Hello All
If you receive a notification that the status is "closed" but you have not received what you requested, immediately email Genealogy.USCIS@uscis.dhs.gov (if that gets truncated, the email address is Genealogy (dot) USCIS (at) USCIS (dot) dha (dot) gov ). Provide all the details of your request and put the GEN ID# in the subject line and body of the email.

Secondly, if you receive language that reads "the Department is working with the records holding facility to rectify this issue [missing records] through records reconciliations and auditing procedures" and they suggest you wait a few years and try again, be angry. Write to your member of Congress and let them know you are receiving poor service, and request help. Ask your member of Congress if they can find out exactly when you should request again, or if they can get additional details on the "auditing and reconciliation procedures." RecordsNotRevenue.com has tried to get information on this statement and it is our understanding that there are no known reconciliation or auditing procedures taking place.

If you have received such a letter and are willing to share it with RecordsNotRevenue, please contact me privately.

thank you
Renee Carl
Washington DC

Dr Jeffrey S. Malka is a pioneer and expert on Sephardic genealogy. This
week on Sephardic World he discusses the Malka family history. The family
story starts in the tumultuous 13th and 14th Centuries in Aragon, Catalonia,
and Navarra. It continues with the family's time in Morocco, and follows the
author's own branch in colonial British East Africa (Sudan), Switzerland,
and the United States. Only a handful of Jewish families have such a long
recorded family history. You can order a copy of his book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Eight-Centuries-Sephardic-Family-1282-2022/dp/0986096
148

Jeff Malka needs no introduction to Sephardic genealogists. Through his
SephardicGen website, and with Mathilde Tagger z”l, he created the modern
field of Sephardic genealogy. His first book received the Judaica Reference
Book of the Year Award in 2002. In 2012 he received the IAJGS's Lifetime
Achievement award. The website, whose content is now also available through
JewishGen, now contains over 146,000 records. Jeff Malka is a retired
orthopedic surgeon. He served as an Associate Professor of Orthopaedic
Surgery at Georgetown University and was chairman of the Department of
Orthopaedic Surgery at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Virginia.

This meeting is on Sunday 15 January 2023 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 else is invited to join us
at: https://www.youtube.com/SephardicGenealogyAndHistory

Do you, a family member or friend want to join the free Sephardic World
mailing list? Please sign up here:
https://www.sephardic.world/sephardic-world

Best wishes and Shabbat Shalom,

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

I am doing some research for a friend and have hit a total brick wall.  Her grandmother, Lena Kassan, was born (as far as the family knows) in Kiev around 1888 to 1892.  I have been looking for any Russian records but have found nothing.  Her parents are unknown and any siblings she might have had are unknown.  From census records, she arrived in the US either in 1891 or 1898.  She married Abraham Hittner (date unknown) and had 3 children in Baltimore, MD.  The family believes she was about 16 when she married, but I cannot confirm this.  Her husband died in September of 1944 in the Bronx, NY.

I have been unable to locate any records of immigration, marriage, or her death.  Lena may have died in or around 1978 in either Maryland or NY.  She is a total mystery.

If anyone can help or has any suggestions, I would absolutely appreciate it.

Thank you,
Jill Heichler

Not so. My father left Germany in 1936 and is listed on mappingthelives. They use several sources and list them in the references for each entry.
--
Larry Oppenheimer

Which town did the son's marriage take place in and was Lewis the surname or first name? Yehudah Leib often became Lewis as a first name (I have this in my family), but Levy as a last name often became Lewis. Also patronymics often became last names. My great grandmother Rachel Grymblat (her maiden name) became Rachel Lewis in Manchester as her father was called Elias (his first name, which translates as Lewis).  

I once had luck searching for the death in 1894 of a great grand aunt Leah whom I knew had moved from Liverpool to Mold in North Wales with her husband, and had featured in the 1881 and1891 censuses there.  Her death had not been registered under her married name Goldblat nor her maiden name Servian (Serwianski) but under her family's patronymic name Max - her grandfather's name had been Mordecai, and her husband's first name had been Max. 

It is obviously easier to find someone without a surname in a small town. It would be impossible in a large city like London or Manchester. But censuses and Naturalization Certificates can help find original names, or by cross checking relatives who went overseas to other countries e.g. US, Canada,  S. Africa and Australasia. That is how I found Servian was originally Serwianski, through an American relative and through an Uncle's story that it was named after a lake in Poland (Lake Serwy).

Jill Whitehead, Surrey, UK

 

Contact Shavei Israel. They work with people in these issues. Note you can have Jewish ancestry and not be halachically Jewish. And you can have Jewish ancestry and be a halachic Jew and still choose to remain a non Jew. It's a personal choice. But if you are looking to use having a Jewish ancestor to get into Israel or to claim one of those Israelite real Jew phenomenon z that's not the right track, better learn from Shavei Israel it's proper meaning generally and to you.

Feigie Teichman

In reply to Ms. Teichman's post: The UN exhibit recognizes and commemorates the Holocaust, and its survivors. I give the UN credit for this.
--
Stephen Katz

Check w your extended family if Yaakov Leiv combination occurs, see what is last name where it did occur and try that. If it fails, contact genealogist.

Feigie Teichman

The International Center of Photography may be able to help also,. Icp.org

Stuart Lichtman

I agree with you Ken in your reply.  But, the backgrounds - often unconvincing like this one - and props were purchased by photographers from photographic props suppliers so having similar backdrops and furnishings may not indicate the same photographer's studio. 

Lesley Edwards
Cheshire, England

I did not realize the image was posted to the group (it has been awhile). But thank you to Michael for this complete translation and thank you to "David" who responded with a quick confirmation on the viewmate page. The family was initially from Zarki/Zharki. This is the first official confirmation of Abram. The family of a KALKOPF cousin and camp survivor stated their/his belief that Abram had come to the US around WWI. I found no record of such a person in the US. Additionally, his mother (my great grandmother) did come to the US. She never became a citizen and died in Los Angeles in 1941. She did fill out an alien registration form (1940?) in which she listed her children, Abram, Berek, Sara and Culta as being in Poland. All presumed lost in the Holocaust. Sara may have married (1930's) but I do not have her spouse's surname. Culta may be the "Cutla Sara" KALKOPF residing at Tuchgasse 4, Sosnowiec, June 1943, but that person's DOB is given as 12.3.1912, Sosnowitz. My "aunt" was born 12 Oct 1912, Sosnowiec (confirmed by USC-Sosnowiec). Her sister, Sura/Sara was born 10 Sep 1910 (confirmed by USC-Sownowiec). This would have been during the final 'cleansing' of Ssonowiec. Her aunt Liba (LENCZNER) GRYNBAUM and husband, Izrael Dawid GRYNBAUM reportedly died in Aug. 1943, Sosnowiec.

BTW: Abram's birth record along with other documents were received this week from a Polish Archives. This was in response to requests I had made in 2019 and 2020.

Thanks again, Michael McTeer, OKC, OK, USA

--
Marion Werle
Instructor, JewishGen Education
<canadagenes@...>

... and lovely to see the two small photos on the studio table.  Possibly family members who had passed away?

Best regards, 

Joyaa ANTARES, Gold Coast, Qld, Australia

Hi All,
I should very much like to hear from anyone who believes, or has good reason to believe, that they are descended from Samuel LEVY, born c.1781, who is registered in the UK 1841 census as a "Dealer", living in Palmer Street, Tower Hamlets, London, which was later registered as being in Spitalfields, London. (The street no longer exists but is close to Wentworth Street, off Commercial Street).
The 1841 census lists a possible wife - perhaps Samuel's second wife - Sarah Levy (born c.1798), and likely children Michael (b.c.1832), Mary (b.c.1834) and Samuel (sic) (b.c.1836).
My cousins and I wish to establish whether the named daughter, Mary, is our g-g grandmother and one route towards establishing further provenance would be to cross-check our DNA - which we have on ancestry, MH, FTDNA, geneanet and GEDmatch) with "yours".

 

 

Please respond contact me privately or via this list.
Thanks v much in advance.
Joyaa ANTARES
Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
___________________________
Researching … MARCUS, DAVIDOFF, COHEN, KAHN in Polangen, Kretinga, Darbenai, Libau, Riga, Memel and South Africa
… MYERS, HART, JOSEPH, MOSES (often MANSELL, MARSDEN), LEVY in London and South Africa

Hi, I just posted 5 translations I would like on Viewmate:  https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/submissionslist.asp

Hello Andrea.

Two of my grandparents were from this part of present-day Belarus and I have photos and reference material that helped me with your photo.

I agree with the prior post from Lesley Edwards that 1900, plus or minus 10 years, is reasonable.  I also agree that the attire/hairstyle may depend on the family's situation and fashion preferences.  Family portrait photos were often taken to commemorate an event.  Families usually adorned in their best, especially the adults.  Also, adults were no longer growing, so they might be better able to afford "putting on a show" for the camera.  Fancy clothes were expensive.  For most families, it made no sense to buy/make expensive clothes that children would outgrow.  In my opinion, dating the "normal" clothes of the children in your photo might be more reliable than dating the adult attire, with the caveat that the childrens' clothes may have been "hand-me-downs" from an earlier wearer.

With that in mind, there is a photo of about 40 Korelitz residents on Zalemanky Street from "before 1906" in the Korelitz Yizkor book published 2018, Appendix B, page 12.  The children (especially a boy in the foreground) were wearing clothes similar to those worn by the two older boys in your photo.

Family portraits like yours were often professionally made in a photographer's studio, instead of inside the family's home.  In the studio, the furniture and backdrops were usually staged and these props may appear in other photos from that studio.  Take note of the ornate table (boy's arm rests on it), the hand-carved chair on the right, and the Romanesque columns in the background.  Other Korelitz photos from the period may have this distinctive staging, if the same studio was used.  If those photos could be located, it would help narrow your timeframe.  To that end, the largest collection of publicly available Korelitz photos may be in the Korelitz Yizkor book, titled "Korelitz The Life and Destruction of a Jewish Community".  I quickly skimmed my copy, but alas, did not see the same backdrop.  The editor, Ann Belinsky in Israel, has access to collections of unpublished photos from Korelitz.  If anyone might know where else to look, she would.  If you would like help reaching Ann, please contact me privately.  (Plus, she may know Korelitz descendants with your surnames.)

Photographers used special paper that was supplied by a limited number of manufacturers.  The paper can be dated.  There may be a photographer studio mark, date stamps, or other identifiers on the back of the paper.  If your photo is original with marks on the back, and not a copy, you are welcome to send me an image.  I might be able to help.

While looking for Korelitz photos with studio staging like yours, I happened to notice an undated photo of Kalman Morduchowitz on page 361 in the 2018-published Yizkor book for Korelitz.  That prompted me to look in the indices for your surnames.  In case you do not have the Yizkor books, in addition to Kalman Morduchowitz, this Korelitz book has multiple entries for surnames Mordechovitz, Gershovitz, and Gershonovsky (as spelled) in the Necrology section (those who perished), starting on page 291 (page 298 in the earlier 1973 version of the book).  Appendix B, pages 4-11 in the 2018 version has a landsmanschaft membership list of the U.S. Korelitzer Society from the 1930s.  Faivel and Mordechai Mordochowitz (as spelled) were members in Brooklyn.  At the back of the Yizkor book for nearby Nowogrudek (aka Navaredok), names of people from Korelitz are listed, because many Korelitz residents were in the Nowogrudek ghetto.  Your surnames are there.  Additionally, the Nowogrudek book contains a list of Nowogrudek residents.  Morduchowicz is there.

Ken Domeshek
Houston
Damesek, Braverman from Nesvizh.  Kartorzynski, Sinienski from Korelitz, Nowogrudek, Negnewicze, Lyubcha, Wsielub.  

just for your information there might be similarity not exactly the same pronunciation or exact letters so it might be 'Dadar' or 'AlDadar' or 'Dodor' etc.

thanks.
M.AlDadar

Hello,

I hope whoever find the message to be well.

I found out that I might have Jew origins in my family but due to my difficult name and difficult circumstances in my home country so its difficult to find who I am I wonder if anyone from Morocco or Israel last name is 'Dadar' or 'Al Dadar' or even the name contains the both words, I have read that I might have family members in both countries mentioned above. I am looking forward anyone to help as I am really working hard for the past 4 years to know who I am and to connect with family members.

Regards,

M.Aldadar.