I would like to request a translation of a letter from german to english. It is a letter written to my father's cousin when he came to America in 1939 and might have information about the family left in Czechoslovakia. It is on ViewMate at the following address: 
https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM85052
Please respond using the form provided on the ViewMate image page. 
Thank you very much,

Chana Altman Stein

Am replying to my own posting

I am wondering to myself, whether there is a repository of Hamburg ketubot somewhere, from that period (17th,18th and 19th century). When I tried searching online "Ketubot" and "Hamburg", the results seem to be vendors who sell these (I hope reproductions) for the artistic side and style, but in most cases, no reference to the names of the couple.

David  Ziants
PS Note that when I posted, there was no approved hashtag for #holland or #netherlands. Otherwise, I would have added one of these as well.

Thanks Bernard for this answer to my question. Is there a central database I can search to see whether Paul STRANSKY was in a French camp before 1940 when he joined the French Army?
I did find the entry for him in the Ministry list thanks. I made a mistake and didn't realise that Laval was a town not a person. Now I am clear about that. after training where did he go? How can i find that out? You suggest he was sent to Africa to fight. A lot of Australians were there and of course so were the Czechs and the Poles. They defeated Rommel at Tobruk a famous 
Allied victory.
David Choukron kindly offered to write to the Bureau Etrangeres for me so I hope I will find out more from that enquiry. He has also kindly offered to apply for the naturalisation file which i hope will tell me more.
I have been in touch with Patrice Paul's younger son as well as his older brother Michel-Frederic and even Jan,  Michel's son- all three are in Paris.

Best wishes
Daniela Torsh
Sydney

Portland, OR, USA KehilaLinks page is under construction! If your relatives lived in Portland, Oregon, USA from 1850 to 1950, we need your family story for Portland's KehilaLinks page. [So far we have Abrahamson and Menasch.] Please contact Linda Wolfe Kelley at lkelley49@.... Thank you!

Linda Kelley

What would be the best way to preserve all of the data in print that would be efficient and clear, but not as a book? Something serviceable, but not necessarily smooth and pretty!  (This foregoing is another thing that has keep me up at night!) Any advice from you or anyone else on this question would be welcome.  

Re electronic genealogies, I believe that Family Search would be the best bet for attempting to preserve genealogies digitally because of its institutional affiliation with the Mormon church.  The Church has been, and I think is likely to continue to be a more stable entity than any online company--commercial companies come and go, but major religions tend to stick around longer.   Also, because of genealogy's central role in Mormonism the motivation for making sure the data is protected and continues to be available and accessible is greater than that of commercial enterprises.

Erika...Everything you said is what I am thinking about...a book is static.  But it's better than nothing to give to relatives.  AND..what a conundrum about printing portions for each part of my tree!  I have Ancestry.com famiy tree but I think I will add it to Family Search.  Here's something I never thought I would have to say..."I hope the Mormons are around a long, long time!".

Susan Stone
Evanston, IL

Here is the link to Isaac's naturalization papers:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GPTZ-3CPW?i=835&cc=1913395&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQGRS-LB4S

Harry married Tillie Hymovitz on 1 Aug. 1907  in Philadelphia.  Here's the link to the marriage records.   There are 3 images and you will have to advance the frame.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DZFY-JG?i=1312&cc=2466357

I think Isaac and Pauline may have married before arriving in Philadelphia.  The 1910 census has that they have been married 11 years which puts the marriage c. 1899.  

Also note that dates of birth are inconsistent.  Different documents have different dates.

Johanna Becker

Peretz,

You may want to check out our "Kolbuszowa Region Research Group (KRRG)" on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/132941687303829. One of our members might have more information for you

Barbara Kornblau
Co-administrator of the Facebook group
Blitzers, Siegel, and Allweiss from Kobuszowa....

I found on Ancestry a copy of my great-grandfather's (Isaak Sand) naturalization records from the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of New York, dated December 1,1905. Attached to the court records is a slip of paper with the names of three of his 10 children who filed a derivative application for their own certificate of citizenship in 1946 and 1947. One of the applicants was my grandmother, Esther Sand Frank, who was born in Lodz, Poland and was a minor child when her father was naturalized in1905. The derivative application is dated June 24, 1946 with a file no. 0300 - 121726.

I would like to obtain my grandmother's records. I am not sure if I am applying for her C-file or if she would have one. Where I should apply? Do I need to file an genealogical index request with USCIS as the original naturalization was over 100 years ago (but it was before 1906 ) or can I file a FOIA request since my grandmother's derivative application was made in 1946?  Also I am not sure if it is pertinent, but in 1913 my great grandfather applied for and received a passport for himself and his "minor child", Esther Sand (she was 20 years old at the time). I have a record of them returning from Europe about a month after the passport was issued. Both were listed on the manifest as US citizens.  I have already checked on Ancestry, the "Subject Index to Correspondence and Case Files of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1903-1952. NARA microfilm publication T458" and found nothing. Thank you for your help.

Elaine Zimmer

From Paris to Tsuri,
WWII started 1939, September 2nd.
Phoney war ended in May 1940 when Hitler invaded Belgium, Nederlands then France (Blitzkrieg, May 10th - June 14th).
On June 14th, Nazis entered Paris.
This was an end to the Republican and democratic state and Petain obtained full power from Parliament.
As soon as July 22nd, an antisemitic law had been passed to "de-naturalize" foreign Jews who had been naturalized by 1927 law.
This law gave an easy access to French citizenship, a way to repopulate France after WWI : 1.5 millions KIA, some millions of wounded and disabled persons.

In fact, about 15.000 Jewish citizens lost their French nationality, from ca 100.000  new Jewish citizens from 1919 to 1939.
Of course, no new naturalizations were given to Jews during this period.
Last but not the least : this de-naturalization applied also to children born in France from these foreign parents. 
But in our nation, from French Revolution, we benefit of "jus solis", you are automatically French when you are born on French soil.
These children had no other nationality than being French : by this de-naturalization, they became stateless !

Paris had been liberated on 1944, ca August 25th.
A law passed on October (France had been fully liberated only during 1945 spring) automatically reestablished  French citizenship to de-naturalized Jews.

For person who had filled a naturalization file before WWII without being accepted, this file is the "basis" of their inquiry after WWII : this is a proof that these files had been kept for some years  (I am sure of that, it had been my father's case and I could copy his documents given in 1939 in his 1948' final file).

I guess that files which hadn't been claimed for a new inquiry after some years, had been destroyed.
In their Finding Aids, National Archives explain there is no list, no index.

You surely know this : in genealogy, there no answer to question you don't ask !
If you give me, by private reply, your father-in-law identity, I could do some searches, I am a full volunteer and I manage the Jewish genealogy workshop of Medem Center - Arbeter Ring of France.

Khavershaft
Bernard Flam

Leonard,

There is a Harry WEINER (wife Tillie, daughter Rose) who naturalized in Philly.  The papers give both Harry and Tillie's towns of birth, and other info.

Here is a link to the nat papers on FamilySearch:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9PTZ-Q8DL?i=186&cc=1913395&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQGB1-PMWN

Regards,

Sherri Bobish

You might reach out to Daniel Soyer, an historian who’s written extensively on American Jewish history and Jewish immigration and also did a study on American Jews who visited the Soviet Union in the 20s and 30s ("Back to the Future: American Jews Visit the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s."Jewish Social Studies. Volume 6, Number 3, Spring/Summer 2000, pp. 124-159) to see if he has any suggestions.  He teaches at Fordham University.  Also, there is a discussion list for historians of American Communism
(H-HOAC); perhaps you could place a query there.

Erika Gottfried
Teaneck, New Jersey

Looking for possible 1958/1973 obits. Couple had lived in Passaic, New Jersey but are buried in Clifton.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/170382440/dora-gurtman
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/170382449/henry-gurtman

I am trying to confirm if "Henry" GURTMAN, 13 Dec 1899-9 Dec 1973, buried King Solomon Memorial Park, Clifton, Passaic Co., New Jersey along with his wife, Dora, 15 Sep 1899-16 Jan 1958 is a member of the Szymko Szymon GURTMAN, b. 1861 and Sura Zelda BOGOMLNA(?), b. 1866 family that connects to KOPLIWICZ/LENCZNER relatives. Henry would be Chil Idel GURTMAN, b. 13 Dec 1899, Szczekociny, Poland and "Dora" his wife, Drejzla RUBINSKI, b. 15 Feb 1898, Jedrzejow. Chil is listed with his parents, siblings and wife in the "Books of Residents" for Szczekociny along with a son, Menachem GURTMAN, b. 25 Mar 1924. According to the Arolsen Archives, Chil, wife, Dora and son, "Michael" and his wife Amalia survived the war and went to the US (### Sherman St., Passaic St. New Jersey). "Max" GURTMAN has 1930/1940 Census listings at this address. Believe "Max" is probably Henry's brother Mendel, b. 1887, Kiev.

A circ. 1916 Lodz Registration Card for brother, Nojech. 1889, is marked "3 Jan 1921 Ameryki". There are 1921 New York passenger listings for Noach and his wife, Chawa Rywka ERLICHMAN going to her sister, Bessie CAPLON, #### Broadway, Schenectady, New York. It is possible that their parents, Szymon & Sura Zelda were also in the US (buried in Saddle Brook, Bergen Co., New Jersey?).

Chil's sister Rae Ruchla, b. 1892, married "Harry" (Abram Hersz) KOPLOWITZ and immigrated to St. Louis, MO. Harry's mother, Brucha (LENCZNER) KOPLOWICZ was sister to my great grandmother.

Thanks, Michael McTeer, Crowley, TX, USA

--
SEEKING:KALKOPF, FRYMORGEN, RESZKE, GRYNBAUM (Zarki, Bedzin, Sosnowiec, Poland); LENCZNER, GLIKSMAN, KOPLOWICZ, TRAJMAN (Szczekociny, Poland)

My father CHARLES GALATIN was born in  in BERESTECHKO in 1907 in what is now Ukraine. I think the family then moved to ROVNO from where they possibly travelled via Odessa to the U.K. in 1911. 
Has anyone any information on our surname? Could it be related to the town of GALATI in Roumania?

Jeff Galatin

I have two cousins, since deceased, who traveled to Philadelphia, PA (US) in 1947 to live with my grandparents. They were 13 1/2 and 9 1/2 years old when they arrived in the US.

I have a record that indicates that the younger son moved from Frankfurt to Brussels with his parents in 1939-1942. I don't have evidence that the older brother moved with them, but I also have no reason to doubt it. The boys' parents and older sister were deported from Brussels to Auschwitz in 1942 where they perished.

I have no idea where the two boys spent the war and how they survived. Their ship's register says that their nearest relative or friend in their most recent location was the Home for Children, 22, Lange van Ruysbroekstr., Antwerp.

Can anyone tell me anything about the Home for Children? Is it possible that they were there during the war, safe from deportation? Did the Home open after the war?

I have searched online Arolsen records, Ancestry, FamilySearch, Yad Vashem and Kazerne Dossin.

I welcome any and all information and suggestions.

Leslie Floyd

Dear All                                                                               5th September 2020

PISZTRANG is indeed a Hungarian word--name of a fish

As for the letter ' Z'   -- not crossed,-- to my knowledge it was 'crossed' in the 'old' Hungarian witting but not during my school years in Hungary/Budapest after the war.

Best wishes to All.

Veronika Pachtinger
London UK.