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The lines of the name

They are not one family, and most of them never were. This archive keeps meeting households of these two surnames in the same city, in the same decade, sometimes in the same street — and a rare name plus a shared address is the exact shape of the mistake it has already made twice. So each one gets a lane of its own. What is documented goes on the lane. What would have to be found to join it to ours is written underneath. Nothing is merged until that thing is found, and nothing is thrown away either.

One spelling is not a search The rule this page runs on

LEIBHOLZ · LAIBHOLZ · LEIBBHOLZ · LEIBHOLTZ · LEIPHOLZ
LUWINSKI · LUWINSKY · LUWENSKI · LUWWINSKY · LOWINSKI · LOWINSKY · JUWINSKI

On 20 September 2026 the East Prussian index was searched on the head form alone and returned one woman in one village. Searched on the list, one form at a time, the same index returned a household in Sauerbaum’s own civil district and a possible father at Allenstein. Two of the three best finds of that day were not under the spelling anybody would have typed first.

LEIBHOLZ

Eight households of one surname, seven of them in one city and the eighth in Melbourne. Two of them are separated from ours by sixty-two days and two hundred miles; one of them begins in the same Kreis our own great-great-grandfather was born in. *** UPDATED 22 SEPTEMBER 2026: the 1874 Szubin marriage entry has been read, and it puts OUR OWN LINE AT HAMMERSTEIN — born there, living there, and marrying out of it — while naming a generation above Sally that nobody had. The lanes stay apart because no document joins them. The REASON for expecting them apart has gone.

Six families of one surname, and the road each of them took Schubin, in Posen — ours DOCUMENTED · THE LINE THIS ARCHIVE DESCENDS FROM · AND IT BEGINS AT HAMMERSTEIN, NOT SCHUBIN The Leibholz brothers → Auschwitz — Jacob, 26 February 1943 · Samuel, 10 April 1943 Auschwitz Theresienstadt — Oskar, 17 March 1943, and east on transport Er Theresienstadt Johannesburg — Kurt, 1933 to 1969 Johannesburg Potsdam — Siegfried, who survived Potsdam Kraichtal — Auguste, 1975 Kraichtal Hammerstein · by 1847 — JACOB LEIBHOLZ, Kaufmann, and WILHELMINE geb. POLLNOW — Sally's parents, named in his marriage entry and found 22 September 2026 Hammerstein by 1847 Hammerstein · 1847 — Sally born — and it is NOT Schubin Hammerstein 1847 Szubin · 1874 — Sally marries Friederike Schmul, 24 November — and the entry gives him as still WOHNHAFT ZU HAMMERSTEIN, aged 27 Szubin 1874 Hammerstein → Schubin · 1874-1884 — THE MOVE EAST, bounded at both ends: at Hammerstein in November 1874, at Schubin by August 1884 Hammerstein → Schubin 1874-1884 Schubin · 1877 — Samuel born Schubin 1877 Schubin · 1884 — Jacob born, 8 August Schubin 1884 Schubin · 1887 — Oskar born Schubin 1887 Berlin · 1913 — the registration card's addresses begin Berlin 1913 Schöneberg · 1939 — Meraner Str. 2 — Jacob, Auguste, Siegfried Schöneberg 1939 Hammerstein — Georg's DOCUMENTED · NOT A BROTHER, THE DATES FORBID IT — BUT THE PLACE NO LONGER SEPARATES THEM Correction 5 → Łódź — the ghetto, November 1941 Łódź Chełmno — 13 May 1942, the same day as his wife Chełmno Hammerstein · 1884 — Georg born 7 June — sixty-two days before Jacob Hammerstein 1884 Mitte · 1938 — a Wäscherei at Michaelkirchstraße 26 Mitte 1938 Berlin · 1941 — deported with Lydia née Perl, 1 November Berlin 1941 Chodowieckistr. · 1913 — Georg, Kaufmann, at no. 31 — next door to a Luwinski Chodowieckistr. 1913 Hammerstein · 1872-1890 — and four more Leibholz born there: Regina 1872, Arthur 1878, Else 1884, Hertha 1890 — a continuous presence Sally came out of Hammerstein 1872-1890 Kreis Schlochau — Preussisch Friedland DOCUMENTED · SALLY'S OWN KREIS, AND A KREIS IS NOT A FAMILY The Charlottenburg household → Auschwitz — Hans deported 12 January 1943, dead 22 February Auschwitz Schlochau · 1884 — Else née Rothenberg born Schlochau 1884 Pr. Friedland · 1912 — Hans born 25 January Pr. Friedland 1912 Tiergarten · 1938 — Hans Dr at Graf-Spee-Straße 4 — the Gedenkbuch gives him two boroughs unordered, and this dates them Tiergarten 1938 Pr. Friedland · 1920 — Liselott born Pr. Friedland 1920 Charlottenburg · 1939 — Danckelmannstraße 44 — a Stolperstein Charlottenburg 1939 Stolp and Glowitz, in Pomerania DOCUMENTED · SEPARABLE BY PLACE AND BY TRADE The Lenaustraße household → Auschwitz — Willi, Erna and Heinz Auschwitz Palestine — Ruth-Trude Tabori-Hammer, who asked in 1946 Palestine Stolp · c.1890 — Willi born — 250 miles from Schubin Stolp c.1890 Glowitz · 1899 — Gertrud born, Kreis Stolp Glowitz 1899 Neukölln · 1938 — Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße 59/60 — a butcher, not a merchant, and a house this lane did not have Neukölln 1938 Neukölln · 1940 — Lenaustraße 25, and in the 1941 and 1942 volumes too Neukölln 1940 Berlin · 1943 — last word, March Berlin 1943 Berlin-born — and one of them got out DOCUMENTED · BORN IN BERLIN, WHICH IS WHAT SEPARATES IT Shanghai → Shanghai — Albert died there 18 August 1944 Shanghai Mehringdamm — Agnes, Heinrich's widow, until 1976 Mehringdamm Jerusalem — Curt Sterngast, who asked after them Jerusalem Berlin · 1886 — Albert born Berlin 1886 Berlin · 1890 — Heinrich born Berlin 1890 Halensee · 1938 — Albert, Antiquitäten Halensee 1938 Berlin · 1939 — sailed 27 June, ten weeks before the war Berlin 1939 Levetzowstraße 13 — one flat, six people DOCUMENTED · NO CONNECTION PROPOSED Why it is here at all → Auschwitz — Else 1943, Lieselotte 1943, Kurt before May 1945 Auschwitz Tiergarten · 1887 — Alfred born — a master butcher Tiergarten 1887 Tiergarten · 1921 — Marianne, then Walter, Lieselotte, Kurt Tiergarten 1921 Tiergarten · 1941 — stripped of his trade in the directory Tiergarten 1941 Tiergarten · 1942 — Alfred dead, 8 August Tiergarten 1942 Göttingen — not this family DOCUMENTED · LISTED ONLY SO HE IS NOT MERGED The two Gerhards → A survivor — and on the public record the constitutional lawyer A survivor Germany · 1901 — Dr Uri Gerhard born 15 November Germany 1901 Göttingen · 1982 — died at Herzberger Landstraße 55 Göttingen 1982 Melbourne — Joachim Peter, and the word STATELESS DOCUMENTED · SIX FILES IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AUSTRALIA, NONE OF THEM SCANNED The NAA files → Poland — property inside the new border, claimed 1947 Poland Sydney — Dr Jane Leibholz, 1978 — unconnected, and on the register Sydney Charlottenburg · 1903 — Joachim Peter born 20 August — Standesamt Charlottenburg I, Geburtsregister Nr. 875, and his father a Fabrikbesitzer in Joachimsthaler Straße Charlottenburg 1903 Bremen? · 1939 — sailed on the ANCHISES Bremen? 1939 Melbourne · 1939 — landed 12 June, with Tilde and a child Melbourne 1939 South Yarra · 1944 — naturalised 27 July, previous nationality STATELESS South Yarra 1944 Real households of the name — not yet placed on any of these lines Attached to no line here — a different stock of a very common name — the commonest patronymic in Italy
Click or tab any dot — the stops tell you what the document behind them says, and the destinations on the right tell their own story and link to it. Click a second time to go there.
Eight households of one surname, seven of them in one city and the eighth in Melbourne. Two of them are separated from ours by sixty-two days and two hundred miles; one of them begins in the same Kreis our own great-great-grandfather was born in. *** UPDATED 22 SEPTEMBER 2026: the 1874 Szubin marriage entry has been read, and it puts OUR OWN LINE AT HAMMERSTEIN — born there, living there, and marrying out of it — while naming a generation above Sally that nobody had. The lanes stay apart because no document joins them. The REASON for expecting them apart has gone.
Hover or tab any dot and it says what the document behind it is. The top lane of each diagram is the one this archive descends from. A dashed band is a family of the same name that is documented and is definitely not ours — drawn here so that the next person who finds the name does not have to make the mistake again.

Real households of the name, not yet on any lane

  • Weinstraße 6 — Willi b. 30.12.1887 and Jenny née Rosenberg of Schlochau — both Auschwitz, and he IS at Yad Vashem, under LEIPHOLZ
  • Scharnhorststr. 25 — Felix b. 19.06.1877 and Martha née Riede
  • Afrikanische Str. 37 — Siegfried b. 09.03.1877 — forty-eight years older than Jacob's son
  • Willmanndamm — Ella, a Krankenschwester, 1938 to 1970 — CANDIDATE DEATH Tiergarten 1974 Nr. 1160, “Leibholz geb. Baesler, Ella Josephine Martha”, 22 June 1974. And a Stolperstein at no. 6, which belongs to another family.
  • Hasenheide — Charlotte, Hasenheide 61-62, 1957 to 1967 — CANDIDATE DEATH Tempelhof 1982 Nr. 161, “Leibholz geb. Schötzow, Charlotte Herta Marie”, 14 January 1982
  • Wiesbadener Str. 57 — Felix, then Hilde in the same flat six years later — HILDE'S CANDIDATE DEATH Wilmersdorf 1983 Nr. 304, “Leibholz, Hilde Henriette”, 7 February 1983, in her own borough

Attached to no lane here

  • Sophie née Rothenberg — born Schlochau 1887, murdered — married into L3 or near it
  • Erna, Spandau 1975-1981 — NOT a Leibholz and NOT the last — the 1980-81 OCR read a p as a b. She is a LEIPHOLZ, on one number at Streitstr. 39 through six consecutive telephone books
  • J P LAIBHOLZ, 1947 — the Australian government's own spelling of the same man
  • Hilde Leibholz, Wiesbadener Str. 57 — THE LAST LEIBHOLZ IN THE POST-WAR BERLIN BOOKS — nine consecutive volumes, 1972-73 to 1980-81, in the flat Felix held before her
  • Friedrich Leipholz, Schwabstr. 4 — Tegel 1957, retired to Reinickendorf by 1961, in the telephone book to 1973-74 and gone from 1974-75 — and his own borough never registers his death, 1974 to 1994
  • Marie Leipholz, d. 1988 — Reinickendorf Sterberegister 1988 Nr. 2306 — the ONLY Leipholz in twenty-one years of that borough, dying where Friedrich lived. Nothing joins them
  • LEIPHOLZ — the directory's own eighth spelling — now swept: seven post-war Adressbuch volumes, twelve telephone books and twenty-one years of Reinickendorf death indexes
  • Elisabeth Weiler née Leipholz — b. 1.1.1891 Berlin, survived and reached Palestine — the FIRST person the eighth spelling produced, and no longer the only one
  • Leipholz of Pianki, Arys — a Masurian Protestant family, 1781-1829 — the same spelling, and certainly not the same people
  • Gottlieba Leipholz, Runowo 1905 — in the province Szubin is in, and reachable only under the eighth spelling

LUWINSKI

Two of these lanes were found on 20 September, and only because the search was run on every spelling. The same East Prussian registry writes one woman LOWINSKI in four years and LUWINSKI in two. One more was found later the same day, in a South African gazette, and it is here to be kept out.

Six families of one surname, and the road each of them took Allenstein and Sauerbaum — ours DOCUMENTED · THE LINE THIS ARCHIVE DESCENDS FROM East Prussia → Johannesburg — Kurt, 1933 to 1969 Johannesburg Potsdam — Siegfried Potsdam Kraichtal — Auguste, 22 June 1975, the town her mother died in Kraichtal Allenstein · 1865 — Joachim born 21 October, a Landwirt Allenstein 1865 Sauerbaum · 1871 — Johanna Thimm born 25 March — Zerbuń today Sauerbaum 1871 Sauerbaum · 1893 — Auguste born 28 August Sauerbaum 1893 Sommerfeld · to 1932 — the Hohenbrucher Chaussee Sommerfeld to 1932 Charlottenburg · 1932 — Richard-Wagner-Straße 42, from 24 July Charlottenburg 1932 Zeutern · 1955 — Johanna dies — a district of Kraichtal Zeutern 1955 Allenstein, 1874 — Joseph DOCUMENTED · THE CLOSEST ANY LANE COMES TO OURS Row 206 → Joachim's father — right town, right registry, right generation — and not proved Joachim's father Allenstein · 1874 — birth 11 — Martha, father JOSEPH, mother Elisabeth Bilitewski Allenstein 1874 Allenstein · 1895 — Gertrude Luwenski, same registry Allenstein 1895 Kreis Rössel — Sauerbaum's own registry DOCUMENTED · NOT CONNECTED Row 207 → Kin — the district Johanna was born in, between her birth and Auguste's Kin Rössel · 1876 — birth 68 — Franz Lowinski Rössel 1876 Rössel · 1881 — birth 31 — Albert Lowinski Rössel 1881 Rössel · 1884 — birth 9 — Bernhard Lowinski Rössel 1884 Wartenburg — Antonie DOCUMENTED · NOT CONNECTED The spelling sweep → Her father — her marriage record would name him Her father Ruszajny · 1895 — first of six Pietzkowski children Ruszajny 1895 Ruszajny · 1898 — spelt LUWINSKI this year Ruszajny 1898 Ruszajny · 1903 — and LOWINSKI in four others Ruszajny 1903 Berlin — the households of the name DOCUMENTED · TWO CORRESPONDENCES, NO IDENTIFICATIONS Post-war Berlin → Melbourne — Manfred, by air, 1965 Melbourne Brisbane — and dead there in 2012 Brisbane Putbusser Str. · 1933 — Alfred, Bügler — one of only two in the whole run Putbusser Str. 1933 Steglitzer Str. · 1933 — Oskar, SCHNEIDERMEISTER Steglitzer Str. 1933 Tegel · 1957 — Manfred, Modellschlosser, Egellsstraße 16 Tegel 1957 Wedding · 1967 — Joachim, OFENSETZER, Ramlerstraße 15 Wedding 1967 Reinickendorf · 1970 — Kurt, Beamter, with a telephone Reinickendorf 1970 Przasnysz — not this family DOCUMENTED · THE TREE MAKES HIM A FATHER AND HIS OWN CARD REFUSES The tree audit → No children — the card says ledig and the tree gives him two sons No children Przasnysz · 1917 — Alfred born 9 September — a Polish Catholic farm labourer Przasnysz 1917 Sachsenhausen · 1942 — died 11 July, ledig Sachsenhausen 1942 Johannesburg LOWINSKY — there before Kurt was, and not ours DOCUMENTED · AND RULED OUT ON A DATE, WHICH IS THE ONLY HONEST WAY TO RULE ANYTHING OUT The gazette sweep → Not ours — in print eleven years before Kurt landed Not ours South Africa · 1922 — Thos. H. Lowinsky in a gazette list South Africa 1922 South Africa · 1944 — Mark Lowinsky South Africa 1944 Maclear · 1955 — Rupert Esmond, retired — estate 671/55 Maclear 1955 South Africa · 1985 — 3747/84/3A South Africa 1985 Real households of the name — not yet placed on any of these lines Attached to no line here — a different stock of a very common name — the commonest patronymic in Italy
Click or tab any dot — the stops tell you what the document behind them says, and the destinations on the right tell their own story and link to it. Click a second time to go there.
Two of these lanes were found on 20 September, and only because the search was run on every spelling. The same East Prussian registry writes one woman LOWINSKI in four years and LUWINSKI in two. One more was found later the same day, in a South African gazette, and it is here to be kept out.
Hover or tab any dot and it says what the document behind it is. The top lane of each diagram is the one this archive descends from. A dashed band is a family of the same name that is documented and is definitely not ours — drawn here so that the next person who finds the name does not have to make the mistake again.

Real households of the name, not yet on any lane

  • Deuthen — Anton b. 16.10.1919, four miles from Allenstein — one record, no parents
  • Felix — b. 19.02.1923, an Arolsen index entry and nothing more
  • Mrągowo — Jakob Lowinski and Gertrude Brieskorn, son married 1908
  • Leo's household — Leo b. 1902 and Martha Fuhl, sons Kurt and Siegfried
  • The hundred names — the tree's Polish block — and on 20 September it touched a record for the first time

Attached to no lane here

  • Lowin of Kraplau — an 18th-century Masurian name the fuzzy search keeps returning
  • Löwinski / Lewinski — a separate and far commoner Jewish surname — not a variant of this one
  • Marcus William Lowinsky — patented a cartwheel in Australia in 1892 — not ours, and ruled out once so nobody rules him out twice
  • Helga Lowinsky b. 14 April 1931 — sailed to Australia from Britain in 1964, married a Grant — the right forename, the wrong year, the wrong country

What each lane owes The standing instruction

When a new household of either name is met it gets a lane before it gets a paragraph anywhere else, and the lane carries three things: what is documented, what is inferred, and what would have to be found to join it.

A lane with nothing in the third column is a lane this archive has stopped thinking about. There are none of those yet. The full text of every lane, with its evidence, is in the evidence layer under The lines of the name.

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