The fifty four direct descendants of Rachel Frankl (born in 1741) gathered in Trebivlice in July 2023
For the first seventy years of his life, Mike Frankl (a member of Beth Shalom Reform Synagogue in Cambridge) believed that his father and two aunts’ families were the only living Frankl relatives, the rest having been murdered in the Shoah. But once he started to do genealogical research online, he discovered that the current family tree, which originated in Bohemia, extended across continents and included hundreds of new relations. Most of these, he learned from contacting many of them, also believed they were the only survivors.
Mike found written records from the Hapsburg empire which revealed that his family had lived in a cluster of Bohemian villages and towns since at least 1741, all descended from his great-great-great-grandmother Rachel. Rachel brought up eight children, mostly in the absence of her husband. Mike regards Rachel as the matriarch of his extended family. The only fact that he knows about her husband is that he was a Cohain and that his initial was ‘N’.
The Frankl family owed its subsequent survival in Bohemia to the strength, determination and courage of Rachel and of two other women: Rachel’s grand-daughter-in-law Alzbeta (Graf) and great-granddaughter-in law (Mike’s grandmother) Frantiska Porges. Both were widowed young, and were left with many children to bring up alone.
Eventually over 100 family members were murdered in the Holocaust, but many others left Bohemia before WWII, including Mike’s parents and his considerably-older sister and brother. After his discovery of Rachel, Mike was able to discover other descendants of her children living all over the World.
In 2019 Mike and his wife Fiona Karet travelled to Bohemia with their cousin David Frankl, another descendant of Rachel who he had discovered lived in Dorset. They visited a number of old Jewish cemeteries located in or near villages where various of their ancestors had once lived. In the small town of Třebívlice they found the Jewish cemetery that served both Třebívlice and nearby Vlastislav. The latter is where Mike’s grandfather was born. Although they couldn’t locate the actual graves, he is sure that this is where his great-great-grandfather Michal and his great-grandfather Jakub were buried. This cemetery is located in the middle of a beautiful vineyard, and attached to the vineyard is a wine-making facility, along with a wine-tasting centre, large dining rooms, a performance space and a terrace with a lovely view over the local countryside. Nearby there is also a 20 bedroom Pension.
Following the discovery of this lovely place, Mike and Fiona decided to invite the newly discovered relatives to come to Třebívlice in July 2023 and help Mike celebrate his 75th birthday.
They were delighted with the response as a total of 62 people accepted the invitation. They came from the Czech Republic, England, Israel, Eire, Canada and the USA (California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania). 54 were direct Frankl descendants and their partners, many of whom had never met each other – plus 8 friends. Two thirds of those who came were descendants of Rachel’s son Michal – a shochet – while the other third were descended from Rabbi Isak HaCohen Frankl, a great-grandson of Rachel. Two of Rabbi Isak’s children moved to the USA in the 1890s. Only one grandson of his other children survived (David Frankl’s’s father) who arrived in England in 1939, and eventually settled in Slough, where he later became the mayor.
The whole group gathered for a weekend to talk together, eat, sample the local wine and juice, pray, and learn so much more about each other and their common Frankl family history. During the weekend together, new family discoveries were made, including the synagogue where Rabbi Isak had served, and the synagogue in the village of Třebívlice.
Mike says: “it was a lovely way to celebrate not only my big birthday but the research I had done, and so good to watch my big extended family bonding – the age range covered more than 60 years and everyone agrees it was a truly remarkable experience. We hope that the next reunion will be organised by the next generation and will take place relatively soon – all being well I will be 80 in 2028!”
