Kagan is a common surname.  It is the Russian version of Cohen.  As far as Zvenigorodka is concerned, Alex Krakovski has posted a number of records scans on his wiki site at https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%84%D0%B2%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B9%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B5_%D0%BC%D1%96%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%87%D0%BA%D0%BE#%D0%9A%D0%B8%D1%97%D0%B2%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B0_%D0%B3%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BD%D1%96%D1%8F.   The site is in Ukrainian, but Google Chrome will give you a passable translation.  Scroll down to Kyiv Province and you will find all records he has scanned so far for Zvenigorodka.   Ukraine Research Division has downloaded all of these records, and eventually, we will have them translated and indexed on line.  It may take some time to do that, as we have several hundred record sets from Ukraine that all need to go through the same process.  All of the records, of course, are in handwritten Russian.  

Chuck Weinstein
Bellport, NY
chuck1@...

The voter database is on JewishGen. I worked on the translation a number of years ago. For example, if you search for Zvenigorodka on JewishGen, you'll see that there are 1925 listings in the Kiev Gubernia Duma Voters List.
--

Thank you, that is fascinating.  I'm trying to understand the purpose - would the intentional twisting of the author's name for the title have been done to reflect some honorific title? I cant imagine that it was just for some kind of grammatical humor...
Unfortunately I cant seem to find any reference to him or his relatives under the name Efron anywhere at all so far, but its another lead to follow, thanks again! 

Thank you for clarifying that.  It is confusing because in addition to seeing it used as this Rabbi's surname in multiple sources, I do see it used as a surname in a lot of other records on JewishGen, like the example below.  I thought I was on the right track since a number of these records with this name are from the same region and timeframe as where this Rabbi lived and worked, so I assumed they might be relatives, but I guess based on what you say they are all likely errors.  Thank you again.   

I took a DNA test several years ago with MY Heritage and found a 2C1R ... and she was the great granddaugther of my grandmother.  I never knew about my grandmother's much younger sister, who was left in Poland to care for her father, while her older siblings (my grandmother and her older brother) immigrated to NYC.  She was murdered in a synagogue, but not before she married and had several children, only one of whom survived.  I finally met this girl in the fall of 2018 and we exchanged info about our families, and each discovered many cousins we never knew about ... a wonderful find!

Annette Weiss

SO fascinating!

I hope that you will post here again when you've added the rest of the story.
--
Fredel Fruhman
Brooklyn, New York, USA

about 80% of the world Jewish population lived within the Pale in Russian Empire in the 19th century, and almost every one of you had roots in the Russian Empire, it is surprising that no one  visits Russian-language forums

Elena, the percentage with roots anywhere that Russia is still the official language would be much lower.  Most of the Pale was farther west than modern-day Russia.  The "Russian Empire" included not only modern-day Russia, but also most of the rest of the former Soviet Union, and a substantial part of Poland.

Very few of the Jews who emigrated to the United States (or other western countries) 100-140 years ago had roots in what is now Russia.  Most of them were from what is now Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, or Latvia.

There was a small population of elite Jews who were allowed to live east of the Pale, but since they were in an extremely privileged (and somewhat protected) position (and they frequently had substantial wealth that they would not have been permitted to bring with them), they had less incentive to emigrate than poorer Jews in the Pale.

During the Holocaust, many Jews fled from the former Pale into the Russian SSR, but many Jews were not allowed to leave the Soviet Union until its collapse, so Jews over 40 years old who were not born there are relatively unlikely to have roots in the Russian SSR. 

Stephen Weinstein
Camarillo, CA, USA

I suggest you contact the "Together Plan", a British based charity helping the remaining Jewish communities in Belarus learn to help themselves.  One of the Directors, fluent in English, Russian and Belarussian, is based in Minsk. One of their projects is to carry out genealogical research for descendents of Belarussian Jews.  That seems just wast you are looking for.  
https://thetogetherplan.com/
Contact london@...

Good hunting,

Margaret (London N3)

Goldie was from Derevna, also known as Derewna, was in the Minsk region in the county of Stolpce.  She might, therefore, be related to your line.  One of the problems lies in the use of different names--given as well as surnames.  On ancestry.com, Goldie appears on the Kweitzer/Bass family tree owned by Bdebrose.  Do those names sound familiar?

I have been reading Primo Levi's collection of stories The Periodic Table
and looked up some biography on him. He married a woman named Lucia
Morpurgo and I wonder if her family had any connection with the English
childrens' writer Michael Morpurgo. Does anyone know?

Roberta Sheps
Colchester, England

Hello,
Looking for any information how my Great Grandfather Hersche Shore, Grandmother Fannie Shore and her younger sister traveled in July 1903 from Jaffa to board the La Loraine in Le Havre, France.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Roberta Lipitz
Cherry Hill, NJ

A PDF of the short book is available at https://hebrewbooks.org/18.  It is in the genre of rabbinic responsa.  It seems highly unlikely to me that you would find am English translation as it is a specialized genre with its own assumptions of an underlying cultural literacy.

You can find more about the genre of Rabbinic Responsa in Wikipedia.

Ittai Hershman
NYC

Please does anyone know if apart from 'Brother-in -law' there might be other meanings for the hebrew גיס  , used in 1770 in a Memorbook from Deutz, Germany.

Peter, have you contacted World Jewish Relief, they have an archive of all the records for refugees that they helped prior to and after WWII, see the following https://www.worldjewishrelief.org/about-us/your-family-history 
They have the records for about 55000 Jewish Refugees who came to the UK, including the family of Jerry Springer.

Regards,

Michael Hoffman

Borehamwood,
HERTS, UK.

Never heard of Goldie Bass but I do descend from the Bass clan of the Minsk suburbs.

This link may help.  Good luck.


https://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/international-resources/navigate.html

Hello Sharon,

The first document declares the death of Itta Einbund in 1941. The declaration was made by Re'aya Einbund. Unfortunately I can't understand the other details as they are written, I believe, in Russian (although I might be very well be wrong).
The address of Re'aya is also provided- Hatayasim 64/520 Ashkelon, Israel.
The second document is the declaration of the death of Banya or Benya Einbund in 1941 and was provided by the same person.

Hope this helps,
Nieve
Researching SCHLOSSER (Bialystok)

My grandgrandparents (Aranovich, Guerberoff) lived in Izmail,Besarabia, today Ukraine, in 1905 they came to Argentina by ship from Hamburg to Buenos Aires in the Cap Arcona, from Hamburg Sud company
I d like to know how they travelled from Besarabia to Hamburg by that time. By ship by the Danube River, or they went to Odessa and then by ship from the Mediterranean Sea, or perhaps by any means in land crossing.
Are possible routes or records to search?