The following text duplicates a post that I made today in the Czech Jewish Genealogy Group on Facebook.
There are records pertaining to Theresia Lederer, or to some number of persons of that name or similar names, which seem impossible to reconcile. The records, all in Třebíč, are as follows:
(1) A record of birth of a daughter, Theresia, to Isak Lederer and his wife "Nanete," at no. 33 on 5 September 1803. https://zayt.org/collections/jewish-registers-1784-1949/noz-2173?p=47
(2) A record of death of "Theresia Lederer, led[ige] Tochter der hies[igen] verst[orbenen] Eheleute Isak u[nd] Nanette Lederer," at no. 51, on 1 Sep 1893. https://zayt.org/collections/jewish-registers-1784-1949/z-2172?p=87
So far, no problem: the two records seem a clear match. But now add this to the mix:
(3) A grave in the Jewish cemetery of Třebíč, with the following inscription: "Hier ruht Frau [!] Esther LEDERER gest. 1. Septemb. 1893 im 90. Lebensjahre, beweint und betrauert von ihren dankbaren Kindern und zahlreichen Enkeln. F. I. A." The PDF attributes to the deceased the patronymic "Ejzik," but this name is not on the stone. The Hebrew inscription reads, according to the transcription in the PDF: "פּ"ט אשה זקנה אסתר לעדערער ע"ה שהלכה לעולמה חום עש"ק תנצב"ה." https://gis.trebic.cz/mapa/assets/local/pomniky/2010/224/224%20(N44...
The date and age in (3) exactly correspond to the death record (2). The first name differs—"Esther" as against "Theresia." But I'm sure we have all seen numerous instances of these two names being borne by the same female. The big discrepancy is that the deceased recorded in (2) is a single woman, who would have received the surname "Lederer" from her father, while the deceased recorded in (3) is a married woman, who would have gotten that surname from her husband (though she could, conceivably, also have been born to it). Conceivably, the similitudes between (2) and (3) could be mere coincidence; but they would be a very rum coincidence, not least of all because there is no other grave that corresponds to (2), and no other death record that corresponds to (3).
Let us, for the moment, suppose that there were two persons named "Theresia Lederer": one the spinster named in records (1) and (2) and the other the married woman named in record (3). But that is not the end of the matter. There is this pair of records to be considered:
(4a) A record of marriage between Leopold Libochowitz, age 53 years and one month, and "Theresia Rosalia, Tochter nach Isak und Janina Nanette Ledrer," age 48 years and three months, on 12 Feb 1854. The implied date of birth of the bride is December 1805. https://zayt.org/collections/jewish-registers-1784-1949/o-2167?p=6
(4b) A control record of the same marriage, in which the bride is identified as "Theresia, Tochter nach Isak und Janina Nanette Ledrer," age 50 years and five months. The implied date of birth of the bride is September 1803.
Notice that the implied date of birth in (4b) is exactly the month of the birth of Theresia Lederer stated in the birth record (1) and implied by the death record (2). Further, these two records make clear that the parents of this Theresia, or perhaps Theresia Rosalia, were the same as the parents of the Theresia in those two records. But the woman who married Leopold Libochowitz would bear the surname "Libochowitz," not the surname "Lederer," and, upon her death, could not possibly be identified as the unmarried daughter of Isak and Nanette Lederer, but rather as the widow of Leopold. (Leopold died in 1877.) Are we to posit a THIRD Theresia Lederer, who married Leopold Libochowitz, and who happened to have a sister of exactly the same first name? This is hardly plausible. The bride in (4) must be the same person as the baby in (1). But that still leaves us with the impossible task of squaring the death record (3) and the grave (4) with this identification, if we make it.
Finally, just to make matters more difficult to resolve, I mention this record:
(5) A record of birth of Ester Lederer, born to Isak and "Ganina" at no. 33 on 9 Feb 1799. https://zayt.org/collections/jewish-registers-1784-1949/noz-2173?p=39
So it seems that "Ester" and "Theresia" were not equivalent names in the family of Isak and Nanette/Janina Lederer: they had one of each. But to suppose that the Theresia in the death record (2) is the Theresia of (1) while the Theresia (Rosalia) of the marriage record (4) is Ester of (5), or the other way around, generates conflicts with dates, and still leaves us with the difficulty of accounting for the grave (3).
I think this is the worst problem of identity that I have yet encountered. Can anyone solve it?
Pertinent Geni profiles:
Isak Lederer Alexander Isack Lederer
his wife Nanette or Janina Nandl (Nanette) Lederer
their daughter Theresia Theresia Lederer
Theresia Rosalia, the wife of Leopold Libochowitz Theresia Rosalia Libochowitz
