Born in New York City, the Marx Brothers were the sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany. Their mother, Minnie Schönberg, was from Dornum in East Frisia, and their father Simon Marrix (whose name was changed to Sam Marx, and who was nicknamed "Frenchy") was a native of Alsace, now part of France, and worked as a tailor. The family lived in the then-poor Yorkville section of New York City's Upper East Side, between the Irish, German and Italian Quarters.