My Hungarian great-grandmother Katalin was known as Kati for short.  No idea what her Hebrew name was.
Tom Beer
Melbourne, Australia

Julius could have been Yehuda or Yudel or

--
Diane Jacobs, Somerset, New Jersey

I am searching for relatives of Louis Stengle.  He was the 3rd husband of my paternal GM, Fannie.   The 1930 census lists them living at 900 N Damen Av Chicago.  They lived with his children from his first marriage to Annie Gluck who pre-deceased him.  The last child listed is Ernest Stengle who was my dad Ernest Kaufer whose name was never formally changed.  Never learned what happened to this marriage.  Fannie went on to marry a 4th husband, David Maiman.  Thank you.

Stuart Kaufer
family name searches
Kaufer, Stein, Steinlauff, Friedmann, Lebovitz

Hi JewishGeners,

Ready for some new tips, strategies or resources to help break through to the next level with your family research?

No matter what level researcher you are, there are times we can all benefit from talking with others about our biggest brick walls. It’s not uncommon to have that ONE question you just can’t resolve.

Do any of these sound like you?

·         * You’ve searched on JewishGen, Ancestry and FamilySearch, etc., over and over and over again, but STILL can’t find your great-grandmother in the old country.

·         * You’ve found yourself, more often than you care to admit, researching naturalization papers for your grand-uncle, only to realize you ALREADY searched those same records last week. AGAIN!

·         * You just got started, but wonder how to navigate the wealth of resources that are out there. It all feels SO overwhelming!

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Margie Geiser
mgeiser@...

JewishGen Virtual Conversation

I’m looking for information about my great great grandfather, Julian/Julius Zeitlin. He had a wife named Chaie Lachevsky, a son named Max, and a daughter named Bertha. His wife and children came to America in 1895, per the Hamburg passenger lists.  I cannot find many records for Julian online and I’ve hit a dead end on my family tree research. Any ideas? I keep wondering if there’s a Russian/German equivalent for Julian/Julius that I’m not aware of. I want to know his parents’ names and keep going further back into my family lineage.  Any suggestions or help you have would be most appreciated. 
--
Thanks,
Amanda Zeitlin Baker

YOAV ARAN

Shalom friends, 

My family has an oral history of descent from the Vilna Gaon. In this connection, I came across an index to the book about his descendants, and found my relatives' names. 
They are: 

GOLDBERG...
Goldie - page 83 
Khana  page 460  OR
Khana Hannah 323, 334
Pesakh - page 457 

I have bolded the names that only appear once in the index. These names all appear in my family. 

I would be immensely grateful if someone could please send me a picture of the pages from the book that describe my family's relation to the Gaon. If there is a family tree that traces back their lineage to him--that would be greatly appreciated. 

I cannot thank you enough. 

Best wishes, 

Yoav Aran
London

Hello, everyone!
According to family history, my SINGER ancestors originated in East Prussia and migrated to Lithuania ca. 1838. As the Memelland district of East Prussia (now Klaipeda, Lithuania) was directly across the border from Lithuania, my thought is that they moved from Memelland, specifically. This hypothesis was reinforced when I found a record of My gg-grandfather Shimon/Shimel Singer living in Kretinga (Crottingen in German; it's 20 km from Palanga) ca. 1860--Kretinga/Crottingen is a district that spans the Memmeland and Lithuanian borders (it seemed to be, at the time, a town in Lithuania and more of a woodland and/or rural area in Memelland). I've been trying to find German/East Prussian records for my Singer forebears from 19th-century Memelland for decades, to no avail. Any insights and/or guidance would be appreciated enormously. My gg-grandfather Shimon/Shimel and his brother, Girsh/Hirsh, were born in the 1820s, presumably in Memelland; I believe their father's name was Azrael. In Lithuania, the Singers lived in Pusalotas, Naujamiestis Panevezys, and Luoke. 
With many thanks for your attention and consideration,
Matt Singer

Marian,

Thank you for your very helpful reply.

Based on his year of naturalization (1945), your suggestion is to obtain his file by requesting his “USCIS Certificate File (C-file), available also from USCIS Genealogy Program.”

What reference number should I use in the request?
I have copies of his Petition, Declaration, CA , naturalization certificate along with all the corresponding numbers.

I also have a copy of the naturalization index card which has nothing in the “Alien Registration No. blank” but does have an A.R.# typed in below.

Do you know if there is typically additional information in the C file besides the main forms?

Arrival in 1912, naturalization 1945

Annotation on manifest for CA is 1939.

Certificate of Arrival – actually a Certificate of Registry (stamped on his CA)– Form N-225 – 18  Sep 1942

Declaration – 25 Oct 1942

Naturalization certificate issued – 20 Nov 1945

Thank you
Bobbi Kraftchick Hoyt

The Jewish Genealogy Society of Southern Nevada (JGSSN) invites you to a Zoom meeting at 1:00 p.m. (Pacific Daylight Time) on Sunday, May 16: "The What and When of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Records" with Marian Smith.

 

To request a Zoom link, please complete this short form: Zoom Link Request.

 

Members of JGSSN can attend for free.  Non-members can either pay $5.00 on the Donate page. Or you can pay $20 for a subscription to the 2021 series of outstanding speakers (see below).  More detail can be found on our Meetings page.  To become a member and sign up for the 2021 series, go to the Membership page.

 

Session Description:

 

Marian Smith will present an overview of three historical eras (1820-Present) of US immigration and naturalization records illustrated with documents of Jewish immigrants.  Using a timeline tool (included in the handout), she will demonstrate how plotting an immigrant’s life events can identify what records may exist for that particular immigrant, and where to find them.  A question & answer session follows the presentation.

 

About Marian Smith:

 

Marian Smith retired in 2018 after thirty years as an Historian for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), later US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). She now speaks to groups on US immigration and nationality records and leads the I&N Records Fortnightly study group.

JGSSN 2021 Lecture Series:

 

Become a member for $20 and attend any or all of the upcoming lectures - https://www.jgssn.org/membership.html:

 

Ben Kempner

Vice President, JGSSN

Good for you, Brad; it takes some courage to raise this important issue.  This is an investigation that is long overdue. The temptation is great, but all of us should do our best to resist replicating or creating hagiography, and instead try to search out and produce the most accurate account of our ancestors and their stories that we can, even if the picture the stories present may not always be a pretty one.  The truth (or maybe I should say, truths) may not be stranger than fiction, but it is more human and I think more interesting than blameless lives of virtue and heroic tales. 

My mother's family were post-slavery immigrants to the South, but as they ascended to the middle class, they became participants, as did their friends and extended family in the racist landscape around them, primarily through their use of household help.  This involvement also has a complicated legacy that lives on to this day. 

Have you thought of (or perhaps are already doing so)  also approaching African American genealogical organizations and historical societies and online discussion groups to come at the investigation in the opposite direction--that is, to see if some of their members or subscribers have encountered DNA matches with descendants of Jewish slaveholders?  It's also question might be posed fruitfully to Henry Louis Gates Jr., of the Finding Your Roots fame, since he hosts descendants of slaves quite often on his program, and certainly has included guests with Jewish ancestry.

I do hope that you'll get many helpful responses to this post and hope you'll keep the JewishGen discussion list apprised of your progress.

Good luck!     

Erika Gottfried
Teaneck, New Jersey

Moishe,

If Avrum / Adolf / Abraham SWIMMER was naturalized than Esther would have been automatically naturalized under his papers.

Have you found nat papers for Avrum SWIMMER?

Esther could have chosen to take out her own nat papers, but it seems unlikely if her husband had already naturalized.

Pre-1906 nats give very little detail.

Good luck in your search,

Sherri Bobish

I too have been searching for SZLAMOWICZ family in Paris. I have photos but no names. May I post the photos here? David: do you have photos?
--
Ruth Chernia
Toronto, Canada
searching for
TSCHERNIA of Copenhagen, Denmark, & Genichesk, Kherson Oblast, Ukraine
SHLAMOWITZ/SZLAMOWICZ/BIRENCWEIG of London, England; Lodz & Jezow, Poland
SEIDLER/ZAJDLER/LANDAU of Lodz & Sulejow, Poland
ROSENFELD of Raków, Kielce, Poland
SHKOLNIK/TICK[ER] of Ladyzhyn & Bershad, Vinnytsia, Ukraine

Added his PA Death Certificate to the Find a Grave page.  Click on "Photos" to view because it's not on the main page.

Charles Zar
Rockledge, Pennsylvania

I thought I'd sent this message earlier. 
"

Ilse Ikenberg moved 24 Apr 1922 as student to Paderborn, worked as saleslady there,

 and returned to Altenbeken 5 Sep 1924. She moved  31 Dec 1936 to Solingen, then to jobs in

various towns, returned 30 Apr 1939 to Altenbeken  and was deported 10 Dec 1941 via

Bielefeld to Riga, survived, met Codek Charmacz in Bergen-Belsen and married Codek/Charles

Charmacz/Charmatz, born 4 Jun 1910; in Vilna, Lithuania.  They emigrated with daughter Minna-Sara to the

U.S. arriving 16 Oct 1949 in New York;  they lived in New Haven, CT later in Brooklyn, NY.

He died in Brooklyn 1 Jul 1984; Elsa/Else Charmatz died 1 Apr 1984 in Brooklyn.

Best wishes, Bob Weinberg weinberg@...

Ellen,  I have taken the Ancestry DNA test (Jack Jacobson or jackorbon) and 23andme (Jack Jacobson).   I am also on gedmatch (A855125).

I don't have Itte or Itta Charmatz on my tree but I am sure there are people missing.   Let me know if you find a dna match or if we can cooperate to find more Ancestors.    
--
Jack Jacobson
Milwaukee, WI
jack.s.jacobson@...

American family mostly from the Boston, MA area