The Kohner Family In June 2023, my sister, my 14 year old son, my mother and I are traveling to Budapest, Hungary to continue our research on my Hungarian side of the family. My grandfather was named Vilmos Wilhelm Kohner, but pretty much everyone called him Willy Kohner. The Kohners were a very prominent Jewish aristocratic family who first made their money in pig farming, and then eventually moved in to banking. His third wife, Franciska Schmidt Kohner, was my great grandmother. Because Willy was still married to his second wife when my my great aunt and grandmother were born, he paid for another man's name to be put on both children's birth certificates. In an extremely fortunate twist of fate, the act of putting another man's (who happened to be Catholic) on my grandmother and great aunt's birth certificates probably saved their lives. In 1938 around the time both women were in their late teens, Hungary had instated laws the prohibited Jews from certain profession