Subject: Goldschmidts from Frankfurt am Main and nearby towns (Hesse)

The first test to use in exploring the Goldschmidt "tribes", which are a large number of families, not all related to one another, is: Were they Levi'im?

The Frankfurt Goldschmidts were Levi'im, and all the standard sources (Ettlinger, Horwitz, Dietz) recognize this. The Goldschmidts who adopted the name in Frankfurt, and who were expelled with the rest of Frankfurt Jewry in 1612, went to Hameln, Cassel, Stadthagen, Witzenhausen, Buckeburg, etc. and 50 years later many were found in Altona-Hamburg, Oldenburg, Emden and elsewhere in northwest Germany and also in Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Many were known by their hyphenated names: Goldschmidt-Cassel, Goldschmidt-Hameln, Goldschmidt-Stadthagen, etc.

Just to give you a picture of Goldschmidt inter-connections, the famous memoirist Gluckel Hameln married Haim Goldschmidt-Hameln and her sister Elkel married Joseph Goldschmidt-Stadthagen, first cousins whose fathers (brothers) had settled respectively in those two towns in the early 1600's. Later, Elkel and Joseph's son Moses came from Altona to Amsterdam in 1698 to marry his cousin Gittel/Judith, daughter of Wolf Goldschmidt-Cassel.

Your local cemetery must have at least one Goldschmidt gravestone from sometime in the 19th century, which, if it is in Hebrew, will bear the letters: Heh Lamed Vav Yud (Halevi) or Samech Gimmel Lamed (Segal) after the name.

Many Jews selected the name Goldschmidt in the Napoleonic period in Germany. Some were Levi'im who may have been "lapsed Goldschmidts", meaning that they re-adopted the name that had been used intermittently by their family in earlier generations, especially in Frankfurt.

There are records of hundreds of Goldschmidt's from Frankfurt, Cassel, Hamburg, Oldenburg, etc. who are descendants of Rabbi Baruch Benedict Stuckart Halevy-Goldschmidt (about 1575-1642). This can be found in the FTJP. Also, Ettlinger's "Ele Toldot" compilation, a copy of which is at Leo Baeck Institute, NY., and many other sources, have this.

So the first thing to do is determine if your Goldschmidt were Levi'im.