--
Ralph N. Baer        RalphNBaer@...       Washington, DC

Geni is more accurate and complete than any individual tree on Ancestry or MyHeritage in almost all cases, since it is a collaborative tree.  Why?  Think of it this way.  What would be more accurate and complete: a tree you do on your own, or a tree you do with other people who can detect and correct your mistakes and add missing data?  Of course there are errors on any tree.  Geni has 145 million connected profiles, so even if the error rate is 1% that would be almost 1.5 million errors.  But I can guarantee that every small, individual tree is bound to have a far higher rate of errors and omissions.  As for FamilySearch, they also have a large collaborative tree and it is often very good.  Again, finding some mistakes on another tree should never give anyone a false sense of superiority.  There is always work to be done on every tree, and the larger collaborative trees are necessarily going to be more complete and accurate than anything a single person could do on his or her own.

Sorry I can't help you on your Resnicks but my grandfather Lieb Frankel was from this Pohost.

Stuart

Hi Toby,
Simchat Torah is celebrated on Tishrei 23rd outside the land of Israel. Brest-Litovsk was in the Russian Empire in 1866 and Russia adopted the Gregorian calendar only in 1918. Therefore, two possible dates correspond to this event:
- October 2, 1866 according to the Gregorian calendar
- September 19, 1866 according to the Julian calendar used in Brest in those times.

Valentin Lupu
ISRAEL

Correction for Kazhan - Haradok

There are  80 entries for this town by Genners in JGFF database. 

The total number for all searches for five towns named Haradok, Belarus is 504, by 242 researchers.


Alexander Sharon
JGFF editor

This became oddly contentious.

Like many others, I'd heard to stories about Ellis Island name changes and later learned that this would not have happened. My own tree shows numerous name changes, both in Europe and in the USA. In some cases, this came down to differing opinions about how to transliterate a Russian or Yiddish name or even a shift from a Romanian to a Yiddish variant of the same name. A couple of times, it looks like whoever wrote the name down in Europe misheard the name entirely. Usually, it was a matter of simple desire to assimilate.

So, for example, Talpalariu became Feller (Romanian and Yiddish for the same profession). Leibovici became Leibowtiz and, later, Lee (Romanian to Yiddish to Anglicized). Itrov was misspelled as Eatroff in the US and we stuck with it. Wittrof ended up on a a passenger manifest, but was so wildly off, it never appeared on another document. Faivush became Philip and Mikael became Max to sound more "American." All of those sorts of changes are extremely commonplace.

The most amusing story about assigning surnames in my family was a tall tale from the mid-19th century when the Austro-Hungarian Empire decided Jews should have surnames. Usually, those names would be based on an occupation or patronymic or a location, but one of my ancestors was said to have been so amused by the "ridiculous" names people took, he laughed out loud and an official saddled him with the name Lacher, meaning "laugher." That's too good to be true, but it's more fun than "they changed it at Ellis Island."

I haven't been following this topic, but my grandmother's name in St
Petersburg was Ita, pronounced /EEta/.  If you say it with an American
accent the t becomes d, and you get Eda,  which was her name in
America.  I never thought this was a problem name.

Jules Levin

Sent from my Verizon ASUS tablet

Sent from my Verizon ASUS tablet

Hi, there seems to be confusion as to the number and location of towns named Horodok in Belarus.
JGFF database has identified only 5 (five) Horodok (s) in Belarus that had Jewish population. 

1. Davyd-Haradok, (current modern name), during Russian Empire era was known as David - Gorodok, Mazyr uyezd, Minsk guberniya
   During the interwar period (1918-1939) town was known as Dawidgródek, located in the Stolin powiat, Polesie Wojewodztwo , Poland
   Town population was ~30% Jewish in 1921.
   There are 226 searches for this town by Genners in JGFF database. 

2. Kazhan - Haradok, (current modern name), during Russian Empire era was known as Kozhan Gorodok, Pinsk uyezd, Minsk guberniya
    During the interwar period (1918-1939) town was known as Kożangródek and was located in the Łuniniec powiat, Polesie Wojewodztwo , Poland
    Place is located 14 miles distance from Davyd - Haradok, and towns are often confused by researchers.
    Town population was ~30% Jewish in 1921.
    There are 226 matches for this town by Genners in JGFF database. 

3. Haradok, (current modern name), is identified in JGFF database as Haradok, (near Molodechno).
    This is probably town that the initial query was all about. 
    During Russian Empire era place was known as Gródek, Vilejka uyezd, Vilna gubernia
    During the interwar period (1918-1939) town was known as Gródek, Molodeczno powiat, Wilno Wojewodztwo , Poland
    Town population was ~70% Jewish in 1921.
    There are 134 searches for this town by Genners in JGFF database. 

4. Astrashytskiy Haradok, (current modern name), during Russian Empire era was known as Gorodok Ostroshitskii, located near Minsk, Belarus  (13 miles distance)
    There are  22 entries for this town by Genners in JGFF database. 

5. Haradok, town near Vitebsk, Jewish population in 1939: 1,584 souls
    There are  41 entries for this town by Genners in JGFF database. 

By providing for above entries nearby large town names, where probably vital records have been deposited, I hope that researchers will be able to identify researched by them correct Horodok .

Alexander Sharon
JGFF editor

It is WONDERFUL to have this free access to all of their records, particularly those from other countries.

I want to point out an issue, though:

When you "view" the original source, you will usually be taken to a page that shows your specific image, which is one of a series of pages in a particular file.  You can then easily save this original page directly to your computer via the "Save" button at the top right of the screen.  BE CAREFUL.  After saving, open the image that you saved (wherever you saved it on your computer) and double-check that you have indeed saved what you intended to save!   I am finding that, very often -- with no apparent rhyme or reason -- the FOLLOWING page was saved, rather than the record that I want!  Going back and trying again usually succeeds.
--
Fredel Fruhman
Brooklyn, New York, USA

Simon Lazare FRIDMAN (or FRIEDMAN) and Chaïa Hinda Haya SAKNOVITZKI SAKHNOVITZKI

Ladies and gentlemen,

I'm looking for the cities of birth, date and place of death for the following people:
Simon Lazare FRIDMAN (or FRIEDMAN) born in 1870 (country and city of birth unknown) who lived with his family in 1926 at 6 rue rampon to Paris. The profession of this man was tailor
It seems that he died unless I was mistaken on October 14, 1932, but I don't know in which city.

and Chaïa Hinda Haya SAKNOVITZKI SAKHNOVITZKI wife FRIDMAN (or FRIEDMAN) born in 1872 ((country and city of birth unknown) who lived with her husband and children in 1926 at 6 rue rampon to PARIS. died October 18, 1940 but I don't know in which city.
The children of this couple (Lea, Philippe, Malka, Salomon) were born in BREST LITOWSK but were deported during the Second World War.

This couple hosted at 6 rue rampon in PARIS in the first months of 1923 my maternal grandfather Mordko KAMIENIECKI born 22/10/1898 in BREST LITOWSK.

Thanking all of you for your help,



Evelyne LEMBERSKI
Saint Maurice 
(France)
evelynelemberski@...

With so many stories focusing on Ellis Island, one fact remains unspoken. You could always use any name you wanted. You still can, except to deceive creditors. When it came to Naturalizations, however, the name used on the passage was asked as was the name being used at the time. From these documents, a new name was born.

And don’t forget that many immigrants believed that countries like Russia could reach out and bring them back for conscription . Another reason to use modified versions of their name. We are too focused on the staff at Ellis Island. My own grandfather lied and told me his name was changed at Ellis Island. Not true.
--
Shelley Mitchell, NYC    shemit@...
Searching for TERNER, GOLDSCHEIN, KONIGSBERG, SCHONFELD, in Kolomyya; PLATZ, in Delaytn; and TOPF, in Radautz and Kolomea.

The two questions are related, and hopefully begin to narrow my search further.

The name 'Reische' likely bears some relationship to either the city or county of Rzeszow'. For Jewish families emigrating from Rzeszow to the US in the late 1870s, what are the most likely ports of departure, and do they maintain online resources as does Hamburg?

For ship arrivals in either Castle Garden or Ellis, is there a master index of shipping arrivals in a narrow period of May through August 1879?

Thanks for any guidance you can provide.