You may call it a nickname, I woud call it another, may be wrong, pronounciation
In Hebrew the sister of Moses and Aharon is MiR'JaM (from the root "mar" - bitter, or ram) with the accent on "a".
The Cristian world knows other Mirjam under the nickname Mariya (the virgine, mother of Jesus)
In Russian the female names preferred to be finished on vowel and it turns to be Merjama, Mirjama.
Pronounced differently...
In Israel there is popular name Miri, Mira. These are nicknames.
May be we should discuss first the word's "nickname" meaning.
ps. What is Ann? n-n for the Hebrew Hana? Translation? or different pronounciation?
Josef ASH, Israel

Lots of Jews from Eastern Europe left from Libau, Antwerp, Rotterdam. I assume that they had train tickets for Antwerp and Rotterdam, or took boats. Hamburg was about half the emigrants, and Bremen was big, but any port that could get people further west was fine. Mostly people got tickets from emigration agents, who sold tickets for certain boats for different prices and tickets for the train.

Western Europeans left from Le Havre and other ports in the west - there was no point in going east to Hamburg to go west, but people in the middle had choices. 

Checking the NYC (or other US) passenger list will tell you where the ship came from, then you have to figure out how your people got to that (or those) cities.

Sally Bruckheimer
Princeton, NJ

I have several questions dealing with how ancient Jewish genealogies worked. Due to the soc.culture.jewish.moderated Google Group being inactive for years (where such questions were originally directed), and since there also aren’t really any other active Jewish specific related forums on the web, Support@JewishGen gave me permission to ask my questions here on the main forum. Any information, especially with cited sources, would be very helpful for my personal study.

1) How did ancient Jews (prior to the first century) view pregnancy? The ins-and-outs of genetics weren’t known at that point in time, so did they view it as the man’s seed alone being planted in the woman, meaning that the mother was not a bloodline contributor for the child but was just the carrier for the male’s blood offspring? Is this why genealogies were always traced through the male’s line?

2) It’s understandable that not every single descendant of every person is listed in scriptural genealogies since there’s just not space for it, but did ancient Jews ever condense lineages of a continuous line (intentionally leaving out individuals when tracing from one person to one of their ancestors) for convenience, an individual ancestor being dishonored, or for any other reason? For example, 1 Chronicles 6:4-8 lists the following lineage: Eleazar > Phinehas > Abishua > Bukki > Uzzi > Zerahia > Meriaoth > Amariah > Ahitub > Zadok > Ahimaaz > Azariah > Johanan > Azariah. To trace from Azariah all the way back to his distant ancestor Eleazar, would it have ever been acceptable to simply write “Azariah son of Ahitub son of Bukki son of Eleazar,” or something similar? If not, and if a scribe did ever want to easily reference one person being the descendant of a distant ancestor, what would have been the appropriate way to do that?

3) How would genealogies work for an adopted child in ancient times? Would they have full legitimacy in being an heir of their adoptive parents and therefore be listed in genealogies just like any of the parents’ other children, would the adopted child still be listed under their original parents, or might the child be excluded from the written record after being adopted due to them not being a legitimate heir in the family?

 

Thanks in advance!

-David

--

=========================================
Glenda Rubin
San Francisco Bay Area
Researching: STRYZEWSKI, STRAUSS, JANOFSKY, JANOFF, OBODOV, WERNICK, GREENBERG, KROCHAK. Shtetls: Lipovets, Ilintsy, Pliskov, Starokonstantinov, Krasilov

Thanks  Avivah. The following may corroborate the point about the missing manifest. I include the details only to underscore how difficult it may be to ferret out family information once the older generation has gone.

 I finally went into the Hamburg passenger index through Familysearch, and looked for an 1879 departure to NY for a 5 year old boy born in 1874, and came up with the following for the Rinschek family departing on the Argo via Liverpool. https://tinyurl.com/y2zxangb

The demographic for Leib (Louis - born 1874, age 5 on departure) and Jakob (Joe - born 1868, age 8 at departure, close, not exact) work OK, as does the demo for Samuel (Simon - born 1845, age 34 on departure), but Jette is not a name that means anything and more important, the birth date (1849-1850) doesn't exactly correspond to our records. However, Miriam's gravestone says she was 80 at her death in 1927, which places her d/o/b at 1847, which isn't that far off, and as someone noted, most Jewish emigrants graduated from an entirely different calendar system, so its not surprising if this is inaccurate.

(Jette is Dutch or Nordic - hah! - but there is a Yiddish variant, Yutte, still not close to Miriam. Perhaps the shipping clerk  didn't get her name, and just assigned one arbitrarily.)

Unfortunately, there is no NYC manifest I could find for the Argo, or in fact for any arrival from Liverpool in 1879.  However, once the Rinschek family arrived in June of 1879, the name disappears. I can't find it in the 1892 state census or the city directory, or in any US census, which suggests the possibility that they simply abandoned the name once they arrived. Did they decide for some indecipherable reason to adopt a new name, and does the name suggest a point of geographic contact? And why abandon Samuel for Simon?

Unfortunately the town from which they emigrated - Schluzewa, Polen or perhaps Sluzewo -  is a long way away from Rzeszow and Przeclaw, where Miriam apparently lived. So, is it likely that Simon could have met Miriam at that distance, and if so, why her completely different given name at Hamburg?

I'm guessing this is a coincidence (unfortunately).

Alan Reische
Manchester NH

Here is an excerpt of an article I wrote on the subject:

Preserving family history research

Many of us, as we age, think about how all the work we have put into researching and documenting our families will have value for future generations.  One easy solution is to pass on the desktop computer software and family trees to the next generation.  You can pass on your passwords for the online genealogy web sites.  That’s fine if you have a next generation that not only cares, but is willing to put in the time and energy to understand what you’re passing on.  My kids are overwhelmed with the responsibility of parenting their kids and earning a living, especially in this time of COVID.  It’s not going to happen.  My brother’s kids will be in the same situation.  Will my grandchildren be interested?  Who knows?  So, I’m faced with no comfort that anyone will take over. 

I’m also faced with the concern that the technology currently supporting my family tree will become obsolete while no one is paying attention to it.  We are all faced with this.  I felt some urgency to resolve this issue while I could.

A major focus of my research documents the impact of the Holocaust on my family.  My family tree includes documentation of over 1,500 family Holocaust victims who are shown in the context of their families. 

The tree includes almost 500 photos of Holocaust victims and images of over 60 Theresienstadt death reports. 

I had to find a way to preserve these memories.  I considered my options:

1.     Put the contents of my tree onto a website that will keep it available and guide it through changes in technology over the generations.  A couple come to mind:

o   Beit Hatfutsot, The Museum of the Jewish People in Jerusalem has the ability to accept a gedcom file of a tree, load it onto their system and make it available online, keeping private any information on living people.  They will even permit you to send periodic updates.  I will probably end up using this option. https://dbs.bh.org.il/

o   JewishGen offers the Family Tree of the Jewish People which essentially is the same idea as Beit Hatfutsot.  I would expect someday they would merge.  I don’t know if JewishGen can take updates to submitted trees. https://www.jewishgen.org/gedcom/

o   Geni.com has the goal of its users combining to build a single world family tree, not just for Jewish families.  Thus, your tree could get combined with that of others. https://www.geni.com/

2.       Contribute PDF reports documenting my family to a museum relevant to my family.  Here again, some come to mind:

o   The Leo Baeck Institute in New York and London is devoted to the history of German-speaking Jews. Since all of my documented ancestry is German this would be a good choice.

o   The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.  Since much of my research has been on the impact of the Holocaust on my family, this would also be a good fit.

o   Yad Vashem in Jerusalem for the same reason.

o   The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, DC.

I’m sure there are other options, but I was satisfied with these.

I developed a report format that I believed would do the job, so option 2 was the route I would take. Now, which museum?  I wanted an institution that has the financial support and political stability to maintain its collection for many generations.

Fortunately, I have a cousin who has worked at Yad Vashem.  I put the problem to her.  Her paraphrased response:  “Of course, I have to say Yad Vashem, but if I were you I would select the Washington museum. You’re an American and it’s much closer to you than Yad Vashem. It also receives significant funding from the United States Government. Thus it is economically stable and not in the middle of perpetual threat from other countries.” 

Right now, the US government provides about 50% of the museum’s funding; the remainder primarily is from contributions.  I had my answer.  USHMM became my choice.

Digital reports of all my ancestral lines totaling thousands of pages were recently accepted into USHMM’s permanent collection.  They will not be available online, but will be available to researchers in the museum.  I am satisfied that documentation of my family history is likely to survive many generations.

But, I have not given up on family members continuing the research.  I wanted this research to be in their hands as well.  Over my years of research and networking, I have collected email addresses of many family members.  I have a mailing list for each ancestral line that has between 17 and 80 email addresses per family line.  For each ancestral line, I sent out an email to each person with a link to that family’s Family Reference report. 

I received no reply from a majority of my cousins.  Not everyone is interested in their family history.  However, I was pleased that these documents led come cousins to send me corrections and additions.  They also sent pictures.  I was especially pleased that some sent their family trees and emails of others in the family that I had not met.

The Family Reference Report

Each of these reports has the same format, adjusted as necessary to portray any unique characteristics.  Below as an example is the table of contents for my Heinemann Family ancestral line.

• ·       The family introduction gives the size of the family, a summary of its losses in the Holocaust and acknowledges others whose research had been important sources for me.

• ·       Notable family members are just that.  This family’s notables include a Hollywood script writer, a novelist, a leader in England’s undercover Special Operations Executive in France, a scientist/artist, the victim of an 1875 multiple slaying and a discoverer of documents and art in post-war Germany (not a Monuments Man).

• ·       The Holocaust sections are self-evident from their titles: Victims, victim photos and documents, those whose fate in the Holocaust has not been determined.

• ·       The Family Album is just that

• ·       Family Locations is a Location Index for all events recorded for family members

• ·       The Niedenstein section describes the family’s home town with a narrative on the town’s Jewish community and photos.

• ·       The family reports are an outline register and a full family register including all notes, articles and obituaries for individuals.

• ·       The last chapter "A Brief History of the German Country Jews" was written by a UCLA history professor (also a cousin) as an Introduction to a book recently published in Germany on some small town Jewish communities.  Since some family branches have long been in the states, today’s relatives have heard little or no information about where they came from.  This article provides them with an understanding of Germany their ancestors lived in.

These reports were prepared with out of the box features of Family Tree Maker desktop genealogy software.  However, setting my tree up to take advantage of these features was challenging to figure out.  It was worth the work; I’m very pleased with the final product.

Dennis Aron

According to Cyndi's List, Duro Tree is the only genealogy software that allows users to enter information in both Latin and Hebrew characters.  You can find out more at:

 https://www.dorotree.com/ .   

I have never used it and know nothing more about it.

- Miriam Baker

The name Maryam is at least to me a nickname for Miriam . Is that always the case or does it stand as a Jewish name in own right

Hillel

London stonecutters also indicate their names on side and occasionally back of stone.

Adele Lester

Aranka usually turned into Goldie in English (since that is literally what it means), which I would not consider a name change. Turning it into Gladys (which may be from an old Welsh name that's commonly associated with Claudia) may be a sign of the same line of thinking that leads to the modern American Jewish custom of honoring deceased ancestors with names that share a first initial. Or (or also), Goldie and Gladys share G-L-D in that order, so perhaps someone who didn't (yet) speak English chose the wrong "equivalent", and then it stuck?

In any case, I don't think there was any sort of extra documentation for this kind of change. You could (and as far as I know, still can) choose a totally new name at naturalization; you just had to provide the name you arrived under at the start of the process. In that sense, the naturalization _is_ the documentation of the name change.

Julia Szent-Györgyi
./\ /\
.>*.*<

Since my message yesterday folks have asked me where to find lists of immigrants assisted by Baron Hirsch.  Below is a list of the Baron Hirsch archives around the world. Almost all are NOT digitized but after the pandemic they can be visited. And perhaps through email, specific questions can be answered.  I am not sure but perhaps worth a try.

For my blog. thebaronhirschcommunity.org I am researching the history of communities, not necessarily individuals.  For example, a family sent me a short story written about their great grandparents' farm in the Catskills and besides publishing the story I researched and wrote a long post on Jewish farmers in the Catskills.   I am tri-lingual, English, Spanish and Portuguese so glad work in any of these languages.

I would be pleased to research any community where your family settled.  Take a look at the blog, particularly the posts on the  Catskills and Toms River, NJ for an idea of the type of work I am offering, 

And here's the list of archives.  Merrie Blocker Silver Spring, MD, USA

Principal Baron Hirsch Archives

 

New York

 

YIVO Institute of Jewish Research, 15. W. 16 St., NY, NY 10011

 

1. Baron Hirsch Fund:  Several hundred photographs from the files of the *Jewish Farmer* depicting Jewish farm settlements in the U.S. Documents relating to the Baron de Hirsch Fund and to the JAS: by-laws, reports, certificates of incorporation, list of applicants, awards.  JAS news releases, 1937-1961.

http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=33008&

 

2. Baron Maurice de Hirsch and William Lowenthal:  1855-1900 The Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) was founded in London in 1891 by Baron Maurice de Hirsch to aid economically deprived Jews in Russia.  One of the JCA's first major projects was the development of an agricultural settlement in Argentina for Russian Jewish emigres.  Dr. Wilhelm Lowenthal, a physicist and naturalist, was appointed by de Hirsch as the first director of the settlement project.

 

 Forms of Material (links to similar genres)

Documents - Papers

 

Contains papers of Baron Maurice de Hirsch, including personal documents, 1855-1899.  Materials relating to Hirsch's contacts with the Russian government on the founding of Jewish schools in Russia, 1887-1889, including correspondence from the Russian Ministry of Education. Reports, correspondence and other materials relating to the JCA project in Argentina, including reports by de Hirsch and Lowenthal. Records of the founding of the JCA, including Hirsch's correspondence with his lawyers, 1894-1900.

 

http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32700

 

 

3. Jewish Colonization Association. 1898-1913

 

The collection consists of correspondence and reports relating to colonization and other philanthropic projects in various countries, including Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cyprus, Germany, Palestine, Poland (Galicia), Russia, 1898-1913.

 

http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=23254&q=

 

4. Educational Alliance. 1888-1968

Cultural and educational institution in New York's Lower East Side, established in 1889 to promote Americanization of Jewish immigrants.  Since 1924 has been operating as a community center.

 Forms of Material (links to similar genres)

Documents - Records

 Finding Aid Information

Inventory, English, 144 pp., typed. Card Catalog to photos, Eng., ms

Minutes of Education Alliance administrative and steering committees, correspondence of lay leaders and administration officials, general administration records. Correspondence, reports and other records of various Education Alliance divisions, clubs, classes, summer camps. Materials relating to : Baron de Hirsch School, Legal Aid Bureau, 1931-1939;  Stuyvesant Neighborhood House, 1919-1950;  Art School, 1920s-1950s;  Youth Division;  Young Adult Division; People's Synagogue, School of Religious Work;  New York School of Social Work;  New York University Survey "The Lower East Side", 1950s.      A photograph series depicts the Education Alliance building, camps, groups and clubs, individuals, English classes, gym classes, 1896-1962, Education Alliance Art School.

 

 http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32694&q=Baron+Hirsch

 

 

Center for Jewish History. 15 W. 16 ST., NY, NY 10011

 

Baron de Hirsch Fund Record 1819-1991 (mainly 1882-1935)

 

The Baron de Hirsch Fund Records document the organization's involvement in the planning of agricultural communities across the country and to some extent in South America; the founding and administrative dealings of agricultural and trade schools; the establishment of the Jewish Agricultural Society; and the business records of the Fund itself. 

 

The collection is arranged in six series: Series I: Administration / Organization of the Fund, Series II: Jewish Farming Colonies, Series III: Jewish Agricultural Society, Series IV: Woodbine Colony, Series V: Woodbine Agricultural School, and Series VI: Baron de Hirsch Trade School. The records originally existed as several different collections that were later merged. The original order is thought to have been lost, but re-processing of the records attempted to reunite as many records as possible. In some cases, however, it was impossible to do so, thus the finding aid strives to bring together intellectually what could not be brought together physically without a huge undertaking. See less

Language of Materials

The collection is in English, French, German, Yiddish, and Hebrew.

 

https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/resources/18299

 

 

Cincinatti

 

American Jewish Archives, 3101 Clifton Ave, Cincinnati, Ohio 45220, 

·       MS-758: Records on the Jewish Agricultural Society, Inc. Loans. 1921-1963.  

 

Montreal

 

Canadian Jewish Archives, Suite 211,  4810 Rue Jean-Talon Ouest, Montreal, QC H4P 2N5

 

Material Format

textual record

Fonds No.

CJC0001

Series No.

ZC 1

File No.

ZC 1

Subjects

Jewish Colonization Association of Canada

Archival / Genealogical

Archival Descriptions

 

https://www.cjhn.ca/en/list?q=Jewish+Colonization+Association+of+Canada.&p=1&ps=20

 

 

Buenos Aires

 

IWO,  Calle Ayacucho 483. 

 

Holdings include 

1. Archives of organizations of ex-residents, unions, cooperatives, schools and the memories of immigrants and activists in all areas of community life.

 2. Agricultural colonies: includes documents on life in the colonies, cooperatives, local publications, and personal files of colonists. newspaper clippings. 

3.. Yiddish press and literature: includes manuscripts and personal files of writers and journalists. 

 

https://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/collections/personalsites/red-lajan/Pages/Fundacion-IWO-Argentina.aspx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Centro Marc Turkow, Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) Calle Pasteur 633. 

Resources on the Jewish Agricultural Colonies in Argentina including photos, newspapers and magazines, books, documents, and oral histories.
De la Central de recursos sobre Colonias Agrícolas Judías en Argentina - Colonización Judía 

https://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/collections/personalsites/red-lajan/Pages/Marc-Turkow-AMIA-Argentina.aspx

São Paulo

The Jewish-Brazilian Historical Archive (AHJB). Rua Estela Sezefreda 76, Pinheiros .

 

Principal home for the documents of the JCA in Brazil including correspondence with Paris office and settlers. 

 

http://www.ahjb.org.br/ahjb_pagina.php?ap=ica

 

 

Porto Alegre, Brazil

 

Marc Chagall Institute,  Rua General João Telles, 329 – 2o. andar
Bairro Bom Fim

 

Large collection of correspondence with JCA Paris office, administrative records of the colonies, and oral histories

 

Marc Chagall. https://chagall.org.br/acervo-2/

 

 

 

Paris

 

Alliance Israelite Universelle , 27 Avenue de Ségur,

 

1. Jewish Colonization Association. Reports and correspondence on Brasil, Argentina, Canada, USA, Turkey, Cyrprus, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, Tunisia, Russia, Galicia, Romania

 

2. Brasil, reports and correspondence 1868- 1936

 

3.  Argentina, Reports and correspondence 1887 – 1929 including colonization projects

 

4. United States – reports and correspondence 1868-1930 including correspondence with branches and named individuals all over the USA and reports on Baron Hirsch activities and individual Baron Hirsch colonies in the USA as well as reports on many other Jewish organizations. 

 

5. Canada,  Reports on Colonization and correspondence 1886-1932

 

 https://www.aiu.org/fr/inventaire-des-archives-historiques

 

 

 

Jerusalem

 

The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, The National Library of Israel., Hebrew University  

1) The archives of Baron Hirsch’s Jewish Colonization Association (JCA)’s head office, which was located in Paris until 1949 (when it moved to London).  All the London records are now in Jerusalem. 

 

The archives of the head office contain about 1000 files of correspondence, c. 1891 to 1971, between the head office and JCA's branches in Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Argentina, Brazil, Romania, Austria (Galicia), Turkey, Cyprus and Palestine, as well as with other philanthropic organizations, such as the Alliance Israélite Universelle, ORT, HIAS, etc.  The head office archives also contain several series of reports and minutes (seances) in printed and mimeographed form.

Many files deal with Jewish schools in Eastern Europe, professional and other, some of them set up by JCA, others supported by the organization. For some of these schools and indeed for some of these communities, the JCA files provide the only surviving written evidence of their existence. Another aspect of JCA's activity in Eastern Europe was the encouragement of "productive" i.e. agricultural and industrial activity. The files abound in information on loan associations and cooperatives set up to assist the Jews in these ventures.

 

The 1000 correspondence files (which contain reports, maps and school plans as well) contain approximately 300,000 pages, about 40% of which are handwritten, and the remainder typed. The most dominant language is French, with German not far behind. Other languages, in order of their relative prevalence, are Russian, Romanian, Yiddish, English, Hebrew, Polish and Spanish

 

2) The archives of JCA’s Argentinean office, which was located in Buenos Aires.

The papers of JCA’s Argentinean office include correspondence files, ledgers and 7,000 personal files of individual colonists. The material dates from 1890 to about 1970.

 

3) Files from the office of JCA's Turkish headquarters

The collection consists of close to 100 files relating to a colony and an agricultural school set up by JCA in Turkey.

 

https://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/collections/personalsites/CAHJP/Holdings/Organizations/Pages/jewish-colonization-association-jca.aspx

Hello,
All my mother's family adopted the name JABLOW when they came to the U.S., but I can't find records for them in Minsk. Does anyone have any idea what their name in Minsk might have been?
Many thanks for your help.
--
Dale ZEIDMAN
New York

Did she receive Social Security? If so, you can check with them to see what name she used when she was assigned an SSN. What name did she use in census records? The earliest census record for her would have been in 1930. If you can narrow the time window of the name change, it might help.

Kathryn bkj

Hi Lee. Bremen or Hamburg, I would say. Trieste and FIume were closer to Hungary but the travel to the U.S. would have been longer and maybe more expensive.

Jorge Sexer

Shelley

Please let us know if/when you find Aunt Zippe!!

Rhonda Post
rhonda.post@...
SIlver Spring, MD

I had heard that during the era of conscripting children into the army at young ages, that because the Army wouldn’t take an only son, sometimes the family would change the last names of one of one of the sons, sometimes to the mothers maiden name.   

Roberta Schoen