Postrel Family Circle

A website about the history and geneology of the Postrel Family

The Family Postrel

From the nineteenth century shtetls of Stavische to the modern era, we can be proud of our immigrant family which has left a mark on the United States and the world.

The Birth of the PFC

“Since he had no commitments for the summer (1940), Hy (Weisberg) decided to accompany Uncle Joe and his family – Aunt Anna, their daughter Vera, and their identical twin sons, Morton and Monroe, on their cross country drive to San Francisco where they were planning to settle. On the outskirts of Salt Lake City they had a tire blowout which resulted in the death of of Uncle Joe and Vera. When Hy spoke about this tragic event in March, 1997, it clearly was still a vivid memory. Vera died in his arms and Uncle Joe died a day or so later in a hospital. Aunt Anna’s brother, Max Silverman, came from San Francisco to accompany Aunt Anna, Morton and Monroe the rest of the way to the west coast. Hy accompanied the bodies on the train to San Francisco where they were buried; Phil went to San Francisco to bring Hy back to New York.

The entire Postrel family was deeply wounded by this double loss. It was then that the Postrel brothers and sisters and older nieces and nephews formed the Postrel Family Circle and bought the cemetery plot in Montefiore Cemetery in Queens.”

- excerpt from “The Family Postrel,” by Reida Herskowitz

“The Family Postrel”

Our cousin, Reida (Postrel) Herskowitz prepared this wonderful history of the descendants of Yehuda Leib and Rachel Leah. It is a rich history, full of stories and anecdotes and was obviously prepared with great love. I appreciate it more and more with each passing year.

Reida passed away on August 7, 2015. She was 91 years old. Reida was always passionate about her family and was involved with many of her cousins in the extended Postrel family. I posted a few photos as a tribute to a cousin who meant so much to our family.

Family trees

Thanks to our cousin, Emily Bayard, for making this available. It’s highly compressed so you’ll have to do some zooming. It hasn’t been updated in a while so those “new additions” probably are not represented.

Following are two family trees, one of the Postrel side of the family and the other of the Krenses side. There were marriages between the two sides so some pieces of the family appear on both family trees. These were prepared by Leo Postrel based on work done by Roz Doggett and Neysa Moss years earlier. They were last updated by Leo in the late 1990’s so they are not current.