Nathan Samuel (Nesanel) Kohn-Zerkowitz alias Pick

Nathan Samuel (Nesanel) (Sandor) Kohn-Zerkowitz was b. in Trencin, Hungary in 1783, and remained there his entire life. His mother died when he was less than 2 years old and his father soon remarried. For quite a number of years, Nathan and his two siblings, Leopold and Judith, were raised in the household of their maternal grandfather, Bernhard Pick (the wealthiest Jew in Trencin) -- hence, Nathan's occasional use of "Pick" as his surname.

Upon his father's murder (c1817), rights to his father's residence in Trencin City passed jointly to Nathan and his older brother Leopold. Leopold had already moved to Bittse [Bytca], but Nathan remained in the Trencin City residence. He was a baker by occupation, and operated his business in the center of Trencin City. According to family lore, "he owned his own house in Trencin" -- a status somewhat unusual for a Jew in that region.

He was alternately known as "Nathan Zerkowitz", "Alexander (Sandor) Zerkowitz", and as "Samuel Kohn". In Jewish census records for Trencin City, 1818, 1821, and 1828, he is consistently listed as "Samuel Kohn". However, his 1847 death record refers to him as "Nathan Kohn"

Nathan died in Trencin on 12 October 1847, age 64 years.

He m. 1st, c1810, Rachel Kepf, dau of Samuel [Nesanel] Kepf of Trencin. She d. in Trencin, c1822. He m. 2nd, 1823, Cecilia (Kohn-Boschan) Knöpfelmacher, widow of David Knöpfelmacher of Trencin. Six children by 1st marriage, five more by 2nd marriage.

Trencin City, Trencin Co., Hungary, 1818 [financial census]: #67 in census -- KOHN, Samuel

Trencin City, Trencin Co., Hungary,1818: #52 in census -- KOHN, Samuel, with wife, one son, two daughters; peddler

Trencin City, Trencin Co., Hungary, 1820/1821: #63 in census -- KOHN, Samuel (next door to his father-in-law, Samuel Kepf), with wife, one son, three daughters; peddler

Trencin City, Trencin Co., Hungary, 1828: #97 in census -- KOHN, Samuel (next door to his father-in-law, Samuel Kepf)

Nathan Samuel's youngest grandson, Emil Zerk (1892-1988), wrote the following about him (in a letter to his son, Avinoam]: "Nathaniel was [your] great-grandfather. He owned a house and was in business. He was married twice. First wife had three children, two sons and a daughter. His second was Cecily Cohen. He had four children by her. Phillip we know, but Bernhard we did not know. He lived in Trencin, as did Julie who was married to a Spitzer. Then there was Simon, your grandfather, who lived in Vienna near his brother Philip...." [*NOTE: as proven by various records, there were three surviving daughters from Nathan's first marriage, not one.]

Three years after Nesanel's death, his widow began using the surname Zerkowitz. When she died in 1885, her death record states that she was the widow of "Samuel Czerkovicz". Similarly, the death record of his daughter, Julianna Spitzer (1913), indicates that her father's name was "Samuel Zerkowitz".