Pikholz Families of East Galicia - An Introduction
(based on presentations by Jacob Laor and Israel Pickholtz
at the Pikholz Families' gathering on 2 Sivan 5759,
17 May 1999,  Bet Gil Paz, Kefar Sava.)

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At this time, our working assumption is no longer that the original Pikholz family was either in Skalat or Rozdol and that an early migration (perhaps as early as 1800) resulted in two separate family lines.  It later seemd that there are two families - one in Skalat that goes back into the late 1700s and one in Rozdol which goes back to a single known couple who died in the period 1825-1840. DNA seems to indicate that this is one family, with the woman of the original Rozdol cule being a part of the Skalat family.
The frequency of given names is analyzed in a special section of the website.
 

WESTERN FAMILIES EASTERN FAMILIES
Rozdol and surrounding area.
Main locations
 Skalat and surrounding area
Stayed put until relatively late
Movement
 Spread out, apparently including first family members to Eretz Israel and US
One small family
Leviim
 Two families - one small, one large
Avraham, Yitzhak, Pinkas, Solomon, Hersch.
Common names: 
Men
 Eliezer, Berl, Mordecai, Simon, Moshe-Hersch, Yaakov, Nachman, Peretz, Getzel, Yehiel, Shalom.
     
Yehudah
Leib
 Aryeh
Sarah, Golde
Women
 Bessie, Devorah, Cirl
Pikholz name preserved in various spellings
Surname preserved?
 Most families daughtered out or changed names
"In a place where there are no Pikholz, try to be a Pikholz"
(Old Hillel Pikholz, Ethics of the Pikholz Fathers 2,5)

"Distinct families" are those with four generations or more, regardless of the number of people recorded.

There are a number of instances of marriages between two distinct families, resulting in "joint" descendants.

In any event, although we are pleased that we have gone as far back as this with so many families,
our ultimate goal is to reduce the number of distinct families by demonstrating common ancestry.

Distinct families
TOTAL
WEST*
EAST
UNCLEAR
Ten generations or more
1
1
-
  
Nine generations
3
-
3
  
Eight generations
5
3
1
1
Seven generations 
4
2
1
1
Six generations
7
3
2
 2 
Five generations
3
-
2
1
Four generations
2
-
2
-
T O T A L
25
9
11
5

* These generations do not include Izak-Feige who are definitely the parents of several families.
However, until we clarify whether there is one Izak-Feige or two, we are not formally recording them.

                                                    Learn more about

Western families Eastern families
Unclear families   See how the families interconnect
Individuals and Small Families Back to Main Pikholz Page
A word about surnames.  In our culture we take it for granted that a person begins life with the same surname as his father.  That leads us to believe (among other things) that if first cousins have the same surname, their fathers are perforce brothers.  In our grandparents' European society, that was not always the case. Frequently, a couple was married by the rabbinate, but not registered by the local authorities, in which case the children would have the mother's name.  (And if a marriage was registered later, subsequent children might have the father's name.)  That can give rise to a person who is a Pickholz from the mother and a Kohen or Levi (or even a Litvak!) from the father.  Between this phenomenon and the frequency of cousin marriages, all bets are off regarding some of our most natural assumptions.