I am hoping there is someone out there who links to the Jewish community in Charleston of the HART name. My gggg-grandfather was Simeon Moses HART b. 1818 in Charleston SC, died 1872 in New Orleans LA (buried in Campti, Natchitoches Parish, LA. He ran away from home as a child, so we have not been able to link to his SC family. All we know is based on his own account that he left because of an "unkind" step-mother, he stowed away on a ship into New Orleans as a child, was raised there by a Jewish man named Wolfson, and made his way up to Campti, Natchitoches Parish, LA. He served as a notary, was a tutor and owned a successful dry goods business. He is known to be of German Jewish descent. I have found a HART family in Charleston with similar use of the names Simeon (Simon) and Moses. My understanding is that the use of modified names is consistent with the Jewish population coming from Portugal (versus traditional Judaic tradition of NOT naming a child after a living ancestor). From what we have been able to piece together, some Jews went to Portugal during the Inquisition, then the Inquisition in Portugal forced them out to Hamburg, Germany. And Grandpa HART's daughter and granddaughter were both named Belmont, rightly or wrongly -- we believe that may be connected to Belmonte, Portugal. We at least were curious, too, that "DEER" in Portugese is "CERVOS" = "CIERVO" in Spanish = "HART" in English. All a stretch, but we so want to find out about his family. He is an important, central figure for our family. Many thanks for any out there with information or thoughts, Dana Stripling Austin TX

This will not help you but might be of some interest. I am a descendant of Nathan Hart (b. about 1801 in Krakow, Poland) and Amelia VanOstern (b. 1809-12 in Holland) both of Jewish descent. They were married in New Orleans, LA in 1828. Nathan Hart came alone from Europe to New Orleans as a young boy. He was too young to have been the father of your Simeon. Both Harts and Van Osterns were early members of the first synagogue in New Orleans. I believe it was Touro Synagogue founded in 1828. I suggest you look at the 1820 census of Orleans Parish and perhaps 1830 also. I have a book The Early Jews of New Orleans by Bertram Wallace Korn and there is a Simeon Moses Hart (and he married a Miss Levy) in the Index. No Wolfson is shown.You might be able to borrow the book on Inter-library loan and learn more about those early Jews of New Orleans. ~ ~ Elsie Davis; Dana Stripling <dstripling@aol.com> wrote: I am hoping there is someone out there who links to the Jewish community in Charleston of the HART name. My gggg-grandfather was Simeon Moses HART b. 1818 in Charleston SC, died 1872 in New Orleans LA (buried in Campti, Natchitoches Parish, LA. He ran away from home as a child, so we have not been able to link to his SC family. All we know is based on his own account that he left because of an "unkind" step-mother, he stowed away on a ship into New Orleans as a child, was raised there by a Jewish man named Wolfson, and made his way up to Campti, Natchitoches Parish, LA. He served as a notary, was a tutor and owned a successful dry goods business. He is known to be of German Jewish descent. I have found a HART family in Charleston with similar use of the names Simeon (Simon) and Moses. My understanding is that the use of modified names is consistent with the Jewish population coming from Portugal (versus traditional Judaic tradition of NOT naming a child after a living ancestor). From what we have been able to piece together, some Jews went to Portugal during the Inquisition, then the Inquisition in Portugal forced them out to Hamburg, Germany. And Grandpa HART's daughter and granddaughter were both named Belmont, rightly or wrongly -- we believe that may be connected to Belmonte, Portugal. We at least were curious, too, that "DEER" in Portugese is "CERVOS" = "CIERVO" in Spanish = "HART" in English. All a stretch, but we so want to find out about his family. He is an important, central figure for our family. Many thanks for any out there with information or thoughts, Dana Stripling Austin TX