GOLDSTEIN FAMILY
OF
BOZCICE (BOSNYICA)

Bozcice is a small village about six miles northeast of Sečovce (Galszecs). Today it is part of Parchovany (Parno).

My earliest ancestors are Hersko GOLDSTEIN, born in 1788, who married Betti SCHON (born in 1808 in Visnov/Visnyo).

In the Conscription Book (Status of Jews, 1850-1854 in Sečovce and surroundings), there are a few GOLDSTEINS (Wolf and his wife Zirl in Galszecs, Hirsch and Taube and five boys in Kismicz and later in Bosticzitz(?), Ber Lipman and wife Rozi and four children in Pelletto, and Josef and Sali and one boy in Kereplo), but no Hersko and Betti.

Hersko died in 1854 and Betti in 1855; both are buried in Parno.

The 1869 Census lists GOLDSTEIN Lipót (son of Hersko and Betti, born 1834 in Bosnyica), his wife Szerena Zali STEINBERGER (born 1840 in Pacin, died 1892 in Bosnyica) and their four children born in Bosnyica: Hersko (1858), Paula Toni (my great-grandmother, born 1861), Izidor Ignacz (born 1864), and Samuel (born 1867).

Izidor left for the USA, and in 1885 married Fannie SPIEGEL (born Moravani, 1865) in New York. They had three children. One of his daughters, Sylvia GOLD, published a book about the family’s troubled attempts at assimilation, entitled “Neighbors Needn’t Know”.

Samuel followed his brother and arrived in the USA in 1903 with his wife Minna SCHWARTZ (born Vilivitany 1873) and their three children. An additional child was born in the USA.

Paula Toni and Adolf Aron BLUM (my great-grandparents), married Bosnyica, 1884. After their marriage they moved to Sedliska (my great-grandfather’s birth place), and at the beginning of the twentieth century moved to Debrecen.

My grandparents (Iren Szerena BLUM and Sandor CSILLAG) married in Debrecen, and luckily moved to Arad, Romania, and thereby they survived the Holocaust, unlike the BLUMS who remained in Debrecen.