Rabbi Chaim Weltmann, A.B.D. Witkowo

Chaim Lewin Weltmann (18?? - 1849): I know very little of the patriarch of our family, Chaim Lewin Weltmann. He was a rabbi in the town of Witcova, which was part of Germany then and is now part of Poland. The German province was known as Posen. The town is now known as Witkowo in the Polish province of Poznan. It is about 150 miles west of Warsaw. In 1772 Poland had been carved up between Germany, Austria, and Russia. Our family lived in what became part of Germany. Poland disappeared from the map and did not become a country again until 1918. Witkova had a substantial Jewish population for a town of its size. In 1797, there were 795 Christians and 426 Jews. The Jewish population peaked in 1840 with 1150 Jews. The year 1849 found 919 Jews living in Witcova. 1857:800, 1871:509, 1880:395, 1889:303, 1899:219, 1901:175, 1905:141, and 1911:100. Chaim Weltmann was rabbi of the town sometime in the 1820's - 1840's. According to the book, "About past and present of the Jews and the Jewish community in the Posener counties", (written in 1929), Chaim Weltmann died of cholera in 1849. I have no documentation to prove that Louis, Mandel and James Weltmann were the sons of Chaim Weltmann, but there is strong circumstantial evidence. There has always been a family story that one of our ancestors was a very pious rabbi. Also, James, Mandel and Louis Weltmann each named their first born son Chaim (Americanized to Hyman). I don't think that this was just coincidence, but that each was honoring their father by naming their children after him. - Robert Weltman

The surname Weltmann is a German name meaning "man of the world." It is not known exactly when it originated. It was sometime before 1833. That was the year that the Jews in Posen were required by law to take a surname. The laws requiring a a surname were passed to make easier the levying ot taxes and of conscripting Jews into the army. But why did our ancestors chosen Weltmann? Simon Weltmann of Chicago, who is not related to us through the members of the family who emmigrated to America, says that there are two possible reasons: 1) Either the family was distinquished and known, or 2) they were on the move all the time like travling salesmen or messengers between Jewish communities or owned horses or buggies overland. In any event, the name Weltmann is quite uncommon. In the standard work "Jewish Family Surnames in Germany" it is not listed. We can assume that many of the Weltmanns in America can trace their lineage to Posen and a few original Weltmann families. - Bob Weltman