Hi,

I am researching  a distant cousin, Samuel Brown (aka Braun) HaCohen who immigrated to the US circa 1846 from somewhere in Germany. I have only two pieces of evidence providing any detail on where in Germany he came from: 1) there is an 1870 US Census record showing his birthplace as "Bavaria, Germany", and 2) there is fact posted to Samuel's famiysearch.org profile stating that his 'Residence' (no year given) was "Altonshonbach, Germany"; this was posted by a family genealogist who is now deceased and there is no source given for the Residence fact (NB: as shown on the attached, the Residence fact was added on the same day as information about Samuel's father "Kulman Braun", and mother, "Keyle or Kehla Reiss", so I presume the Residence fact was connected to the same source as the parent's names, which is also not cited). Samuel Brown's grave is known and has been photographed but there is no Hebrew writing on the grave and no information in English regarding his parents or birthplace on the monument.

The question I am posing is: does anyone know of an Altonshonbach in Bavaria, Germany? If so, could you please provide some frame of reference so I may find it on a map?

Thanks for your attention and help.

Adam Cherson
NY, NY
MODERATOR NOTE: Please reply privately

The first place to look for any mysterious town, village or place in Germany is Meyers Gazeteer.

https://www.meyersgaz.org 

Eva Lawrence

St Albans, UK.

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Eva Lawrence
St Albans, UK.

Dear Mr. Cherson,
probably Altenschönbach was meant
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altensch%C3%B6nbach
Here som notes about the Jewish life there http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/altenschoenbach_synagoge.htm
Best regards
Wolfgang Fritzsche, prof. Genealogist, Germany

Adam,
To find obscure German towns and villages, I use the late Dr Michael Rademacher's Ortsbuch which has been restored to the web at: https://treemagic.org/rademacher/www.verwaltungsgeschichte.de/ortsbuch39.html
All the place names beginning with "Alt" are listed at:
https://treemagic.org/rademacher/www.verwaltungsgeschichte.de/ortsbuchal.html
and the best match for your "Altonshonbach" whould have to be Altenschönbach in kreis Gerolzhofen, Bavaria.
It is roughly midway between Wurzburg and Bamberg. You should be able to find it on google maps.
The village has its own web site, and even has several pages on its Jewish community:
http://www.altenschoenbach.de/unsere-juedische-gemeinde/
There is brief mention of Kalmann Sandel Braun.

I hope this helps,
Rodney Eisfelder
Melbourne, Australia

I found a town named Altenschoenbach not far from Nuremberg. Maybe that’s the town you are looking for. Nowadays it is not in Bavaria but in Baden Wuerttemberg.

Regards
Norma Klein

There is an article about the Jewish community of Altenschoenbach (1814-1942) in Yad Vashem's Pinkas Hakehillot - Germany - Bavaria, page 401.  It was in the district of Gerolzhofen,
Suzanne Erlanger
Petach Tikvah, Israel