Guide to the Speyer Family History Research Collection, 1848-2010
- Repository
- Heinz History Center
- Title
- Speyer Family History Research Collection
- Creator
- Rauh Jewish Archives
- Collection Number
- MSS 1036
- Extent
- 1 linear foot (2 boxes)
- Date
- 1848-2010
- Abstract
- This collection consists of a genealogical history of the Speyer family and the related Crailsheimer, Oppenheimer, and Sunstein families, all residents of Pittsburgh; photocopies of documents collected during the course of preparing the family history; and three Speyer family oral histories.
- Language
- The material in this collection is in English.
- Publisher
- Heinz History Center
- Address
- 1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org
History
In 2000, Alexander C. Speyer, Jr. (1915-2010), requested that the Rauh Jewish Archives prepare a history of his family and the related Crailsheimer, Oppenheimer, and Sunstein families. Kerin Shellenbarger, working under the direction of Susan M. Melnick, did the genealogical research and wrote the family history.
Alexander C. Speyer, Jr., was a mining and mechanical engineer and the founder and former president of the North Star Coal Company. The earliest Speyers to emigrate from Germany to the United States arrived in the 1840s. Speyer family members lived in Hartford, CT, Wheeling, WV, and Pittsburgh, PA. They were engaged in the retail and wholesale millinery and finished goods business. The first Alexander C. Speyer (1884-1959) moved from Wheeling to Pittsburgh as a child and later founded Moreland Coal & Coke. Family members were active in the Jewish communities of Wheeling and Pittsburgh.
The first Alexander Speyer's mother was Henrietta Crailsheimer (1863-1934), whose family had come from Germany and had lived successively in New York, Indiana, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. In Indiana, the Crailsheimers were involved in the dry goods business. Henrietta and her son Alexander moved to Pittsburgh after the death of her husband, James Speyer (1851-1884), in order to be near Henrietta's sisters.
The mother of Alexander C. Speyer, Jr., was Tillie Sunstein (1889-1979), a grand-daughter of Cass Sunstein (original surname Zunenszeyn, 1843-1913), who emigrated from Poland in 1865 and settled in Pittsburgh before 1873. With his sons, he owned a wholesale liquor business beginning in 1884. One of those sons, Abraham J. Sunstein (1861-1926), was a leader in the Pittsburgh Jewish community; he was a major philanthropic donor as well as being actively involved with the work of most of the Jewish communal organizations. His daughter Tillie Sunstein Speyer became a well-known sculptor and was also involved with the work of the Pittsburgh Institute for the Blind.
The U. S. presence of the Oppenheimer family, related to the Sunsteins through the marriage of A. J. Sunstein and Nora Oppenheimer (1868-1938) in 1887, began with the immigration of three Oppenheimer brothers to Pittsburgh in the 1850s; they went into the clothing business and, like the other families in this study, were members of Rodef Shalom Congregation.
The Speyer family history provides details of these and many other members of these inter-related families who settled in Pittsburgh.
Scope and Content Notes
This collection consists of a history of the Speyer family and the related Crailsheimer, Oppenheimer, and Sunstein families, all residents of Pittsburgh; photocopies of documents collected during the course of preparing the family history; three Speyer family oral histories, and thirteen oral history cassette tapes.
Dates used are those of the original documents, of which only photocopies are included in this collection. Research notes and photocopied documents about the different families have not been separately retained if the information appears in the completed family history. Included in the separate family folders, along with photocopies of governmental records and photocopies of pages from published works, are a few photographs; these were taken in the 21st century and document gravestones of and house lots owned by several individuals in these families.
Of note are the transcriptions of oral histories of three Speyer family members: Tillie Sunstein Speyer, whose oral history was recorded in 1976 by the National Council of Jewish Women, Pittsburgh Chapter; James A. Speyer, a significant architect whose oral history was recorded in 1986, shortly before his death, by the Chicago Architects Oral History Project; and Alexander C. Speyer, Jr., whose oral history was recorded in 2004 by the Rauh Jewish Archives.
Conditions Governing Access
None
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection was created as the result of research done by the Rauh Jewish Archives in 2014, Accession #2014.0096..
Preferred Citation
Speyer Family History Research Collection, 1848-2010, MSS 1036, Rauh Jewish Archives, Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Martha L. Berg in June 2014.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with the Senator John Heinz History Center. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives of the Senator John Heinz History Center.
Related Materials
A copy of The Family History of Alexander Speyer, Jr., is in the Library.
The Speyer and Sunstein Family Papers, MSS# 1037, contain documents related to and photographs of some members of the Speyer and Sunstein families.
Subjects
- Speyer, Alexander C., Jr.
- Crailsheimer family
- Oppenheimer family
- Speyer family
- Sunstein family
- Speyer, Tillie Sunstein
- Speyer, James A.
- Jews--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh