WELCOME TO THIS REMEMBERING PLACE!
I have considerable data on the Senft line, but unfortunately not for my own. (This seems true for other researchers as well.) It is believed that the Senft’s originated in the Hohenbach area, but one son of the original settler did not stay there – this was fairly common. Most remained in and around Hohenbach /Padew, some moved into Galatia and others into what is now the Ukraine. One Senft family went to Galatia and according to the Schneider book, I must be connected to this line.
My grandfather was born in Tarnopol, Ukraine and before the revolution returned to the Bohemia region of Czechoslovakia. He married an elusive Josefa Morgenstern whose 
family had been in that region for a 100 years. I have no pictures of either of them. The beauty shown here is my mother.
The region was in Kromerlice/Austria Hungary -1800’s. Their son, (my father) was born In Komotau, now Chomotov, Czech. After WW11 many Sudeten Germans were forced to return to Germany. Others remained in Czech and I continue to search for these ancestors. Good MAPS are certainly needed.
Links to Ancestors and Descendants of Ernst Senft and the maternal side of the Schinnagl and Schoenberger families are listed below.
Josef Schinnagl in the priesthood was her brother. All the Schoenbergers and Schinnagl clan were deeply planted in the Innsbruck/Bad Aibling area of upper Bavaria and her brother became a priest in Munich. End of that genealogy! I will have to scan some pictures of her father Philipp Schoenberger who was born in picture beautiful Bad Aibling- 1880′s. Or should I be searching for Philipp SchÖnbergers? The umlaut may make a big difference on European searches! The Schinnagl could also be Schinagl.
I invite you to visit my rock site and gardening pages. However, I see no progress after twenty some years with Ancestry.com So I will end this front page and make it into a Recipe site and political commentary.
I have always respected history and the travails that my parents and grandparents went through. My kids neglected these memories two decades ago, but recently suggested I provide it to them again. I hope “The cellar” brings back a memory to at least one of them.
My parents were children of the Depression and the recipes included will show that frugality. Food was very expensive in the currency of those times and half the nation was in Soup Lines. We now have an increasing percentage of the nation on food stamps. ** Most of the unemployed then gathered at Hobo Camps, now the homeless simply hide from the statistics. Please read my ending to ‘Smile.’ ** The 15% has grown to 20 percent since the last election.
(C) Herb Senft 2014
The past has room in it for everyone. The present less so and as for the future, that becomes ever more questionable as one gets older.
I wish I could help, but all I had were a few scribbles from my Mom indicating that her family had lived in Czechoslovakia for a long time. Bruno pops to my mind. But my father would have had that information and it was a bitter divorce. He returned to Germany and relatives, so I never got any of his history, photos or anything.
I am not discounting the ‘Jewish’ possibility but that is certainly a stretch as my father served in the German army and they sort of frowned on anyone with Jewish blood. Seeing the certification my mother went through to return to Germany just before the war … it was imperative to prove your ‘Catholic’ background. She was from Bavaria.
The Senft family came from the Ukraine and settled in western Bohemia. Komotov, Komotau … so how he could have met some person from eastern Czech is interesting. Then again, there may have been some gypsy blood in them. They raised draft horses and were the equivalent of truck drivers in those days transporting goods.
Thank you for asking and suggestion. Wish I had the “correct birthplace” down. I do know that she was buried (with my grandfather) in Nurnberg Germany.
A new aspect has arisen: I just received this post from someone I am sure is related to my Grandmother This is awesome news. It also explains a lot as to why this maternal line has been a dead end.
Willibad is also the name of one of my fathers brothers.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Astel
He was the last rabbi in Kromeriz and died in Auschwitz (1942).
Rabbi in Kromeriz, the same town where Josefa was born.
Her daughter Anna Senft (my grandmother) married my grandfather Willibald Astel.
Just got an update from one of my relatives. Some Jewish background there. Kroměříž Morovia area of Czech, east of BRNO where my great grandmother??? may have come from.
Joachim Astel, who was trained as a rabbi, hailed from Polish Galicia. His parents were Moses Astel and Miriam (née Goldberg)[1]; however, he was able to learn the Czech language quickly. He studied in Oxford and took an interest in mathematics and chemistry.[2] Astel first served as a rabbi in Tachov (1931–1933); from 1934 until his arrest, he was the rabbi in Kroměříž. In this capacity, however—like his predecessors—he also regularly visited the nearby community of Přerov, which had no rabbi of its own.[3][4]
In 1942, a report was filed against Joachim Astel alleging that he was raising chickens to slaughter them for soup (an act prohibited for Jews). The town’s mayor, Hans Humplík, ordered a house search, which confirmed the allegation. Astel was arrested and transferred to Přerov, where he was interrogated by the Gestapo and immediately deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Joachim Astel died there only a short time after his arrival.[2][5] His family likely never learned of his fate, as just two days after his death, transports to the Theresienstadt concentration camp began in Kroměříž, carrying away his wife and two sons.[2]
The Jewish community in Kroměříž, first mentioned in 1322, is among the oldest in Europe.[6] As late as the end of the 19th century, it numbered around 800 members and maintained three synagogues; however, by 1930—when Astel became rabbi there—it had shrunk to fewer than 400 members. In 1942, the residents of the Jewish ghetto were all deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp and subsequently to other camps, where 259 individuals were murdered.[7][8] Stolperstein
Stolperstein for Joachim Astel
On November 6, 2017, a *Stolperstein* (memorial cobblestone) was laid in front of the former Jewish community building at Moravcova ulice 259—where the Astel family lived—for Joachim Astel, as well as for his wife Frima Astelová and their sons Jonathan and Schmarjahu Astel; they, too, were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp and murdered there in 1944. The *Stolperstein* for Joachim Astel bears the following inscription (with a translation)[2][5]
image.png
Her daughter Anna Senft (my grandmother) married my grandfather Willibald Astel.