The Fischls and the de Dirsztays - their original and later Baruch Lousada links
The chart above is based on Richard de Dirsztay's tree (ref 31), varied as explained in note 5. It is principally enhanced however by inserting a plausible Baruch Lousada ancestry for Moritz Baruh and this involved adding a full brother plus 2 half-brothers Simon #64 and Gedalia #986. It was drawn up for the reasons explained in note 6 below. The tree shows recent Baruch Lousada ancestry (discussed in note 1 below) for Richard de Dirsztay appears to have been a great-grandson of the 5th Lousada Duke; he was also a grand-nephew of Erno Letay de Losada (see next paragraph). The people shown in orange may be found online (see note 6) but do not appear in Richard's tree. The people in red are suggested by a DNA match of Julian Land and the person in blue is inserted to correct the ancestor count (see note 11 below).
In 1922 and 1924 Erno Letay de Losada obtained the right to use the 'de Losada' title and coat of arms; but this would hardly have happened solely on the strength of his sister-in-law's ancestry shown in the chart. She was a daughter of the 5th Lousada Duke, and while she seemed to be living proof that the Baruch Lousadas had successfully assumed the title of the Duque de Losada, additional arguments must have been put forward to demonstrate a more direct descent. Perhaps Erno only needed to demonstrate his own Baruch Lousada ancestry (see note 9 below). We do not know how he did this, but if the de Dirsztay tree is any guide then Moritz Baruh was his key ancestor. However the tree does not give a cogent explanation as to how Moritz Baruh could have been a Baruch Lousada descendant (see note 3). We have corrected this situation in that we now consider that the Fischl and Dirsztay Baruch Lousada ancestry must have arisen from an offshoot of the Livorno Baruch Lousadas (see note 10 below). The Empress' 1744 expulsion edict (see note 8 below) may have caused Jacob #2417 and Baruch #2350 to stay away from Prague (see notes 12 & 13 below) and join their uncle and father Moses #1191 in Timisoara (see note 7 below).
The chart illustrates the extensive appearance of Italy to this family history. The Italian Jewish marriage links of Moritz Baruh and Simon Barrow suggest an earlier connection, while later Italian links are also shown. Of course before the Risorgimento all of northern Italy progressively fell into the hands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the retreat of the Ottomans created business opportunities to the east of Vienna. No doubt people of Sephardic ancestry from Italy and the Ottoman Empire joined those seeking to exploit these opportunities. At this time Livorno was losing its dynamism as a trading port, and Jewish Italian banking was in decline since the 1682 decision of Pope Innocent XI (ref 347). Thus it would seem that at the time Simon Barrow (with a brother-in-law - see note 14 below) went west to Barbados around 1750 with Gedalia remaining in Prague, Moses went to Timisoara presumably after returning from Italy. Thereafter he and his son and nephew acquired the Fischl name (see note 4 below), and subsequently descendants with this name went to Budapest, though some acquired the aristocratic name 'de Dirsztay'. There were 2 marriages with the Tornyay-Schossbergers (see note 2 below) who like the de Menasche family (see note 1 below) had business interests across the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Such families illustrate the influence and cultivation of the Jewish aristocracy of Hungary, but much of this wealth was lost under the Nazis some of whose evil influence is captured in the de Dirsztay tree.
Notes:
Ilona de Losada who married Viktor Adolf de Dirsztay was a sister-in-law of Erno Letay de Losada via her twin sister Irene. The marriage links together 2 family branches and in particular links Istvan and Richard Dirsztay. The de Dirsztay tree gives the twins as daughters of the 5th Lousada Duke Edward Eugene. Of course his appearance in this tree, and death on 5 May 1941, is a considerable surprise, for apart from his parents the only other information we have for him is his 'return' to Jamaica (see ref 6 p27 which however gives no source for this or indeed that Edward Eugene was ever in Jamaica). Richard de Dirsztay gives no sources either but it is hard to imagine him getting his own grandmother wrong! Thus, if indeed Edward Eugene went to Jamaica, he must have been in communication with his Budapest daughters and grandchildren for his death to have become known to them. One wonders whether his departure from Budapest had anything to do with the failure of his daughter's marriage to Victor Adolf Dirsztay, or whether he simply wished to avoid the Nazis; of course his Jamaican destination itself is quite mysterious, for most of the uncles and aunts of Edward Eugene inhabited an elevated sphere of (mostly) Catholic Europe. Emanuel the 2nd Duke married a somewhat impecunious minor French aristocrat Honorine Scholastique Lejeune, Emma married a Belgian Count Louis van der Burch of military background, Francis was HM Consul for Rhode Island and Massachusetts and was made Marquis of San Miniato by the Grand Duke of Tuscany (his wife was on the Grand Duke's staff in London), 2 of his 3 sons becoming the 3rd and 4th Dukes (Horace Francis and Francis Clifford), Edward Eugene's father married Francoise Tard of Chantilly, Berthe married Gustav Nicolai de Noe of Prussia, while Anna Marie married Edmund Molyneux-Seel who became Chamberlain to Pope Leo and Chamberlain 1st Class to Pope Pius 9. The twins' mother is given as Baroness Judith Menasche; this raises an interesting question! A further interesting question is why the Fischls & Dirsztays reconnected with the Baruch Lousadas - was it adventitious, echoing the adventitious Barrow reconnection with the Baruch Lousadas in Barbados, or was it premeditated by one side or the other?
What is the relationship of Emma who married Gutmann Fischl to Anna who married Lajos Fischl? The de Dirsztay tree answers this - Anna was a daughter of Lazar Tornyay-Schossberger and Rosalia Klein, whilst Emma was a grand-daughter of Lazar by his second wife Regina Sachs and son Simon. That is, Emma was a half-niece of Anna. This pair of marriages relinks family branches.
Moritz Baruh appeared in Timisoara in the mid-1700s with an Italian wife according to the de Dirsztay tree (ref 31). This tree does not show Jacob Fischl #2417, an ancestor of one of Julian Land's DNA matches (see note 11 below), and it is Jacob's inclusion which makes for a more plausible descent of Lajos #166 (see note 5 below). Neither does it show Lazar Fischl #2715 an ancestor of another of Julian Land's DNA matches (though it does show many of Lazar's later descendants). Moritz Baruh is shown linked to the Jamaican Baruch Lousadas via an implausible and no-doubt invented father. Thus, he is shown as a son of Jacob Aaron (shown as son of Emanuel #135!) who married Esther Ximenes but while Emanuel #135 had a son Jacob whom we know as Jacob #139 his will showed no trace of a wife or family. Perhaps Jacob was son of an Aaron instead, but in our Baruch Lousada genealogy the only such Jacob (apart from Jacob #2570 of New Jersey who died in childhood) was Jacob #380 and he married Abigail Lamego of Jamaica and predeceased her. The only male Baruch Lousada who married a Ximenes bride was Emanuel #87 of London who married Rebecca Ximenes of Amsterdam. But the Dirsztay tree gives Rebecca's husband as Aaron another son of Emanuel #135 of Jamaica but while Emanuel #135 did have a son Aaron we know him as Aaron #141 who died in infancy!
Ref 35 chapter 2 provides an account of how the German imposition of surnames occurred.
Richard's tree makes Moritz Baruh (see top line) the father of Lajos #166 which seems impossible. With the help of suggestions from Dena Jenkins (see note 11) we make Lajos a great-grandnephew of Moritz Baruh. Further, in Richard's tree (ref 31) the appearance of Ignasz 1845-1917 as the son of Ignasz 1825-1907 raises questions as to whether the generation time is too small and whether a same-name father-son pair is likely enough. While we note that the younger Ignasz was born and raised a Christian, which could explain the departure from Jewish naming rules, and while we also note that while the generation span is small it is not impossibly so - especially as the year of the parents' marriage is given - we are persuaded Richard's tree is in error by the location by Randy Schoenberg of the younger Ignasz as a half-brother of an older Ignasz - both sons of the Lazar Fischl (discussed in notes 3 &12 and b~1772 in Timisoara). The chart above shows 8 people from Lazar's branch in orange, one of whom - his 2nd wife - we infer from the existence of the half-brother Ignasz b1825. The Dirsztay tree (ref 31) gives Lajos #166 as the father of Guttman which appears to be another error as on 22 Mar 2015 Scott MacDougall pointed out that Bela's father Guttman has a father named Moses on geni.com, with the father of Moses being Lazar Fischl. See also note 15 for further uncertainty over dates especially of the birth of Laszlo and Victor Dirsztay.
The chart was first prepared to show how Bela de Dirsztay relates to Istvan and Richard de Dirsztay. Scott McDougall’s wife's great-grandfather was Bela de Dirsztay (1861-1921), and on 19 Feb 20 Scott advised that Bela's grand-daughter Denise (as in the de Dirsztay tree) did indeed get to Canada and was married with no children; she died around 2010 and that Scott and his wife used to see her regularly. Emma, Scott's mother-in-law fled to Canada around 1948, and that her mother Luyza died before WW2. Emma's brother Bela may have died in a WW2 work camp.
Timisoara became associated with the Austro-Hungarian Empire after its conquest in 1716 by Prince Eugene of Savoy except for a brief period of Ottoman rule in 1778-9. Perhaps after the 1716 conquest, there was Italian and Jewish investment in Timisoara.
Ref 66 observes that the expulsion of 1744/5 probably led to an increase in Jewish immigration to England - and perhaps Timisoara similarly gained Jewish population as we suggest here. Ref 66 also argues that English diplomacy had little to do with the partial reversal which was more to do with local reaction and the valuable social role the Jews played in the Empire. We suggest that Baron Moses d'Aguilar may have had something to do with this given his access to the Empress; Michael Silber has spoken on this (ref 386) but the text is not yet to hand.
Of course, as the lifespan of the Duque de Losada was 1706-83, and his title was created in Naples in 1741, Erno would not have wanted close inspection of his purported link, for at the time at which Moritz Baruh was born ie in the 1700-1710 period there was no Duque de Losada!
To explain the belief of the Barrows that they descend from the Baruch Lousadas, we proposed elsewhere an early Barrow link with the Baruch Lousadas centring on a Baruch Lousada wife of Baruch Lichtenstadt, father of Simon Barrow of Barbados. If Erno had a similar belief as to his Baruch Lousada ancestry it only got to his great-nephew Richard in the form of a family legend! That is, both the Barrows and Fischls retained an enduring belief in their Baruch Lousada ancestry without retaining knowledge of the supporting evidence! As Baruch Lichtenstadt is not known other than in Prague, it may be that his wife came to Prague from Italy and soon became a widow with 2 sons - Moritz and Isaac - who thus became stepsons of Baruch and half-brothers of Simon and Gedalia.
Dena Jenkins a DNA match of Julian Land has been in touch and believes the Fischls above are among her ancestors, because the placenames which appear in Richard de Dirsztay's tree match her family history. Also, Erno #401 and his brother Lajos are central to her family history; on 10 May 2024, she advised that she is certain that she descends from Erno. She has suggested that her ancestors specifically include the people shown in red and gave the dates shown for them - accordingly, Isaac #443 was said to be a son of Baruch #2350, and Jacob (Dena's 4*great grandfather) was said to have been a son of an Isaac. Dena Jenkins cited ref 341 in giving Lajos Fischl #166 as a son of Jacob, but is currently unable to provide other sources, and it would seem an extra Isaac Fischl (#3243 - shown in blue) is needed to get the correct number of generations between her and Jacob #2417. Dena Jenkins also pointed out another wife of Ignasz Fischl #1409, and it seems that Roza Rosenfeld must have been the 2nd wife taking into account the 1901 death date of Maria Anna Cole de Leto and the fact that Roza remained attached to the memory of Ignasz after his death (which ref 31 shows to have been in 1917). It will be seen that there are 2 daughters named Paula - the younger, Paula Stein who wrote a history of the Rosenfelds, must have been a step-daughter of Ignasz. Also, the 1901 marriage record for Lajos and Irene (as reported by Dena Jenkins) gives Irene's parents as Leo Gara and Lina Schack and the parents of Lajos as Ignasz and Roza. Roza was a step-mother being the 2nd wife of Ignasz. The second marriage must have also taken place early in 1901, on a date between the death of Maria Anna Cole de Leto and the marriage of Lajos and Irene which was on 20 Feb 1901. Just as Lajos was a stepson of Roza, it seems that Irene was a step-daughter of Leo and Lina!
The name of Isaac #443 supports Moritz Baruh having a brother Isaac, the source of his name as maternal grandfather. The father of Lazar #2715 seems likely to have been Baruch #2350 (see note 13), which of course links the Fischls shown in orange to the Richard de Dirsztay tree, for they are otherwise unconnected. What we find online supports this - Julian Land has found a DNA match with someone both connected to Lazar Fischl and to a further son of Simon Michael Pressburg (ie Abraham Simon Pressburg). That is - Lazar Fischl appears to be a fairly close family member. In addition, connections via a brother of Baron Lyon de Symons can be found online between Julian Land and both Lazar Fischl and Baron Guttman Fischl de Dirsztay.
We suggest Lazar's father was Baruch #2350, given the similarity in birthdate of Isaac #443 and Lazar.
Isaac Levi whose son Jacob Levi produced a daughter Judith Joseph Levi around 1780 in Barbados with his wife a cousin Eve the youngest daughter of the 1st Simon Barrow; Eve was widowed and subsequently married Jacob's brother Joseph, a name shown in the name of the daughter just referred to. Our thinking on who this Isaac Levi was may be found here.
Ref 342 and ref 344 give alternative dates for the birth of Laszlo and we show 1856 above reflecting the 9 May 1856 date given by ref 342, with a date 6 days earlier offered by ref 344, and not the 1860 date in ref 31. We continue to show the Debrecen birthplace of Laszlo given by ref 31 (which also shows Bela born in Debrecen) rather than Budapest which is offered by ref 344, but we favour the Budapest birthplace for Victor offered by ref 342. The 1922 deathdate of Laszlo in ref 31 is rejected in favour of the date of 4 Jun 1921 authoritatively given by both refs 342 and 344. Ref 342 notes the published uncertainty over Victor's birthdate with dates in the range 1883-9 found. For the moment we show the 1882 date of ref 31 but perhaps he was born after his sister Charlotte who was born in 1883. The deathdate of Ilona de Losada is not only given as 1944 (Budapest) by ref 31 but also as 1967.
The Italian dimension may extend to diamonds, but things changed once sea routes to India were established, for few Indian diamonds then made their way through Livorno. As ref 84 p125 points out, in the mid-18th century the London Ashkenasi Jews had few contacts with Livorno and thus did not use Mediterranean coral to trade for Indian diamonds (see note 9). In any event, the Sephardic Livorno merchants in the 1700s progressively concentrated on cross-Mediterranean trade rather than Atlantic trade (ref 64). Of the Italian Jewish families in the diamond trade who moved to London in first half of the 1700s were the Francos (with whom there were 2 Lousada marriages) and the Levy Sonsinos (with Montefiore and Barrow marriages). Another dimension was silver supplies from Genoa (see ref 377).