Sunday at 10:100 am Pacific Time Sima Velkovich is speaking to the
Orange County CA JGS on online materials at Yad Vashem. Register at
www.ocjgs.org. Free to members of OCJGS and $5 to non members.
Payment can be made on our website. See you there.

Michelle Sandler MLS
President, Vice President of Programming, Librarian OCJGS
Westminster, California

Dear Genners, I’m surprised that no-one has seen fit to mention Ellen Levitt and her indefatigable work, researching the lost synagogues of the various boroughs of New York City. She has published several books including "The Lost Synagogues of Manhattan: Including Shuls from Staten Island and Governors Island” which came out in 2015.

Jeremy G Frankel
ex-Edgware, Middlesex, England
now Sacramento, California, USA

Searching for:
FRANKEL/FRENKEL/FRENKIEL: Gombin, Poland; London, England
GOLDRATH/GOLD: Praszka, Poland; London, England
KOENIGSBERG: Vilkaviskis, Lithuania; London, England; NY, USA; LEVY (later LEADER): Kalisz, Poland; London, England
PINKUS, Poland; London, England; PRINCZ/PRINCE: Krakow, Poland; London, England; NY, USA

I keep my tree on Ancestry public, though I put no living persons on it, and even keep off the recently deceased (say, from the last ten years). I have had a few people contact me about persons in my tree, and haven't minded communicating with them. I do see some of the gravestones that I requested photos of, popping up on other trees, but then again these photos are public, and I don't own them. I've paid for birth/marriage/death certificates, which I have posted on my tree, and I see others have 'borrowed' them as it were, but those are also public records, so it is not like I own them, either. 
The fact is that I have immeasurably benefited from others having their trees public, even those that are ridden with errors. There is usually enough in these trees that is correct or points in the correct direction, that I can gain something useful from these trees, though still realizing that I need to verify all records. 
The biggest benefit I've gotten from public trees on Ancestry is from those linked to my DNA matches on AncestryDNA. Through those trees and my own, I've been able to uncover unknown sisters of great grandparents, and even a sister of a great great grandmother. None of this would have been possible without public trees. 

Michele Lock

Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock and Kalon/Kolon in Zagare/Joniskis/Gruzdziai, Lithuania
Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock in Plunge/Telsiai in Lithuania
Trisinsky/Trushinsky/Sturisky and Leybman in Dotnuva, Lithuania
Olitsky in Alytus, Suwalki, Poland/Lithuania
Gutman/Goodman in Czestochowa, Poland
Lavine/Lev/Lew in Trenton, New Jersey and Lida/Vilna gub., Belarus

Kurt, I have also hit a brick wall trying to learn more about my father, Ludwig Hahn's residence in England, where he arrived in February 1939 just shy of 16.  I believe he spent most of the next two years in and around Manchester until his aunt in the U.S. was able to obtain a visa for him. Even after getting his visa, his trip to the US was cancelled once until his "number came up," as my dad referred to the quota. I've written to the Kindertransport organization and another agency with no success. Interestingly, Ehrmann is a prominent name in my dad's ancestry - his grandmother was an Ehrmann and the Ehrmanns were prominent in his town of Bergen, which is now part of Frankfurt. They originally were from Gross Zimmern in Hesse. I have also discovered that his grandmother had a brother, Gustave/Gerhard Ehrmann, who came to the US in the 19th c, and has many descendants, whom I've identified through DNA matches. Where are your Ehrmanns from?
--
Sandy Hahn Lanman
New Jersey

Seeking relatives named Voloshen from Haysin,Ukraine. GG was Basheva Voloshen- Husband was Morris Kunitz.
Jackie Dashevsky Mintz
Cherry Hill, New Jersey

Hi all,

The man in the photo is Moss Levin, at least that’s what he was called in England. He is my great-grand mother’s grandfather.

The census states that he was born around 1771 in Kingston, Surrey. I don’t think that this is correct/true as there are no records. He may have been covering something up - assumptions have been made that he was born in Jamaica. However, again there is no proof or document that I have found. There are also theories that he was an illegitimate Rothchild.

Moss was a gentleman residing at 4 Paradise Rowe in Chelsea, he was a stockbroker and a silversmith until he made a bad investment which lead him on to lose everything.

Moss ended up in the workhouse, his 3rd wife many years his junior became a prostitute (there are documents). He died in the Richmond workhouse, buried in an unmarked grave.

I know a lot about his life after he met Anne, wife number 3. But, I know nothing about his life before or where his parents were from. 

I have taken several DNA tests which confirm I’m of Ashkenazi decent. But, this still doesn’t prove who Moss really was, or even, whether that was his actual name.

I am appealing for help from anyone. 

Kind regards
Alice Crawford

I am trying to find out details about my grandmother's brother who was alleged to have died on the infamous death march of Hungarian Jews in WWII. The objective is to be able to have his name added to the Yad Vashem records in eternal remembrance. I'm really struggling to trace any records about him online and would like to speak with anyone who can recommend any accessible sources or I can work with any genealogists who can help. Any advice is truly appreciated.

 

Thanks
Nik Harta   (London)

Did yoy look directly on Jri-Poland.org? 

Shosh Eizenshtein 

SteveMorse.org has transliteration options from the Latin alphabet into the Cyrillic alphabet.  You may need to try several different searches to find her.
--
Sarah L Meyer
Georgetown TX
ANK(I)ER, BIGOS, KARMELEK, PERLSTADT, STOKFISZ, SZPIL(T)BAUM, Poland
BIRGARDOVSKY, EDELBERG, HITE (CHAIT), PERCHIK Russia (southern Ukraine) and some Latvia or Lithuania
https://www.sarahsgenies.com

A need Russian translation for 5 certificates of families.

I don't need word-for-word but details such as names, dates, locations, occupations, and so on are very helpful.

 

 A death certificate of Chaim Tenerman from Dubienka for which I need a translation. It is on ViewMate at the following address ...

 https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM94815

 

A birth certificate of Perla Brandla Tenerman from Dubienka for which I need a translation. It is on ViewMate at the following address .... 

https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM94816

 

 A birth certificate of Sura Tenerman from Dubienka for which I need a translation. It is on ViewMate at the following address .... 

https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM94817

 

 A death certificate of Kaila Pech from Dubienka for which I need a translation. It is on ViewMate at the following address ...

 https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM94818

 

A birth certificate of Ester Nudel from Dubienka for which I need a translation. It is on ViewMate at the following address ...

https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM94819

 

Please respond via the form provided on the ViewMate image page.

 Thanks in advance

  

Shmuel Laufer

Rehovot -Israel

 Research: Laufer (Przasnysz, Poland); Domb (Pultusk, Poland); Bruckman (Sarnaki, Poland); Zelazo (Sarnaki, Poland); Preschel (Berhomet, Chernivets'ka, Ukraine), Leder (Berhomet, Chernivets'ka, Ukraine); Schnap (Berhomet, Chernivets'ka, Ukraine); Mitelman (Chelm, Poland); Tenerman (Dubienka, Poland)

Very interesting article. Thanks for sharing. In the upcoming issue of the Galtizianer in my President's column will be an article about a former Galitizianer shul in the East NY section of Brooklyn called Talmud Torah Ohav Zedek but better known as the Berriman Street Shul.

Steven S. Turner
Roslyn, NY
President, Gesher Galicia

I am searching for the marriage of Emmanuel Abrahams, born Russia about 1835, and Pauline Krzasny born Witkovo, Province of Posen, Poland about 1823. I believe that the marriage took place around 1857 to 1861.

Emmanuel died on 24 Jan 1900 at 116 Cable St and was buried in Plashet Cemetery, Newham, London together with Pauline, who died 27 Feb 1900 and was buried in adjoining plot on 01 Mar 1900, under the same granite tombstone. A translation of the Hebrew inscription reads "In Loving Memory of EMANUEL and PAULINA ABRAHAMS who Departed this Life Jan 24 1900 aged 67, and Feb 27 1900 aged 76" / "Deeply mourned by their sorrowing son, daughters and relatives" / "In Death They Were Not Divided" / "May their dear souls rest in peace." The Hebrew inscription reads: at the top is the Hebrew word "lezecorone" (as a remembrance). The next line reads, on the right, the words in Hebrew "Morus (mrs) Pesha ayshes (wife of) Menachem Mendel" while on the left "Menachem ben Avraham." Under both of these there is their respective Hebrew dates of burial (26 Jan 1900 for Emanuel and 01 Mar 1900 for Paulina). The next line contains the five letters: Tof, Nun, Tsadik, Bet and Hey (this is on all Jewish tomb stones).

[Mendel, the Yiddish nickname for Menachem.]

Any help in tracing their marriage would be very much appreciated.

Frank Sharpley

Hello

I've posted multiple vital records in Russian for which I need a translation. It is on ViewMate at the following addresses:

https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM94905
https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM94906
https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM94920

Please respond via the form provided on the ViewMate image page.

Thank you very much.
Dror Bereznitsky

Join the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland for our next Zoom program on Wednesday, September 1^st, 2021, 7-8:30 pm EDT - “The American Jewish Cousins Clubs and Family Circles as a Genealogical Resource” with Robinn Magid.

 

Program: Anthropologists say that kinship clubs are unique to American Jewish Families of Ashkenazic background. This presentation will explore Jewish family clubs and family circles as a cultural phenomenon and will show through example how exploring cousins' clubs can be useful for genealogy research. Most examples used in this presentation are from clubs in the Midwest, including the Katz family of Cleveland, who held a family reunion in 1905 with photos and a memorial book to kick off their cousins' club!

 

Speaker: Robinn Magid is the Assistant Director of JRI-Poland.org and a recent recipient of the IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2020, Robinn became project manager of the JRI-Poland “NextGen Project” to redesign the JRI-Poland website, database, and search engine. She is a frequent speaker and writer on Jewish genealogy topics. Robinn served as the chair of two groundbreaking IAJGS conferences: 2018 in Warsaw, Poland and 2020 provided virtually. The City of Lublin, Poland – her grandmother’s hometown – recognized her genealogical work with a medal in 2017 for inspiring the future and cultural identity on Lublin’s 700th birthday.

 

Registration: Required and free - Send an email to rsvp@... by 12 Noon EDT on Sep 1^st to receive a Zoom link.  If you are NOT a JGS Cleveland member, please include your name, email, and complete mailing address.

 

Go to jgscleveland.org for more program, speaker, and membership information.

 

 

 

Contact: Deborah A. Katz, JD, PhD

Vice President, Programming

JGS Cleveland
programming@...

Shalom from England, Genners

I am compiling a book of life stories from survivors or their relatives of Ferramonti di Tarsia, Italian internment camp, Calabria. These wonderful stories - short or long - have been written by the survivors themselves or their offspring who are sharing the remarkable lives of these courageous people who arrived in Calabria in the 1940s often after tortuous journeys and experiences en route that fill me with wonder. So far I have about 25 of these incredible stories, along with photos supplied by the survivors and/or their families. I am coming to the end of this book - maybe there will be a second volume at a later date - but I want to give a final call to anyone who wishes to share their family story about their period of internment in Ferramonti to please email me.  All I ask is that the story is written by the contributors in English, and emailed to me for editing before the end of August 2021. There is no cost involved in inclusion. Thank you to all who have already sent their incredibly heart-warming and moving stories.  

My late father,  David Ropschitz, born in Galicia, was in Ferramonti. His autobiographical novel based on his 3 year internment was published in a separate book last year (Italian translation just completed and publication planned for next year).
Thank you.

Yolanda Ropschitz-Bentham
Somerset, England.

I found my entire family in the family tree of someone I had never heard of.  Someone way back in her family had the same name as my mother's cousin and she just presumed they were the same person even though they were born about 40 years apart.  I contacted her and she just kept insisting the information was correct.  I finally asked her  if anyone in her family was Jewish and she said no.  That convinced her.

Here are the facts associated with my rather complicated, long-standing brick wall.

 

My wife’s GOLDSTEIN family came from Bialystok. This was well-known among the family. Her great-grandparents and their seven children, one of whom was her grandmother, were known to my mother-in-law and related to us.

The main problem: I cannot find passenger lists for these individuals under the name GOLDSTEIN, or any other surname using first-name-and-age triangulation. And I cannot find a paper trail for any of them in Europe.

• US Census info:
• Great-grandparents Max (a.k.a. Aharon Mordechai) and Rachel (a.k.a. Dina Rochel) GOLDSTEIN, nee RAK, first show up in the US in the 1900 census at 251-3 Delancey Street in Manhattan. 2 of the 3 daughters (Annie, Laura/Dora) and both sons (Hyman, Jacob) that they immigrated with, and 2 daughters born in the US (Mamie, Sarah), are living with them. The census says that Max immigrated in 1884 and the rest in 1887. Both were born around 1850 give or take. In this US Census, the oldest daughter Rebecca / Bessie is already married to Morris Greenberg and is living on Boerum Street in Brooklyn. Morris in not naturalized, and Rebecca immigrated in 1887, so presumably with her parents. Morris died in 1905 and as late as 1920, Rebecca / Bessie had not naturalized.
• In the 1905 NYS Census, only Bessie and her husband are found.
• In the 1910 US Census, Max calls himself Aaron, and the couple is living alone. Their unmarried children are not found at all.
• In the 1915 NYS Census, married daughters Bessie, Annie (ISRAEL), Laura (ROSENBERG), Mamie (FINE) and Sarah (SAPERSTEIN) are all living on their own with their spouses and children, without the parents or the brothers, who are not found anywhere. Annie and Laura naturalized with their husbands. Mamie and Sarah were renaturalized with their naturalized husbands.
• In the 1920 US Census, Rachel has died, and I could not find Max in the census, either alone or living with any of his children.
• Hyman is not definitively identified in either the 1925 NYS Census or the 1930 or 1940 US Censuses.
• US Vital, Naturalization, military, and other records:
  • Hyman has both a WWI and WWII draft record but as mentioned above, I have not been able to find him in another census, even using the draft record addresses (his mother died between his WWI registration and the 1920 census, and he appears to have moved in with his niece between the 1940 census and his WWII registration). Hyman died in 1960 and is buried with his sister Laura and her family in New Jersey (thanks, Renee Steinig); the matzevah refers only to being a beloved brother and uncle.
  • I have not found any paper trail for Jacob after 1900; he may be the Jacob Goldstein who died in 1903 and is buried in Washington Cemetery, but the information on the death certificate and the headstone for the Jacob Goldstein I found is inconclusive.
• I have marriage records for the daughters, and a death certificate for Max, with no hint that the surname was ever anything but GOLDSTEIN.
• As for Hyman (Chaim) and Jacob/Jack, neither appears to have ever married. The names are too common to easily find naturalization records without being able to examine the candidate paperwork in great detail, and since I can’t find any adult censuses for either, I don’t even know if they were ever naturalized.
• Max and Rachel had a grandson born about 1913 to their daughter Mamie who was given the middle name Jacob. This may indicate that Jacob Goldstein was deceased by then.
• Rachel (Dina Rochel bas Yaakov) and Max (Aharon Mordechai ben Chaim Zusman) are buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Queens, she in 1919 and he in 1928.
• Unlike Rachel’s RAK family, for which there are several BMD records, there are no matching GOLDSTEIN vital records (various match strategies) to be found either in the city of Bialystok or in Grodno Guberniya on JRI-Poland. The available Bialystok years are spotty, nevertheless, one would have hoped that at least one of the five children born there would show up.

So the question is, have I missed an obvious or even a devious search strategy to locate the family in Poland prior to 1890, or immigration or other resources in the US that might help identify whether GOLDSTEIN was the original surname? I am open to reasonable suggestions.

 

Steve Stein

Highland Park, NJ
MODERATOR NOTE: Please reply privately