Digitised Manuscripts and Books

isiness he summoned my Father to his sistance : and at Frankfort my Father remained . Much has been written about the early history of our 3; which have obtained seneral cred- 49) house, but most of the tale 1 ence are either carbled or altogether fictitious. It has been asserted , for instance , that our surname only dates from the Napoleonic invasion of Germany , when the Jewish inhabit- ants of Frankfort were obliged by the Emperor to assume a sur- name , a custom they had not hitherto followed. On passing throuch Frankfort recently , however, my attention was drawn to a sale of rare books , and I was shown some catalogues of old coins dated 1754-5 and signed 'A.M.Rothschild: Woes i ae [This disposes of one popular fallacy. Then asain , it has been said that we took our surname from the town of Réskilde in Denmark, where my family is supposed to have originally lived. d For my part, I should say that my ancestors derived their name from the red shield - in German,Rothschild- which hung over the door of their house in Frankfort. This shield served the office of a sign at a time when houses were not yet numbered, and when Jews, as a rule, had no surnames, and they adopted it s their crest in I8I9 when they were ennobled by the Emperor sy) n Of AUWStY 14. From what I have been told by a trustworthy authority who has studied the tombstones in the local cemetery , I have warrant for assuming that my family had already settled at Frankfort in the beginning of the sixteenth century ; but how long they had then been settled there , or whether , and when they had hailed from R6skilde , or whether , as I am half