Trying to break a brick wall to find living relatives in the US... #belarus #usa #general
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Gregory Engels
On Sun, Mar 29, 2020 at 05:43 PM, Renee Steinig wrote:
In Ancestry's New York birth index, I found a Sylvia ETKIN born 19 Jan. 1918 in Brooklyn, then searched further for a Sylvia with that birth date. Found in the California death indexWow! I had found the index entry in the Ancestry's NY birth index, but since I could not be sure about it, I had set it aside. I have not come up with the Idea of searching for all Sylvias worldwide with that birth date! And luckily her obituary is very verbose, as if it was written for the need of future genealogists in mind. Thank you so much! Gregory
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Max Heffler
This past year or so DNA testing is starting to pay off as I have now been able to add a number of missing branches and connect with more family.
From: main@... [mailto:main@...]
On Behalf Of alan moskowitz via Groups.Jewishgen.Org
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2020 8:20 AM To: main@... Subject: Re: [JewishGen.org] Trying to break a brick wall to find living relatives in the US... #general #usa #belarus
Perhaps consider taking an entirely different approach via DNA technology. Do you have access to the DNA test kits such as those sold by Ancestry and 23 and me? In our extended family a second cousin did this using the Ancestry kit and
found several likely matches and all were found to be related to us. Discovered and previously unknown to all of us was that our great grandfather had a brother in New York and had a family. I believe the connections are made possible through the Ancestry
website in a manner that preserves your identity until you allow others to contact you. Contact was made with the 'other side' of the family and we were able to fill in some of the missing pieces. Wish you success on your journey. -- Web sites I manage - Personal home page, Greater Houston Jewish Genealogical Society, Woodside Civic Club, Skala, Ukraine KehilalLink, Joniskelis, Lithuania KehilaLink, and pet volunteer project - Yizkor book project: www.texsys.com/websites.html
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alan moskowitz
Perhaps consider taking an entirely different approach via DNA technology. Do you have access to the DNA test kits such as those sold by Ancestry and 23 and me? In our extended family a second cousin did this using the Ancestry kit and found several likely matches and all were found to be related to us. Discovered and previously unknown to all of us was that our great grandfather had a brother in New York and had a family. I believe the connections are made possible through the Ancestry website in a manner that preserves your identity until you allow others to contact you. Contact was made with the 'other side' of the family and we were able to fill in some of the missing pieces. Wish you success on your journey.
Alan
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airbair@...
I am the transcription coordinator for the SF Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, and we have records from the Home of Eternity Cemetery location cards.
Here is the data for Sylvia ALBERT: Cemetery record number: 958 Address: 4859 Dunkirk Ave., Oakland, CA Age: 50 Date of death: 22 Jun 1968, in Oakland Undertaker: Guerrero & Serramur Date of burial: 24 Jun 1968 Rabbi: Zucker Plot 2000, Grave 24 Other Name on record: George ALBERT, same address Linked to cemetery record 3209, George ALBERT Data on George ALBERT: Cemetery record number: 3209 Address: 3444 Capella Ln., Alameda, CA Date of birth: 29 Jun 1919 Date of death: 9 Oct 2007, in San Leandro, CA Undertaker: Colonial Chapel Date of burial: 12 Oct 2007 Rabbi: Alan Bennett Plot 2000, Grave 24B Other Name on record: Paul ALBERT, same address Linked to cemetery record 958, Sylvia ALBERT There is another couple with last name ALBERT: Nathan ALBERT and Rose ALBERT. They are in linked records in the cemetery locator cards, but there is no identified connection to Sylvia and George. If you want the information on Nathan and Rose, please let me know. Jeff Lewy Transcriptions, SFBAJGS
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Stephanie LaRose Lewison
I second the suggestion to call the cemetery and try again another day if the person is not helpful.
Finding current relatives has proven difficult for me too. Have you tried any DNA testing to find current relatives? Have you tried randomly Facebook friending or messaging people with the last names you are looking for? How about internet searches for those names?
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Renee Steinig
Gregory Engels <Gregory.Engels@...> asked about the daughters of Rose GORDIN (1885-1969) and Jacob ETKIN (1887-1953) of New York -- Annie LASTMAN (1909-1993), Florence ETKIN (1912-1975), Sylvia (Nov 1917-?), and Lillian (Nov. 1919-?). In Ancestry's New York birth index, I found a Sylvia ETKIN born 19 Jan. 1918 in Brooklyn, then searched further for a Sylvia with that birth date. Found in the California death index: Sylvia ALBERT Social Security #: 088124395 [a NY Social Security number] Birth Date: 19 Jan 1918 Death Date: 22 Jun 1968 Death Place: Alameda Mother's Maiden Name: GORDON An obituary found on newspapers.com confirms that she's the right person. It mentions husband George J. ALBERT and children Paul, Robert and Frederick ALBERT, all of Oakland CA; mother Rose ETKIN of Floral Park NY; sisters Ann LASTMAN, Florence ETKIN, and Lillian TEITZMAN, all of New York. Sylvia died in San Leandro CA and is buried at Home of Eternity Cemetery in Oakland. Sylvia's three sons' births are listed in Ancestry's California Birth Index (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5247/). Search for surname ALBERT and mother's name ATKIN. This is probably Lillian: born 6 Nov 1919 Brooklyn married Benjamin TEITZMAN (1918-1994) died 14 Apr 2002 buried Cedar Park Cemetery, New Jersey Listings on BeenVerified.com suggest a connection to Peter Alan TEITZMAN (1943- 2003). He's on a tree on Ancestry; try writing the tree's submitter.
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Linda Kelley
I just wanted to say that children were sometimes enumerated in their parents' homes, and were also enumerated in other households or locations. The parents may have misunderstood the directions, or the Census was taken on different days.
Linda Wolfe Kelley Portland, OR, USA
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Diane Jacobs
Also , did you know that some Belarus records could in in JRI-Poland and All Lithuania Database on jewishgen.org Diane Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
-------- Original message -------- From: Gregory Engels <Gregory.Engels@...> Date: 3/29/20 6:44 AM (GMT-05:00) To: main@... Subject: [JewishGen.org] Trying to break a brick wall to find living relatives in the US... #general #usa #belarus This might be the other way around as for the most other brick walls - I do know the historic ancestors here, but I have trouble to connect the dots to the present day. My Great-Grandmother was a part of big jewish family of 14 siblings. They lived in Minsk, Belarus, Her 10 sisters and the youngest brother have all emigrated to the US and my GGF Basia stayed in Russia with two brothers. (actually my GGM was already "sitting on packed suitcases" when my GGF has left her, so she stayed with five kids in poverty and could not afford the travel). In the Soviet time, nobody in the family have talked about those american relatives, as this could get one in jail or even killed. So it was a big surprise as I interviewed the brother of my grandfather and he came up with this information - but he could not remember any names, even the one of his uncles that actually came to visit in the sixties. That was 12 years ago, and out of those 11 siblings I was able to find four and have met with descendants from two of them and had a little conversation with another one. But the fourth one I am stuck for over two years now. So here it goes: My GGGF: Peisakh Gordin b 1851, d 1942 Slaveni, Belarus. his wife: Frieda Itkin. (he later in life had a second wife Galina) His Children I know of:
so the last sister I know about and try to find out her descendants:
Now, the headstone of Jacob and Rose says that they had grandchildren. I had wrote an email to Montefiore cemetery once using their contact form in june 2019 and once using the email of their director jan 2020, asking them if they would have a next of kin information or a obituary on file, but never got an answer. (I had some success in writing to the cemeteries before - ifact the first hint of Rose was from the cemetery file from Fanny Balberor (died 1950) that listed in the next of kin list: "Str Mrs Jacob ATKIN NYC", and it took me some time to find everything linked above in this message). Any ideas where to dig now? -- Diane Jacobs
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Diane Jacobs
Gregory, Based on my past experiences with cemeteries. You need to call them ask if they have name and address for next of kin. If they do, then ask if they will forward a letter from you. They will only tell you what state (assuming it is the US). If someone does not want to be helpful, call them back the next day when someone new is there. In my experience, Jewish cemeteries are usually helpful. If you don't get what you want the first time, try again Diane Jacobs Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
-------- Original message -------- From: Gregory Engels <Gregory.Engels@...> Date: 3/29/20 6:44 AM (GMT-05:00) To: main@... Subject: [JewishGen.org] Trying to break a brick wall to find living relatives in the US... #general #usa #belarus This might be the other way around as for the most other brick walls - I do know the historic ancestors here, but I have trouble to connect the dots to the present day. My Great-Grandmother was a part of big jewish family of 14 siblings. They lived in Minsk, Belarus, Her 10 sisters and the youngest brother have all emigrated to the US and my GGF Basia stayed in Russia with two brothers. (actually my GGM was already "sitting on packed suitcases" when my GGF has left her, so she stayed with five kids in poverty and could not afford the travel). In the Soviet time, nobody in the family have talked about those american relatives, as this could get one in jail or even killed. So it was a big surprise as I interviewed the brother of my grandfather and he came up with this information - but he could not remember any names, even the one of his uncles that actually came to visit in the sixties. That was 12 years ago, and out of those 11 siblings I was able to find four and have met with descendants from two of them and had a little conversation with another one. But the fourth one I am stuck for over two years now. So here it goes: My GGGF: Peisakh Gordin b 1851, d 1942 Slaveni, Belarus. his wife: Frieda Itkin. (he later in life had a second wife Galina) His Children I know of:
so the last sister I know about and try to find out her descendants:
Now, the headstone of Jacob and Rose says that they had grandchildren. I had wrote an email to Montefiore cemetery once using their contact form in june 2019 and once using the email of their director jan 2020, asking them if they would have a next of kin information or a obituary on file, but never got an answer. (I had some success in writing to the cemeteries before - ifact the first hint of Rose was from the cemetery file from Fanny Balberor (died 1950) that listed in the next of kin list: "Str Mrs Jacob ATKIN NYC", and it took me some time to find everything linked above in this message). Any ideas where to dig now? -- Diane Jacobs
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Gregory Engels
This might be the other way around as for the most other brick walls - I do know the historic ancestors here, but I have trouble to connect the dots to the present day. My Great-Grandmother was a part of big jewish family of 14 siblings. They lived in Minsk, Belarus, Her 10 sisters and the youngest brother have all emigrated to the US and my GGF Basia stayed in Russia with two brothers. (actually my GGM was already "sitting on packed suitcases" when my GGF has left her, so she stayed with five kids in poverty and could not afford the travel). In the Soviet time, nobody in the family have talked about those american relatives, as this could get one in jail or even killed. So it was a big surprise as I interviewed the brother of my grandfather and he came up with this information - but he could not remember any names, even the one of his uncles that actually came to visit in the sixties. That was 12 years ago, and out of those 11 siblings I was able to find four and have met with descendants from two of them and had a little conversation with another one. But the fourth one I am stuck for over two years now. So here it goes: My GGGF: Peisakh Gordin b 1851, d 1942 Slaveni, Belarus. his wife: Frieda Itkin. (he later in life had a second wife Galina) His Children I know of:
so the last sister I know about and try to find out her descendants:
Now, the headstone of Jacob and Rose says that they had grandchildren. I had wrote an email to Montefiore cemetery once using their contact form in june 2019 and once using the email of their director jan 2020, asking them if they would have a next of kin information or a obituary on file, but never got an answer. (I had some success in writing to the cemeteries before - ifact the first hint of Rose was from the cemetery file from Fanny Balberor (died 1950) that listed in the next of kin list: "Str Mrs Jacob ATKIN NYC", and it took me some time to find everything linked above in this message). Any ideas where to dig now?
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