A friend of mine and I are trying to figure out the name of the place her father was exiled to in WWII.  On a form he filled out for his immigration visa and alien registration, the place was cited as Raisefka, USSR.  Does anyone have any idea what the correct name of this place is?

This is what we do know.  He was from Ivenitz, Belarus.  He was sixteen years old, serving in the Polish Army, when he was.captured by the Russians.  The place he was sent to was in Siberia.  He told his daughter, he could see Alaska from the place he was in. There was an explosion in a coal mine there and he was the only survivor. He was burned and had a scar under his neck from one ear to the other from this experience.  After the explosion a nurse in the Army kept him underground caring for him for 6 months.  She released him into the forest, where he wandered for months.

Can anyone  help us figure out the name of this place?
--
Ellen Barnett Cleary
San Francisco CA
USA

Oh, duh, I meant to say it adds up to 50%, i.e., implying 100% for my father.

My grandfather was born in the UK after his father died. His mother failed to register his birth within the 6 months legal time limit. To avoid a fine, she invented a date of birth (26/04/1888) within the limit to register him. This date was about 13 months after his father died, so his 'official' date of birth is at least 4 months after his actual date of birth, which is not known.

Henry Best,
London, UK

In this period the German peasant class couples often had several births out of wedlock during a very long courtship because there was a significant fee to get legally married. Once the couple was able to afford the fee and married, their children became "legitimate". My Catholic German research in this time period had several couples where the Priest would go back and note them as legitimate in the records.

James Castellan
Rose Valley, PA

Please note that "unehelich" may mean illegitimate, but it also means out of wedlock
--
Reuven Stern, Kfar Vradim Israel

I had my genes tested by FamilyTreeDNA.  I already knew I had two very different lines of ancestry.  My father's Ashkenazi Jewish (Belarus, Ukraine).  My mother's of Irish and German descent.  My results came back: Ashkenazi 38%, Ireland/British Isles 27%, West and Central Europe 23%, Southeast Europe 9%, East Europe < 3%.

The Southeast European bit was sort of a surprise.  On my mother's side I know back to my great-great-great-grandparents in all cases and further back than that in some cases.  (Of course, this assumes that everyone's father was the person their mother was married to.)  On my father's side I only know back to my great-grandparents plus, in three out of four cases, their parents as well.

Is it possible that some of my father's ancestors came from Southeast Europe and later immigrated to the Pale to escape persecution?  It's rather tantalizing that 38% + 9% + 3% adds up to 100%.  (Of course, it could also be that some of that 23% West and Central Europe is coming from my father's side as well as my mother's.  For example, my mother's Irish ancestry arises from three different women who immigrated from Ireland independently of each other, at different times and possibly from quite different parts of Ireland.)

I should also note that both my parents are now deceased.  Each of them had one sibling, also now deceased.  My father's sister had no children.  So asking him or her or them to get their DNA tested isn't possible.

Many thanks for any info!

SarahRose Werner
RABINOVICH: Chopovichi, Ukraine
GITELMAN: David-Gorodok, Belarus

I have also learned to be cautious. I must say that I do not much like the big Genealogy sites whose view of reliable sources is no greater than quoting their own customers' unsourced trees. 

"Collectors" can really be a nuisance, like the lady a year or two back who approached me and asked for some help with her tree because she had been "doing" her genealogy for nearly a year and had only found 26,000 ancestors! She did not know what I meant when I asked if she had sourced any of them.
A little information first and see then what develops.  Sometimes one can find a most useful and reciprocal partner and that can be great. It's fun to help but care is the byword.
Martyn Woolf
London

The IKG in Vienna has copies of the so called exit questionnaires. One is a standard form usually filled out in 1938 the other an interview record. I think we may have already exchanged emails. If you wish I can send you samples related to my family.

Thank you so much for posting this - have been trying to trace grandfather, Naum Beckerman and his (possible) marriage to Eugenie Zaslavsky in 1918 - and subsequent birthplace of my father Ura Beckerman in Feb 1919. Thank you!

Rich,
You don't specify exactly when these children were born, but there are two scenarios, both of which were known to happen. One is that Gerson was widowed and then married his wife's sister. Who would be a safer step-mother than the child's aunt? The other scenario is that various names appeared on the children's birth and marriage records for the same mother.

My 3-greats-grandmother was Sophie Schiren, daughter of Simon Schiren (Schieren on other records), on her 1809 marriage record in the Rhineland. On her children's birth records, she was Heba Schirot (1810), Eve Simon (1812), Hebbeken Simon (1814), Eva Simons(1816), Heva Scherath(1819), Heva Schierath (1821), Eva Schierath (1823), Eva Schiratz(1826).

Her death record (1857) says Sophie, but her grave says העווה (an alternative spelling of Chava/Eve), and within a few years four grandchildren were named Eva. None of her grandchildren were called Sophie.

Generally, the same mother's name appeared on the child's birth and marriage record, but there was not much consistency between children - it was never exactly the same.

I have another example, from the Moselle region of France - my 5-greats-grandfather's 2nd marriage was to Sara Franck, the widow of Abraham Bondy. 5-greats-grandpa had five children with Sara, but on the birth record of the fourth, the mother is named as Schwartzle Bontay. Schwartzle has to be a nickname, and Bontay a reference to her first husband, but it confused the person who documented the town to the extent that he treated my 5-greats-grandpa as two people.

So, my suggestion would be to look for evidence of the death of a first wife, or marriage records to prove that there were two wives. If you find no such evidence, then it is reasonable to assume multiple names for the wife. In the ideal world, you will find the marriage record and death record of the wife which establish that it is the same wife from first child to last, despite any name variations.

I hope this helps,
Rodney Eisfelder
Melbourne, Australia

The database seems to go only to 1911? Do you know if there is something analogous that goes into the 1920s? My husband's relatives left Poland and went to Argentina in 1928, according to my father-in-law.

Dear Paul,
Please see transcription+translation below.

best regards,
Tsvika Rozenblat, Herzliya, Israel

in Hebrew:

Is there a source for the names of Romanian survivors who made it to Israel 1946 to 1960?

In the years 1928-1932, the Groedel family (Transylvania Forest Industry Co.) in Skole, Poland (today Ukraine), published a newspaper called Wiadomości Demiańskie (Demnia News), that first appeared on January 28, 1928. Can anyone help me locate that newspaper? I haven't had any success in searching for where it might be archived.

According to the webpage https://bit.ly/2Zy6AEj, the paper was devoted to current issues, but also to topics related to history, economy, politics and tourism.

Thank you.

Jerry Zeisler
Portland, Oregon USA

There were, at times, civil laws that only allowed the eldest Jewish son to marry.  The religious community recognized the marriage as legitimate but not the civil authorities.

David Rosen
Boston, MA

My great grandfather's death certificate (Adolphus Gustavus MEYERSBURG, who died in 1922 in NY) listed his mother as Julia FRANK.
The family came from Bovenden, just outside Gottingen, in what was then Hanover.  Census records from Bovenden show Gerson MEYERSBURG, Adolphus's father,  with his wife Julie and later, children: Samuel, Jeanette, Emma, and Adolphus (according to a couple of booklets about the Jewish inhabitants of Bovenden).

Samuel MEIERSBURG's birth registration shows his mother as Schawelche FRANK.  (I do not have a birth registration for any of his later born siblings).  

When I tried to translate Schawelche using Google translate, it asked if I meant Schaweliche, which it translated as Shawls.

I have not seen this name before, but it sounds more like a nickname, than a real first name.  Does this make sense?

I find it difficult not to believe that her real first name was Julia.  I mean really, would Gerson have had a child with Schawelche and then married and had more children with Julia of the same surname?  One would hope not.

I realize I am asking for an opinion, but I am unfamiliar with naming customs in Germany during this time period.  

Thank you for your assistance.]

Rich MEYERSBURG
Laurel, MD
rich.meyersburg@...

I recently had some birth notices translated from old written German by members of this SIG, and I am very grateful.  However in two of the instances, both from Hebenshausen in 1840, the births were described as unehelich, which was translated as illegitimate.
For one of the births, the father acknowledged as father of the children (anerkannt als Vater des Kind) and the child was listed as having the father's surname.

In the second birth, in the same town and to girls with the same surname, less than a week apart, the child was listed as unehelich, and the father's name was not provided.

My questions are this:

1.  Was this common?

2.  Was this due to a difficulty in obtaining services for either a religious or civil marriage? (in the first instance)

3. How was this usually treated by the community?

Thank you for your assistance.
Rich Meyersburg
Laurel MD
rich.meyersburg@...