The intention of this paper is to trace the family history of Sigmund Freud's mother Amalia. It is the influence of the intellectual, cultural and religious values of the mother's side of the family over several generations that has remained underestimated in previous biographical research. For more than two centuries, the Nathansohns were among the most influential upper-class Jewish families in the city of Brody, an important trading center in Poland and in the Habsburg Monarchy. Specific religious, economic and political upheavals led to several members of the Nathansohn family settling elsewhere, including Sigmund Freud's grandfather Jacob and his family, who came to Vienna in 1854. Furthermore, knowledge of the biographies of close relatives enables a more nuanced perspective on Freud's own specific development.