English text Wikipedia about Leeuwarden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeuwarden Listen to the Dutch pronunciation of Leeuwarden. (Frisian: Ljouwert). Also in that article, the origin of the name. History of the city including a part about the Jewish community.

There were/are, besides the Frisian language in different dialects and local languages different variants of the name, so pronunciation may vary. Leeuwarden en Leuwarden is just a matter of spelling.
It's beyond me how Leeuwarden as a surname hints them to being Levites.

To Tanya Williams: maybe it's not a matter of changing surnames, but using, or being registered with different surnames in different context. I researched a Cohen family; while some of them appeared in Amsterdam burial records as amesfort or the like, others didn't (though they all lived or had lived in Amersfoort and used the name Cohen). A family de Jongh (de Jong, de Jonge) that used that surname since late 1600's but remained Rintel in Jewish records). And of course, in Europe early 19th century everybody had to have an official surname, and within families different surnames could appear.

To Pieter Hoekstra: Westfriesland is the name of a region in the northern part of what is now the province of Noordholland. Originating from the time they were connected with nowadays Friesland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friesland#/media/File:Frisia_716-la.svg
Later and now https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Friesland_(region)
I can understand though why the name west-Friesland for the Dutch part of Friesland is also used as opposed to Ost-Friesland in Germany.

Loes Buisman, Amsterdam

 

 

 

Using the information found by Odeda Zlotnick, Marshall Lerner and Larry Bassist, I looked at the various spellings. From my own personal experience, I decided that the ship manifest was probably the most reliable. The town name appears three times on Elie Akerman's arrival record. Examining all 3 spellings, I come up with Orzawenets, with Arzawenets or Orzavenets being reasonable alternatives. Although I cannot find any information on such a town, I've learned from experience that not being able to find this town name on JewishGen or using Google does not mean it didn't exist. It may have been quite small, or the spelling might be off just enough to keep it from showing up in a phonetic search. I've seen it happen before, and I know I will see it happen again. I believe you are right that the "Bess." notation on the WWI draft registration refers to Bessarabia, as I have seen that notation appear before.

The closest town name I found was Zhvanets, which is roughly 5 miles from Khotyn, Ukraine. Although Zhvanets was reportedly in Podolia gubernia, nearby Khotin/Khotin was in Bessarabia gubernia. It may or may not be the town you are looking for, and I'm not saying that it is, but I believe the town you are looking for might potentially be in this region.

Regards,

Cary Pollack

Tamarac, Florida

Alert: Chai Flicks asks for your email and credit card information.
The films are worth seeing but be careful. They aren’t exactly free. You need to cancel by 7 days.And they still have your cc number.
Ronnie Hess
Madison, WI

Who is the legitimate claimant of the Spanish Lousada dukedom?
Three families of alleged Jewish ancestry say it is them!

Did the Baruch Lousada commit fraud in making the original claim?! Do the
Barrow family descend from the Baruch Lousada? Julian Land discusses this
eminent Victorian family whose members included mayors of two English
towns and three British generals. Are they Sephardic-descended as was
claimed, or Ashkenazim who invented the story? Are they even Jewish? And who
are their rival claimants for the dukedom, the Fischl von Dirsztays of
Vienna? Julian will guide us through the complex and entertaining claims
of Sephardic and noble ancestry. Who deserves the ducal coronet?

Julian Land trained in theoretical physics and mathematics followed by a
thirty year career in commercial client relations with Australia’s national
science research corporation, CSIRO. He descends for the Lousada family and
runs the popular www.barrow-lousada.org website

The meeting is on Sunday 30 January 2022, at 11am in LA, 2pm NYC, 7pm
London, 8pm Paris/Amsterdam and 9pm Jerusalem. Patrons can join us on Zoom.
The link is shared at our Patreon page at: https://www.patreon.com/sephardi

Everyone is invited to join us for free at:
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the YouTube channel. It helps us a lot and reminds you when we are going
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Over the last two years Sephardic World has become the leading forum for
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consider supporting our work: https://www.patreon.com/sephardi

Best wishes,

David Mendoza and Ton Tielen
Sephardic World
Sephardic Genealogical Society
https://www.sephardic.world/

Although it is true that the name Leeuwarden refers to the capital of Friesland in The Netherlands (as hinted at in my initial post when I referred to a member of the family being buried there), but it is not at all far-fetched to suggest that they adopted that as a surname, not only because they lived there but also because it also hints to them being Levites.
--
Nachum Aronson

I am trying to find out some biographical details of Rabbi Yakov Rabinovich
of Dvinsk, who married my great grandparents, Sora Basha Goltz and Abe
Zalman (Solomon) Abrahamovich on February 22nd, 1889, (corresponding to the
Hebrew date of 3 Adar 5649).
I wonder if anyone has any information about this rabbi or where I might
find information on him please?

Ms Terry Ashton, Australia
PRASHKER-Kalisz; SZUMOWSKI-Lomza; WAJNGOT-Poland; WIERZBOWICZ-Poland;
GOLDMAN-Poland; SEGAL-SEGALOVITCH-Vilna; GOLTZ-Latvia

I am returning to correct my reading of the second part of the father's name:  It is Gedalyahu, as Ms. Zlotnick wrote (not Gedalya).
--
Fredel Fruhman
Brooklyn, New York, USA

 

Jewish Records Indexing – Poland is now making available extractions of

the 1810-1825 Jewish records from the Krasnobrod Parish records in the

Polish State Archives.

These extractions are not in the Jewish Records Indexing – Poland online

database.

Each record extraction includes surnames and given names; fathers’

names, ages, and occupations; mothers’ names, ages, and maiden names;

house numbers, places and dates of birth or death; and witnesses’ names,

ages, occupations and/or relation to the subject of the record.

There are 457 extractions from Jewish Krasnobrod records for the 1810-

1825 period. The extractions include 226 different surnames or variations

of surnames mentioned in the records, as well as 33 towns and villages

(other than Krasnobród) noted as place of birth, domicile, or death.

By becoming a qualified contributor to the Krasnobród PSA extraction

project, you can receive all the 1810-1825 entries for your family surnames

plus all your family’s record extractions for the 1827-1918 period which are

in the Polish State Archives.

Please contact me for more information through the Krasnobrod page of

the NextGen JRI-Poland web site at beta.jri-poland.org.

Sonny Putter
Bellevue, Washington
U.S.A.

Krasnobród Town Leader

 

The Drouin records are on Ancestry, but are often not well indexed (despite work of several dedicated volunteers who have GREATLY improved the Jewish records).

The JGS-Montreal has its own index of these records. In addition to traditional searches, we can also search by date and parents' names. In addition we have numerous other resources (including cemetery records) that are not otherwise available.

We are happy to help researchers - write to vitaljgs-montreal.org

Alan greenberg
JGS-Montreal.org

My late parents-in-law, Shimek and Karola Berger-Gorski (formerly of
Częstochowa) were in Plaszow for a period of time. Karola was a cook for a
while to Amon Goth and met Oskar Schindler on one of Oskar's visits. Sadly
their 5 year old daughter, Victoria, was taken in one of the round ups in
Plaszow and died there. Shimek and Karola survived Plaszow and Auschwitz and
came to Australia in 1948.

Ms Terry Ashton, Australia
PRASHKER-Kalisz; SZUMOWSKI-Lomza; WAJNGOT-Poland; WIERZBOWICZ-Poland;
GOLDMAN-Poland; SEGAL-SEGALOVITCH-Vilna; GOLTZ-Latvia

Please provide a more sizeable example of the handwriting. The whole page would be a good start.

Nicole Heymans, near Brussels Belgium

My suggestion is they incorporated the name of the city where they were living. Everyone knows Dusseldorf. Leeuwarden is a city and the capital of Friesland. The language largely spoken in the north of Netherlands is called West Frisian, and as Robert Weinberg points out is an Saxon language. If you can speak old English you can speak West Frisian. Yes, it is a language, not a dialect. All business conducted in the Friesian (Fryslan) parliament is done in Frisian.

BTW my name ending in 'stra is a Friesian name.

Just a bit of background.
--

When posting a translation request please specify language.

Nicole Heymans, near Brussels, Belgium

 

Join the IRemember Wall When you join the IRemember Wall, your name will be randomly matched to a Holocaust victim from Yad Vashem's Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names. This unique project allows you to remember a specific victim, learn their name, read their story, and see their picture. You can then share the story of a Holocaust victim with others, as we join together to spread Holocaust awareness on International Holocaust Remembrance Day (27 January).  Together, we can ensure that the memory of the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust is never forgotten.  Click here to join today.

 

You can also choose a specific name to remember and match with on the Wall from our Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names, which contains over 4.8 million names of Holocaust victims.

--
Nina Tobias
Scottsdale, Arizona

Researching: HOROWITZ (Iasi, Romania; Odessa)
                      SWARTZ (Iasi, Romania; Philadelphia; Chicago)
                      TOBIAS (Rymanow, Galicia; Chicago)
,                     VOROBYEV, GOLDMAN, VERB (Russia; Chicago)

LitvakSIG is providing a series of online Birds of a Feather (BOF) sessions for the various districts in Lithuania.  These informational sessions are open to the public.  Some District Research Groups will also be holding similar sessions at the annual IAJGS conference.

The BOF session for the Vilnius district will be held over Zoom on Sunday, January 30, at noon (Eastern time).

 

The Vilnius district includes the following towns: 

 

Vilnius City, Antakalnis, Bagaslaviskis, Bezdonys, Ciobiskis, Gelvonai, Giedraiciai, Inturke, Jasiunai, Joniskes, Laibiskis, Maisiagala, Mikhalishki, Moletai, Musninkai, Naujoji Vilna, Nemencine, Novygorod, Paberze, Rudamina, Salcininkai, Sesuoliai, Sirvintos, Snipiskes, Stundishki, Turgeliai, Yakubantse.

BOF sessions will be recorded and publicly available for a limited time.

 

After that, they will be available to qualified contributors to the District Research Groups, for which contributions are made through the page https://www.litvaksig.org/membership-and-contributions/join-and-contribute.

To register for the Vilnius district BOF session, which is free to all, please click on the following link:

 

https://tinyurl.com/5brnu9ay.

------

 

David Ellis

 

Coordinator for LitvakSIG Vilnius District Research Group djemkitso@...