We now have in stock copies of Volumes 5 & 6 of "Migrations >from the
Russian Empire." The information about dates covered had been erroneously
given to us. The correct dates are:

Volume 5 June 1889 - July 1890
Volume 6 August 1890 - June 1891.

The volumes are an index to persons arriving in the Port of New York from
January 1875 - June 1891 who came >from the area that was czarist Russia.

Gary Mokotoff, Publisher
Avotaynu, Inc.

Visit our Web site at http://www.avotaynu.com

I am working on a research problem, trying to find my greatgrandfathers
second marriage records, any divorce records that may accset for a wife
who never left Russia. Would NY records be the place, he divorced or
somehow in Russia. The time frame is 1899-1901. After 1901 he was living
in Toronto with his second wife. Then somehow, his children, who were
living in Russia were in his custody in Canada.
I know NY has groom and bride index and health dept. records, what else?
Where are the divorce records or the index of them?
Thanks for any help, this is my biggest research question.

Gayle Riley in San Gabriel, Ca
South of Pasadena.

We now have in stock copies of Volumes 5 & 6 of "Migrations >from the
Russian Empire." The information about dates covered had been erroneously
given to us. The correct dates are:

Volume 5 June 1889 - July 1890
Volume 6 August 1890 - June 1891.

The volumes are an index to persons arriving in the Port of New York from
January 1875 - June 1891 who came >from the area that was czarist Russia.

Gary Mokotoff, Publisher
Avotaynu, Inc.

Visit our Web site at http://www.avotaynu.com

I am working on a research problem, trying to find my greatgrandfathers
second marriage records, any divorce records that may accset for a wife
who never left Russia. Would NY records be the place, he divorced or
somehow in Russia. The time frame is 1899-1901. After 1901 he was living
in Toronto with his second wife. Then somehow, his children, who were
living in Russia were in his custody in Canada.
I know NY has groom and bride index and health dept. records, what else?
Where are the divorce records or the index of them?
Thanks for any help, this is my biggest research question.

Gayle Riley in San Gabriel, Ca
South of Pasadena.

Dear Peter Nagurney < Pyotr@aol.com>

Have you tried looking at the microfiche AVOTAYNU sells of the list of
towns -- in alphabetical order -- in Galicia??? Maybe you can find the correct
Polish type spelling for this time that way? Also, you might want to check
Where Once We Walked for its listing of shtetlach, both by spelling and by
Daitch-Mokotoff soundexing. (It looks like Sasha soundexes here by their system
to 440000, and some possibilities listed include Ceaca, Cece, Chesa, Csecse,
Sycze among others.... (I didn't check what countries these were in. )
I found the correct spelling for my grandfather's Galician town of Lifsh
by consulting the microfiche. It turned out to be spelled LIWCZE....
Bona fortuna!

My family claims my great grandfather came >from Sawcha, Galicia.
Sawcha is the phonetic pronounciation, ...
Peter Nagurney
Syracuse, NY

Shalom,
Judith Shulamith Langer-Surnamer Caplan, Long Beach, NY

Researching: APPELBAUM, BALINKY, BERNHARDT, BOCHUR, FLIEGEL, LANGER, LEPAR,
NACHUMOVITZ, RODITI, SHAMIS, SURNAMER/ ZURINAMER, WEBER

Dear Peter Nagurney < Pyotr@aol.com>

Have you tried looking at the microfiche AVOTAYNU sells of the list of
towns -- in alphabetical order -- in Galicia??? Maybe you can find the correct
Polish type spelling for this time that way? Also, you might want to check
Where Once We Walked for its listing of shtetlach, both by spelling and by
Daitch-Mokotoff soundexing. (It looks like Sasha soundexes here by their system
to 440000, and some possibilities listed include Ceaca, Cece, Chesa, Csecse,
Sycze among others.... (I didn't check what countries these were in. )
I found the correct spelling for my grandfather's Galician town of Lifsh
by consulting the microfiche. It turned out to be spelled LIWCZE....
Bona fortuna!

My family claims my great grandfather came >from Sawcha, Galicia.
Sawcha is the phonetic pronounciation, ...
Peter Nagurney
Syracuse, NY

Shalom,
Judith Shulamith Langer-Surnamer Caplan, Long Beach, NY

Researching: APPELBAUM, BALINKY, BERNHARDT, BOCHUR, FLIEGEL, LANGER, LEPAR,
NACHUMOVITZ, RODITI, SHAMIS, SURNAMER/ ZURINAMER, WEBER

The November meeting of the PIKES PEAK AREA JGS will take place on
Thursday, November 19, 1998 at 7:30 PM. The meeting will take place at
Temple Shalom, 1523 E Monument St, Colorado Springs, CO . All interested
persons are invited to attend. Bring you genealogy problems! For further
information , call Bob Fineberg , (719) 578-5370 or Sharon Kushner (719)
594-4350.

The November meeting of the PIKES PEAK AREA JGS will take place on
Thursday, November 19, 1998 at 7:30 PM. The meeting will take place at
Temple Shalom, 1523 E Monument St, Colorado Springs, CO . All interested
persons are invited to attend. Bring you genealogy problems! For further
information , call Bob Fineberg , (719) 578-5370 or Sharon Kushner (719)
594-4350.

am looking for WAKSMAN >from Ozarow, Poland.
Zalmon WAKSMAN m Chanah Esther ?
Hersh Labe m ?
Chaim
Berle
Icek m Maria Mirla (Miriam) WAKSMAN
Szyja m ?
Berek (Benjamin) m Ruchla DAYEN
Perla m ?
Fajwel m ?
Zalmon and Chana Esther had more children but I haven't finished
translating the films yet....Berek (known as Benjamin in USA) was the
only one that is known to have left
Poland....others might have but contact was lost during WW1....if anyone
has any information reply to <sswnola@earthlink.net>

Thank you,
Suzanne S. Waxman
New Orleans, LA

am looking for WAKSMAN >from Ozarow, Poland.
Zalmon WAKSMAN m Chanah Esther ?
Hersh Labe m ?
Chaim
Berle
Icek m Maria Mirla (Miriam) WAKSMAN
Szyja m ?
Berek (Benjamin) m Ruchla DAYEN
Perla m ?
Fajwel m ?
Zalmon and Chana Esther had more children but I haven't finished
translating the films yet....Berek (known as Benjamin in USA) was the
only one that is known to have left
Poland....others might have but contact was lost during WW1....if anyone
has any information reply to <sswnola@earthlink.net>

Thank you,
Suzanne S. Waxman
New Orleans, LA

Shalom,

Calvin Weil wrote about Bransker Landsmanschaft:

I would like to contact anyone who has access to the records of this
landsmanschaft, or knows how to get in touch with the organization (if it
still exists).

There was a recent query about the shtetl, Bransk, in Bialystok province. >Title: JEWELS AND ASHES by Arnold Zable (parents' name:ZABLUDOWSKI)
Publ.: HARCOURT BRACE in Orlando, Florida ISBN: 0-15-146348-4

Susan Pearlman, Northridge, California

I would like to recommend another newly published book: "Jewish BIALYSTOK
and surroundings in Eastern Poland"
written by Tomasz Wisniewski with foreword by Mimi Sheraton,
published by "The Ipswich Press", 1998, ISBN 0-938864-22-X.
The book includes historical materials, lists of names deciphered
by the author in Bialistok cemetery, background and information
about Tykocin, Bialystok and small towns in the surrounding area.

See more about it in my web page:
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/4017/BIALISTO.HTM

The book includes also lists of names deciphered by the author from
some of the remnants of the Jewish cemeteries of the towns.

I would also draw your attention to a TV film, shown in Israel on channel
1 on Yom Ha'Shoa 5/5/1997 called: "A Shtetl" and is about Bransk and
the quest one Jew who was a child in the Holocasut (sorry I forgot his name)
in search of his hometown Bransk. He wrote to the municipality of Bransk,
telling them he is a Jew who seeks his roots. Amazingly enough, he got an
answer >from a young Polish historian >from Bransk name Zbigniew Romaniuk.
Thus started a long and unique friendship, during which this researcher
visited Bransk with a Jewish old sick man, Natan Kaplan >from Chicago (who
died while the film was shot) and they researched the Holocasut and
what really happened there. It was an overwhelming movie and I mostly
remember that the three of them interviewed a 90 years old blind Pole who
told them about the Aktion while his Jewish friends, the family of Gwaserman

from Bransk departed >from him and then took poison, while on the wagon which was

supposed to take them to the train (headed to Treblinka).
This man said - "how could any one live normal life after witnessing this - there
stopped humanity"...
The visit followed by a reciprocal visit of Zbigniew Romaniuk in Israel and
America. During those years, Zbigniew Romaniuk removed matzevot from
various farms and houses and put them back in the old deserted Jewish
cemetery of Bransk (For this meritorious deed he was recently commended and granted
a medal by the Israeli Embassy in Krakow last July).

But in the end, when Zbigniew Romaniuk was elected as the mayor of
Bransk, there was celebration in town - its 500 anniversary. In his speech
to the celebrating crowd, he wouldn't speak a single word about the Jews of Bransk
who lived there for hundreds of years... Thus ended the friendship and thus ended
the film "SHTETL" about the lost small town of Bransk where once we walked...


Ada Holtzman
Web site:http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/4017/

Shalom,

Calvin Weil wrote about Bransker Landsmanschaft:

I would like to contact anyone who has access to the records of this
landsmanschaft, or knows how to get in touch with the organization (if it
still exists).

There was a recent query about the shtetl, Bransk, in Bialystok province. >Title: JEWELS AND ASHES by Arnold Zable (parents' name:ZABLUDOWSKI)
Publ.: HARCOURT BRACE in Orlando, Florida ISBN: 0-15-146348-4

Susan Pearlman, Northridge, California

I would like to recommend another newly published book: "Jewish BIALYSTOK
and surroundings in Eastern Poland"
written by Tomasz Wisniewski with foreword by Mimi Sheraton,
published by "The Ipswich Press", 1998, ISBN 0-938864-22-X.
The book includes historical materials, lists of names deciphered
by the author in Bialistok cemetery, background and information
about Tykocin, Bialystok and small towns in the surrounding area.

See more about it in my web page:
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/4017/BIALISTO.HTM

The book includes also lists of names deciphered by the author from
some of the remnants of the Jewish cemeteries of the towns.

I would also draw your attention to a TV film, shown in Israel on channel
1 on Yom Ha'Shoa 5/5/1997 called: "A Shtetl" and is about Bransk and
the quest one Jew who was a child in the Holocasut (sorry I forgot his name)
in search of his hometown Bransk. He wrote to the municipality of Bransk,
telling them he is a Jew who seeks his roots. Amazingly enough, he got an
answer >from a young Polish historian >from Bransk name Zbigniew Romaniuk.
Thus started a long and unique friendship, during which this researcher
visited Bransk with a Jewish old sick man, Natan Kaplan >from Chicago (who
died while the film was shot) and they researched the Holocasut and
what really happened there. It was an overwhelming movie and I mostly
remember that the three of them interviewed a 90 years old blind Pole who
told them about the Aktion while his Jewish friends, the family of Gwaserman

from Bransk departed >from him and then took poison, while on the wagon which was

supposed to take them to the train (headed to Treblinka).
This man said - "how could any one live normal life after witnessing this - there
stopped humanity"...
The visit followed by a reciprocal visit of Zbigniew Romaniuk in Israel and
America. During those years, Zbigniew Romaniuk removed matzevot from
various farms and houses and put them back in the old deserted Jewish
cemetery of Bransk (For this meritorious deed he was recently commended and granted
a medal by the Israeli Embassy in Krakow last July).

But in the end, when Zbigniew Romaniuk was elected as the mayor of
Bransk, there was celebration in town - its 500 anniversary. In his speech
to the celebrating crowd, he wouldn't speak a single word about the Jews of Bransk
who lived there for hundreds of years... Thus ended the friendship and thus ended
the film "SHTETL" about the lost small town of Bransk where once we walked...


Ada Holtzman
Web site:http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/4017/

The largest funeral home in Boston is Schlossberg.Stanetsky. There is one in
Canton, Ma and I am sure that there are others in Brookline/Newton. Also
somewhere in the jewish gen data files there are obituaries listed >from the
Jewish Advocate - the primary Jewish newspaper in the area. It is still in
existence. You should find some information there.

Stewart Levy

The largest funeral home in Boston is Schlossberg.Stanetsky. There is one in
Canton, Ma and I am sure that there are others in Brookline/Newton. Also
somewhere in the jewish gen data files there are obituaries listed >from the
Jewish Advocate - the primary Jewish newspaper in the area. It is still in
existence. You should find some information there.

Stewart Levy

A further note about the names ISAAC and ISAACS.

The Sephardi congregation in London published in 1949 a list of the Ketubot

from the earliest days until 1837. The volume was edited by the eminent

Sephardi historian Lionel D. Barnett.

The editor referred to the marriages between Sephardim amd Ashkenazim
('members of the Tudesco ... community'). He identified the Ashkenazim by
surnames and patronymics. Among the former he included both ISAAC and
ISAACS as Ashkenazi names.

Incidentally Barnett also mentioned the days on which weddings were held.
'Wednesday was greatly in vogue; and, contrary to the prevailing practice,
many marriages also took place on Friday and on the days immediately
preceding the Festivals.'

Harold Pollins
Oxford England

pollins@globalnet.co.uk

A further note about the names ISAAC and ISAACS.

The Sephardi congregation in London published in 1949 a list of the Ketubot

from the earliest days until 1837. The volume was edited by the eminent

Sephardi historian Lionel D. Barnett.

The editor referred to the marriages between Sephardim amd Ashkenazim
('members of the Tudesco ... community'). He identified the Ashkenazim by
surnames and patronymics. Among the former he included both ISAAC and
ISAACS as Ashkenazi names.

Incidentally Barnett also mentioned the days on which weddings were held.
'Wednesday was greatly in vogue; and, contrary to the prevailing practice,
many marriages also took place on Friday and on the days immediately
preceding the Festivals.'

Harold Pollins
Oxford England

pollins@globalnet.co.uk

The JGS (NY) is sponsoring a 2-evening program for beginners. The program,
Researching Your Family History, will be held on two Thursdays, November 12th
& 19th, 7:00-9:00pm, at the 92nd St Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY.
Learn how to gather information >from you relatives. Discover the wide range
of library and archival resources available locally and elsewhere. Topics
include naming traditions, vital records, cemeteries, computer technology,
census and naturalization records, passenger lists, yizkor books, Holocaust
research, finding survivors, and researching in Eastern Europe. Two sessions,
$40 (includes 100+ page syllabus). Pre-registration required. Register
through the Y, either in person, by mail or telephone. Call 212-996-1100.

Estelle Guzik
Pres. JGS (NY)

PS Join us at the 19th Annual Conference on Jewish Genealogy, August 8-13,
1999! Hold these dates. Check our web-site for more information as it
develops.http://members.aol.com/nyc99conf

The JGS (NY) is sponsoring a 2-evening program for beginners. The program,
Researching Your Family History, will be held on two Thursdays, November 12th
& 19th, 7:00-9:00pm, at the 92nd St Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY.
Learn how to gather information >from you relatives. Discover the wide range
of library and archival resources available locally and elsewhere. Topics
include naming traditions, vital records, cemeteries, computer technology,
census and naturalization records, passenger lists, yizkor books, Holocaust
research, finding survivors, and researching in Eastern Europe. Two sessions,
$40 (includes 100+ page syllabus). Pre-registration required. Register
through the Y, either in person, by mail or telephone. Call 212-996-1100.

Estelle Guzik
Pres. JGS (NY)

PS Join us at the 19th Annual Conference on Jewish Genealogy, August 8-13,
1999! Hold these dates. Check our web-site for more information as it
develops.http://members.aol.com/nyc99conf

Dear Helen,
You can access the National Archives at http://www.nara.gov. >from there, go
to the Genealogy Page, and then to the list of regional facilities. You should
be able to request naturalization records online, and possibly have them in
hand in a couple of weeks. I got naturalization records this way >from Waltham
and Laguna Niguel.
Sue Seales
researching: FREEDMAN, Siluva,Lith. BOYARSKY,Grodno ROSENTHAL,ZELENY,Odessa
ROSENTHAL,BLUESTEIN,Wegrow,Pol.

Dear Helen,
You can access the National Archives at http://www.nara.gov. >from there, go
to the Genealogy Page, and then to the list of regional facilities. You should
be able to request naturalization records online, and possibly have them in
hand in a couple of weeks. I got naturalization records this way >from Waltham
and Laguna Niguel.
Sue Seales
researching: FREEDMAN, Siluva,Lith. BOYARSKY,Grodno ROSENTHAL,ZELENY,Odessa
ROSENTHAL,BLUESTEIN,Wegrow,Pol.