Hi Judith Romney Wegner,

You wrote:
To me the most interesting -- and puzzling -- thing is that the
great--grandmother Zlate is described as "ishah kesherah" (literally a
"kosher" woman -- meaning a fitting or suitable woman ) -- which strikes me
as a rather odd choice of adjective, while her great-aunt Tovah
is described more normally as "ishah yesharah" (meaning "an upright
woman").
I am wondering whether the adjective kesherah was selected deliberately for
the great-grandmother -- or whether they had really intended to
describe her as ishah yesharah but they wrote the yod very large -- which
could have led the stone-mason to misread it as a kaf and to carve
the adjective kesherah instead of the adjective yesharah!
Can anyone shed light on why a family might actually describe a deceased
member as ishah kesherah? Is it a technical term of some kind?
--------->
Checking the book Helkat Mehokek written by Asher Leib Brisk and containing
8,000 tombstone inscriptions >from Mont of Olives Cemetery in Jerusalem
(Years covered: 1740-1906), the tombstone inscriptions of women begin with
;
Isha = Woman
Isha Tsenu'a = Modest woman
Eshet Hayil = Woman of valor
Isha Hashuva = Esteemed woman
Isha Keshera= Upright woman
Isha Yekara= Cherished Woman
Isha Yera'at H' = Woman fearing G-d
Isha Kevuda = Respected woman
Marat = Mrs.
As you see, the adjectives used for describing the deceased woman are
numerous and, as far as I understand it, the choice of that adjective is
totally deliberate.
By the way, all these adjectives are only used by Ashkenazi Jews. The
Sephardic inscriptions of that period of time are more concise and usually
the word "marat" for Mrs. is only preceeding the given name of the deceased
woman.

The book Helkat Mehokek has been indexed as of the 16 projects conducted in
the frame of the 2004Jerusalem Conference by the Israel Genealogical
Society.
Go to: http://www.isragen.org.il/EIRI/surnames/index.html to check the
surnames you are looking for.

Thinking I have answered your question
Shalom,

Mathilde A.Tagger
Israel Genealogical Society
Jerusalem