Joseph of Bolechow Josefsberg

It was passed down by the Grandfathers and Great Grandfathers that Joseph of Bolechow was the first Josefsberg. It was also said that he was a Goldsmith.

Joseph assumed the name Josefsberg after 1772 when Galicia became part of the Austrian Empire. Joseph II of the Habsburg Monarchy as part of his policy enacted religious reforms.
"The 1782 Edict of Tolerance was issued on January 2, 1782. The Edict was initially put into effect in Lower Austria. The prologue to the resolution stated "This policy paper aims at making the Jewish population useful to the state."[5] This second edict allowed Jewish children to attend schools and universities. It allowed adults to engage in jobs such as being merchants or to open factories. Jews could learn trades, but were still not allowed to become master craftsmen. The Edict did eliminate some previous restrictions, which had forced the Jews to wear gold stars or to pay a tax that was only levied on the Jews and cattle.[6] According to the edict, however, the Jewish languages, the written language Hebrew and the spoken language Yiddish, were to be replaced by the national language of the country. Official documents and school textbooks could not be printed in Hebrew.[7] Also immigration of new Jews into Austria was severely restricted."
"In a decree promulgated on this date in 1787, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II ordered all Jews in the Habsburg Empire to acquire family names. The decree came five years after the Edict of Tolerance, which permitted Jewish children to attend schools and universities, eliminated vocational restrictions for Jewish adults, abolished stigmatizing rules of dress and conduct, and restricted the use of Yiddish and Hebrew to the private sphere."
"Surnames were derived from a variety of sources, such as the personal names of ancestors, place names, and occupations. In the 18th century, a custom developed amongst the Eastern European Jews of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires where surnames began being passed from mother to son as opposed from father to son, but the trend seems to have died out by the early 20th century."
Joseph was the first Josefsberg. It is not known what last name his brother or sister chose or if they kept the Birkenthal name.

Ken Josefsberg
Myrtle Beach, SC