My ggg-grandparents Sol HYMAN and Pauline LICHTENSTEIN came to US from Polish Russia / Russian Poland in 1840s.  i'm trying to narrow down where they came from specifically.

Their and their families' US census records are consistent through 1880.  In 1900 and 1910 the country of origin became Germany.  Nowhere I've looked have I been able to find territory that changed hands from Russia to Germany (Prussia) in those years.  Anyone know what may have happened?

Thank you,
Rob

I have always been told that Ashkenazi Jews do not name a child after a living relative. However, I am wondering if there is more nuance to this general practice. For example, I have seen one Latvian family tree where a father will be named Behr (Berel) and his two sons are named Nackman Berel and Itzig Behr. I have had some research on my own family done at the Latvian Archives and in at least one instance a father, Itzik, named his first son Hiam-Isaak. Was there some practice of using the father’s given name as a middle name for a first son or something along those lines?

I have a book in Cyrilic which was published after an extensive Oral
History project and which lists the victims of BabiYar

Is anyone interested in getting that to the Internet?

David Lewin
London

I had such a good response to my inquiry about Mexican records that I am motivated to try again for a French question.  A man named Joseph GRAND, born in Tomashev-Lubelski, Poland in 1879, came to the US in 1905.  He told his son that he had two half-brothers in France.  I have to assume they were somewhat older than he was and they came to France somewhat before him. His father was GRAND (original spelling), obviously and his mother was BLUM.  I have no idea of any other possible surname.  Are there any French immigration or census records from that period?

Thank you in advance for any help.

Sincerely,
Carol Isenberg Clingan
Dedham MA

Researching a possible connection between our family and the daughter
and son-in-law of R' Itzaleh of Volozhin, Rabbi Shmuel and Mrs. (?)
LANDAU. I am specifically interested in the names of ALL their
descendants. I capitilized ALL as I know of one daughter who married
REFAELSON .

TIA

Yoni Ben-Ari, Jerusalem

Sorry, Forgot to add that he had been found on lists working at the Carpathian Oil Co Lemburg as Leon David. No traces of him afterwards.

Hi, Marilyn. DNA testing might help decide if the Schaffers were the same family as the Schlifers. I agree that vowels can be disregarded in many cases. But for the ancestors to be closely related, they should have lived near each other. The other researchers may have taken your family’s data and incorporated into their trees. 

Linda Wolfe Kelley
Portland, OR, USA

Can anyone confirm that the above term-KATCHOP- in Ukranian refers to
someone who deals with lumber. It appears in one of Chaim Nachman
Bialik (Israel's national author) as such. I believe also in other
jewish literary sources.

TIA

Yoni Ben-Ari, Jerusalem

My Father's brother Leon was born in 1912. All traces of him have been gone after the war. Leon was my father's oldest brother. He was last seen by my father in the Plaszow concentration camp sometime between June 22- September, 1944. Leon did not return nor was any trace of him found after the war. I would like to know what happened to him. I have searched on Ancestry, JewishGen and the Arolsen Collection. If anyone has ANY information, I would be eternally grateful!

Hello, Connie,
DNA testing might help sort out relatives. It would be great if you, and some of the Levines and Abrams all got tested, then upload to GEDmatch.

If you want help, let me know.

Linda Wolfe Kelley
Portland, OR

Do you think having a lawyer expedited the process or made it easier? If so, could you please share or PM the name of your attorney? I'm finding gathering the necessary documents daunting. I'm also worried because my German is so poor. Thank you.

--
Barbara Ellman
Secaucus NJ USA
HASSMAN, SONENTHAL, DAUERMAN, LUCHS - Drohobycz, Ukraine
HIRSCHHORN, GOLDSTEIN, BUCHWALD - Dolyna, Ukraine
ELLMAN, COIRA, MAIDMAN - Minkovtsy, Ukraine
KAGLE, FASS - Ulanow, Poland

... and the judgement could be found at
<https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Entscheidungen/DE/2020/05/rk20200520_2bvr262818.html>
reference number: - 2 BvR 2628/18 -

Ernst-Peter Winter, Münster (Hessen)

Am 18.06.20 um 14:24 schrieb David Seldner:

My great great grandmother, Gittle ABRAMOWITZ, came to New Haven, Ct.
somewhere between 1870 and 1890 as a widow with four youngish
orphans. The childrens' names were David (?), Sarah, Meir and Kalman.
She may have remarried on the way from Novarodok (from where she left)
and her family name may have changed.

She supposedly was in the silversmith trade (with her second husband).
One child, Meir (my great grandfather) as a child was sent to
Jerusalem (then Palestine) and the other 3 stayed in the USA. David,
the eldest, went to Boston and eventually got a job in a dept.store .
Again ,supposedly, rose to managerial level . At some point in her
life she married a LAZAROFF from London.

Sarah seems to have had a grandson, Tom, who lived ( and studied ?)
in Boston. He was about my mother's age, (b. 1914). Father may not
have been jewish. Sarah and her husband (name unknown to me) lived
and/or vacationed on Coney Island, NYC, during the 1930s

The problem with the credibility of the above data is that it derives
primarily from an autobiography of one of Meir's granddaughters which
was garnered by information received by word of mouth ("supposedly"
above). The writer of this autobiography says in the introduction
that her book " is oral history" rather than sources based. Also some
of the information is based on interviews with elderly family members
who are no longer with us.

Gittle was also supposedly related to Rabbi Isaac Simcha HOROWITZ of
Hartford, Ct. who passed away in 1936. That is my guess why she came
to New Haven in the first place (but then again why not to Hartford?)

If the above sounds familiar to anyone or can be confirmed somehow in
New Haven, I would be very grateful to hear.

BTW, the autobiography mentioned above is called : "A Child of the Desert"
by Adina Katzoff (ne ABRAMOWITZ)

Yoni Ben-Ari, Jerusalem

I have been trying to find information on my great grandfather Harry H. Klayman for many years but can never find anything after he left Petersburg, VA around 1907.
We believe we emigrated from Germany or Poland and was born on June 28, 1871. He married Martha Lamb in 1892 a native of Petersburg, VA and they had 5 daughters.
I cannot find any emigration records on him and last documented information for him was a 1900 census taken in Petersburg, VA of which they spelled the last name Clayman.
When he left Petersburg at the age 30 not trace of him can be found. I do have a photo of him attached to this request.

If anyone has knowledge about him, please let me know.