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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The JewishGen.org Team
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Re: My grandparents JONUSS and MAZUS from Ezere, Latvia
#latvia
#lithuania
Arlene Beare
Ingrid
I think you should definitely do a DNA test which will give you your Ethnicity. There are many Companies to choose from such as MyHeritage.com, FTDNA. com (Family Tree DNA). Ancestry.com and others. The name Erika Dreznieks sounds Latvian but not Jewish. Matilda Jonuss likewise does not sound Jewish as Matilda is not a common Jewish name. . Ancestry has the largest database but My heritage has the largest Jewish database. FTDNA has the advantage that part from autosomal DNA which means you inherit half from each parent they also do Mitochondrial DNA which is the maternal line and Y DNA which is the paternal line. You just need to test autosomal DNA(called Family Finder) in the first instance. The Ethnicity results also vary with different testing Companies depending on the pool they have tested. IF you test with Ancestry as with any of the Companies you are able to download your Raw DNA data and upload to other Companies but you cannot upload Raw data from other Companies to Ancestry. The name Late Mazus may be Jewish. Jekab Jonuss also cannot be ruled out. as it may be a Jewish Name. I think you need to have your Ethnicity results and can then pursue the research depending on the results. We will be happy to help you if you find that you do have Jewish heritage.
Arlene Beare Co-Director Latvia Research Division
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Shalom,
Is there any JewishGeners whose family name is/was GEDALI or a variant in the spelling of this name and lived in the mid 19th century and onwards in the Hungarian town called Batiz (which later became part of Romania). If there is please reply to my personal email address sabaisio@.... Thank you in advance, now y'all stay safe, sound, and very healthy during this pandemic, Aizic Sechter from the Lone Magen David Star state of Israel.
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Re: How can I research famliy members from the Volyn area (Ratno, Kovel, etc). that emigrated in the late 19th and early 20th Century to the US?
#ukraine
jrsackerman@...
Check into the Kovel group on Facebook.
Joel Ackerman Jerusalem, Israel
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Re: Belgium's Kazerne Dossin Online Exhibit
#announcements
#holocaust
#photographs
#records
Very interesting. The transit camp at Mechelen was a place where many of our Galitzianer ancestors who had resettled in Western Europe were then shipped back east to be murdered. The link to the Auschwitz camp exhibit is broken. Please provide a new link.
Thank you. Steven S. Turner President, Gesher Galicia
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Re: research the Volyn area (Ratno, Kovel, etc).
#ukraine
Family and DNA
Some of these records are freely available online here:
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
https://uk.wikisource.org/wiki/Архіви/ДАЖО/118/14 Hope this helps! Juliana Berland
On 10/20/2020 18:31, Bruce Drake wrote:
-- Juliana Berland (France) /// Russia/Ukraine: BENIN / BERLAND Czernigow; Romny, Poltava > (Paris>) Chicago AMBURG / BERKOWITZ / EPSTEIN Odessa, Kherson, Poltava > (Paris >) Buffalo NY; Chicago GELBURD / GAYLBURD / GOLDBERG / GILBERT Vinnitsya; Nemyriv; Priluki Staraya; Podolia gub. > Philadelphia; Atlantic City; Milwaukee /// Galicia/Poland/Ukraine: BADER Felsztyn (Skelivka) > Philadelphia BADIAN Komarno? FELDMA(N)N Wolanka / Boryslaw > Philadelphia FREIDENHEIM Stryj, Drohobycz, etc. GERTLER Komarno, Wolanka, Stryj, Drohobycz, etc. WEINER/WIENER ? /// Germany: ADELSDORFER ? BÄR / BAER Buttenhausen > mid-W US, esp. near Vandenburgh Co, IN. EPSTEI(N)N Röhrenfurth/Melsungen, Sachsenhausen, Guxhagen > Luxembourg; Amsterdam; MW US, esp. near Vandenburgh Co, IN HAUSSMAN Heidenheim? ISAAK Fellheim? MEYER Hannover > Aurora, IN. MOSES Gotte(rs?n?)heim, Sachsenhausen, Röhrenfurth. ROSENSTEIN Stuttgart; Elberfeld? > Philadelphia, Lancaster, PA.
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Hebrew Translation Request
#translation
John Lowin
Please translate the Hebrew on this headstone of my grandparents in Munich.
Best Regards,
John Lowin
Researching Lowin in Radziechow, Vienna and Munich.
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My grandparents JONUSS and MAZUS from Ezere, Latvia
#latvia
#lithuania
Ingrid Anna Jansons <jansons.ingrid@...>
Hello,
I am researching my father's family from Latvia. My grandparents were Displaced People (officially non-Jewish) and came to Australia after World War 2. Here are my family: My grandmother, Erika Deznieks (1924 - 2018). Born in Ezere, Latvia. Lived in Priekule, Latvia. My great grandmother, MATILDA JONUSA/JONAS (1897 - 1977). Born in Nigrande, Latvia. Lived in St Petersburg during World War 1 (reason unknown). My great-great grandparents, LATE MAZUS (1870 - 1952) and JEKABS JONUSS (1858 - 1941). From Lithuania. My first question is, do I have Jewish heritage? There is confusion in my family and we have spent many years researching. Any insight would be helpful. My second question is, can DNA testing officially trace Jewish heritage? Kind regards Ingrid Anna Jansons Australia
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Orange County California JGS Upcoming Meetings
#events
Michelle Sandler
The Orange County California JGS has these upcoming meetings
scheduled. Registration is necessary to attend a meeting. You can register on our website at www.ocjgs.org. New lectures will be on the website in the next week or two. All times are Pacific TIme Zone. November 22nd 10:00 am Judy Baston - Lithuanian Research December 20th 10:00 am Lara Diamond - Tracing Ancestors in Eastern Europe January 24th 10:00 am Alexander Beider - How he does the research to write his books February 28th 10:00 am an interview with Gary Mokotoff and Sallann Amdur Sack Picus March 21st 10:00 am Todd Knowles - What's New in FamilySearch April 25th 10:00 am Ellen Kowitt - Ukraine 2020: Updating your Research Plan May 23rd 10:00 am Aaron Ginsburg - Finding Your Shtetl June 13th Gil Bardige - DNA September 19th Greg Nelson - Procuring Records from Eastern Europe for the Family History Library Michelle Sandler Vice President of Programming Orange County California JGS
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Retheir: Contact Burial Society Chevra Chesed Shel Emeth of Brownsville
#usa
Ira Leviton
Hi Cousins, I doubt that the Chevra Chesed Shel Emeth of Brownsville is still active - Brownsville used to be a neighborhood with many Jews, but there are few if any left. However, sometimes an attorney or somebody remains in charge of a society that has no active members, just to issue permits for children of former members. who may have inherited graves and don't have deeds. I have found that the Montefiore Cemetery office staff to be unhelpful at times, even when I was there in person, but they certainly should be able to tell you whether it's an active society, and even if it's not active, when the last burial took place and who the last contact person was. Ira Ira Leviton, New York, N.Y.
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JGS of Toronto. Free Virtual Meeting. JRI-Poland. Stanley Diamond. Wed 28 Oct 2020 at 7:30 pm ET.
Jerry Scherer
Jewish Records Indexing (JRI)–Poland
VIRTUAL MEETING: Join from Home
Wednesday, 28 October 2020, at 7:30 p.m. ET. There are two ways to attend.
Click below to register in advance for this Zoom
meeting: OR View this livestream meeting on our YouTube channel:
Please make a voluntary donation at this link in the box titled $ | Other | JGS of Toronto is a registered charity so Canadian donors will receive a tax receipt.
Jewish Records Indexing (JRI) - Poland
Part 1
Send your questions to Les Kelman,
lkelman@.... Mr. Diamond is a graduate of McGill and received his MBA from Harvard.
Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto. 2901 Bayview Avenue, PO Box 91006. Toronto, Ontario. M2K 2Y6. www.jgstoronto.ca info@... 647-247-6414
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Jewish genealogy online class, October 21
#education
Michael Moritz
I will be teaching (virtually) part 3 of 3 on Jewish Genealogy Basics tomorrow (Oct 21) at 5pm EST, "The Old Country": Introduction to locating where your ancestors came from in Europe. Background discussion on European historical borders and how they have shifted through time. Exploration of the best sources to use in order to locate what town in Europe your family came from, and where to turn next once you have located that information.
Registration information for this course is available here (including fee info): https://www.moritzresearch.com/virtual-classes/register Thanks to those who have participated! Best, Michael Moritz (info@...) Note this is not associated with JewishGen
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Belgium's Kazerne Dossin Online Exhibit
#announcements
#holocaust
#photographs
#records
Jan Meisels Allen
Due to the pandemic opportunities to travel and visit the museum have been reduced, and Kazerne Dossin has opened up more of their collection online.
The most visited temporary exhibit at Kazerne Dossin is their Auschwitz camp exhibit. It may be viewed at: https://auschwitz.camp/en/ In addition to English, the exhibit is available in French and Dutch. In Kazerne Dossin (Mechelen, Belgium) the exhibit was presented from 24 October 2019 to 6 September 2020.
If you click on any of the icons they will open with a photograph and more information about that part of the site.
Kazerne Dossin is a memorial, museum and research center on Holocaust and Human Rights. On the site of the museum between 1942 and 1944. the Nazis used the Dossin barracks
in Mechelen as a transit camp from where 26,000 Jews, Roma and Sinti were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau by means of 28 train-transports. Only about 5 % of the deported survived. The Memorial website offers the opportunity to view portraits of deportees and publishes stories on those deported.
To visit the website go to: https://kazernedossin.memorial/remember/memoriaal/?lang=en
The online exhibit is made possible by a generous support from the Claims Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (http://www.claimscon.org/)
Jan Meisels Allen Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee
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Re: Research advice for ACKERMAN in Hungary or Subcarpathia
#hungary
#subcarpathia
Carole Bass
I perhaps should have mentioned that I have many U.S. records for the family. None of them says where Bernard was born (except for one reference to the nonexistent "Darthmouth, Austria"), which is why it took me ten years to figure out where he came from.
Carole Bass
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Re: Looking for a Lower East Side photo.
#photographs
jbonline1111@...
Have you checked with the Lower East Side Tenement Museum? Another possible source is a book about the Lower East Side, but I don't know the name of it. Perhaps a librarian can help you find it. I perused it in a friend's pied a terre in NYC over 30 years ago but failed to jot down its title. It had a lot of photographs from the early 1900s. I think the term "lower east side" was in the title of the book.
-- Barbara Sloan Conway, SC
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Re: How can I research famliy members from the Volyn area (Ratno, Kovel, etc). that emigrated in the late 19th and early 20th Century to the US?
#ukraine
jbonline1111@...
I was able to ascertain the names of great grandparents born in the "old country" in the mid-1850s by looking at USA marriage certificates for my grandparents. I found one grandmother's "maiden" name on my father's and uncles' birth certificates in 1907-1917.
Naturalization papers helped me find the origins of both sides of the family. -- Barbara Sloan Conway, SC
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Michele Lock
To all,
Thanks for all the replies. I will look over a 'Minsgyberna' map, and hope that the names of places are in Roman letters, and not Cyrillic. I have looked over Google Maps, for towns that begin with 'L' and are roughly within 150 km of Minsk, and which might be about the same length as 'Ligia' and came up with the following - Lukashi Luzhki Leshcha Lida Lubcha Lushchiki Lukashyna Logovishche I'll consult more maps, and take another look at US documents for the other sons of the father Simon Lavine, and hopefully be able to narrow things down. The only thing I'm certain of right now is that this particular Lavine family came from the Minsk gubernia, probably from a town that begins with the letter 'L'. As for all the other Levin, Lavine, Levy families in Trenton NJ - I am not particularly convinced that all these families are related, even the ones that took the name 'Lavine'. Simon Lavine is listed as 'Levy' on the 1900 US census, and that may be just as accurate as Lavine. I have no idea what the original family surname was before they came to the US. On the Belarus database on Jewishgen, I've found Levin, Levitan, Levinsky, Levko, Lev, Levi, and so on. Way too many variations of Levin, and way too common a name. Michele Lock
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Re: Donations to JewishGen through Amazon Smile
#general
Avraham Groll
Thank you so much Beth and Phil for pointing out these valuable ways to support JewishGen's important work.
Amazon Smile is a wonderful program whereby JewishGen benefits from your regular shopping. Here is a direct link to associate JewishGen with your Amazon account: http://smile.amazon.com/ch/76-0493072 During this time, more than ever before, your support (no matter the channel) will be greatly appreciated! Avraham Avraham Groll Executive Director JewishGen.org
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Re: Looking for a Lower East Side photo.
#photographs
Kathy Lorber
Also try NYC.gov/records. Click on Digital Collections. You can put in the address in the search bar and any photographs of that location will come up. Good Luck.
Kathy Lorber Montville, NJ Researching: LORBER: Poughkeepsie, Bardejev, Slovakia FELDMAN: Varjufalu/Stulany, Slovakia LIVINGSTON/LEVENSTEIN: Chicago, Davenport Iowa, Lithuania GOLDMAN/SZEYP: Davenport, Iowa, Mariampol, Lithuania DAVIS: Chicago, Wales, UK HERTZBERG: Chicago, Courland, Lithuania GOLDBERG: Odessa, Ukraine
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Belgium's Kazerne Dossin Online Exhibit
#announcements
#holocaust
#photographs
#records
Jan Meisels Allen
Due to the pandemic opportunities to travel and visit the museum have been reduced, and Kazerne Dossin has opened up more of their collection online.
The most visited temporary exhibit at Kazerne Dossin is their Auschwitz camp exhibit. It may be viewed at: https://auschwitz.camp/en/ . In addition to English, the exhibit is available in French and Dutch. In Kazerne Dossin (Mechelen, Belgium) the exhibit was presented from 24 October 2019 to 6 September 2020. If you click on any of the icons they will open with a photograph and more information about that part of the site.
Kazerne Dossin is a memorial, museum and research center on Holocaust and Human Rights. On the site of the museum between 1942 and 1944. the Nazis used the Dossin barracks in Mechelen as a transit camp from where 26,000 Jews, Roma and Sinti were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau by means of 28 train-transports. Only about 5 % of the deported survived. The Memorial website offers the opportunity to view portraits of deportees and publishes stories on those deported.
To visit the website go to: https://kazernedossin.memorial/remember/memoriaal/?lang=en
The online exhibit is made possible by a generous support from the Claims Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (http://www.claimscon.org/)
Jan Meisels Allen Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee
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dinafertig@...
How can I get records about my mother and grandparents who were from Chmelnik? Bernstein, Rabinowitz
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