19th-century migrations
Until 1793, while Lodz was an episcopal town, Jews were mostly barred from settling there. The legal situation changed after it became a Prussian town, and Jewish merchants started to migrate to Lodz, mainly from the surrounding towns and villages. Spinners and weavers from the German lands came to Lodz during the 1820s and 30s (at which point the city was already under Russian control). Jews engaged in textile production—establishing crude domestic workshops and textile factories—started to arrive in large numbers only in the 1860s, predominantly from the other towns in central Poland.
The map shows the migrations of the Goldbergs' direct ancestors from smaller villages in central Poland to Lodz. At the start of the 19th century they held traditional jobs as consignment traders, laborers, and stallkeepers. As they moved to Lodz, many of them acquired skills that were better suited to the economic opportunities offered by this city.
Of particular interest are the Goldberg and Abbe lines shown on the family tree, as they feature numerous weavers. While the Goldbergs were laborers in workshops and small factories, some of the Abbes succeeded in building small textile businesses of their own. Mania Goldberg's grandfather, David Wolff Abbe was the first Jew to have been received as master in the Weavers’ Guild in Lodz. He has also been credited by historians with the discovery of a new method of yarn production. His grandson and Mania's cousin, Samuel Abbe, opened a small factory, which the Nazis later turned into the infamous Radogoszcz prison—today the site of a museum.
