I am trying to determine the nature of a family relationship (above and beyond a known business relationship) between Mannes ISRAEL (given name aka Magnus, Menc, Menz, M. Israel) and brothers Simon and Samuel ROSENBAUM, all originally of Pyrmont, Waldeck, Germany, and later of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Rosenbaum family lore has it that they were cousins, but a blood relationship has never been positively established. It is known that Israel, initially a peddler, was born on November 22, 1819, and came to the U.S. in 1841. In 1843, while traveling as a merchant, he became ill in Kalamazoo. and exhausted his financial resources. However, because he had established good credit in New York, he was able to remain in Kalamazoo and open a store…M. Israel Dry Goods...a large variety store that Israel owned and operated there. He died of cancer of the liver in Kalamazoo on October 22, 1868, at age 48. The store later became Rosenbaum & Speyer. The "Rosenbaum" was Simon. SIMON Rosenbaum, born April 13, 1832, emigrated from Pyrmont to Kalamazoo on August 25, 1855 to work for Mannes Israel. On February 27, 1865, he married Rieckchen Romberg; they had one child…a daughter, Emma….who died at age 13, ending his line. Simon died in Kalamazoo in 1905 at age 73. My great-grandfather, Simon's younger brother SAMUEL Rosenbaum, was born August 13, 1838, and, probably at his brother's persuasion, emigrated from Pyrmont on September 23, 1857. In about 1862, he married Henrietta "Jetchen" Cohn, originally of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany. Samuel and Henrietta had six children, the eldest of whom was Louis, my grandfather. Samuel died in Kalamazoo on January 9, 1903, at age 64. Samuel settled first in Three Rivers, and didn't arrive in Kalamazoo until after the Civil War; he came to Kalamazoo in 1867 because his older brother, Simon, was already established there. Samuel was a peddler for ten years, and had been given a "grubstake" by either Simon or Mannes Israel to open a store in Three Rivers. When he had accumulated sufficient capital, he started the Henrietta Skirt Company (named after his wife, Henrietta Cohn ) -- later to become the Kalamazoo Pant Co. It has always been "understood" in the Rosenbaum family that the Rosenbaum brothers and M. Israel were cousins...even, perhaps, first cousins. Two of Samuel Rosenbaum's sons, in fact, were named Menz Israel Rosenbaum and Gottfried (known as "Goddie") Rosenbaum…the same names as Mr. Israel and the nickname of one of his sons. (A third Rosenbaum son was named Edwin.) A recent discovery has put the families even more closely allied -- as shown in the 1860 Federal Census, Simon (age 28 at the time) and Samuel (22) …neither yet married…were living in the house of which Israel (age 40) was the "head"! M. Israel is known to have married his first cousin, Tillie Israel. The family progenitor, Samuel Israel…1746-1827, had two sons…an earlier Mannes and Levy, and a daughter, Santel. That first Mannes married a Fredericka ELIAS, and had seven children, one of whom was a daughter, Tillie (1830-1908). Santel, who apparently also married a man surnamed Israel, was the mother of the Mannes/Magnus of whom I am inquiring.) Mannes and Tillie had five children. Although much is known of the Rosenbaum descendants, little is known of the Israels. One of Mannes and TIllie's children was Edward…the young (age 22) scientist/ astronomer who perished in the Greely Arctic Expedition in 1884. Edward had two brothers and two sisters. Gottwald "Goddie", born in Kalamazoo in February, 1864, never married, and died in New York in 1911 at age 47. Joseph, born in Kalamazoo in 1857, married (and later divorced) one Clara MERCHANT, and died in New York on April 14, 1909, at age 52. Joseph and Clara had two daughters…Edna, (born in 1885, never married and died in a New York sanitarium in 1913 at age 28), and Mignon, born in 1886, who married a man named HEIDENREICH. Nothing further is known of them. Edward's older sister was Lillie E. Israel, born in Kalamazoo in December, 1861. She married a New Yorker named Charles LOWENSTEIN in about 1864, and they had two children…a son, Edward Lowenstein, born in May, 1886, and a daughter (with an unknown but believed to had a Germanic given name) born in May, 1888. It is not known whether either of these children ever married or had issue. Edward's younger sister, Mollie, born in 1867 or 1868, married (in Kalamazoo) a New Yorker named Arthur J. MACK. Nothing further is known of this couple. Finally, there is another possible link between the families, albeit indirect. If this is read by any members of the OFENBERG, SPEYER, DESENBERG or CROCKET families of Kalamazoo, additional clues my evolve. It is possible that some member of the Israel family is still living in the Kalamazoo area, and could provide information that would lead to the link between the two families. I would very much appreciate hearing from anyone who might help shed a ray of light on this matter. Thank you in advance for your assistance! Sid Salinger salinger@surewest.net 4340 Coach Whip Way Roseville, CA 95747 916-771-8586 www.sidsalinger.com