A question for our Ontario and Quebec experts:
I met with a cousin in New York last week concerning the
mystery of the arrival records of my great-grandfather
Aron TALALAY-TALALAI-TALALAJ, of Vorotinschtina (Zaverezhye),
an agricultural colony south-southwest of Mogilev, Belarus.
He was born there in 1876. According to family history, he spent
6 weeks in the UK before arriving in Canada sometime in late
summer 1905, spent about 6 weeks (over the Jewish holidays)
in Canada and then took the train to New York on 31 October,
arriving 1 November (info >from petition for US naturalization).
He was joined by his wife Riva BANK TALALAY and their two
small children Leib (2) and Chaya Feige (5 months) in December,
traveling direct >from Hamburg to New York.

Some 6 years ago I checked line by line of the St. Alban's
and Montreal manifests, finding no similar name that could
possibly be my GGF. Of course, a false name could have been given.

The family story is that he went to Canada to visit two
brothers there. I have never been able to find any information
on any similar name in Quebec or in Ontario.

My cousin related last week that he had spoken at length with my
great-grandmother Riva (Aaron's wife), who died in 1963, and
he reports that Riva indicated there were two brothers. Although
I have not followed this up recently, several years ago I did check
what online immigration records/indices. A cousin in Toronto
also attempted to check with no results.

It has occurred to me that if the brothers settled in Quebec
they may have adopted a more French-like spelling to the name.
In the US, TALALAY relatives have adopted TOLLIN, TALLIN,
TOLL, TAYLOR, TALL (as well as FEINSTEIN in Philadelphia!).
Others used TALABAJE (Leeds UK) or TALABAYE. The Toronto cousins
(Mogilev-Moscow-Berlin-London and then to Toronto) use TALALAY,
but arrived only after WWII, with no knowledge of this
other branch.

Is there perhaps something new on the scene for Quebec and
Ontario that might provide new insight into these possible brothers?
However, my conversation last week about Aaron's
"two brothers" are leading me to return to this possibility.
I remember vaguely that THALLALLE or similar shows up in
Quebec records (possibly census records?), but have no
idea if this could be TALALAY in a French form.

And as far as Riva's Canadian connection, we know that a
relative of Riva,perhaps with BANK surname (he was called Fetr
(Uncle) Beryl) but have no records that BANK was the surname
he used (supposedly he lived with a married daughter,
no names recorded). Uncle Beryl visited New York in 1923
to prepare a newly arrived cousin for his bar mitzvah and
then returned to Canada. Another cousin insists that their
mother (Riva's sister) visited Canada for the funeral of this
man who supposedly died in the 1950s well over the age of 100
(he was quite old in 1923, according to the bar mitzvah
boy whom I interviewed about 8 years ago).

I have tried in the past to see if records of people who
died at advanced ages are available in a special gerontological
category, had contacted the Jewish funeral homes to see if
any possibilities exist. There were a few BANK, some BANKS,
but none whose histories coincided with what I knew at the
time.

Any new insights into these two situations would be very welcome.

Best wishes,

Schelly Talalay Dardashti
Tel Aviv
schelly@...
schelly@...

Subject: For our Ontario and Quebec experts

A question for our Ontario and Quebec experts:
I met with a cousin in New York last week concerning the
mystery of the arrival records of my great-grandfather
Aron TALALAY

He was born there in 1876. According to family history, he spent
(over the Jewish holidays) in Canada and then took the train to New York

Some 6 years ago I checked line by line of the St. Alban's
and Montreal manifests, finding no similar name that could
possibly be my GGF. Of course, a false name could have been given.

The family story is that he went to Canada to visit two
brothers there. I have never been able to find any information
on any similar name in Quebec or in Ontario.

Reply

Yes there is something new in Quebec records. Canadian census enumerators
asked questions about religion as well as ethnicity in different decades.

Glen Eker of Hamilton, Ontario is publishing a series of books that detail
Jewish residents recorded in various Canadian censuses.

He is doing this through the Ontario Genea. Society (see Toronto). So far
there are two published.
http://www.ogs.on.ca/publications/search/index.php
Jews Resident in Ontario According to the 1851 to 1901 Censuses of Canada

The book on Quebec has recently been sent to the publisher.

If one thinks that the relatives in question were in a Quebec city (or any
Ontario location) in 1901, then these publications may be of interest. Of
course all the problems of surname variation as discussed remain, but family
groupings are self-evident in these census records.

I will enquire of Mr. Eker whether he would entertain off-line queries.

Barry Spinner
President JGS - Hamilton & area

Barry Spinner <bspinner@...> wrote:

Glen Eker of Hamilton, Ontario is publishing a series of books that detail
Jewish residents recorded in various Canadian censuses.
He is doing this through the Ontario Genea. Society (see Toronto). So far
there are two published.
http://www.ogs.on.ca/publications/search/index.php
Jews Resident in Ontario According to the 1851 to 1901 Censuses of Canada
The book on Quebec has recently been sent to the publisher.

Sounds like this may be very useful.

Any idea when volumes for Western Canada might appear?

Robert Israel israel@...
Vancouver, BC, Canada

Also, I would like to point out that the 1901 Census is currently being
indexed and is what is completed is available at
http://automatedgenealogy.com/census/NationalSummary.jsp

This is a volunteer project that anyone can assist with if they have the
time, anyone doing Canadian Research for that time period should have a
look.


Judi McNairn