How can I find more information on my ancestors? My Great grandparents came from Poland in 1926 but I can only find their immigrants papers, nothing from before arriving or even after living here. I have searched every name variation I could think of. My great grandmother was born in Poland and my great grandfather born in Russia (which is now a part of Ukraine).
Lindsay Aaron

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Diane Jacobs, Somerset, New Jersey

Hi I need this too , but when I was in Poland in August they told me that all archives from the state +cities +
Jewish Museum Lwiw are closed in Ukraine because of the war. POLIN and Ringelblum Institut ,Military Archives ,
State Archives (all cities) in Warzawa+ Brama Grodzka Lublin + USHMM + Arolsen Archives are also very good for research.
shana tova 
Jan Braunholz-Frankfurt/M         

Try asking the Center for Jewish History, cjh.org.
Mark Shapiro
New York, NY

Note that the interwar Polish Republic included territories that are now in Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine.  As borders changed multiple times in both the 19th and 20th centuries, metrical and other vital records will generally be housed, indexed and referenced in the current country, not the country that existed at the time a record was created.  For example, Vilnius (Vilna) was in Poland in 1926 but is today the capital of Lithuania.

My suggestion would be to start with Jewishgen's Unified Database Search.  As already noted, if you know or can discover a place name, even the administrative district, you can refine your search to a country-specific database.

Joel Novis
Researching NOVITSKIY (Kyiv), OLSZTAJN (Łódź Województwo), GEYMAN/HYMAN (Ashmyany), POTASNIK/LEVY (unknown), POMERANTZ (Kapyl', Navahrudak)

You write that your have your great grandparents immigrants papers - do you mean that you have their ship passenger lists for their voyage from Europe? If so, those are full of information about their lives back in Europe - the documents will show the town they last lived in, the town of the births, their nearest relatives in Europe, and the relatives they are going to in the US. Knowing which town and country they came from, and where they were born, will help you determine which databases on Jewishgen to use to search for documents.

If you don't have these ship passenger lists - you should get them. By 1926, they were typed, so are much easier to read. They are available on Ancestry.com and on FamilySearch.

You also say you have tried different spellings of a surname - Can you tell us what that surname is? People here can give you advice on how to search for records, for the name that you have. 
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Michele Lock

Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock and Kalon/Kolon in Zagare/Joniskis/Gruzdziai, Lithuania
Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock in Plunge/Telsiai in Lithuania
Rabinowitz in Papile, Lithuania and Riga, Latvia
Trisinsky/Trushinsky/Sturisky and Leybman in Dotnuva, Lithuania
Olitsky in Alytus, Suwalki, Poland/Lithuania
Gutman/Goodman in Czestochowa, Poland
Lavine/Lev/Lew in Trenton, New Jersey and Lida/Vilna gub., Belarus

Thank you.

On Jewishgen's database, I was able to find the surname Aronowicz in the family finder but from there I am unable to find information. If I become a contributor would it provide more information?

Lindsay Aaron
Researching:
Surname:
Aronowitz - Aronowicz - Aronovitz -
Harmush  (maiden name but no other information but this spelling)

Town:
Zloczew, Poland (pre 1926), Zlotshev (Yiddish), Zlochev (Russia), Schlotzav (Ger 1939-45), Zlotchev, Zlochew

Hello,

Surname is Aronowitz / Aronowicz / Aronovitz
Her name in America was Blanche (other spellings were Branda and Branche) My grandfather wrote Harmush as her maiden name but I can not find that name/spelling anywhere else.

I have my great grandmothers declaration of intention, petition for Naturalization, Passenger List from Hamburg Germany to New York, and certificate of arrival.  I have researched all the information from these documents but they lead nowhere. It says she was born in Slotzov, Poland but I am assuming that should have said Zloczew. I can attach the papers I have found and see if you have any ideas. Also, I found the documents for transportation but when I tried to research the SS Albert Ballin, their names are nowhere found. 

Thank you for your help and suggestions

Lindsay Aaron

Researching:
Surname:
Aronowitz - Aronowicz - Aronovitz -
Harmush  (maiden name but no other information but this spelling)

Town:
Zloczew, Poland (pre 1926), Zlotshev (Yiddish), Zlochev (Russia), Schlotzav (Ger 1939-45), Zlotchev, Zlochew

Her naturalization paper spells the surname as Aranowitz.
I went to www.familysearch.org,
Searched for: 
A person whose given name starts with B and contains an a
And whose surname starts with Ar, has one letter after the r, continues with wi and ends with anything.
And a relevant date could be 1883

This is what the search it looks like:

The second record on the list of results was  for Bronia Aronowicz immigration 1926, line 7.
A look at the manifest showed she was travelling to Pittsburgh, with a 13 yo boy named Jankiel (that's Yankl, a Yiddish claque for Jacob - one of the children on her naturalization papers).
New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957; https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-G5MT-45C?cc=1923888&wc=MFVY-H38%3A1029855201
You have her father's name on the manifest.
Yes, you have to create an account for familysearch, but its free,
Note that the manifest hast two pages, and you have to click on the small triangle pointing right on the top to see the second page.




And a word about spelling: In all those documents, it's never exact, and is often phonetic.
Use the JewishGen communities database to fine out info about places.
Here's the town:
JewishGen Locality Page - Zolochiv, Ukraine
Use the JewishGen given names database to find name variants:
Search the Given Names Data Bases (jewishgen.org)


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Odeda Zlotnick
Jerusalem, Israel.

The ship passenger list that Odeda Zlotnick found, has the name of Bronia's nearest relative back home, which was her father Faivish Braun. So Braun was her maiden name, not Harmush. Bronia would have known for certain what her own maiden name was, which carries more weight than what her one son said was the surname on her death certificate.

Faivish of course, is a Yiddish name; other's here can give your more advice about what the equivalent Hebrew name might be.

In that regard, you can get photos of your great grandparents' gravestones, to find both their Hebrew/Yiddish first names, and the Hebrew names of their fathers.
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Michele Lock

Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock and Kalon/Kolon in Zagare/Joniskis/Gruzdziai, Lithuania
Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock in Plunge/Telsiai in Lithuania
Rabinowitz in Papile, Lithuania and Riga, Latvia
Trisinsky/Trushinsky/Sturisky and Leybman in Dotnuva, Lithuania
Olitsky in Alytus, Suwalki, Poland/Lithuania
Gutman/Goodman in Czestochowa, Poland
Lavine/Lev/Lew in Trenton, New Jersey and Lida/Vilna gub., Belarus

Hi Lindsay,

The town is probably today called Zolochiv.  It was in Poland between the wars, but today is in Ukraine.
https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/community.php?usbgn=-1060974

Zolochiv [Ukr], Złoczów [Pol], Zlotshev [Yid], Zolochev [Rus], Solotschiw [Ger], Zlochev, Zlochuv, Zlotchev, Zolociv

Region: Tarnopol

Try searching The JewishGen Unified Database
https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/all/
for the town name Zolochiv and surname BRAUN.  You will get 124 hits from Tarnopol Wojewodztwo records.

You can also search old city directories at this free site:
https://genealogyindexer.org/
When searching for directories in the between the wars timeframe you will use the town name Zloczow.
A search for Zloczow and name BRAUN gets a lot of hits.

Good luck in your search,

Sherri Bobish

Searching:
RATOWSKY / CHAIMSON (Ariogala, Lith.); LEFFENFELD / FINK / KALTER (Daliowa & Jasliska, Pol.)
BOJDA / BLEIWEISS (Tarnow & Tarnobrzeg, Pol.); WALTZMAN / WALZMAN (Ustrzyki Dolne, Pol.)
LEVY (Tyrawa Woloska, Pol.); SOLON / SOLAN / SOKOLSKY (Grodek, Bialystok, Pol.)
BOBISH / BLUMENKRANZ / APPEL / WEINER / ROSENBERG (Vysoko-Litovsk, Brest, Biala Podlaska)

On my grandfather's initial papers upon entering the USA in 1905, he states he is from Russia. On his naturalization papers in the early 1930s, he states he is from Poland. Today, he would say he was from Belarus. As others pointed out, there was a change of borders.  I would pay much more attention to the town than the country. 
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Barbara Sloan
Conway, SC

The Hebrew-Aramaic “equivalent” of Faivish is usually Shraga or Uri.  (Shraga means fire and Uri also means a light or a fire; Phoebus - Yiddishized into Faivish - is the Greek sun god.)
Yale Reisner