My maternal grandfather, David Kaylo, entered the US as David Hokails
which seems to have been an erroneous recording of Hokailo.

I had always heard that the family name was something like Hookaylo,
but had not until recently found any evidence to that effect. All of
the siblings who came here seem to have instantly changed their names to
Kaylo except one, who seems to have retained Hookaylo. My grandfather's
documents have a variety of spellings for his home town which I have
recently distilled down to being Uman, Ukraine. In addition, a woman
who I believe to be his sister, had on her Declaration of Intention that
her last residence was Umau and her birthplace was Buki, also in Ukraine.
Also, David's headstone says that his father's name was Chaim. Finally,
armed with this info, I ran across the below info in the Kiev Gubernia Duma
Voters List.

GUKAJLO, Mordko Khaimov 1907 / 574 property 3 Uman (g) 1 ch Uman
GUKAJLO, Shama 1907 / 571 property 200 Rubles Uman (g) 2 ch Uman
GUKAJLO, Arij Srulev 1907 / 570 property, 3 Buki (m) Uman
GUKAJLO, Alter Mordkov 1907 / 160 property 400 Rubles Buki (m) Uman
GUKAJLO, Mordko Khaimov 1907 / 576 property 150 Rubles Ivanka (m) Uman
GUKAJLO, Avrum 1906 / 246 Fastov Vasil'kov

I'm not sure what the significance of some of the info is, but the citations
of Uman and Buki seem to be important and Khaimov appears to track with
David's father's name. Two questions: Does anyone know what the numbers
before the word "property" mean? What are the rubles for, a tax or property
value, a poll tax, etc.?

Also, since this information is both new to me and sketchy, as well as
originally coming >from overseas, does anyone have any idea where I would
proceed >from here with this? Thanks in advance.

David Schreiber
Melbourne, FL

Researching: KAYLO, HOOKAYLO, GUKAJLO, HOKAILS, HOKAILO or other
variants >from Uman, Ukraine and vicinity

My maternal grandfather, David Kaylo, entered the US as David Hokails
which seems to have been an erroneous recording of Hokailo.

I had always heard that the family name was something like Hookaylo,
but had not until recently found any evidence to that effect. All of
the siblings who came here seem to have instantly changed their names to
Kaylo except one, who seems to have retained Hookaylo. My grandfather's
documents have a variety of spellings for his home town which I have
recently distilled down to being Uman, Ukraine. In addition, a woman
who I believe to be his sister, had on her Declaration of Intention that
her last residence was Umau and her birthplace was Buki, also in Ukraine.
Also, David's headstone says that his father's name was Chaim. Finally,
armed with this info, I ran across the below info in the Kiev Gubernia Duma
Voters List.

GUKAJLO, Mordko Khaimov 1907 / 574 property 3 Uman (g) 1 ch Uman
GUKAJLO, Shama 1907 / 571 property 200 Rubles Uman (g) 2 ch Uman
GUKAJLO, Arij Srulev 1907 / 570 property, 3 Buki (m) Uman
GUKAJLO, Alter Mordkov 1907 / 160 property 400 Rubles Buki (m) Uman
GUKAJLO, Mordko Khaimov 1907 / 576 property 150 Rubles Ivanka (m) Uman
GUKAJLO, Avrum 1906 / 246 Fastov Vasil'kov

I'm not sure what the significance of some of the info is, but the citations
of Uman and Buki seem to be important and Khaimov appears to track with
David's father's name. Two questions: Does anyone know what the numbers
before the word "property" mean? What are the rubles for, a tax or property
value, a poll tax, etc.?

Also, since this information is both new to me and sketchy, as well as
originally coming >from overseas, does anyone have any idea where I would
proceed >from here with this? Thanks in advance.

David Schreiber
Melbourne, FL

Researching: KAYLO, HOOKAYLO, GUKAJLO, HOKAILS, HOKAILO or other
variants >from Uman, Ukraine and vicinity

I'm currently researching the surnames OSOWSKI and DRUKER or DRUKIER

from Divin and perhaps other towns near Kobryn.

Specifically, I'm looking for the family of Josel DRUKIER, born in
Divin in 1913, son of Salomon Chaim DRUKIER and Lea Perla OSOWSKI.
Josel emigrated to Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1931.

Aside >from a few Divin voter lists >from the 1880s and several Kobryn
lists for 1885, 1898, 1899, and 1910 cited in the Routes to Roots
Foundation database, I am not aware of any other archival sources that
would be useful in this search.

Has anyone else been able to find late-19th/early 20th-century vital
records, or other genealogically relevant documents, >from Kobryn or
Divin?

Bob Friedman
Brooklyn, NY

I'm currently researching the surnames OSOWSKI and DRUKER or DRUKIER

from Divin and perhaps other towns near Kobryn.

Specifically, I'm looking for the family of Josel DRUKIER, born in
Divin in 1913, son of Salomon Chaim DRUKIER and Lea Perla OSOWSKI.
Josel emigrated to Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1931.

Aside >from a few Divin voter lists >from the 1880s and several Kobryn
lists for 1885, 1898, 1899, and 1910 cited in the Routes to Roots
Foundation database, I am not aware of any other archival sources that
would be useful in this search.

Has anyone else been able to find late-19th/early 20th-century vital
records, or other genealogically relevant documents, >from Kobryn or
Divin?

Bob Friedman
Brooklyn, NY

Tracie wrote: "My paternal
grandmother's name was Bluma Tuvlin before marrying my grandfather Kalman
Schneider. The Tuvlin family were >from Uman. In all my years of family
research, I've never found any others with the surname Tuvlin, except
for those who appear on my family tree and about whom I already know.
Likewise, I've never seen that namein any geneological materials or
books - in short, my family appear to be the onlyones out there with the
surname Tuvlin."

In /A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames >from the Russian Empire /(first
edition), Beider cites Tuvlin as coming >from the name "Tuyva"
(originally Toviyah-Nehemiah 2:10 and we all know it as Tevye). Makes
sense to me!
Ruth Hyman
Rockville Centre, NY

Tracie wrote: "My paternal
grandmother's name was Bluma Tuvlin before marrying my grandfather Kalman
Schneider. The Tuvlin family were >from Uman. In all my years of family
research, I've never found any others with the surname Tuvlin, except
for those who appear on my family tree and about whom I already know.
Likewise, I've never seen that namein any geneological materials or
books - in short, my family appear to be the onlyones out there with the
surname Tuvlin."

In /A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames >from the Russian Empire /(first
edition), Beider cites Tuvlin as coming >from the name "Tuyva"
(originally Toviyah-Nehemiah 2:10 and we all know it as Tevye). Makes
sense to me!
Ruth Hyman
Rockville Centre, NY

The Bernard Zolty's god-father was David Epstein. The David
Epstein's father was Euphraim Epstein who was gone in U.S.A in 1920 -
1925.
Today, the Epstein Family doesn't know the fate of Euphraim Epstein ?

David Epstein is born in Jerusalem in 1894 and is dead in Saint-Quentin
(Aisne - France) in 1960. The Epstein family became >from Minsk.

Best regards,

Franck d'Almeida-Zolty (Bernard Zolty's nephew).

The Bernard Zolty's god-father was David Epstein. The David
Epstein's father was Euphraim Epstein who was gone in U.S.A in 1920 -
1925.
Today, the Epstein Family doesn't know the fate of Euphraim Epstein ?

David Epstein is born in Jerusalem in 1894 and is dead in Saint-Quentin
(Aisne - France) in 1960. The Epstein family became >from Minsk.

Best regards,

Franck d'Almeida-Zolty (Bernard Zolty's nephew).

Thanks to the helpful and almost immediate response to my query of last
week. Here's the follow up, in hopes that it will aid others.

I found a great uncle by following a link suggested through the family
tree software I use. That link led to 3 US Census pages, the first of
which had been where I first learned of this brother of my grandmother,
a grandmother to whom I had been very close. The 2nd US Census pages,
that of 1920, placed my great uncle in the county jail as an inmate with
his state of birth, the country of origin of his father and the State of
birth of his mother. The 3rd US Census page, for 1930, noted his
"occupation" as insane" and his "industry" as "insane asylum." I could
find no record of his death and burial.

After responses to my query to the Discussion Group, I again clicked the
link in my software. Two more days and the links were changed--same US
Census years, different pages, now showing the great uncle in
psychiatric institutions but parents' origins unknown, as well as the
death index. I e-mailed tech help for ancestry.com, to which my software
is linked, asking why the documents had been changed. Tech
response--it's a known bug their developers are trying to solve.

Initially jail confinement had seemed as cruel abandonment of a family
member who was not normal. Noted above, jail was not jail but
institutionalization in an "insane asylum" that had just been renovated
into a modern facility. He was apparently transferred to another
modernized facility the year of its opening where he died. His body was
removed to Galveston, not buried in the cemetery with the rest of the
family.

The family timeline leads to the hypothesis that he was able to be cared
for at home during his childhood, as seen in the 1900 Census. In 1907,
his father died, leaving his business-owner mother and her younger
daughter to care for him, now fully grown. At some point prior to the
1920 Census, he was placed in the Southwestern Insane Asylum where he
was likely made a ward of the State and thus family identifiers were
absent. My mother, born in 1908, remembers knowing about him but never
seeing him. That she never met him doesn't mean that his mother and
sister didn't watch over him. They could easily go the few miles from
their house to the hospital and back while the kids were at school. That
his body went to Galveston seems less bizarre in the context of my
grandfather, hr unfortunate man's brother-in-law, having died a few
years before, and my grandmother agreeing to his being a tissue donor.
When her brother died, she probably agreed to giving the body to the
medical school in Galveston, if family of state wards had a say in the
final disposition.

I have written the State agency that oversees the 2 psychiatric
hospitals for records.

Dottie Miller
San Antonio, TX

Thanks to the helpful and almost immediate response to my query of last
week. Here's the follow up, in hopes that it will aid others.

I found a great uncle by following a link suggested through the family
tree software I use. That link led to 3 US Census pages, the first of
which had been where I first learned of this brother of my grandmother,
a grandmother to whom I had been very close. The 2nd US Census pages,
that of 1920, placed my great uncle in the county jail as an inmate with
his state of birth, the country of origin of his father and the State of
birth of his mother. The 3rd US Census page, for 1930, noted his
"occupation" as insane" and his "industry" as "insane asylum." I could
find no record of his death and burial.

After responses to my query to the Discussion Group, I again clicked the
link in my software. Two more days and the links were changed--same US
Census years, different pages, now showing the great uncle in
psychiatric institutions but parents' origins unknown, as well as the
death index. I e-mailed tech help for ancestry.com, to which my software
is linked, asking why the documents had been changed. Tech
response--it's a known bug their developers are trying to solve.

Initially jail confinement had seemed as cruel abandonment of a family
member who was not normal. Noted above, jail was not jail but
institutionalization in an "insane asylum" that had just been renovated
into a modern facility. He was apparently transferred to another
modernized facility the year of its opening where he died. His body was
removed to Galveston, not buried in the cemetery with the rest of the
family.

The family timeline leads to the hypothesis that he was able to be cared
for at home during his childhood, as seen in the 1900 Census. In 1907,
his father died, leaving his business-owner mother and her younger
daughter to care for him, now fully grown. At some point prior to the
1920 Census, he was placed in the Southwestern Insane Asylum where he
was likely made a ward of the State and thus family identifiers were
absent. My mother, born in 1908, remembers knowing about him but never
seeing him. That she never met him doesn't mean that his mother and
sister didn't watch over him. They could easily go the few miles from
their house to the hospital and back while the kids were at school. That
his body went to Galveston seems less bizarre in the context of my
grandfather, hr unfortunate man's brother-in-law, having died a few
years before, and my grandmother agreeing to his being a tissue donor.
When her brother died, she probably agreed to giving the body to the
medical school in Galveston, if family of state wards had a say in the
final disposition.

I have written the State agency that oversees the 2 psychiatric
hospitals for records.

Dottie Miller
San Antonio, TX

Hello Fellow Searchers,

I have recently gotten in touch with a relative whose father was >from the town of Boyarka (76 miles S of Kiev), Ukraine. He mentioned that there is a Yizkor book for this town. Upon searching the NY library site, and a general web search, I found no mention of this book. Does anyone know about this Yizkor book? I would love to see it, as I also received a story about a pogrom where many of my relatives perished in a pogrom there around 1919-1921.

Excerpt of story of Yona Sokol of Boyarka:

"My father married (as was told to me) the most beautiful girl >from the nearby village. They had a little boy. At that time he worked in an iron and steel business as a buyer of ore. One day he was sent to a distant city on business. While he was away, his little shtetl had a terrible tragedy. There was a pogrom. His stepfather Yosef and his mother Zisl and many others were marched to a lake and shot. Others were herded into the town synagogue which was set on fire. All perished.
Upon my fathers return >from his business trip, he found out that his wife and child had been stabbed to death. This was told to him by a cousin who had hidden in the woods and then had found them after the pogrom."

Does this story about Boyarka sound familiar to anyone. I am still looking for the names of Yona's wife and child. The man named Yosef Sokol was the son of Mordecha Sokol, and Zisl's maiden name was Shpitzanetsky.
Zisl's first husband, Velvel Sokol, was Yosef's nephew. Velvel was the son of Froim (Ephriam) Sokol and Chaina (sp?).

I appreciate any help about in relation to the Yizkor book and the Sokol family of Boyarka.

Karen Sanders
West Haven, CT

Boyarka: SOKOL, GOLDBERG, SHPITZANETSKY (any spelling),
YURKOWSKY
Stavisht: SANDEROVITCH, LEVIT, SHPITZANETSKY
Vinograd: SHPITZANETSKY (any spelling)

Hello Fellow Searchers,

I have recently gotten in touch with a relative whose father was >from the town of Boyarka (76 miles S of Kiev), Ukraine. He mentioned that there is a Yizkor book for this town. Upon searching the NY library site, and a general web search, I found no mention of this book. Does anyone know about this Yizkor book? I would love to see it, as I also received a story about a pogrom where many of my relatives perished in a pogrom there around 1919-1921.

Excerpt of story of Yona Sokol of Boyarka:

"My father married (as was told to me) the most beautiful girl >from the nearby village. They had a little boy. At that time he worked in an iron and steel business as a buyer of ore. One day he was sent to a distant city on business. While he was away, his little shtetl had a terrible tragedy. There was a pogrom. His stepfather Yosef and his mother Zisl and many others were marched to a lake and shot. Others were herded into the town synagogue which was set on fire. All perished.
Upon my fathers return >from his business trip, he found out that his wife and child had been stabbed to death. This was told to him by a cousin who had hidden in the woods and then had found them after the pogrom."

Does this story about Boyarka sound familiar to anyone. I am still looking for the names of Yona's wife and child. The man named Yosef Sokol was the son of Mordecha Sokol, and Zisl's maiden name was Shpitzanetsky.
Zisl's first husband, Velvel Sokol, was Yosef's nephew. Velvel was the son of Froim (Ephriam) Sokol and Chaina (sp?).

I appreciate any help about in relation to the Yizkor book and the Sokol family of Boyarka.

Karen Sanders
West Haven, CT

Boyarka: SOKOL, GOLDBERG, SHPITZANETSKY (any spelling),
YURKOWSKY
Stavisht: SANDEROVITCH, LEVIT, SHPITZANETSKY
Vinograd: SHPITZANETSKY (any spelling)

Dear Friends,

On Friday, Ann Rabinowitz (assistant blog coordinator) posted the
first of what will become regularly posted DNA success stories on
the JewishGen blog. These stories will offer family researchers
encouragement and greater understanding of DNA testing, which has
become a popular part of the genealogical research world since its
inception.

To view the article, please visit
http://jewishgen.blogspot.com/2009/11/dna-success-story.html

Best regards,

Avraham Groll
Administrator of JewishGen
Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
www.mjhnyc.org
agroll@...

Visit our new homepage: www.JewishGen.org

Dear Friends,

On Friday, Ann Rabinowitz (assistant blog coordinator) posted the
first of what will become regularly posted DNA success stories on
the JewishGen blog. These stories will offer family researchers
encouragement and greater understanding of DNA testing, which has
become a popular part of the genealogical research world since its
inception.

To view the article, please visit
http://jewishgen.blogspot.com/2009/11/dna-success-story.html

Best regards,

Avraham Groll
Administrator of JewishGen
Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
www.mjhnyc.org
agroll@...

Visit our new homepage: www.JewishGen.org

We are pleased to welcome the following webpages to JewishGen ShtetLinks.
We thank the owners and webmasters of these shtetlpages for creating fitting
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Created by Susana Leistner Bloch
Webmaster: Edward Rosenbaum
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~~~~~

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~~~~~

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~~~~~

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<bloch@...>
Barbara Ellman, ShtetLinks Technical Coordinator

We are pleased to welcome the following webpages to JewishGen ShtetLinks.
We thank the owners and webmasters of these shtetlpages for creating fitting
memorials to the Jewish Communities that once lived in those shtetlach and
for providing a valuable resource for future generations of their descendants.

Grimaylov (Grzymalow, Hrymajiliv), Ukraine
Created by Susana Leistner Bloch
Webmaster: Edward Rosenbaum
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Suchostaw/sl_grzymalow.htm
~~~~~

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Created by Paul Zoglin
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/homyel/
~~~~~

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Created by Peter Cullman
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/pila/index.html#shtetlinks
~~~~~

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Created by Marshall J. Katz
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~~~~~

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Compiled by Amos Israel Zezmer
Created / Webpage Design by Marshall J. Katz
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~~~~~

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Created by Susan Gerichter
Webpage Design by ShtetLinks volunteer Greg Meyer
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Webpage Design by ShtetLinks volunteer Nicky Carklin
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http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/harbin/index.htm
~~~~~

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http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/kovel/kovel.htm

~~~~~

If you wish to follow their example and create a ShtetLinks webpage for your
ancestral shtetl or adopt an exiting "orphaned" shtetlpage please contact us
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~~~~~

GOOD NEWS!! As a result for our appeal for HTML volunteers we now have a
team of dedicated people who will help you create a webpage for your ancestral
home. Please contact us if you would like help in creating a
ShtetLinks webpage.

Susana Leistner Bloch, VP, ShtetLinks, JewishGen, Inc.
<bloch@...>
Barbara Ellman, ShtetLinks Technical Coordinator

Alexander Beider in his Dictionary of Jewish Surnames >from the Russian
Empire says the name TUVLIN is a variation on the name Tuvie, a matronymic
surname >from the given name Tuviya, which first occurs in Nehemiah 2.
The TUVLIN variation is particularly prevalent in the Gaisin area.
Bert

Herbert Lazerow
Professor of Law
U of San Diego
lazerow@... or lazer@...

Alexander Beider in his Dictionary of Jewish Surnames >from the Russian
Empire says the name TUVLIN is a variation on the name Tuvie, a matronymic
surname >from the given name Tuviya, which first occurs in Nehemiah 2.
The TUVLIN variation is particularly prevalent in the Gaisin area.
Bert

Herbert Lazerow
Professor of Law
U of San Diego
lazerow@... or lazer@...

Hi,

I agree with Barry Eidex that the Hebrew name Tova was not common in
Europe 100 years ago - its Yiddish equivalents Gitta, Gittel, and
possibly Gutcha, were much more likely. But like a lot of other information
we obtain, it's a lead worth pursuing, in this case to search for a female
ancestor named Tova at the time surnames were adopted, or later in case a
surname was changed.

Ira
Ira Leviton
New York, N.Y.

Hi,

I agree with Barry Eidex that the Hebrew name Tova was not common in
Europe 100 years ago - its Yiddish equivalents Gitta, Gittel, and
possibly Gutcha, were much more likely. But like a lot of other information
we obtain, it's a lead worth pursuing, in this case to search for a female
ancestor named Tova at the time surnames were adopted, or later in case a
surname was changed.

Ira
Ira Leviton
New York, N.Y.