I'm looking for newer records >from Tykocin, Poland, after 1905 and
before 1940.

Last weekend, my Dad's cousin-in-law told me he thought my father grew
up in Tykocin, Poland, which is a village near Bialystok. The web has

lot of information on that village, for example, you can see
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Poland/Tykocin/index.html I remember my
father describing a 400 year old synagogue that sounded much like the
description in this website. I remember Dad describing the prayers
written on the walls of the synagogue.

We think the original spelling of Dad's name was Aron Lewinzsteijn,

that is a guess based on Levenstein. Dad came to America on May 20th,
1946, when he was 16 years old, on the SS Marina Flasher. I'd like to
check the Manifest to see how he spelled his name back then. Dad
changed his name when he met his Uncle Leib, who immigrated after

War I. So, the other stuff I know, is Uncle Leib, Grandpa Mendel, and
his wife Esther. Could I find records of them in Poland? They are

young (all born after 1900). Also, I don't know my grandmother's

name. My Dad and his Uncle both passed away 30 years ago. When Dad
came to the US, his only living relative was Uncle Leib. There are no
other surviving relatives, other than my brother and sister, and my
Dad's cousin-in-law, Leib's nephew.
- Sheldon Levenstein

MODERATOR'S NOTE: To find out which records have survived for the

search in Miriam Weiner's Routes to Routes Foundation Archivel

at www.rtrfoundation.org To get more information on researching

records that are fewer than 100 years old, read Warren Blatt's

Polish Vital Records at

I'm looking for newer records >from Tykocin, Poland, after 1905 and
before 1940.

Last weekend, my Dad's cousin-in-law told me he thought my father grew
up in Tykocin, Poland, which is a village near Bialystok. The web has

lot of information on that village, for example, you can see
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Poland/Tykocin/index.html I remember my
father describing a 400 year old synagogue that sounded much like the
description in this website. I remember Dad describing the prayers
written on the walls of the synagogue.

We think the original spelling of Dad's name was Aron Lewinzsteijn,

that is a guess based on Levenstein. Dad came to America on May 20th,
1946, when he was 16 years old, on the SS Marina Flasher. I'd like to
check the Manifest to see how he spelled his name back then. Dad
changed his name when he met his Uncle Leib, who immigrated after

War I. So, the other stuff I know, is Uncle Leib, Grandpa Mendel, and
his wife Esther. Could I find records of them in Poland? They are

young (all born after 1900). Also, I don't know my grandmother's

name. My Dad and his Uncle both passed away 30 years ago. When Dad
came to the US, his only living relative was Uncle Leib. There are no
other surviving relatives, other than my brother and sister, and my
Dad's cousin-in-law, Leib's nephew.
- Sheldon Levenstein

MODERATOR'S NOTE: To find out which records have survived for the

search in Miriam Weiner's Routes to Routes Foundation Archivel

at www.rtrfoundation.org To get more information on researching

records that are fewer than 100 years old, read Warren Blatt's

Polish Vital Records at

there are people in the community in budapest who are still keenly
interested in researching and documenting the history of jews in
hungary. it couldn't hurt to try contacting them, and they might have an
easier time tracking down the descendants locally. there are also people
at beit hatefutsoth and yad vashem in israel who are also writing about
the jews of hungary, and they may have relevant documents.

in terms of clues, i didn't notice any mention of *where* your family
lived (keleti karoly utca is a street, not a city), and i would guess that
they chose VIDOR because it was less jewish-sounding than WEISZ, so it
probably is not connected to their original, presumably sfardic, family name.


....... tom klein, toronto

George Farkas <gfarkas@...> wrote:

When I last visited Hungary in 1968, a cousin told me that Gyuri Vidor had
created this family tree. I tried to get in touch with him at the time, but
he was ill and unable to accept any visitors including me. I forgot about
it (and genealogy) for many years. When I became interested in genealogy
again, I tried to get in touch with him, but he had apparently died in
the interim and I have not been able to find his children who would be his
heirs. As I understood it, the tree showed the family history >from when
they left Spain at the time of the inquisition until the 1950s. Until I
heard about this, I had been sure that the family had always been
ashkenazi. And there is nothing in the family customs to indicate that
there were sephardi customs. But I would not have expected that because
this branch of the family was not particularly religious and even if they
were refugees >from Spain, there had been significant intermarriage with the
ashkenazi Jewish community in Hungary.

This branch of the family is that of my maternal grandmother, Hedwig
(Hendel bat Mordecai) Weisz. Her uncles, Jeno and Joszef Weisz, sons of
Jehoshua Halevi Weisz, changed their names to Vidor (see
http://kt.lib.pte.hu/konyvtar/kt04112203/0_0_2_pg_247.html ). Joszef was
the father of Gyuri, who is said to have created this family tree. To the
best of my knowledge, he lived on Keleti Karoly utsa. Recently, I found
his old telephone number, but it only has six digits. Does anyone know if
the Hungarian telephone company can trace someone using the old telephone
number or if we can find a telephone number corresponding to an address.
When I looked up the name in the Hungarian (Matav) online telephone
directory, I found one Vidor Gyorgy listed, but i called and as I expected,
he is not the one, nor is wife Marta listed. But I would not expect that
either since i am sure that she too has died. I expect that their children
(whose names I do not know) are probably in their eighties and may also
have died, in which case the only people I would expect to find are his
grandchildren. Would the Jewish community have records?

If anyone can help me find out more where his heirs are located, I hope to
find and obtain a copy of this family tree. If I could do so and I get the
family's permission, I would be happy to post it for everyone to see. Thank
you.