In Jewish law, an uncle may marry his niece, but an aunt may not marry her nephew. What people actually did is something else, sometimes. My 2nd ggrandfather married his niece after his first wife die

#general

The Jewish Communities Database on Jewishgen gives the names of a place in Yiddish, Polish, Russian, whatever is appropriate. The only drawback is that it only has big Jewish Communities, so if your f

#translation #yiddish #poland

"A "Phonetically like" search on Surname can get odd results for Suwalki records. For example, searching "Silberman" I find a low percentage of odd given names that include : Sorry, Well then, The cir

#poland

Actually, Sam was very popular as a secular name, as it wasn't seen as 'odd' like some Jewish given names. Schwartz (Gerrman) and Szwarc (Polish) are both Black. Sam is most likely Schmul, but could b

#names

He picked a day and stuck with it. His birth record apparently says the 22nd, and, if the record was made about the 22nd, it is right. His parents knew the date on the Jewish calendar, not the Christi

#romania #records #yizkorbooks

Neither mt-DNA nor Y-DNA crosses over in meiosis, so neither changes much over many centuries. With either of these you will get a code for a supposed ancestor in the all - female or all - male line a

#dna

"I am searching for my great grandmother's immigration entry to America. Ive searched many times and ways. Jennie Baer- born 1887 in Salat Russia," Did she marry before she came to the US? Where did s

#general #lithuania #usa

Women's name change with marriage, so generally the norm is to record a woman by her maiden name. Every online genealogy program, EXCEPT Geni, follows this. Since women often married 3 or 4 times in E

#records #general

Tell them we have to work with the records that exist. Where my mother's mother's family came from, there aren't many records. There was a fire at City Hall at the turn of the 20th century. But I foun

#general #lithuania #records

"But the mothers are different. So what do you think, name variations or dad had a 2nd spouse:" Sorry, but my ggrandmother was one of 20 kids born to the only Jewish couple in a tiny town. Her mother'

#names

War, pestilence, and famine haven't been mentioned. A cousin of mine who came to the US from Augustow, Suwalki gubernia said, on his naturalization papers (both sets) that he was born in Marseilles. E

#lithuania #ukraine

This was not only in Ukraine. My Ruslander family, which arrived about 1835 from farther East and took that surname, by 1870 lived in Augustow, Raczki, Sztabiin, Rajgrod, Marjampol, Alinka, Nur, and m

#ukraine

Worldcat.org says it is Frumkin by Eben Shemuel, in Hebrew. It is available in Zurich. Sally Bruckheimer Princeton, NJ

#rabbinic #hungary

Sometimes registering a birth wasn't done because many babies died, so why bother. Male babies could be drafted later, of course, outside the Kingdom of Poland, as young as 8. Things changed over time

#poland #records

Lithuanian town names have 'odd' endings. We are used to Vilna, but now it is Lithuania, it is Vilnius. But Wadzi is not particularly like either of those. In the Jewishgen Gazetteer, there are a lot

#poland #lithuania #belarus #russia #germany

"what are the best strategies for researching all the cousins and relatives who also came over but where I don't know names for sure or who their children are." You do this the same way you find your

#records

"My great-grandfather's surname was Hoffert. However, looking at records for his newly discovered siblings show various spellings of the surname, Hoffort and Hoffart. Given they all lived in NYC, I am

#names

"I can tell you that the marriage cerificates are separate from Marriage licenses and applications. These two are bundled together and in the past, unless they have changed, you had to go in person to

#records

Markus or Max were typically men with the Hebrew name Mordechai, Moses would be a second choice, but anything is possible. Sometimes a man with whatever Hebrew name might choose to call himself someth

#lithuania #names

"I wanted to repost this on the new discussion group and in case there are now members who may have additional information . . . please see the below questions. If indeed this Rebbetzin Rivka was buri

#rabbinic