Reconnecting with Pears and Bears in London

The small Ukrainian shtetl of Medzhybizh is largely known today for being the birthplace of the Chasidism movement and the final resting place of its founder, the Baal Shem Tov. It is also one of my ancestral towns - the place where my great-grandmother, Sarah Birnberg Telles - was born. Their surname was Birnberg [Бирнберг] or Berenberg [Беренберг] or Birenberg [Биренберг] or possibly Bernberg [Бернберг].The name appears in English records in so many varieties that some folks have questioned if I'm making it up. Birnberg means "Pear Mountain" (in German) while Berenberg means "Bear Mountain" (in Dutch). I think pears are more likely than bears in this case!

Meyer Birnberg had at least six children between 1860 and 1893 when my great-grandmother Sarah was born. In 1910, Sarah came to the US following in the footsteps of her brothers/half-brothers Nathan (who came in 1901), Edel Leib (who came in 1905), and Louis (who came in 1906).^1,2 But while much of the family came to the US, her older brother Joseph immigrated to and settled in London. He and his wife Rachel had five girls, each of whom had families of their own.

My New York-based family remained in contact with this branch of the family into the 1960s and even hosted one cousin, Brenda, when she first moved to the US in the 1960s. Thanks to my mother's impeccable records, I found Brenda's married name in the invitation list to my parents' wedding in 1965. Sadly, when Sarah's generation passed on, the remaining family members did not maintain those connections. In fact, beyond Brenda we really didn’t know anything at all about the family – not even the names of Joseph’s daughters.

When I became interested in genealogy in the late 1990s, I contacted Brenda. She was so wonderful to speak with, regaling me with stories of her exciting life in the most wonderful lilting accent. Unfortunately, her promises to provide me with the names and dates needed to flesh out the family tree and connect with others never materialized. She did mention her nephew’s name to me (let’s call him "Ronald" for the sake of anonymity), but never even told me what his surname was! Eventually I lost track of Brenda as she moved from one assisted living facility to another.

Several years ago, I decided to track down the family. First, I spent time with the 1911 England Census, finding a few promising candidates for my Joseph Birnberg. Bingo! I found a record with six daughters³. Then I traced the families of each of the daughters, hoping to find records of Brenda to verify conclusively that it was the right family. 

1911 census record of Joseph Birnberg and his family
Class: RG14; Piece: 1509; Title: 1911 England Census. Downloaded from Ancestry.com Aug 2024

It took some time, but with online birth, marriage, death, and burial records I was able to flesh out the whole family tree. I took the following steps: 

• Noted the names of each of the daughters and their approximate dates of birth, keeping in mind variations in given names (e.g., Leah, Lily, and Lilian could all be the same person)
• Confirmed the years of birth using the online "England & Wales Civil Registration Birth Index"
• Identified marriage records for each of the daughters to determine dates of marriages and married names in the "England & Wales Civil Registration Marriage Index."
• Identified the children of each of the daughters by searching the birth index, filtering by "Mother's Maiden Name."
• Located likely death records in the "England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index."
• Verified information with any additional records I could find, including online probate records and photos of headstones that indicate the father's name (via "Find a Grave", for instance). Joseph Birnberg's headstone indicates his father was Meyer, as expected.

Eventually, this allowed me to find records for the extended family, including Brenda, her sister, and her sister’s son "Ronald." It was confirmed; I had successfully identified the English branch of my great-grandmother’s family! Now to track down “Ronald” to get back in touch. Facebook? No go. But LinkedIn had several people with the right name, right places, and approximately the right ages. I reached out to each of them privately with a message I hoped would convince them I wasn’t trying to scam them. You could imagine how excited I was when one of them wrote back to say he was the right one!

Brenda sadly passed away recently, but I was able to speak to her 97-year-old sister last year, my mother's second-cousin. This week, following a work trip to England, I was thrilled to meet “Ronald,” my third-cousin, as well as his son. They showed me and my wife parts of the city we might never have gone to! We did not find a "Bear and Pear" pub, but maybe we will next time. I’d like to think that Sarah and Joseph Birnberg are smiling that the family has been reunited after a century. 

"The Bear and the Pear Pub"
Courtesy of DALL-E 3

1 Another brother, Jacob Birnberg, allegedly went to Argentina and worked with horses. However, I’ve found no records of that. I’ve contacted every Birnberg in Argentina, and we are not related as far as I’ve been able to determine. Many Jews immigrated to South America, supported in part by the JCA/ICA. Perhaps Jacob went to Brazil instead!

2. It is likely that all of the siblings shared a father but may have had different mothers. It isn't clear what the half-sibling relationships were, though. Many genealogical records from Medzhybizh were destroyed in a fire in 2003, so we may never know. 

3. The 1911 census record indicates that Joseph and Rachel had another child who died before 1911. I've been unable to determine their name, although the England & Wales Civil Registration Birth and Death Indexes has a few candidates. Sadly, one of the daughters listed on this census, Golda, died soon after the census was taken according to the England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index. Another daughter, Rifka, was born and died in 1912 at five months old.