My husband's great-grandmother, Rae Fink, has Rivke Finkelstein Bat Leib on her matzevah.  That is her married name  She was born in about 1850, possibly in Kishinev (according to cemetery records).  I want her maiden name,  and am completely stuck looking for it. And there is no one left to ask. I have looked everywhere on the Jewishgen site on the Romanian database.  She moved to Chicago in about 1901, without her husband, so I don't even know his first name. If anyone has an idea how to find her, I'd appreciate it.

Cheryl Banks
Highland Park, IL

Look for her death certificate. Also, marriage certificates of her children, assuming they married in the US. 

Mal Blier
Lexington MA

Hello Cheryl,  
Here is some information about Kishinev from my computer information: Kishinev: It was a city in Imperial Russia and was home to 40,000 Jews. Most of the factories were owned by Jews until 1894, but after 1894 the community's fortune turned around.  Perhaps this information will help you a bit for your husband's great- grandmother's information. Best regards.

John Kovacs

Also look for the birth certificates of any children she had. That's how I found my grandmother's maiden name. She came to America alone. I wish I knew whether she had a proxy marriage or met my grandfather here. They died young and my father was an orphan by age 9. No one left to ask. Her children were born in American, however, so I was easily able to find the birth certificates.
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Barbara Sloan
Conway, SC

If she naturalized then her arrival information and original name may be in her citizenship documents.
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If she was married when naturalized, she may have been included on her husband's papers. My grandmother was, with no information about her origins. This was in The 1920s.
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Barbara Sloan
Conway, SC