In a past posting, it was stated that there were an extraordinary number of
fraternal lodges of mutual aid, benevolent, sick-and-benefit, burial and
free loan societies formed by the immigrants themselves. These societies
also provided a sense of belonging, a place to preserve their dignity when
they fell on hard times. It was also a way of preserving familiar ties to
the Old World. In 1900 there were over 1,000 societies in New York and by
1935 well over
3000.

Any idea how to identify institutions that may have records related to a
particular family or community, given that I have a timeline of their
presence in Manhattan and Brooklyn and information about Public Schools
attended ? Or ways of getting more family information? I have records
identified in the following summary, some >from a deceased uncle's letters
and some >from records publicly available.

My Yudelowitz/Lane family came to New York in 1912. My uncle Sam Yudelowitz
(name later changed to Sam Lane for business purposes), born May 1909, and
younger brother Morris, were accompanied on the ship by mother Bertha.
reports the family initially lived in Lower East Side, Monroe St., Henry
Street, Governier Street above a pool parlor, 21 or 15 Rutgers Place (a
one-block long street). He entered public School at age 3, P.S. 31 in
Manhattan.

The family, headed by father Abraham Isaac Yudelowitz, moved to Brooklyn
where he attended P.S. 21 and P.S. 148.

Between 1916-1921 (9-22-1916, grade 1A, to 9-12-21, grade 6B) my uncle Sam
attended P.S. 147 at 325 Bushwick Avenue. The family lived at 183 Mc Kibben
Street at the time.

He transferred to P.S. 43 after this. In 1918 when his father Abraham
Yudelowitz provided his WW I Draft Registration he identified his employer
as the Jewish Aid Society, and that he was a laborer.

Abraham died in 1924, my grandmother Bertha was naturalized in 1925, and
she, Sam and Sam's brother Morris took the maiden name of Bertha, Lane, as
their names. At some point the youngest child of Abraham and Bertha, Belle,
was sent to an orphanage or other institution - any idea of how to find her?
Belle Yudelowitz later rejoined the family.

She had two sisters born in the U.S. after the boys but before Belle, my
mother Sarah and Beckie (Alice).
I could not locate a 1915 New York Census record for the family, but found
them in 1920 and 1925 Censuses.

Thanks for any ideas.

Jeff Miller
Maryland

How does one obtain the incorporation papers for a burial society?

I've been researching the Gottzolowai Benevolent Association at Mt.
Zion the past few days, trying to figure out which town it was
associated with, by picking names at random and looking for where
they came from. Didn't find much, but what I did find did not seem
to lead to one place.

What I did see was that in 1905-1910 just about everyone in the
Association was living in the East 40s between 1st and 2nd Avenues,
an ethnically diverse neighborhood of slaughterhouses and one that
was completely new to me. Almost everyone in the association had
someone working at a slaughterhouse. In several cases I found
households living in the same building - as many as four in one
case, including the relative I was researching. Among those not
working at a slaughterhouse were a few shopkeepers and a physician,
but all living within a few blocks of each other.

I definitely see some family connections among the people I looked at,
but it seems to me that what these people have in common is probably
the neighborhood or possibly the slaughterhouses themselves.

I'd appreciate anything anyone can add. In addition to being interested
in the Association, I would love to find any photos of what the now
massively-transformed district looked like at the time.

Deborah Barr
San Francisco, CA
Researching LUMER, GURIEVSKY, TINKLER, OLITSKY in Bessarabia; BARR,
SELTZER Moghilev-Podolsky, Briceni

Jeff Miller posted requesting information about "fraternal lodges of
mutual aid, benevolent, sick-and-benefit, burial and free loan
societies formed by the immigrants themselves. .... In 1900 there were
over 1,000 societies in New York...
Any idea how to identify institutions that may have records related to a
particular family or community,"

Jeff, i wouldbegin with the Jewish Communal Register of 1918. This was
a survey of communal organizations in New York City and it has been
digitized on Google Books. For landsmanshaftenand other societies it
contains lists of officers, names and addresses. find it at The
Jewish Communal Register of New York City, 1917-1918...
https://books.google.com/books?id=islKAQAAMAAJ

For the orphanages...first try the census as the inmates at the Jewish
Orphanages were included. Note that many inmates were there
temporarily when their parents could not care for them. Second option
is the query at the Center for Jewish History which has listings from
some of the major orphanages...at
http://genealogy.cjh.org/familycollections.php
Last option is the HOH Jewish Orphanage Site that is no longer
online...but do try the the wayback machine which archived many of the
orphanage pages; you'll find the archive at https://archive.org/
Or, you could consider our New York Genealogy Class in August
(www.jewishgen.org/education)

happy hunting
Phyllis Kramer, New York City, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla
V.P.Education, JewishGen Inc: www.JewishGen.org/education
Researching (all Galicia) ...KRAMER, BEIM >from Jasienica Rosielna
...SCHEINER, KANDEL >from Strzyzow & Dubiecko ...LINDNER, EICHEL from
Rohatyn, Burstyn ...STECHER, TRACHMAN >from Nowy Zmigrod, Dukla
family web site: KehilaLinks.JewishGen.org/Krosno/Kramer.htm

Seems like this is partially a question about the groups and partially
a family specific question.

The question about the organizations: These existed as social and
burial groups and there are several sources about them. Starting the
Brooklyn JGS has a good database of the burial organizations that
tracks which cemetery they have plots in. Also the incorporation
papers for the organizations that went that route (to set up a formal
organization registered with the government) those organization papers
still exist and you can get a copy. And for the organizations that
survived to pass on their records most of them went to Yivo which has
them in their library.

However most of the organizations did not keep details on the
individuals especially I saw a question about schools and state census.
That is a separate research project.

Allan Jordan

Many of the societies you speak of were formed around several things.
What I think is the most common is the community you came >from in
Europe. For example, my maternal family came >from Kolomea/Kolomyja.
They were part of the Workmen's Circle, Kolomea Branch, and my
immigrant grandparents were buried there in NJ. That was for those
who were not ultraorthodox. As time went by, other groups became
popular like the Knights of Pythias. They were not really a Jewish
group. Membership was just based on "belief in a Supreme Being" or
monotheism. But they had cemetery plots around the country.

I would recommend as a starting point, the location of the burial of
your relatives. Jewish cemeteries are often marked off by the
fraternal organization which sold the plot to its member. If your
family was poor, they might have been buried by the Hebrew Free
Burial Society.

Shelley Mitchell
Brooklyn, New York

As an example of what one can find on landsmannschaftn in New York,
you can look at the following link on the Kupiskis Kehilalinks site:

http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/kupiskis/nylandsman.htm

This was prepared by Linda Cantor, formerly President of the JGS NY
and shows what she found when looking for two landsmannschaftn for the
town of Kupiskis, Lithuania.

Ann Rabinowitz
arabinow@bellsouth.net