Monday, October 26, 2015

Adolph Rutner, Documents Galore

Adolph Rutner was the brother of my great grandmother, Esther Rutner Joshowitz and her only blood relative (besides her children) with her in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.  When Adolph came to America, he brought along many documents from Europe--and his son Emile gave me copies of them back in the early 1990s.

Adolph was born Abraham Rutner in what is now Dulovo, Transcarpathia, Ukraine--part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire when he was born in 1894.

By 1914, he was living in Budapest, and he had to apply for official permission to live there.
Abraham Rutner Temporary License; Budapest; 1914
In 1914, Abraham Rutner received a temporary license from the Budapest Men's Tailor's Guild allowing him to obtain employement.  He was 20 years old, from Dulfava, Jewish, and single.  He was described as having short stature, oval face, brown eyes, brown eyebrows, normal nose, normal mouth, good teeth, brown hair, and clean-shaven.

Abraham & Amalia Rutner Marriage Certificate; Budapest, Hungary; 1928

In 1928, Abraham married.  His marriage certificates states that he was Ábrahám Ruttner, innkeeper (or worker in a restaurant), an Israelite, born 9 Feb 1894.  He lived in Budapest, in the 7th district, Nagydiúfa u. 26.  His parents were Mózes Ruttner and Ruchel Fux (my great great grandparents).  The bride was Amália Kászirer, innkeeper (or worker in a restaurant), an Israelite, born 20 April 1871, living at the same address as Ábrahám.  Her parents were Alter Kászirer and Henye Pollák.  The marriage certificate was dated March 3, 1918.
Abraham & Amalia Rutner Ketubah; Pest, Hungary; 1928
The couple's ketubah (Jewish marriage document) clarifies that they were married on the Pest side of the city, the groom's father's full name was Shmuel Moshe, and the bride's father's full name was Yaakov Leib.

A third document relating to the couple's marriage adds additional information.  This wasn't brought with the Rutners to America but rather is in the original marriage book in Budapest which is available on FamilySearch:

Marriage Record for Abraham Fux & Amalia Kasziere, "Hungary Civil Registration, 1895-1980," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-12050-117437-1?cc=1452460 : accessed 26 October 2015), Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kis-Kun > Budapest (VII. Kerület) > Marriages (Házasultak) 1918 (jan) > image 90 of 309; Város Levéltár, Magyarország (City Archives, Hungary).
The far-right column is of special interest.  It states: "the groom's name was originally entered as Fux, and no father was listed for him; the signatures column added Ruttner as a "known by" name for him. Three years later a correction was added in the addenda column: The groom's surname is not "Fux", but "Ruttner"; the 8th column's entry of "the groom is known by the surname 'Ruttner'" is null and void, and the corrective notation is added that the groom's father's name is "Ruttner Mózes". (Capital city mayoral decree 39045/1921) dated 1921 April 21."

I do have a copy of an extract of the legal marriage of "Mosko Rutner" and "Rochel Fux" from September 1918.  While they had been religiously married for many years, this official marriage legitimized their children in the eyes of the government, allowing Abraham/Adolph to legally use the name Rutner rather than Fux.

Two years later, Abraham applied to retain his Hungarian citizenship--both on his behalf and that of his wife and sons.
As a result of the Treaty of Trianon at the end of World War I, Abraham needed to attest to the fact that while his birthplace was no longer in Hungary, he was living on Hungarian soil and wanted to retain his citizenship.

He states that while he was born in Dulfalva, his permanent residence was Darva (also Kolodne), although he was a current resident of Budapest.  He asks that his wife Amália and sons Miksa (later Max) and Emil (later Emile) retain their citizenships as well.

Abraham would soon leave to the United States, leaving Amalia and their sons behind for several years; Amalia's story will be a blog post in and of itself!

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2 comments:

  1. We have a Pikholz-Kassierer couple in Galicia.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Perhaps we are cousins (through 2 marriages) then?!

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