Asher "the Great", of Grodno, of Pruzhany

R. Asher "the great" of Grodno

"Horodner" means from Hrodno (Grodno). Similarly, his son was known as "Sejner" from Sejny.

Surnames proper did not exist in Eastern European Ashkenazi families until the early 1800s. Margolis was a Hebrew nominal description that some learned, rabbinical families were called by, meaning 'pearl' or 'gem'. Of the children of Mordechai Margolis and his Schick wife, Asher's branch adopted the surname Rabinsohn in the 1800s, Itel's sons had various surnames, including Itelson, Prozner, and Efrati. Itelson is a matronymic, Efrati is a Hebrew adjective / noun meaning of the Euphrates, and Prozner was derived from the place name Pruzhany. Only Samuel's branch had the surname Margolis and even then some were known first as Kalwariski from Kalvarija in the early 1800s records. There are at least four surnames in the Margolis branch even.

Sources

• The Unbroken Chain by Dr. Neil Rosenstein, Vol 1 2nd edition, page 18. Paragraph G.10.1
• The Unbroken Chain 3rd edition, 2017, Vol. I
• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Jun 18 2017, 4:06:33 UTC