Peter, I could not agree with you more, and you've described this problem so well and succinctly.  

My experience as archivist for a special historical collection for more than three decades completely bears out your too-valid fears about preservation of digital data.  Entire databases I created using mainstream software are no longer accessible or readable.  And I've seen online data disappear. This is what keeps me up at night (or used to before the pandemic became my number one worry).  The digital dark ages is a threat to more than genealogical data.

I'm also with you about keeping genealogical information and family histories online and/or in digital form as well as on paper.

My own question, though, is -- how best to preserve genealogies and family history in print when most of the data you've gathered has been stored either online and/or on your computer within a software program?  I think that's situation that many, if not most of us, are facing. Most of the data I've collected, for example, I've stored in Family Treemaker.   FTM does have a report format, but its reports don't appear contain all of the information that I've saved into FTM, and I would like to retain every bit of that information that I can.  And converting that information into a formal book is a daunting prospect.  Also, I would want to be able to update the information easily and as often as necessary (I'm envisioning an annual or semi-annual print out) so my descendants would have the most recent data I had available--but a book is static.

What would be the best way to preserve all of the data in print that would be efficient and clear, but not as a book? Something serviceable, but not necessarily smooth and pretty!  (This foregoing is another thing that has keep me up at night!) Any advice from you or anyone else on this question would be welcome.  

Re electronic genealogies, I believe that Family Search would be the best bet for attempting to preserve genealogies digitally because of its institutional affiliation with the Mormon church.  The Church has been, and I think is likely to continue to be a more stable entity than any online company--commercial companies come and go, but major religions tend to stick around longer.   Also, because of genealogy's central role in Mormonism the motivation for making sure the data is protected and continues to be available and accessible is greater than that of commercial enterprises.


Erika Gottfried
Teaneck, New Jersey

Dear Genners,

Here is an enigma which hounds us since 2011. My late father in law Dawid APOTHEKER(1908-1995) was on the Sugihara list, got his transit visa to Japan in Kaunas and reached Kobe

in Japan on Feb 2nd, 1941. The date is confirmed in a document in the JDC archives. He was born in Bardejov, Slovakia but since his family hailed from Poland he lived mostly in Poland before WW2.

However, we discovered on the Sugihara papers that he granted visas to TWO Dawid APOTHEkERs one  on Aug 6th,1940 and the second on Aug 13th, 1940. Both are described as Polish.

At the beginning we thought that it was a mistake but then discovered via a Genner in Australia that he has in his possession a telegram from Dawid APOTHEKER  informing his friends in Kobe, Japan that 

he intends to arrive to Shanghai. The telegram was sent from Vilnius on May 15th, 1941. It is signed Marjan,Mirylek and Dawid APOTHEKER. Unfortunately they never reached  Shanghai. From our family

research this person most probably belongs to our extended APOTHEKER  clan(Dawid is a frequent name there) but we have no idea who he was and the names Marjan and Mirylek  do not ring a bell.

I enclose the telegram which was sent few weeks before the German invasion of the USSR. We shall appreciate  any info or suggestions about this.

Jacob Rosen

Jerusalem

Eric, it depends on which database. If you click through to the info link on a given database, the page that tells you about the origin and contents of the database often has contact info for the project. Some projects are more active than others, and in some cases updating the data is very cumbersome so it may take a while for a volunteer to be able to address that. If there's a clear transcription error it should get queued for correction, though that may take months. There are likely some databases with no active or reachable maintainer, in which case I'd suggest reaching out to one of the leaders of the appropriate SIG or research group.

Peter Cherna

To elaborate further on this issue, I have occasionally found transcription errors in the JewishGen databases.  When reviewing an image of the actual record on Family Search, it's clear that the transcriber erred by misinterpreting the original (usually a name spelling or a date).  So, in those cases, the question remains, "How to correct information in JewishGen databases"?

Eric M. Bloch
Milwaukee, WI

Hi all:

Perhaps a member has knowledge of the following:
Were there markings on Jewish headstones that identify who the stonecutters were?
Many thanks in advance.

Jacquie

Jacqueline GRUSZECKI
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Researching IUZIS and POPPEL/POPEL/POPIL
from Dorohoi, București, Herța and Panciu

Records from Russia or anywhere else are what they are. You can't change them. I have seen impossible dates, registered births a year before the birth, anything.

You have to work with the records that exist and be happy that you have them. My Polish ancestors come from Augustow, where there was a fire in City Hall at the turn of the 20th century. There are almost no records remaining, and I have to live with it. I would love to have records that are occasionally wrong.

Sally Bruckheimer
Princeton, NJ

Carole:

As a proud son of Paterson, I would suggest you join the Facebook group Jewish Roots in Paterson New Jersey https://www.facebook.com/groups/46962810277 and post your inquiry.

Mark Halpern
now Conshohocken, PA

The name Vadetsky-Vides occurs only once in a revision list in the shtetl Malat(Moletai) in 1834.  My GGGgrandfathe Movsha is married to Aron Vadetsky-Vides' daughter. 
In subsequent records I find no one with this hyphenated name.  I find Vadetsky's, Videtsky' and Vides.  Anyone have an idea of what happened?  Other members of the family married Malatskys who were from Vidzy?  Could that be a connection.  I welcome any conjecture or facts..  
Michael Cohen, 
Herzilia, Israel

Also, Itzik or Itsik.

Robert Hanna

What evidence do you have that they all emigrated at the same time.  My family did not.  On my paternal side, my grandmother and her sister (the oldest two) came first, their father came a year later with the next oldest daughter, and their mother came the next year with the youngest two children.  On my maternal side, my grandfather came first, then my grandmother came a year later.  My paternal grandfather followed his brother several years later.  He then went back and returned a year later.

Robert Hanna

Hi Alan,

You didn't mention searching for obituaries using the immigrants' names. It is possible that one of the parents had siblings or other relatives living in the US under their original names. Those relatives might be mentioned in your family's obituaries or your relatives in theirs.

You should also search the US component of JewishGen records. https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/USA/ Your relatives might show up giving a clue. One part of the US search are records from the Seeking Kin database from the Boston Jewish Advocate.   https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/USA/BostonSeekingKin.htm  For fifty years various agencies tried connecting Europeans with their American relatives by putting ads into multiple Jewish newspapers. Many did not know in what state their relatives lived, so the same ad was published in various states. Some of those ads give both the names used in the "old country" as well as the new name. A search in the US JewishGen records will turn up an ad for a name in any position.

I encourage genealogical societies from other states to contribute ads published in their state's Jewish newspaper(s).

Good luck,
Roberta Jaffer
Massachusetts

A member of my family, a reserve Lieutenant of the Belgian Army in 1940, Maurice  JONES, has been a resistant during WW II in BRUSSELS. All members of his small group of resistants were arrested, and sent to Germany to be tried by a German civil court. He was sentenced to 2 years in civil jail, and on his release he was immediately deported to SACHSENHAUSEN, where he fortunately survived.

 Out of his small group he is the only one who was named ". . mitteldeutschen und belgischen Leutnant . .  " in the German pronouncement of the sentence. However, his parents were Belgians and the whole family Belgian born and French speaking, and nobody is known from German ascendance  excepted in the early  18th century : those ancestors emigrated then from EMBDEN to England but this has been discovered just a few years ago !

Does anyone  have any idea about the meaning of  " mitteldeutsch " in this context ? Of course it normally means German people from the Central-West Germany, but in this case in my opinion it should well have another meaning ».

Etienne Jones

After reading the thread about "I want my tree to outlast me", I began to prepare my tree for just that purpose.  One thing that would be very helpful is if JewishGen would provide its users with source citation information for each index.

Thank you,
Tammy Weingarten

I strongly urge you to go to www.geni.com

It is free and our family has been using it for years.  It is owned by MyHeritage.  It can also link your tree to other trees of other families as part of a world-wide tree.  It is terrific.

Jody Gorran