JewishGen.org Discussion Group FAQs
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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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On Wed, Nov 17, 2021 at 09:56 AM, <borosonfam@...> wrote:
The main website for the Romanian National Archives is here, available both in Romanian and English. They have a lot of digitized records, but a quick search for your document was unsuccessful. You can contact the Romanian National Archives through the various methods on their "Contact Us" page http://arhivelenationale.ro/site/en/contact/ The Directorate General of Personal Records for Sector 1 Bucharest can be found at this website https://www.starecivila1.ro/info-contact/, but it is not clear that this would be the proper place to find archival records. Their Contact page is here http://www.starecivila1.ro/info-contact/ The pages seem to be only in Romanian, but if you use Chrome as your browser to access these sites, you can auto-translate each page, which is very useful. -- Robert Murowchick <robertmurowchick AT gmail.com> Researching these family links:
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Re: was my great-grandmother Jewish?
#general
Michele Lock
I recommend testing with Ancestry DNA; they have the largest number of Jewish persons tested whose ancestors came from Central/Eastern Europe.
If at all possible, have a parent/aunt/uncle who is a direct descendent of this great grandmother test, since they are one generation closer and will have inherited a larger portion of DNA from the great grandmother (who would be their grandmother). If this great grandmother was of Central/Eastern European Jewish descent, then a parent/aunt/uncle of yours will have inherited about 20-30% European Jewish DNA (as Ancestry calls it) or Ashkenazi DNA (same thing, what 23 and Me calls it). If you test, your DNA results would be about 9-14% European Jewish (or Ashkenazi). You can also post your question in the Facebook group called 'Jewish DNA for Genetic Genealogy and Family Research'. They have some experts there are are very good at interpreting DNA results from the different testing companies. I want to add one thing - the ethnic group 'Eastern European' is not the same as 'European Jewish'. Eastern European refers to the ethnic Slavic people, roughly from Poland, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. There is occasional confusion about this point from people out there. Good luck. -- Michele Lock Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock and Kalon/Kolon in Zagare/Joniskis/Gruzdziai, Lithuania Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock in Plunge/Telsiai in Lithuania Rabinowitz in Papile, Lithuania and Riga, Latvia 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
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Re: Forestry/Timber/Lumber
#ukraine
jzeisler@...
Diane,
Maybe I can help a tiny bit. My family was one of the largest timber producers in the Austro-Hungarian empire during the late 1800s up through WW2, and included holdings in today's Ukraine around the Skole area. They were the Groedel family. Much of my information comes from newspaper accounts and in one case a tourist guide and railroad enthusiast who had done research on the Transylvanian rail system around Comandau (Kommando) to move timber. The family had helped to build out the rail system, so there was lots of information about them. I've also found books that include their name that discussion the history of the lumber business in Transylvania and Ukraine. Feel free to contact me directly. Jerry Zeisler Atlanta, Georgia USA jzeisler@...
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Talk on struggle of Ethiopian Jews in Israel
#israel
Myra Fournier
Zoom talk by Dr. Shula Mola, Ph.D., on the struggle of Ethiopian Jews in Israel for “normality” and the variety of ways to deal with exclusion and racism. Dr. Mola is an Israeli civil and human rights activist and educator. She is the former chairperson of the Association for Ethiopian Jews for over 10 years, the founder of Mothers on Guard protesting police brutality against the youth of Ethiopian origin, a board member at New Israel Fund and a post-doctoral fellow at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University.
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rnarva@...
My family has a similar story, but I have been able to document a great deal of it.
The alternative to ":walking from Ukraine to Palestine" is that my grandparents traveled from Shepetovka, Ukraine to Trieste and then took a boat [as in Leon Uris' Exodus] from Trieste, italy to the British Mandate of Palestine. According to my mother, my great grandfather was a tanner, a traditional Jewish occupation in Ukraine, and a wagon full of hides provided the capital to support the group of young Zionists of whom they were a part in their journey to Palestine. Family lore has it that they started out by wagon[s] and ended in Trieste, Italy having depleted their "capital" and completing their journey on foot. I have been able to document with a high degree of certainty the death of my great grandfather, Genesia Kislin's father, in a pogrom in Shepetovka in 1919 after which, according to family lore, a group young Zionists--including my grandfather,. Aaron Perlmutter of Polonne, Ukraine and grandmother,Genesia Kislin of Shepetovka, Ukraine departed Ukraine. The timing of this emigration includes them in the early days of the Third Aliyah. I have accessed IGRA records in Israel that confirms their residence in Palestine in the time frame of the family story of their arrival. I have not yet documented their departure from Trieste by boat. This family lore and the records I have located to date confirms that there was a way to depart Ukraine for Palestine without making the entire journey overland. I would be delighted to learn of others--most likely descended from participants in the Third Aliyah which began after the chaos of World War I and the Russian Revolution--whose ancestors made this journey. Richard Narva Boston, MA Researching PERLMUTTER, KISLIN, NARWA, KIBRIK
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Re: Have the towns in Prussia but can't read the handwriting
#translation
Nicole Heymans
Interesting! A NY wedding in German handwriting!
Hammerstein is spelled correctly. The bar above m indicates double m. Same as n in Johanna. Nicole Heymans, near Brussels, Belgium
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Re: was my great-grandmother Jewish?
#general
Janet Furba
This could be performed by a blood laboratory test.
Janet Furba, Germany
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Re: was my great-grandmother Jewish?
#general
Janet Furba
Search for your great-grandmother in the Archives of Civil Birth, Marriage, Death registration Books of the place and in the Archives of the local Synagogue.
Janet Furba, Germany
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Re: was my great-grandmother Jewish?
#general
Judith Elam
Hi Rachel
Was she born in the USA? If so, you should be able to find her parents and see where they were born. If immigrants, then there should be a passenger manifest for them which might list their race and language spoken. Also, the census records might indicate her ethnicity. What was her birth name? And her surname? These also might indicate if she was Jewish. And if you do a DNA test, it will show if you have Jewish DNA. I recommend FamilyTreeDNA for the test. So there are many ways to determine if she was Jewish or not. Sincerely, Judith Elam
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Re: was my great-grandmother Jewish?
#general
srg100@...
If her mother was Jewish, she was Jewish. How to establish that might be difficult.
Where did she live? Do you know where she's buried? If you know the answers to these you can look for marriage and burial records which may give you more information. -- Shoshanah Glickman Gateshead, UK
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demande de traduction du russe en français
#translation
#france
michele.akerberg@...
Bonjour,
Quelqu'un pourrait-il me traduire ce document en russe qui concerne mon cousin Wolf koumetz ? Merci d'avance -- Michèle AKERBERG michele.akerberg@...
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Re: Translation help needed: Yiddish or Hebrew?
#translation
#yiddish
Odeda Zlotnick
The first two are indeed Hebrew. The last one is Yiddish.
-- Odeda Zlotnick Jerusalem, Israel.
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GS Toronto. Virtual Meeting. How Best to use Databases of the USHMM. Megan Lewis. Sunday, 21 November, 2021 at 10:30 a.m. ET.
Jerry Scherer
JEWISH GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF TORONTO
How Best to Use the Databases of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM)
Presented by Megan Lewis, Reference Librarian, USHMM
Sunday, 21 November 2021 at 10:30 a.m. ET.
VIRTUAL MEETING: Join from Home
Megan Lewis will speak about the multiple resources available online in Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database of the USHMM website. Genealogists can learn about a variety of collections made available by the divisions of the Museum’s Library and Archives to assist members with their family history research.
Since 1998, Megan Lewis has served in different roles at the USHMM. Her expertise and familiarity with the Museum’s resources has been much in demand. She has spoken at many genealogy conferences, meetings and programmes. Lewis has earned a BA in History and a Master’s of Library Science from the University of Maryland. In addition, she holds a post graduate certificate in Curation and Management of Digital Assets.
Megan Lewis Reference Librarian National Institute for Holocaust Documentation United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
To register, please go to jgstoronto.ca/register You will then receive an immediate acknowledgement plus the link to access the event on 21 November.
The presentation will be recorded. It will be available to JGS Toronto members in the “Members Only” section of the Society website, a few days after the event. It will also be available to non-member registrants for one week after the event in the “Registration” location.
To our guests, consider joining our membership for only $40.00 per year by Clicking Here or consider a donation by Clicking Here to assist us in continuing our mission providing a forum for the exchange of genealogical knowledge and information. (Canadians receive a CRA tax receipt.)
info@... www.jgstoronto.ca Tel: 647-247-6414 twitter: jgsoftoronto facebook: Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto
Jerry Scherer Vice President, Communications
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Re: Caribbean with Ashkenazi Jewish Dna
#dna
Oh my. Have you looked at the reviews on Amazon? This book is really controversial. I’m a little afraid to read it because of what it might do to my digestive system, and yet I’d really like to know what Jews’ role in the slave trade was. Do you have any thoughts on this?Thank you! Paula Berinstein
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(Lithuania) Bike Path To Be Built on Either Side of Holocaust Memorial
#holocaust
#lithuania
Jan Meisels Allen
A bicycle path passes on either side of a monument to Holocaust survivors buried in a mass grave in Šiauliai, Lithuania, pictured on Nov. 10, 2021. (Courtesy of Rabbi Kalev Kerlin)
Next to the city of Šiauliai in Lithuania there is a forest where Nazis killed Jews, Soviet soldiers and other locals,” Rabbi Kalev Krelin, a former chief rabbi of Lithuania, posted on a Facebook page about a bike path that was being built in Šiauliai, a city situated about 100 miles northwest of Vilnius.
Krelin said construction had been suspended after he and others raised concerns about the project, which could run the risk of unsettling the gravesites of the murder victims.
Šiauliai, which was home to Lithuania’s second-largest Jewish population before the Holocaust, the future of the bike path is uncertain. “We managed to stop the construction but this is just the beginning,” Krelin wrote.
To read more see:
Jan Meisels Allen Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee
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We had a couple of versions about my great-grandfather, and perhaps one of his brothers, trekking on foot from northern Poland to Ottoman Palestine, perhaps as early at the 1880s. My grandfather told me that his father Henry went to Palestine, but was warned not to trust the contracts used to get around prohibitions about non-Muslims buying land, and headed to the US instead. In other version, Henry traveled with his brother Zalman on foot when they were both teenagers: Henry left and Zalman remained.
I've eventually discovered that there almost nothing to these stories. Zalman did make aliyan, but in 1927, when he was in his 50s with a wife and two adult children (and, undoubtedly, not on foot). I learned this from an extensive obituary appearing in the Suchowola yiskorbook, describing his many reasons for remaining in Poland as long as he did. I also found records showing that Henry sailed for Palestine but in 1923 from Providence RI and returned in 1924. In this version, he left because allergies to dust injured his eyes. I can't prove that Henry and Zalman didn't attempt aliyah on foot earlier – hard to prove a negative – but a couple of unbelievable pieces of family lore have turned out to be true. But in this case, without any supporting evidence, I'm satisfied that the trek on foot never happened. There are fictional accounts of such journeys. I thought I'd read one in I.B. Singer's In My Father's Court but couldn't put my finger on it just now. As I recall, folks would go overland as far as the Adriatic Sea and sail to Jaffa from there. If that was the case, a journey "on foot," though difficult and dangerous, would not be impossible. Lee David Jaffe Surnames / Towns: Jaffe / Suchowola, Poland ; Stein (Sztejnsapir) / Bialystok and Rajgrod, Poland ; Joroff (Jaroff, Zarov) / Chernigov, Ukraine ; Schwartz (Schwarzman?, Schwarzstein?) / ? ; Koshkin / Snovsk, Ukraine ; Rappoport / ? ; Braun / Wizajny, Suwalki, Poland, Ludwinowski / Wizajny, Suwalki, Poland
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Translation help needed: Yiddish or Hebrew?
#translation
#yiddish
Sfingold
I've posted some handwritten notes from a firm that handled accounting for my Alperstein New York relatives around 1917-1918. They are handwritten. Previous ones were Yiddish but someone looked at one of these and thinks it's in Hebrew. Hopefully, you can help me figure it out and help with translation.
There are three short notes that need translation. They are on ViewMate at the following addresses: https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM96024 https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM96023 https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM96022 Please respond via the forms provided on the ViewMate image page. Thanks so much! -- Sharon Fingold
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THIS Sunday, Nov. 21, 1:00 PM - JGSNY, Immigrant Clues in Photographs
#announcements
Phyllis Rosner
Jewish Genealogical Society NY Meeting
Sunday Nov. 21, 2021 at 1 p.m. Eastern Time Lucille Gudis Memorial Event, via Zoom
1:00 p.m., No Language Barrier: Immigrant Clues in Photographs
2:30 p.m., The Photo Detective Roadshow
Speaker: Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective ®
This special two-part online program dedicated to examining and researching our family photographs is underwritten by the Lucille Gudis Memorial Fund for Jewish Genealogy. First, at 1 o'clock photo specialist Maureen Taylor will present the Lucille Gudis Memorial Lecture, No Language Barrier: Immigrant Clues in Photographs. Using numerous examples, Maureen will explain how to read the visual evidence found in family photographs taken in the United States and abroad. You'll discover ways to solve your immigrant photo mysteries by looking at case studies, using online and offline resources. Next, at 2:30, our first Photo Detective Roadshow, for JGSNY members only! Maureen will discuss 10-15 photographs selected from those previously submitted by JGSNY members and attempt to answer the questions raised by these images. As we follow along step by step in Maureen's process of analysis, we will receive valuable guidance in resolving our own longstanding mysteries.
Maureen Taylor is an internationally recognized expert on historical photograph identification, photo preservation and family history research. She has done pioneering work combining genealogical and photographic research. Acclaimed for her success in solving photo mysteries, Maureen is sought out by clients worldwide. Her focus is on helping people rediscover their family history one picture at a time and getting folks to dig deep to tell the story of their ancestors. Maureen's many books include "Family Photo Detective: Learn How to Find Genealogy Clues in Old Photos and Solve Family Photo Mysteries.” A separate pre-registration is required for each part (Lecture and Roadshow) All are welcome to the 1:00 lecture; attendance is free, but registration is required: Click here to register for the 1:00 lecture at our website To become a JGSNY member and gain admittance to the 2:30 Roadshow:
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Re: Seeking Ancestors, Julie ERTHEIN, born Julie ROSE
#usa
Rod MacNeil
It appears that Julie's father name was William and he was born in NYC on the 10th of October 1882. He is listed in the 1910 census as the son-in-law of Abe and Sarah Coon, the parents of Hanorah (Hannie or Nora) Rose, Julie's mother. Julie had one brother George (born 1904, NYC) and he appears in multiple census records living with his widowed mother. William must have died in 1910's as his wife (Nora) is listed as a widow in the 1920 US Census, living with her two children in Stamford, Ct.
William was the son of William (Wilhelm) Rose and Catherine Bartels Rose, married in NYC (October 1879). The couple had three children: John, William and Carrie. It appears the father may have died before 1900 because only the mother and the three children are listed in the 1900 US Census. Good luck in continuing your search. Rod -- Rod MacNeil Philadelphia, PA USA roddy407@...
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Viewmate translation request - Polish
#jgs-iajgs
I would be grateful for a translation of the following 19th century vital records for members of the Fischler family in Stanisławów (then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire): Please respond using the online ViewMate form. Thank you so much.
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