I have noticed that despite a formal numerical order of birth, there is considerable disorder and illogical approximations regarding the children of Chacham Tzvi Hirsch by his second wife, Sarah Newmark. For instance, in one case, a son is shown being born 40 years AFTER the death of his father the Chacham. In the analysis below, I wish to propose that there is enough historical information about the dates and places in the life of Chacham Tzvi Hirsch, to permit reasonable estimations of both the birth year and place of birth for these children, if one assumes that the order of birth is correct.
I leave it to the Curator to decide whether my logic would permit adoption into the tree of my proposed ideas. My only purpose is to suggest this might be done, and might supply dates (marked as "circa" where necessary) which are closer to actual birth dates currently given.
We know that the children cannot have been born prior to Chacham Tzvi Hirsch's marriage to Sarah Newmark in 1689 in Berlin. We also know they children could not have been born later than one year after 1718, when he died. Moreover, we know the exact date of birth of one of his children, Yaakov Israel Emden, which helps proportionately place the siblings born before him, and after him. Lastly, because we know roughly where Chacham Tzvi Hirsch lived in any given year, one can determine the place of birth of many of his children with some confidence. Below is a timeline that plugs in all of these variables, and uses the order of birth given by Chacham Tzvi Hirsch's profile.
In most cases, it allows estimating year of birth within 2-3 years accuracy. There are problems with this analysis, in that for some of these individuals, a date of death is given that would mean lifespans well into the 90's or older. This is certainly possible, but it does make one wonder whether one of the variables are wrong: Order of birth may be incorrect, or date of death may be wrong. Then again, maybe those persons really did live a very long life.
OK. Below is the timeline and the variables provided by the Chacham Tzvi Hirsch's profile. Everything seems to fit. I hope it is useful and makes sense:
1689 Arrives in Berlin. Marries Sarah Neumark
1690 Moves to Altona --- Miriam Lowenstam born (estimate)
1691
1692 Rachel Eisenstadt born (estimate)
1693
1694 Nechama Sarah (#4) born (estimate)
1695
1696
1697 Yaakov Israel Emden born
1698
1699 Ephraim born (estimate)
1700
1701 Nathan born (estimate)
1702
1703 David born (estimate)
1704
1705 Gnendel Mamrat-Hirschfeld-Oldenburg born (estimate)
1706
1707 Avraham Meshullam Zalman born (estimate)
1708
1709 Moshe born (estimate)
1710 Moves to Amsterdam
1711
1712 Bat Sheva born (estimate)
1713
1714 Moves to London. Elyakim? born (estimate)
1715
1716 Travels to Emden, Hanover, Halberstadt, Berlin, Breslau, Opatów, Hamburg.
Daughter #15 born (estimate)
1717 Moves to Lvov
1718 Death in Lvov. Daughter #16 born (estimate)
