The following family of Aufrichtigs are descended from Samuel L Aufrichtig (b.1814) a resident of Boskovice, Moravia. Born just a year apart from Salomon Z Aufrichtig of the main Boskovice family group, there is a strong possibility of a family connection and relationship to earliest recorded Aufrichtig, Zalel (b.1773). Samuel fathered four sons, Gabriel Aufrichtig (1841-1896), Alois Aufrichtig (c1841-1921),  Moritz F Aufrichtig (1845-1932) who emigrated to the U.S.A. where he married and had seven children, and Karl Aufrichtig (1847-1912) who achieved worldwide acclaim as owner/trainer of a flea circus. 

It appears likely that much original documentation regarding  Moritz F Aufrichtig and his family was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire. Details of Moritz's marriage survived since the ceremony was held in 1869 in Manhattan. Less clear, however, are the circumstances by which  Moritz and his new wife, Bertha [Bettie] Zeimer, travelled from New York to San Francisco where a year after their marriage, their first child, Samuel Aufrichtig, was born in July 1870. Similarly unclarified are the reasons or purpose for Maurice, Bettie and new-born son to travel back to New York, where they remained long enough for the birth of their second child, Isaac A Aufrichtig, in 1872 and third child, Louis Aufrichtig, in 1873. Other information has surfaced as a result of newspaper notices at the time and copies of the U.S. Census. Moritz is known to have transferred his jewellery business skills from Boskovice to San Francisco where, in due course, he was assisted by Isaac, working as a diamond setter, and Louis, a clerk. According to the San Francisco, California Directories, 1889-91, Louis was a clerk at Bauer Bros & Co, based at the same 905 Market Street address as Moritz.

About the same time that Moritz left Boskovice to emigrate to America, elder brother Gabriel Aufrichtig also left Moravia to travel the relatively short distance to Vienna. This is supported by the fact that he and wife Emilie Nowak's first child, Ida Aufrichtig, had been born in Roth Kosteletz, Czechoslovakia, in 1869 and their three other children, Berta Aufrichtig (1871), Leopoldine Aufrichtig (1874) and Eduard Aufrichtig (1876) were all born in the Austrian capital. Not known is whether Gabriel later became a widower or divorcé, since he is documented as having married a second time, to Mathilde Werner, with whom he had a daughter, Gisella Aufrichtig, in 1894. Gabriel died two years later, in 1896, and was buried in the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna.

Thanks to ship manifests, it was established that Gabriel Aufrichtig's grand-daughter, Valerie U Aufrichtig, had travelled to the U.S. Valerie entered in December 1920, aged 18, and on the manifest declared her intention to permanently remain in America and to seek U.S. citizenship. For relative or friend with whom she intended to stay in the U.S., she listed her uncle, Moritz Aufrichtig of 344 17th Avenue, San Francisco - albeit spelt as Moriz Anfrichtig - who had also been entered as the person who paid for her passage. Her father was entered as Eduard Aufrichtig, at that time residing in Trantenan, Bohemia. 

Over the next decade, Valerie's parents divorced and by the time of the 1930 Census, she had been joined by her mother, Kamilla Patzowski Aufrichtig, sister Berta Aufrichtig [01] and younger brother, Egon Josef Aufrichtig. Valerie is known to have married pianist Samuel Rodetsky and to have remained in  San Francisco until her death in 1996, while Berta is recorded as having returned to Europe, where she died, in Vienna, on 31 August 1939.  Egon became popularly known as Joe Upright and settled in the Santa Clara region of California where he and his wife, Frances Mintz, had a daughter, Elaine Upright and son Richard Upright. The line extends to the present day with Elaine's daughter and her grandson, Jason.

Alois Aufrichtig is variously recorded on documents as having been born in 1839 or 1841, the latter suggesting that he may have been the twin brother of Gabriel. He is believed to have been of similar age to his wife, Franziska Schwarz, who is also thought to be of Boskovice origin, although officially registered to Prague. The couple are known to have had at least three children - Siegfried Aufrichtig [aka Vitezslav Aufrichtig] (b1872), Berta Aufrichtig [02] (1876) and Heinrich Aufrichtig [aka Jindrich Aufrichtig] (1876). It has not been established if Berta and Heinrich were born at each end of the year 1876 or were, in fact, another twin birth.

Alois's family of Aufrichtigs was both short and tragic, with nearly every one of its members losing their lives in the Holocaust. Heinrich married Olga Kauders from Jechnitz, Podborany, Bohemia with whom he is known to have had three children - Robert H Aufrichtig, born 1905 in Gerten, Czechoslovakia, Paul [Pavel] Aufrichtig, ( 1907, Gerten) and Otto Aufrichtig (1910) whose birthplace is believed to have also been Gerten.

Heinrich and Olga died in Lodz, as did Otto. Paul and Otto's wife. Hana ~~~, died at Izbica, while the fate of his own wife, Vera ~~~, remains unknown. All had been deported from Prague and assigned registration numbers, the consecutiveness of which suggested three additional, though as yet unconnected, members. Below is a table of numbers and members assigned to them.

 

Registration Number	Name	Date of Birth	Place of Birth	Relationship	Deportation Date	Destination
1075	Alzbeta [Elisabetha] Aufrichtigova	23 November 1887	Not known	Wife of Robert Aufrichtig	26 October 1941	Lodz
1076	Hana ~~~ Aufrichtigova	22 July 1912	Not known	Wife of  Otto Aufrichtig	12 February 1942  17 March 1942	Theresienstadt Izbica
1077	Heinrich [Jindrich] Aufrichtig	1 January 1876	Not known	Son of Alois Aufrichtig	26 October 1941	Lodz
1078	Olga Kauders Aufrichtigova	17 September 1874	Jechnitz, Podborany	Wife of Heinrich Aufrichtig	26 October 1941	Lodz
1079	Otto Aufrichtig	18 June 1910	possibly Gerten	Son of Heinrich & Olga Aufrichtig	26 October 1941	Lodz
1080	Paul [Pavel] Aufrichtig	30 December 1907	Gerten	Son of Heinrich & Olga Aufrichtig	12 February 1942  17 March 1942	Theresienstadt Izbica
1081	Pauline [Pavla] Bondy	17 January 1869	Not known	Wife of Siegfried [Vitezslav] Aufrichtig	12 February 1942  15 October 1942	Theresienstadt Treblinka
1082	Robert Aufrichtig	10 January 1880	Teplice	Not known	26 October 1941	Lodz

Missing from the table, which highlights many potential links, is Vera ~~~, born cir 1920, wife of Paul [Pavel] Aufrichtig. At the top, with registration number 1075 is Alzbeta [Elisabetha] ~~~, wife of Robert Aufrichtig, whose own number 1082 makes him the final entry. Robert, Alzbeta, Heinrich and Heinrich's wife Olga and their son, Otto, were all deported on 26 October 1941 from Prague to Lodz.

Paul and brother Otto's wife, Vera, were deported from Prague to Theresienstadt on 12 February 1942, and then from Theresienstadt to Izbica on 17 March 1942. Deported with them on 12 February was Pauline [Pavla] Bondy, the widow of Siegfried [Vitezslav] Aufrichtig who is believed to have died in Theresienstadt in October 1939. 

Heinrich's sister Berta Aufrichtig [02] travelled to America in August 1920 on board SS Noordam. Described as single, aged 44 and born in Roth Kostelec [Kosteletz], her ship's manifest entry confirmed that her brother Siegfried Aufrichtig was her nearest relative in the town from whence she came.

Berta also declared that she would be staying with her uncle Moritz Aufrichtig in San Francisco while in the United States, and her ship's manifest entry clearly highlighted the connection between her own family of Aufrichtigs and the San Francisco group. Moritz's history of inviting family members to stay with him in San Francisco continued with the arrival of 17 years old Robert H Aufrichtig in July 1922. He, too, entered Moritz Aufrichtig as an Uncle with whom he would be staying and the person who had paid for his passage. Like Valerie, Robert declared his intention to remain permanently in the U.S. and to seek citizenship. He gave his most recent address as Gerten, Czechoslovakia. By 1930 he, like his second cousin Egon, and Moritz's own sons Samuel, Isaac and Louis, had changed his name from Aufrichtig to Upright. In 1938 he married Elizabeth Goldman, with whom he had a daughter, Arlene Jayne Upright. Robert, who holds the record for the longest-living Aufrichtig, celebrated his century in 2005, the year his great-grandson, Ryan Stiskin, was born. He passed away in June 2007 at the magnificent age of 102.

Providing a link to another family - the Teplice Aufrichtigs - is the Robert Aufrichtig born in 1880. His place of birth was Teplice - home town of Fritz Aufrichtig (b1890) and journalist Hans Aufrichtig (b1901). From correspondence written by Hans to his wife Käthe Schröder, it is known that he had an Uncle Robert. The registration numbers on the Aufrichtig Prague deportation cards strongly suggests membership of one family, particularly the fact that the list begins with his wife, Alzbeta [Elisabetha] and ends with his own entry. {NB: Robert and Alzbeta have been included with the Lovosice Aufrichtigs pending any proven links to the Boskovice-San Francisco-Berlin group.]

Although Moritz F Aufrichtig retained the family name until his death in March 1932, sons Isaac and Louis are known to have changed theirs to Upright - a literal translation of "auf" being German for "up", and "richtig" the German equivalent of "right" (as in correct). Thanks to Isaac's grandson, David Charles Upright, there is now documentation and detail of an unbroken line of descendancy running from Samuel L Aufrichtig, to Moritz F Aufrichtig, to Isaac A Aufrichtig [Upright], to Rodney Maurice Upright, to David and his children, Alison Lee Upright, Steven Ross Upright and Derek Glenn Upright. 

Many years later, she  married a second time - becoming the wife of Rodney Maurice Upright, whose father Isaac had been the elder brother of her grandfather Louis. Despite the generation "gap" there was, in reality, only four years difference in their ages. It has not been established whether Rachel and husband Clarence Keith had any children of their own, but elder sister, Lillian [Lily] B Aufrichtig married Maurice Reich and had three sons - Sylvan Reich, Joseph Reich and LeRoy Reich. In 1900, while living with her father Moritz, Lillian and husband Maurice had appeared on the US Census form as Lilian and Morris Ritch (with a middle "T")Subsequent Census forms featured the name Reich. It is known that eldest son Sylvan anglicised this to "Rich", under which name he achieved renown as a costume designer. and is well-documented in a large number of ship and aircraft manifests. One of these manifests confirmed that his wife's name was Elinor, and that the couple had a daughter named Carla Rich. Sylvan died in September 2002, becoming the first Aufrichtig descendant to celebrate a century in January of that year. Whether brothers Joseph and Leroy similarly adopted the name Rich is not certain. Leroy is known to have appeared under the name Reich until the 1950s. However, a Social Security Death Record exists for a Leroy Rich, born 14 August 1908 and who died, aged 93, in Phoenix, Arizona on 18 March 2002. His SSN had been issued prior to 1951 in California. The date of birth is but one day earlier than the 15 August 1908 credited to Leroy Reich born in San Francisco, whose mother's maiden name was given as Aufricht (instead of Aufichtig). It appears more than just probable that these two are one and the same. Middle brother Joseph may possibly be the similarly-named and similarly-aged Joseph Reich who in February 1935 was included in the manifest of the SS Ruth Alexander. Accompanying that Joseph Reich was his wife, Florence.

Moritz had three more children - an un-named son born in San Francisco in 1881, Joseph Aufrichtig, born in 1882, who died 10 months later, and an un-named daughter who died on 29 July 1884. The lack of a given name suggests that this daughter was newly born. His first child, Samuel Aufrichtig, appeared under that name as living with his wife, Estelle Cohn Aufrichtig in Buchanan Street, San Francisco in the 1900 Census. No other documentation on the pair appears to exist, other than an 1895 marriage announcement in the San Francisco Call newspaper, although the 1910 San Francisco Census does list a Samuel Upright, also in Buchanan Street. Despite the 1910 Census form giving Samuel's year of birth as "about 1873" instead of 1870, it would seem that this was nevertheless the same person, and that Estelle had died and he was living on his own.

Moritz's wife, Bettie, died in April 1911 in Los Angeles and according to the 1920 Census, 74 years old Moritz was living on his own. By this time most of his surviving children had adult families of their own and this, in part, may probably have led to Moritz acting as benefactor to members of his brothers' families which, by 1930, had included all three of nephew Eduard's children and his wife, as well as nephew Heinrich's son, Robert H Aufrichtig. No doubt inspired by all of Moritz's sons, his great nephews and niece-in-law all  similarly changed their name to Upright. 

Samuel L Aufrichtig's youngest son was Karl Aufrichtig, and special thanks are due to Karl's great-great grandson Christian Deuter who, with his father, Siegfried Deuter, provided details of the descendants forming the Berlin arm of this family group. 

Karl is known to have returned to his Moravian/Bohemian roots and to have died in Prague, where he is buried in the Olsany-Zizkov Jewish Cemetery. Since the early part of the 20th century, his family has, for the most part, been based in Berlin. Like his elder brothers Gabriel and Moritz, Karl and his immediate family are mentioned in Boskovice notes - an indication of his family roots. These notes and reference to father Samuel on his tombstone, provided the required connection linking him to this group.  Somewhat surprisingly, despite achieving worldwide acclaim at the start of the 20th century for his travelling flea circus, Karl's life remains less documented than that of elder brother Moritz. He had two daughters, Rosabella Aufrichtig and Frieda Lina [Fridoline] Aufrichtig, the former playing her part in helping continuation of the family line to the present day, and the latter following her father into a career in showbusiness, as a singer. Little is known of Frida Lina - stage name Frida Arno - other than the references to her in the Boskovice Archive Records - one of which dates from 1938/9 - and references to both she and her husband, Wilhelm Bokelmann, in the Berlin Address Books.

Karl Aufrichtig

Karl, who on various documentation has also been listed as Carl, and his Lodz-born wife Wilhelmina Hoffmann, had moved from Moravia to Dresden, where elder daughter Rosabella was born in 1876. It was she who established the subsequent permanent link with Berlin, in which city she is believed to have married Oswald Deutschland and had her children. The mother of two daughters followed by three sons,  her second eldest child, Katharina Deutschland is confirmed as having been born in  Berlin, as were subsequent generations. Although they did not have the specific details, Katharina's family had been made aware of their Stateside connections by her tales of grandfather Karl Aufrichtig and his tour of America. Upon his return, he had brought gifts for the family in the form of jewellery given to him by his brother in San Francisco.

Katharina had three children, the youngest of whom, Eva-Rose Reiss, married Siegfried Deuter who, though without a blood connection to the Aufrichtigs, is as enthusiastically supportive of his wife's family line as his son, Christian. All three of Katharina's brothers married and had children, but as yet attempts to locate them have proved unsuccessful. 

Boskovice-San Francisco-Berlin Aufrichtigs - Alphabetical Listing

Karl Aufrichtig - Washington Post front page

Moritz F Aufrichtig - Background Details

Moritz F Aufrichtig - Census Listings

Photo Gallery

San Francisco Business Details

San Francisco - Other Aufrichtigs

Boskovice Archive Records

Boskovice Records