The Schuster family had many branches in the Judengasse. Several members of the family came to Frankfurt in the first half of the 17th century from the town of Öttingen in northern Swabia. Their numerous descendants achieved wealth and prominence as businessmen in trade and money lending. In the 17th and 18th centuries the family's operations were as risky as they were profitable, and there was a major bankruptcy in 1719, when the house of Levy went bankrupt in Nancy and claims could not be collected. The bankruptcy affected other Frankfurt Jewish businessmen, such as the Zons. After 1748 members of the Schuster family held the post of Jewish mail carrier for three generations. The Schuster family produced a number of prominent individuals, who were often highly praised on their gravestones. The gravestone of Jakob Schuster, for example, who died in 1696 with a high reputation as community leader states: "we have lost the crown from our head" and refers to him as a man with a wealth of knowledge who "was known everywhere". Another inscription for a family member who died in 1703 says, "we have lost a pious and pure man; who among us can describe his greatness?"