From: "Nancy High" <hitzel@att.net>
Subject: RE: The dwarf Jacob Ries
Date: May 13, 2020 at 11:56:45 AM PDT
To: "'Randol Schoenberg'" <randols@bslaw.net>
Cc: "Thomas High" <Thomas.High@verizon.net>, <twhigh@att.net>
Dear Randy,
I just destroyed an e-mail I had carefully written, which was supposed to show why Jacob could not be the son of Model and Pessel. But since his supposed year of birth, or even anything within a decade of it, would totally preclude his being the son of any other Model Oettingen Ries we know of, I decided to go algebraically and analyze the names of all the children we can account for. We’re very fortunate to know about so many of them. Anyway, here is what I came up with:
Children of Model and Pessel: David (d.1658 at a young age in Wien) named for Model’s father, David. Mirl (d.1663 as a child in Wien) named for Pessel’s maternal grandmother, Mirl geb. Theomim who had died in 1639. Koppel (d. 1709 in Berlin) named for Pessel’s maternal grandfather, Jacob Koppel Heller. Abraham (d.1687 in Berlin) named for Model’s paternal great-great grandfather, Abraham of Ries. and for Pessel’s maternal great-grandfather, Abraham Heller Wallerstein. Elia (d.1713 in Hamburg) named for Model’s paternal great-grandfather, Elia of Oettingen. And Hirsch (d.1715 in Berlin) named for Pessel’s paternal grandfather, Naftali Hirsch Neumark, who had died before 1658.
Missing from this group is Pessel’s own father (!) Jacob David Neumark, who died in early 1657. As you know, at that time there was a huge reluctance ever to name a child the same name which had already been used for a child who died. We have seen some very ingenious ways of getting around this, but Model and Pessel had an advantage, in that Jacob David Neumark really did seem to have a double name. Wachstein points out that he was almost always called David, but the Jacob is present nonetheless. So here they are, already with a son who is technically a Jacob but who is always called Koppel, honoring Koppel Heller, and another (lost) son named David, in honor of David Ries. And in 1657 Pessel’s father dies, and she gets pregnant, and they find a way around the problem by naming that baby Jacob David after him. By this theory, the dwarf Jacob would be that child, and I’m guessing he was raised in Prague by people who dealt with that kind of situation, possibly teaching theatrical skills (although diplomacy seems like it would be the most important thing) and where a bride was found for him who wouldn’t tower over him.
It all would fit very nicely, but who knows? The best possible thing (and also the most impossible to find) would be the names of the children of the dwarf Jacob.
So fascinating!
Nancy
