Hi all,

Birth indexes for 1876 and marriage indexes for 1854 (about 2300 records) were added to the All Odessa database on the Odessa Kehilalinks (https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/odessa).

Ariel Parkansky
Ukraine SIG
Odessa Town Leader

Thank you Michele for sharing the link to the Cowen Report.  My grandfather came over in 1906 so this report is like finding a gold mine.

Did anyone else have problems trying to download the report or is it made not to be downloaded?

Jeffrey Gee
Arizona  

Thank you all, so much, for the informative and helpful responses.  I've been making my way through the Cowen report and am so impressed with all the stories and persons that Cowen engaged with.  It really does give a good picture of the hows and whys of emigration and the extreme difficulties in leaving a shtetl until boarding a ship -- not to mention those difficulties, too. He is talking about 1906, in particular, and I imagine there would be some changes by 1910 - 1913.  I appreciate that there is some mention of people leaving for Canada, as well.  I will try to find out more about prepaid tickets, banks, etc. here.  

Again, many thanks!

Ada Glustein

GLUSTEIN, GLUZSHTEYN, Podolia Gubernia; Uman, Kiev Gubernia
PLETSEL, PLETZEL, Ternovka, Podolia

I've posted a handwritten letter in Yiddish for which I need a translation.
It is on ViewMate at the following address ...
https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM93790
Please respond via the form provided on the ViewMate image page.
Thank you very much.

Terry Sklair Taylor

The spelling of my mother's surname changed after she was born, as did that of her first name.  The new spelling was standardized, one might say, when my grandfather was naturalized in the 1930s and is used to this day.

My father and his brothers changed their last name without going through the courts in the 1940s.  Because Dad did not report the change to Social Security, he had to get an affidavit from someone who knew him with both names before he could draw on his Social Security retirement, a minor issue.  But his new name was used in all his US Army documents dating back to 1941. 

There is no requirement to have a name "legally" changed as long as it is not used to defraud.  
--
Barbara Sloan
Conway, SC

Hi Sheryl,

Most people just started using a different name, whether it be first name and/or surname, and there is no legal paperwork.

Some people did use the naturalization process to change their name, and that would be noted on their nat papers, if they did so.

Some people did go to court and get their name legally changed.

It seems you are saying that you believe the surname the family used in The U.S. is not the surname they used before coming here? 

Are you trying to figure out the original surname?  If so, there are methods to attempt to do this, even if they didn't legally change the name.

Do you know what town they came from originally?

Good luck in your search,

Sherri Bobish

It may never have been changed through the courts.  My grandfather's name changed almost every time he (or someone for him) filled out a new document.  I changed my name in 1979 without going through the court system.  I have two social security cards with different names but the same SS number.  My passport and driver's license are under my new name.  It may be a bit harder to do that with all the current security issues, but it was not that difficult in the 20th century or earlier.

Robert Hanna
NYC

Chanan/Hanan/Hanne/Gane (Warsaw); Blumenblat (Sarnaki); Karasik, Thomashow, Cohen (Babruysk); Rubinstein, Bunderoff, Pastilnik, Nemoyten, Diskin (Minsk).

Admixture reports cannot do this because of the many genetic recombinations over 8 generations (one cannot determine which ancestor(s) are producing the Sephardic signal). The only possible DNA strategy would be to obtain the yDNA (SNP) fingerprint of the 8th ancestor's line and then attempt to evaluate whether that particular terminal yDNA SNP fingerprint matches any other proven, modern Portuguese-Sephardic lines. While this is a theoretically possible strategy it is difficult to achieve in practice because you must first identify a modern yDNA descendant of the 8th ancestor, and then be lucky enough so that the ancestor's yDNA SNP fingerprint matches one of the known modern Portuguese-Sephardic ydna lineages. To successfully implement this strategy you must be working with terminal SNPs (i.e. the results from the Big Y 700 test at FTDNA) because anything less would provide an indeterminate answer. For example from experience I can say that the AB-022 line on the JewishDNA.net list contains both Sephardic and Ashkenazic lineages--- so just knowing that much information would not be enough. One needs to know which tiny sub-branch of AB-022 is the terminal 'twig'.
--
Adam Cherson

Hi from Paris,
Dear Yael,
Michael gives the best answer if you wish to find names of children who had been hidden in homes located in South of France.
But if you which to contact those who are still alive now or their descendants, I can transfer your message, with some more details, to the 50 organizations who manage the "Forum des générations Shoah" at Memorial de la Shoah in Paris.
Our next meeting (by Zoom) is on June 8th.
Khavershaft
Bernard Flam
Archives & history of Medem Center - Arbeter Ring

Hi from Paris,
Dear Julie, 
I reply in English to give a general answer, then we will switch to French for further private discussion.

• French Revolution had given full citizenship to Jews living in France and religious ou racial census was forbidden, from 1789 till today.
• After July 1940 and Nazi occupation of northern France, when Petain's collaborationist french state replaced Republic,  one of the first antisemitic target was to fill a Jewish census to prepare further discriminations (...till deportation).
• Danneker, directly under Eichmann's orders for France, tried to find lists of Jews by searching in Jewish religious and non-religious organizations.
• So Jews quickly destroyed their own archives and lists : you have in your husband's family memory of what happened in this synagogue.
• In October 1940, Petain made a law, called as "1st statut of Jews" which among plenty of antisemitic rules, made obligation for Jews to go to police station and make themselves their own declaration of being Jew.
• Almost 90% of them obeyed , as they wished not to be outlaws...

Concerning Jewish genealogy and family history in France and "old countries" of Yiddishland, Medem Center is one of the few associations where we / I manage a weekly workshop of Jewish genealogy : you are welcome !
Khavershaft
Bernard Flam
Archives & history of Medem Center - Arbeter Ring ( Workmen Circle / Bund of France)

Jewish Genealogy SIG June Meeting Tues June 8, 2021  10-11:30 am EDT via Zoom - RSVP.

TimeZoneConverter. https://www.thetimezoneconverter.com/ 

 

Meeting open to the first 100 people who RSVP and come on the call - Zoom “room” will be available at 9:30 am - Suggest you come early to insure your spot!

 

Hi,

 

Visit your Deceased Relatives Via Find-a-Grave 

Join the Jewish Genealogy SIG June Meeting Tues June 8, 2021  10-11:30 am EDT via Zoom.

 

Program:  

Visit your Deceased Relatives Via Find-a-Grave 

The presentation will try to answer the following questions:

• What is Find-a-Grave?
• How Much Does Find-a-Grave Cost?
• Where is Find-a-Grave?
• Why Should I Use/Visit Find-a-Grave?
• How Do I Use Find-a-Grave in Genealogical Research?
• Is Find-a-Grave, the Virtual Cemetery of my Descendants?
• What About Billion Graves and JOWBR (

Start exploring Find-a-Grave today - register here!

 

Reserve you Zoom spot by RSVP.  A Handout will be available for those who sign up.  Zoom link will be sent out 2-3 days before event. You will receive an acknowledgement that you signed up.

 

Send your RSVP to Arthur Sissman  genresearch13@... 

 

 

--
Regards,
Arthur Sissman
Jewish Genealogy SIG of Naples/Collier Co FL

genresearch13@...

954-328-3559

Join our FB page at Jewish Genealogy SIG: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hellojewishgen

Genealogy Wise page: http://www.genealogywise.com/profile/ArthurSissman

Thank you so much for the link to the Cowen report.  I have only skimmed it, esp. the section on travel you highlighted, and it is very informative and fascinating. It is great to read a contemporary account, so clearly and engagingly written.   I've been trying to learn more about the journey out of the Pale, the mechanics of crossing frontiers, arrangement for the different stages of travel, documents required, etc., to help supplement my understanding of my family's story.   I have the original Russian passports for 2 of my maternal great-grandparents and wondered how someone came by such documents.  This was esp. interesting since my paternal grandfather told me he was smuggled across the Russian border into Germany.  I've read several first-hand accounts of the journey, including a spare rendering in Sholem Aleichem's Motl, the cantor's son, in which he describes the family being smuggled across the border with their household goods, housed at a nearby inn until they can be put on a train to the port when they will embark.   

Until this recent finding, I've been able to find only anecdotal accounts, sometime fictional, or bits and pieces about critical points of the journey.  Someone has already mentioned the immigrant banks in Philadelphia: there is some information about the payment scheme and the system for delivering tickets via local agents to the travelers attached to those collections, I believe.  Perhaps more relevant to the original question, I've also read (sorry, but I can't put my finger on the source) that the immigrant trade was very lucrative and there was sometimes fierce competition for business.  This included not only the steamship lines but also the countries where the ports were located. Thus, travelers passing through Germany on their way to Antwerp were often harassed by officials along the way.  My grandfather said his train was delayed by officials, causing him to miss his ship, forcing him to wait until the next available passage.  This was documented in the Cowen report.  Perhaps choosing different routes depended on such factors, affecting the relative difficulty or ease of reaching one port or the other.  Or those with more money or easier access to official papers would take one route and those with few means had to take another.

Just a heads up to those of you who plan programming for a JGS or research institution, that a presentation on this topic would be very welcome.  

Lee 
--

Lee David Jaffe

Surnames / Towns:  Jaffe / Suchowola, Poland ; Stein (Sztejnsapir) / Bialystok and Rajgrod, Poland ; Joroff (Jaroff, Zarov) / Chernigov, Ukraine ; Schwartz (Schwarzman?, Schwarzstein?) / ? ;  Koshkin / Snovsk, Ukraine ; Rappoport / ? ; Braun / Wizajny, Suwalki, Poland,  Ludwinowski / Wizajny, Suwalki, Poland

The JewishGen USA Research Division (USA-RD) is a group of volunteer genealogists exploring the lives of Jews in America from 1654 to the present. With goals to educate, and to identify, index, and share Jewish historical records that have genealogical value, please check out our new website at https://usa.jewishgen.org/home and signup to volunteer on a project at https://usa.jewishgen.org/about/volunteer.

 

Ellen Shindelman Kowitt
Director, USA Research Division
Erie, Colorado
ekowitt@... 

Hi

DNA can go back quite far. There are three types of DNA:

YDNA - males only carry this (father's father's father's etc...)
mtDNA - from mother, male and female can carry (mother's mother's mother's etc...)
Autosomal DNA - everything else - pieces of DNA you inherit randomly from your parents and ancestors. The closer you are, the more shared DNA you had, the further away the less you are.
Ashkenazi Jews are extremely endogamous so our number of Autosomal DNA is massive compared to others
On FTDNA, by looking at your Autosomal DNA (they call it Family Finder) you can clearly see if it is Ashkenazi by the people you are related to. If it is Sephardic, that will also be clear.
YDNA  and mtDNA will five you very specific readings on Ashkenazi or Sephardic. If you do the Big Y test on FTDNA, you will get extremely granular details of your Jewish DNA
You will be one of these:
https://jewishdna.net/index.html
Each is a founding Jewish paternal line.

--
Best Regards,
David Levine
San Francisco, CA, USA
davidelevine@...

The other day, a person posted about the Cowen report, written by a US immigration judge who traveled to Russia in 1906 to investigate various matters pertaining to the Jewish immigration from there. The National Archives has the images of each page of the report available for viewing at: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/602984

The chapter on the immigrant travel routes begin on image 76. The chapter talks about most people holding pre-paid tickets, which means a relative in the US paid for them. My impression reading through this and other documents is that the pre-paid ship tickets included the train trip from the Russian/German border to whichever port the traveler was heading to, and that they had special immigrant trains that made certain that the travelers got to the correct port on time. It seems that immigrants had to pay for their own train tickets for travel within Russia, to get to the border crossing.

I have found the ticket purchase for my grandfather (3 year old Peisach Libman) and his mother and 5 siblings, in the Rosembaum Immigrant bank books, bought in 1907 by my great grandfather, then living in Lancaster, PA. The purchase total was $181 (about $4900 today), and they were ticketed from Libau to Liverpool to Philadelphia. There is an address for their home in Datnova (Dotnuva, Lithuania), where the tickets were sent, or I suppose delivered by an agent. 




--
Michele Lock

Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock and Kalon/Kolon in Zagare/Joniskis/Gruzdziai, Lithuania
Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock in Plunge/Telsiai in Lithuania
Trisinsky/Trushinsky/Sturisky and Leybman in Dotnuva, Lithuania
Olitsky in Alytus, Suwalki, Poland/Lithuania
Gutman/Goodman in Czestochowa, Poland
Lavine/Lev/Lew in Trenton, New Jersey and Lida/Vilna gub., Belarus

--

Sheryl Stahl (Los Angeles)

Suwalki (RAKOVSKI, OKRAGLINSKI,) Wizajni (RAKOVSKI) Kalvarja
(FRIEDMAN, SUWALSKI),
Odessa (STESSEL) Pervomaysk (STESSEL)  Grzymalow (LANDAU) Kolomyya (STAHL,
SCHMERTZLER, KRAIMER) Chernivtsi (STAHL)