Friedrich (Fritz) and Emma Ginsberg Family Collection

The Friedrich (Fritz) and Emma Ginsberg Family Collection primarily focuses on the personal lives of Fritz and Emma Ginsberg and their children in King William's Town, South Africa. The lives of other relatives in Germany are documented to a smaller extent. The collection includes correspondence – almost entirely personal – as well as various documents of individuals, including official certificates, family writings, material on family celebrations and a number of family photographs.

The bulk of the collection centers on Fritz and Emma Ginsberg's family life in South Africa. The details of their lives are shown most clearly in the correspondence of Series I, which holds several folders of letters between them and Emma's mother that convey news of the Ginsberg family's activities. Although a few letters may touch upon their experiences of South Africa, such as Ruth Ginsberg's letters of a trip through southern Africa in 1946, for the most part the letters pertain to the family's own concerns and health. Series II holds the documentation of the family members and holds a number of official documents such as various certificates or identification papers. More prominent in this series is the evidence of family celebrations, including the wedding of Fritz and Emma and also of their daughter Hilde, in addition to documentation on their interests, such as Fritz Ginsberg's Masonic membership, Hilde's service at hospitals and her husband's research into local Jewish history. Photographs of Fritz, Emma, and their children are included in Series III.

Material on more distant family members will also be found in each of the series. Letters of various members of the Mannheimer, Rosenstein, Ginsberg, Cohn and Calm families are included in Series I. These include a number of letters by Henriette Rosenstein to her daughter's family that provide news of family members in Germany. Documentation of more distant relations will also be found in Series II, including a 1783 Schutzbrief for a member of the Mannheimer family. This series also includes folders of poetry written by several family members; many of these were written on the occasion of birthdays, anniversaries or holidays. Some handwritten family trees and genealogical notes are also in Series II. Series III includes photographs of members of earlier generations of the branches of the family as well as photographs of more recent additions.