The Sassienie Worldwide Family History Online – First Published 1999

The Sassienie Worldwide Family Website is themed on family history and the introduction of extended relatives past and present to Sassienie family members worldwide - which extends to the parents of spouses of hereditary family individuals of all branches.

There are several different versions of the family surname in this family tree. The names Sasine, Sasiene, Sasienie, sass, Sassiene, Sassieni, & Sassienie are variants of the original surname Sasieni within our family group. The tree with combined Koekoek, de Wolf, Fresco and Sasieni ancestors includes fourteen generations (2015) of family members originating from Venice - Italy and the Kingdom of Galicia in central Europe.

Sasieni family ancestors were Ashkenazi Jews and their origins have been traced to the early 1600s in Venice - Italy and Lemberg, which during the period was the capital of Galicia in Poland. History suggests that it is possible the Galicia branch had fled into the Saxony regions of Germany from Russia between 1223AD and 1240AD during the thirteenth century Mongol invasions of the Russian Principalities and later due to political and religious strives in Germany at various periods during the middle ages began residing in Lemberg sometime before the seventeenth century.

During the mid seventeenth century the Venetian and Galician family ancestors had immigrated to Amsterdam in Holland. They were known by the assumed surname of de Wolf, later to include the Sasieni families with close associations to the Fresco families.

The First Sasieni

The majority of European Jewish families did not use surnames until it became obligatory during periods according to the countries in which they lived, but most commonly at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In some European countries Jews were imposed to acquire family names as a preceding requirement for establishing citizenship status under the laws.

When acquiring family surnames became mandatory, those who already had existing assumed ancestral family names usually continued the same naming traditions (sometimes with variations) from generations to generations. This official using of surnames was especially prevalent within the Sephardic communities, however, as an indication of disapproval some families would assume any types of surnames, sometimes pertaining to an animal, an occupation or the name of a town merely as a formality rather than having intentions of continuing the surname throughout the family lineage.

Prior to the family ancestors immigration to Holland, their children assumed many different surnames and the direct ancestor of all Sasieni/Sassienie family members adopted the surname of de Wolf, literal meaning, a wolf or the wolf, which became a common surname in Germany and in central Europe, although they still mainly only used their first given names and the first names of their fathers as middle or last names.

The formal using of surnames became mandatory in Holland under Napoleonic Law after 1811. The mutual ancestor of all Sasieni family members was Wolf Jacob, born 1796, son of Jacob Salomon de Wolf, who later took advantage of this law to establish himself and family a preferred surname, other siblings assumed different surnames. Wolf Jacob become officially known as, Wolf Jacob Sasieni or Wolf de Jacob Sasieni. Wolf – his father’s last name, Jacob – his father’s first name and the surname Sasieni – probable meaning in Dutch, Polish, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): ethnic and regional name from Middle Dutch Sasse, Polish Sas meaning Saxon or Saxony. The surname of Sasieni is probably a deviation meaning, coming from the regions of Saxony – Sasieni – Saxony, from whence they originated.

The first Sasieni on record was: Wolf Jacob Sasieni (1796 – 1869), born in Amsterdam, Holland. He had eight children, three died in early childhood and one child was still born.

During the mid nineteenth century Wolf Jacob Sasieni and his wife Dientje (Dinah) Koekoek (1799 – 1881), with their four surviving children, Jacob Sasiene (1826 – 1889), Levie Wolf Sasieni (1831 – 1888), Moses (Moppy) Sassienie (1832 – 1922), and Solomon Wolf Sasiene (1839 –1901) left Amsterdam, Holland to seek a better lifestyle in Spitalfields, London, England.

Wolf Jacob Sasieni and his wife, Dientje (Dinah) Koekoek, succeeded their four children's departure from Holland and sailed on the Leda from the Port of Rotterdam arriving at the Port of London on January 3rd, 1855, then finalising their journey up through the River Thames to the East End of London.

The Sassienie Worldwide Family Tree is a collection of genealogical and historical information obtained from family records, contributions, family members, newspapers, Public Record Offices, passenger lists, military records, censuses, social security indexes, public libraries, BMD index, the Joods Monument - Amsterdam, Holland, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, history books, encyclopaedias and the research of Dini Hansma.

Video – The Dini Hansma Story

                                                         Family History And My Research

Discovering the origins of the family past our mutual ancestor Wolf Jacob Sasieni and who and what they were is complicated to the extremes and so requires a lot of explaining.

Back in 1989 the days prior to the Internet being commonplace, Maurice, the husband of our cousin, Rosemary Davis, personally visited the public records offices in Amsterdam, Holland. He obtained a document (can be seen in archives section of this website) that gave limited details of the Sasieni/Sassienie family mutual great grandparents, Wolf Jacob Sasieni and his wife, Dientje (Dinah) Koekoek that included some details of Wolf’s parents, Jacob Salomon and Matje Mozes. When I was first given a copy of the document 15 years ago I thought the names of Jacob Salomon and Matje Mozes were incomplete and for many years afterwards tried to discover more information regarding the origins of Jacob and Matje but without success. Then 5 years ago purely by chance I stumbled across the following on the Akevoth website: Matje Mozes, 74 yrs.old, widow of deceased Jacob Salomon.  Notifier: Wolf Jacob Sasieni, 28 yrs.old, son - info courtesy of Dini Hansma. This was placed under the heading of Jacob Salomon de Wolf and Magdalena Matje Mozes and then bells began ringing and thought; I am on to something here. Akevoth are a dedicated team of Dutch heritage Jews based in Israel that research family history and the family inheritance of Dutch Jewry. They are a sort of Dutch Jewish version of the Church of the Later Day Saints. The aim of the foundation Akevoth is to collect, research and to save relevant data in order to publish the history of the Dutch-Jewish families and their heritage. Their sources are the registrations of births, circumcisions, deaths, funerals and marriages, including those conducted in synagogues and also the results of censuses and permits for market stands in Amsterdam. The collection contains Portuguese/ Spanish as well as Ashkenazi data. They hold a large collection of family trees and historical-demographical region-descriptions. Part of the material is the contributions of private historians and genealogists. The above mentioned Dini Hansma now in her 80s was born in Holland and I believe living in America and still going strong (2016). She is a Holocaust survivor, lost most of her family during WW2 and after the war dedicated her life to researching the origins of the Dutch Jews and later donated all her researched data to Akevoth. For those reasons the data obtained by the Akevoth team I consider highly credible.

After my discovery on the Akevoth site I decided to research into the connections deeper. Then armed with the full names, places and dates of births of Jacob and Matje I searched other Dutch public records sites, linked names together with what I already had and finally managed to solve the long mystery of those dating back before Jacob Salomon and Matje Mozes. I confirmed that Jacob Salomon and Matje Mozes were actually, Jacob Salomon de Wolf and Magdalena Matje Mozes and established that our first ancestor to Holland came from Lemburg during the seventeenth century that at the time was in Galicia then a part of Poland. I tried to discover our de wolf ancestors prior to Holland in Lemburg but it was an impossible task and here is why: Our first ancestor to arrive in Holland was Akiba de Wolf born abt 1663 in Lemburg, which was then part of Poland. But it appears the surnames of that time were assumed last names, de Wolf, literally meaning an animal, the Wolf and officially surnames did not become compulsory until 1811 under Napoleonic law when our family members had been well established in Holland for almost 2 centuries, also combined with the problems that few public records were kept in central and eastern Europe 4 to 5 hundred years ago, so it became impossible to trace them. What I did and the only option left open to me was to do an in-depth study of the Jews of Lemburg as a whole and seek their origins via that route. It transpired that all of them were 100% Ashkenazi dating back over 1000 years in that region and this was part of my analysis that our ancestors were all Ashkenazi and that some had married Sephardic Jews when they arrived in Holland. After this I went on to do an extensive study of our de wolf Dutch familes dating from 1663.

This was difficult, as in all the cases 2 + 2 = 5, nothing made sense until I finally managed to place all the pieces together and even now none of it fits perfectly. Our first ancestor to immigrate to Holland was Akiba de Wolf born abt 1663. Akiba de Wolf was married to, Bele Friske.(Fresco). Her ancestors came from Venice in Italy. They had at least 7 children, perhaps more? 6 sons and 1 daughter that we know of. One daughter became known by her married name of Lazarus and all 6 sons assumed different surnames plus their children all assumed different surnames and so on. These included the surnames of, de Wolf, Holzman‏, de Mantel‏, Asser‏, Zalman, Pruikemacher‏ and Sasieni plus many more. It was as if they had chosen a surname out of a hat and stuck with it, and just to add to the confusion Wolf Sasieni`s father, Jacob Salomon de Wolf had been married twice and there are no records of any children from his second marriage found so far. This is why I was unable to trace back our family history further back from our mutual great grandfather Wolf Jacob Sasieni because the surname of Sasieni does not appear before his birth.  My research also discovered that most of the de Wolf families in Holland upon their deaths were buried at the Zeeburg and Muiderberg high order Ashkenazi cemeteries in Amsterdam, Holland and must assume that if they were buried in Ashkenazi cemeteries than they would have likely to have married in Ashkenazi synagogues and therefore must be Ashkenazi.

After my discovery of the wolf Jacob Sasieni link to his father, Jacob Salomon de Wolf, I conducted another 4 years research into this project and then published my findings onto the Sassienie Worldwide Family Website about 2 years ago as by that time I was sure of my facts. As I mentioned on this website; substantiated evidence and accurate data in respect to the origins of de Wolf family ancestors is extremely limited as to what references are available in public and official records. Research and studies regarding historical events of the Jewish communities within the Saxony and Galician regions of Europe during the middle ages suggests that events during the early periods of the de Wolf and Sasieni family history, although could be regarded at a theorist level, are indeed fact. What I have mentioned so far is all I can offer on the subject for the case that our de Wolf ancestors were of Ashkenazi origin.

Tragically most other de Wolf family branches I had discovered so far have led to the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Sobibor. There are only a very few family branches left, the Sasieni/Sassienie family being of the very few survivors left from the original ancestors. Yes, it appears the Nazis completed a very efficient and determined job on annihilating most branches of our family tree. 

I have over 26000 individuals listed in my files all related to me, both on my paternal and maternal side of the family, from my over 45 years of family history research. My mother’s side are definitely Sephardic, I have traced the line right back to Spain, including the branches of the south Americas and those married into the British aristocracy. I am a 15th great grandson on my paternal grandmother’s side of Abraham Zacuto, the navigational instrument maker and friend of Christopher Columbus. The Sasieni/Sassienie branch of my family tree is only a small part of it..
 

I, Anthony Steel, the publisher, have referred to official public records, organisations and credible references whenever possible for the obtaining of information and have attempted to corroborate facts for accuracy regarding all researched and acquired data prior to publishing. But it is not possible to verify that all information listed in the Sassineie worldwide family trees and website is entirely accurate.

I would be most grateful to any viewers that would contact me if they notice any errors or have knowledge regarding information that has been incorrectly listed on this website.

Anthony (Sassienie) Steel

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

I am indebted to Rosemary and her husband Maurice who have freely given their co-operation, support and with dedicating over 30 years of research towards the Sasieni ancestry and their descendants has presented their entire information and collected data to this family tree. My thanks and appreciation to Garry Steel for his discovery of Sassienie family members on the Internet which was my inspiration to further the research for our family ancestry and for his assistance with the Family Tree files.

I give thanks and gratitude to Derek Dightmaker for his assistance with the necessary information required that has enabled the Dightmaker`s and their descendants to be included in this family tree.

A big thank you to Kathleen Simser, for her contribution of photos and details that has included the Canadian family branch to the Sassienie Worldwide Family Website and family tree.

My gratitude and appreciation to Barbara Karpel for her contributions, assistance and guidance towards the setting up of this website.

I would also like to record my gratitude and appreciation to Professor Peter Sasieni, Tracy Joseph, Diane Isaacs, Brian Isaacs, Gillian, Annette Smart, John Bernard, Ruth Barnett, Rose Sasieni, Sheila Lawrence, Hugh Shear, Dr. Serge ter Braake - Editor of the Digital Monument at the Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam, Holland, and to all the family members who have generously contributed many amazing family photos and details to this family tree, that without their contributions and guidance the Sassienie family history project would not have been possible.