I'd like to echo Alex Sharon's comments on the wonderful discovery of the
existence online 1912 Galicia Telephone Directory. It will certainly prove
to be a goldmine of information for Galician researchers. And I'd like to
thank him for providing the guide and index which will greatly simplify
searching through this resource:

As an example of what information can be gained >from this online gem....

Below is a translation of an entry for the town of Grzymalow (near Skalat,
in Ukraine today) relating to Count Leonard Pininski, who "owned" this
village. This will be of special interest to those of us researching
ancestors who might have worked and lived on the estates of the Polish
magnate landowners.

Re: Grzymalow's Pininski (page 199)

Below name Grzymalow there is listing of communication facilities in the
village:

a) HRM (His Royal Majesty) Phone office
b) HRM Post office and Telegraph
c) HRM public telephone facilities located in HRM Post Office

# 3 phone is listed under Pininski Leon and Stanislaw (brothers?).
Abbreviation "hr." is for "hrabia" (Count) This phone No. covered following
locations of Pininski properties:

a) Office of the steam operated flour mill
b) Palace's hall
c) Farm in Grzymalow
d) Warehouse of the steam operated flour mill
e) Mill manager, apartment

With a Polish-English dictionary (or a friend to help translate!) you'll
gain much information >from these directories...not just about your relatives
and the businesses they owned...but of connections to other types of records
that might eluded you up until now, including the names of the noble
families that owned the towns your ancestors lived in.

According to the Polish Geographical Dictionary's descriptions of many
Galician towns, there were often hundreds of Jews living and working on the
grounds of these estates in a variety of capacities..in the mills, the
taverns, taking care of the animals, etc. If you closely read the
"comments" sections of your Galician birth/marriage/death records--even
though these comments are often written in almost-indecipherable gothic
German script) you may find that members of your family were among those
living on the estates of these magnates.

Some entries >from this dictionary have been translated into English and are
listed as: "Slownik Geograficzny Index of Translated Entries" on the Polish
Roots website through this link:

http://www.polishroots.org/slownik/slownik_index.htm

Using all of these resources, in combination with JewishGen's "1891 Galician
Business Directory" at:

http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/galicia1891.htm

will give you a fuller picture of the lives your relatives once lead in
Galicia.

Another useful tip: although you must download the DJVU plug-in to view the
directory's pages, you can "save" the document to PDF format by pressing the
print button on your computer, and then clicking on "Save as PDF." In this
way you can send copies of these pages to others who may not have the
plug-in installed on their computer, but who DO have Adobe Reader. >from
Adobe you can also cut out smaller portions of the listings and manipulate
the document.

Pamela Weisberger
Research Coordinator, Gesher Galicia
Santa Monica, Ca
pweisberger@...