I’ve been trying to find references to my ggggrandparents and gggrandfather from Vilna. How do I spell Weinstein so I can find them in records? Where can I look? Reb Yossel Weinstein was a rosh yeshiva. His wife, Zelda, was a commission merchant for Polish nobles. They had 9 children, one, my gggfather, Moishe Aaron Weinstein, was a tax auditor. Yossel and Zelda were born C. 1810-12.
She lived to be 104-6. The family name was Romm?
To avoid conscription, Yossel was “adopted” by a childless Weinstein relative. An uncle was Isaac Ben Moshe Rumsch, who translated the definitive version of Robinson Crusoe into Hebrew, which was considered a desecration of the Hebrew language. So, what was the original name? What was Zelda’s maiden name? How was Weinstein spelled so I can find records? They were wealthy, so they paid taxes. I can’t find tax records. Looking for Isaac and Celia Pollack also. She was a granddaughter, my grandmother’s sister. He owned a cotton plantation in Tashkent, also wealthy, until the Bolsheviks nationalized it but let him run it because their sons had revolutionary sympathies. An engineer son was given a new apartment in Moscow with a room for his parents after the Revolution.

Susan Kurtin Sorkenn
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