Sept.2000 – 59-58 –Jewishgen-Caro-OUT

To JEWISH CARO-KARO S WORLDWIDE !
I am descended maternally from the Jewish Caro Family and am continuing the Caro/Karo family research started by the late Paul Jacobi LLB in his 1988 two-volume typescript on this subject. It is the first non-Rabbinical source, based on listed official documents, personal interviews and varied bibliographical sources.

Rabbi JOSEPH Caro (Toledo,Spain 1488 - 1575, Safed,Israel) was the compiler of the Code of Jewish Law, (Shulchan Aruch ­ Laid Table) followed by Orthodox Jews to this day.
Contrary to popular belief, there were numerous rabbis over the centuries with the same name, since the Spanish Inquisition. They too had families, but the ambition to belong to "the" Toledo-born Joseph Caro family, about whose close Sefardic family there are many "yawning genealogical gaps"(P. Jacobi) also gave rise to many fallacies and baseless wishful thinking of descent.

Unlike the non-Jewish Caros, the name originates from the Hebrew word kara or e.g. baÂ’al kore - professional Torah reader and leader of prayers. Over the centuries, spelling of the name in Latin were distorted either by border police, immigration officials' illegible handwriting or sheer necessity to: e.g. KARRO - KARU - KROH - QUARO - KARR. Mutual misunderstandings among escaping, persecuted Jews and the new host countries' dialects are common reasons, but do not automatically indicate Jewish ancestry today.

The Yad VaShem Holocaust Authority (Jerusalem) has lists of C/Karo victims. World War II scattered the surviving Jewish C/Karos of Europe, Poland, Russia, the Baltics, the Balkans and North Africa, both Ashkenazi and Sephardi. Many are still looking for close and distant relatives.
The younger generations have grown up not knowing and not asking. The past and the pain that went with it, was superceded by new and immediate problems of re-establishing a new existence.
For the last 18 years, I have been trying to record all Jewish C/Karos or descendants world-wide, (through letters or personal interviews) with all the family details they know and can vouch for ­ which I check against historic, bibliographic and geographic sources.
Sometimes, inquiries about C/Karos who lived in accurately-quoted and spelled geographic locations can indicate the presence of others who have not survived or have disappeared. Obviously I draw no trees, make no diagrams nor linkages unless given to me by the family. I have my own ideas about possible connections, but don't venture beyond that.
My research does not include any other spelling form of the name other than :Caro/Karo.

If you can quote the approximate year, the earliest geographic place name (village-shtetl-town,district and country) your Jewish C/Karo ancestor came from, I may be able to give you other family members' names who also lived there, and which have been previously discovered and recorded.

It's FREE - AND THERE'S NO GUARANTEE

Chava Agmon.
Caro Family Research
havahug@barak-online.net

Dear Chava, this was a remarkable post and I learned something new by reading it. Thank you for your diligence and sharing. I too enjoy this genealogy research and admire others who stick with it and obtain results. Very nice, Beth in Florida

I am researching my German family who lived in Prussia and Pommerania. My gg grandfather and his wife,daughter plus mother-in-law and other family members immigrated to the United States in the 1880's.

My ggg grandmother, Juliana Schaltz-mother in law mentioned above, was born in Michalina, Sittnow, I believe Dist. of Bromberg (what is now Poland), in 1833. She died in Tacoma Washington in 1922. When I received her Death Certificate, our family was surprized to find her mother's name was Luise Caro, born in Pempersin of the same as above.

I have since searched the Lutheran church records for the Pempersin jurisdiction and found what appears to be 1 Lutheran Caro family, surrounded by many villages with hundreds of Jewish Caros.

We also have some old documentation regarding her family. Her father, Frederich Schaltz, owned a sheet metal company and was the mayor, apparently of Michalina for 30 years.

I have made copies of the Caro Lineage Rabbinical chart which denotes many Caros in the same general area of the State of Posen and the City of Thorn at about the same time. The Jewish Caro family located in Lodz also was in the sheetmetal business and sorrowfully lost many family members in the Holocaust.

So far this is the only Lutheran Caro family I have been able to identify in this area. Their patriarch is a Christopher Caro whose death is recorded in the church records in the early 1800's. He appears to have had 4 sons and several daughers. The sons are Michael, Paul, Peter and Johann.

It just seems inprobable that this family shows up with this name (Caro does not appear to be common name among Germans) as a lone German Caro family.

Does your research or anyone elses have any clue as to whether our Caros are actually Jewish converts to Lutheranism? I know some of them converted to Catholicism in Spain and Portugal and sought refuge from the Inquisition by moving on to the Netherlands.

Any help or recommended areas of research are greatly appreciated.

Greetings to Maryann !
Thank you so much for contacting me. Excitement and fascination mingle on reading your message.
It will take me a bit of time to formulate my reply,but be sure I will come back to you soon.
Please let me have your e-mail address,to simplify our correspondence,now that the initial ice has been broken.
With best wishes and SHALOM
Chava Agmon,
Tel Aviv,Israel

I inserted my e-mail address last time but it must not be working-I am new to broadband and just set it up. I will have my son check it for me.

I will continue to check church records in the surrounding communities to Pempersin, Sittnow, Prussia and the adjacent Dist of Bromberg. There were Jewish Caros in Thorn that are contemorary with my Caro family which show up on the Caro Rabbinical chart in the LDS Family History Center. There are also many other Jewish Caro families in the same vicinty at the same time.

It's difficult to believe that this is just chance. My family and I would greatly appreciate any light you can shed on this situation for us.

In the meantime, I will get my e-mail straightened out. Look forward to more correspondence.

Dear Maryann,this is my 2nd try to reach you.I contacted ANCESTRY Customer service because your <@microsoft. com was returned.I was happy they replied,but could not help unless you update your e-mail address.I have my reply poised to go -just waiting for you.I find this connection most uncomfortable and unfamiliar.
The Thorn Caro-s are a part of my branch.
Looking forward to smoother & improved contact with you.
Best wishes from Chava Agmon in Tel Aviv,Israel

sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I travel alot with my work and also had to change my e-mail address to get it work.

I haven't had a chance to get any more information from the LDS Library because they are temporarily closed on Saturdays until May.

It is really exciting that your family is associated with Thorn. That is so close to the area I'm researching. Looking forward to your e-mail.

Hope this finds you and yours happy & healthy. We hear so much here about the fighting & dangers in Israel. My son was lucky enough to get there some years ago on a training assignment for the company he worked for then. He was there 2 weeks & did get some sightseeing in. The students in his classes were wonderful & were great hosts.

I suggest you get a DNA project going. I would include "non-Jewish" Caro/Karo as well so we can get to the bottom of Jewish/Gentile debate of who is who from whom.

Contact www.familytreedna.com

I know of Caro families in Argentina who on their gravestones have a Star of David with a rose in the center. This has been a puzzle to local family members there who are CATHOLIC and can't figure out why their older family members have the Star of David on their graves. The rose is symbolic of REMEMBRANCE. The modern members of this particular family remember the custom of wearing a sash and a headress for burial.

I hope someone starts a DNA project.

Greetings to Arleen ! Your message was very exciting. I have sent you an e-mail message with an e-mail address of someone who will probably be able to help you with his Pedigree Chart.
Hope it works for you both.
With best wishes and SHALOM from
Chava Agmon,Tel Aviv,Israel.

Yes, my grandmother was born Caro and she was from Germany ( Upper Silesia ).
I think I have some familly pictures.
They emmigrated before the war to South America.

i!am relative of jose maria caro in Chile, South America, i wont to know any information about the origins of this last name, thanks

En español.
Mi segundo apellido es Caro. Estoy trabajando en una linea de este apellido en archivos de un pueblo de Sevilla, España.

I have received information that shows that, contrary to previously accepted information, Rabbi Joseph Caro ben Ephraim was born in ZAMORRA, North-western Spian, rather than Toledo

I have donated to the Leo Baeck Institute, New York City, a virtually complete list of high school graduates from the Province of Posen up to 1915, after which things became too chaotic in Posen to publish the records (due to WWI). The files are located in the Edward Luft Collection. For a fee, they will search the records or have someone go there for you and do it for free. Photocopies are then 25 cents each. I am not in New York City but I am the donor of those records but kept no copies. Some but not all of the records are on www.polishroots.org . Who knows, maybe you will be lucky.

Edward Luft

I just read your posting from 2003. I, too, am interested in finding out more about the Karos from Pempersin. My third grgrandmother was Anne Karo, daughter of Johann Karo, and was listed in the Lutheran records. Have you learned any more in the past few years?

Other names that I found in my ancestry were Bigalke, Reimer, and Geske.

Thank you,
Bette

Hi Bette -

We've talked before. I would like to know if there's new info on Caro/Karo as well!

My great great great great grandmother was Dorothea Caro, married Jacob Semerau in Pempersin, Kreis Flatow, West Prussia.

I keep looking for new or updated info and can't seem to find any!

Good Evening,
I have just discovered this website and article, and am curious to know of further connections you may have of my family lineage. I believe my father (Paul) and Jenny King (nee Caro) have conducted some previous investigation into the family history. I would be interested in comparing histories.
My father Paul(born Australia 1936) is a descendant of Phillip (born 1878)who was married to Annie. I believe Phillip was the one of several brothers including Aubert, Hyam, and others I will determine when contacting my father tomorrow. I believe they may trace directly back to Lithuania.
Any insights or information you can provide would be appreciated
Regards
Phillip Caro

I descend from the Caro family of Carmona (Spain), known also as the Caro of Tavira (Portugal)

We are now a Catholic family, but little by little, I am finding our possible ascendance in the family of Rav Yosef Caro.

They went in 1492 to Portugal, and Tavira had a great Jewish population.

Ms Chava Agmon said also in an article that Francisco Javier Caro, who went to actual Colombia, was a Jew. I have find him, and he was from a family of Seville (Carmona is in the Province of Seville)

It is possible the Jewish Caro of Spain are a parallel line of the Karo line, but it is also possible they came here from Germany in the Middle Age.

And that drives us to the question of the Davidic ascendance of the "Holy Family Karo", as registered in the Sefer Lintchitz.

All that is very interesting!

Kim Perez