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Jan Meisels Allen
Poland has a vast archive of items that shed light on the history of Freemasonry in Europe JANEK SKARZYNSKI AFP
An old university library in western Poland—UAM in Poznan, is sheding light on works including women’s Masonic ledges and musical scores used in closed ceremonies. There are 80,000 items dating from the 17th century to pre World War ll period. Fine prints, copies of speeches and membership lists of Masonic lodges in Germany and beyond feature in the archive. Some documents still bear Nazi stamps.
“Initially tolerated by the Nazis, Freemasons became the subject of regime conspiracy theories in the 1930s, seen as liberal intellectuals whose secretive circles could become centres of opposition.
Lodges were broken up and their members imprisoned and killed both in Germany and elsewhere as Nazi troops advanced during WWII.
The collection was put together under the orders of top Nazi henchman and SS chief Heinrich Himmler and is composed of many smaller archives from European Masonic lodges that were seized by the Nazis.”
During the war as Allied bombing intensified, the collection was moved from Germany for safekeeping and broken up into three parts -- two were taken to what is now Poland and one to the Czech Republic. The section left in the town of Slawa Slaska in Poland was seized by Polish authorities in 1945, while the others were taken by the Red Army.
In 1959, the Polish Masonic collection was formally established as an archive and curators began studying it -- at that time, Freemasonry was banned in the country under Communism.
The collection is open to researchers and other visitors.
Jan Meisels Allen Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee
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pweinthal
Are you looking for anything in particular? Have you tried a library? We can't make recommendations if we don't know where you are in the world. The Google search engine produced many results, including this painting offered for sale by an online auction. Is that your interest?
https://elicytacje.komornik.pl/items/5128?_x_tr_sl=pl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc Regards, Pat Weinthal USA
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Re: Coincidence?
#general
jbonline1111@...
My maternal grandfather also didn't know his birthdate, but said it was during Pesach, so his kids designated April 15 as his birthday. He really wasn't sure about the year either. Whether that was because he supposedly lied about his age when he got off the boat at Ellis Island or some other reason is not clear.
-- Barbara Sloan Conway, SC
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New Database: Altona (Hamburg), Germany Vital Records
#JewishGenUpdates
#germany
#announcements
#records
Michael Moritz
I am excited to report that I have completed indexing the FamilySearch film of Ashkenazi birth, marriage and death records recorded in Altona from the 1820s until 1874. While there are some years missing and others with illegible entries, this is a remarkably complete register documenting the storied community of Altona. In total, this database has over 4,000 entries and contains: 2,016 births, 656 marriages, and 1,397 deaths. Many entries also contain Hebrew names, which have also been transcribed and are searchable. They can now be searched for free in JewishGen's GerSIG database at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Germany/ --Michael Moritz Director, Romania Research Division [and contributor to the Germany Research Division!]
Visit our new site at JewishGen.org/Romania Join us on Facebook: Facebook.com/groups/JewishGenRomania
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Re: Webinar- Finding Your Polish Ancestors Online in the Polish State Archives
#announcements
#poland
Robert Hanna
Does anyone know if this will be available to view afterwards?
Robert Hanna NYC Researching: CHANAN/HANAN/HANNE/HEINE/HINEY (Warsaw, Poland); BLUMENBLAT (Sarnaki, Poland); KARASIK, THOMASHOW/TOMOSHOFF, COHEN (Babruysk, Belarus); RUBINSTEIN, BUNDEROFF, PASTILNIK, NEMOYTEN, DISKIN (Minsk, Belarus).
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stanislawow
#galicia
Boris Shapira
I am Boris Shapira Szapiro was born in Stanislawow (stanislavov) 1952.
Shapira on my fathers side (Jacob) turkeltaub or TURTlETAUB or Turtelbaum. And Cwiren (Zwiren) on my mothers side (klara) kenigzwald (father). Looking for TURTlETAUB in Argentina and Zwiren in Brooklyn NY.....
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Re: Now online: Center for Jewish History's genealogy webinar on New York City historical photos
#usa
pweinthal
Is there a way to access these videos without Facebook? Your Genealogy Coffee Break series look interesting. However, many of us do not have Facebook accounts nor want one.
Pat Weinthal, USA
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(Russian and Ukraine) Vera Miller Posts About More Russian and Ukrainian Records Online
#announcements
#records
#russia
#ukraine
Jan Meisels Allen
Ver Miller’s Find Lost Russian and Ukrainian Family blog has posted about scanned records online from the Russian and Ukrainian Archives. If you are not conversant in either language it is advisable to download a language translator such as Google translate https://translate.google.com/ or https://www.deepl.com/en/translator
On Vera’s blog she has a video guide on reading Russian records to catch the basic information. She also has a cheat sheet for reading Russian script.
To read her latest blog posting see: https://lostrussianfamily.wordpress.com/scanned-russian-and-ukrainian-archive-records/
Jan Meisels Allen Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee
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Help Please#
#translation
#lithuania
pwalman@...
Hi
I must appologise in advance as I've been out of the loop for over 10 years. I came back to doing research following the release of the English 1921 Census and have now got hooked again on my family tree. Whilst going through old paperwork I found the attached documents which I ordered but never got translated. I beleive there are from what I think are my family in the 1876 Lithuanian Revision List. Any help in their translation would be very much appreciated. Many thanks in advance. Paul Walman Researching Surnames:- WALMAN, WALDMAN, WOOLMAN, VALDMAN - Lithuania KATZ,KATSEN,KATCIN - Riga Latvia SENK, SANK - Plock, Plotkz
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Re: Coincidence?
#general
ramot418@...
@ Banai Lynn Feldstein
"I heard a rabbi explain once, but I only recall some of the story. It was important to remember the yahrzeit, the anniversary of their death." Quite true. But one also must know at least the week of birth of a male child, so as to celebrate his bar mitzvah at the correct time. A lot of boys were told (or they remembered from their bar mitzvah) that they were born during the week of the <whatever> weekly portion of the Torah. -- Steve Goldberg Jerusalem, Israel Researching: Sagan/Shagan family from Veliuona (Velon), Lithuania Goldberg family from Vidukle, Lithuania Susselovitch/Zuselovitch family from Raseiniai (Rassein), Lithuania
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Tammy
Regarding the Minsk birth records found on the YIVO website, a number of people have asked for the link. It can be found in the folder titled "Minsk Jewish Community Council, 1825-1917". Here is the link: https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/7/archival_objects/397692
There are a number of files that may be of interest to Minsk researchers. The birth records seem to be in both Cyrillic and Yiddish. Tammy Weingarten
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Arthur Pronin
Hey
My great grandfather was Simon or Sam Spindler. Born in Grodno Poland 1888. I know his father- per death cert-was Alexander. Sam's mother was Rachel. Alexander never made it to USA-my family has said he "died young." Alex's wife Rachel remarried a name Kopitinick. Sam came to USA through Galveston in 1912-and settled in Kansas City. Sam had brother Yankel, a sister Sarah , a sister Mashke. Sam was raised by his grandmother Elke. Sam was married in Grodno in 1912 before leaving for America. His wife- Sarah Dovidovich (maiden)-came to USA via canada in 1914. Sarah born 1892. Ive dug around looking for Alexander's parents. I see many Spindler recs on jewishgen Im almost certain some of these are their's-but I dont know best translations of what Alexander would be or even if...its something else? I see some Dovidovich's as well -Sarah's parents were Frieda and Meyer. Hoping for some help here on Alex's parents...and possible recs on Sarah's parents...because Im stumped! Art Pronin
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Re: Coincidence?
#general
Renee Steinig
The grave locator on Mount Hebron's website (https://www.mounthebroncemetery.com/#search) lists only one Samuel Rosansky. He died on 22 Sep 1943 and is buried in a Workmen's Circle Section. According to the cemetery's records, he was 50 when he died. No doubt Sam R. #1 and #2 are one and the same person and that like so many immigrants, he was inconsistent in reporting his date of birth. Or in the case of a death certificate, a relative reported a different date. If you want more reassurance, see the home address on Samuel's WWII draft card (with the 15 May 1892 birth date) and on his death record (with the 3 Sept. 1893 birth date); on both, the address is 584 Logan Street, Brooklyn. Renee Renee Steinig Dix Hills (Long Island) NY
On Fri, Jan 14, 2022 at 5:38 PM Ellen Gottfried <ellen@...> wrote: Person #1 Samuel ROSANSKY born September 3, 1893 father Abram
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Re: Coincidence?
#general
Susan&David
My father, who was born in what is now Poland related to me that
when he asked his mother when he was born she said (in Yiddish of
course) "A week before Pesach" When he came to the USA he guessed
March 15.
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
David Rosen Boston, MA .
On 1/14/2022 8:03 PM, Banai Lynn
Feldstein wrote:
Our ancestors didn't keep track of when they were born. Even the first generation in the US, their parents didn't know correct the birth dates of their kids. There's a story in my family of one kid who asked how old he was, and they thought he was about 12; they didn't know. You might find even more dates in more records. Usually they settled on a date at a certain time and gave that one in future records.
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Re: Coincidence?
#general
Banai Lynn Feldstein
Our ancestors didn't keep track of when they were born. Even the first generation in the US, their parents didn't know correct the birth dates of their kids. There's a story in my family of one kid who asked how old he was, and they thought he was about 12; they didn't know. You might find even more dates in more records. Usually they settled on a date at a certain time and gave that one in future records.
I heard a rabbi explain once, but I only recall some of the story. It was important to remember the yahrtzeit, the anniversary of their death. But not to celebrate their birth so much. Neither date is really more reliable than the other. You'll need to find a birth record in Europe if you want to know the real correct date. -- Banai Lynn Feldstein Professional Genealogist Salt Lake City, Utah http://idogenealogy.com/ http://geneasearch.net/
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Webinar- Finding Your Polish Ancestors Online in the Polish State Archives
#announcements
#poland
Jan Meisels Allen
The Los Angeles Public Library will host the free virtual presentation, Finding Your Polish Ancestors Online Through the Polish State Archives, by Ted Gostin on Facebook and YouTube on Saturday, January 15, at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time.
Program: This lecture reviews the “Search in the Archives” database, the largest with over 37 million scans; the AGAD archives website with record images from formerly Polish territories, particularly Galicia; and a third database from the Kujawia region; along with several more databases from individual branches of the archives.
See:
Streaming will be live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lapubliclibrary And on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJqAzI9vxGk
Jan Meisels Allen Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee
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Yiddish Translation Needed for 1922 letter from Zagare, Lithuania
#translation
#yiddish
Abby Schmelling
This is a letter, I think in Yiddish, from an old couple in our family who were removed from their home in Zagare, Lithuania during WW I and forced to go to Siberia. They came back to their home but hoped to reach their children in the United States. Their daughter travelled there and brought them to the US. This letter was attached to the daughter’s passport request. I hope it is readable. Abby Schmelling River Forest, IL  -- Abby C. Schmelling
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Transcription from Polish needed
#translation
Vitali Altholz
Could somebody please help in transcription of these two Polish documents – birth and death certificates of Ruchla Altholz (misspelled Adholc)? I can translate them from Polish by myself, but I, unfortunately, cannot understand the handwriting. The last name of the mother is Klajn. Thank you so much for your help! https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM96826 https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM96824 Please respond via the form provided on the ViewMate image page. Thank you very much! Vitali Altholz
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Re: Lithuania/Latvia and South Africa
#southafrica
#general
#lithuania
tiarem@...
My grandfather, his 2 brothers and others from Raseinia, Lithuania migrated to Australia (New South Wales) in the 1870s and1880s.
Glenda Goldberg Sydney Australia
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Coincidence?
#general
Ellen Gottfried
Person #1 Samuel ROSANSKY born September 3, 1893 father Abram
died September 22, 1943 buried in Mt. Hebron cemetery Person # 2 Samuel ROSANSKY born May 15, 1892 father Abram died September 22, 1943 buried in Mt. Hebron cemetery The date of birth for #1 was on his marriage certificate, his child's birth certificate and his death certificate. The date of birth for #2 was on his WW I draft card, his naturalization certificate and his passport application. Could this be the same man? If it is the same man, which date is more likely for his date of birth? Ellen GOTTFRIED, Plainview, New York
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