Guggenheimer Family Collection 1960

Article on charity work by Elinor Guggenheimer; article on Randolph Guggenheimer.

Schulhof Family, Prague Collection.

Family tree of descendents of Rabbi Moses Salman Schulhof in Prague, accompanied by an explanatory letter and photocopies of various publications.

Gruenerwald-Stern Family, Lipperode 1897-1990

Copy of article on the Jewish cemetery in Lipperode, including transcriptions of tombstones and family trees for Ostheimer family; correspondence

Zucker Family Nine Generations

Genealogy of nine generations of the Zucker family.

Julius Briske Family Collection 1879-1985

Typescript about Julius and Paula (née Hirsch) Briske and their three children, Hans, Elisabeth, and Julius. Also included are Judge Briske’s letters of appointment.

Simson Wolf Oppenheimer Family.

Translation of part of family history about the family of Simon Wolf Oppenheimer from Frankfurt am Main

Dornhelm Family Collection.

Six photographs of members of the Dornhelm family in Austrian army during WW I

Seligmann Family Collection 1877-1938

Materials pertaining to Julius Seligmann (born 1903 in Werden) and to his parents (?), Sigmund Seligmann (b. 1871) and Minna, née Oppenheimer (b. 1873)

Wolf family chronicle.

A chronicle of the Wolf family of Schluechtern in Hesse (Germany), reacing back to 1680

Eva Stroh Family Collection 1860-2005 Bulk: 1912-1950

The Eva Stroh Family Collection provides material on the lives and family history of members of the Sondheimer and Stroh families. The collection consists of numerous photos and several photo albums, family trees, official documents, correspondence, published articles and clippings and some notes, a notebook documenting cultural activities and some daily calendars.

Ephrussi Family Collection 1792-1958

Family tree, explanation

Erlanger Family Collection, Frankfurt a.M.

Family tree of the descendents of Ludwog Erlanger (1780-1857) with explanations

Ihanne ja todellisuus : Jäsenyyteen sitoutuminen Suomen evankelis-luterilaisessa kirkossa 1960-luvulta 2000-luvulle

The subject of the study is the ideal and reality of commitment to membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland from the 1960s to the 2000s. The research task is to ascertain what manner of commitment the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland expects from its members (the ideal) and how in reality membership of the Church is realized (empiria). The research object is also to study the extent to which the ideal of commitment evinced by the Church and the actual relation of commitment to the Church changed during the research period. Additionally, those factors were analysed which influence the relation between the ideal and reality of commitment. In the analysis of the ideal of commitment the research data are official documents of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. They include confessions of the Church, Catechisms, Christian doctrine, joint strategies and plans of the Church, likewise the Church Act and Church Order. The reality of commitment is explored on the basis of Church membership, participation in parish activity and the private practice of religion, likewise attitude to Christian faith. The empirical data of the study comprise Church statistics, material from Statistics Finland and relevant surveys implemented during the research period. The ideal of commitment alongside membership includes knowing the basic tenets of Christian faith and family life based on prayer and participation in liturgical cycles. A member of the Church is expected to take care of his/her faith by living in participation of the Word and sacrament, bearing responsibility for the parish and faithfully discharging his/her worldly obligations. There have been no major changes in the ideal of commitment during the research period. On the contrary, the reality of commitment has changed. Although the majority of Finns are still members of the Church, there has been a constant decline in their share of the population. The same can be stated with respect to parish life. This has its own strengths, among them Church rites, parish activity around feast days and also work with children and confirmation training. However, the general trend is towards a decline in participation. There has also been a decrease in commitment to belief in God as taught by the Church. On the other hand, private religious observance has not changed at all. From the perspective of commitment the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland exists in a state of tension between the theological ideal and sociological empiria. Matters exerting a particular influence over the relation between ideal and reality are communality and varying conceptions of the Church, likewise contextuality and the related private Christianity. Societal change poses a challenge to traditional Church communality. A decline in communality has in turn led to a decline in belonging to the Church. Weakening awareness of membership has undermined the handing down of the tradition among younger generations. Modernization has influence the identity of the Church and brought the Church to an internal divergence. This way it has been able to retain its structure as a folk church but at the same time it has lost its opportunities for the formation of a clear identity. The Church has adjusted to societal change by outward-directed activities (performance) alongside the purely religious message (function). The tension between an unchanged message and a changed operating environment has increased. The challenge of contextuality has led the Church to review parish life, the nature of teaching and activity and the language used by the Church, likewise the cultural modus. Increasingly privatized Christianity challenges above all the theology and teaching of the Church, but also the life of worship and relation to cultural life.

Bronne Family Collection 1981-1990

Family trees reaching back to the 1700s and other materials pertaining to the extended Bronne family. Also included is a typescript about the Bronne Shirt Company in Glens Falls, New York.