1741 – 28th December 1816 – Měcholupy
The early 18th Century census of the Jews of Bohemia mentions one Jewish house in Měcholupy with three families. The only one that is named is the family Koniersch. They are described as being cattle traders.
In the 1793 census Rachel is listed as living in Měcholupy with two of her sons and two daughters. She is recorded as living in a house owned by Marcus Koniersch – so perhaps it is not an unreasonable assumption that she was a child of that family.
1n 1763, she is recorded in the Familanten as Rachel Frankl as the head of the family. There is no record of a husband, yet her sons and who they married are listed. I must assume that Rachel married a man called Frankl and he was not present when the local Familianten records were written up.
I have imagined that the Frankl’s came to Měcholupy after having been expelled from Prague in 1745. Since we know that two of Rachel’s sons became Shochtim – kosher butchers, I have assumed that they were trained by their father, as was the custom at that time. So that suggests that ‘Mr’ Frankl would have been a Shochet and that perhaps he came to Měcholupy because he already had contact with the Koniersch family because they would need a Shochet to butcher their cattle. We also know that all of the direct male descendants of Rachel’s sons are known to Cohainim = direct descendants of the High Priests from Temple times. Our proof is that all of the graves of Frankl males in Bohemia either have Cohainim written on their grave stones or the two open hands which also indicate the blessings given by the Cohainim to the rest of the Jewish community. In addition, Mike Frankl (website author) has had a Y – DNA test which also indicates that his DNA falls within a group of males known to be Cohainim.
Despite much research we have not been able to discover the name of Rachel’s husband. I regard Rachel as the matriarch of my Frankl family. Whatever the correct story is, Rachel must have been a special person, she managed to bring up her family and marry off at least four of her children, three sons and one daughter. They and their families thrived and produced descendants that ended up surviving two world wars and spreading all over the World. I now know quite extensive details of the descendants of three of her children. Juda, Michal and Sara Ewa. I have been able to find relatives descended from these three and have been in contact with them and at least one representative of each child came to our family reunion in July 2023 in Trebivlice.
I know that both her sons David and Isaak married and had six children, but have not been able to discover the details of any of their grandchildren. Perhaps they moved away from Bohemia and therefore have been difficult to trace. Although I have had many potential DNA matches proposed by both Ancestry and Family Tree DNA I have never managed to find any common family link.
In the 1793 census she is recorded as living in Mecholupy in a house owned by the Koniersch family. The record states that she earned a living as a baker and taking in washing, a humble life, but as far as we are concerned the Matriarch of our dynasty. She continued living there until her death aged 75 in December 1816.
