Sartorius Family Collection

This collection documents the history of the Sartorius and related families, with a focus on the family genealogy and the lives of some individual family members. Genealogical material consisting of family trees, genealogical correspondence between family members, and photocopies of documents used in research, is present in every series. Some memoirs and biographical writings are included for some individual family members or for branches of the family. The collection also contains some family photographs.

Genealogical research is the predominant focus of this collection, with family trees in each series. The bulk of the genealogical material are Ira-Joël Sartorius's genealogical files in the collection's largest series, Series II, although a small amount of genealogical research is present in Series I on the Loevinson, Strauss and Meyer families. Genealogical research in Series II includes many discussions between Ira-Joël Sartorius, the family genealogist, with his various relatives about their branches of the family. Information encompasses the family's origins in Germany and the Alsace region of France, with much of the research showing the family's dissemination in the United States, especially in the South, in addition to France. Research documentation includes some photocopies of family documents, newspaper clippings that featured family members, or of texts related to areas where the family members lived. Series I includes photographs of many family members. The most prominent families in the collection's genealogical research are the Sartorius, Asher/ Ascher, Roos/ Rose, Strauss, Hirsch, and Dreyfus families; a smaller amount of research exists for the Goodkind, Meyer, and Loevinson families.

A few folders in Series II hold narratives of family members or branches of the family, with more detailed information on the family's experiences or on particular branches of the family. Included are narratives about the lives of Philip Sartorius and members of the Goodkind family of New York during the nineteenth century, as well as of Gaston Hirsch, who was taken prisoner by the Germans in World War II while fighting for the French.