riesenbach

Welcome to the Riesenbach family website.

This website is a gateway to our family's history and current activities. It is mainly meant for relatives and friends, but holocaust researchers will find records in here that may be of interest.

A little bit about the name 'Riesenbach'

"Riesenbach" has Germanic roots, meaning roughly "giant creek" . While not a particularly common family name, there are a few dozen people with the last name Riesenbach in the USA (a few of which I have made contact with over the years). There probably are many more in Europe. To the best of my knowledge, our extended family are the only Riesenbachs in Canada (with this spelling). Our name stems from my father's family, who immigrated to Canada from Poland, having survived the Holocaust. His father (Jacob, or Yakel, in Yiddish) was not born a Riesenbach. He was born a "Feldmouse". Jacob adopted the last name Riesenbach for mysterious reasons. My mother speculates that it may have been the maiden name of his mother.