Johann Franz Seraphin Nahrhaft, alias Abraham Jakob Leon
|--------Joannes NAHRHAFT (1743, Austria - 1810, Austria) | |---------Johann Josef NAHRHAFT (1790, Austria - 1837, Austria) | | | |--------Katharina ZIEGLER (1752, Austria - 1815, Austria) | |------Wenzel NAHRHAFT (1819, Austria - 1914, Weinberge) | | | | |--------Johann Georg GEBERT (1755, Austria - 1806, Austria) | | | | |---------Anna Maria GEBERT (1787, Austria - 1827, Austria) | | | |--------Anna Maria GEBERT (1740, Austria - 1820) | Johann Franz Seraphin NAHRHAFT (1848, Austria - 1918, Egypt) | | |-------- | | | |---------Franz WETTENGLER ( - ) | | | | | |-------- | | |------Agnes WETTENGLER (1831, Austria - 1914, Weinberge) | | |-------- | | |---------BUCHHOLZ ( - ) | |--------
Johann and family then came to the United States. A note in the Plan, Bohemia church records by the priest says Johann was in Chicago as of 27 Feb 1893 and on 2 Aug 1893 he ``fell back into Judaism''. When he converted to Judaism, he changed his name to Abraham Jakob Leon . (He was also known by the name Abraham Jakob Nahrhaft.) At the time of their conversion, his wife Teresia also changed her name to Sarah Leah Leon, and their son Emanuel Nahrhaft was renamed Benjamin Leon.
Further notes by the Plan priest (Josef Schmied) in the records give the 13 Apr 1886 marriage date and note something else (baptisms of children?) on 27 Jan 1889 and 23 Sep 1915.
Some time after their conversion, Abraham, Sarah, and Benjamin moved to Jerusalem. The son Benjamin was married there in 1905. Some time later, Abraham divorced his wife Teresia/Sarah and moved to Egypt, because she was too old to have any more children (which he wanted), according to stories passed down in the Noah family. He remarried but his new, young, wife miscarried so he began writing to Teresia/Sarah asking her to take him back. She wrote back saying that she thought it was best for him to stay in Egypt. Teresia/Sarah went back to Bohemia for a time after her son was married but then she ended up back in the USA.
We were able to ``reunite'' with Johann/Abraham's branch of the Nahrhaft family in the late 1990s through the internet. Comparison with records of Stuart and Sandra (brother and sister) Noah in the US show that Johann is their great-grandfather, who they knew changed his name from Nahrhaft to Leon in Chicago and converted to Judaism.
Johann/Abraham was naturalized a US citizen on 13 Nov 1913. (I'm not sure this is correct. It doesn't make much sense since I thought he was in Jerusalem or Egypt at that time? It might refer to his son)
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Sources for this individual: @S51@ @S144@
