Dear Genners and Siggers,
I continue my search after the KOENIGSBUCH brothers

from Hamburg who were on the Kindertransport.

I just found out >from the British Army Personnel in
Glasgow that Rolf Simon Koenigsbuch(b. 1929)served in
the Royal Army Pay Corps and was discharged in 1953.
He served in Malaya.
I wonder whether any of the British Genners served in
the RAPC in those years and remembers him.
I wrote already to AJEX and they couldn't help.I wrote
to the RAPC Association and am waiting for an answer.
I have Rolf's testimony which was filed in 1955 at the
Wiener Library.
I assume that he lives in the USA but all my searches
there did not produce him,so far. Any idea??

Jacob Rosen Jerusalem <abuwasta@yahoo.com>

Dear Genners and Siggers,
I continue my search after the KOENIGSBUCH brothers

from Hamburg who were on the Kindertransport.

I just found out >from the British Army Personnel in
Glasgow that Rolf Simon Koenigsbuch(b. 1929)served in
the Royal Army Pay Corps and was discharged in 1953.
He served in Malaya.
I wonder whether any of the British Genners served in
the RAPC in those years and remembers him.
I wrote already to AJEX and they couldn't help.I wrote
to the RAPC Association and am waiting for an answer.
I have Rolf's testimony which was filed in 1955 at the
Wiener Library.
I assume that he lives in the USA but all my searches
there did not produce him,so far. Any idea??

Jacob Rosen Jerusalem <abuwasta@yahoo.com>

I was interested to hear that there will be a conference next week entitled
at the University of Marburg:

Anlass des 100. Jahrestags der Grundung des Gesamtarchivs der deutschen
Juden

[Colloquium on the Occasion of the Centenary of the Foundation of the
Joint Archive of German Jews, 1905-1939.

See:
http://www.archivschule.de/content/397.html?PHPSESSID=d0a9f9ea9beb8c3082b2d2e85129085e

http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/termine/id=4172

Will any GERSIG member be attending? If so I would be interested to hear

from them.

Nick Landau London, UK <N.Landau@btinternet.com>

I was interested to hear that there will be a conference next week entitled
at the University of Marburg:

Anlass des 100. Jahrestags der Grundung des Gesamtarchivs der deutschen
Juden

[Colloquium on the Occasion of the Centenary of the Foundation of the
Joint Archive of German Jews, 1905-1939.

See:
http://www.archivschule.de/content/397.html?PHPSESSID=d0a9f9ea9beb8c3082b2d2e85129085e

http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/termine/id=4172

Will any GERSIG member be attending? If so I would be interested to hear

from them.

Nick Landau London, UK <N.Landau@btinternet.com>

I would appreciate any help in translating a Yiddish signature posted on
ViewMate.

The postings is located at:
http://data.jewishgen.org/viewmate/ALL/viewmateview.asp?key=6826

Please reply privately to michael@ourfamilyroots.net

Michael



E-mail replies to: michael@ourfamilyroots.net
Home Page: http://www.ourfamilyroots.net
View Family List at:
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=9224
Family Treemaker Homepage:
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/g/o/l/Michael--Goldstein/
Researching descendants of:
ORTENBERG, STUPAK & PEKELIS of Ruzhin, Soloviyevka, Brusilov in Kiev
Gubernia, Ukraine and Suceava, Romania. ESTERSON, GILDENGERSH, NIKULINETZKY
& LINETZKY of Kobryn, Brest and Grodno (now Belarus),
GOLDSTEIN of Bessarabia & Toronto. MOSHKEVITCH & MANUSOFF of Nikapol &
Yekaterinoslav Ukraine

Known descendants are now in Canada, USA, Israel, Mexico, Argentina, Ukraine
Known Kin include above names plus in part: Berger, Kofsky, Olin, Wasserman,
Perrin, Levy, Nick, Schwarzbard, Bard, Brainin.

I would appreciate any help in translating a Yiddish signature posted on
ViewMate.

The postings is located at:
http://data.jewishgen.org/viewmate/ALL/viewmateview.asp?key=6826

Please reply privately to michael@ourfamilyroots.net

Michael



E-mail replies to: michael@ourfamilyroots.net
Home Page: http://www.ourfamilyroots.net
View Family List at:
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=9224
Family Treemaker Homepage:
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/g/o/l/Michael--Goldstein/
Researching descendants of:
ORTENBERG, STUPAK & PEKELIS of Ruzhin, Soloviyevka, Brusilov in Kiev
Gubernia, Ukraine and Suceava, Romania. ESTERSON, GILDENGERSH, NIKULINETZKY
& LINETZKY of Kobryn, Brest and Grodno (now Belarus),
GOLDSTEIN of Bessarabia & Toronto. MOSHKEVITCH & MANUSOFF of Nikapol &
Yekaterinoslav Ukraine

Known descendants are now in Canada, USA, Israel, Mexico, Argentina, Ukraine
Known Kin include above names plus in part: Berger, Kofsky, Olin, Wasserman,
Perrin, Levy, Nick, Schwarzbard, Bard, Brainin.

I would appreciate any help in translating a Yiddish signature posted on
ViewMate.

The postings are located at:
http://data.jewishgen.org/viewmate/ALL/viewmateview.asp?key=6824
http://data.jewishgen.org/viewmate/ALL/viewmateview.asp?key=6825


Please reply privately to michael@ourfamilyroots.net

________
E-mail replies to: michael@ourfamilyroots.net
Home Page: http://www.ourfamilyroots.net
View Family List at:
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=9224
Family Treemaker Homepage:
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/g/o/l/Michael--Goldstein/
Researching descendants of:
ORTENBERG, STUPAK & PEKELIS of Ruzhin, Soloviyevka, Brusilov in Kiev
Gubernia, Ukraine and Suceava, Romania. ESTERSON, GILDENGERSH, NIKULINETZKY
& LINETZKY of Kobryn, Brest and Grodno (now Belarus),
GOLDSTEIN of Bessarabia & Toronto. MOSHKEVITCH & MANUSOFF of Nikapol &
Yekaterinoslav Ukraine

Known descendants are now in Canada, USA, Israel, Mexico, Argentina, Ukraine
Known Kin include above names plus in part: Berger, Kofsky, Olin, Wasserman,
Perrin, Levy, Nick, Schwarzbard, Bard, Brainin.

I would appreciate any help in translating a Yiddish signature posted on
ViewMate.

The postings are located at:
http://data.jewishgen.org/viewmate/ALL/viewmateview.asp?key=6824
http://data.jewishgen.org/viewmate/ALL/viewmateview.asp?key=6825


Please reply privately to michael@ourfamilyroots.net

________
E-mail replies to: michael@ourfamilyroots.net
Home Page: http://www.ourfamilyroots.net
View Family List at:
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=9224
Family Treemaker Homepage:
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/g/o/l/Michael--Goldstein/
Researching descendants of:
ORTENBERG, STUPAK & PEKELIS of Ruzhin, Soloviyevka, Brusilov in Kiev
Gubernia, Ukraine and Suceava, Romania. ESTERSON, GILDENGERSH, NIKULINETZKY
& LINETZKY of Kobryn, Brest and Grodno (now Belarus),
GOLDSTEIN of Bessarabia & Toronto. MOSHKEVITCH & MANUSOFF of Nikapol &
Yekaterinoslav Ukraine

Known descendants are now in Canada, USA, Israel, Mexico, Argentina, Ukraine
Known Kin include above names plus in part: Berger, Kofsky, Olin, Wasserman,
Perrin, Levy, Nick, Schwarzbard, Bard, Brainin.

Gyorgy Bischitz please contact me..Gayle >from California
I have been trying for weeks to reach you.

Gyorgy Bischitz please contact me..Gayle >from California
I have been trying for weeks to reach you.

Hi All,

I'm researching the following three surnames of people who married into my
DANIEL family >from Pultusk, Poland.

Noach DANIEL and his wife Genia KRAVIETZ had:

1- Malka DANIEL (born 1865) who married Yoseph SYRJEK in Pultusk in 1885.

2- Elka DANIEL (born 1868) who married David Hersh ZJELIKAJT (Zelikait) in
Pultusk in 1888.

Pesach DANIEL (Noach's son) and his wife Rivka KON had:

3- Golda Leah DANIEL (born 1873) married Abraham Yoseph VYSOKOGURA
(Wysokogura) in Pultusk in 1895.

If anyone knows anything about these families I would really love to hear

from you.

Thank you very much.

Michael Trapunsky
Queens, New York
trapunsky@earthlink.net

Hi all,

I'm searching for the GITEL family >from Vilna and Israel.

Freidel KOWARSKI (1878-1940) was the eldest of the 13 to 18 children of
Gedalia KOWARSKI (1853-1910) and his wife Fruma (nee BLINDER - 1862-1918)
of Svencionys and Vilna, Lithuania.

Freidel married Eliyahu GITEL (date unknown) and they had at least two
children Rivka and Eliyahu.

Eliyahu moved to Israel shortly before or after the Holocaust, and was a
doctor on a Kibbutz there. He married a woman named Miriam and they had a
son named Yoseph. I think that at some point Yoseph got married, moved to
Africa (temporarily), and had or adopted a daughter there.

If anyone knows anything about this family I would really appreciate
hearing back >from you.

Thanks very much,

Michael Trapunsky
Queens, New York, USA
trapunsky@earthlink.net

Hi All,

I'm researching the following three surnames of people who married into my
DANIEL family >from Pultusk, Poland.

Noach DANIEL and his wife Genia KRAVIETZ had:

1- Malka DANIEL (born 1865) who married Yoseph SYRJEK in Pultusk in 1885.

2- Elka DANIEL (born 1868) who married David Hersh ZJELIKAJT (Zelikait) in
Pultusk in 1888.

Pesach DANIEL (Noach's son) and his wife Rivka KON had:

3- Golda Leah DANIEL (born 1873) married Abraham Yoseph VYSOKOGURA
(Wysokogura) in Pultusk in 1895.

If anyone knows anything about these families I would really love to hear

from you.

Thank you very much.

Michael Trapunsky
Queens, New York
trapunsky@earthlink.net

Hi all,

I'm searching for the GITEL family >from Vilna and Israel.

Freidel KOWARSKI (1878-1940) was the eldest of the 13 to 18 children of
Gedalia KOWARSKI (1853-1910) and his wife Fruma (nee BLINDER - 1862-1918)
of Svencionys and Vilna, Lithuania.

Freidel married Eliyahu GITEL (date unknown) and they had at least two
children Rivka and Eliyahu.

Eliyahu moved to Israel shortly before or after the Holocaust, and was a
doctor on a Kibbutz there. He married a woman named Miriam and they had a
son named Yoseph. I think that at some point Yoseph got married, moved to
Africa (temporarily), and had or adopted a daughter there.

If anyone knows anything about this family I would really appreciate
hearing back >from you.

Thanks very much,

Michael Trapunsky
Queens, New York, USA
trapunsky@earthlink.net

A Jewishgen success story

In December 2002 I had a phone call >from an Israeli lady I had never met.
She said she was calling on behalf of my relative >from the USA. I said it
must be a mistake, as I had no relatives in the US. She insisted, knowing my
father’s and my grandmother’s names. To my surprise it turned out that my
grandmother had an older half brother who had immigrated to the USA in the
19th cen. I had never heard about him. Neither had any of my cousins.

Within a day I was corresponding with Anita Springer, who was researching
the family tree of her husband Jim Lerner. Anita had a treasure: a recorded
interview with Moshe Lutzky , my Argentinian uncle, made fifty years ago. He
talked about the roots of my grandmother’s LERNER family in Podolia,
Ukraine, starting with SHEVACH and DVORA LERNER, born around 1800. Well,
actually he started 700 years earlier, mentioning a written family tree that
started with Rashi and ended with Dvora. He talked about his uncles who had
immigrated to Argentina, and mentioned his Israeli brother, Alexander
Dothan, my father. Anita, trying to locate my father or his descendents,
asked on Ukraine sig for help and an Israeli lady volunteered. After some
creative searching she managed to locate me.

I joined Anita’s research. On my visit to the USA with my daughter two years
ago Anita and Jim invited us to stay with them and we spent several very
joyful and interesting days together. Thanks to Anita I was exposed to
genealogy and to my family’s history and am forever thankful to her.
Moreover, I got to meet some wonderful people.

Through jgff I found the name of Ora Chassin, an Israeli lady looking for
LERNER >from one of “our” Podolian towns. She turned out to be >from a
family branch I knew as a child but had lost contact with. Ora gave me
information about her branch of the family. She had another treasure: a
photocopy of the Rashi family tree, clearer than the one I found among my
father’s papers.

Infected with the genealogy “bug”, I started searching on JGFF for any
name of relatives I could remember. I vaguely remembered the name Lissin,
thinking it may have been one of my paternal great grandmothers’ maiden
name. There was one person on JGFF looking for Lissin – Myriam Diner from
Argentina. I wrote her, mentioning the few I remembered of my father’s many
Argentinian relatives. Myriam wrote back. About thirty years ago she had
interviewed an aunt of hers about the LISSIN family branches , and could
now tell me that we are third cousins.

Myriam solved a mystery for me. I knew that my father’s parents had been
cousins, but did not know exactly how. Myriam knew that my grandparents’
mothers had been sisters. Lissin had been the maiden name of both my great
grandmothers, not one. My grandfather’s mother died when he was a child. I
wonder what family constellation led to his marriage with his maternal
cousin

Myriam gave me the information she had about the family, with lots of vivid
stories. She also got in contact with other relatives in Buenos Aires for
me. One was Myriam Edith Machline, who had gathered a lot of data about my
great grandfather’s LUTZKY family, some of it >from Argentinian archives.
Myriam Edith had surprises for me. She told me my great grandfather’s name,
ALEXANDER LUTZKY, and had records about his immigration to Argentina at
an old age. The situation in his native Ukraine must have been very
difficult, for him to leave at the age of 68 with his second wife and their
children.

Old letters my cousin gave me combined with the data I collected shed
light about a drama in my father’s immediate family. Most of my
grandparents’ brothers immigrated to Argentina around 1900. The family was
close knit. There was a strong pull to go to Argentina. But my grandfather
was a Zionist. He wanted to go to Eretz Israel. I assume this is why he
stayed behind with his family in Ukraine. Until the situation there became
unbearable in 1921, and they had to leave. My grandfather still did not want
to give his dream up. But he was afraid he would not be able to support his
family in Eretz Israel. Finally, after several months of living as
refugees and not knowing what to decide, they went to Argentina. Three years
later my grandparents and three of their four children traveled all the way
back across the Atlantic, and went to Eretz Israel.

Thanks to Myriam and Myriam Edith I was able to get in touch with several
second cousins >from the Lutzky and Colman Lerner families. One contact led
to another so that I have been corresponding and meeting with some of my
Argentinian relatives, forming new friendships, sharing memories and
collecting wealth of information about various branches of our family.
Unfortunately, we have not yet located in Argentina the descendents of
Boris, Imanuel [Manuel?] and Salomon Lerner, my grandmother’s brothers,
mentioned on that taped interview that started the whole thing. Lerner is
such a common name.

Encouraged by the success in researching my father’s family, I turned to
researching my mother’s family >from Lithuania. I interviewed my aunt and my
relative Esther Efrat Smilg. Esther told me that when the Jews of Keidan
were expelled >from Lithuania in ww1 her father got a ride to Russia with his
cousin, Sara Mizroch, and her family. I put many names on JGFF, Mizroch
among them. A few months later I received a message >from Sally Mizroch from
Oregon. This time it was me who could tell her we are related, being
descendents of two wifes of a mr. LEVIN >from Keidan.

Esther also knew that one of our Levin relatives, Joseph Levin, had moved to
Paris, was a professor of meteorology there in the 1920s and wrote a book
about rain quantities. A helpful Litvak sig member was able to find the
name of the book for us . Sally Mizroch actually got the book, published in
1923! We are still looking for the descendents of Joseph Levine [French
spelling] and other Levin branches.

One day I saw on Jewishgen Litvak sig a message >from Henry Edelman >from New
Zealand. He was looking for information about his father’s family. The more
I read his message, the more I realized the names he mentioned were
familiar – they had all appeared in my aunt’s stories about our family. I
wrote Henry, and it was clear we were relatives, but could not yet tell how.

Through Henry in New Zealand I met with his relatives in Israel. Benny and
Lucille Edelman and I had copies of the same photograph taken in Lithuania
70 years ago – but we still did not know what the exact family relationship
was.

Several more months passed. I got a phone call concerning my search on jgff
for SROELOV >from Lithuania. Eitan Israely was on the phone, saying he
had a letter his grandfather had received >from a Sroelov relative. It turned
out to have been >from my grandfather. Putting together the information we
had, we were able to trace our roots to AHARON and ETTA RIVKA SROELOV,
born in 1810 and 1822 . We know about Sroelovs/Israelys who immigrated to
the US, but have not found them yet.

Eitan Israely brought >from his visit to the Vilnius archive a record about
the marriage of my great grandparents. This made it possible to tell how
Henry and Benny Edelman and I are related – we are descendents of WOLF and
LEAH EDELMAN >from Keidan.

At the beginning of 2005 I received a message concerning my jgff search for
the Berrie family >from Florida. All I knew was that they were somehow
related to my mother. Leslie Berrie wrote they were her grandparents, who
had moved >from the Bronx to Florida at an old age. Putting together the
information Leslie had and what I found we could determine that Leslie and
her family are descendents of Wolf and Leah Edelman too. We know now that
two of our great great uncles, Louis and Isidore Meir Edelman , also went

from Keidan to New York, but have not been able to trace any of their

descendents.

On All Lithuania Database I found a lot of data about my maternal
grandmother’s family, who grew cucumbers in Keidan, starting with FEITEL
and FEIGE SMILG born in the 18th century. Unfortunately, we have not yet
been able to discover any living Smilg relative we did not know before.

I and my relatives who take part in the genealogical search still have a
long way to go. There are still some family branches we have not been able
to follow into the 20th century or past 1920. There are some relatives I
know about and have not been able to locate. There are others I have talked
to but have not been able to establish how we are related. So the puzzle is
far >from complete. Beside my mother’s two young uncles, whom I have always
known, I don’t know of any relative who survived the Holocaust in Europe.

But there is so much I have gained. As most of my mother’s family was
murdered in Lithuania in the Holocaust, it has been very meaningful to find
quite a bit of family on her side too. It is now difficult to believe how
little I had known about my family’s history and cultural diversity before
that surprising phonecall less than three years ago. I have since met with
newly discovered relatives living in Israel, Spain, USA and Argentina and
talked on the phone or corresponded with many others. Most of them are
interesting people. They have interesting stories about their families’
coping with immigration, difficulties and successes. It was fun
discovering some common memories, or trying to understand why there weren’t
any. Never interested in history as it was taught at school, I have become
very interested in Eastern Europian political and cultural history and in
Jewish immigration. My Spanish has improved a lot.

There is also a new dimention added to my relationships with my cousins and
my only living aunt, who follow my discoveries with interest, contributing
names, memories and documents. My young daughter had recently “complained”
that it has been a while since I found new relatives.

A lot of this was made possible by some people putting names on JewishGen
Family Finder and other people looking for them. The JewishGen Livak Sig
and Ukraine Sig and the All Lithuanian Database have also been very helpful.
Much data is >from other sources of course, but that is beyond the scope of
this article.

Tamar Dothan
Jerusalem, Israel

September, 2005
* I’ve only mentioned the names of a few relatives. Many others whose names
are not mentioned have been very meaningful for me.

MODERATOR'S NOTE: You will find it helpful if you put *only surnames* in UPPER CASE
(capital) letters. This is a universal practice followed in genealogy. You've had
an exciting genealogical experience through JewishGen. Mazeltov!! You should
consider contibuting something to the Ukraine SIG by going through -
htp://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen-erosity/

A Jewishgen success story

In December 2002 I had a phone call >from an Israeli lady I had never met.
She said she was calling on behalf of my relative >from the USA. I said it
must be a mistake, as I had no relatives in the US. She insisted, knowing my
father’s and my grandmother’s names. To my surprise it turned out that my
grandmother had an older half brother who had immigrated to the USA in the
19th cen. I had never heard about him. Neither had any of my cousins.

Within a day I was corresponding with Anita Springer, who was researching
the family tree of her husband Jim Lerner. Anita had a treasure: a recorded
interview with Moshe Lutzky , my Argentinian uncle, made fifty years ago. He
talked about the roots of my grandmother’s LERNER family in Podolia,
Ukraine, starting with SHEVACH and DVORA LERNER, born around 1800. Well,
actually he started 700 years earlier, mentioning a written family tree that
started with Rashi and ended with Dvora. He talked about his uncles who had
immigrated to Argentina, and mentioned his Israeli brother, Alexander
Dothan, my father. Anita, trying to locate my father or his descendents,
asked on Ukraine sig for help and an Israeli lady volunteered. After some
creative searching she managed to locate me.

I joined Anita’s research. On my visit to the USA with my daughter two years
ago Anita and Jim invited us to stay with them and we spent several very
joyful and interesting days together. Thanks to Anita I was exposed to
genealogy and to my family’s history and am forever thankful to her.
Moreover, I got to meet some wonderful people.

Through jgff I found the name of Ora Chassin, an Israeli lady looking for
LERNER >from one of “our” Podolian towns. She turned out to be >from a
family branch I knew as a child but had lost contact with. Ora gave me
information about her branch of the family. She had another treasure: a
photocopy of the Rashi family tree, clearer than the one I found among my
father’s papers.

Infected with the genealogy “bug”, I started searching on JGFF for any
name of relatives I could remember. I vaguely remembered the name Lissin,
thinking it may have been one of my paternal great grandmothers’ maiden
name. There was one person on JGFF looking for Lissin – Myriam Diner from
Argentina. I wrote her, mentioning the few I remembered of my father’s many
Argentinian relatives. Myriam wrote back. About thirty years ago she had
interviewed an aunt of hers about the LISSIN family branches , and could
now tell me that we are third cousins.

Myriam solved a mystery for me. I knew that my father’s parents had been
cousins, but did not know exactly how. Myriam knew that my grandparents’
mothers had been sisters. Lissin had been the maiden name of both my great
grandmothers, not one. My grandfather’s mother died when he was a child. I
wonder what family constellation led to his marriage with his maternal
cousin

Myriam gave me the information she had about the family, with lots of vivid
stories. She also got in contact with other relatives in Buenos Aires for
me. One was Myriam Edith Machline, who had gathered a lot of data about my
great grandfather’s LUTZKY family, some of it >from Argentinian archives.
Myriam Edith had surprises for me. She told me my great grandfather’s name,
ALEXANDER LUTZKY, and had records about his immigration to Argentina at
an old age. The situation in his native Ukraine must have been very
difficult, for him to leave at the age of 68 with his second wife and their
children.

Old letters my cousin gave me combined with the data I collected shed
light about a drama in my father’s immediate family. Most of my
grandparents’ brothers immigrated to Argentina around 1900. The family was
close knit. There was a strong pull to go to Argentina. But my grandfather
was a Zionist. He wanted to go to Eretz Israel. I assume this is why he
stayed behind with his family in Ukraine. Until the situation there became
unbearable in 1921, and they had to leave. My grandfather still did not want
to give his dream up. But he was afraid he would not be able to support his
family in Eretz Israel. Finally, after several months of living as
refugees and not knowing what to decide, they went to Argentina. Three years
later my grandparents and three of their four children traveled all the way
back across the Atlantic, and went to Eretz Israel.

Thanks to Myriam and Myriam Edith I was able to get in touch with several
second cousins >from the Lutzky and Colman Lerner families. One contact led
to another so that I have been corresponding and meeting with some of my
Argentinian relatives, forming new friendships, sharing memories and
collecting wealth of information about various branches of our family.
Unfortunately, we have not yet located in Argentina the descendents of
Boris, Imanuel [Manuel?] and Salomon Lerner, my grandmother’s brothers,
mentioned on that taped interview that started the whole thing. Lerner is
such a common name.

Encouraged by the success in researching my father’s family, I turned to
researching my mother’s family >from Lithuania. I interviewed my aunt and my
relative Esther Efrat Smilg. Esther told me that when the Jews of Keidan
were expelled >from Lithuania in ww1 her father got a ride to Russia with his
cousin, Sara Mizroch, and her family. I put many names on JGFF, Mizroch
among them. A few months later I received a message >from Sally Mizroch from
Oregon. This time it was me who could tell her we are related, being
descendents of two wifes of a mr. LEVIN >from Keidan.

Esther also knew that one of our Levin relatives, Joseph Levin, had moved to
Paris, was a professor of meteorology there in the 1920s and wrote a book
about rain quantities. A helpful Litvak sig member was able to find the
name of the book for us . Sally Mizroch actually got the book, published in
1923! We are still looking for the descendents of Joseph Levine [French
spelling] and other Levin branches.

One day I saw on Jewishgen Litvak sig a message >from Henry Edelman >from New
Zealand. He was looking for information about his father’s family. The more
I read his message, the more I realized the names he mentioned were
familiar – they had all appeared in my aunt’s stories about our family. I
wrote Henry, and it was clear we were relatives, but could not yet tell how.

Through Henry in New Zealand I met with his relatives in Israel. Benny and
Lucille Edelman and I had copies of the same photograph taken in Lithuania
70 years ago – but we still did not know what the exact family relationship
was.

Several more months passed. I got a phone call concerning my search on jgff
for SROELOV >from Lithuania. Eitan Israely was on the phone, saying he
had a letter his grandfather had received >from a Sroelov relative. It turned
out to have been >from my grandfather. Putting together the information we
had, we were able to trace our roots to AHARON and ETTA RIVKA SROELOV,
born in 1810 and 1822 . We know about Sroelovs/Israelys who immigrated to
the US, but have not found them yet.

Eitan Israely brought >from his visit to the Vilnius archive a record about
the marriage of my great grandparents. This made it possible to tell how
Henry and Benny Edelman and I are related – we are descendents of WOLF and
LEAH EDELMAN >from Keidan.

At the beginning of 2005 I received a message concerning my jgff search for
the Berrie family >from Florida. All I knew was that they were somehow
related to my mother. Leslie Berrie wrote they were her grandparents, who
had moved >from the Bronx to Florida at an old age. Putting together the
information Leslie had and what I found we could determine that Leslie and
her family are descendents of Wolf and Leah Edelman too. We know now that
two of our great great uncles, Louis and Isidore Meir Edelman , also went

from Keidan to New York, but have not been able to trace any of their

descendents.

On All Lithuania Database I found a lot of data about my maternal
grandmother’s family, who grew cucumbers in Keidan, starting with FEITEL
and FEIGE SMILG born in the 18th century. Unfortunately, we have not yet
been able to discover any living Smilg relative we did not know before.

I and my relatives who take part in the genealogical search still have a
long way to go. There are still some family branches we have not been able
to follow into the 20th century or past 1920. There are some relatives I
know about and have not been able to locate. There are others I have talked
to but have not been able to establish how we are related. So the puzzle is
far >from complete. Beside my mother’s two young uncles, whom I have always
known, I don’t know of any relative who survived the Holocaust in Europe.

But there is so much I have gained. As most of my mother’s family was
murdered in Lithuania in the Holocaust, it has been very meaningful to find
quite a bit of family on her side too. It is now difficult to believe how
little I had known about my family’s history and cultural diversity before
that surprising phonecall less than three years ago. I have since met with
newly discovered relatives living in Israel, Spain, USA and Argentina and
talked on the phone or corresponded with many others. Most of them are
interesting people. They have interesting stories about their families’
coping with immigration, difficulties and successes. It was fun
discovering some common memories, or trying to understand why there weren’t
any. Never interested in history as it was taught at school, I have become
very interested in Eastern Europian political and cultural history and in
Jewish immigration. My Spanish has improved a lot.

There is also a new dimention added to my relationships with my cousins and
my only living aunt, who follow my discoveries with interest, contributing
names, memories and documents. My young daughter had recently “complained”
that it has been a while since I found new relatives.

A lot of this was made possible by some people putting names on JewishGen
Family Finder and other people looking for them. The JewishGen Livak Sig
and Ukraine Sig and the All Lithuanian Database have also been very helpful.
Much data is >from other sources of course, but that is beyond the scope of
this article.

Tamar Dothan
Jerusalem, Israel

September, 2005
* I’ve only mentioned the names of a few relatives. Many others whose names
are not mentioned have been very meaningful for me.

MODERATOR'S NOTE: You will find it helpful if you put *only surnames* in UPPER CASE
(capital) letters. This is a universal practice followed in genealogy. You've had
an exciting genealogical experience through JewishGen. Mazeltov!! You should
consider contibuting something to the Ukraine SIG by going through -
htp://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen-erosity/

Dear Larry,

While I cannot answer the statistics part of your question (though I
see that once again Nick Landau has ably supplied that information) I
can report that a distant cousin, Aaron Prince aged 25, who died in
1902, had this description on his death certificate:

"Oxalic acid poison. Suicide during temporary insanity."

A genealogy colleague of mine, upon reading it surmised that because
Aaron was a boot finisher, perhaps he had to use oxalic acid in a
part of the leather process, and that he might have been chemically
affected by it, which was actually responsible for his death.

Sincerely,


--
Jeremy G Frankel
ex Edgware, London, England
Berkeley, California, USA

EBIN: Russia -> New York, USA
FRANKEL: Poland -> London, England
GOLD (RATH): Praszka, Poland -> London, England
KOENIGSBERG: Vilkaviskis, Lithuania -> London, England -> NYC, NY, USA
LEVY (later LEADER): Kalisz, Poland -> London, England
PRINCZ/PRINCE: Krakow, Poland -> London, England -> NYC, NY, USA

Dear Larry,

While I cannot answer the statistics part of your question (though I
see that once again Nick Landau has ably supplied that information) I
can report that a distant cousin, Aaron Prince aged 25, who died in
1902, had this description on his death certificate:

"Oxalic acid poison. Suicide during temporary insanity."

A genealogy colleague of mine, upon reading it surmised that because
Aaron was a boot finisher, perhaps he had to use oxalic acid in a
part of the leather process, and that he might have been chemically
affected by it, which was actually responsible for his death.

Sincerely,


--
Jeremy G Frankel
ex Edgware, London, England
Berkeley, California, USA

EBIN: Russia -> New York, USA
FRANKEL: Poland -> London, England
GOLD (RATH): Praszka, Poland -> London, England
KOENIGSBERG: Vilkaviskis, Lithuania -> London, England -> NYC, NY, USA
LEVY (later LEADER): Kalisz, Poland -> London, England
PRINCZ/PRINCE: Krakow, Poland -> London, England -> NYC, NY, USA

On 2005.09.05, Leslie Reich wrote

The MaHRSHaL adds the following. "And I, the small one, know that
my grandfather (z'kayni), R' Menachem Tzion, whose father was called
Meir, and whose father-in-law was called Uri, had a son and the same
argument arose."

I had always seen that the MaHaRSHaL's (R. Shlomo LURIA) paternal
grandfather was R. Avraham LURIA and his maternal grandfather was
R. Yitzchak KLAUBER. Do you know the exact relationship? Did the
MaHaRSHaL mean by "z'kayni" great-grandfather, making Menachem
Tzion the father-in-law of R. Avraham LURIA or R. Yitzchak KLAUBER
or R. Yitzchak KLAUBER's father? Or perhaps even his wife's
grandfather?

Larry Tauber
New York

On 2005.09.05, Leslie Reich wrote

The MaHRSHaL adds the following. "And I, the small one, know that
my grandfather (z'kayni), R' Menachem Tzion, whose father was called
Meir, and whose father-in-law was called Uri, had a son and the same
argument arose."

I had always seen that the MaHaRSHaL's (R. Shlomo LURIA) paternal
grandfather was R. Avraham LURIA and his maternal grandfather was
R. Yitzchak KLAUBER. Do you know the exact relationship? Did the
MaHaRSHaL mean by "z'kayni" great-grandfather, making Menachem
Tzion the father-in-law of R. Avraham LURIA or R. Yitzchak KLAUBER
or R. Yitzchak KLAUBER's father? Or perhaps even his wife's
grandfather?

Larry Tauber
New York