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THE HEYDENREICH SAGA

By ANNA HOFFMAN (born Heydenreich)

Anna was aged 83 years when this was written. She died July 17th, 1955 at age 84.

Edited by her daughter Norah Sophie Kane

LOUIS BEAR (born about the year 1750) was chief Rabbi of Paris at the time of Napoleon 1. He had three sons and one daughter. Two of the sons were doctors of medicine, one being private physician to King Stanislaus of Poland, the other having a practice in Mitau, the Capital of Courland. The third son was a barrister who bought an estate from the Polish Government which had been confiscated from one of the insurgents at the time of the Polish Revolution, but after twenty-one years a man appeared to claim it as his own; this man had been born posthumously after his father's execution and was found by the courts to be the rightful owner of the estate, which was taken away from Bear and given to the claimant.

Rabbi Bear's daughter, DIACHE (born about 1775), married a wealthy and cultured man, by name SIMONOWITZ. They had one son Simon Simonowitz and a daughter PAULINE (born 1802). Simon Simonowitz liven in Mitau. He was a man of much learning and he built his own synagogue where relatives and friends were made honorary members and where poor people who could not afford to pay for seats in other synagogues were allowed to worship.

The daughter, PAULINE, a woman of great intelligence and of imposing personality, married DAVID LESERSOHN, also called BLANKENFELD, after the estate on which he lived and where he had a distillery. He was a man of means and was well respected by all. When he made his will many of his children were millionaires and others well-to-do, except one daughter ROSE. His grandchildren also were rich. He made his Will in favour of his grandchildren, many of them not yet born, and chiefly for the seven orphans of Rose. To a servant, Caroline, who had worked for the family for 45 years, he left one ruble a week and a bottle of port wine, which she received every Friday.

David Lesersohn died at the age of 84 with full power of all his faculties and Pauline lived to 95 years, also in possession of all her senses.

The eldest son, The Honourable (Erblicher Ehrenburger) Louis Lesersohn, was a cultured man and a brilliant linguist. He spoke seven languages. He owned silk looms in Lyons and Warsaw under the firm of "Lesersohn and Patchikow" and introduced the electric silk loom into France. Louis married a French woman, Antoinette.

The second son, Alexander Lesersohn, had a factory in Koscow (maybe Moscow?) for the manufacture of stationary. He was a prominent man in the city, of considerable wealth. His wife came from Roumania.

The eldest daughter of David and Pauline, ANNETTE LESERSOHN (born about 1822), was a well educated woman, tall and regal of bearing, superior and reserved in manner. She was well traveled and a most interesting person. To me she was the ideal of womanhood. Annette married BENJAMIN ARENSBERG, a great Talmudist and a man well educated in German and English. He was a gentleman in word and deed. I have in my possession a copper-plate engravure taken in 1854 of my grandparents, Annette and Benjamin Arensberg, seated side by side in the manner of the day, she in her Victorian flounces and snood; he immaculate in appearance with cravat and side-whiskers; a precise and dignified couple, typical of the Victorian era.

Benjamin Arensberg had the privilege of being a Town Councilor in Goldingen in Courland, and was for many years President of the Goldingen Hebrew Congregation. He had a brewery and potato-flour factory and after he retired he handed it over to his son-in-law SAMUEL HEYDENREICH (my father) who lived in Mitau, but who moved to Goldingen.

Annette and Benjamin Arensberg, after they retired, traveled all over Europe and Palestine. Annette liked Palestine and wanted to settle there, but Benjamin found it too cosmopolitan and they returned to Europe. On their way back Benjamin became ill in Warsaw and died there, aged 75 years. As he was a great Talmudic scholar, the Talmudists of Warsaw themselves pulled the hearse containing his body through the streets of Warsaw to the cemetery. Annette returned to Palestine and settled there; she lived with a dentist's family in Jerusalem. She died in 1905 at the age of 85 and was buried in a select part of the Jerusalem Jewish Cemetery.

Benjamin and Annette Arensberg numbered among their friends Baron Hirsch, the great Jewish philanthropist. Benjamin's two brothers, Morris & William Arensberg (my great-uncle) went to London, at the time of the CRYSTAL PALACE Exhibition (1851). They were befriended by Dr. Prag, Chief Rabbi of Liverpool and Professor of Hebrew at the Queens college; he was also well-known as a translator of Phoenician inscriptions, particularly that on the Moabite stone. Both Morris and William married daughters of Dr. Prag and both carried on business as opticians; Morris in Manchester and William inLiverpool. William was awarded a knighthood by queen Victoria for philanthropic work among the blind. After his retirement from business, William Arensberg supervised the building of synagogues in the East, with many endowed by Baron Hirsch. The first was built in Athens, where he received an order of knighthood from the King of Greece (?) and then he went to Palestine where a synagogue was build at Jaffa.

The second daughter of David and Pauline Lesersohn was Rose, who died young and left seven orphans.

The third Lesersohn daughter was Charlotte who had two girls: Olga who married a Mr. Offenbach, the owner of a mirror factory in Berlin where he was a well-to-do and prominent man, and Anna who married ? Boline, who had one of the largest typographical concerns in Moscow.

David and Pauline's fourth daughter Regina Lesersohn married the Honorable Leopold Schlesinger who was a banker in Moscow and a multi-millionaire.

Benjamin and Annette Arensberg (nee Lesersohn) had four children; three daughters and one son. The eldest daughter CELINE ARENSBERG, my mother, (born 1843) married SAMUEL (Pully) HEIDENREICH, my father, (born 1840) a second cousin, the grandmothers being sisters. The Arensberg's second daughter, Marianne, married a Blumberg; they lived in Capetown and had two sons who died young as bachelors. It was from their home that I was married. The third daughter Ida Arensberg married I Itzigson; they had five children but I do not know their whereabouts. The only son, Adolf Arensberg, went as a very young man to England where he married an English woman and settled there. They had no children.

Samuel Heydenreich's father RALPH HEYDENRIECH had married FREDERIKA KLEIN, petite, red-haired, dainty and pretty, with a beautiful singing voice like a bird. She came of a very musical family and one of her brothers became a Professor of Music in England while another made a name for himself in the musical world of New York. Ralph Heydenreich died young and was survived by his widow, Frederika, his son Samuel and two daughters.

One daughter of Ralph and Frederika Heydenreich named Yetta married a Bernstein and was left a young widow with five children. My father, Samuel Heydenreich, supported this family until the boys were old enough to got to England where Alex Bernstein was one of the pioneers of the cinema industry and became one of the big film magnates. Today his son, Sidney Bernstein, is a well-known personality in the cinema world.

Samuel and Celine Heydenreich lived in Mitau in Courland, but when Benjamin Arensberg died he gave over his brewery and potato-flour factory to his son-in-law Samuel Heydenreich and the family moved to Goldingen. Seven of their ten children were born in Mitau - Ella, Hermann, Ralph and Paicha (who died young), Anny (myself), Elias and Regina; but the three youngest Fanny, Sidney and David were born in Goldingen. My father's mother, Frederica, made her home with my parents and lived with us for many years until the time of her death. She was the beloved grandmother "Bobo Fayga" after whom were named flora, Frances and Florence of a later generation.

My father Samuel Heydenreich was a clever man and very charitable. He never missed an opportunity of helping the needy and he worked for the release of prisoners. He was regarded as a great philanthropist. After him were named the many Samuels in the family, many of who are today prominent professional and business men in South Africa. Celine was a good wife and mother and a loyal friend; she was very well read and was an interesting and pleasant conversationalist. Several of her grand-children also bear her name.

Ella Heydenreich, my eldest sister with some friends opened a class in Goldingen for poor Jewish girls, to teach them the three R's, as education was then very expensive and the poor could not afford it for their daughters. Jewish boys received their education at the Talmud Torah School. After Ella married, I took over the school. Meanwhile my younger sister Regina obtained a teacher's diploma and the school was registered in her name. Later the school buildings were enlarged by the bequest of a house and stand. The stand was sold to the Talmud Torah and with the proceeds teachers were engaged to help Regina and the school was enlarged to six classes. When she was old enough, Fanny the youngest sister, also taught there as an honorary instructor together with a few paid teachers. Some instruction in music also was given and the pupils were allowed to practice on the piano in our home. This school developed into a large institution, which was eventually taken over by the Government and hundreds of Jewish girls received their education there. Regina taught there voluntarily for many years and took a prominent part in the School's affairs. When years later she died in South Africa, out of gratitude to her the school established a perpetual Kaddish in her memory.

In 1898 Samuel and Celine Heydenreich with their family emigrated to South Africa, to join the eldest son Hermann who had already gone there. My father died the same year, aged 58, and my mother in 1906 when she was 63. They are buried in adjoining graves in the Kimberley Cemetery.

The eldest daughter, Ella Heydenreich, was married to Philip Borkum who had a hat factory in Riga, Courland. They had five sons and two daughters, but two of the sons died in infancy. Philip Borkum met his death by violence in 1905 at Britstown, near Kimberley, and Ella later married Abraham Glatt. They lived for some years at Vrede in the O.F.S. but afterwards moved to Johannesburg. Ella died in Johannesburg in 1952 at the ripe age of 85. She was the matriarch of the family and a woman of great charm, humor and personality. Her eldest son Benno Borkum married Maud Barnet by whom he had two daughters; Eileen who married Dan Cline of Durban (3 sons - David, Barry and Laurence) and 1 daughter Sybil who married David Sadowisky (2 children - Benjamin and Covra) - they live on a Kibbutz in Israel; Benno's son Philip Borkum was married but is divorced. Benno died in 1947. Ella's second son Eugene (Joe) married three times but has no children. The third son David (Dink) Borkum married Gertrude Janks; they have one daughter Lorna. The eldest daughter of Ella and Philip Borkum was Samilla who married Nat Brunton; she died in 1932 aged 34, leaving three little children (her youngest, Celine, had died in infancy). Her eldest daughter, Hetta, married Louis Shapiro and lives in Haifa, Israel; they have a son and a daughter. The second daughter, Ray, qualified as a nurse and served in Israel during the War of Liberation where she distinguished herself by untiring, devoted service to the wounded under difficult conditions. In Israel she met Bert Medow, whom she married when they returned to Johannesburg; they have one son Gerald. Phillip Brunton, Semilla's only son, is unmarried. The youngest Borkum daughter, Flora Esther, married William Joseph (Willie) Mitchell, a grandson of Ikey Sonnenberg, the well known Rand Pioneer and a friend of Rhodes. They have two daughters - Sybil, married to Bos Shear (three sons; Stephen, Laurence and Michael) and Marjorie, married to Maurice Selensky (one child, Barbara Ellen). They have also one son, Max Mitchell, who is not married.

I, ANNA, the second of the Heydenreich daughters, married Jacob Hoffman, originally from Riga in Courland, who with his father, Lazer Hoffman, were Pioneers of Rhodesia (Southern Rhodesia). Lazer Hoffman was an acquaintance of Cecil Rhodes and represented the Rhodesian Pioneers (1893-96) in Rhodes' funeral cortege in Cape town. He started the first hide and skin business in Rhodesia and Jacob established the raw produce industry. Jacob was on the Executive of the Chamber of Commerce in Bulawayo and a Trustee of the Jewish congregation. I was one of the leading Jewish women in Bulakawyo and established a committee to raise funds for a synagogue in that town. I was the Secretary for a Bazaar which brought in £1000 as the first contribution towards the shul in Bulawayo, which was the first to be built in Rhodesia and is still Bulawayo's only synagogue. I was Treasurer of the Jewish communal League and a Foundation Member of the Loyal women's guild.

I have three daughters and one son. My daughter, Frances Florence, was a well known dancing teacher in Johannesburg and she established a class for poor children for a nominal fee and also trained many teachers in the dancing profession. Frances married Louis Stamelman; they have no children. My daughters Jessie and Nora Sophie married two brothers from Budapest, Lajos and Sandor Kohn (Louis and Sandy Kane). their mother, Rosa Falk, came of a very learned family, an uncle of hers having been tutor to one of the Austrian Arch-dukes. Both Jessie and Nora live in the Eastern Districts of Southern Rhodesia. Jessie takes an active part in Women's Institute and other District affairs. She has one son, Henry Joseph David Kane. Nora, who is a graduate of Rhodes University, is a well known Rhodesian journalist and author; her book on the history of Southern Rhodesia entitled "World's View, the Story of Southern Rhodesia and its Peoples" was published by Cassel & Co., renowned publishers in London. The Prime Minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Sir Godfrey Huggins, wrote a foreword to her book "World's View" which had excellent reviews in England, South Africa and Rhodesia. Nora and Sandy have two daughters, Rosemary Hazel and Gillian Margaret. My only son, Samuel Hermann Hoffmann, who is an Accountant and Secretary, is unmarried.

The third Heydenreich daughter, Regina, married Solomon Feitelberg, soon after she arrived from Europe. They were married in Kimberley by Rev. Isaacs who, when he proposed the health of he newly-wed couple said: "My dear people, you have me at a disadvantage. I don't know who you are or what you are, but I see that the Schina (halo) of good birth and breeding rests on all of you". Regina died young in 1906 leaving three little children. the eldest, Samuel (who changed his name to Fielding) is a well known dentist in Johannesburg and a journalist and war writer of note; he is at present writing a book on South Africa. He served as a Captain in the S.A.M.C. during the Second World War, and while in the Army won first prize for an essay on mobilization; he was awarded the Wilson Peace Prize for an essay. Samuel Fielding was the first Secretary of the United Nations in South Africa. He married twice; by his first wife he had one daughter, Regina, and by his second wife, Ruth Kramer, he has no children. Regina Feitelberg's eldest daughter Hetta was a teacher of Elocution and Dramatic Art in Johannesburg; she married Jack Cohen; they have no children. Frances Feitelberg, the second daughter, who was an infant when her mother died, married Abe Marks; they have two sons, Neville and Selwyn, and two daughters, Rosalind (named after Regina) and Diane.

Fanny, the fourth of the Heydenreich daughters married Abraham David Hoffman, a very well respected, good and charitable man (a second cousin of Jacob Hoffman). Fanny and Abe lived in the Orange Free State for many years where they ran hotels at Brandfort, Lindley and Kroonstad. They were a popular and well esteemed couple. Finally, they settled in Johannesburg with their family. Fanny died in 1952. their elder son Samuel, a doctor, has reached the top of the tree in his profession, being a very well known specialist in anesthetics in Johannesburg; he married Ida Cohen and they have one son, Alan, and a daughter, Valerie. The second son, Sidney Hoffman, a barrister who has a successful practice at the side-Bar in Johannesburg, married ruby Klass; they have one son, Adrian, and two daughters, Natalie and Shirley. Fanny and Abe's daughter Hetta, an accomplished musician, married Issy Javen; they live in Beaufort West and have two sons, Arnold and Arthur.

The eldest of the Heydenreich sons, Hermann, (who changed his name to Hyde), married Johanna Fisher. Hermann died in 1925,and was survived by his widow, five sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Samuel, who is a successful businessman in Pretoria, married Lily Suskin, by whom they have two sons, Herbert and Robert. Bernard, the second Hyde son, married Esther Hankin; they have a son Paul and a daughter Patricia. The third Hyde son, Maurice, married Victoria Stein by whom he has two sons, Basil and John. The fourth son, Benjamin, married Josephine Cohn; they have one daughter, Penelope, and a son, John. The fifth son, Alfie, is not married. The four brothers, Bernard, Maurice, Bernie and Alfie, have established a chain of gentlemen's outfitting shops in Johannesburg under the style of "Hyde Brothers". Hermann and Johanna's eldest daughter Esther married Simon Roup. They live at the Cape and have one son, Henry, and two daughters, Jessie and Doreen. The second daughter, Florence Hyde, is unmarried. The third daughter of Hermann and Johanna, Jessie, married three times; first Richard Aarons, then Dr. Leo Staz and now Dr. Sash. She has one son, Herbert Aarons, who married Pinkey Cooper.

Elias, the second son of Samuel and Celine Heydenreich, married Rosa Weinberg by whom he had three sons and three daughters. Elias died in 1949. The sons changed their name to Haden. The eldest son, Hermann (Harry), who is a doctor of medicine is a specialist in electropathy in Johannesburg; he married Sybil Henochsberg and they have one son. The second son, Uri (Arnold), married Muriel Scott but is now divorced; they have one daughter. The third son, Benjamin, is a bachelor. Sophie, the eldest daughter married Jack Kaslmeyer of Pietersburg; both died young leaving one son, Ivan, who lives with his grandmother Mrs. Kallmeyer. Hilda the second daughter married Dan Duchen of Dannhauser; they have a son and a daughter. The third daughter, Celina (Lily), is unmarried.

Sigmund (Sidney), the third son of Samuel and Celina Heydenreich, changed his name to Hayden. By his first wife, Hetta Markson, he had two children; a daughter Theresa who married Sonny Marks (children Keith and Harold) and one son Benjamin who married Alma Cohen (one son Stefan and a daughter Lee) from whom he is now divorced. Hetta died when Theresa and Ben were small children and Sidney married Madge Golding of London, by whom he has two children; the elder is Doreen Celina (petite and pretty like her great-grandmother Frederika), who married Cyril Segal and has two children, a son Anthony (Tony) and a girl Pamela and the younger a son Richard who is unmarried. Doreen and Cyril live in Bulawayo, where she is a keen worker for Zionist and charitable causes. Sidney Hyden is a clever and successful businessman in Johannesburg and holds a very respected position in the industrial and social life of that city. Sidney and his brother David have been lifelong partners in business and their joint activities are for convenience listed in detail under David's biography. Doreen since .... (?)

David Heydenreich, the youngest son of Samuel and Celina, also changed his name to Hayden. He married Gertrude Sehcchot (?) and they have a daughter Celine, still a schoolgirl. David was for ten years Vice-Chairman of the Jewish board of Deputies of south Africa and took a keen and active part in communal and social affairs in Johannesburg. His wife also was a keen social worker.

Sidney and David Hayden have been partners in business for over 40 years. Sidney was always the organizer and David the financier. They made a great success of many of their enterprises, amongst them being the Portland Cement Company near Lorenze Marques, which after having reached a profit-making stage, was taken over by the Portuguese government, which would not allow "foreigners" to run a firm in their territory. Their next big venture was Kinemas Limited, which company build many fine cinema halls in South Africa, namely the Plaza Kinemas in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Kimberley, the Adolphi Kinema in Sea Point and the Rialto Kinema at Swexiston. (?) The Hayden Brothers left indelible imprints on the cinema by being the first to bring talking films to South Africa and delighted the population of the sub-continent in 1930/31 with such super-films as "Syncopation" and "Rio Rita", both masterpieces of sound photography in their day. In 1931 Hayden Brothers combined their interests with the I.W. Schlesinger Group, the style of African Consolidated Theatres Ltd and African Consolidated Films, of which companies they are still Directors. Among their present successful business interest are the General Chemical Corporation Ltd. (of which Sidney's son Richard was made a Director in 1953) and South Witbank Coal Mines.

I, Anna Hoffman, born Heydenreich, aged 83 in this Year of Grace 1954, lived with my Great-Grandmother Pauline Lesersohn for two years, from 1894-96, to help her administer the estate left her by her husband. This remarkable woman who was born in 1802 kept possession of all her faculties up to the end of her long life. She lived to see her Great-Great-Grandchildren, Ella's sons Benno and Joe Borkum. Five generations were alive at the same time.

My first recollection of her was a regal figure seated upright before a cheval mirror, while a maid brushed the long black hair which reached to her knees - she was then well over 90 - and the thought rushed through my mind: "Surely that cannot be my Great-Grandmother!"

Pauline was wealthy and she personally attended to all her affairs, even in her old age, she would visit the market each morning to buy her household requirements, but one day on returning home she found that she had forgotten her reticule there. She was much perturbed and remarked: "Now that is the end. Once I start forgetting things, it is time for me to give up." Soon after that she died in 1897, aged 95.

My Great-Grandmother had a remarkable memory. As a little child she had seen Napoleon on his retreat form Moscow and remembered the "Little Man" quite clearly. To the end of her long life she remained surprisingly young and she told me that the secret of her youthful outlook on life was that she had always kept herself surrounded by young people. First she had her own children in her home, then later she had her grandchildren with her and finally she had me, her great-grand-daughter, to live with her.

Pauline Lesersohn was a grand old lady, whose life spanned practically the whole of the 19th century (1802-1897). She was born 17 years before queen Victoria and died only three years before the aged British Queen. It was from her that I received all my information about the earlier generations of the Heydenreich family that this story is quite authentic. It is one of which we can justly be proud and I am sure if she were alive today, Pauline Lesersohn in turn would be proud of the achievements of the great-grandchildren and her great-great-grandsons and daughters.

From Napoleon 1, emperor of France, from the era of the Venerable George III of England and Victoria the Good, to her great-great-grand-daughter queen Elizabeth II and her two children who are the 7th generation since the days when our story began, the long tentacles of my life have reached out and touched over 150 years of history.

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THE END

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Comments by her daughter Norah Sophie Kane

Our dear mother, Anna Hoffmann, born Heydenreich, the compiler of this saga, fell asleep peacefully at Johannesburg at the close of day on Sunday 17th July 1955, aged 84.

Her passing was deeply mourned by all her family, relatives and a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. she was a woman of extraordinary personality, charm and intelligence, a beloved wife and mother, a true friend and a counselor whose deep wisdom and understanding were valued by all who knew her or came into contact with her at any time. To the end of her long and interesting life she retained a youthful, enthusiastic outlook on life, was intensely interested in current events and people, her mind and faculties remained clear and unimpaired, even when age began to take of her physical strength.

At the passing of Anna Hoffmann ended the old generations of unselfish, generous and clever women; who for over a century and a half had graced the Heydenreich line. she was the last of the old matriarchs. May her dear soul rest in peace with the souls of her dearly loved husband, her forebears and all whom she loved and cherished in life.

　

More about the Heydenreich Saga

Written in June, 2000

My name is John Wolberg and I am the great-grandson of Yetta Heydenreich, the sister of Samuel Heydenreich. She, and Selom Bernstein had four sons and a daughter. Selom died in Mitau and Yetta and the younger children followed her older sons to England in the 1870's. Three of the sons (Max, Herman and my grandfather Jack) moved on the the United States. Alex, who is mentioned in the Saga, stayed in England and was one of the founders of the British cinema industry. I was raised in Mount Vernon, New York and after finishing my studies in the States accepted a position at the Technion in Haifa, Israel in 1962. I've remained at Technion to this date and am a Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

During WWII two of Alex's daughters came to live with us in Mount Vernon with their children: Beryl Stone and Ida Harrision. After the war we stayed in close contact with our English cousins. Beryl Stone's husband Joe was Harold Wilson's doctor and when Harold retired as prime minister he awarded Joe with a lordship. Beryl (also known as Lady Stone) was invited to be on the board of governors of Tel Aviv U and thus made many trips to Israel. She often came to visit us in Haifa and this was the reason that I learned of the Heydenreich Saga.

Whenever there was a board of governors meeting, Tel Aviv U would post "arrivals" notices in the Jerusalem Post. Hetta Shapiro (who is mentioned in the Saga) lived in Haifa and knew Beryl. At one point she contacted Beryl through Tel Aviv U and discovered that Beryl would be visiting us in Haifa. We met Hetta on that occasion. Afterwards whenever she saw that Beryl was arriving in Israel she would call us and ask when she would be in Haifa. In one phone conversation (in 1987) I asked her how we were related. She said that she didn’t know but there is a document called the Heydenreich Saga that might explain the relationship. A few weeks later I received a copy of the document from Sybil Sadofsky who is mentioned in the Saga. She was living at that time on Kfar Monash, a moshav in Israel.

The Saga was a real revelation. The only knowledge of our Eastern European roots were that we came from a place called Mitau in Courland. I managed to get this information from my my mothers cousins in Boston. I was a graduate student at M.I.T. in the 1950's and my wife Laurie and I spent alot of time with my relatives there. The four daughters of Herman Bernstein all lived together: two were widows and two had never been married. They were wonderful ladies and told me all they knew about the family but the information was very sketchy. I also asked Beryl Stone about our roots but she knew very little about life in Mitau. She did however know a number of cousins from South Africa. When I got the copy of the Saga I sent it to Beryl's brother Sydney Bernstein (who is mentioned in the Saga) and he had it retyped. There were a few missing sentances and I went back to Sybil Sadofsky to fill in the blanks. I had been meaning to create a Word Document out of the Saga and finally got the push to do it when I established contact with some members of the South African Heydenreich family: Basil Hyde (now living in Israel), Dick Hayden, Keith Marks (now living in Birmingham, UK) and Lee Kraemer (now living in Toronto).

For those of you with an interest in history there is one sentence that I found particularly intriguing: The eldest daughter CELINE ARENSBERG, my mother, (born 1843) married SAMUEL (Pully) HEIDENREICH, my father, (born 1840) a second cousin, the grandmothers being sisters. It seems that the Arensberg and Heidenreich families are more intertwined then one can determine from the Saga. I wrote a letter to Nora Kane in 1987 asking her if she could clarify this point. She was living in Zambia at that time and sent me an answer in which she apologized for not being able to supply any further details. So if any reader can shed light on this connection, I would appreciate learning more.