Bertha Weinstein, née Kugelmann came from a very respected Kissingen family. Her father David Kugelmann was an arts dealer who had made a name of himself as a supplier of artistic silversmith and ivory works and entertained international trade relationships. How important his connection with his hometown was to him, can be proved by his puncheon which he stamped on his artefacts: It shows the hen’s leg of the Henneberger (local noblemen with a hen in their coat of arms) hen on Bad Kissingen’s coat of arms. David Kugelmann had seven children with Johanna, née Wormser from Oberlauringen.

Bertha Kugelmann was born in Bad Kissingen on June 22, 1874 as their first child. She lived with her parents, whose art and antiquities business was in Rosengarten (Rose Garden, part of Bad Kissingen’s park along the Saale River). In July 1924, her father David Kugelmann died at the age of 77, half a year after his wife Johanna Wormser.

In 1899, Bertha Kugelmann married the merchant and factory owner Adolf Weinstein from Eisenach and moved there after the wedding. In December 1901, their son Hans was born there. Bertha’s husband died in Switzerland in September 1933. Bertha Weinstein and her son succeeded in escaping to the United States in time. Their last place of residence before their emigration was Basel in Switzerland. In October 1938, they went on board the “Statendam” in French Boulogne and sailed to the United States. After their emigration to New York, Bertha Weinstein changed her name into Barbara Wood, her son called himself Hughes J. Wood.

Bertha Weinstein died in New York on November 17, 1946 at the age of 73.