Frankfurt Ele Toldot

Name List · Jewish Community of Frankfurt am Main

The Frankfurt Index-Database is designed to help researchers find and reconcile information contained in several major sources of data about the Jewish Community of Frankfurt am Main.

The database was originally compiled as a Microsoft Access file, with a single table containing all of the data; it does not utilitze Microsoft Access’s relational database features. The original file came with its own instructions for loading and searching it which, as those instructions themselves noted, may not be applicable once the database is online; they are therefore not reproduced here.

The base source of data is Shlomo Etttlinger’s Ele Toldot, a typewritten set of many thousand sheets compiled over several decades in the 20th century from the original documents in Germany and elsewhere. There are several copies of this many-volume material housed at various archives, and there are indications that each set may vary slightly.  The version used for this database was, for the most part, the one in the collection of the Leo Baeck Institute in NY City.

The information in Ele Toldot is supplemented with data from other reliable sources. These sources have been used when they appear to clarify or improve upon Ettlinger’s information.  Since his focus was specifically on Frankfurt, records from other communities often provide important additional data.

The following table lists some of the sources used in addition to Ele Toldot and how they are referred to in the database.

Almost every individual in the database has his or her own record (displayed as a row in the table view and as a single screen with labelled fields when you are working with the form).

If the field labelled "Source" is empty, it means the individual has a sheet with name, death date, and other data, in Ettlinger’s Ele Toldot. If the source field contains a name (surname, name of a house, or first name), it means that we have not found an Ele Toldot sheet for the individual, but he/she appears in the Ele Toldot index for that name.  For example, if the field says “Baruch,” we know of this individual from the Ele Toldot index for the name Baruch. If the field says “Storch,” we know of the individual from the index for the house of the Storch.  In some cases, the person was found on the sheet for a parent or spouse (or child) but not in an index (this is rare because Ettlinger's indices are incredibly complete), so the Source field will usually read "Individuals from E. T."  Whether from this or from an index entry, the chronology field at the bottom of the form for a person who does not have his or her own sheet in E. T. will show a date (the death year and month of the person on whose sheet this individual is mentioned) followed by "bei".

Individuals found in the indices sometimes show a handwritten date.  In almost every case, these are people who converted away from Judaism and are found in the "Judentaufen" section of Ele Toldot. Most of these dates are the baptism date, but the death date is sometimes used, if known.  Entries in the database for these individuals show the addition of a "T" in the chronology field.

There are several other references which can appear in the source field. For example, "Individuals from Epidat" indicates we only know of the person from his/her Steinheim Institut Epidat epitaph.

To the extent possible, entries are directly copied from Ele Toldot, with additions and corrections in brackets, if from outside sources, or in parentheses, if from other sections of Ele Toldot where the data are not in agreement or are in addition to the information shown on the person's own sheet. (Because Ettlinger worked on this project for so many years, he sometimes missed a spot where a newly corrected piece of data needed to be entered. In addition, his section on the houses of the Judengasse and who lived in them often has information which is not shown on that person's own E.T. sheet, so it is important to show both as a way of evaluating which factoids are right, which are wrong, or which work together and are both accurate.) In the “Footnotes” field, the types of information can vary greatly, depending on the issues being clarified or questioned, but sources are shown whenever there is room.

Since Ettlinger makes clear what each individual's exact name is, we have been able to insert, as an aid to searching the database, additional, standardized pre-names (such as Sarah for Serle or Sorchen, Gutle for Gittel or Guetchen, Moses for Moshe and even for Meisus, Jacob for Jekkel or Jaakov, Isaac for Jitschak and Eisik, etc.). Searching for them would otherwise be impossible, and this standardization allows the search capabilities of the program to live up to their full potential.  When a name has a spelling with many variations we have tried to use one spelling. For instance, in the case of Gotschalk or Gottschalk, etc., we have used a standard spelling of Getschlik, so that the search can be made for "Get" with both Getschlik and Getz being found in one step  The same is true of certain surnames, to avoid the need to search by several different possible spellings. "Haas" and "Hase", "Flesch" and "Flasche" are examples of these. Here again, the individual did not necessarily ever use the "extra" spelling which we have added for searching purposes. Also, note that FNU and LNU mean "first name unknown" and "last name unknown"

Where we have marked z"l after a person's father's name, it means he is so designated in the epitaph of the person and predeceased him or her (or died before the gravestone was placed).

Umlauts and other accent marks are not used at all in the database out of compatibility concerns.

The database consists of 12 fields:

When subsequent research has revealed a death date of which Ettlinger was unaware, the chronology field will still show the death date given in Ele Toldot. Any corrected death date will be shown either in the Death Date field or in the Footnotes field.

This database can be searched via the JewishGen Germany Database or the JewishGen Unified Search.

For further information, please contact E. Randol Schoenberg.

Last updated October 2022.
For questions, contact E. Randol Schoenberg.