I have also learned to be cautious. I must say that I do not much like the big Genealogy sites whose view of reliable sources is no greater than quoting their own customers' unsourced trees. 

"Collectors" can really be a nuisance, like the lady a year or two back who approached me and asked for some help with her tree because she had been "doing" her genealogy for nearly a year and had only found 26,000 ancestors! She did not know what I meant when I asked if she had sourced any of them.
A little information first and see then what develops.  Sometimes one can find a most useful and reciprocal partner and that can be great. It's fun to help but care is the byword.
Martyn Woolf
London

The IKG in Vienna has copies of the so called exit questionnaires. One is a standard form usually filled out in 1938 the other an interview record. I think we may have already exchanged emails. If you wish I can send you samples related to my family.

Thank you so much for posting this - have been trying to trace grandfather, Naum Beckerman and his (possible) marriage to Eugenie Zaslavsky in 1918 - and subsequent birthplace of my father Ura Beckerman in Feb 1919. Thank you!

Rich,
You don't specify exactly when these children were born, but there are two scenarios, both of which were known to happen. One is that Gerson was widowed and then married his wife's sister. Who would be a safer step-mother than the child's aunt? The other scenario is that various names appeared on the children's birth and marriage records for the same mother.

My 3-greats-grandmother was Sophie Schiren, daughter of Simon Schiren (Schieren on other records), on her 1809 marriage record in the Rhineland. On her children's birth records, she was Heba Schirot (1810), Eve Simon (1812), Hebbeken Simon (1814), Eva Simons(1816), Heva Scherath(1819), Heva Schierath (1821), Eva Schierath (1823), Eva Schiratz(1826).

Her death record (1857) says Sophie, but her grave says העווה (an alternative spelling of Chava/Eve), and within a few years four grandchildren were named Eva. None of her grandchildren were called Sophie.

Generally, the same mother's name appeared on the child's birth and marriage record, but there was not much consistency between children - it was never exactly the same.

I have another example, from the Moselle region of France - my 5-greats-grandfather's 2nd marriage was to Sara Franck, the widow of Abraham Bondy. 5-greats-grandpa had five children with Sara, but on the birth record of the fourth, the mother is named as Schwartzle Bontay. Schwartzle has to be a nickname, and Bontay a reference to her first husband, but it confused the person who documented the town to the extent that he treated my 5-greats-grandpa as two people.

So, my suggestion would be to look for evidence of the death of a first wife, or marriage records to prove that there were two wives. If you find no such evidence, then it is reasonable to assume multiple names for the wife. In the ideal world, you will find the marriage record and death record of the wife which establish that it is the same wife from first child to last, despite any name variations.

I hope this helps,
Rodney Eisfelder
Melbourne, Australia

The database seems to go only to 1911? Do you know if there is something analogous that goes into the 1920s? My husband's relatives left Poland and went to Argentina in 1928, according to my father-in-law.

Dear Paul,
Please see transcription+translation below.

best regards,
Tsvika Rozenblat, Herzliya, Israel

in Hebrew:

Is there a source for the names of Romanian survivors who made it to Israel 1946 to 1960?

In the years 1928-1932, the Groedel family (Transylvania Forest Industry Co.) in Skole, Poland (today Ukraine), published a newspaper called Wiadomości Demiańskie (Demnia News), that first appeared on January 28, 1928. Can anyone help me locate that newspaper? I haven't had any success in searching for where it might be archived.

According to the webpage https://bit.ly/2Zy6AEj, the paper was devoted to current issues, but also to topics related to history, economy, politics and tourism.

Thank you.

Jerry Zeisler
Portland, Oregon USA

There were, at times, civil laws that only allowed the eldest Jewish son to marry.  The religious community recognized the marriage as legitimate but not the civil authorities.

David Rosen
Boston, MA

My great grandfather's death certificate (Adolphus Gustavus MEYERSBURG, who died in 1922 in NY) listed his mother as Julia FRANK.
The family came from Bovenden, just outside Gottingen, in what was then Hanover.  Census records from Bovenden show Gerson MEYERSBURG, Adolphus's father,  with his wife Julie and later, children: Samuel, Jeanette, Emma, and Adolphus (according to a couple of booklets about the Jewish inhabitants of Bovenden).

Samuel MEIERSBURG's birth registration shows his mother as Schawelche FRANK.  (I do not have a birth registration for any of his later born siblings).  

When I tried to translate Schawelche using Google translate, it asked if I meant Schaweliche, which it translated as Shawls.

I have not seen this name before, but it sounds more like a nickname, than a real first name.  Does this make sense?

I find it difficult not to believe that her real first name was Julia.  I mean really, would Gerson have had a child with Schawelche and then married and had more children with Julia of the same surname?  One would hope not.

I realize I am asking for an opinion, but I am unfamiliar with naming customs in Germany during this time period.  

Thank you for your assistance.]

Rich MEYERSBURG
Laurel, MD
rich.meyersburg@...

I recently had some birth notices translated from old written German by members of this SIG, and I am very grateful.  However in two of the instances, both from Hebenshausen in 1840, the births were described as unehelich, which was translated as illegitimate.
For one of the births, the father acknowledged as father of the children (anerkannt als Vater des Kind) and the child was listed as having the father's surname.

In the second birth, in the same town and to girls with the same surname, less than a week apart, the child was listed as unehelich, and the father's name was not provided.

My questions are this:

1.  Was this common?

2.  Was this due to a difficulty in obtaining services for either a religious or civil marriage? (in the first instance)

3. How was this usually treated by the community?

Thank you for your assistance.
Rich Meyersburg
Laurel MD
rich.meyersburg@...

Greetings,

I'm trying to help a friend find her uncle whose existence she just learned of. His name is Alex (Aleksei) MELNIKOV. He was born in Tashkent in 1961, most likely Jan 12. His mother was Zhanna MELNIKOV. His father was Vitaly SAYEVICH who was born on March 15, 1938, in Tashkent. Zhanna and Alex moved to Moscow at some point. Alex attended Moscow State University and received a degree in chemistry. They may have emigrated to Israel or Germany in 1991, but that is uncertain. That is all that my friend knows about her uncle.

Is it possible anyone has any info on Alex or Zhanna?

Thank you,     Daniyel Berchenko <danny.berchenko@...>

I would appreciate translation of the Hebrew writing on this gravestone.  Thank you

Paul Shapiro <paulgshap@...>

Signing your full name to messages furthers the spirit of community and mutual assistance on which our group depends.

https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main/guidelines  
Signature: Please “sign” your posts and replies by including your full name at the end of your email. 

I maintain my databases offline in Legacy, and export in GedCom format when updating my MyHeritage or JGFF trees. When exporting to GedCom for public viewing, I disactivate export of anyone marked "private" and export only vital data (no notes, photos, etc.).

Nicole Heymans, near Brussels, Belgium

Such occurrences were not peculiar to Jewish citizens.

My grain of salt:

My father was born out of wedlock in England in 1916 to a C of E mother. My grandfather, a Belgian soldier wounded in 1914, had been cared for in the nursing home run by my grandmother, and when deemed fit to leave had been sent to several French camps in succession, probably before either of them knew my grandmother was pregnant. My grandparents married in 1917, but I discovered (after my parents had died) that my father's birth was registered with the GRO only in 1932, by when the family was living in Belgium. Apparently my father was taken out of school aged 16 and trained as a furniture designer, possibly in apprenticeship, and would have needed something more official than a baptism certificate to certify his date of birth.

And naturally, by the time I discovered this, all those who might have shed some light on the matter were no longer with us.

Happy hunting nonetheless,

Nicole Heymans, near Brussels, Belgium

I have been researching the history of the Lak/Lock family of Gruzd/Zagare, Lithuania, near the Latvian border area. All nine siblings in the family, born circa 1885-1905, list Gruzd or nearby towns as their birthplace on various documents, except for one younger brother, born in 1902 and who emigrated in 1923. This brother lists 'Slaviansk' as his birthplace, both on his ship passenger list in 1923, and on his 1942 US draft card.

Could Slaviansk, in the southern Ukraine, be the place where the family was exiled to during WW I? I know that the Jews were forced to leave Lithuania and were deported into inner parts of the Russian empire during this time. I also noticed on the ship manifest that he lists his nationality as Russian, and not Lithuanian. I suspect that he had difficulty getting Lithuanian citizenship, and may have been forced to declare himself a Russian citizen, and then made to declare a Russian birthplace.

Thanks for any input on this.     Michele Lock,  Alexandria, VA

List the surnames/towns that you are researching in the JewishGen Family Finder.
Go to https://www.jewishgen.org/jgff and click on ENTER/MODIFY.

Researching Lak/Lack/Lock from Gruzd/Joniskis/Zagare Lithuania
Researching Kolon/Kalen from Joniskis/Zagare Lithuania
Researching Leybman/Lipman/Leapman from Dotnuva Lithuania
Researching Olitsky from Alytus, Lithuania     

Hi from Paris,
Dear Fred, 
In France, each new publication, newspaper, book,... must do a legal deposit of one or two items to French National Library.
It was a way to get free a sample of any new publication.
I don't know if same legal obligation was in USA : in past ? now ?
You could ask Library of Congress, New York Public Library and of course Yivo.
And why not "Forward / Forverts", oldest Yiddish newspaper (1897) still printed in NYC.
Khavershaft
Bernard Flam
Archives and history of Medem Center - Arbeter Ring (Bund / Workmen Circle) of France

Hi!
My great-uncle Isaac Jacob Milner contributed to the Yiddish New York newspaper Morgen Zhurnal, which began publishing in 1901.  Microfilmed copies only exist from 1906.  Isaac Jacob died in 1905.  Is it possible that paper copies of the first years have been stashed away somewhere?  

Thanks,
Fred Millner