Freud, Sigmund, Mother of

Amalia Nathanson, sometimes called Amalie, was born in 1835 in Brody, Galicia, and died in 1930, possibly of tuberculosis. The September 22 issue of Time that year identified her as the wife of Jacob, reporting: “Died: Frau Jacob Amalia Nathanson Freud, 95, mother of famed Neurologist Sigmund Freud; of old age, at Vienna.” She was descended from Nathan Halévy Charmatz of Brody, who was a famous Talmudic scholar in the 18th century. At age 20, she became either the second or third wife of Jacob Freud, a textile dealer who was 20 years her senior. Emmanuel (or Emanuel), one of the children from Jacob's first marriage, was older than Amalia and had children when Amalia and Jacob had their first child. That child, whom they ...