1. Topics
  2. Tombstone Inscription Questions

Tombstone Inscription Questions #general

Win <winks@...>
 

I just visited grandpa, Abraham KRONE, who died in 1918, in the cemetery
for the first time. As I'm new to genealogy, I have a couple of
questions.

1. How important is the Hebrew inscription? Is it usually the same as
the English? How can I get it translated?
2. While his death Certificate indicates that he died at age 45, the
tombstone states that he died at age 48. What do you think of that? I
don't have any verification of his birth date.

Thanks, Win Segal
Susan&David
 

The Hebrew tombstone inscription may have some information that will be
useful to you, usually the date of death in the Jewish calendar and the
decease'd father's first name.

The following web-page >from the Cemetery Project provides some help in
translating tombstones.

http://www.jewishgen.org/Cemetery/SAMPLAN.HTM#appendixd

It is not unusual at all to find conflicting birth dates or ages,
especially for persons born in the 19th century when civil record keeping
was spotty, and more especially for Eastern European births where
survival often meant concealing the truth >from the tax man and the army.

David Rosen
Boston, MA

Win wrote:

I just visited grandpa, Abraham KRONE, who died in 1918, in the cemetery
for the first time. As I'm new to genealogy, I have a couple of
questions.

1. How important is the Hebrew inscription? Is it usually the same as
the English? How can I get it translated?
2. While his death Certificate indicates that he died at age 45, the
tombstone states that he died at age 48. What do you think of that? I
don't have any verification of his birth date.

Thanks, Win Segal
hennynow
 

Let me add that Russia in the 19th century and early 20th century was
still on the old Roman calendar, and consequently 13 days behind the
Western European and American calendar.
In my family, we never knew when to celebrate my father's birthday, Dec.
7 or Dec. 20. So, we played it safe and, because he was born on the 5th
day of Chanukah, that's when we partied in his honor!

Henny Roth
Colin Plen
 

As far as I am concerned the main thing about a tombstone is that it tells
you the name of Grandpa's father. If his name was Avraham ben Yitzchak then
you have a step up your family tree cos now you know that Great Grampa's
name was Yitzchak
Colin Plen
Jewish genealogical Socety Johannesburg

From: IsraelP <zach4v6@...>
To: JewishGen Discussion Group <jewishgen@...>
Subject: Re: jewishgen digest: March 21, 2000
Date: Wednesday, March 22, 2000 10:34 AM


I just visited grandpa, Abraham KRONE, who died in 1918, in the
cemetery for the first time. As I'm new to genealogy, I have a couple
of questions.

1. How important is the Hebrew inscription?
Probably very.
It may for instance say he was a kohen, which the English probably
would not.

Is it usually the same as the English?
People write what they want. There are no rules. The layout can
tell you something - number of words etc.

How can I get it translated?
Photo, scan, put it online and ask JewishGen people to take a look.

While his death Certificate indicates that he died at age 45, the
tombstone states that he died at age 48. What do you think of that? I
don't have any verification of his birth date.
"Hewn in stone" doesn't always mean it's correct. The stone
people make mistakes too. I have an aunt with a similar problem - stone
says 45 instead of 43.

Thanks, Win Segal
Israel Pickholtz
see the Pikholz Project at http://www.geocities.com/pikholz

mailto:zach4v6@...
1 - 4 of 4