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The Morser - Champion Family

The Morser Families

The earliest known Morser (or Mörser or Mörzer) came from Vienna, in Austria.
We don't know much about Zalel Mörzer, except that he was married to a 'well born Hungarian Lady', that he was a chemist, and that he died in 1904.

Zalel Mörzer had one son, Harry, and five daughters.

Zalel Mörzer's five daughters were called
      N.N.
      Dora (2 daughters)
      Josephine (unmarried)
      Wilhelmina (2 sons)
      Rosa (no issue)

The daughter with the unknown name married a famous author ("Homlenkulus"), and had a daughter, Henrietta, who was married to a hungarian composer - Peggie met them in Budapest in 1937 - She/they (?) died somewhere in Germany during the war.

An Internet search for Homlenkulus found no entries !

But: this information comes from a letter from "Peggie", which was typed on "see-through" airmail paper, with additional information written, in ink, across it.

It is possible, that what looks like 'Homlenkulus' could be 'Homunkulus'
An Internet search for Homunkulus found this entry
Weil, Robert (pseudonym: Gustav Holm, Homunkulus), b. Vienna, Aug. 4, 1881, d. New York (USA), Dec. 5, 1960. Writer, revue performer. Writer of revue texts, worked for various Austrian and German magazines and journals, toured through Germany with his "Homunkulus" evenings. Fled from Austria in 1938, emigrating to the USA in 1939, where he began working as a telegram messenger, and later as a free-lance writer in New York.
At: www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.w/w293604.htm
and: www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.cp_right.image.w/w293604a.htm

No mention here of his wife, e.g. "married N.N. Mörzer", but ..... ???

See also: http://www.jmw.at/de/kuwo_2001_-_der_mann__der_siss.html


Update: December 2006:

To commemorate Robert Weil's 125 birthday, the Illustrierte Neue Welt" (founded 1897 by Theodor Hertzl) printed an article about him.
Robert Weil zum 125. Geburtstag

Here we can read the following sentence:
Robert Weil, der im Januar 1918 Henriette Ortner heiratete, hatte zwei Töchter, Susanne Weil Tolman und seine jüngere Tochter, Prof. Dr. Dorrit Molony.
Translated: Robert Weil married Henrietta Ortner in 1918 and had two daughters, Susanne and Dorrit.

So either "Homlenkulus" is not "Homonkulus" . . .
or maybe the N.N. Mörser was in fact Henrietta, who married a Mr. Ortner, and had a daughter Henrietta, and then later married Robert Weil, and had two more daughters ... ??
(the more we find out, the more questions we have !)



Harry Mörzer married three times. His first wife was Edith Caldecott (family legend: a titled lady ?). Most of the information here about Harry Morser and his five sisters comes from a letter that their daughter, Frances "Peggie" (b. 1906), sent to her niece.

Harry changed his name from Mörzer to Morser in 1912. Before that, in 1906 ? he became a british citizen.

He later divorced Edith. One version of this story, is that, when marrying Edith, he deliberately waited with the ceremony, till she joined him in Capetown, in 1900. The reason for waiting was that the S.A. laws made it very much easier for Harry to divorce her later, than it would have been in England !

After his divorce he returned to England, and there (when ?) married Murial Champion.

The Vienna Mörzers were very friendly with the LEON KELLNER family (prominent Viennese newspaper people and author) and during the war, Harry, long since divorced from both wives, married Dora Kellner, in name only, in order to to facilitate her getting out of Vienna and getting legal entry into England.


Snippets: The Caldecott family goes "way back". A Caldecott portrait, painted by Sir Godfrey KNELLER (1646 - 1723) was stolen in New York in 19??.


Acknowledgments:
Thanks to Gitta, Mary Jane and Sarah Morser for supplying much of the material on this page.
A lot of the information came from a letter written by Frances Margaret "Peggie" Morser, which Sarah kindly provided.


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