JewishGen.org Discussion Group FAQs
What is the JewishGen.org Discussion Group?
The JewishGen.org Discussion Group unites thousands of Jewish genealogical researchers worldwide as they research their family history, search for relatives, and share information, ideas, methods, tips, techniques, and resources. The JewishGen.org Discussion Group makes it easy, quick, and fun, to connect with others around the world.
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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).
I am a JewishGen member, why do I have to create a separate account for the Discussion Group?
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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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Can I categorize a message? For example, if my message is related to Polish, or Ukraine research, can I indicate as such?
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Yes. While posts will be moderated to ensure civility, and that there is nothing posted that is inappropriate (or completely unrelated to genealogy), we will be trying to create an online community of people who regulate themselves, much as they do (very successfully) on Jewish Genealogy Portal on Facebook.
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
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The JewishGen.org Team
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Sare Czarne Margulies
Richard Gross
Can anyone supply more information about Sare Czarne Margulies. She was the second wife of my husband's ancestor, Herz (aka Hyman) Gross. He was born in 1793 and died 1853 in L'viv, Ukraine. Their children were Leib, twins Isac Juda and Feigel Gittel, a stillborn and Josef Salamon who was my husband's great, great grandfather. I found all this on Gesher Galicia but cannot find anything more about her.
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Re: UPDATE Surprising DNA results from Ancestry
Zora Moore
Jane,
No one remembers where the Mexican story/connection came from, family gossip is the best I came up with. Well, DNA has fixed that. Now to figure out what is 51% Jewish actually means.
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Re: UPDATE Surprising DNA results from Ancestry
Zora Moore
Thank you! I am open to this new adventure.
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Re: UPDATE Surprising DNA results from Ancestry
Zora Moore
Thanks for sharing. So far I have found I have 4 half Siblings on my BF side. They are processing it all and have not been wanting to connect at this point, which is understandable. I think time will fix all.
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Re: UPDATE Surprising DNA results from Ancestry
Zora Moore
My initial Ancestry match matched me to a 1st Cousin... I reached out to them and come up with a hypothesis of who could be my BF. Then a second 1st Cousin contacted me who got their results, So in comparing the two results we were able to conclude who my BF was. Went a lot faster than I ever expected. But the 50 year old mystery has been solved. DNA is #Facts!
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Origin of Ashkenazi DNA percentage question - Thank you
#dna
richard may
Thank you to everyone who replied to my question below!
There seemed to be no consensus among the answers. Richard May ferdlilac@yahoo.com North Carolina, U.S.A. I have 1 known Ashkenazi great grandparent of 8. One eight is 12.5%. According to 23andMe, FTDNA, AncestryDNA and MyHeritage DNA my DNA is about 20% Ashkenazi. All agree on this. This is 1.6 times more Ashkenazi DNA than I can account for genealogically. Is it more likely that I have an undiscovered ancestor with Ashkenazi DNA, who perhaps assimilated, or that I simply inherited more than half of my grandparent's Ashkenazi DNA?
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Re: Do you keep passports?
fredelfruhman
I do keep them, feeling that they are an important part of the history.
If you don't want to -- or have room to -- keep them, I would definitely at least scan them (cover plus all pages that have entries) in high resolution, and keep several copies of the file. Fredel Fruhman
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1784 Poll Tax lists for Lithuania districts
Russ Maurer
LitvakSIG is pleased to make publicly available our entire collection of 1784 poll tax lists, part of our Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) project. The lists are organized into 14 compilations by district. The compilations include 158 component lists and a total of 46,906 lines. Detailed information about the GDL project, including guidance and examples of locating one's ancestors in these patronymic records (i.e., no surnames, for the most part) can be found on our GDL page. The compilations may be downloaded - no password needed - from our GDL Transcriptions page. We thank Dorothy Leivers for her dedication to this project. We also thank Sonia Hoffman and the late David Hoffman, who initiated the GDL project and donated the full set of scans and their partially completed transcription work to LitvakSIG. LitvakSIG is an independent organization that raises its own funds and determines its own activities. As always, we are grateful to our donors and translators, without whom we could not make these records available. These records have been available exclusively to our donors for about the past 18 months. To learn how to support LitvakSIG's work and gain priority access to new translations, visit our website, https://www.litvaksig.org . Russ Maurer (vhrproject@...) Records Acquisition & Translation coordinator, LitvakSIG
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Re: thoughts - opinions
Sarah L Meyer
I include all those born alive, even if they only lived a few hours. I do not include stillborns. I may make a note on the mother's record that she had a stillborn child, but especially without names, I do not create a record for that child.
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Information about the Bagnowka Jewish Cemetery in Bialystok
#poland
Mark Halpern
Below is a message >from Heidi Szpek. She has been documenting the
Matzevot and their inscriptions and artwork for over 10 years now. Her book "Bagnowka: A Modern Jewish Cemetery on the Russian Pale" is available at most online book sellers. Below is a personal message >from Dr. Szpek. Mark Halpern ======================================================== Dear Bialystokers, I invite you to visit my website (www.jewishepitaphs.org) devoted to the restoration of and documentation of vital records >from Bagnowka Jewish Cemetery in Bialystok, Poland. This website was established in 2014 as a venue to explore the value of the Jewish epitaphs >from this cemetery but in more recent years has migrated to a source for disseminating the most up-to-date records of extant inscriptions on this cemetery as well as information about its restoration. I have served as translator and historian for this restoration project since 2010, first with the local Centrum organization, coordinated by local representative Lucy Lisowska, and since 2016, with the US-based organization, Bialystok Cemetery Restoration Project (www.bialystokcemeteryrestoration.org), founded by Bialystoker Amy Halpern Degen, husband Josh Degen and friends Howie and Paula Flagler. At present, nearly 3400 inscriptions have been documented and recorded on this website; other partial databases are found on other online databases - as noted on my website. If restoration goes forward as planned, documentation and major aspects of restoration should be completed in the next 3-4 years, with a (projected) additional 1500 inscriptions documented. These new records will be added to the existing database at www.jewishepitaphs.org . My hope is that all records will eventually be sustained by the JOWBR database. Until that time, I encourage you to visit www.jewishepitaphs.org , explore the database and images, as well as information about the history of this cemetery, its restoration and related publications. Best regards, Heidi M. Szpek, Ph.D. Emerita Professor, Central Washington University, WA/USA Translator, Historian, Bialystok Cemetery Restoration Project hszpek@gmail.com
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Re: Book JEWISH-FOREIGNERS IN THE SOUTH OF UKRAINE
#bessarabia
#ukraine
Sarah L Meyer
I tried replying to your email and the message bounced. I do not live in the tri-state area (wherever that is-Illinois, Indiana and Michigan or NY, NJ and PA or CT, I am in Central Texas. Thanks for mentioning the shipping costs. I doubt that I will buy the book unless it is the English translation. But if there is a Russian reader who would be willing to check names for me, I would be willing to share the cost of the book - or even buy it as a gift for her.
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Re: thoughts - opinions
jbonline1111@...
My maternal grandmother's first child was stillborn. I list that baby on our tree because it explains some things about the family and also because knowing she was stillborn can help to dispel a family myth that she "froze to death" while my grandmother was being tended to. I would not list a miscarriage for someone who is still living, but I might for someone who is deceased if I knew for sure that would not cause pain to anyone. I have not done it, but the idea of unlinking a relative also has merit.
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opinion/thoughts followup
Trudy Barch
Thank you everyone for your thoughts. Most of the people said Yes to include the found stillborn. For stillborns that occurred 100 years ago….I can not foresee a problem…parents and other siblings are probably deceased. But what about more current (50 years) infant deaths? Might we be bringing up some hurtful/painful memories that other siblings might not even know? Yes genealogy is factual but we should also be sensitive to people. I am thinking, after hearing from everyone, including the information in my note sections where I will have the information but not shared with everyone. Other viewpoints, please. Thank you, Trudy Barch
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Re: Lodz Jewish voter list 1924
Thank you. I was able to get to thre images by following your suggestions.
-- Deborah Blankenberg (JewishGen ID #613395)
Lodi, CA
dtblankenberg@... Researching BLOCH/BLOCK (Germany to New York, Colombia and Missouri), BLINDER (Kishinev to New York via Poland? and Paris), KUSHER/KUSZER (Lodz vicinity to New York via Paris), GOLDSCHMIDT (Germany)
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Re: DNA ethnicity
ntc52@...
Thank you Sarah. I'm a member of some of these sites. You are right they can be very helpful. I find myself doubling up as I'm exploring both the RC and Jewish routes for information.
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Re: DNA ethnicity
ntc52@...
Continued:
Mother- Maria Teresa /Theresa Szczepaska b.22 Mar 1925 in Lwow, Poland. Forced labour to Cologne May 1942. Married 12 Oct 1946. Arrived in England- Winter 1946. Grandparents- Michal Szczepanski B. unknown. Lived in -Lwow- Occupation- In banking. Arrested 1940 by Russians ? Siberia? - Zofia Mrozowaska (?) B. unknown. Lived in Lwow. Marriage abt. 1923 Arrested 1940 by Russians? Siberia?
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Do you keep passports?
fotolinda
Do you keep old passports that you find of family members? I've come across one that doesn't have a lot of stamps- a couple to Tel Aviv and one to Frankfurt. It was used later on in the life. I'm sure he had many more passports prior to this one.
Just curious what others do. -- Linda Epstein fotolinda@... Grodno and Sokolka: TIKOTZINSKI---> EPSTEIN
Minsk: SPUND Makow: SAFIAN, SAFFIAN, WEINSTEIN Ruzany: GROSSMAN
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1911 London census help needed
Francoise Kraft
Hi to all,
I would be very grateful If somebody could help me in getting details about a couple mentioned in the 1911 London census area of Whitechapel.Salomon Rompel and his wife Dora might be cousins.All information contained in this document will be welcome.. Thanks for help Francoise Kraft Searching KRAFT and INDES and ROMPEL from Odessa,Bender,Beltsy and Hrubieschow
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Re: Book JEWISH-FOREIGNERS IN THE SOUTH OF UKRAINE
#bessarabia
#ukraine
NormK12065
Inna, I live in central New Jersey and would be very much interested in being part of a group order for a copy.
Thanks. Norm Katz
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Exhibit: "Refuge in the Heights" (starts Feb. 3, Leo Baeck Institute, NYC)
#germany
Renee Steinig
This sounds like an exhibit that many in/near NYC will want to see...
_Refuge in the Heights: The German Jews of Washington Heights_ February 3 to July 31, 2020 Leo Baeck Institute 15 West 16th Street, New York NY https://www.lbi.org/exhibitions/refuge-heights-german-jews-washington-heights/ Opening event: March 11, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. https://www.lbi.org/events/refuge-heights-exhibition-opening-rob-snyder/ Renee Stern Steinig, Dix Hills NY (formerly on 179th Street and Cabrini Blvd.!) genmaven@gmail.com
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