I disagree with those who say that posting the names you are researching
on the JewishGen e-mail list is redundant if they are in the JGFF.

When your ancestors had unusual surnames such as Pretzelfelder or Haggendorf,
JGFF is invaluable because anyone researching your surname is likely to be
related to you. For people like me, who are researching common Jewish
surnames such as SCHWARTZ, WEISMAN, WEISS, or COHEN, the JGFF is of limited
use. E-mail postings may be crucial to our research.

In April, 1998, someone sent a query to the list about the family of Harris
COHEN of NYC. I replied: "COHEN is a nightmare >from a genealogical point
of view, so I answer your posting about Harris Cohen with excitement. If
we've made a hit, I've been looking for this branch of our family for 20
years."

It took us two months until we sorted through discrepancies in the information
we each had and confirmed that Jack Carter's great-grandfather Harris and
my great-grandfather Alexander were indeed brothers. Their descendants had
been out of touch for almost one-hundred years. Our meeting that summer in
Los Angeles was a joyful event that took place thanks to the JewishGen
e-mail list.

Helene Kenvin
<0005734940@...>

Researching: COHEN (Gnesen, Prussia; 19th century NYC and Richmond,VA);
JACOBS (Prussia; 19th century Richmond, VA, NYC and Albany, NY);
SCHWARTZ, WEISS, BALAJTI (Miskolc, Hungary); WIESENTHAL (Skala Zbrucz, AH);
WEISMAN (Trembovla/Semanov, AH); WAXMAN, EINBINDER,
COHEN (Kalarash, Bessarabia).