Bertha’s parents were Abraham Yitzak Charipper and Sarah Zarke. Abraham was from Brody and was a barber by trade. We are not sure where Sarah was born and raised.
Before Sarah, Abraham was married to Elle, but she died in 1848. He had 2 children with her, meaning that Bertha had half-siblings.
Bertha’s half-siblings, Abraham’s and Elle’s children, were both born in Brody and raised by their stepmother, Sarah:
- Eidel Neche, a daughter, born in 1847
- Ephriam Beer (Bernhardt), a son, born in 1844 in Brody and died in 1909 in Vienna
Ephriam married Rifka Artel (d. 1913 in Vienna) in 1878 in Ardel Temple in Okkakring, a part of Vienna, and they settled there. Once in Vienna, he went by the name of Bernhard. He worked as a security guard under the Hapsburg dynasty, probably for Franz Joseph. He lived to be 65 years old. He is buried in the Wiener Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Austria on March 24, 1909. His wife was also buried there on April 16, 1813.
- Ephriam (Berhardt) and Rifka had the following 11 children which would have been half nieces and nephews to Bertha.
- Elise – b. 1874 (daughter). She married Edourd Franz Jacob Gebell and they had a son Richard
- Fritzi – b. 1876 (daughter). She married Franz Strasser and they had a son Otto.
- Adolph – 1878 – 1950 (son) He emigrated to the US and settled there. He married Hannah and had 3 children:
- Harry Adolph, Ph.D., ** add photo
- Florence,
- Madeline Natalie.
- Kubi – b. 1880 (son)
- Charlotte – b. 1882 (daughter)
- Ernestine – 1888 – 1942 (daughter) Ernestine was murdered in the Holocaust. During the war she was in Wien, Austria. She was deported with Transport 23, Train Da 204 from Wien, Vienna, Austria to Blagovshchina (Maly Trostenets Area),forest, Murder Site, Belorussia (USSR) on 27/05/1942.
- Arnold – 1889 – 1889 (son)
- Klara – b. 1891 (daughter)
- Louis – b. 1893 (son)
- Gisela – 1894 – 1895 (daughter)
Bertha’s full siblings were the children of Abraham and Sarah. They had 9 children that we know of with only 4 surviving to adulthood. Abraham’s and Sarah’s children were all born in Brody:
- Elle – 1850 – 1850 (daughter)
- Chaje – 1851 – 1851 (daughter)
- Taube – 1853 – 1854 (daughter)
- Rachel – b. 1855 (daughter). Rachel married Hirsch Leib Reckler and had 4 known children: Lipppe, Sarah, Ely, and Simon
- Reisel – b 1857 (daughter). Reisel was also known as Rebecca or Rivka. She married Abraham Birger and had 6 children: Anna, Itzak, Elias, Breindel, Nechy, and Golde
- Anna married Abram Kacob Kalmus
- Itzak married Klara Reh
- Elias married Chana Herold
- Henia -1858 – 1858
- Aaron – 1860 – 1860
- (Bertha)
- Herman – 1867 – 1938. In 1891 he traveled to the US. He was married Lotte. From at least 1901 – 1907 they lived in London, England, but then came to the US where Herman was a barber and then an insurance salesman in Newark, NJ. Coincidentally, the Wosnitzers (the family that adopted my mother) lived in Newark during the time that he lived there. At his death, he lived with his sister, Bertha in Brooklyn, NY. He is buried in Mt. Judah Cemetery in Ridgewood, New York.
The Ukrainian records for Brody births only go up to 1860. Therefore, Bertha probably had other siblings that we have not discovered yet.
When her children were growing up, Bertha would show them pictures of her family and say “This one was an opera singer. That was a doctor to the Emperor. “ So far, these stories have not been verified.
Bertha’s son, Abe, told one of his nephews that some of his mother’s family settled in the United States, but others went to Brazil. Could Rosa ( see below) be one of her siblings that did? More research is required to confirm this. Note that she was born about 1866 which is the time period we do not records for yet.
