Magaziners of Humenne

Updated 1/25/2010

The Magaziner Family Circa 1898.
Hover over a face to see the name
Back: Hugo, Jeanette (Jennie), William, Anthony (Tony, Antal), Sadie
Middle: Fannie, Henry, Louis, Cecelia, Lena
Front: Nellie, Anna
Not Pictured: Resi (Rahel), Jakob, Israel Lob (Lajos)

This site is a collection of genealogical information related to the Magaziner family of Humenne. It focuses on the descendants of Henry Magaziner who immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA with his wife Cecelia Rosenbluth and ten of his children, all pictured above. Humenne (marked with a star on the map) is a town the Zemplen megye in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The town was known as Homonna in Hungarian. It is now part of Slovakia (note Humenne at the eastern edge of the country). The Jewish genealogical website JewishGen has a page about Humenne. According to Henry Jonas Magaziner, who heard the story from his father Louis Magaziner, the family acquired the surname "Magaziner" because a distant ancestor took on a government job as manager of the site of an exploded powder magazine. The family lived at that site until the late 1880s. At that time, three of Henry and Cecelia's teenaged daughters (probably Fannie, Lena and Jennie) set sail for America. They intended to go to New York, but ended up in Philadelphia by mistake. With the help of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), they set up shop as dressmakers in Philadelphia and were successful enough to bring over the rest of the family within a few years. Many of the descendants of this clan still live in Philadelphia and its suburbs. Henry had 12 children, ten of whom survived to adulthood and are pictured above. His oldest two children (Anthony, pictured above, and Jakob, who died in childhood) were sons of Henry's first wife, Resi or Rahel Friedman, who died when the sons were very young. Henry's second wife, Cecelia Rosenbluth (pictured above) raised his first two sons and was the mother of his remaining ten children. The ten children who survived to adulthood (Anthony and nine of Cecelia's children) all immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where this photograph was taken, and all had one or more children. Their descendants include 28 grandchildren, 53 great-grandchildren, 96 great-great grandchildren, 68 3rd-great-grandchildren and two 4th-great grandchildren identified so far. There are many Jewish Magaziner families in the United States, but most of them (including former presidential advisor Ira C. Magaziner) trace their origins to Poland or the Russian Empire and are no relation to this family. All of the Austro-Hungarian Magaziners I have found in the United States can trace their roots back to Henry and his children. In addition, most of the Magaziners I have found in Hungarian records are connected to either Humenne or to the nearby town of Sátoraljaújhely (aka Ujhely), where some of the Humenne Magaziners moved. The are all most likely related to our Magaziners. Yes, Henry Magaziner's wife, Cecelia Rosenbluth, is related to the travel agency Rosenbluths (the travel agency is now owned by American Express, but was a family business until 2003). I have been in touch with a person researching the Rosenbluth family, and she confirms that her family tree includes a "Tante Magaziner" (Auntie Magaziner), undoubtedly our Cecelia. Out of respect for the privacy (and identity security!) of their descendants, I have provided little or no detail about living descendants. I have provided a complete alphabetical list of all the descendants I have identified, with only names for living persons, and a complete descendant tree with no names for living persons. New 5/7/2006: As I dig deeper into this family tree, I have begun finding evidence of other Magaziners in Hungary, most of whom are either from Humenne or traceable to Humenne.  They are undoubtedly related to us in some way, but I have not yet found information directly connecting them.  They could be descendants of Henry from a previous marriage, descendants of Henry's siblings, or descendants of his cousins.  I have found no trace of them in America, though I have traced one branch in Hungary to a woman who died as recently as 2003, and who had two children who are probably still living.  I have added an Other Magaziners page, collecting all of the information I have about them, in case anybody has any additional information.  If you know anything about these other Magaziners, please email me! New 1/12/2007: I have tracked down documentation suggesting the relationship between Hugo and his wife. Their marriage certificate indicates that they are second cousins, and I now have evidence that her mother's maiden name was Magaziner, and that she may have been born in Budapest, a possible connection to some of the Other Magaziners. In addition, I have found the death dates for Hugo and Fannie, previously unknown. New 4/27/2007: I have seen pictures of the Jewish birth, death and marriage registries for the town of Humenne, including birth records for nine of Henry Magaziner's children, a marriage record for Henry and Cecelia and death records for Jakob and a woman who is probably Henry's first wife (Anthony and Jakob's mother). The information from these records has been incorporated into the biographies. In addition, the records include many records relating to Other Magaziners which have been incorporated into that page. New 5/18/2007: Upon further examination of the Humenne registries, I have made some educated guesses about the relationships of these people, and have constructed a family tree of Henry Magaziner's parents, siblings, uncle and cousins. The site now includes 365 descendants of Henry Magaziner (including spouses), 42 collateral relatives of Henry Magaziner (including spouses), and more than 50 other people named Magaziner or descended from Magaziners who cannot yet be linked to this tree. New 5/11/2009: It's been too long since I've updated this site. I have continued to research the Magaziner family tree when I have the time, keeping my records up-to-date, adding new Magaziners as children are born or as I find new records, recording the deaths of those who pass, or other records that connect up some of the random Hungarian Magaziners on the Other Magaziners page, but I haven't had the time to write up these changes and upload them to the site. Perhaps the most significant change was the passing of Alex Rosenthal, youngest son of Fannie Magaziner Rosenthal, in January 2008. Alex was the oldest living descendant of Henry Magaziner, passing at the age of 102. When I first started this site in 2005, I contacted the accounting firm of Goldenberg Rosenthal, founded by Fannie's son Simon Henry, asking for permission to link to their site. I was told, "We'd be pleased to have you link to our site, especially since we all know and love Alex." I was a bit puzzled at the time, because the only Alex I knew of would have been almost 100 years old at the time, and certainly couldn't still be living! But a year later I heard from a Magaziner cousin about Alex's 100th birthday party, saying that Alex "is still an officer [of Goldenberg Rosenthal] and goes to his office." New 6/4/2009: The Jewish genealogical website JewishGen recently updated their Hungarian database, adding thousands of birth, marriage and death records. Many of these records are from Budapest, and confirm the connection between our Magaziner family and the Magaziners of Budapest. Many of these Budapest records can be connected back to Hummene, reinforcing the notion that most of the Hungarian Magaziners are one family. In fact, one of the Budapest records indicates that a previously unlinked Magaziner is the son of Henry's uncle, Samuel Magaziner. New 7/26/2009: I recently received an email from a daughter of Marianne Szemes confirming that her family is part of this tree, and tying together several loose ends that have been nagging at me for a couple of years! I have created a new page on the site for Collateral Lines, relatives of Henry Magaziner who are not his direct descendants. They are descendants of Henry's grandfather, connected to the family through Henry's siblings or cousins. When I first created the Other Magaziners page in 2006, I suspected that those people were related, but I had no proof. Now I have managed to document the relationship of most of them (and many more!). Those who can be connected to the family with some confidence and precision are now on the Collateral Lines page. There are still a few Magaziners who may be related but I don't know how, and they remain on the Other Magaziners page. New 1/25/2010: Most of the recent updates have added to the living Magaziners, so you won't see the new names on the descendant tree, but you will see many new names in the alphabetical list. Just when you think a Hungarian Magaziner might not be part of the tree, you find information that hooks them back to Humenne! I had pretty much dismissed Dr. Jozsef Magaziner as an unrelated, Russian Magaziner when I found his daughter's marriage record. The daughter was born in Beregszasz, far from Humenne, a town that is now in the Ukraine. But I recently found birth records for Roza and her three siblings, Ilona, Baroch and Aurel, and Aurel's birth record specifies that his father, Jozsef was born in Homonna (Humenne)! Aurel appears to be the same Aurel Magaziner that was previously found in Budapest school records. I don't yet know how these Magaziners are related to us, but if they can be traced back to Humenne, I'm sure they are connected. There is a Facebook group for people named Magaziner. The group is administered by descendants of William, and includes many members of this tree, as well as unrelated people named Magaziner.

Home

Descendant Tree

Collateral Lines

Other Magaziners

Alphabetical List

Sources

This site is created and maintained by Tracey Rich, great-granddaughter of Anna Magaziner Neufeld.

Do you think you or members of your family may be related to the Magaziners of Humenne? Email me for more information!