Check the Morton Allen Directory of Ships , a book at
many large public and unviersity libraries also at the
FHL Libraries and NARA. But you can go on Steve
Morse's One Step to the EIDB and he has a link to
the Morton Allen Directory which I have not as yet tried
and so don't know how it works.

Diane Jacobs
New York
Researching Singman,Schmikow, Schumkav ,>from Vilna , Lithuania
CHEMERINSKY/ CZEMERINSKY >from Motol, Bereza, etc.
LESNIE, ROSENBERG, STEINBERG, LEVY, NARZEMSKY
JACOBSON, SHALTAKOFF, ENGLANDER, GREENFIELD, GLAZER,
YOSSELOWITZ, JOSEPH, GOLASSHOFF.

I am having trouble with one of the manifests in the EIDB.
As a cross-check I want to ascertain whether the ship in
question actually arrived in New York >from Antwerp on the
date stated. I have looked around the web and have had
some trouble locating an online source of ship arrivals
in New York by date.

Does such exist?

MODERATOR NOTE: You can find the Steven Morse one-step tools
at: http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/EIDB/

If there is a kind JewishGenner who can give me some help in
telephoning the Duvernay Cemetery in Laval, Canada regarding
who provided for the burial (and possible upkeep of the grave
site) for a woman who is a descendant of my family.

Please contact me privately.

Happy New Year to all
Carol Skydell
Laguna Woods, CA

Dear Tom et al

Thomas Fisher wrote:

I have a question. My last name is Fisher. I have heard Fisher
is a Scottish, English, German, Czech and even Jewish name.
My father thinks we might have some Jewish in our background,
is Fisher a Jewish name I don't even know.

Fisher is indeed a name common to all of the languages >from the
Teutonic group (including here Scotland which along with England
had considerable input >from the Danes, and of course, Yiddish- no
early contact with the Danes as far as I know.) The spelling varies
a bit, but it's basically the same word with the same meaning
(someone who fishes).

Incidentally there was a Jewish German playwright associated with
Bertolt Brecht named Irwin Fischer who in what is generally assumed
to be a flash of wit changed his last name to Piscator. (same name,
sort of, in Latin).

Roberta Sheps
Colchester, England (born in Winnipeg, CAnada)

Searching:
COHEN, KLAIMON, GROSSMAN, SPIVAK, PORTIGAL: Talna/Kiev (Ukraine);
BELOVITSKY(I), BELOV/BELOFF/BELL: (Popishok/Popiskes), Lithuania/
Montreal; YAFFE: Wiliez, nr Disna, Vilna Gubernia/ Winnipeg/
Montreal/North Dakota; SHEPS, KRASNOW AND POTASHNIKOW: Odessa area

Re: the name Schaja and Schycha, do not forget the posibility
of the name "Shea." The similarity is often the basis for much
confusion. Shea is usually a derivative of Yehoshua (Joshua);
Shai can be short for "Ishayahu" (Isaiah).

Regards,

Howie Zakai
Staten Island, NY

Check the Morton Allen Directory of Ships , a book at
many large public and unviersity libraries also at the
FHL Libraries and NARA. But you can go on Steve
Morse's One Step to the EIDB and he has a link to
the Morton Allen Directory which I have not as yet tried
and so don't know how it works.

Diane Jacobs
New York
Researching Singman,Schmikow, Schumkav ,>from Vilna , Lithuania
CHEMERINSKY/ CZEMERINSKY >from Motol, Bereza, etc.
LESNIE, ROSENBERG, STEINBERG, LEVY, NARZEMSKY
JACOBSON, SHALTAKOFF, ENGLANDER, GREENFIELD, GLAZER,
YOSSELOWITZ, JOSEPH, GOLASSHOFF.

I am having trouble with one of the manifests in the EIDB.
As a cross-check I want to ascertain whether the ship in
question actually arrived in New York >from Antwerp on the
date stated. I have looked around the web and have had
some trouble locating an online source of ship arrivals
in New York by date.

Does such exist?

MODERATOR NOTE: You can find the Steven Morse one-step tools
at: http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/EIDB/

If there is a kind JewishGenner who can give me some help in
telephoning the Duvernay Cemetery in Laval, Canada regarding
who provided for the burial (and possible upkeep of the grave
site) for a woman who is a descendant of my family.

Please contact me privately.

Happy New Year to all
Carol Skydell
Laguna Woods, CA

Dear Tom et al

Thomas Fisher wrote:

I have a question. My last name is Fisher. I have heard Fisher
is a Scottish, English, German, Czech and even Jewish name.
My father thinks we might have some Jewish in our background,
is Fisher a Jewish name I don't even know.

Fisher is indeed a name common to all of the languages >from the
Teutonic group (including here Scotland which along with England
had considerable input >from the Danes, and of course, Yiddish- no
early contact with the Danes as far as I know.) The spelling varies
a bit, but it's basically the same word with the same meaning
(someone who fishes).

Incidentally there was a Jewish German playwright associated with
Bertolt Brecht named Irwin Fischer who in what is generally assumed
to be a flash of wit changed his last name to Piscator. (same name,
sort of, in Latin).

Roberta Sheps
Colchester, England (born in Winnipeg, CAnada)

Searching:
COHEN, KLAIMON, GROSSMAN, SPIVAK, PORTIGAL: Talna/Kiev (Ukraine);
BELOVITSKY(I), BELOV/BELOFF/BELL: (Popishok/Popiskes), Lithuania/
Montreal; YAFFE: Wiliez, nr Disna, Vilna Gubernia/ Winnipeg/
Montreal/North Dakota; SHEPS, KRASNOW AND POTASHNIKOW: Odessa area

Re: the name Schaja and Schycha, do not forget the posibility
of the name "Shea." The similarity is often the basis for much
confusion. Shea is usually a derivative of Yehoshua (Joshua);
Shai can be short for "Ishayahu" (Isaiah).

Regards,

Howie Zakai
Staten Island, NY

Greetings,

My great-aunt Clementine was supposedly orphaned somewhere
near Bielsko - Biala, Poland. The time would have been in
the 1880's.

It is my understanding that Sophia Truskowska and her cousin
Clothilde took in orphaned Jewish children and Russian soldiers,
as well as enemy soldiers during the insurrection. It was this
kindness that resulted on November 21, 1855, before the icon of
Our Lady of Czestochowa, the Felician Congregation was officially
established, and the Foundress Sophia took the name Angela.
(Mother Mary Angela was beatified on April 8, 1993 by His Holiness,
John Paul II). The location in what is now Poland does not
seem all that far >from where my ancestors are from.

It is my understanding that Mother Mary Angela not only cared for
orphans of all denominations, she also took in those in desperate
need, the insane, and the elderly of every denomination.

Would anyone know if this orphanage still exists in present day?
Would anyone know if records of orphans and military possibly
survived the wars and history?

You see, Aunt Clementine was also documented as having epilepsy
which in those days was misdiagnosed as insanity. It may be
possible this is where the family left her sometime between 1885
and 1892. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1892 and raised my
grandfather, Felix Michael (born CT 1893) for many years. With
as nutty as our research has been, and with gp being named Felix,
who knows if this isn't the convent where Clementine supposedly
stayed or was left at by the RING family of Bielsko Biala?

Please reply privately.

Sincerely,
Nancy Ring-Kendrick
Searching BLOCH's and RING's of Galicia;
Bielsko-Biala, Brystra, and Krakow.
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/k/e/n/Nancy-R-Kendrick/?
Welcome=1040750209
reply email = bogus@taring.org or
adamsny@f2s.com

Greetings,

My great-aunt Clementine was supposedly orphaned somewhere
near Bielsko - Biala, Poland. The time would have been in
the 1880's.

It is my understanding that Sophia Truskowska and her cousin
Clothilde took in orphaned Jewish children and Russian soldiers,
as well as enemy soldiers during the insurrection. It was this
kindness that resulted on November 21, 1855, before the icon of
Our Lady of Czestochowa, the Felician Congregation was officially
established, and the Foundress Sophia took the name Angela.
(Mother Mary Angela was beatified on April 8, 1993 by His Holiness,
John Paul II). The location in what is now Poland does not
seem all that far >from where my ancestors are from.

It is my understanding that Mother Mary Angela not only cared for
orphans of all denominations, she also took in those in desperate
need, the insane, and the elderly of every denomination.

Would anyone know if this orphanage still exists in present day?
Would anyone know if records of orphans and military possibly
survived the wars and history?

You see, Aunt Clementine was also documented as having epilepsy
which in those days was misdiagnosed as insanity. It may be
possible this is where the family left her sometime between 1885
and 1892. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1892 and raised my
grandfather, Felix Michael (born CT 1893) for many years. With
as nutty as our research has been, and with gp being named Felix,
who knows if this isn't the convent where Clementine supposedly
stayed or was left at by the RING family of Bielsko Biala?

Please reply privately.

Sincerely,
Nancy Ring-Kendrick
Searching BLOCH's and RING's of Galicia;
Bielsko-Biala, Brystra, and Krakow.
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/k/e/n/Nancy-R-Kendrick/?
Welcome=1040750209
reply email = bogus@taring.org or
adamsny@f2s.com

Dear all:

Viewmate is an extraordinary resource (*). It allows publishing
photos, documents, vital records and everything else one can
imagine. It's almost certain that somebody will decipher what
the publisher's eyes can't.

However my experience indicates that many publishers undermine
their effort to get answers to their questions. Allow me to offer
some tips on how to improve your chances to discover what you are
looking for.

1) *Phrase carefully* your questions. Sometimes they are very
confusing. "I would like to know what is written in the 2nd
column". >from left to right or vice versa? On which line? Instead
of such a vague question, why not mark the column in question with
a number or by circling it? "Do you recognize the person on this
photo?" Where and when was it taken? Can you determine the country
or place? In other words, give as many clues as you can and your
chances for an answer will increase.

2) Size the scan to allow the *best reading*. Try it yourself on
your computer and see if you can view the scan clearly. If the
original is bad, make a xerox copy and reinforce the writing with
a black pen, then scan. Even photographs can be improved by Xeroxing
them. Too small and too large scans are difficult to read mainly if
they contain old handwriting. Small scans mix up letters, large
scans can result faded.

3) Use the *correct resolution*. For viewing a picture or
handwriting on the screen 72 dots per inch are recommended (and
sufficient). Larger resolutions only serve to enlarge the picture,
extending their downloading time and, in some cases, turning the
scan illegible.

4) Scan in *black and white*. Usually it reads better then color
scans, mainly handwritings. Even old photographs show better in
grays then in their original sepia color.

5) *Improve scans* before publishing them. Most of the scanning
programs allow to improve contrast, luminosity and brightness.
Try these controls and find the best match by trial and error. This
is specially important when publishing tombstone inscriptions which
may look faded on the original picture. Augmenting contrast and
balancing luminosity may do the trick of turning a bad photo into
something legible.

6) Mention the *full URL path* to your scan.
http://data.jewishgen.org/viewmate/ALL/viewmateview.asp?key=1000
(where 1000 is the number of your picture) takes one directly to
your scan, whereas http://data.jewishgen.org/viewmate/toview.html
only shows Viewmate's entry page. And *don't forget* to mention the
Viewmate number of your picture!

7) Corollary of the above: *always* add "http://"; to the URL
address. Inside an email message such addressing scheme allows
(double)clicking on it and jumping directly to the pointed page.
Without that prefix one is forced to copy the address, switch to the
browser and paste it in the location box.

8) *Repeat your question* on the page containing your scan. People
read your message, then try to decipher your request jumping to the
pointed page. Meantime they already forgot your question.

9) Send emails *thanking* for all replies received, even those
which missed the answer. Courtesy pays off in future requests.

I hope you will find this useful.
Wishing to all a "git yur" :-)
Tom

(*) Show your appreciation for this extraordinary service by visiting
JewishGen-erosity http://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen-erosity/

Re:

"I would be very interested to hear >from anyone that can offer
any suggestions and/or has been successful in obtaining birth,
marriage and death records after 1900 >from a Civil Records
Office in Poland."

I have a stack of documents >from Poland's Archives and USC
including: Krakow, Lodz, Plock and Wloclawek. When I ask for
documents I ask for "what records do you have for this family",
and include all the information available to me. "If you don't
have this info. please forward to the office that may or suggest
where I may be able to find them. I include a International postal
exchange coupon in the amount of $1.75. The answer used to take
a couple of months, now about 3 weeks. Often you can correspond
trough e-mail. I find their researchers top and their fees the
cheapest.
Happy New Year
Lili Susser

Suwalki, in 1850-60, was not only a city but also a gubernia or
administrative district. It was more common, at that time, for
Jews to live in small towns-so he probably lived in a small town
in Suwalki gubernia rather than the city. Suwalki, the Kingdom
of Poland, and Lithuania all belonged to Russia. The only border
in the area was the Prussian border. Suwalki gubernia covered the
northeast of today's Poland and a little Lithuania, so it would
cover the area he was from.

Since they say he was born in Suwalki, it was not Prussia but
Russia. I heartily recommend checking for birth records in JRI-PP
because you don't know the exact town for sure (it may be the city
of Suwalki-or maybe not).

In addition to the LitvakSig, there is a Suwalki-Lomza Special
Interest Group which is not online but has a journal periodically.
They have a lot of additional records for the area, and you might
want to join that as well.

Sally Bruckheimer
Harrison, NY

"My question is this...for the year 1850-60, when this Julius Lewis
Myers was born, as a border town, do I look in the Polish Records
for Sulwalki or Lithuanian records, or if it was part of the Russian
Empire as a whole where do I then search?"

Dear Friends,

One of my grandmother's siblings was a sister Nechama BELOVITSKY

from Popishok, near Vilna, who married Joe (Yoshchik) GERMANSKY

and lived in Windsor Ontario. They both died a long time ago,
probably in Windsor. Their three children, Harry, Betty and
Lillian have also died. There are supposed to be further
generations but my mother (now my oldest source) doesn't know
anything about them, and I and another cousin are keen to try to
fill out that branch.

Does anyone recognise these names?

Roberta Sheps
Colchester, England (born in Winnipeg, Canada)

also searching
COHEN, KLAIMON, GROSSMAN, SPIVAK, and PORTIGAL Talna/Kiev (Ukraine);
BELOVITSKY(I), BELOV/BELOFF/BELL: (Popishok/Popiskes), Lithuania/
Montreal; YAFFE: Wiliez, nr Disna, Vilna Gubernia/ Winnipeg/ Montreal/
North Dakota; SHEPS, KRASNOW AND POTASHNIKOW: Odessa area

MODERATOR NOTE: Please reply privately.

Dear all:

Viewmate is an extraordinary resource (*). It allows publishing
photos, documents, vital records and everything else one can
imagine. It's almost certain that somebody will decipher what
the publisher's eyes can't.

However my experience indicates that many publishers undermine
their effort to get answers to their questions. Allow me to offer
some tips on how to improve your chances to discover what you are
looking for.

1) *Phrase carefully* your questions. Sometimes they are very
confusing. "I would like to know what is written in the 2nd
column". >from left to right or vice versa? On which line? Instead
of such a vague question, why not mark the column in question with
a number or by circling it? "Do you recognize the person on this
photo?" Where and when was it taken? Can you determine the country
or place? In other words, give as many clues as you can and your
chances for an answer will increase.

2) Size the scan to allow the *best reading*. Try it yourself on
your computer and see if you can view the scan clearly. If the
original is bad, make a xerox copy and reinforce the writing with
a black pen, then scan. Even photographs can be improved by Xeroxing
them. Too small and too large scans are difficult to read mainly if
they contain old handwriting. Small scans mix up letters, large
scans can result faded.

3) Use the *correct resolution*. For viewing a picture or
handwriting on the screen 72 dots per inch are recommended (and
sufficient). Larger resolutions only serve to enlarge the picture,
extending their downloading time and, in some cases, turning the
scan illegible.

4) Scan in *black and white*. Usually it reads better then color
scans, mainly handwritings. Even old photographs show better in
grays then in their original sepia color.

5) *Improve scans* before publishing them. Most of the scanning
programs allow to improve contrast, luminosity and brightness.
Try these controls and find the best match by trial and error. This
is specially important when publishing tombstone inscriptions which
may look faded on the original picture. Augmenting contrast and
balancing luminosity may do the trick of turning a bad photo into
something legible.

6) Mention the *full URL path* to your scan.
http://data.jewishgen.org/viewmate/ALL/viewmateview.asp?key=1000
(where 1000 is the number of your picture) takes one directly to
your scan, whereas http://data.jewishgen.org/viewmate/toview.html
only shows Viewmate's entry page. And *don't forget* to mention the
Viewmate number of your picture!

7) Corollary of the above: *always* add "http://"; to the URL
address. Inside an email message such addressing scheme allows
(double)clicking on it and jumping directly to the pointed page.
Without that prefix one is forced to copy the address, switch to the
browser and paste it in the location box.

8) *Repeat your question* on the page containing your scan. People
read your message, then try to decipher your request jumping to the
pointed page. Meantime they already forgot your question.

9) Send emails *thanking* for all replies received, even those
which missed the answer. Courtesy pays off in future requests.

I hope you will find this useful.
Wishing to all a "git yur" :-)
Tom

(*) Show your appreciation for this extraordinary service by visiting
JewishGen-erosity http://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen-erosity/

Re:

"I would be very interested to hear >from anyone that can offer
any suggestions and/or has been successful in obtaining birth,
marriage and death records after 1900 >from a Civil Records
Office in Poland."

I have a stack of documents >from Poland's Archives and USC
including: Krakow, Lodz, Plock and Wloclawek. When I ask for
documents I ask for "what records do you have for this family",
and include all the information available to me. "If you don't
have this info. please forward to the office that may or suggest
where I may be able to find them. I include a International postal
exchange coupon in the amount of $1.75. The answer used to take
a couple of months, now about 3 weeks. Often you can correspond
trough e-mail. I find their researchers top and their fees the
cheapest.
Happy New Year
Lili Susser

Suwalki, in 1850-60, was not only a city but also a gubernia or
administrative district. It was more common, at that time, for
Jews to live in small towns-so he probably lived in a small town
in Suwalki gubernia rather than the city. Suwalki, the Kingdom
of Poland, and Lithuania all belonged to Russia. The only border
in the area was the Prussian border. Suwalki gubernia covered the
northeast of today's Poland and a little Lithuania, so it would
cover the area he was from.

Since they say he was born in Suwalki, it was not Prussia but
Russia. I heartily recommend checking for birth records in JRI-PP
because you don't know the exact town for sure (it may be the city
of Suwalki-or maybe not).

In addition to the LitvakSig, there is a Suwalki-Lomza Special
Interest Group which is not online but has a journal periodically.
They have a lot of additional records for the area, and you might
want to join that as well.

Sally Bruckheimer
Harrison, NY

"My question is this...for the year 1850-60, when this Julius Lewis
Myers was born, as a border town, do I look in the Polish Records
for Sulwalki or Lithuanian records, or if it was part of the Russian
Empire as a whole where do I then search?"

Dear Friends,

One of my grandmother's siblings was a sister Nechama BELOVITSKY

from Popishok, near Vilna, who married Joe (Yoshchik) GERMANSKY

and lived in Windsor Ontario. They both died a long time ago,
probably in Windsor. Their three children, Harry, Betty and
Lillian have also died. There are supposed to be further
generations but my mother (now my oldest source) doesn't know
anything about them, and I and another cousin are keen to try to
fill out that branch.

Does anyone recognise these names?

Roberta Sheps
Colchester, England (born in Winnipeg, Canada)

also searching
COHEN, KLAIMON, GROSSMAN, SPIVAK, and PORTIGAL Talna/Kiev (Ukraine);
BELOVITSKY(I), BELOV/BELOFF/BELL: (Popishok/Popiskes), Lithuania/
Montreal; YAFFE: Wiliez, nr Disna, Vilna Gubernia/ Winnipeg/ Montreal/
North Dakota; SHEPS, KRASNOW AND POTASHNIKOW: Odessa area

MODERATOR NOTE: Please reply privately.

Dear All,

We have had discussions in the past regarding the origin of Prussian Jews

from Spain. The matter constantly occupied my attention, since I had

received verbal confirmation >from within the family to this fact for a long
time. And now, not only did I find good material published in Germany in
the 1920s, but I also asked a specialist, a doctor of history who deals with
the Sephardi Jews, to look into the matter . I am happy to say that the new
book contains an article which covers that very subject, as well as material

from old genealogical research books.

Up till now, I have received over 50 orders for the book about families and
communities of the province of Posen, Prussia. The price for the book, $15,

involves no financial profit and barely covers cost.

Best regards, Udi Cain, Jerusalem.

MODERATOR NOTE: I have approved this message because Mr. Cain is a very
frequent contributor to our Forum and has offered to donate copies of
his books to JewishGen for fundraising purposes (which we can not accept).

But this is a special exception to a GerSig and JewishGen rule:

New publications get a O N E T I M E mention in JewishGen
discussion groups. The reason for limiting the use of our Forum in this
way should be obvious to all.

Please contact Udi privately for more information about the book. MOD1

Dear All,

We have had discussions in the past regarding the origin of Prussian Jews

from Spain. The matter constantly occupied my attention, since I had

received verbal confirmation >from within the family to this fact for a long
time. And now, not only did I find good material published in Germany in
the 1920s, but I also asked a specialist, a doctor of history who deals with
the Sephardi Jews, to look into the matter . I am happy to say that the new
book contains an article which covers that very subject, as well as material

from old genealogical research books.

Up till now, I have received over 50 orders for the book about families and
communities of the province of Posen, Prussia. The price for the book, $15,

involves no financial profit and barely covers cost.

Best regards, Udi Cain, Jerusalem.

MODERATOR NOTE: I have approved this message because Mr. Cain is a very
frequent contributor to our Forum and has offered to donate copies of
his books to JewishGen for fundraising purposes (which we can not accept).

But this is a special exception to a GerSig and JewishGen rule:

New publications get a O N E T I M E mention in JewishGen
discussion groups. The reason for limiting the use of our Forum in this
way should be obvious to all.

Please contact Udi privately for more information about the book. MOD1