In answer to your question: "Has anybody ever attempted to obtain
records or information >from high schools that ancestors attended?",
the answer is *yes*....

The following quote is >from an essay I wrote regarding high school
yearbooks:

....Think about it. A snapshot in time that captures forever who
these people were at the most important time of their lives. "These
people." Your parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins
twice-removed. You can actually go back in time and visit with them.
Read about their hopes and dreams, their outlook on "their world"
and what they believed the future would hold for them. You can spend
some time with them when they were seventeen; where they will always
be seventeen. See them be silly and see them be serious. But see
them....

You would be surprised at what you can find out about a parent or
grandparent -- what clubs they belonged to, what their interests
were, what quote they chose to be remembered by. All of this in
addition to obtaining a photograph of them at age 17 or 18.

The Jewish Historical Society of Michigan began to collect high
school yearbooks in 1999. The collection also includes middle/
intermediate/junior high school books as well as 10th, 20th, 30th,
40th and 50th class reunion books. Our focus is mainly the schools
that Jewish students attended >from 1900 to the present. These would
include Hebrew Day Schools, Sunday Schools and Private Schools in
addition to the public schools.

We currently have over 600 books and are planning to create an online,
searchable database of all seniors. We then plan to scan the books
and link the students' names to the page they appear on.

I have two suggestions for everyone....

First -- start a yearbook program for the area you live in. These
books are priceless and irreplaceable. They are also invaluable in
doing genealogy and family history research.

Just like genealogy, every day that goes by, more and more of these
books disappear. Ask your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and
everyone else if they would donate their book. We will be placing a
bookplate in each recognizing the donor.

Second -- I would suggest that we all participate in a ***Yearbook
Exchange Program***. Every city has old / used bookstores that very
well may have copies of yearbooks, and not only >from that city. Many
people have moved across the country and their book collections are
sold or given away and wind up in these bookstores. If you receive or
find a book >from another city, please make every effort to obtain it
and donate it. The JHS of Michigan will gladly accept all metro
Detroit books. (We also have had a number of college and university
yearbooks and class pictures donated - poster sized with all graduates
pictures and names on it)

Also -- if you undertake this project, always accept all yearbooks,
even duplicates, triplicates or 10 copies. The reason is that
sometimes it takes more than 2 or 3 copies of one yearbook to get
one clean copy to scan, as many books have pages missing, pictures
cut out or autographs written across the pictures. Also, have
multiple copies will then allow you to "trade" with someone who may
have a book you don't.

Because of the outward migration of the Jewish population of Detroit
over the last 100 years, we have found that we need about 30 years
worth of books >from each high school...... sometimes even more. Our
600+ books so far (including duplicates) is only the beginning. We
estimate we need to find about 2,000. Our earliest is the 1904
Detroit Central High School yearbook and one of our newest is the
2001 issue >from the new Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit.

The community has been very supportive and it gets more people
interested in genealogy and family history. If anyone would like
more information, please e-mail me privately.

Marc D. Manson
Farmington Hills, MI
MAN'SKIJ>MANSKY>MANSON (Volkovysk; Slonim, Belarus); WAGNER
(Austria; Ft. Wayne, IN; Toledo, OH); MAC>MATZ (Skaryszew;Radom;
Poland); POMERANTZ (Brest-Litovsk - Belarus); TURUFF--TUREFF
(Russia; New York); BROCK (New York)

Alan Rems recent message about the excellent web site for Miedzyrzec
Podlaski ( http://mezritch.org.il ) raises a question about *which*
town we are talking about. The web site is all about Miedzyrec Podlaski
in Poland, but Alan's message also refers to an interest in a town in
Belarus. As we see with many Polish towns, the same name pops up in
different locales.

The Polish town of Miedzyrzec Podlaski is in Lublin district, and was
a vital center of Jewish life in the 19th century and beyond. There
is also a town in Belarus with the name of Miedzyrzec. Both are
commonly called in Yiddish: Mezritch. (Different spellings are also
known for Mezritch.)

There are two research projects on Miedzyrzec Podlaski at present.
One is the Polish State Archives project which features vital records

from 1869 to 1900. The searchable database is now online on the JRI-

Poland site. The second one is the Shtetl-COOP project that is
transliterating the vital records for the town for years 1826 to 1868.
This project is about half-finished and is being worked on by volunteers

from several countries. I am the town manager for both projects.

It's very easy to confuse these two towns. Perhaps Alan Rems can
clarify which town he and the Israeli Genner he mentions are interested
in.
Regards, Mila Begun

I am curious about the timing of surnames being required in Kishinev
(Chisinau). As I am looking through records of the 1800s, I find
that most people had an identifiable surname, but that a fair number
are only identified by an occupation.

For instance, Moshe Volyuvich Portnoy >from Kishinev

A portnoy is a tailor. So is this person known as Moshe, son of Vol,
the Tailor, or simply as Moshe Portnoy, son of Vol?

In some cases it is very clear. i.e., Itsko Abramovich of Kishinev

This would be Itsko, son of Abram. No surname.

Rebecca Gerber
Illinois, USA

Hi Genners,

In yesterday's digest, Sallyann Sack mentioned that the aftermath of
our genealogical meetings usually spawns new interest in genealogical
societies and study groups.

Has anyone who is a member of a genealogical study group share the
details of organization and operation of such a group?

Haviva Dolgin Langenauer
Palm Beach, Florida

In answer to your question: "Has anybody ever attempted to obtain
records or information >from high schools that ancestors attended?",
the answer is *yes*....

The following quote is >from an essay I wrote regarding high school
yearbooks:

....Think about it. A snapshot in time that captures forever who
these people were at the most important time of their lives. "These
people." Your parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins
twice-removed. You can actually go back in time and visit with them.
Read about their hopes and dreams, their outlook on "their world"
and what they believed the future would hold for them. You can spend
some time with them when they were seventeen; where they will always
be seventeen. See them be silly and see them be serious. But see
them....

You would be surprised at what you can find out about a parent or
grandparent -- what clubs they belonged to, what their interests
were, what quote they chose to be remembered by. All of this in
addition to obtaining a photograph of them at age 17 or 18.

The Jewish Historical Society of Michigan began to collect high
school yearbooks in 1999. The collection also includes middle/
intermediate/junior high school books as well as 10th, 20th, 30th,
40th and 50th class reunion books. Our focus is mainly the schools
that Jewish students attended >from 1900 to the present. These would
include Hebrew Day Schools, Sunday Schools and Private Schools in
addition to the public schools.

We currently have over 600 books and are planning to create an online,
searchable database of all seniors. We then plan to scan the books
and link the students' names to the page they appear on.

I have two suggestions for everyone....

First -- start a yearbook program for the area you live in. These
books are priceless and irreplaceable. They are also invaluable in
doing genealogy and family history research.

Just like genealogy, every day that goes by, more and more of these
books disappear. Ask your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and
everyone else if they would donate their book. We will be placing a
bookplate in each recognizing the donor.

Second -- I would suggest that we all participate in a ***Yearbook
Exchange Program***. Every city has old / used bookstores that very
well may have copies of yearbooks, and not only >from that city. Many
people have moved across the country and their book collections are
sold or given away and wind up in these bookstores. If you receive or
find a book >from another city, please make every effort to obtain it
and donate it. The JHS of Michigan will gladly accept all metro
Detroit books. (We also have had a number of college and university
yearbooks and class pictures donated - poster sized with all graduates
pictures and names on it)

Also -- if you undertake this project, always accept all yearbooks,
even duplicates, triplicates or 10 copies. The reason is that
sometimes it takes more than 2 or 3 copies of one yearbook to get
one clean copy to scan, as many books have pages missing, pictures
cut out or autographs written across the pictures. Also, have
multiple copies will then allow you to "trade" with someone who may
have a book you don't.

Because of the outward migration of the Jewish population of Detroit
over the last 100 years, we have found that we need about 30 years
worth of books >from each high school...... sometimes even more. Our
600+ books so far (including duplicates) is only the beginning. We
estimate we need to find about 2,000. Our earliest is the 1904
Detroit Central High School yearbook and one of our newest is the
2001 issue >from the new Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit.

The community has been very supportive and it gets more people
interested in genealogy and family history. If anyone would like
more information, please e-mail me privately.

Marc D. Manson
Farmington Hills, MI
MAN'SKIJ>MANSKY>MANSON (Volkovysk; Slonim, Belarus); WAGNER
(Austria; Ft. Wayne, IN; Toledo, OH); MAC>MATZ (Skaryszew;Radom;
Poland); POMERANTZ (Brest-Litovsk - Belarus); TURUFF--TUREFF
(Russia; New York); BROCK (New York)

Alan Rems recent message about the excellent web site for Miedzyrzec
Podlaski ( http://mezritch.org.il ) raises a question about *which*
town we are talking about. The web site is all about Miedzyrec Podlaski
in Poland, but Alan's message also refers to an interest in a town in
Belarus. As we see with many Polish towns, the same name pops up in
different locales.

The Polish town of Miedzyrzec Podlaski is in Lublin district, and was
a vital center of Jewish life in the 19th century and beyond. There
is also a town in Belarus with the name of Miedzyrzec. Both are
commonly called in Yiddish: Mezritch. (Different spellings are also
known for Mezritch.)

There are two research projects on Miedzyrzec Podlaski at present.
One is the Polish State Archives project which features vital records

from 1869 to 1900. The searchable database is now online on the JRI-

Poland site. The second one is the Shtetl-COOP project that is
transliterating the vital records for the town for years 1826 to 1868.
This project is about half-finished and is being worked on by volunteers

from several countries. I am the town manager for both projects.

It's very easy to confuse these two towns. Perhaps Alan Rems can
clarify which town he and the Israeli Genner he mentions are interested
in.
Regards, Mila Begun

I am curious about the timing of surnames being required in Kishinev
(Chisinau). As I am looking through records of the 1800s, I find
that most people had an identifiable surname, but that a fair number
are only identified by an occupation.

For instance, Moshe Volyuvich Portnoy >from Kishinev

A portnoy is a tailor. So is this person known as Moshe, son of Vol,
the Tailor, or simply as Moshe Portnoy, son of Vol?

In some cases it is very clear. i.e., Itsko Abramovich of Kishinev

This would be Itsko, son of Abram. No surname.

Rebecca Gerber
Illinois, USA

Hi Genners,

In yesterday's digest, Sallyann Sack mentioned that the aftermath of
our genealogical meetings usually spawns new interest in genealogical
societies and study groups.

Has anyone who is a member of a genealogical study group share the
details of organization and operation of such a group?

Haviva Dolgin Langenauer
Palm Beach, Florida

A reminder to all that, while messages may be sent by individuals to the
lists, there will be no messages sent out >from Jewishgen on Yom Kippur,
Monday, September 16 >from 6 am till 6 pm Central Daylight Time.

Rosanne Leeson
Co-Coordinator
FrenchSIG

In the Yad Vashem' records of Jewish Communities there is a small town name MALECZ in the Polesie region with about 400-500 Jews who lived there before the War.

See http://www.zchor.org/hitachdut/lostm.htm

shalom,

Ada Holtzman
www.zchor.org

JRI-Poland digest wrote:

A reminder to all that, while messages may be sent by individuals to the
lists, there will be no messages sent out >from Jewishgen on Yom Kippur,
Monday, September 16 >from 6 am till 6 pm Central Daylight Time.

Rosanne Leeson
Co-Coordinator
FrenchSIG

In the Yad Vashem' records of Jewish Communities there is a small town name MALECZ in the Polesie region with about 400-500 Jews who lived there before the War.

See http://www.zchor.org/hitachdut/lostm.htm

shalom,

Ada Holtzman
www.zchor.org

JRI-Poland digest wrote:

Dear Genners:

Does anyone know the Yiddish word for Austria? And can anyone
translate a few postcards written in Yiddish?

Thank you
and Shana Tova,
Katie Sobol
katie2727@attbi.com

MODERATOR NOTE: Please reply privately.

"living in their Staten Island residence for pregnant women"

You are probably on the right track but this does not mean she
lived on Staten Island before she was pregnant. She could have
lived anywhere in the New York/New Jersey area. And you are
correct, the original birth record is sealed.

Judy Salomon New Jersey

Jewish Records Indexing - Poland is looking for a volunteer to
take a lap-top to Poland. If you or someone you know is going
to Poland in the next month and can take a small lap-top computer
to Warsaw, please contact me at the address below.

Thank you

Hadassah Lipsius
Shtetl CO-OP Coordinator, Jewish Records Indexing - Poland
kesher@lipsiusgroup.com

My wife's, cousin's father (got that), Joseph Eisenbruch, just
wrote a book called Looking Back It's about his life in Poland
before, during, and after the war. He currently resides in Israel.
Many names are mentioned about friends that escaped with him and
those that helped him. It has been published in hard cover by
Naidat Press Ltd.

Dear Genners:

Does anyone know the Yiddish word for Austria? And can anyone
translate a few postcards written in Yiddish?

Thank you
and Shana Tova,
Katie Sobol
katie2727@attbi.com

MODERATOR NOTE: Please reply privately.

"living in their Staten Island residence for pregnant women"

You are probably on the right track but this does not mean she
lived on Staten Island before she was pregnant. She could have
lived anywhere in the New York/New Jersey area. And you are
correct, the original birth record is sealed.

Judy Salomon New Jersey

Jewish Records Indexing - Poland is looking for a volunteer to
take a lap-top to Poland. If you or someone you know is going
to Poland in the next month and can take a small lap-top computer
to Warsaw, please contact me at the address below.

Thank you

Hadassah Lipsius
Shtetl CO-OP Coordinator, Jewish Records Indexing - Poland
kesher@lipsiusgroup.com

My wife's, cousin's father (got that), Joseph Eisenbruch, just
wrote a book called Looking Back It's about his life in Poland
before, during, and after the war. He currently resides in Israel.
Many names are mentioned about friends that escaped with him and
those that helped him. It has been published in hard cover by
Naidat Press Ltd.