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Researching cremations #general

Our Jewish Family History Research
 

Hi all:

Cremation is an option that secular families occasionally choose now-a-days. 
 
 
I know of a couple, who were holocaust survivors. They both requested to be cremated.
I do wonder if cremations of Jews are recorded on sites at all. Most of us would not even know to consider that as a possible reason for not  locating a person in Jewish cemeteries.
That is a potential genealogical brickwall.
 
Has any group member actually experienced this in your own research? Please share how you worked through the research process.
 
Many thanks in advance.
 
Jacquie GRUSZECKI
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Researching: 
GRUSZECKI/GRUSZECKA from Warszawa and possibly Zelechow
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Gary Gershfield
 

I can only speak to New York Jews.

I uncovered many Jewish records at Ferncliff Crematory in Westchester County.

There is also Fresh Pond Crematory in Queens, NY.

During the 1940s-1950s, cremations of Jews, comprised mostly of unaffiliated Jews or Reform Jews.

In addition, cremations were  significantly cheaper than burials.

In more recent times, Jewish families have cremated loved ones, but then the ashes, were placed in a gravestone at a Jewish cemetery.

Gary Gershfield

Forest Hills, NY



On Monday, June 14, 2021 Our Jewish Family History Research via groups.jewishgen.org <main@...> wrote:

Hi all:

Cremation is an option that secular families occasionally choose now-a-days. 
 
 
I know of a couple, who were holocaust survivors. They both requested to be cremated.
I do wonder if cremations of Jews are recorded on sites at all. Most of us would not even know to consider that as a possible reason for not  locating a person in Jewish cemeteries.
That is a potential genealogical brickwall.
 
Has any group member actually experienced this in your own research? Please share how you worked through the research process.
 
Many thanks in advance.
 
Jacquie GRUSZECKI
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Researching: 
GRUSZECKI/GRUSZECKA from Warszawa and possibly Zelechow
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

David Harrison <djh_119@...>
 

Cremations are quite common amongst my family (all Jewish) and within the congregation within which I worship with services by our Rabbi.  Many ashes have been spread in different places, possibly with no record, others recorded in books of remembrance in civil Cemetry grounds.  But starting with my father in 1952, his ashes are under a rose bush in a rose garden within a Jewish Cemetry in London (close by is another bush with the ashes of another branch of our family), followed by those of my mother and my first wife, the family brass plate shows all those names and dates, it will be modified for me.  They are among several hundreds in that rose garden.  I hope that this might help members to widen their searches beyond the bound of the strict orthodox members of our widespread faith.
David Harrison
Birmingham, England

From: main@... <main@...> on behalf of Our Jewish Family History Research via groups.jewishgen.org <ourhistory2015=yahoo.com@...>
Sent: 14 June 2021 19:02
To: main@... <main@...>
Subject: [JewishGen.org] Researching cremations #general
 
Hi all:

Cremation is an option that secular families occasionally choose now-a-days. 
 
 
I know of a couple, who were holocaust survivors. They both requested to be cremated.
I do wonder if cremations of Jews are recorded on sites at all. Most of us would not even know to consider that as a possible reason for not  locating a person in Jewish cemeteries.
That is a potential genealogical brickwall.
 
Has any group member actually experienced this in your own research? Please share how you worked through the research process.
 
Many thanks in advance.
 
Jacquie GRUSZECKI
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Researching: 
GRUSZECKI/GRUSZECKA from Warszawa and possibly Zelechow
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

stephen@...
 

Your question prompted me to look on JOWB for a cousin who requested to be cremated here in Australia 20 years ago,
The Melbourne Chevra Kadisha doesn't specify that he was cremated, but lists him under a generic category "Cremations, Interstate, Overseas and Other".

 

They also list a plot:  Unknown C, Row A, Plot 206, 1. I presume they have an unmarked grave where ashes can be interned.  

 

Stephen Schmideg
Melbourne, Australia
stephen@...

MARLISE GROSS
 

I found a double headstone for my great grand father's wife, who died in the 1930's, in Oakland California, but he was missing.  I found out through research that he died in the 1980's.  I ordered his death certificate and found the cemetery that handled his remains and called them to find out where he remains.  They told me he is in their cremation storage area.  Apparently he made the final resting place decision himself.  But I wondered why he did not just use the burial plot next to his wife.  Someone suggested to me that there might not have been anyone to mourn him in California, since his remaining family were on the East Coast. 

Marlise Gross
Cherry Hill, New Jersey

Kouff (Krakowsky) from Zhashkiv, Kiev, Ukraine

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