Three legends: | 1. Wien Walls | 2. The Kidnapped Boy | 3. refusing Czar army |
Other sources: | 4. Rausnitz Tax Book | 5. The Rausnitz Rabbis | 6. The Earliest Reference |
7. Non Jews having the name Turkel and it's derivatives |
A general information about Surname Origins
Where do "our" Turkel folks originally come from?Where does the name Turkel appear first,
|
" When i was in Vienna i heard that that the name originated when the great wall was built around Vienna during the Turkish invasion. The people that defended the wall were called Turkel fighters of the Turks. ann. " |
Webmaster's Note: The Turks pressed a siege of Wien, first in 1529 and later in 1683. Information about the second invation in 1675 is illustrated in The London Gazette. |
"Dear Mr. Pearlroth: "Turkel - correctly Tuerkel - is a family name of romantic origin. It began with a 7 year old boy in the 17th century. His name was Perez and he was the son of Rabbi Solomon Sefardi of Raussnitz in Czecholoslovakia. He [Shlomo] was captured by a Turkish army detachment and taken to Belgrade, where he spent 1½ years. He bravely resisted all Turkish attempts to convert him to Islam. When he returned home he was given the affectionate nickname of Tuerkel (Little Turk) which later became the family name of his desendants. Belgrade is now the capital of Yugoslavia but in those days it was a part of Turkey." view the newspaper clip and the "true" story |
WCT notes:
(1) The party who posed the question, Albert Turkel of NC, is one of the "Woonsocket, RI/Anna-the-Opera-Star" Group.
(2) In early 1993 I corresponded with George I. Sackheim (George's genealogy "Scattered Seeds" is quoted by you under the "Benjamin T. - enigma of George Sackheim") and mentioned this story to him. George was kind enough to look up Rabbi Solomon Sefardi in two Rabbinical reference books - JEWISH RABBIS (Miori Galicia) and ENCYLCOPEDIA OF RABBIS - but was unable to find any mention. I still have hopes of "vindicating" this reference some day!! ... webmaster: the "true" story
(3) It was MANY years after we first had Pearloth's mention of a "Rausnitz, CZ" connection that we learned that there were in fact TURKELs from there.
"A young male member of the family escaped from Russia into the part of Galicia held by Austria-Hungry to avoid being forced into the Russian army. To explain where he came from, he claimed to have come from Turkey. He become known as the Turk or El Turk, which eventually become Turkel." |
A book introduced to me (May 2000) courtesy Tomer Brunner, Netania, Israel
The earliest reference to the name Türkel is made to Yitzhak Tirkel from Lwow, who was apparently killed on a business trip (May 1596) more than 400 years ago.
The source for this outstanding information is found in a Hebrew book named Masat Binyamin written in Krakow, 1602 (it was reprinted in 1775, 1832 and lastly in Vilna, 1924, see ibid. page 88). The book includes Q & A, regarding matters of Halakha (Jewish Law). The relevant question there is about waiving a marriage covenant of a widow (hatarat agunot).
The story is about three married Jewish men, Yitzhak Tirkel ( elsewhere mentioned as Tirkil ), Mendel Ben Papos and Faivush.
The first witness, Moshe Bar Yehudah testified before The Rabbinical Court that Mendel Ben Papos and Yitzhak Tirkel from Lwow left the town of Yas, in the year (1596) to go to the land of the Yishmaelim. He accompanied them. A short while later heard that they were killed.
The second witness, Aharon bhk"r Jacob testified that on a Thursday, about two weeks before Shavuot (May 1596) the above three named adults together with three youth left the town Yas in Volyhi (Volhynia) on their way to the land of the Yishmaelim (Turkey?). A few days later, foreigners arrived to this town (Yas) and said, "you Jews should know that those Yishmaelim who left Yas met us and requested to inform you that six Jews who left with us were in a hurry due to the Sabbath. We followed them and found them dead in the valley."
The third witness, Mendil Keisar Halevi testified that on that Thursday, a few Jews left Yas with a group of Yishmaelim on their way to the land of Yishmael. He didn't say how many Jews were there, but he knew one of them, his name Yitzhak Tirkel from Lwow. A few days later Yishmaeli came to the town and told that these Jews had been found dead. The foreigners who apparently were tortured confessed at execution that they had in fact murdered those Jews.
The fourth witness, Mr. Ozer testified that when he left Yas on his way to the land of Yishmael, twenty three foreigners with white kafias addressed him, telling him how six Jews (three adults and three boys) were killed. One of them they knew by his name, Isaac Tekler from Lwow, who spoke many languages. Also (they told the whitness) he had a wife in Lwow, out of town; and those white kafias foreigners said that the Jews refused to wait for them in the town, Yas, due to the Sabbath. So they walked (alone) out of town. Then we followed them and found them killed in the valley.
Webmaster's conclusions:
Three of the above four witnesses testified under an oath that the surname Tirkel was attibuted to a married Jew from Lwow. It may show that the surname Turkel was atrributed to a Jew over 400 years ago, before most of the Jews used surnames. It is also interesting to note that Yitzhak Tirkel was on his way to Eretz haYishmaelim, which could be Turkey. The linkage to Lwow is interesting as well, because most of our family members lived less than 100 Km away from Lwow.
So far it's the earliest evidence about a Jewish fellow named Tirkel. Hence the kidnap story (~1726) may not be deemed as the earliest evidence, or the only reason for choosing this name. The referenced article in Otzar Yisrael does not mention the kidnapping legend. It only says that Rabbi Shlomo ben Yaakov Monian was a judge in Belgrade and had a son Peretz. So it could be a speculation of the author of the above mentioned 1929 German book.
Shlomo's father, Rabbi Jacob Munian ha-Sepharadi had never been referenced as Turkl, while Yitzhak Tirkel lived more than hundred years before him and had the name. Moreover, Yitzhak Tirkel's widow should have been permitted by Rabbinical Court to marry another person. It means Yitzhak had no son after him! Notwithstanding there is a reason to believe that Rabbinical Judge Shlomo and his father Rabbi Jacob Munian ha-Sepharadi had known about Yitzhak Tirkel's story from the book Masat Binyamin.
It could be that more than one Jewish dynasty named Turkel existed, or the descendants of Munian adopted the name following Shlomo kidnapping and the above case of Yitzhak who apparently had not left a descendant after him.
Anyhow, this case gives me a clue to search the records of Lwow (outside the walls) for the years 1596-1602.
A note: Read the following link for an introduction
about Jewish Family Names
Our research is not based on this references.
Initially webmaster found via internet (also see here) two names 'Tirkell de Wigton' baptised in England around 1705, Wigton, Cumberland.
In September 2000, a Danish folk named Olsen Terkel sent webmaster interesting information about the popularity of the name Terkel in Denmark.
Subject: Re: Hello Olsen Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 21:01:42 +0200 From: Doron Tal Terkel Olsen wrote: > > Hmm not really, i know its an ancient Danish (nordic) name, not many > Terkel's in Denmark ... less than 500 i think > > Terkel Thank you for the swift reply :-) Could you kindly find out what is known in Denmark about this ancient nordic name? Doron |
In November 2001, webmaster found a PDF page focusing on Tutt's Etymology and there is a reference to English variations of a Nordic name, "Thurketel include: Thurkell, Thurtell, Thurtle, Thorkell, Thirkell, Thirkill, Thirtle, Throwketyll, Turkel, Turkil, Thurgell, Turgell, Turgill, and Toghill. Even the Old Nordic spellings were retained in some cases, many of which are still in current use today as "English" surnames: Thurkettle, Thurkittle, and Thirkettle."
Webmaster was informed that the Turkle families of Kensas and Ohio descended from a common ancestor named John Thurkld, who immigrated in 1818 from North Irland to Boston. Surname, Thurkld is how it is written in a family bible by the patriarch and a son spells it Thurkeld. Attempts to find their spelling or any of these on the internet through Irish geneology site have failed. Unfortunately there are no family records in Ireland proper, as they were all destroyed in the uprisings of 1914. Until recently members of the Turkle family only knew through oral tradition that they had Irish Ancestors, until the 1990's when this geneaology trend confirmed it. All they knew was the story that they were "Black Irish" and therefore from Danish extraction originally.
In March 2002, webmaster found a web page focusing on "The Farthegn Rune Stones",
"3 granite rune stones with the personal name Farthegn engraved on them. All three were carved during the Viking Age (800 A. D. to 1050 A. D.) during the time of Scandinavia's greatest impact on the British Isles."
"The first one is found near Jattendals Lake in the village of Nordanstig in the province of Gavelborge in east northern Sweden. It is about 200 miles north of Stockholm and is located on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia."
"Once transported to the British Isles Farthegn's brother's name, Asmundr, developed into the English surnames" . . .
"The village of Osmotherly is located in North Yorkshire." . . .
"Farthegn's father's name, Thorketill, means 'Thor's (sacrificial) cauldron'.
It developed into the English surnames Thurkell, Thurtell, Thurtle, Thorkell, Thirkell, Thirkill, Thurkhill, Thirtle, Turkel, Turkil, Turtill, Turtle, Tuttle, Thurgell, Turgill, Toghill, Thurkettle, Thurkittle, and Thirkettle.
The town of Thurcaston is located in Leicestershire. It means 'farmstead or village of a man called Thorketill'.
Thruxton, located in Hampshire (and another one located in Herfordshire & Worcestershire), means 'estate or manor of a man called Thorkell' (a short form of Thorketill)."
Turkey:
Some of "our" Turkel folks presume that there might be a Turkish connection. . .
In my attempts to research it, I have posted e-mails to a Turkish guy
named 'Turkeli' and then to 'Mustafa Turkel' but they have never
replied. . . yet.
May 1999, I had a cool ICQ chat with Sadik Turkel (nickname Sin), a young guy from Izmir Turkey,
who told me: "Turkel means in Turkish Turk's hand". . .
or "Turk's land" !
> From: Ekaterina SOYAK > To: Bill Turkel > Subject: Hello Turkel from USA > Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2000 10:56:35 +0300 > Organization: TURKEL > > Dear Mr. Turkel, > > Thank you very much for your kind e-mail dated 05.06.2000. > Such an interesting coincident. > Your parents were right about the meaning of Turkel. > "Hand of the Turk" Therefore we have chosen it as a name of our company. > As our mane activity is organising Turkish Fairs in the different parts of > the world. > > Thank you once again for your king greetings , > > Regards, > Ekaterina Soyak > > Project manager |
Are there any closer family ties with the Nordic, English or Turkish folks?
Are there family ties with the Turks?
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