Karl, Karoly, Charlie, JEGESSY, JEGESY, IEGESI, Arad, Romania

FAMILY NAME: JEGESSY (JEGESY, IEGESI?)
GIVEN NAME: Karl (Karoly?) “Charlie”
BIRTH DATE: JULY 25th 1945
BIRTH PLACE: Schongau, Bavaria, Germany
FATHER’S NAME: Karl Karoly JEGESSI (ca 1906 Romania – 1950 Arad, Romania)
MOTHER’S NAME: Katalin Katharina Zita KaetheJEGESSI nee FEIN (1916 Arad, Romania – 1997 Israel)

PATERNAL GRANDFATHER: Dr. Carol Karl Josef Francisc JEGESSY JEGESY IEGESI (1876 Pancota, Romania – 1951 Arad, Romania)
PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER: Elizabeth (?) IEGESI
MATERNAL GRANDFATHER: (?) FEIN
MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER: (?) FEIN nee (?)

Charlie’s story
Karl Karoly JEGESSY had married Katalin Katharina Zita Kaethe FEIN in Romania in 1934.
Karl JEGESSY was registered as a Roman Catholic. Katalin Katerina Zita Kaethe FEIN came from a Jewish family but had converted to Catholicism when she married.
Did this couple have any children in the 1930’s, and if so, what happened to these children during the war?
What happened to this couple when the Germans occupied Romania in 1940? Did the wife have to hide because she came from a Jewish family?
It is not known where Karl and Katalin JEGESSY stayed during the war.
In the end of 1944 or in the beginning of 1945, Katalin got pregnant.
When WWII ended, the Americans they set up many DP camps in what was called the American zone. One of these was the DP camp of Altenstadt near Schongau, around 80 km SW of Muenchen.
In July 1945 Katalin and her husband Karl were living at the DP camp of Altenstadt near Schongau.
Altenstadt had earlier been a military camp for the Wehrmacht and now became a DP camp with around 3000 DPs living there, most of them from Poland. So how did a couple from Romania end up in Altenstadt? This is not yet known.
In July 1945 Katalin Katerina Zita Kaethe Jegessy was brought from the DP camp in Altenstadt to the regional hospital in nearby Schongau, where she gave birth to a baby boy on July 25th 1945.
On the German birth register their names are written down as Karl Jegessy with parents Katharina and Karl Jegessy.
In 1948 the little family left Germany and went back to Romania. They settled in Arad, Romania.
In 1950 the family lived in Republic Street 83 in Arad, when Karl Jegessy died. He was only 44 years old. He was buried as a Roman Catholic, but without the sacrament.
On the death certificate his name is written as Karoly JEGESSY.
Karl JEGESSY’s father Dr. Karl Carol Iosif Francisc JEGESSY IEGESI was born in 1878 in Pancota, Romania and died at the Republic Street 83, Arad, at the same address as his son, but one year later, in 1951.
This Dr. Karl Carol Iosif Francisc Jegessy IEGESI, according to one internet site, was a layer, who finished his studies in Budapest in 1903, and later became the Attorney General of the city of Arad before WWI.
On the death certificate his name is written Carol Iosif Francisc IEGESI and his parents are written down as Carol and Maria JEGESSY.
After the death of her husband in 1950 and of her father-in-law Dr. Karl Jegessy in 1951, Katalin Jegessy left Romania with her son Charlie, who was then around six years old. They settled in Israel. Katalin told her son very little about the past. She did tell him that his father had died close to his birth, and he therefore had gotten his father’s given name. Now we know this is not true, as Charlie was five years old when his father died in Romania. Perhaps it was easier to use this explanation in Israel, rather than telling him his father was a Roman Catholic?

Charlie visited Arad in 2005 and got the death certificates for his father and his paternal grandfather.

Possible Jewish roots? Possible greatgrandfather?
From the internet we learnt about Dr. Karoly Jegessy, a lawyer, born in 1824, who died in 1880 in Pancota, Romania.
In 1849, as an officer in the war, he had changed his family name from Szilbereisz to Jegessy. Could he have come from a Jewish family?
Could this Dr. Karoly Jegessy (1824-1880), be the father of Dr. Karl Carol Iosif Fransisc IEGESI (1878 Pancota – 1951 Arad) and the grandfather of Karl Karoly Jegessy (1906 – 1950) and the greatgrandfather of Karl Charlie Jegessy (born 1945)?

RESOURCES WE HAVE USED
Death certificates from Arad, Romania for Charlie’s father and grandfather
Birth certificate for Karl Jegessi born 1945, issued in 1963 in Schongau
Correspondence in March 2018 with the Standesamt in Schongau
Schongau, Bavaria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schongau,_Bavaria
Altenstadt
http://www.dpcamps.org/altenstadt.html

Altenstadt new and old photos
https://www.stbawm.bayern.de/imperia/md/images/stbv/stbawm/hochbau/fjs-kaserne_altenstadt/altenstadt.jpg
http://www.archiv.org.lv/baltic_dp_germany/index.php?id=212&lang=en
Altenstadt – a project to list persons who were DPs in this camp
https://www.geni.com/projects/Altenstadt-Displaced-Persons-Camp/26770
Altenstadt
http://dpcampinventory.its-arolsen.org/uebersicht-zonen/amerikanische-zone/dokumente/
Pancota, Romania
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A2ncota
Arad, Romania
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arad,_Romania
Dr. Jegessy Carol.
https://www.ccja.ro/ccja/monitorul-cultural/studii-si-articole/Administratie%20romaneasca%20aradeana_vol_01.pdf
“Născut la 10 ianuarie 1878 în localitatea Pâncota (Arad). Religia: romano catolică. Studii juridice la Universitatea din Budapesta, unde a obţinut diploma de doctor în anul 1903. A depus şi examenul de avocat în faţa Comisiei de examen din Tg. Mureş, în anul 1905. Serviciul militar la Regimentul 3 …”
http://villamosipar.tudomanytortenet.hu/animated-map.php?page=&query=ArViR.T.&where=Arad
Dr. Karl Jegessy Attorney General in Arad 1908 – 1914
Karoly Szilbereisz Jegessy
https://www.arcanum.hu/hu/online-kiadvanyok/Bona-bona-tabornokok-torzstisztek-1/hadnagyok-es-fohadnagyok-az-184849-evi-szabadsagharcban-2/j-CB4/jegessy-1849-ig-szilbereisz-karoly-D25/
“JEGESSY (1849-ig SZILBEREISZ) KÁROLY
Szül. 1824 k. Ügyvéd.
Hadbíró tanfolyamot végez. 1849. jún. 14 (máj. 16)- hadbíró főhadnagy a szerveződő 102. honvédzászlóaljnál.
1867. az Arad megyei Honvédegylet tagja. † Pankota, 1880.
Közlöny 1849/79. és 133., Mikár I. 7., Vas. Újs. 1880/47.”