Using Family Group Naming Patterns for a Genealogy Project - Tuchfeld part 10

In our most recent blog post, “Using Naming Patterns for a Genealogy Project,” we attempted to connect Tuchfeld families in Rzeszow based on naming patterns. We checked to see if children were named for possible ancestors who had recently died. In the blog post previous, “Using House Numbers for a Genealogy Project,” we charted Tuchfeld house numbers in Rzeszow to look for family connections. We found evidence that hinted at connections but we needed more evidence.

We decided to study Rzeszow’s Tuchfeld family units in a comparative way. Focusing on our direct line ancestors, we compared them to other Tuchfeld lines having children in Rzeszow at the same time, looking for similar names. These families had house number connections and naming pattern connections to our direct ancestor Naftali Tuchfeld, noted in our previous research.

Naftali Tuchfeld was married twice. He had two known children with his first wife and nine known children with his second wife. They were all born in Rzeszow between 1861-1887. We compared Naftali’s children’s names with the children of his five possible siblings. Of Herske Tuchfeld’s eight children, four names matched Naftali’s family. Abrahm’s six children matched three of Naftali’s children. Rachel Tuchfeld Zweckenbaum’s three children matched two of Naftali’s eleven children. Salomon David Tuchfeld and Rachel Tuchfeld (maiden name Tuchfeld, so either Salomon David or Rachel could be Naftali’s sibling) had eight children with four names in common with Naftali’s children. We wondered if this was showing us a relationship or just the most popular baby names in the region at the time. We tested our theory by comparing Naftali’s children’s names against two control families. We chose two (as far as we know) unrelated large families, whose children were born at the same time as Naftali’s and lived in Rzeszow and a neighboring town (Sokolow). Of these non-Tuchfelds, one had ten children with two names matching Naftali’s children. The other non-Tuchfeld family had eleven children with one name matching Naftali’s children. Based on the analysis of our family group naming patterns, Naftali Tuchfeld’s children seem to have more names in common with these contemporary Tuchfelds than with contemporary, local non-Tuchfelds. This leads us to believe that these other Tuchfelds may be Naftali’s siblings, first cousins or other close relatives. 

Four Hersch Tuchfelds born in Rzeszow

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