No 149 - March 2022

ABSTRACTS

Annie Léon
Family Kiefe, between France and Germany
The only thing known about the Kiefe family, to which the author belongs, was that it was originating from Baisingen in the state of Baden-Württemberg; Annie Léon has attempted to determine its more distant origins and draw a picture of its living conditions in this village in the 19th century. The research has focused on Theophilus Gottlieb (Gimple) Kiefe (1812-1888) and Jette Schwab (1824-1897). Two of their sons had become French by the end of the 19th century. But were there other children who had remained German? If so, what have their fates been in the context of the Franco-German conflicts of the 19th and 20th centuries? While the author was able to identify them, the investigation of their life paths has proven more difficult . This is why she has chosen to focus on the two “French” Kiefe and their descendants: family alliances, dramas during wars and social evolution.

Robert Jacky Ouaknine
My scattered family from Morocco: Ouaknine, Elbaz, Lusqui
Born in 1950 in Paris to Moroccan Jewish parents, the author investigates family history as part of a very personal Autojudéography project. He covers the discovery of his Casablanca family origins: Jewish-Portuguese on the maternal side (Elbaz, from the city of Elvas, Spain) and Jewish-Berbers on his father’s side (Ouaknine, Demnat, Middle Atlas), two families which had been present in Morocco for many generations. Various documents and family stories describe unexpected journeys at the beginning of the 20th century (Joseph Elbaz to South America; Moses Lusqui, Simon Elbaz to Palestine). The last departures from Morocco occurred through several waves between 1949 and 1991, mainly to Israel but also to France, the USA and England.

Anne-Marie Fribourg
« À la Grande Maison », history of a family clothing company (Paris, Santiago de Chile)

This article traces the history of a family-owned “À la Grande Maison” clothing company first based in Paris and then in both Chile and the provinces. The family roots are in Forbach and Clermont-Ferrand. There is also the French colony established in Chile in the second part of the 19th century. This story ends in 1939.

Mariane Wolff
From cattle trade to the Nobel Prize : Auguste Jacob and Jeanne Weill’family

On the basis on her own memories as well as family archives discovered after the death of her parents, Marianne Wolff relates the life of her maternal great-grandfather Auguste Jacob, his wife Jeanne Weill and their three sons Simon, Pierre and André. From Vergaville, a small town in Lorraine, where he had been meant to follow his father’s footsteps as a cattle merchant, Auguste Jacob founded and then, with his sons, developed a business as a real estate trader, settling successively in Vézelise, Nancy and Paris. Two of the couple’s grandchildren are famous : François Jacob, 1965 Medicine Nobel Prize, Compagnon de la Libération, member the French Academy, and Gilles Jacob, who during many years headed the Cannes Film Festival but also their great-granddaughter, Odile Jacob, a famous publisher.

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