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).
I am a JewishGen member, why do I have to create a separate account for the Discussion Group?
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The JewishGen.org Team
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Re: Answer to question about Christine Usdin's census translations that was asked during the Latvia SIG meeting on Thursday
#latvia
Roberta Schoen
If you search in Google, you can see the link to the translated vital records page, with the links by city, type of record and date. The link to the open version is the same URL as the one without the links, but with X’s in various places. I had assumed that since she passed away, that they had opened it up. That’s not the case?
at least some of the records, such as the marriage of my great grandmother and the deaths of her mother and stepmother are in JewishGen now. Roberta
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Carol Stern
Oh my, I've been trying to figure out which Radomyshl is the correct one for many years without success. My grandmother told me herself that was where she was from. She pronounced it Radomisla. I have seen the other towns with the same name but haven't been able to figure it out. The family (named Herzberg) always said they were from Galicia. I would love some help.
Carol Handschu Stern
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Michelle Sandler
I am looking for the arrival records for Lesser (Lazarus) MARKS and his wife Leah Kreinzohn Marks. They also brought with them their daughters Rose and Dora. They were living in Manhattan in 1868 in September when my mother's paternal grandfather Harris MARKS was born. The youngest daughter was born in the old country in 1866. I have been looking for 34 years. I have tried FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, MyHeritage, Steve Morse One Step Page. I have never found anything nor do I know where they came from. I have never found a naturalization record either. Lazarus and his son Harris were Furriers in Manhattan. Michelle Sandler, Westminster California
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Family name Kornblum
#usa
Naomi Bernstein
Grandparents came to new York in 1906 from Kiev but Kornblum was not the original name
My grandfather was David and grandmother was Anna
They lived on the lowest easy side of new York on arrival and eventually moved to Brooklyn
They had 3 children and my father Daniel was the oldest
Please let me know if anyone recognizes any of this information
Thanks
Naomi Bernstein
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Lost Grandmother with family name of J(Y)erukamovitz
#names
#unitedkingdom
Stephen Cohen
Searching for anybody with family name J(Y)erukamovitz .Unfortunately, I have no idea from which part of eastern europe she came from. All i know is that she arrived in the UK around the end of the 18th century Stephen Cohen
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Nina Tobias
Hello again to everyone,
There is a story floating around my family that I would very much like to debunk or establish as fact. My great-uncle Max Swarttz was the first of my maternal grandfather's immediate family to emigrate to the United States. I have not yet found an arrival record for him but various other sources point to 1881, most likely in Philadelphia. The story, according to a first cousin of mine, is that the name in Iasi was not Swarttz but Markowitz and that Max took on the name of some orphans he was traveling with. Max had great success in the clothing business (surprise!) and, in 1902, sponsored the emigration of his widower father and his much younger siblings, Leon (my grandfather) and Clara. According to the documentation from the Special Board of Inquiry, the family name for those about to travel was Schwartz - obviously a misspelling of Swarttz. My question is this: if the family left behind in Iasi were indeed Markowitz, how easy would it have been for the Markowitz's to establish themselves as "Swarttz" to travel to the United States? Was there any formal documentation required when travelers purchased tickets? With thanks, Nina -- Nina Tobias Scottsdale, Arizona Researching: HOROWITZ (Iasi, Romania; Odessa) SWARTZ (Iasi, Romania; Philadelphia; Chicago) TOBIAS (Rymanow, Galicia; Chicago) , VOROBYEV, GOLDMAN, VERB (Russia; Chicago)
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Re: Translation of Hebrew Text (written in Germany in 1735) Please
#translation
Yitschok Margareten
There is no word in Hebrew נוספיף, I assume it's a ן with a design on it rather than a ף.
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Deborah Long
Andrew,
Your grandfather was probably talking about Piotrokowska Ulica (Piotrkowska Street), the most beautiful boulevard in Lodz. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piotrkowska_Street This street leads to Liberty/Indepedence Square, the center of town where there are many stores (and the state archives). The yellow pages/business directory for Lodz is indexed on https://genealogyindexer.org/, but when I visited Lodz ten years ago, I found the business directory for the 1900-1920s in the Polish State Archives in Lodz. My grandfather had a large ad for his wholesale leather factory in the yellow pages. It was quite remarkable to see. Hope this helps. Debbie Long
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Eva Lawrence
My grandmother was a homeworker for Swan and Edgar, a London department
in the 1940s. She would collect ready-cut pieces of material ) no doubt produced by a cutter (though I didn't see that part of the operation) and assemble ladies' blouses at home on the treadle sewing machine (a very ornate black and gold Anker) that she had brought with her from Germany. I don't believe her earnings provided much more than pocket money, but every penny was needed in our refugee family. Eva Lawrence St Albans, UK -- Eva Lawrence St Albans, UK.
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Re: Potato Latkes...are you Litvak or Galitizianer?
#galicia
#lithuania
judieson@...
Sourcream was a mainstay in my childhood,for anything,but in particular for latkes and for blintz souffles. But it was the pronunciation of the word latkes which differentiated Galizianer from Litvak. In our home, it was latkuhs ...our maternal side was from Hungary/Czech Republic and perhaps Saatmar; our paternal side was from Lomza Gybernia,Poland..two styles of Yiddish. In the home of a cousin by marriage, it was latkees. Delicious, regardless. Judie Cynkus Rice searching Schwartz/Weiss/Klein/Gross/Ungar;Cynkus/Cinkiewicz/Windenberg/Bundendepr
-- zevr1135
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Re: LIVERPOOL HOPE PLACE SYNAGOGUE Book re 1836 to 1930.
#unitedkingdom
#records
crjos
With apologies for diverting the thread, this article implies that Jews in North Wales were generally buried in Liverpool or Manchester.
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/local-news/jewish-burial-ground-first-north-2748167
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Summer issue of AVOTAYNU
#announcements
Gary Mokotoff
The Summer issue of AVOTAYNU is at the printer this week. A large number of subjects are covered by the 12 articles that appear including city directories, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, Arolsen Archives, American Jewish Yearbook, Bremen as an emigration port, and more.
One type of article that I enjoy that appears from time to time in AVOTAYNU is an overall survey of genealogical research in a specific country. The Summer issue has such a six-page article on family history research in Finland. You may not have Finnish ancestors, but this article might describe a resource that you never considered that might exist in your countries of ancestry.
In addition to the 12 articles, there are the usual columns: From Our Contributing Editors, U.S. Update, Ask Dr. Beider, Brick Walls, Book Reviews (two reviews) and From Our Mailbox.
The complete Table of Contents is at http://avotaynu.com/2020SummerPage01.pdf.
Additional information about AVOTAYNU is at https://www.avotaynu.com/journal.htm.
Gary Mokotoff
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JGS Librarians BOF
#jgs-iajgs
Michelle Sandler
My name is Michelle Sandler MLS and I ran the JGS Libraries BOF. I am going to create a master list of all Jewish Genealogy Societies that still have Libraries.
I need to know the name of the Jewish Genealogy Society
The name of the current Librarian and their contact information (Email)
How many books are in your library.
What Library Catalog software you use.
What Library classification system you use (ex Library of Congress, Dewey, Elazar or Weine etc.) Location of your Library
Hours your library is open
When your library is staffed
Weather you allow checkout of materials or not
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Re: "Holy Silence" Documents Vatican's Role in the Holocaust
#announcements
#holocaust
Louis777@...
Thank you for the reference. I just watched the film. It is a brilliant, thought provoking, sometimes heart-wrenching, documentary that makes you think deeply and wonder at the same time.
I would call it is masterpiece.
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Re: Potato Latkes...are you Litvak or Galitizianer?
#galicia
#lithuania
Joan Parker
I forgot about sugar... we did too, applesauce and as in other posts...bananas and sour cream still one of my favorite noshes to this day. Joan Parker Past President/Archivist JGS of Greater Miami, Inc. 1) GOLDBERG/ GOULD, GOODSTEIN/GUDSTEIN, BERGER, GERBER/CRAWFORD, JAGODA-Lipno, Plonsk, Plock, Poland-Russia; Warsaw, Poland-Russia; Galveston, TX; Bronx and Brooklyn, NY, Portland, OR, Los Angeles/Hollywood, CA. 2) PARKER/PINKUS, WINOGRAD, (GERSHO-BEROVNA?)., R0SEN, -Brest (Litovsk), Belarus; Grodno, Russia; Bronx and Brooklyn, NY. WEISS, NEIKRUG, DEL PINO--Brooklyn, NY. RABWIN--Hollywood, CA, Salt Lake City, UT. CLAYTON-California. 3) GELFAND, KRITZOFF, KATZ, TROCK --Berezin/Bresin, Kodima, Minsk, Belarus, Bronx, NY, Miami and Miami Beach, FL.
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Re: looking for Annette Kaufman related to Haskel's from Suwalki in Lithuania/Poland
#lithuania
#poland
Barbara Kenzer
No, But I wish they did. My family from Suwalki is: Simon Block Schuster Nathan Nechowitz Kowarsky Thanks Barbara Kenzer
On Mon, Aug 17, 2020 at 10:33 AM <rmbotwin@...> wrote: Re: Suwalki
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Re: Help with identifying a town off of a census
EdrieAnne Broughton
This is hopefully a hint for deciphering cursive on documents, like the census. If you have trouble with one line, try reading the whole page, paying attention to how familiar names are handled by the enumerator on the document. This is what the good transcribers have done (there are lots of transcribers who don't do this). After you figure out how to read this person's scrawl, then go back to the troubled line. If it's still unclear, try another page. After a while of learning to do this, you too can volunteer to transcribe images. FamilySearch is always looking for good transcribers and you don't have to be LDS. They are always looking for people who read other languages. I've found the work to be very satisfying and the USA 1950 Census is going to drop next year.
EdrieAnne Broughton, Vacaville, California
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EdrieAnne Broughton
My granddad who was a schneider by trade carried his sewing machine on his back from Lithuania to Hamburg earning the money for his passage and his trip as he walked from town to town. I went away to college in the 1960s. Among my things was my mother's old Singer featherweight portable. I made money for college with that machine. Not many whole garments but I did do repairs and even a few refittings. Glad to know I was carrying on a long tradition. I made more that way than I would have as a student employee of the university.
EdrieAnne Broughton, Vacaville, California
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skyejaz@...
Looking for the Sapotnisky and/or Mostkoff family from the Slutsk/Minsk area. Great-grandfather Leibe Mostkoff married Chaya Sapotnisky. They had five children: (Motl, born about 1877,married Dvoira Portnoy); Israel (born about 1878, married Chifra Boruchovitch); Isodore (born about 1888, married Annie Frank); Hinde (married a Charchas or Kharaks) and Keili (married a Rubin Iscovitch). I would guess from the children’s date of the children’s births, that Leibe and Chaya were born about 1850. All of the children, with the exception of Hinde, emigrated to Mexico and the United States. Israel Mostkoff and Chifra Boruchovitch (daughter of Nachman Boruchovitch and Pesha Polak) married about 1904 and had five living children, four of whom also emigrated to Mexico (Abram, Leibe, Mikhail and Dvoira, known in Mexico as Abraham, Luis, Miguel and Dora). Tanya remained in Russia and married Iosef Baskin. Israel’s death certificate (as well as his children’s marriage certificates) lists his name as Mostkoff- Sapotnisky /Zapotnisky) and that he was from in Minsk. We have obtained a copy of a Russian memoir written by Tanya Mostkoff Baskin that is rather detailed about this family including names and places as well as other relatives of the family- but nothing is mentioned about the Saptonisky family. The family lived on Sadovaya Street in Slutsk Belarus at least until Chifra, Leibe, Mikhail and Dora emigrated in 1928. Tanya was the only child of Israel and Chifra to remain in Russia. Tanya mentions her paternal grandparents Leibe (Mostkoff) and her grandmother “Haya”, although she was much closer to her maternal grandparents- Nachman and Pesha and wrote more broadly about Nachman, her aunt Malka. and her cousins (although I’m not sure if it’s maternal or paternal cousins she’s writing about). She did write about her cousins Masha and Nina Bunin, whose father apparently was killed by bandits.The Pinkas of Slutsk mentions such a disaster, with several men having been killed in the robbery on the way to Minsk. The Sapotnisky name is baffling and I’m having trouble finding records that match with Chaya. I also don’t know if she had any siblings so searching for other family members is difficult. Jewishgen has entries for Sapotniskys in/near Novogrudok/Minsk, but I’m not aware if any of these Sapotniskys may be related. . Where should I go from here? Saptoniisky doesn’t appear to be that frequent (although spellings differ). I’d appreciate any suggestions on how to locate any branches of the Sapotnisky family (or even the Mostkoff family prior to their arrival in Slutsk).
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Re: Potato Latkes...are you Litvak or Galitizianer?
#galicia
#lithuania
Louis777@...
My mother (z"l) was pure Litvak and we grew up eating potato latkes with sour cream. If Litvaks were supposed to eat latkes with applesauce, she didn't know that
or used the sour cream only to please my father (z"l), who was pure Ukrainer. I doubt it that, though, because he was strictly a meat and potatoes man and I can't recall him ever eating the latkes, even on Chanuka! Oh yes, my mother, who spoke fluent Russian as well as Yiddish and English, always spoke of "borshch" rather than "borsht." Borshch is the Russian pronunciation. My father understood Russian more than he spoke it, but he and my mother used Russian, when they spoke of things the kids were not supposed to understand. We kids spoke English and Yiddish.
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