it's normal for people not to answer.  Sometimes I look for them on Facebook and send them a message.  I have gotten more responses that way than any other.  Only one person has responded to my message through DNA companies.  I wonder why they take the test if they aren't going to answer.  It's very frustrating but you can't do any more about it.

Linda Gordon Higgins
Spring, TX

Don't forget: The Jewish Genealogy SIG meeting in Tues Feb 9  10AM ET on Zoom RSVP

RSVP to genresearch13@... for a Zoom Link and more info about the group.
--
Arthur Sissman
Jewish Genealogy SIG of Naples/Collier Co FL
genresearch13@...
954-328-3559

My great-aunt Sarah COLLE Goldner traveled  from  Montreal to the United States in 1937 to visit her married daughter. She reported on the border-crossing document that she was born in 1886 in BOHUSS NEAMTA, Romania. I can't locate a town by that name in Romania. Can someone tell me what it is called today and where it is located in Romania?

Also, her border-crossing document to visit her daughter in the U.S. lists a Leon Hu under "Departure Contact Name" and  Jacob So under "Accompanied by Name." Those names are not our family names and are unfamiliar to me. It is curious that she listed someone unrelated to her (Leon Hu) as her departure contact rather than a family member. She was married with grown children and living in Montreal with her husband. It is probably unknowable, but maybe someone has an idea.  
Anne Lobel Armel
annearmel@...
LOBEL, RUDISH, HERSCOVITCH, COLLE, SCHECTER

I have been unable to find the ship that transported my great-grandparents and their several children who arrived in Montreal in 1900 from Romania. There is a possibility that they first went to Buenos Aires, Argentina  and from there made their way to Montreal.  Can someone please tell me the most likely seaports they would have used, or direct me somewhere to try and find that ship and manifest? Their names used in Montreal and on the Canadian census were:
Father: Jacob Joseph COLLE
Mother: Rebecca COLLE (nee Schecter)
Children: Eliza (Liza), Sarah (Lieb), Millie (Molly), Marie (Mary, May), Betse (Beatrice), Charles and  William
--
Anne Lobel Armel
annearmel@...
LOBEL, RUDISH, HERSCOVITCH, COLLE, SCHECTER

I have a few BARENDSE (notice the final E) in my tree that may be related, but no Clara. Spelling in the 18th century was fluid, so try some variations of the surname.

Henry Best,
London, UK.

I suspect that with the proliferation of phishing and other scams, many people are leery of strangers who claim to be "family."  It may be better to call or snail mail and it may help to mention right away that you are a genealogy enthusiast who simply wants to contact relatives found through your research.  Even then, there will be folks who are not interested or only marginally interested. I ran into one, a second cousin through the uncle for whom my father is named. She suggested meeting but never followed through, after her son contacted me. It happens.
--
Barbara Sloan
Conway, SC

Phooey!
I have FIRST cousins who  have absolutely no interest in genealogy and think that I'm the nut that fell from the tree!
I always get excited and respond to someone who tries to connect. Stay positive! Weird or not, we are still out there building the trees!
--

Maryellen Tobiasiewicz
m_tobiasiewicz@...
family from: Bielsko-Biala powiat Poland
Gorlice powiat Poland
Lviv Oblast Ukraine

I am looking for a service or person who, for a fee, can translate a 4-page letter written in Yiddish in 1919 by my great-grandfather Jacob Josef (Yaakov Yosef) COLLE.  This probably has no bearing on the issue at hand, but just in case, he was a Kohen who immigrated with wife Rebecca nee Schecter and several children to Montreal in 1900 from (probably) Romania but possibly Russia.  
Anne Lobel Armel
annearmel@...
LOBEL, RUDISH, HERSCOVITCH (also used HART), COLLE, SCHECTER

Family History Today:  Location, Location, Location - Historical Maps in Genealogy Research

Wednesday, March 17 at 4 PM Eastern Time
Presented by the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at the Center for Jewish History

 

Answering the question "where do my ancestors come from?" is key to understanding their history and traditions. However, identifying and locating the places where they lived, particularly in Eastern Europe, is often a tricky task. In this lecture, Ed Mitukiewicz, map consultant for the documentary film Raise the Roof, will demonstrate how you can use historical map websites and geographic information databases to overcome these challenges.

Ticket Info: Pay what you wish; register at https://programs.cjh.org/tickets/family-history-today-2021-03-17 to receive a link to the Zoom program.

 

 

This program is funded, in part, by a Humanities New York CARES Grant, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the federal CARES Act, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

--
Moriah Amit
Senior Genealogy Librarian, Center for Jewish History
New York, NY
mamit@...

Yes I would agree with you about reach people. But this person was the closest to my family and his other relatives knew about my interest,

--
Diane Jacobs, Somerset, New Jersey

Dear Joe and Namrita and Kenneth,

You've perfectly articulated my own "weirdness." Like you, I come from large families scattered around the world. My Ancestry "shared DNA" has bajillion distant relatives with trace amounts in common. Unfortunately, the four people with supposedly second and third cousin connection have not replied to my (twice) repeated requests for information. Ditto on this site and J-Roots and Facebook Messenger posts. However, I did make two major scores with people who responded. One gave access to his extensive research about my great-grandfather's family, but our personal communication went nowhere. Another connection was made with a tentative Facebook private message that was almost instantaneously acknowledged. Although this very distant cousin in St. Peterburg couldn't provide any information about his grandfather, he and I formed a bond with frequent email correspondence. I write in English and he responds in Russian -- sometimes relying on Google Translate to decipher my expressions.

Like Joe wrote, in spite of the maudlin Ancestry.com and 23andMe commercials, I don't think most people are interested in ancient family history. Certainly no one in my immediate family. Plus Soviet families carry a lot of trauma and secrets. But interestingly, the Russian-language J-Roots has A LOT of researchers looking for their families. It's also a goldmine of Jewish wedding, birth, and some death registries, where I can make my way through the gorgeous calligraphy with my third-grade Soviet education. One of the most fascinating and rewarding discoveries were Kiev city directories from the early 1900s. If reading the proverbial phone is your idea of excitement, you'll find a snapshot of a city in a superbly organized publication.

Be well,

Mikhailina Karina

 

 

I have often tried contacting relatives or potential relatives, and each case is different.

One reason could be language, and I have a story to tell concerning this.

Possibly, my most disappointing case was when, a few decades ago before the days of Google translate, someone tried contacting my through MyHeritage in German and although I responded in English saying that I did not understand his message he never replied to this. Eventually, I revisited this message (with Google translate), and it was from the son of the husband (will call this husband "great-uncle" although am not biologically related to him) of my great-aunt, through his first marriage. Actually, after my great-aunt passed away, I and also my parents z"l (who lived in England) became relatively close to this great-uncle and when I visited England, he would often treat my brother and I for a meal at Blooms (kosher restaurant in NW London). He had asked me to try and search out any relatives of his, but he wasn't specific.

So, it was approx. half a year after this great-uncle passed away that this message was received, but I only understood what it was about many years later when it was too late.

It is true that most people are not interested in their roots, and in general, they do not want to be bothered if it is not family they know. I did manage to find a third cousin who is happy to stay in contact with me socially but has a hard time with accepting we are cousins because all the evidence comes from the "paper trail", and he trusts this less than I do. Neither of our families on the mutual ancestry talked about their family.

--
David Ziants

Ma'aleh Adumim, Israel

I imagine rich people receive solicitations from would-be "friends" or "family" more often than the rest of us do, and famous ones have people to keep that sort of nonsense from reaching them. Anything you sent would probably have been caught in that net.

Robert Roth
Kingston NY

Joe, 

I usually find there is one "Genealogy Nerd" in every branch of the tree. You just have to luck into the correct person. I always approach it by outlining the direct connection if I now it. i.e. draw a line from me to this person exactly how we're related. To the muggles who aren't into genealogy, I imagine it comes off kind of "stalkerish". I do find that it is usually worth taking the chance as I have connected with some very interesting people along the way. The more it is personalized, the less you sound like the Nigerian Prince who has left you millions of dollars. 

I would do one email address at a time, maybe trying a second one if there is no response from the first. I've never gone the snail mail route. 

Scott P. Dann
spd@...

Lucy Baras survived the Nazis in Skalat, and wrote a memoir that is housed in the Archives Dept of Library of UWisconsin - Milwaukee. She called her story "Twentieth Century Cavemen." It's 300+ pages long, detailed and excellent. Her birth name was Lusia Rothstein. She was born in Skalat in 1911 and died in Wisconsin 2002.  Perhaps there is some way this work could be added to info in the new edition of the Skalat Yizkor book.
 
Baras, Lucy [WorldCat Identities]

Excerpts appear in Because of Eva: A Jewish Genealogical Journey. 

Susan J Gordon
BIALAZURKER - Zbaraz
LEMPERT, SCHONHAUT - Skalat
Also Lvov, Chernivitsi

Date:  Sunday, March 7, 2021

Time:  1:00-1:30 EST check in, chat, and schmooze.  
Official program starts promptly at 1:30 EST

Guest Speaker:  Joel Spector

Joel is a Past President of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Philadelphia, where he has also been chairperson of its Russian Special Interest Group. Joel has given presentations and workshops on the Russian language, both contemporary and pre-Revolutionary, and has provided translations of documents to individuals and groups. Currently Joel is a member of the Ukraine Research Group and serves as its Director of Metric Record Projects. Joel has been actively engaged in genealogy for over 30 years and has been conducting research in several historic Russian language encyclopedias. He has produced a unique English language Index to the Russian language Evreiskaya Entsiklopedia.

 

 

 Topic: “Finding Your Ancestors: How to Get Started and Where to Go.”  The presentation will focus on how to find information about your ancestors, both those you know and those you didn’t even know you had. We will explore what data is immediately available and review what information can be derived from the many types of resources - local, national, and international - and from on-line resources. Throughout, we will focus on the excitement in discovering information about your little-known ancestors and on the various types of information that make the search in Jewish genealogy fun