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daughter Maria, who ran away in July of the same year. Finding this ad has had a larger impact on me than anything else I’ve uncovered about my ancestry, because it demonstrates the impossibility of looking at history—even family history—through rose-colored glasses.
Sigmund Katz (1825-1895), my great-great-great grandfather, was born just south of Frankfurt, Germany. After immigrating to the United States in 1853, he served with the Fourth Regimental European Brigade of the Louisiana Militia as part of the Confederate Army. In 1863 he co-founded Katz and Barnett, a dry goods store, at 48 Chartres Street (presently 224-226 Chartres). Around the same time he married Adele Haber, one of Abraham Haber’s daughters. By 1880, according to census records, the couple had seven children and employed two live-in domestic servants. By 1892 Katz’s original business partner had died, so he founded a new dry-goods company, S&J Katz Co., with his nephew Jacob and sons Adolph and Ferdinand.
When Katz died in 1895, his obituary lauded his professional and personal achievements, labeling him a “representative citizen, esteemed by all who knew him.” He had served for 30 years as treasurer of the Jewish Widows and Orphans Home, was on the boards of directors for the Louisiana Historical Association and B’nai B’rith, and even served as a consular agent to Turkey (then still part of the Ottoman Empire) during the 1884 World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition. S&J Katz survived until 1915, when it was liquidated. The Times-Picayune article announcing the business’s closure described the firm as a “veritable landmark” that had established many international connections during its 52-year history.
When the American Jewish Archives group arrived in August 2015, I was excited to share the information that I had uncovered during my research. To my surprise, one member of the group, Michael Cohen, an associate professor of Jewish studies at Tulane University, told me that he too had recently been researching Abraham Haber! Cohen has been analyzing the financial networks of Jews along the Gulf Coast in the antebellum period, and since meeting, he and I have been in touch to share our findings. Conducting research at THNOC is still an essential part of my job, and it continues to yield discoveries that are both personally and professionally rewarding. —JENNIFER SCHWARTZBERG
STAFF NEWS New Staff
Barry Cazaubon, Cynthia Finney, Jackie Gamble, Ariane Livaudais, Jude Matthews, Sue Meyer, Sofia Savchenco, volunteers.
Honors
Curatorial Cataloger Kristin Hebert Veit completed George Washington University’s Museum Collections Management and Care program.
In the Community
In March, Library Cataloger Nina Bozak, Docent Trainer Chris Cook, and Reference Assistant Robert Ticknor presented a conference panel, “THNOC Turns 50,” at the Louisiana Historical Association’s annual meeting, in Baton Rouge.
Jason Wiese, curator and associate director of the Williams Research Center, was the keynote speaker at The 249th birthday celebration at Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage, in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 15.
Deputy Director Daniel Hammer was invited to present a lecture at the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The April 7 talk was titled “An Extraordinary Record: Three-Plus Centuries of Germans in New Orleans as Documented in the Holdings of The Historic New Orleans Collection.” Docent Malinda Blevins was named first vice regent for the Spirit of’76 Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Publications
Curator Howard Margot published an article, “‘Survivor(s)!’ Historical Peregrinations of New Orleans’s French Superior Council and Spanish Judicial Records,” in the summer 2015 issue of Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals.
Summer 2016	15