Hendele Nathan - Not the wife of Aron Isaac Levie

IF, and only IF the 2 Hendele are the same
and IF Nathan David and Nathan Hartog are also one and the same person. But why should they be the same?
Why could one Hendele not have died in 1772 and the other in 1781?
To make it all work yet another assumption needs to be made: that Hartog Mozes Flesch was the illegitimate child of Hendele Nathan.

The point is that the original documentation never identifies "Hendele Nathan" as being the wife of Aron Isaac Levie. The only identification is that the wife was "Mink" who was the daughter of "Nathan ben David". The gravestone also does not name the wife. The page http://dutchjewry.org/genealogie/gezin/hum_ashken/F5050/I7405 claims that the wife is "Hendele Nathan" but without any support from the documentation! The only "Hendele Nathan" in the documentation is the mother of Hartog Flesch who was alive in 1781. As Aron Isaac Levie's wife is specifically named as "Mink", that wife cannot be Hendel Nathan.

... and yes, rvk, you are correct to say "To make it all work yet another assumption needs to be made: that Hartog Mozes Flesch was the illegitimate child of Hendele Nathan". Hartog was my ancestor and he was indeed an illegitimate child who yearned for acceptance from the Fles family but was always rebuffed. This certainly played a role in that, two generations later, his grandson Salomon Mozes Flesch (my great great grandfather) left the Jewish community and converted to Christianity in 1841 -- and took the name of "Flesch" which was the original name of the "Fles" family back in Germany.

... also, rvk, you said " IF Nathan David and Nathan Hartog are also one and the same person. But why should they be the same?"

Two reasons, but speculative: (1) possibly "ben David" can mean "of the Jewish faith" since they call themselves "people of David". (2) The Elte's lived in the Ouwe Schans which was Amsterdam's port. The port was a fenced-off, basically extra-territorial, place where seamen freely roamed and it was a very busy place of loose morals. Amsterdam's Jews lived either in the Jewish quarter which was conservative, or in the rambunctious port. Relations was not always good between them. This may be why Nathan Elte was not more formally named, because he may not have been on good terms with the leaders of the Jewish quarter.

My point is really that there could be many reasons for the unclarity after the passage of 250 years, and I've given two candidate reasons. But one thing seems clear, that there is only one Hendele Nathan named in the old documentation (that one being my ancestor), and that she was not the wife of Aron Isaac Levie. EWF

thanks for the explanation EWF

About Minkje Nathan, it's true that she was not necessarily the half-sister of Hendele Nathan. "Nathan ben David" does not have to be Nathan Hartog Elte, whatever the pros and cons. I have no stake in Minkje, but I do have a stake in my ancestor Hendele Nathan whom the old documents do not relate to Aron Isaac Levie in any way, shape or form. So I hope the curator of this site, and other responsible parties, will detach Hendele away from here. I don't like seeing my ancestor Hendele Nathan being said to be married to this person and dying in 1772 when she did no such thing and lived to c 1803 (judging from her son Hartog's assumption of the previously-forbidden "Fles" surname in 1806 -- I think that he felt free to do so once both his parents were deceased). So somebody please set Hendele free!!! :-)

As for the work I've recently shown on this site, my interest was only with my own Ashkenazi ancestors (being just a small part of my overall ancestry which is 90% Dutch) so I've done my dash now. Cheers, EWF

I have removed Minkje Nathan from the tree. I previously had placed her there as the daughter of Nathan Hartog / Naftali-Hirts Elte and Sipora Salomon. But rvk's point is correct -- Mink's father is "Nathan ben David" and there's no good reason to identify that person as being Nathan Hartog Elte.

However, the original point is still there -- Aron Isaac Levie's wife was "Mink Nathan", the daughter of "Nathan ben David" -- and not Hendele Nathan who was the daughter of Nathan Hartog Elte and his 1st wife Judith Simon Elieser-Zisla, and who lived from c.1736 - c.1803 and was the mother of Hartog Mozes Fles.

OK, "Hendele Nathan" is presumably the correct name as stated on the marriage certificate, so is correct. For some reason the original engagement to "Mink Nathan" (the daughter of "Nathan ben David") was cancelled, but Aron then married Hendele Nathan instead, who is presumably a sister or a cousin of Mink Nathan. These persons are not mentioned anywhere else in Akevoth, so the family of "Nathan ben David" is a mystery.

All note that this "Hendele Nathan" is a different person from the Hendele Nathan who was the mother of Hartog Mozes Fles and the daughter of Nathan Hartog Naftali-Hirts Elte.