna I
have guessed to combine some of the German and Hebrew names where it seemed
to make sense, i.e. Fanny Koenig = Feigele Koenig. Abraham Hofmann =
Albert Hofmann. Katharina Hofmann = Chaile Hofmann. Some are bit of
a stretch, ie. Hermann Beer = Gobrisch Beer. Herz Beer = Naftali Beer.
The Zeisel article has Anna Beer being the daughter of Herz Beer,
while the JMW book has Anna as the daughter of Naftali Beer. I have
guessed these were the same, although the Zeisel article says that
Chaile Hofmann was Herz Beer's second wife. It is possible that Chaile
was previously married to Naftali Beer and then married Herz Beer who
adopted her daughter Anna. But I prefer the solution that Naftali and Herz
were one and the same. (Coincidentally, the Hatikvah was composed by
Naftali Herz Imber, so the names have been known to go together.)

Randy Schoenberg
Los Angeles