Dear Jewish Gen,
My husband's grandfather came to NY in 1907. On the manifest he listed
his last address as Reslawa, Russia.
When I "googled" this all I got was Radzilow.
Are these one and the same?
Any help you can provide would be much appreciated.

Mary Ellen Pollack

memsp@... wrote on 08 Feb 2018 in soc.genealogy.jewish:

My husband's grandfather came to NY in 1907. On the manifest he listed
his last address as Reslawa, Russia.
When I "googled" this all I got was Radzilow.
Are these one and the same?
Any help you can provide would be much appreciated.

Methinks that is most probable.

The JewishGen Communities Database shows:

Radzilow, Poland
Before c1900: Russian Empire
Alternate names: Radzilow [Pol], Rodzilova [Yid], Radziluv [Rus], Radzhilov,
Radzilove, Radzilovo
Region: Lomza
Jewish Population: 891 (in 1897), 671 (in 1921)
<https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/community.php?usbgn=-525026>

However using the Jewishgen Gazetteer,
<https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/LocTown.asp>
Search method: Sounds Like — Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex:
many more small places, be it without known Jewish settlement,
pop up in Russia, Poland, Baltics, etc:

Number of matches = 90

Evertjan Hannivoort.
The Netherlands.
exjxwxhannivoortATinterxnlxnet
(Please change the x'es to dots)

Mary Ellen,
If you haven't already done so, please use the Town Finder or Jewish Gazetteer
tools. I had a similar situation regarding my grandmother's birthplace and found
some candidates for the town. After some trial and error, I found the right
location, so this may confirm the Google result or be more accurate than a
general search engine.

Sheldon Dan
sheldan1955@...

Mary Ellen Pollack wrote:

My husband's grandfather came to NY in 1907. On the manifest he listed
his last address as Reslawa, Russia.
When I "googled" this all I got was Radzilow.
Are these one and the same?

Mary Ellen,

Town name is Pereyaslav (>from 1943 known as Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyy), large
Jewish town in Ukraine, some 50 miles ESE distance >from Kiev.

Best,

Alexander Sharon
JGFF editor

**Emily Garber wrote:
"Perhaps, after the JewishGen Discussion Group has posted several
alternative notions regarding the location of a place identified as
"Reslawa" in an emigrant's passenger manifest, it is time to talk
methodology.

"It is never good to rely on only one record to "prove" something
about one's ancestors. Consider each piece of evidence as a clue.
Search high and wide for other records."

**Alexander Sharon responded:
"It is always a good idea to talk about a methodology. But before one
has committed efforts to search through other documents, have anyone
review manifest record for the elusive town Reslawa."

If I understand Alex Sharon's comment correctly, we are in agreement.
My comment on methods for locating one's ancestral community did not
include a comprehensive list everything a researcher should consider.
I am glad Alex reminded us that we must squeeze as much information
out the manifest as we can.

Handwriting on manifests can be a challenge. It is possible that the
town name "Reslawa" had been misconstrued by the clerk who wrote it on
the passenger manifest page, by the person who indexed the entry for
whichever company placed the index online, or by the researcher,
herself. In addition, there may be other information on a manifest
that may provide more clues to community location. These could include
location of family member left behind, birth place of passenger,
country of origin, etc. These should be reviewed in light of
historical and political context at the time of emigration.

JewishGen, of course, provides ViewMate, a wonderful resource for
sharing images of records in question. It would be another good piece
of information if those posting town name questions would place an
image of the record online for all helpful JewishGen Discussion Group
participants to examine.

In addition, JewishGen has a nice write-up on "Finding Your Ancestral
Town." It should be required reading for those trying to pin down
family origins in the Old Country. Go to Get Started > Frequently
Asked Questions > 11. Finding Your Ancestral Town. The direct URL is
https://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/faq.html#Towns

Those who know my work also know that I have taken the above process
several steps further, suggesting that researchers check additional
records for an immigrant's family, friends, neighbors (and especially
landsman), that may provide information bearing on the questions at
hand. I also suggest researching origins of information found in some
of the most useful compiled works, such as the comprehensive
gazetteer, "Where Once We Walked." My most recent article on this
topic appeared in Avotaynu 32:3 (Fall 2016): "Beyond the Manifest:
Applying the Genealogical Proof Standard to Confirm One's Ancestral
Origins."

Genealogy is a research discipline. All of us, those new to the field
and those experienced, should push ourselves beyond only one record as
a source of information. If we select one location >from among several
possibilities, we need to understand and document the reasons we made
that decision. The question of one's family origin is to too important
a way-point in one's research to risk getting it wrong.

Emily Garber
Phoenix, AZ