Last week Gerhard Buck informed us of the opening of the Jewish
Cemeteries in Hessen database. I think that this site is so important
that I've included a copy Mr. Buck's message below. It includes a list of
the 18 cemeteries now covered at the site. If you have a good collection
of data on families >from any of these areas please look at the site
and let us know your opinion of the information as presented.

My LOWENSTEIN / LOEWENSTEIN and KAHN ancestors lived in towns served
by the Wallau cemetery, one of the 18 now covered at the website:

As a teenager, I visited that cemetery with my Dad in 1960. That same
day I drew my first family tree based on the visit. I also
photographed a few family graves then and have since discovered
Dad's photos of the same ones and others taken 3 days before he fled
Germany in 1935.

My Dad didn't take me to see all of the family graves for various
reasons. He probably didn't know about his great grandfather's
stone with a weathered Hebrew inscription in the old section of the
cemetery and those of his other ancestors there. He avoided
showing me the grave of an uncle who committed suicide and of his
father's first wife who died in childbirth. Opa soon married the dead
woman's sister but was so heartbroken that he kept the first marriage
a secret.

The point of these personal details is this: Even those of us who have
visited our ancestral cemeteries in Hessen may have much to learn at
this amazing website.

Mr. Buck says that there are plans to offer an English language
version of these pages. I hope that another GerSIG member who reads
German better than I do will supplement my basic user guide below.

GerSIG members who are more familiar than I with the JOBR operation
could help initiate discussions with JewishGen regarding cooperative efforts.

To view photos of graves in the 18 covered Jewish cemeteries
in Hessen go to http://lagis-hessen.de/juf.html

If you read German well or can use a translation tool there is much of
interest linked to this home page.

To quickly search for graves in the 18 covered cemeteries or all of the graves
in any of them click on "Einfache Suche" (simple search).

This will take you to the simple search page with these instructions:

"In the text field give your search word or several words separated by
blank spaces. The search engine is ** not ** case sensitive.
Indicate the number of "hits" to be shown on each results screen."
After entering the search word(s) and desired number click on "Suche Starten"
(start search).

If you enter the town in which one of the included cemeteries is
located you will instantly be taken to a list of the graves located
there. They are listed in chronological order by death date and each
inscription is assigned a number.

Click on any name in the list to be shown a small photo and basic
information about that person's grave. The default seems to be "Lage"
but don't overlook the other data fields for each grave. NOTE: The
transliterations of the Hebrew names and words may differ from
transliterations used by English speakers.

To see other views of the stone and enlarged views click on
"Vergroesserte und.... under the small photo. You can zoom in on the
full screen version of the photo by using the cursor to slide the zoom bar
under the picture to the right. A click on the image jumps to an enlarged view.
The photos usually indicate "bild 1 von 2" (image 1 of 2) The second image
is an image file of the inscription shown as clear type - either
Hebrew, German or, perhaps, other. Both the photo and the clear
inscription text can be downloaded to your computer as an image file.
The "Bildanzeige Modus" selector lets you select alternative file
types of the images.

The " Merkmale" field tells the year the grave was recorded, the
composition of the stone (example: Sandstein = Sandstone) and the
dimensions of the stone.

The "Inschrift" (inscription) view provides a clear view of the
inscription and a translation to German.

****** The "Verstorbene(r)" (deceased person) field provides the name,
date of death (taken >from vital records), gender, town of residence,
and some additional biographical data taken >from vital records. Source
information of the records used is presented. Also included are
references to known close relatives who are also buried in the same cemetery.

The "Nachweise" field offers links to pages containing data about the
names shown. Click on any version of the name or any of the names of known
relatives in the list to be taken to those pages.

"Orte" (places) on this page gives the town of residence of the
deceased. Click on the town name and all other graves of people known
to be residents of that town are shown.

I will need help re: the information offered on the "Lage Plan" field.

When viewing a list, click on the > symbol at the top of the list to
move forward one page. Use >| to move to the end of the list and <
|< to go back one page or go to the last page.

I'll admit to being inexperienced with JewishGen's JOBR website and
other cemetery data websites. I can't imagine that any other site
could be better organized and presented than this one is.

I haven't searched the site to learn the names of all the people and
institutions who helped with this project but thanks and
congratulations are due to all. More about that to follow.

I urge everyone to visit this excellent website and encourage the
creation of more like it.

John Paul Lowens (Loewenstein) See Wallau Cemetery graves 40 and 124

Gerhard Buck <buckidstein@...> wrote on 12 September:
Yesterday a new website was presented by the Kommission fuer die Geschichte
der Juden in Hessen: http://lagis-hessen.de/juf.html

During the last 25 years, this commission for the history of the
Jews in Hessen has inventoried about 70 Jewish cemeteries in Hessen with
nearly 17,000 headstones. The stones were photographed, and their texts wer=
e
copied and translated. A first selection of 2,000 stones in 20 smaller
cemeteries can now be seen on this website. These cemeteries are in:

- Altwiedermus, Battenfeld, Binsfoerth, Falkenberg, Fritzlar, Gettenbach,
Gro=DFen-Linden, Harmuthsachsen, Hebenshausen, Hofgeismar, Korbach,
Meimbressen, Ortenberg, Sontra, Tann (Rhoen), Ungedanken, Wallau, Wehen.

The other cemeteries will be added in the course of time. Currently, the
site is in German, yet an English version may follow. The search engine off=
ers
various possibilities concerning names, places, dates, and symbols. Since
this website is part of LAGIS ( Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem),
a system of information on all sorts of historical aspects of the State
of Hessen, you get direct access to historical and modern maps,
pictures, literature, and historical information.