Genners:

Are there immigration documents recorded for all
immigrants? Would there be documents(circa 1905)
recorded even if a Petition for Naturalization wasn't
filed?

My grandmother who arrived here >from Russia in 1905,
became a citzen in 1940 (declaration of intent filed
in 1936). My grandfather died in 1938, never became
naturalized. If he had filed a petition for
naturalization, wouldn't it have included his wife or
was she required to file separately at that time? I
have assumed that since she filed separately, he never
filed. In any event, would there be any documentation
fo my grandfather?

Mark Shofron
Mesa Arizona

MODERATOR NOTE: This subject has been discussed before in this forum.
A good summary can be found in the JewishGen FAQ at
<http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/faq.html#Naturalization>.
It's always a good idea to check the resources available on the JewishGen
website before asking a question of the group. You may find the answer
yourself.

Genners:

Are there immigration documents recorded for all
immigrants? Would there be documents(circa 1905)
recorded even if a Petition for Naturalization wasn't
filed?

My grandmother who arrived here >from Russia in 1905,
became a citzen in 1940 (declaration of intent filed
in 1936). My grandfather died in 1938, never became
naturalized. If he had filed a petition for
naturalization, wouldn't it have included his wife or
was she required to file separately at that time? I
have assumed that since she filed separately, he never
filed. In any event, would there be any documentation
fo my grandfather?

Mark Shofron
Mesa Arizona

MODERATOR NOTE: This subject has been discussed before in this forum.
A good summary can be found in the JewishGen FAQ at
<http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/faq.html#Naturalization>.
It's always a good idea to check the resources available on the JewishGen
website before asking a question of the group. You may find the answer
yourself.

I have the book by Arthur Koestler "The Thirteenth Tribe." The book's big weak point
is he overdoes his case making Germanic Jewry wiped out basically on the idea that if
you don't hear of a Jewish community in a Germanic country or of it being big it must
have been insignificant in population and so everybody gets wiped out in the
Crusades except for a minority that is so cultured the converted Khazars are so
impressed they give up their language except for the Karaites.

Naturally the Karaites were outside of the Jewish community and whoever wanted to join
up with a converted Turkish branch would have a place to stay but even with the Eastern
European plain "Turkish" and/or Khazar Nonethnically Jewish Karaites
called the Karaims, Turkish origins were magnified to avoid AntiSemitism.
The (converted) Khazars were a people who had eventually a nicely strengthened
religiously Jewish population. But it also had Jews including Khazarian Jews who
were not Jewish through their ancestors being converts, and it also had pagans and
Christians and Muslims. Also Eastern Europe had Jews before the arrival of the
Khazars. The Khazars were considered quite cultured after awhile. They didn't need
German or Yiddish to look sophisticated and also many were forced to convert after
the fall of their countryand also some even went as far as Spain. They certainly made a
contribution to at least a part of Eastern Europe's Jewish population but did not
comprise the basic element as claimed by Koestler. There was indeed a Muscovite
Judaizing movement started by two preists who left Christianity and there were
always converts to Judaism despite the risk of death for doing so.
Yisrael Asper
yisraelasper@comcast.net
Pittsburgh PA

MODERATOR NOTE: This discussion, while interesting, is only peripherally related
to genealogy, the topic of this forum. Replies with a direct connection to genealogy
will be considered for posting. Replies focusing on the historical or political aspects
of the subject should be sent privately.

I have the book by Arthur Koestler "The Thirteenth Tribe." The book's big weak point
is he overdoes his case making Germanic Jewry wiped out basically on the idea that if
you don't hear of a Jewish community in a Germanic country or of it being big it must
have been insignificant in population and so everybody gets wiped out in the
Crusades except for a minority that is so cultured the converted Khazars are so
impressed they give up their language except for the Karaites.

Naturally the Karaites were outside of the Jewish community and whoever wanted to join
up with a converted Turkish branch would have a place to stay but even with the Eastern
European plain "Turkish" and/or Khazar Nonethnically Jewish Karaites
called the Karaims, Turkish origins were magnified to avoid AntiSemitism.
The (converted) Khazars were a people who had eventually a nicely strengthened
religiously Jewish population. But it also had Jews including Khazarian Jews who
were not Jewish through their ancestors being converts, and it also had pagans and
Christians and Muslims. Also Eastern Europe had Jews before the arrival of the
Khazars. The Khazars were considered quite cultured after awhile. They didn't need
German or Yiddish to look sophisticated and also many were forced to convert after
the fall of their countryand also some even went as far as Spain. They certainly made a
contribution to at least a part of Eastern Europe's Jewish population but did not
comprise the basic element as claimed by Koestler. There was indeed a Muscovite
Judaizing movement started by two preists who left Christianity and there were
always converts to Judaism despite the risk of death for doing so.
Yisrael Asper
yisraelasper@comcast.net
Pittsburgh PA

MODERATOR NOTE: This discussion, while interesting, is only peripherally related
to genealogy, the topic of this forum. Replies with a direct connection to genealogy
will be considered for posting. Replies focusing on the historical or political aspects
of the subject should be sent privately.

This is my family's lore and I am trying to explore it through DNA
testing (see my previous post on the subject and go to
http://tinyurl.com/nyh6z ). The HOROWITZ family (also Levites) has a
similar tradition. I have established a second DNA project to
accommodate all three (BENEVENISTE, HOROWITZ, and EPSTEIN) families
(see http://tinyurl.com/meyr9 ).

At 03:52 AM 7/3/2006, Inacio Steinhardt wrote:

..........snip....................
It is my understanding that all Epstein's that are Levy, descend

from the Benveniste family in Spain.

Those who are not Levy have changed they original surnames to
Epstein in an arbitrary way.

Am I wrong?

Inacio

............snip................


Itzhak Epstein New York, NY
<mailto:iegen@earthlink.net>

Moderator: In order to refocus on Galician topics, we ask that
further discussion of these DNA projects be continued privately.

At 2:54 PM +0100 7/5/06, Ben Forman wrote:

I've been away on holiday for a few weeks, and whilst relaxing on the
beach I read "Yiddish Civilisation: the Rise and Fall of a Forgotten
Nation" by Paul Kriwaczek.
It's a very interesting book and enjoyable too, but the initial thrust
of the book is that much of Eastern European Jewish origins are in
conversions of large numbers of Pagans/Polytheists(sorry if the
terminology is wrong) in south eastern Europe (Crimea, Bulgaria, Greece
region) before the advent of mass conversion to Christianity. He
supports this by referring to rulings and other documented evidence
which refers directely to those converting to Judaism, which he argues
must have been wide spread if rulers felt there was a need for
legislation regarding it. He argues that this conversion went right the
way into the middle ages, when Jews heading East to escape the
inquisition encountered many isolated societies of early converts who
had to be "reminded" of their Jewish tradition.

This theory (which if true has clear relevance for Jewish genealogy)
has been around for some time. The principal pagan ethnic group
believed (as a matter of historical fact, not mere legend) to have
converted to Judaism back in the 8th century CE is the "Khazars" --
more precisely the King of the Khazars and his courtiers. (The
Kingdom of Khszaria, located just north of the Black Sea, lasted
about five hundred years >from roughly the 6th to the 11th century --
which was a period when Christianity had not yet penetrated to the
outer reaches of pagan Northern Europe and Western Asia.)

The story of the conversion appears in several sources. Among
others, It is told by Judah HaLevi in his book The Kuzari ("the
Kuzai" means literally "the Khazar", in context referring
specifically to the king of the Khazars). Ha-Levi's book claims (but
this version may be mere legend) that the conversion of the Khazars
occurred after the king invited a Jew, a Christian and a Muslim to
attend his court and argue the case for their respective religions --
following which the King was to decide which religion he and his
court would officially espouse. No points for guessing who won the
contest, according to Judah ha-Levi -- but in all fairness the
conversion of this group does seem to be a historical fact, however
it came about. Judah ha-Levi (an 11th-12th century scholar)
apparently got the "scoop" >from an alleged exchange of letters
between the 9th-century Jewish scholar Hasdai ibn Shaprut and the
King of the Khaxars (I mean the king reigning in Hasdai's time,
which was not too long after the famous conversion occurred.

Why should all this matter to Jewishgenners? The point is that
today, certain scholars and politicians (especially those
sympathetic to the Arab case for Palestine) are pushing the view that
all Ashkenazi Jews now living are descended not (as we believe) >from
the ancient tribes of Israel but >from converted Khazars! And it
seems that the recent spate of DNA testing by Jewishgenners
(including the present writer, courtesy of her brother) has indeed
produced some results consistent with that claim. (However I hasten
to add that experts say that even if tis is truo, this does not
preclude the possibility that our more remote ancestors nonetheless
do trace back to Judea at the time of the 2nd temple (i.e the last
500 years BCE). Indeed other tests -- specifically tests done on
people claiming descent in the male line >from the Kohanim (priests)
who administered the Second Temple, actually do offer some support
for that claim also.

I'm keeping my fingurs crossed (if that's not a mixed metaphor!)
awaiting future developments in the testing field. This Jewish
princess does not want to find out that she's only a Khazarian
Princess after all!

Judith Romney Wegner

This is my family's lore and I am trying to explore it through DNA
testing (see my previous post on the subject and go to
http://tinyurl.com/nyh6z ). The HOROWITZ family (also Levites) has a
similar tradition. I have established a second DNA project to
accommodate all three (BENEVENISTE, HOROWITZ, and EPSTEIN) families
(see http://tinyurl.com/meyr9 ).

At 03:52 AM 7/3/2006, Inacio Steinhardt wrote:

..........snip....................
It is my understanding that all Epstein's that are Levy, descend

from the Benveniste family in Spain.

Those who are not Levy have changed they original surnames to
Epstein in an arbitrary way.

Am I wrong?

Inacio

............snip................


Itzhak Epstein New York, NY
<mailto:iegen@earthlink.net>

Moderator: In order to refocus on Galician topics, we ask that
further discussion of these DNA projects be continued privately.

At 2:54 PM +0100 7/5/06, Ben Forman wrote:

I've been away on holiday for a few weeks, and whilst relaxing on the
beach I read "Yiddish Civilisation: the Rise and Fall of a Forgotten
Nation" by Paul Kriwaczek.
It's a very interesting book and enjoyable too, but the initial thrust
of the book is that much of Eastern European Jewish origins are in
conversions of large numbers of Pagans/Polytheists(sorry if the
terminology is wrong) in south eastern Europe (Crimea, Bulgaria, Greece
region) before the advent of mass conversion to Christianity. He
supports this by referring to rulings and other documented evidence
which refers directely to those converting to Judaism, which he argues
must have been wide spread if rulers felt there was a need for
legislation regarding it. He argues that this conversion went right the
way into the middle ages, when Jews heading East to escape the
inquisition encountered many isolated societies of early converts who
had to be "reminded" of their Jewish tradition.

This theory (which if true has clear relevance for Jewish genealogy)
has been around for some time. The principal pagan ethnic group
believed (as a matter of historical fact, not mere legend) to have
converted to Judaism back in the 8th century CE is the "Khazars" --
more precisely the King of the Khazars and his courtiers. (The
Kingdom of Khszaria, located just north of the Black Sea, lasted
about five hundred years >from roughly the 6th to the 11th century --
which was a period when Christianity had not yet penetrated to the
outer reaches of pagan Northern Europe and Western Asia.)

The story of the conversion appears in several sources. Among
others, It is told by Judah HaLevi in his book The Kuzari ("the
Kuzai" means literally "the Khazar", in context referring
specifically to the king of the Khazars). Ha-Levi's book claims (but
this version may be mere legend) that the conversion of the Khazars
occurred after the king invited a Jew, a Christian and a Muslim to
attend his court and argue the case for their respective religions --
following which the King was to decide which religion he and his
court would officially espouse. No points for guessing who won the
contest, according to Judah ha-Levi -- but in all fairness the
conversion of this group does seem to be a historical fact, however
it came about. Judah ha-Levi (an 11th-12th century scholar)
apparently got the "scoop" >from an alleged exchange of letters
between the 9th-century Jewish scholar Hasdai ibn Shaprut and the
King of the Khaxars (I mean the king reigning in Hasdai's time,
which was not too long after the famous conversion occurred.

Why should all this matter to Jewishgenners? The point is that
today, certain scholars and politicians (especially those
sympathetic to the Arab case for Palestine) are pushing the view that
all Ashkenazi Jews now living are descended not (as we believe) >from
the ancient tribes of Israel but >from converted Khazars! And it
seems that the recent spate of DNA testing by Jewishgenners
(including the present writer, courtesy of her brother) has indeed
produced some results consistent with that claim. (However I hasten
to add that experts say that even if tis is truo, this does not
preclude the possibility that our more remote ancestors nonetheless
do trace back to Judea at the time of the 2nd temple (i.e the last
500 years BCE). Indeed other tests -- specifically tests done on
people claiming descent in the male line >from the Kohanim (priests)
who administered the Second Temple, actually do offer some support
for that claim also.

I'm keeping my fingurs crossed (if that's not a mixed metaphor!)
awaiting future developments in the testing field. This Jewish
princess does not want to find out that she's only a Khazarian
Princess after all!

Judith Romney Wegner

Just over a month >from now the annual IAJGS Conference wil bring Jewish
Genealogists >from around the world to New York. Based on past experience,
we can expect a very large turnout at this meeting.

We were not able to conduct GerSIG business meetings at the last two
Conferences but the GerSIG leadership hopes to take advantage of a
well-attended New York meeting to gather and share input >from our members.

We hope that many of you will be in New York and attend our Luncheon and also
our business meeting earlier on Monday.

Those of you who can't attend the Conference are invited to send your
comments, suggestions, and other input for possible inclusion during our meetings.

At these meetings we recognize outstanding contributions of various
kinds by our members.

We also discuss new research project ideas, ideas for improving our
Discussion Group and website as well as other aspects of our group.

This year we hope to improve our ability to conduct meaningful research
projects and post the resultant data at our website or at JewishGen.

To this end we will seek a well-qualified GerSIG member who is willing
and able to serve as a GerSIG group Coordinator with the title:
Director of GerSIG Research Projects.

I'm looking forward to seeing many of you at our meetings in August.
If you can't attend in person we will welcome your participation via Email to:

gersig@aol.com

John Paul Lowens, NYC, GerSIG Coordinator and Moderator "MOD1"

Just over a month >from now the annual IAJGS Conference wil bring Jewish
Genealogists >from around the world to New York. Based on past experience,
we can expect a very large turnout at this meeting.

We were not able to conduct GerSIG business meetings at the last two
Conferences but the GerSIG leadership hopes to take advantage of a
well-attended New York meeting to gather and share input >from our members.

We hope that many of you will be in New York and attend our Luncheon and also
our business meeting earlier on Monday.

Those of you who can't attend the Conference are invited to send your
comments, suggestions, and other input for possible inclusion during our meetings.

At these meetings we recognize outstanding contributions of various
kinds by our members.

We also discuss new research project ideas, ideas for improving our
Discussion Group and website as well as other aspects of our group.

This year we hope to improve our ability to conduct meaningful research
projects and post the resultant data at our website or at JewishGen.

To this end we will seek a well-qualified GerSIG member who is willing
and able to serve as a GerSIG group Coordinator with the title:
Director of GerSIG Research Projects.

I'm looking forward to seeing many of you at our meetings in August.
If you can't attend in person we will welcome your participation via Email to:

gersig@aol.com

John Paul Lowens, NYC, GerSIG Coordinator and Moderator "MOD1"

I am basically asking how I can use specific given names and family
naming patterns to break through the brick wall I encounter when I
get back to my GGG grandfather Alexander ben Moses who was born
around 1770, probably in Hesse-Darmstadt. He was living in
Rulfenrod, Hesse-Darmstadt by 1800 where his seven children were
born. There was only one other family living in this small hamlet.
According to family legend, our name came >from a nearby mountain (or
rather a hill). I have been doing genealogy for about 12 years, and
Alexander and his offspring appear to be the ONLY Jewish BILLSTEIN
line. That tells me that IF he had siblings, they chose a different surname.

In an effort to find his family, I have researched the lines that
connect to my family. I have very detailed trees for SPIER, HEXTER/
HOECHSTER/HOEXTER, BACH(A)RACH, WERTHEIM, FROEHLICH, SCHEUER &
SONDHEIM(ER). They are all >from the Hesse-Darmstadt and Cassel
area. However, I have just noticed that some of my Billstein given
names do not appear in these families. The three names that I have
been looking for are Baruch, Sender (This was the actual name on the
birth certificate, so I don't know if it is a nick name for Alexander
or perhaps related to Sender as a surname??) and Alexander.
Can anyone tell me the origin of this name?

Hopefully this will clarify some of the above information:
Moses ??? b. ca 1750
..... Alexander ben Moses b. ca 1775 unknown location, but probably
Hesse-Darmstadt
..........married: Sara ???
....................Baruch BILLSTEIN b. ca 1800 Rulfenrod, Hesse-
Darmstadt
.................... married: Beile WERTHEIM b. ca 1806 (marriage
record states father is Hirsch
............................... >from Wehrda)
..................................... Sender BILLSTEIN b. 1839
Rulfrenrod
..................................... Other children:Yetta HEXTER,
Rosa SCHEUER, Betty KAPPENBERG,
..................................... Hirsch, Theresa, Gintel,
Sender, Saleman, Selig, Ester JOSEPH
......................................Moses BILLSTEIN b. 1846
Rulfenrod (my line)
....................................... married: Esther SIM(P)SO(H)
N b. 1855 Philadelphia
....................................... (Esther's maternal aunt is
Caroline BLUM who married
Meyer ........................................FLEISHER, mentioned
below as nephew of Alexander
(Sender) ........................................LEBRECHT of
Memmelsdorf. The BLUMs were >from
Kleinsteinach, ........................................Bavaria.
Esther's father was >from Kirch-Brombach, Odenwald).
.................... Lippman BILLSTEIN, Moses BILLSTEIN, Simon
BILLSTEIN, Sprinz MAYER,
.................... Beile FROEHLICH, & Geatil STERN

I have already tried plugging names into the [name of commercial
genealogy website deleted by Moderator] search engine
and my own "find anything" search with my Reunion genealogy program,
which can search by all sorts of criteria. My database includes
more than 35,000 names and I only had another "Sender" in one
instance. This is for an Alexander (Sender) Lebrecht of
Memmelsdorf, Bavaria b. ca 1778. His nephew Meyer Fleisher married a
sister of my Great great grandmother (not >from the same line as
Sender) Mary Blum of Kleinsteinach, Bavaria. Searching for
"Alexander" in my database I noticed that my Alexander was the only Alexander
I had born between 1700 and 1830 in Prussia.

Yesterday I went through the name index for Nathan Reiss's recent
book which includes thousands of individuals, and there were only a
couple of Alexanders, no Senders and a maybe 10 Baruchs. My
conclusion was that this name is not very popular in Hesse and maybe
my Alexander Billstein came to Rulfenrod >from some other part of Germany.

Unfortunately Family Tree of the Jewish People doesn't allow a search
by first name only. Are there any other databases that I could use?
If anyone else out there has a database rich in individuals >from
Hesse-Darmstadt or Bavaria born between 1700 and 1850, I would be
very appreciative if you could search for families that have some of
my given names. Any research suggestions would be very appreciated.

I would be glad to share my information on any of these families.

Janet Billstein Akaha Salinas, Calif. USA

I am basically asking how I can use specific given names and family
naming patterns to break through the brick wall I encounter when I
get back to my GGG grandfather Alexander ben Moses who was born
around 1770, probably in Hesse-Darmstadt. He was living in
Rulfenrod, Hesse-Darmstadt by 1800 where his seven children were
born. There was only one other family living in this small hamlet.
According to family legend, our name came >from a nearby mountain (or
rather a hill). I have been doing genealogy for about 12 years, and
Alexander and his offspring appear to be the ONLY Jewish BILLSTEIN
line. That tells me that IF he had siblings, they chose a different surname.

In an effort to find his family, I have researched the lines that
connect to my family. I have very detailed trees for SPIER, HEXTER/
HOECHSTER/HOEXTER, BACH(A)RACH, WERTHEIM, FROEHLICH, SCHEUER &
SONDHEIM(ER). They are all >from the Hesse-Darmstadt and Cassel
area. However, I have just noticed that some of my Billstein given
names do not appear in these families. The three names that I have
been looking for are Baruch, Sender (This was the actual name on the
birth certificate, so I don't know if it is a nick name for Alexander
or perhaps related to Sender as a surname??) and Alexander.
Can anyone tell me the origin of this name?

Hopefully this will clarify some of the above information:
Moses ??? b. ca 1750
..... Alexander ben Moses b. ca 1775 unknown location, but probably
Hesse-Darmstadt
..........married: Sara ???
....................Baruch BILLSTEIN b. ca 1800 Rulfenrod, Hesse-
Darmstadt
.................... married: Beile WERTHEIM b. ca 1806 (marriage
record states father is Hirsch
............................... >from Wehrda)
..................................... Sender BILLSTEIN b. 1839
Rulfrenrod
..................................... Other children:Yetta HEXTER,
Rosa SCHEUER, Betty KAPPENBERG,
..................................... Hirsch, Theresa, Gintel,
Sender, Saleman, Selig, Ester JOSEPH
......................................Moses BILLSTEIN b. 1846
Rulfenrod (my line)
....................................... married: Esther SIM(P)SO(H)
N b. 1855 Philadelphia
....................................... (Esther's maternal aunt is
Caroline BLUM who married
Meyer ........................................FLEISHER, mentioned
below as nephew of Alexander
(Sender) ........................................LEBRECHT of
Memmelsdorf. The BLUMs were >from
Kleinsteinach, ........................................Bavaria.
Esther's father was >from Kirch-Brombach, Odenwald).
.................... Lippman BILLSTEIN, Moses BILLSTEIN, Simon
BILLSTEIN, Sprinz MAYER,
.................... Beile FROEHLICH, & Geatil STERN

I have already tried plugging names into the [name of commercial
genealogy website deleted by Moderator] search engine
and my own "find anything" search with my Reunion genealogy program,
which can search by all sorts of criteria. My database includes
more than 35,000 names and I only had another "Sender" in one
instance. This is for an Alexander (Sender) Lebrecht of
Memmelsdorf, Bavaria b. ca 1778. His nephew Meyer Fleisher married a
sister of my Great great grandmother (not >from the same line as
Sender) Mary Blum of Kleinsteinach, Bavaria. Searching for
"Alexander" in my database I noticed that my Alexander was the only Alexander
I had born between 1700 and 1830 in Prussia.

Yesterday I went through the name index for Nathan Reiss's recent
book which includes thousands of individuals, and there were only a
couple of Alexanders, no Senders and a maybe 10 Baruchs. My
conclusion was that this name is not very popular in Hesse and maybe
my Alexander Billstein came to Rulfenrod >from some other part of Germany.

Unfortunately Family Tree of the Jewish People doesn't allow a search
by first name only. Are there any other databases that I could use?
If anyone else out there has a database rich in individuals >from
Hesse-Darmstadt or Bavaria born between 1700 and 1850, I would be
very appreciative if you could search for families that have some of
my given names. Any research suggestions would be very appreciated.

I would be glad to share my information on any of these families.

Janet Billstein Akaha Salinas, Calif. USA

GERSIG is announcing the availability of funding for organizations or
individuals who can prepare and and post online data of interest
to German-Jewish family historians.

Grants can only be considered for the preparation of data that
will be available online via the GerSIG or JewishGen websites.

Grants of up to $3,000 are available for projects.

Applications are due by July 19, 2006.

Awards will be selected by the GerSIG coordinators and announced
at the 2006 August New York City Conference. (GerSIG Monday morning meeting)

We are grateful to generous donors to GERSIG who, over the past few years,
have contributed over $8,000 for distribution to such projects.

Organizations or individuals interested in applying for funding should
submit an application to:

KFranklin@alum.wellesley.edu

Applications should include a brief description of the project,
budget and schedule.

Preference will be given to those projects able to be completed
and partially or completely posted within a year.

Projects judged to be of interest to the largest number of indivduals
will also receive preference.

Additional funds collected by July 19 can be distributed in this funding period.

To send contributions via credit card and the Internet please use the webform at:

http://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen-erosity/v_projectslist.asp?project_cat=13

* * * * Be sure to check "GerSIG General Fund". * * * *

Or, write "GerSIG General fund" on a check sent to:

JewishGen, Inc.
2951 Marina Bay Dr., Suite 130-472
League City, TX 77573

GERSIG Coordinators
Werner Frank, Karen Franklin, John Paul Lowens, Arthur Obermayer

GERSIG is announcing the availability of funding for organizations or
individuals who can prepare and and post online data of interest
to German-Jewish family historians.

Grants can only be considered for the preparation of data that
will be available online via the GerSIG or JewishGen websites.

Grants of up to $3,000 are available for projects.

Applications are due by July 19, 2006.

Awards will be selected by the GerSIG coordinators and announced
at the 2006 August New York City Conference. (GerSIG Monday morning meeting)

We are grateful to generous donors to GERSIG who, over the past few years,
have contributed over $8,000 for distribution to such projects.

Organizations or individuals interested in applying for funding should
submit an application to:

KFranklin@alum.wellesley.edu

Applications should include a brief description of the project,
budget and schedule.

Preference will be given to those projects able to be completed
and partially or completely posted within a year.

Projects judged to be of interest to the largest number of indivduals
will also receive preference.

Additional funds collected by July 19 can be distributed in this funding period.

To send contributions via credit card and the Internet please use the webform at:

http://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen-erosity/v_projectslist.asp?project_cat=13

* * * * Be sure to check "GerSIG General Fund". * * * *

Or, write "GerSIG General fund" on a check sent to:

JewishGen, Inc.
2951 Marina Bay Dr., Suite 130-472
League City, TX 77573

GERSIG Coordinators
Werner Frank, Karen Franklin, John Paul Lowens, Arthur Obermayer

On our walk around the Old City in Ventspils a few weeks ago, we hunted
down the Summer Synagogue featured in a postcard we bought >from the Jewish
Museum in Riga. The building, not surprisingly located in Synagogue Street
(Sinagogas iela) is in dreadful condition and is used as a factory. We
couldn't get close enough to see any details, because the owner rather
rudely chased us off. He must get tired of tourists looking and
photographing through the gate. It's easily recognizable, by the shape of
the windows (a rectangle flanked by triangles) on the front gable.

Interestingly, someone had scrawled a message on the wooden fence in Hebrew,
and some of the writing was upside down as if the person had climbed up and
leaned over the fence >from the inside. Curious.

We are curious about the very large brick church on the adjacent corner.
Surely this building was also a synagogue originally - it has all the style
of one, including the two staircases inside the front entrance. Can anyone
confirm this?

Sue Levy
Perth, Australia

GUTMAN, WEINER, WESTERMAN (Jaunjelgava, Latvia)

On our walk around the Old City in Ventspils a few weeks ago, we hunted
down the Summer Synagogue featured in a postcard we bought >from the Jewish
Museum in Riga. The building, not surprisingly located in Synagogue Street
(Sinagogas iela) is in dreadful condition and is used as a factory. We
couldn't get close enough to see any details, because the owner rather
rudely chased us off. He must get tired of tourists looking and
photographing through the gate. It's easily recognizable, by the shape of
the windows (a rectangle flanked by triangles) on the front gable.

Interestingly, someone had scrawled a message on the wooden fence in Hebrew,
and some of the writing was upside down as if the person had climbed up and
leaned over the fence >from the inside. Curious.

We are curious about the very large brick church on the adjacent corner.
Surely this building was also a synagogue originally - it has all the style
of one, including the two staircases inside the front entrance. Can anyone
confirm this?

Sue Levy
Perth, Australia

GUTMAN, WEINER, WESTERMAN (Jaunjelgava, Latvia)

Elsebeth Paikin mentioned a Dutch website listing many people with the
surname DANZIGER, including some identified as having been born in Danzig.
There have also been posts about people with surnames derived >from Danzig
who appear in other databases. I would appreciate hearing your thoughts
about how we should best deal with this information. Should we merely link
to it? Should we try to republish it on our website?

In the articles section of our website, you can find an extensive list of
such surnames >from Alexander Beider's books.

Best regards,

Logan Kleinwaks
Coordinator, JewishGen Danzig/Gdansk SIG
kleinwaks@alumni.princeton.edu
near Washington, D.C.

Elsebeth Paikin mentioned a Dutch website listing many people with the
surname DANZIGER, including some identified as having been born in Danzig.
There have also been posts about people with surnames derived >from Danzig
who appear in other databases. I would appreciate hearing your thoughts
about how we should best deal with this information. Should we merely link
to it? Should we try to republish it on our website?

In the articles section of our website, you can find an extensive list of
such surnames >from Alexander Beider's books.

Best regards,

Logan Kleinwaks
Coordinator, JewishGen Danzig/Gdansk SIG
kleinwaks@alumni.princeton.edu
near Washington, D.C.

Dear Genners,

first of all please apologize this message by an absolutely unknown
stranger. But please be also sure that this is no spam, advertisement or
anything similar. Nevertheless you should read this to the end because it
might be, we`re relatives! If you mean I am still an unknown stranger after
reading this message, just kick it into the dustbin ;-)

My name is Philip and I live in Bonn/Germany. I try to get in contact to
"the lost (jewish) part" of my family in the U.S. since the year 2000 -
until now unfortunally without succes. But the years of researching the
ancestors brang some more informations about the LIPKOVITS-family, than I
had before!

from my point of view the central and beginning person is my

greatgrandfather

Bernat Abram Lipkovits,

born 1870 in Hungary (I think it has been in Kosice, which is part of
slovakia now and has been called Kassa [or in german: Kaschau] before), died
05.08.1905 in Berlin/Germany.

His parents have been

Isaak LIPKOVITS and Hani FRIEDMANN >from Hungary.

Bernat Abram has been the owner of a trading company for good wines and
liqueurs in Berlin. He has been married to Klara GRINDEL (she`s been not
Jewish, what is the reason wyh we all are not Jewish today).

They had three daughters:

Lipkovics, Irma (my grandmum !), * Berlin/Germany 13.08.1899, +
Marburg/Germany 23.09.1972
oo Johannes KLEIN, + Marburg/Germany 1973

Lipkovics, Edith, * Berlin/Germany 1900, + Greece 1986(?)
oo Dr. Alexander WAMWETZOS, * Greece

Lipkovics, Margot, * Berlin/Germany 1902, + Greece 1985

My grandmum spend some time >from 1923 to 1926 in the U.S. for working as an
english teacher and for visiting the family. After about 1930 the contact to
the amrican part of the family broke down, I don`t know why. But I`ve got a
photo-album here about the time of my grandmum in the U.S. with some of the
following people being photographed.

Some of the brothers and sisters of Bernat Abram emigrated to the U.S.
arround the turn of the 19th / 20th century and in the early years of the
20th century. It`s been - as far as I know by now - the following people:

LIPKOWITZ, Jacob * Hungary 1872, + New York 1920 - 1930
oo Tini JAKOBSON, * Hungary 1875

My mum told me that my grandmum often told stories about "uncle Jake". He
and Tinnie had the following children:

Lipkowitz, Ruth * New York 1902

Lipkowitz, Hattie * New York 1903

Lipkowitz, Arthur * New York 1908

There has been at least one sister who emigrated to the U.S.

Lipkovits, Mollie, * Hungary 1876
oo Jacob WEISS

As it seems, Jacob Weiss has been the first adress for all the Lipkovits`in
New York coming in >from Europe. In 1923 his adress has been 185 Lexington Ave.,
New York

According to the stories I heard, Jacob Weiss has been "uncle Jacob" as my
grandmum has called him.

Children of Mollie Lipkovits and Jacob Weiss:

WEISS, Henrietta, * New York 1898

WEISS, Sadie, * New York 1900
oo (?) KRAMER

daughter of them: KRAMER, Regina, * New York 1921

WEISS, Milton, Boxer, * New York 1902

WEISS, Jeanette, * New York 1904

WEISS, Rose S., * New York 1909(?)

One further brother of Bernat Abram emigrating to the U.S. has been

LIPKOVITS, Josef, Insurance Agent, * Hungary 1882
oo Fannie * 1885

Children of Josef and Fannie Lipkovits:

LIPKOVITS, Helen, * Conneticut 1909

LIPKOVITS, Ruth, * New York 1911

LIPKOVITS, Gertrude, * New York 1914

LIPKOVITS, Irving, * Conneticut 1915

LIPKOVITS, Frank, * Conneticut 1918

And there have been the following people:

LIPKOWITZ, Moses, * Hungary 1886
LIPKOVITZ, Mov (?), * Hungary
LIPKOVITS, Hani (?), * Hungary

Please note that the last three people are not confirmed to be ancestors of
"my" Lipkovits - family. They are only suspected to be so.

At the Ellis-Island-Documents you can find a Josef Lipkovits coming

from Tiba/Hungary. He arrived at the US at 21th of May in 1903 at the age of

21 coming >from Hamburg onboard the ship Pennsylvania. According to the ship
manifest his first destination also has been his brother in law Jacob Weiss
in NY. But it might be the he is the same Josef Lipkovits as mentioned
before.

Further "suspect" persons according to the Ellis-Island-documents are the
following people:

Terczia LIPKOVITS >from Kelenfatah/Hungary, arrived at the 5th of September
in 1911 at the age of 31 onboard the ship "Kronprinz Wilhelm" >from Bremen.
Destination: her husband Lorenz Lipkovits, 1 R FD Spaginaw (?)/Mich (?)
With her on board has been her daughter Pauline Lipkovits, six years old.

I don`t know what happened to the part of the family which stayed in Europe
during the war and the shoah, but I presume that most of them have been
mudered by the nazis. I only know about one "uncle Emil" who stayed in
Kosice and has been a professor at one of the universities there after the
war. It seems that he renamed himself into "LANY" or "LANYI" or
"Lipkovits-Lanyi" or anything similar. If you take a look at the yad vashem
database of shoah-victims, there are quite a lot of "Lipkovits" coming >from
Kosice. But as I don´t know anything about this part of the family I´m not
able to say definitely if one of them or even who is one of "my" Lipkovits.

Here in Europe of course are some more family-members than only myself and
there is still contact to the greek part of the family.

So if any of the names before sounds familiar to you or even is one of your
ancestors, please contact me.

Until this I keep
with the warmest regards >from Germany,

Philip

Philip Stuehler-Walter
Bonn
Germany
stuehler-walter@t-online.de

MODERATOR NOTE: You may want to send this message to JewishGen's Hungary
Special Interest Group too. See <http://www.jewishgen.org/Hungary/> for
further information.

Dear Genners,

first of all please apologize this message by an absolutely unknown
stranger. But please be also sure that this is no spam, advertisement or
anything similar. Nevertheless you should read this to the end because it
might be, we`re relatives! If you mean I am still an unknown stranger after
reading this message, just kick it into the dustbin ;-)

My name is Philip and I live in Bonn/Germany. I try to get in contact to
"the lost (jewish) part" of my family in the U.S. since the year 2000 -
until now unfortunally without succes. But the years of researching the
ancestors brang some more informations about the LIPKOVITS-family, than I
had before!

from my point of view the central and beginning person is my

greatgrandfather

Bernat Abram Lipkovits,

born 1870 in Hungary (I think it has been in Kosice, which is part of
slovakia now and has been called Kassa [or in german: Kaschau] before), died
05.08.1905 in Berlin/Germany.

His parents have been

Isaak LIPKOVITS and Hani FRIEDMANN >from Hungary.

Bernat Abram has been the owner of a trading company for good wines and
liqueurs in Berlin. He has been married to Klara GRINDEL (she`s been not
Jewish, what is the reason wyh we all are not Jewish today).

They had three daughters:

Lipkovics, Irma (my grandmum !), * Berlin/Germany 13.08.1899, +
Marburg/Germany 23.09.1972
oo Johannes KLEIN, + Marburg/Germany 1973

Lipkovics, Edith, * Berlin/Germany 1900, + Greece 1986(?)
oo Dr. Alexander WAMWETZOS, * Greece

Lipkovics, Margot, * Berlin/Germany 1902, + Greece 1985

My grandmum spend some time >from 1923 to 1926 in the U.S. for working as an
english teacher and for visiting the family. After about 1930 the contact to
the amrican part of the family broke down, I don`t know why. But I`ve got a
photo-album here about the time of my grandmum in the U.S. with some of the
following people being photographed.

Some of the brothers and sisters of Bernat Abram emigrated to the U.S.
arround the turn of the 19th / 20th century and in the early years of the
20th century. It`s been - as far as I know by now - the following people:

LIPKOWITZ, Jacob * Hungary 1872, + New York 1920 - 1930
oo Tini JAKOBSON, * Hungary 1875

My mum told me that my grandmum often told stories about "uncle Jake". He
and Tinnie had the following children:

Lipkowitz, Ruth * New York 1902

Lipkowitz, Hattie * New York 1903

Lipkowitz, Arthur * New York 1908

There has been at least one sister who emigrated to the U.S.

Lipkovits, Mollie, * Hungary 1876
oo Jacob WEISS

As it seems, Jacob Weiss has been the first adress for all the Lipkovits`in
New York coming in >from Europe. In 1923 his adress has been 185 Lexington Ave.,
New York

According to the stories I heard, Jacob Weiss has been "uncle Jacob" as my
grandmum has called him.

Children of Mollie Lipkovits and Jacob Weiss:

WEISS, Henrietta, * New York 1898

WEISS, Sadie, * New York 1900
oo (?) KRAMER

daughter of them: KRAMER, Regina, * New York 1921

WEISS, Milton, Boxer, * New York 1902

WEISS, Jeanette, * New York 1904

WEISS, Rose S., * New York 1909(?)

One further brother of Bernat Abram emigrating to the U.S. has been

LIPKOVITS, Josef, Insurance Agent, * Hungary 1882
oo Fannie * 1885

Children of Josef and Fannie Lipkovits:

LIPKOVITS, Helen, * Conneticut 1909

LIPKOVITS, Ruth, * New York 1911

LIPKOVITS, Gertrude, * New York 1914

LIPKOVITS, Irving, * Conneticut 1915

LIPKOVITS, Frank, * Conneticut 1918

And there have been the following people:

LIPKOWITZ, Moses, * Hungary 1886
LIPKOVITZ, Mov (?), * Hungary
LIPKOVITS, Hani (?), * Hungary

Please note that the last three people are not confirmed to be ancestors of
"my" Lipkovits - family. They are only suspected to be so.

At the Ellis-Island-Documents you can find a Josef Lipkovits coming

from Tiba/Hungary. He arrived at the US at 21th of May in 1903 at the age of

21 coming >from Hamburg onboard the ship Pennsylvania. According to the ship
manifest his first destination also has been his brother in law Jacob Weiss
in NY. But it might be the he is the same Josef Lipkovits as mentioned
before.

Further "suspect" persons according to the Ellis-Island-documents are the
following people:

Terczia LIPKOVITS >from Kelenfatah/Hungary, arrived at the 5th of September
in 1911 at the age of 31 onboard the ship "Kronprinz Wilhelm" >from Bremen.
Destination: her husband Lorenz Lipkovits, 1 R FD Spaginaw (?)/Mich (?)
With her on board has been her daughter Pauline Lipkovits, six years old.

I don`t know what happened to the part of the family which stayed in Europe
during the war and the shoah, but I presume that most of them have been
mudered by the nazis. I only know about one "uncle Emil" who stayed in
Kosice and has been a professor at one of the universities there after the
war. It seems that he renamed himself into "LANY" or "LANYI" or
"Lipkovits-Lanyi" or anything similar. If you take a look at the yad vashem
database of shoah-victims, there are quite a lot of "Lipkovits" coming >from
Kosice. But as I don´t know anything about this part of the family I´m not
able to say definitely if one of them or even who is one of "my" Lipkovits.

Here in Europe of course are some more family-members than only myself and
there is still contact to the greek part of the family.

So if any of the names before sounds familiar to you or even is one of your
ancestors, please contact me.

Until this I keep
with the warmest regards >from Germany,

Philip

Philip Stuehler-Walter
Bonn
Germany
stuehler-walter@t-online.de

MODERATOR NOTE: You may want to send this message to JewishGen's Hungary
Special Interest Group too. See <http://www.jewishgen.org/Hungary/> for
further information.