I think Miriam is right.  It looks like the Yiddish transliteration of "Joe" and the woman's name is "Galieh".

Shimona Kushner
Haifa, Israel

I have privately responded to Miriam (Thank you!!)

In following her advice, I came across something that I though would be useful to others as an add to her great tip.

When Google translates - it does not distinguish a proper name - like a street name.  So, the street name "Sierpnia" became "August".  I kept noticing this in my searches.. "What's this 'August'?'. And as a result, I kept failing to find what Miriam had found. However, since she told me about Zamkowa, and my search did present that as potential page, I scoured it that page.  And suddenly I saw (in the English translation): BOLD UNDERLINES ARE MINE

"Subsequent changes to the name of the street took place in 1934, when it received the name on August 6 from the date of its departure from Krakowin 1914 of the First Cadre Company and in 1948 when it was renamed General Świerczewski . The current name - Zamkowa - was given to the street in 1990 to commemorate the fact that the Royal Castle was rising at its end from the 13th century to 1803 .”

So - as she noted - watch out that you don't get tripped up by the translation.

And good luck to all. Great tip from Miriam!
Steve GRANEK
Researching: GRANEK, ORUM, ADLER, ISAACSON, ALPERT, BROWNSTEIN

Mr Friedman,

The sources in Ms Bulwar-Hay's very comprehensive list should get you what you need.   Jewish onomastics is a fascinating field within Jewish genealogy and can become something of an obsession (ask me how I know this).

However, I'd caution against reading too much into the literal meanings of names.  Pomeranc (or its many alternative spellings) has its origins in Slavic (Polish pomarańcza, Russian померанец /pomeranets/), but it was adopted as what might be considered a "prestige" or "pretty" name with no other meaning.  Many of the names on your list fall into that category.  

Names with obvious translations as professions (e.g. Plotnik, from Russian плотник, a carpenter, or its German equivalent, Zimmerman;  Portnoy, from Russian портной, a tailor, in German/Yiddish Schneider/ שנײַדער) would more clearly indicate an ancestor who had that specific profession.  

Joel Novis
Longmeadow, MA
Researching NOVITSKIY (Vasil'kiv, Kyiv, Ukraine), OLSZTAJN (Łódź Województwo, Poland), GEYMAN/HYMAN (Ashmyany, Belarus), POTASNIK/LEVY (unknown)

Dear Friends,

As 5781 and 2021 come to a close, we at Gesher Galicia thank all our members for their support during what has been another challenging year. Despite those hurdles, we were able to accomplish quite a bit:

• While the coronavirus pandemic continued to interrupt our onsite work in many archives in Austria, Poland, and Ukraine, we were able to continue work across a wide range of research projects including:
  • Our Przemyśl Identification Project that was launched at the end of 2019 and now has been completed;
  • Our Jewish Medical Students Project which now features 7,000 indexed records from several universities frequented by Galician Jews;
  • Our Josephine & Franciscan Surveys Project which includes more than 56,000 indexed records;
• We produced educational webinars featuring experts on a variety of Galician topics including:
  • An interview with Rabbi Jeremy Borovitz, former Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine and current Director of Jewish Education for Base Berlin/Hillel Deutschland in Berlin;
  • A presentation on Ashkenazi Jewish DNA from genealogist and journalist Jennifer Mendelsohn;
• We published quarterly issues of The Galitzianer, our long-running journal covering a variety of topics, past and present, on Galicia;
• We held our second-ever virtual session for attendees of the 41^th IAJGS international Conference on Jewish Genealogy.

As we enter 5782 and 2022, we look forward to continuing our work to add significantly to our databases, improve the website experience for members, strengthen our infrastructure security, and provide even more exclusive content for our members including:

• Thought-provoking presenters for our popular webinars;
• In-depth educational presentations run by our own Dr. Andrew Zalewski as well as other courses taught by Dr. Zalewski through the Gesher Galicia-Gratz College partnership;
• A continuation of improvements to our membership platform for seamless and automated new membership applications and renewals;
• A database imaging system to enable direct linkage to a scan of an original record;
• An interactive cadastral map system that will facilitate the immediate on-screen display of vital records associated with a particular address;
• A project on Jewish Students from Galicia in Vienna (1898-1938).

To be sure, all these programs and enhancements cost money. We would appreciate it for those able to during these days of the High Holidays to partake in the mitzvah of giving tzedakah to help us cover our costs, improve our IT and infrastructure security systems, provide our members with exclusive content, and keep our dues structure among the lowest in our field. To contribute, please go to our donate page at https://www.geshergalicia.org/donate/. You can allocate your donation to operations, general research, vital records or any of the other projects listed on the page.
 
With warm regards for a safe, healthy, and joyous new year.
 
The Board of Directors
Gesher Galicia, Inc.

At 03:49 12/09/2021, Neil Rosenstein wrote:

Trying to make contact with the family of Rabbi Cecil Walkenfeld,
1924-2006, father of Caryn Lipson, descendants of the Wagschal
Chassidic Dynasty
Neil Rosenstei

Try Arie WAGSCHAL - 097457427@...,

I have no idea whether still a valid address

David Lewin
London

Search & Unite attempt to help locate people who, despite the passage
of so many years since World War II, may still exist "out there".
We also assist in the process of re-possession of property in the
Czech Republic and Israel.
See our Web pages at https://remember.org/unite/

Dear Cindy,

I don't think I am a descendant of your branch of the Roth family(ies), but this might possibly be helpful.

I am pretty certain there was more than one Roth family in Kalisz, though whether they all descend from a common ancestor isn't yet clear to me.  I am a descendant of Abraham/Avram Roth (or Rote) who died in Kalisz in 1844.  He had  surviving him five sons - Judah, Lewka, Zalman, Emanuel (Mendel Wolf), Moshe Ephraim and Raphael, and two daughter, Esther and Malka.  i am a descendant of both Moshe Ephraim and Raphael due to inter-cousin marriage (my grandfather Sam was the son of Moshe Ephraim, and my grandmother Esther was the daughter of Raphael's son Tuvia).  My mother was Frances Roth.

I can't find any of the relatives you mention on any of our family trees, but that doesn't mean that they are not descended from some of the sons of Abraham / Avram Roth about whom i have no information (that is Judah, Lewka and Zalman).

One point that might possibly help you.  I have looked at all the Roth graves in Edmonton Federation Cemetery in London.  You may know this already, but Deborah Roth, the widow of Yechiel Beare Roth is buried there in grave K-4-29.  Her date of death is the date you give - 9th November 1919, aged 69.  Her details in Hebrew on the tombstone are: Devorah bat Reb Yosef Hacohen, widow of Yechiel Dov Roth.  Born 10th Nissan 5610; died 16th Chesvan 5680.  It mentions her as a mother and grandmother.   I have a photo of her tombstone if you do not have one.

I will also pass on your message to another person who is researching other branches of the Roth family from Kalisz in case he has not seen the message.

All the best,

Philip Baker

It does seem to be Kalisz research day in the discussion group today! :)

Cindy,

Firstly, I always recommend searching Yad Vashem, the U.S. Holocaust Museum, and the Arolsen Archives to see of you can learn the fate of relatives during the Holocaust. These websites all have overlapping documents but they each also have documents online that are unique, so I recommend searching all three.

Having said that, you may not find anything as the Jews of Kalisz were expelled, deported and murdered in various waves and there doesn’t seem to be any list of pre-war residents online, and even the town’s yizkor book doesn’t have a list of victims.

However, there is hope! I only recently discovered that a great-aunt of mine and her husband and children lived in Kalisz in the 1930s. Before that we knew that my great-aunt and her family had perished in the Holocaust, but we did not know their whereabouts nor how many children there were or what their names were. I learned that they were in Kalisz unexpectedly, when I obtained a document from Lodz which showed that they had moved from that city to Kalisz around 1930. As a result I began researching Kalisz and learned that the Polish State Archives in the town have a pre-war book of residents (which is not online anywhere), so I wrote to them and ordered the relevant pages. This proved to be a revelation. The documents detailed exactly when they moved to Kalisz, the addresses they lived at and when they moved, and even the date of their deportation/expulsion from the town — in January 1940. They also told me the previously unknown names of my great-aunt’s unfortunate children and their dates of birth. So now I can commemorate these long-lost relatives properly. 

Therefore I would urge you or anyone else who had relatives in Kalisz to write to the state archives and request a search in the pre-war book of residents. The fee is small but unfortunately they do insist that you pay by direct bank transfer so that adds to the cost in bank fees. Still, to me it was worth it.

I recommend that you write in Polish — I did so using Google Translate — and use the same method to understand their reply. It’s not ideal but it was good enough for both sides to understand what was being sought. 

Their email address is: 
Archiwum Państwowe w Kaliszu sekretariat@...

Best of luck,

Miriam Bulwar David-Hay,
Raanana, Israel.

Arnold,

The YIVO Encyclopedia online has an excellent article on Jewish personal and family names in Eastern Europe:

There is a further mix up in Stanley Diamond's posting (below) which I would like to clarify.

My words "requires a subscription" which Mr Diamond seems to have taken as a critique of JRI-Poland, had - as far as I know - nothing whatever to do with JRI-Poland.

My response, in fact -, quoted the message from Barbara Rice to which I was responding.  Barbara Rice had very kindly referred me to  https://www.slideshare.net/gosiaa_g/timeline-history-of-golub-dobrzy .   It is that site, slideshare.net, which requires a subscription, and not JRI-Poland   

Is there, in fact, a connection between JRI-Poland and slideshare.net?

I dearly miss the failure of our "modern" Jewishgen to automatically carry forward a posting to which one responds. So often I read a response in a jewishgen posting which to me is meaningless because I have no idea to what earlier message  the item refers.

David Lewin

Sadly no.   Each of the 76 FamilyFinders entries refers to "Golub Dobrzyn".     I am here specifically interested in Golub - in other words pre 1920 - and thus the the exclusion of Dobrzyn

David Lewin

Main question: Is there a website or other resource that gives
meanings/origins for last names what the names means and why
possible did a family choose that last name in 1826

Additional information.

googling names have not been that helpful.

my family is from Radom Poland and surround areas

last names include
#Frydman
#Borensztajn
#Pomeranc
#Kun
#Cukierman
#Ajzman
#Tenenbaum
#Szpigielman
#Swardburd
#Kaplon
#Goldberg
#Wajsfeld

So for example pomeranc means orange, does that mean the ancestor was
an orange or fruit trader?

Last names were required in this region starting in 1826 in this region
My family tree is complete back to late 1700s/early 1800s.

Thank you for your help with meanings for last names
And a happy and healthy new year to all

Arnold Friedman
Redwood City, CA
FRYDMAN
RADOM POLAND

Trying to make contact with the family of BenZion Wolkenfeld of
Antwerp, father of
Chaim Meir Yechiel Wolkenfeld, Nechama Leah, Malka Binah, Giti and
Pinchas Zelig.
Neil Rosenstein

Trying to make contact with the family of Rabbi Cecil Walkenfeld,
1924-2006, father of Caryn Lipson, descendants of the Wagschal
Chassidic Dynasty
Neil Rosenstei

Bob,

It looks like a direct Yiddish transliteration of the name Joe. :)

All the best,
Miriam Bulwar David-Hay,
Raanana, Israel.