There is no equivalent to Ellis Island records for the UK,
unfortunately. The UK National Archives holds records for incoming
aliens, which the government required only during two short periods of
time (1810-11 & 1828-1869), and these are available on Ancestry. Ships
coming >from Europe were even exempt >from this, though I've been lucky
enough to find Europeans I was interested in, who had boarded a vessel

from further afield. Ancestry has also collected and indexed a number of

incoming passenger lists up to 1960.
I've found someone arriving >from USA in 1910. It is, of course, a
subscription site. Otherwise, the only tedious option is to browse the
local press at a port, which invariably posted the names of arriving ships,
though not always the name of the passengers.

Eva Lawrence
St Albans, UK

There is no equivalent to Ellis Island records for the UK,
unfortunately. The UK National Archives holds records for incoming
aliens, which the government required only during two short periods of
time (1810-11 & 1828-1869), and these are available on Ancestry. Ships
coming >from Europe were even exempt >from this, though I've been lucky
enough to find Europeans I was interested in, who had boarded a vessel

from further afield. Ancestry has also collected and indexed a number of

incoming passenger lists up to 1960.
I've found someone arriving >from USA in 1910. It is, of course, a
subscription site. Otherwise, the only tedious option is to browse the
local press at a port, which invariably posted the names of arriving ships,
though not always the name of the passengers.

Eva Lawrence
St Albans, UK

I am seeking information my great-great uncle Moses Freedland(er) of
1637 50th Street, Brooklyn, NY, son of Hirsch Friedland(er) of Besaglo,
Latvia. The census lists his occupation as salesman but his nephew, my
grandfather David Freedland, told me he was a Rabbi as did my mother
Cecelia Rosenberg. My mother visited them often and told me all the
children - more than 13? -were musical and that each one played an
instrument. She also told me their house had only one bathroom and they
had a schedule for using it!

Hannah Metzger, hallie.metzger@...

I am seeking information my great-great uncle Moses Freedland(er) of
1637 50th Street, Brooklyn, NY, son of Hirsch Friedland(er) of Besaglo,
Latvia. The census lists his occupation as salesman but his nephew, my
grandfather David Freedland, told me he was a Rabbi as did my mother
Cecelia Rosenberg. My mother visited them often and told me all the
children - more than 13? -were musical and that each one played an
instrument. She also told me their house had only one bathroom and they
had a schedule for using it!

Hannah Metzger, hallie.metzger@...

When did they come?  I see some trees on Ancestry showing that Louis Moshe Gottstein died in Des Moines in 1913 and that Sarah's maiden name was Hochenberg.  Following up on this I found Nathan's gravestone saying that his father was Yehuda, but a gravestone for Sol shows Moshe v'Sarah.  

They have a website where many of the stones are available.

Another possibility is that Nathan and Solomon had one mother, but different fathers.  If their mother remarried when one brother was very young, he may never have known his biological father.

Were you able to find the family in the LitvakSIG database?

Peggy Mosinger Freedman
Atlanta, GA

You might also go to the the kehilalinks site for Panevezys on the JewishGen website to find out more about its history. It's at  https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/panevezys/pon3.html . This includes a detailed description of the massacre of the Jews of Panevezys in 1941.

Judith Singer

A new section, Rabbinical Profiles
(https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Rabbinic_Profiles.htm) has been
added to JCR-UK (Jewish Communities & Records - United Kingdom).

The section, reflecting several months of research, currently covers
the ministers of all non-orthodox congregations (Masorti, Reform and
Liberal) throughout the United Kingdom.
In addition, the congregation pages of each of these congregations are
presented in a revised format with the congregational data updated and
significantly expanded and includes lists of ministers with (where
relevant) links to such minister's profile, lists of lay officers (to
the 1950s) as well as other new data.

I look forward to receiving details of any corrections, omissions and
additional information regarding the data presented,

Work is now under way to extend the new section to include ministers
of orthodox congregations, which will take quite some time to cover
all congregations.

To keep abreast of what's new on JCR-UK, visit
https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/whatsnew.htm

Regards,

David Shulman
Webmaster JCR-UK (a joint project of JewishGen and the Jewish
Genealogical Society of Great Britain)
Ra'anana, Israel
email: jcrukwebmaster@...
website: https://www.jewishgen.org/JCR-UK/

JCR-UK welcomes contributions >from the public relating to any Jewish
community or congregation in the British Isles.

A new section, Rabbinical Profiles
(https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Rabbinic_Profiles.htm) has been
added to JCR-UK (Jewish Communities & Records - United Kingdom).

The section, reflecting several months of research, currently covers
the ministers of all non-orthodox congregations (Masorti, Reform and
Liberal) throughout the United Kingdom.
In addition, the congregation pages of each of these congregations are
presented in a revised format with the congregational data updated and
significantly expanded and includes lists of ministers with (where
relevant) links to such minister's profile, lists of lay officers (to
the 1950s) as well as other new data.

I look forward to receiving details of any corrections, omissions and
additional information regarding the data presented,

Work is now under way to extend the new section to include ministers
of orthodox congregations, which will take quite some time to cover
all congregations.

To keep abreast of what's new on JCR-UK, visit
https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/whatsnew.htm

Regards,

David Shulman
Webmaster JCR-UK (a joint project of JewishGen and the Jewish
Genealogical Society of Great Britain)
Ra'anana, Israel
email: jcrukwebmaster@...
website: https://www.jewishgen.org/JCR-UK/

JCR-UK welcomes contributions >from the public relating to any Jewish
community or congregation in the British Isles.

My 2 x great grandmother Mirjam ESKZENASY (which also means DEUTSCH) was born in Vienna in 1813.  Her elder brother Naphtali ESKENASY born in Vienna in 1809, wrote to the Viennese authorities in Italian when challenging the will of his father.  They were part of the Sephardi community of Vienna.

David Laufer
Sydney, Australia

Last October I spent two weeks in Western Ukraine, in Lviv and in Podolia.

Podolia's archives are, since some years ago, centralized in Khmelnitsky, the regional capital, formerly called Proskurov. The Kamenetz files have been largely destroyed by a fire in 2003, but not everything disappeared. What is left, is now in Khmelnitsky.

I visited the archives, explained what I was looking for, and was ushered to a woman, probably the director.

I have to say my Russian is very basic and my Ukrainian non-existant. But I am able to read Russian, even in handwriting.

The archives director summoned another woman, the one in charge of the Reading Room. She took me to that room, where there were another 5-6 persons already, also doing research, not necessarily about Jewish ancestors. I had to fill some forms, show my passport, then she gave me access to the archives, in digitized form, through a computer terminal. Everything seems to be digitized there, the images have very high definition.

I spent several hours there, browsing the births, deaths and wedding records >from the Kamenetz region. I looked at several years around 1849, when my great grandfather was probably born. But I found no record with my family name .

I wanted to continue next day, as I realized I had overlooked the Lanskorun (Zarichanka) files, which are separate >from other Kamenetz records. But the reading room was closed that day, a Friday. As I wondered if an exception could be made in my case, as I was leaving Khmelnitsky next day, the lady in charge of the Reading Room showed clear signs of impatience. Of course, I imagine her job is not easy, as the archives are said to be chronically understaffed.

On the other hand, she told me that they could do themselves such searches, if asked to, at a very reasonable price. I am not sure if that is right, but I will give it a try.

Jorge Sexer
France

Last October I spent two weeks in Western Ukraine, in Lviv and in Podolia.

Podolia's archives are, since some years ago, centralized in Khmelnitsky, the regional capital, formerly called Proskurov. The Kamenetz files have been largely destroyed by a fire in 2003, but not everything disappeared. What is left, is now in Khmelnitsky.

I visited the archives, explained what I was looking for, and was ushered to a woman, probably the director.

I have to say my Russian is very basic and my Ukrainian non-existant. But I am able to read Russian, even in handwriting.

The archives director summoned another woman, the one in charge of the Reading Room. She took me to that room, where there were another 5-6 persons already, also doing research, not necessarily about Jewish ancestors. I had to fill some forms, show my passport, then she gave me access to the archives, in digitized form, through a computer terminal. Everything seems to be digitized there, the images have very high definition.

I spent several hours there, browsing the births, deaths and wedding records >from the Kamenetz region. I looked at several years around 1849, when my great grandfather was probably born. But I found no record with my family name .

I wanted to continue next day, as I realized I had overlooked the Lanskorun (Zarichanka) files, which are separate >from other Kamenetz records. But the reading room was closed that day, a Friday. As I wondered if an exception could be made in my case, as I was leaving Khmelnitsky next day, the lady in charge of the Reading Room showed clear signs of impatience. Of course, I imagine her job is not easy, as the archives are said to be chronically understaffed.

On the other hand, she told me that they could do themselves such searches, if asked to, at a very reasonable price. I am not sure if that is right, but I will give it a try.

Jorge Sexer
France

Hi Trudy,
I just sent you attachments under a separate email for the findagrave.com links for Solomon, Nathan and also their mother Sarah's gravestones. It was great to hear all the discussion from others about the Hebrew translation for Louis and Moses and that Nathan used his father's first given name Louis and Sol used his father's second given name of Moses on the stones. With that information, plus the attached obituaries for Sol and Nathan that both mention Louis as their father, it seems more and more likely to be true. Plus you will see the 1973 newspaper article celebrating Louis' wife Sarah's 107th birthday (!) gives a brief family history of the family's immigration from Lithuania and life in both Des Moines and the Minneapolis areas and also talks a bit about the lives of their two sons Sol and Nathan. Looking good, just like Sarah at 107, although you'll see she only admits to 103 going on 104!

Regards,
Karen
Chicago, IL

--
Marion Werle
<canadagenes@...>

I have maternal family connections to Panevyzes and understand that the town was literally wiped out with virtually no survivors. If anyone has more information I'd also be interested. 

My grandfather had 4 brothers.  Some of them had what appears to be different names for their father on the gravestone. However, some have the 'nickname' rather than the formal name.  My grandfather and 3 of his brothers has 'son of Zev''.  The remaining brother has 'son of Velvel'.

Speaker: Lara Diamond

Title: “Finding Relatives in Russian Empire Records (for non-Russian Speakers)”

Date and Time: Sunday, November 24, 2019, 1:30 p.m.

Location: Pikesville Library’s meeting room, 1301 Reisterstown Rd, Pikesville, MD

 

Please join us on Sunday, November 24, 2019, at 1:30 p.m. at the Pikesville Library’s meeting room, 1301 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, when Lara Diamond presents our next program: “Finding Relatives in Russian Empire Records (for non-Russian Speakers).”

 

More and more Russian Empire records are becoming accessible online, but few are indexed. But for those who don’t speak Russian, browsing through the records in old-style Russian handwriting can be daunting. This talk will focus on how to identify, within various types of Russian Empire records, records relating to a researcher’s family, in spite of not having any Russian language background. The talk will also cover various sources for online Russian Empire documents and discuss how to leverage these for one’s own research.

 

Lara Diamond has been researching her family for 25 years, starting as a middle school student. She has traced all branches of her family multiple generations back in Europe using Russian Empire-era and Austria-Hungarian Empire records. Most of her research is in modern-day Ukraine, with a smattering of Belarus and Poland. As she is an Ashkenazic Jew, she gets to have particular fun with her completely endogamous genome. She is president of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland, leads JewishGen's Subcarpathian SIG, and is on JewishGen’s Ukraine SIG’s board of directors. She also runs multiple district- and town-focused projects to collect documentation to assist all those researching ancestors from common towns. She blogs about DNA and her Eastern European research at http://larasgenealogy.blogspot.com.

 

The program is free for paid members and $5 for non-members (applied to membership fee when a visitor joins JGSMD) after their first meeting. Please check our web site at www.jgsmd.org for late updates and for the time, location, and program of future meetings.

 

Susan Steeble
JGSMD Public Relations
Baltimore, MD

JewishGen Education has updated its classes and its formats 2020

We are delighted to offer a new range of courses in 2020.

1. 3 week Mentored Classes with personal instruction based on helping a
student progress with research projects.
2. Home Study classes which are delivered electronically
3. Workbook courses which are Free. Tuition is waived for Value Added
members of JewishGen who have donated $100 to the General Fund in the
last 12 months.

The three week classes are taught in a unique FORUM, a personal
mentoring experience, where students have the opportunity to share their
story and work one step at a time with the instructor. Students are
encouraged to post one branch, set goals for their research and work
interactively. Instructors are familiar with a wide range of resources
and offer text lessons to accompany the research process.

Home Study consists of PDF lessons. Consider the beginning course for
organization and basic research skills (census, vital records, manifests)
then move on to the Complex U.S. course which covers naturalization,
military, governmental records, and local archival research.

Workbook Basic Courses are self-paced text based PDFs with exercises
covering genealogical tools to enhance research skills. Tuition is waived
for Value Added members of JewishGen who have donated $100 to the General
Fund in the last 12 months.

We strongly encourage researchers to look at the course details,
instructor's credentials and student requirements (time, fee,
prerequisites) on the updated education web page:
www.jewishgen.org/education . Course Registration opens two weeks before
the course start date. If, after reviewing the education page, you have
some questions, please email
JewishGen-Education@...
and happy sleuthing!

Nancy Holden, Director of Education
www.JewishGen.org/education