JewishGen.org Discussion Group FAQs
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Our old Discussion List platform was woefully antiquated. Among its many challenges: it was not secure, it required messages to be sent in Plain Text, did not support accented characters or languages other than English, could not display links or images, and had archives that were not mobile-friendly.
This new platform that JewishGen is using is a scalable, and sustainable solution, and allows us to engage with JewishGen members throughout the world. It offers a simple and intuitive interface for both members and moderators, more powerful tools, and more secure archives (which are easily accessible on mobile devices, and which also block out personal email addresses to the public).
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I like how the current lists work. Will I still be able to send/receive emails of posts (and/or digests)?
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So just to be sure - this new group will allow us to post from our mobile phones, includes images, accented characters, and non-latin characters, and does not require plain text?
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What are the new guidelines?
There are just a few simple rules & guidelines to follow, which you can read here:https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main/guidelines
Thank you in advance for contributing to this amazing online community!
If you have any questions, or suggestions, please email support@JewishGen.org.
Sincerely,
The JewishGen.org Team
Problems with Yad Vashem Database
#ukraine
Zvi Bernhardt <central.database@...>
On Yom Hashoah, we [Yad Vashem] put up a whole new site. We did this in
order to integrate a Russian interface for the site, a very important move as we have also started a project to collect Pages of Testimony among Russian speaking Jews. The project is currently being carried out in the Ukraine and in Israel. Like most new sites, the new site has bugs. We have sorted out most of the bugs, but the site is still not as stable as the site we had before Yom Hashoah. At this point, most of the time it works fine, but the problems described below happens every few days. Our computer people are working hard to solve the problem as quickly as possible. PLEASE write us at central.database@yadvashem.org.il if you encounter technical problems with our site. We usually aren't able to answer you quickly enough to help you, but you help us (and yourself in the long run) by making sure we know all the problems that exist. Zvi Bernhardt Yad Vashem
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Ukraine SIG #Ukraine Problems with Yad Vashem Database
#ukraine
Zvi Bernhardt <central.database@...>
On Yom Hashoah, we [Yad Vashem] put up a whole new site. We did this in
order to integrate a Russian interface for the site, a very important move as we have also started a project to collect Pages of Testimony among Russian speaking Jews. The project is currently being carried out in the Ukraine and in Israel. Like most new sites, the new site has bugs. We have sorted out most of the bugs, but the site is still not as stable as the site we had before Yom Hashoah. At this point, most of the time it works fine, but the problems described below happens every few days. Our computer people are working hard to solve the problem as quickly as possible. PLEASE write us at central.database@yadvashem.org.il if you encounter technical problems with our site. We usually aren't able to answer you quickly enough to help you, but you help us (and yourself in the long run) by making sure we know all the problems that exist. Zvi Bernhardt Yad Vashem
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Jewish maids
#general
Ida & Joseph Schwarcz
Dear friends,
To follow through on Jewish women as domestic servants-- During the years of mass immigration of Jews >from Eastern Europe to the US, many of the classes set up for the new immigrants, to teach them how to adapt to life in the US, were geared to domestic service for women ( sewing, cooking, cleaning, etc.) and manual labor for men. To the dismay, astonishment, ? of the middle class (often German Jewish) sponsors of these classes, the younger immigrants opted for academics and many graduated >from high school and college. My parents were very poor, but did not even let me baby-sit for money because that meant I would be a "maid." If my services were required by a neighbor, my mother made me baby-sit for free! Sincerely, Ida Selavan Schwarcz Arad, Israel
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Re: Mothers Patronymic
#general
Sally Bruckheimer
If the mother had a family name that looked like a
patronymic, and the child was 'illegitimate' according to the government (because the parents only married religiously, not civilly), then the child would be given the mother's family name. I think this is more likely than taking what really was his mother's patronymic. Sally Bruckheimer Bridgewater, NJ
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JewishGen Discussion Group #JewishGen Jewish maids
#general
Ida & Joseph Schwarcz
Dear friends,
To follow through on Jewish women as domestic servants-- During the years of mass immigration of Jews >from Eastern Europe to the US, many of the classes set up for the new immigrants, to teach them how to adapt to life in the US, were geared to domestic service for women ( sewing, cooking, cleaning, etc.) and manual labor for men. To the dismay, astonishment, ? of the middle class (often German Jewish) sponsors of these classes, the younger immigrants opted for academics and many graduated >from high school and college. My parents were very poor, but did not even let me baby-sit for money because that meant I would be a "maid." If my services were required by a neighbor, my mother made me baby-sit for free! Sincerely, Ida Selavan Schwarcz Arad, Israel
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JewishGen Discussion Group #JewishGen Re: Mothers Patronymic
#general
Sally Bruckheimer
If the mother had a family name that looked like a
patronymic, and the child was 'illegitimate' according to the government (because the parents only married religiously, not civilly), then the child would be given the mother's family name. I think this is more likely than taking what really was his mother's patronymic. Sally Bruckheimer Bridgewater, NJ
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Re: Wealthy in Hildesheim, Germany?
#general
Roger Lustig <julierog@...>
Elodee:
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
First, keep in mind that until emancipation (i.e., at least until 1810), many records were kept separately for Jews. So there might be separate censuses (including servants), lists of houses owned by Jews, etc. Second, let me add some statistics to the discussion, which has been excellent. When Prussia granted its Jews citizenship in 1812 (east of the Elbe, at least), the legal gazette in each province published a list of heads of households and the surnames they'd adopted. The list for the Kurmark (i.e., Brandenburg west of the Oder) is fascinating, especially the 60% or so devoted to Berlin. For Berlin, probably because there were enough people with similar names/patronyms to cause confusion, the list also included occupations. Here goes: There are 1042 men and 591 women on the list. Only those women who did not belong to a household headed by a man were listed. Among the 591 women we have: 158 widows 237 listed as unmarried 136 maids 27 with no occupation given 11 separated 10 Judentoechter: "daughters of Jews", probably orphan/foster children 3 housekeepers 2 cooks 1 seamstress 1 governess and a few other occupations. The "unmarried" category is interesting: were these simply daughters above a certain age? I don't think so, because the list is more or less alphabetical by new surname and the "unmarried"s aren't listed beside someone who could be their father or mother. Perhaps they're more servants. (Only two cooks? Can't be.) Over on the male side, the most common occupational designation is "Handlungsdiener"--shop assistant or the like--with 187. This is followed by: 173 Kaufmann (merchant/businessman) 106 Handelsmann (also merchant) 37 bankers 36 moneychangers 35 bookkeepers and all manner of other occupations. Some things make one wonder: where are the schochets and butchers? I see only 4 on the list. And did Jews have the entire lottery-agent concession for the city? 14 of them. Everything >from 2 day laborers to 10 courtiers; 10 doctors, an "academic artist", 2 art dealers, a podiatrist specializing in corn removal, a dancing master, three manufacturers of trouser suspenders (called braces in England), two of cigars, two of parasols; and on and on. All this information will someday be on-line as part of the NALDEX (Name Adoption List inDEX) project at GerSIG (German Special Interest Group). == At a guess, I'd say there were about 1000 Jewish households in Berlin in 1812, and perhaps 500 servants among them, if you count the shop assistants. That's a lot of servants, and I'm sure the number only grew during the century. I suspect that, among city-dwellers, having a cook and perhaps other servants was part of the definition of being middle-class. Roger Lustig Princeton, NJ Elodee Gates wrote:
Does anyone know how common it was for a Jewish family to have a maid in
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JewishGen Discussion Group #JewishGen Re: Wealthy in Hildesheim, Germany?
#general
Roger Lustig <julierog@...>
Elodee:
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
First, keep in mind that until emancipation (i.e., at least until 1810), many records were kept separately for Jews. So there might be separate censuses (including servants), lists of houses owned by Jews, etc. Second, let me add some statistics to the discussion, which has been excellent. When Prussia granted its Jews citizenship in 1812 (east of the Elbe, at least), the legal gazette in each province published a list of heads of households and the surnames they'd adopted. The list for the Kurmark (i.e., Brandenburg west of the Oder) is fascinating, especially the 60% or so devoted to Berlin. For Berlin, probably because there were enough people with similar names/patronyms to cause confusion, the list also included occupations. Here goes: There are 1042 men and 591 women on the list. Only those women who did not belong to a household headed by a man were listed. Among the 591 women we have: 158 widows 237 listed as unmarried 136 maids 27 with no occupation given 11 separated 10 Judentoechter: "daughters of Jews", probably orphan/foster children 3 housekeepers 2 cooks 1 seamstress 1 governess and a few other occupations. The "unmarried" category is interesting: were these simply daughters above a certain age? I don't think so, because the list is more or less alphabetical by new surname and the "unmarried"s aren't listed beside someone who could be their father or mother. Perhaps they're more servants. (Only two cooks? Can't be.) Over on the male side, the most common occupational designation is "Handlungsdiener"--shop assistant or the like--with 187. This is followed by: 173 Kaufmann (merchant/businessman) 106 Handelsmann (also merchant) 37 bankers 36 moneychangers 35 bookkeepers and all manner of other occupations. Some things make one wonder: where are the schochets and butchers? I see only 4 on the list. And did Jews have the entire lottery-agent concession for the city? 14 of them. Everything >from 2 day laborers to 10 courtiers; 10 doctors, an "academic artist", 2 art dealers, a podiatrist specializing in corn removal, a dancing master, three manufacturers of trouser suspenders (called braces in England), two of cigars, two of parasols; and on and on. All this information will someday be on-line as part of the NALDEX (Name Adoption List inDEX) project at GerSIG (German Special Interest Group). == At a guess, I'd say there were about 1000 Jewish households in Berlin in 1812, and perhaps 500 servants among them, if you count the shop assistants. That's a lot of servants, and I'm sure the number only grew during the century. I suspect that, among city-dwellers, having a cook and perhaps other servants was part of the definition of being middle-class. Roger Lustig Princeton, NJ Elodee Gates wrote:
Does anyone know how common it was for a Jewish family to have a maid in
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Re: help with name identification
#general
Mathilde Tagger <tagger@...>
Hi Bruce,
The second name is the one in question. Her name became Anna. On the--> On the documents you attached I read "Neime" that can be a Yiddish alteration of the Biblical name Naomi. Shalom, Mathilde Tagger
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JewishGen Discussion Group #JewishGen Re: help with name identification
#general
Mathilde Tagger <tagger@...>
Hi Bruce,
The second name is the one in question. Her name became Anna. On the--> On the documents you attached I read "Neime" that can be a Yiddish alteration of the Biblical name Naomi. Shalom, Mathilde Tagger
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Re: help with name identification
#general
Stan Goodman <SPAM_FOILER@...>
On Mon, 19 Jun 2006 03:06:57 UTC, brucedumes@dumes.net (Bruce Dumes) opined:
I'm having trouble reading a name in a ship manifest. Any help would beI read it as Naime. I think you can assume that this is what Yiddish did to the Hebrew name "Naomi". A possible additional surprise about your grandfather is that, when (and assuming he was) called to the Torah, your "Wolf" was called "Ze'ev". -- Stan Goodman, Qiryat Tiv'on, Israel Searching: NEACHOWICZ/NOACHOWICZ, NEJMAN/NAJMAN, SURALSKI: Lomza Gubernia ISMACH: Lomza Gubernia, Galicia, and Ukraina HERTANU, ABRAMOVICI, LAUER: Dorohoi District, Romania GRISARU, VATARU: Iasi, Dorohoi, and Mileanca, Romania See my interactive family tree (requires Java 1.1.6 or better). the URL is: http://www.hashkedim.com For reasons connected with anti-spam/junk security, the return address is not valid. To communicate with me, please visit my website (see the URL above -- no Java required for this purpose) and fill in the email form there.
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JewishGen Discussion Group #JewishGen Re: help with name identification
#general
Stan Goodman <SPAM_FOILER@...>
On Mon, 19 Jun 2006 03:06:57 UTC, brucedumes@dumes.net (Bruce Dumes) opined:
I'm having trouble reading a name in a ship manifest. Any help would beI read it as Naime. I think you can assume that this is what Yiddish did to the Hebrew name "Naomi". A possible additional surprise about your grandfather is that, when (and assuming he was) called to the Torah, your "Wolf" was called "Ze'ev". -- Stan Goodman, Qiryat Tiv'on, Israel Searching: NEACHOWICZ/NOACHOWICZ, NEJMAN/NAJMAN, SURALSKI: Lomza Gubernia ISMACH: Lomza Gubernia, Galicia, and Ukraina HERTANU, ABRAMOVICI, LAUER: Dorohoi District, Romania GRISARU, VATARU: Iasi, Dorohoi, and Mileanca, Romania See my interactive family tree (requires Java 1.1.6 or better). the URL is: http://www.hashkedim.com For reasons connected with anti-spam/junk security, the return address is not valid. To communicate with me, please visit my website (see the URL above -- no Java required for this purpose) and fill in the email form there.
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Re: help with name identification
#general
MBernet@...
In a message dated 6/18/2006 10:59:38 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
brucedumes@dumes.net writes: << . . . . Her name became Anna. On the Philadelphia manifest it looks kind of like "Neima" or "Neinna". ==Beider lists neither of those names but has various versions of Nenne, Nenna, Nendel, that he attributes to an old German name Ginendl >from which Beider jumps immediately to Gnane as a source. To me, the spelling of the name and its derivatives seem extremely flexible. ==Given the Russian use of G to represent the H in other European alphabets and the Heh or Chet in Hebrew, I would assume the jump >from the G initial to an H was easy. Neima may have been a version of the Hebrew Nechama which permits a Chana/Hanna abbreviation, as does Gnane, of course. >from Chana/Hanna, the English Anna seems logical << The other two names are Artzik which became Arthur and Wulf which became William, my grandfather. Up until I started doing this research, I had no idea my grandfather had ever been anything but William. ==According to Beider, Artzik is derived >from Orn. "Orn?" you ask. Well, if you look it up further, Orn is a Beider's idiosyncrtic way to spell the Hebrew name Aharon/Aaron, presumably based on YIVO's transliteration system. In America he didn't want to be Artzik, Orn, or Aaron, so Arthur, which retained at least two letters of his name, was not a bad choice. ==Wulf is an alternate spelling for Yiddish and German Wolf[f] meaning Wolf. Wolf in Hebrew is Ze'ev. Wolf and Ze'ev are both kinnuyim for Binyamin (Benjamin). Your Wulf's Hebrew name may have been any part or combination of the triplet Wolf, Ze'ev, and Binyamin. In Germanic parts of Europe, Wolf was often given the "less Jewish" name of William, Wilhelm etc.[same initial], so his choice would have been almost reflexive. ==A W as initial for a Hebrew or Yiddish male first name is rare, and when presented with any Jew's name starting with a W, assuming that it was originally Wolf (and possibly Ze'ev or Binyamin is a good investment of effort. Walter, Wolfgang, Werner, Warren are all likely to be Wolfs in chipper clothing Michael Bernet, New York
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JewishGen Discussion Group #JewishGen Re: help with name identification
#general
MBernet@...
In a message dated 6/18/2006 10:59:38 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
brucedumes@dumes.net writes: << . . . . Her name became Anna. On the Philadelphia manifest it looks kind of like "Neima" or "Neinna". ==Beider lists neither of those names but has various versions of Nenne, Nenna, Nendel, that he attributes to an old German name Ginendl >from which Beider jumps immediately to Gnane as a source. To me, the spelling of the name and its derivatives seem extremely flexible. ==Given the Russian use of G to represent the H in other European alphabets and the Heh or Chet in Hebrew, I would assume the jump >from the G initial to an H was easy. Neima may have been a version of the Hebrew Nechama which permits a Chana/Hanna abbreviation, as does Gnane, of course. >from Chana/Hanna, the English Anna seems logical << The other two names are Artzik which became Arthur and Wulf which became William, my grandfather. Up until I started doing this research, I had no idea my grandfather had ever been anything but William. ==According to Beider, Artzik is derived >from Orn. "Orn?" you ask. Well, if you look it up further, Orn is a Beider's idiosyncrtic way to spell the Hebrew name Aharon/Aaron, presumably based on YIVO's transliteration system. In America he didn't want to be Artzik, Orn, or Aaron, so Arthur, which retained at least two letters of his name, was not a bad choice. ==Wulf is an alternate spelling for Yiddish and German Wolf[f] meaning Wolf. Wolf in Hebrew is Ze'ev. Wolf and Ze'ev are both kinnuyim for Binyamin (Benjamin). Your Wulf's Hebrew name may have been any part or combination of the triplet Wolf, Ze'ev, and Binyamin. In Germanic parts of Europe, Wolf was often given the "less Jewish" name of William, Wilhelm etc.[same initial], so his choice would have been almost reflexive. ==A W as initial for a Hebrew or Yiddish male first name is rare, and when presented with any Jew's name starting with a W, assuming that it was originally Wolf (and possibly Ze'ev or Binyamin is a good investment of effort. Walter, Wolfgang, Werner, Warren are all likely to be Wolfs in chipper clothing Michael Bernet, New York
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Seeking translation from Romanian into English of 1948 letter
#romania
Dear SIG subscribers,
I am requesting translation into English of a 1948 letter written in Romanian. It is VM8049 on ViewMate at http://data.jewishgen.org/viewmate/ALL/viewmateview.asp?key=8049 Thanks very much for your help. Martin Fischer Oak Park, Illinois, USA ----------- The Fischer and Levin family history Web site is at: http://mefischer1.home.comcast.net/
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Romania SIG #Romania Seeking translation from Romanian into English of 1948 letter
#romania
Dear SIG subscribers,
I am requesting translation into English of a 1948 letter written in Romanian. It is VM8049 on ViewMate at http://data.jewishgen.org/viewmate/ALL/viewmateview.asp?key=8049 Thanks very much for your help. Martin Fischer Oak Park, Illinois, USA ----------- The Fischer and Levin family history Web site is at: http://mefischer1.home.comcast.net/
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Ukrainian Center of Genealogical Research
#ukraine
Mark Lewis <mark@...>
Does anyone have experience of using the Ukrainian Center of Genealogical=
Research? I sent them $100 as requested on 3rd April, and had several emails >from them= before and after this, but the last communication I have had was on the 2nd= May, saying they had a 2 week holiday coming up. I've heard nothing since= this, despite several emails >from me. Has anyone used the Ukrainian Center of Genealogical Research before? Mark Lewis London mark@terrafirma.co.uk MODERATOR'S NOTE: Please respond privately.
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Ukraine SIG #Ukraine Ukrainian Center of Genealogical Research
#ukraine
Mark Lewis <mark@...>
Does anyone have experience of using the Ukrainian Center of Genealogical=
Research? I sent them $100 as requested on 3rd April, and had several emails >from them= before and after this, but the last communication I have had was on the 2nd= May, saying they had a 2 week holiday coming up. I've heard nothing since= this, despite several emails >from me. Has anyone used the Ukrainian Center of Genealogical Research before? Mark Lewis London mark@terrafirma.co.uk MODERATOR'S NOTE: Please respond privately.
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Resource Room at the 26th IAJGS International Conference
#austria-czech
Gloria Berkenstat Freund
The Resource Room at the 26th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish
Genealogy will provide a wide range of electronic, print, microfilm, and human resources to assist attendees with their research. Computer services and databases will include.... * access to Ancestry.com, HeritageQuest census records, the New York Times(1857-2000) and newspaper archives and Godfrey Library's collection of online databases * U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Database - (three million records normally available only at the Museum) and the Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive search tool and testimony catalog * Manhattan Brides Index (the data entered so far in the Genealogy Federation of Long Island project to index 1,400,000 marriage licenses by bride's name) * Memorial Database of Jewish Soldiers, Partisans and Workers Killed in Action during Nazism (a searchable database of Jews in the Russian army killed and missing in action during WWII) Among the 100-plus books and other print materials on hand will be... * dozens of reference books on general and Jewish genealogy, Jewish and New York history, immigration, translation, cemetery research, rabbinic research, the Holocaust and a large collection of volumes on Jewish Bialystok * large scale insurance maps of New York's old Lower East Side and a variety of historical and modern maps of Europe * the Center for Jewish History Genealogy Institute Fact Sheets * individual research projects We are also delighted to offer... * a large collection of microfilm of Jewish interest usually housed at the Woodside (Queens) Family History Center - including the Hamburg Emigration Lists - and 10 microfilm readers on which to view the them Plus we welcome the participation in the Resource Room of... * translators to interpret documents in Russian, Polish, Spanish, Hebrew, Yiddish, and other languages * representatives of Ancestry.com in the Resource Room to assist in using that site and representatives of the Shoah Foundation, available for consultation Please check the Resource Room page on the Conference website (www.jgsny2006.org/resource_room.cfm) for details, additional items, and updates. If you have material to share, please contact us at resources@jgsny2006. Gloria Berkenstat Freund 26th Annual IAJGS Conference Program Committee Chair glory1@RCN.COM
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Yad Vashem online database
#austria-czech
Joyce Field
Zvi Bernhardt of Yad Vashem has asked me to post this message
regarding difficulties experienced by researchers using the Yad Vashem Database. Joyce Field JewishGen VP, Data Acquisitions On Yom Hashoah, we [Yad Vashem] put up a whole new site. We did this in order to integrate a Russian interface for the site, a very important move as we have also started a project to collect Pages of Testimony among Russian speaking Jews. The project is currently being carried out in the Ukraine and in Israel. Like most new sites, the new site has bugs. We have sorted out most of the bugs, but the site is still not as stable as the site we had before Yom Hashoah. At this point, most of the time it works fine, but the problems described below happens every few days. Our computer people are working hard to solve the problem as quickly as possible. PLEASE write us at central.database@yadvashem.org.il if you encounter technical problems with our site. We usually aren't able to answer you quickly enough to help you, but you help us (and yourself in the long run) by making sure we know all the problems that exist. Zvi Bernhardt Yad Vashem
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