Spring 2015 Vol. 24 No. 1
Old Cleveland Jewish newspapers now online
The wait is over. We can now access the text online of the Cleveland Jew- ish newspapers that preceded the Cleveland Jewish News. Access the CJN Archives as usual. You will see the name of the publications now available. Go to the drop-down menu and click on the paper you are interested in or se- lect all. Choose the range of publication dates and then fill in the search box. The article title might come up as gibberish, or even just one letter, but click on it anyhow to get to the image of the article. When you access the CJN Archives online you will see:
1889-1899 weekly
1906 -1964 weekly
1893 -1899 weekly
1899 - 1964 weekly
1907—1952 Old Jewish newspapers cont’d p. 8
The Kol Spring 2015 2015 Calendar
In April meetings resumed at Menorah Park’s second floor Miller Board- room, 27100 Cedar Road, Beachwood, at 7:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of the month.
Upcoming events Thursday, April 23 - Our group will take part in the Israel Independ- ence Day celebration at Park Synagogue Main with an information ta- ble. Wednesday, June 3, 7:30 p.m. - Monthly meeting. Jeff Morris will talk about the movement of the orthodox shuls to the Heights. Sunday, May 31 - Cuyahoga Lineage Society annual dinner Wednesday, July 1, 7:30 p.m. - Monthly meeting with Dr. Sean Martin of the Jewish Archives.
Facebook reminder Amy Wachs created our Facebook page. “To get to our Facebook page, either use this URL www.facebook.com/ clevelandjgs.org or on any Facebook page, type ‘Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleve- land’. Then click on the logo.”
2016 Seattle - August 7 to 12 -- 36th IAJGS Conference co-hosted by Seattle IAJGS, JGS of Washington State and JGS of Oregon 2017 Orlando, Florida - July 23 to 28 -- 37th IAJGS Conference 2018 Eastern Europe (Tentative) -- 38th IAJGS Conference
The Kol 2 Spring 2015 Index to this issue p. 27
Five members win magazine subscriptions At the January meeting five names were drawn from members who had paid 2015 dues by December 31, 2014. Each won a free one-year subscription to FamilyTree Magazine: Polly Fine, Jerry Kliot, Rita Frankel, Sheldon Levy, and Fred and Pearl Livingstone.
2015 Officers -- Helen Wolf installed the officers in January. Left to right are President Charles Lissauer, Vice President for Membership Marlene Englander, Secretary Adelle Gloger and Treasurer Amy Wachs.
Local and Ohio
Have you had any trouble getting Ohio records?
The Plain Dealer on March 21, 2015, mation, you can submit a request for a p. A5, carried a story headlined “Open “sunshine audit” (an attempt to pressure records: Auditor to conduct ‘sunshine’ re- the agency to comply) through the audi- views”. tor’s website, or call 800-282-0370. You The auditor is looking for violations of may also send a letter to the auditor’s of- Ohio’s Public Records Act. If you have fice -- 88 E. Broad St., Columbus, OH been stonewalled when trying to get infor- 43215.
The Kol 3 Spring 2015 January
“How Is a Newsletter Editor like a Sieve?” by Cynthia Spikell
When Richard Spector asked me to ate ideas come from talk in January about producing The Kol Avotaynu, Ohio Genealo- my first thought was, “What might mem- gy News, Ohio Genealogi- Cynthia Spikell bers want to know?” It occurred to me that cal Society Quarterly, is a retired pub- I would have to find a way to make it en- Family Tree Magazine, lic school teach- tertaining. As I thought more about it, I Pathways from the Ohio er. She received thought of how I could describe the job. A Humanities Council, the a B.S. Ed. from newsletter editor could be likened to a newsletter of the congre- The Ohio State blender or mixer, but the most apt descrip- gation of the former B’nai University and tion is a sieve. So the talk became “How Abraham Synagogue on MLS from Kent Is a Newsletter Editor like a Sieve?” Why? the Iron Range in Minne- State University. Because I gather information and then sift sota, The Plain Dealer, She has been it to select what to put into The Kol. and other newspapers. working on her A little history about our newsletter: There is also television family history for Arlene Blank Rich started publishing The news. Our group has reci- almost twenty Kol about 1984. She published it until procity agreements with years and has 2002. I took over in 2006, and have been some other JGS groups, uncovered thou- producing it ever since. so we receive JGS of sands of rela- My plan has been to produce news Palm Beach Scattered tives. She has that members can use. I am not aiming to Seeds, JGS of the Conejo been the editor create a scholarly publication. There have Valley and Ventura Coun- of The Kol since been a few questions that have been re- ty Venturing into our Past, 2006. peatedly asked: Why three times a year? JGS of Los Angeles Roots Because I used to do a publication for an- -Key, JGS of Greater Mi- other group, and I was able to time the ami Branches, JGS of Illinois Morasha, two publications evenly through the year. JGS of Greater Washington Mishpacha, Where do ideas for articles come Illiana Jewish Genealogical Society, and from? I get e-mail from the daily discus- JGS of Greater Boston Mass-Pocha. I sion group digests of JewishGen, Latvia also subscribe to Avotaynu. SIG, Litvak SIG, Ukraine SIG, Records I have gleaned material from the nine Access Alert messages from Jan Meisels annual IAJGS conferences and from the Allen, IAJGS Leadership messages, East- annual Ohio Genealogical Society confer- man's Online Genealogy Newsletter, “Nu? ences that I have attended. What’s New” from Gary Mokotoff of The actual physical production in- Avotaynu, IAJGS Conference mailings, volves making pages of notes in MS the Allen County Public Library (Ft. Word. As I write this, I have 181 pages of Wayne, Indiana) e-zine, Old Maine Jewry notes to draw from for this issue. I set up news, the South Africa letter, and I main- the issue in MS Publisher. Then I paste tain a correspondence with other genealo- gy publication editors and researchers. Paper copies of materials that gener- January cont’d on p. 5
The Kol 4 Spring 2015 January cont’d from p. 4 the articles into Publisher and add photo- son from comments/questions that were graphs or graphics where appropriate. overheard at a meeting, seen on a mailing Each edition follows a “Rule of Multiples of list, or in genealogy news or general news. 4 Pages” so that the paper copies can be WHO RECEIVES THE KOL? All cur- bound like a paperback book. rent members receive it by e-mail. Out-of- Each issue follows a general pattern. town members can get a complimentary The layout has an index/ table of contents, paper copy if they wish. Local members local news and research, queries, topics of pay about $2.50 for a paper copy if they recent meetings, United States research, order them ahead when the e-mail comes international research, Holocaust, re- out asking for orders, and if they take de- sources and techniques, member news, livery at a meeting. Postage is about $2.50 Tante Jennie, and information on who we per issue now. are and how to contact officers. Other JGS societies get a copy by re- TRIVIA: The Kol has some quirks. It is ciprocal agreement -- some by e-mail, not timely. That is why I send out e-mail some get paper copies (see above for the messages if I hear about a webcast or groups with reciprocity). Avotaynu gets a event that will occur before the next issue copy by e-mail and includes the subjects will come out. The style is also quirky. I do in their U. S. section. The Library of Con- not justify the columns; that is why there gress gets a copy for the Hebraic Section are raggedy edges on the right side of the in the African - Middle Eastern Division. columns. This is to make it look less for- Paul Klein prepared an index to the mal. There is also no concern for “widows old issues pre-2002. I did one a few years and orphans”. A line might stand alone at ago for the issues since 2006, but since it the bottom or top of a column. That is just is now sent in a pdf that can be searched for space consideration, to get more words word-by-word, there is no need for an in- into a space. I leave space at the end of dex, though perhaps it is tedious to go web addresses before the period. Sur- through each issue. names may be capitalized, to emphasize In addition to the newsletters named the name or make it easier for readers to above, we have various other newsletters pick a name out when scanning the text. in our library at Fairmount Temple. For in- Tante Jennie Algee teaches a little les- stance, Fritz Nussbaum donated a collec- tion of Stammbaums for German Jewish research. I like to get feedback. I am always looking for ideas for arti- cles. We welcome member- written articles on a pertinent top- ic for The Kol.
Photo by Amy Wachs
The Kol 5 Spring 2015 March
A personal account of a Holocaust survivor through the Shoah Foundation DVD collection
For our March meeting we viewed a will be a mandatory requirement in high DVD from the Spielberg Holocaust Project: schools.” “Survivor Sima Grozalsky Tells Her Story”. In 2006, the Survivors of the Shoah In 1994 Steven Spielberg started his Visual History Foundation became affiliat- Survivors of the Shoah Visual History ed with the University of Southern Califor- Foundation to record the personal ac- nia in Los Angeles, to preserve the testi- counts of Holocaust survivors. As of 2014 monies in the Visual History Archive. The there were 52,000 two-hour eyewitness name was changed to the USC Shoah accounts in 34 languages from residents Foundation - The Institute for Visual Histo- of 58 countries, all digitized and indexed. ry and Education. The testimonies are Steven Spielberg said, “'This is what I mainly from Jewish survivors, but the web- was put on earth to do.” In a 2014 inter- site states that there are also testimonies view for USA Weekend he said, “The origi- from “homosexual survivors, Jehovah’s nal mission of Shoah was a race against Witness survivors, liberators and liberation time. The second act became indexing witnesses, political prisoners, rescuers and and cataloging to make the testimonies aid providers, Roma and Sinti (Gypsy) sur- accessible. Our third act, IWitness (an in- vivors, survivors of Eugenics policies, and teractive educational website for high war crimes trials participants.” school students), is disseminating and put- For more information about the founda- ting those testimonies to full use in schools tion go to https://sfi.usc.edu/ . around the world – 55 countries so far. Hopefully, one day ‘tolerance education’
February
The February meeting was cancelled because of the weather.
Photo of Cleveland, February, 2015
The Kol 6 Spring 2015 April
Arthur M. Stupay tells about his book Hope Expired Life Persists
Member Art Stu- 1955) who he was most interested in was pay learned not a doctor. Art tried to find information on that many years him in Warsaw. There was a language ago about rela- problem as few Poles he encountered tives in Poland spoke English. However through coinci- and an uncle who dence he met someone who had seen in- died in 1955. His formation on his Stupay in a book written family here had by a survivor. not discussed the Art went to both Lodz and Krakow to family who stayed do research. A graduate student was able in Poland. His fa- to access files that had been denied to Art Stupay is an ther had five sib- Art. Through contacts, Art was able to economist at Dix & lings there; his connect with a Jew born in Lodz who Eaton. He traveled to mother had four. knew English. Poland to research He began to Art was able to learn that his uncle members of his fami- wonder why Jews Jacob had trained at a university in Berlin. ly. We have his book stayed in Poland in Jacob was an urban, sophisticated man. Hope Expired Life the 1920’s and This surprised Art, because he had ex- Persists in our li- 1930’s rather than pected “Fiddler on the Roof” people in- brary. emigrating. Per- stead of the well-dressed relatives he saw haps because in old photographs. Lodz was an industrial things in the U.S. were not so great at the city, “the Manchester of Poland”. Other time. There had been a short boom after famous Jews lived there. WWI, and then the Depression. There was Jacob was forced into the Warsaw also anti-Semitism in the U.S. Art himself ghetto in 1941. One day when he was out- encountered it when applying for jobs. side the ghetto looking for a place to hide, Many Polish Jews were doing well, with his family in the ghetto was taken. He had deep family and community ties. Art said a Christian family member who helped that only the young who were not married him. He was caught, but he escaped and or established in a profession were inter- made it to Krakow where he hid there with ested in emigrating. friends’ help until the end of the war. Art learned that 27 fairly close rela- The family here tried to get him to tives and another 30 or so more distant come to the U.S. after the war. Visas were relatives perished. After Art found letters hard to get, as the U.S. government only and postcards from the late 1930’s and allowed half of the authorized visas to be 1945, he started thinking about writing a given to potential immigrants. Art said that book. He became obsessed with the let- Jacob could have gotten out and come ters. here by a non-direct route. But he said When he started researching the that Jacob was suspicious and could not Polish relatives, it was not easy to get in- participate in social activities after the war. formation. He had to go to Poland. He He thinks that Jacob had post traumatic knew the uncle Jacob Stupay (1889 - stress disorder. He died in 1955 in Poland.
The Kol 7 Spring 2015 Old Jewish newspapers cont’d from p. 1
Jewish Independent 5 Dec 1958 - You can find out what activities your rela- tives were involved in.
Jewish Independent 17 June 1955 - You can find out about the old congregations of your relatives in the weekly listing of events.
(Below) The Jewish Review 3 Jan 1896 - Rela- tives did not have to live in Cleveland to be mentioned. This article also had information from Akron and Washington, D.C.
The Jewish Review and Observer 10 Oct 1930 - Engagement, weddings, and deaths were covered.
Old Jewish newspapers cont’d on p. 9
The Kol 8 Spring 2015 Old Jewish newspapers cont’d from p. 8
The weekly social columns were the Facebook of the time. They told of meetings, who was elected to The Jewish Independent 8 Feb 1918 - The more things positions in social or change, the more they stay the same = Cleveland philanthropic clubs, weather. vacations taken, relatives who came to visit, Sunday School productions, etc. Long before Twitter, people could bid farewell to friends before moving out of town or tell friends to come visit at their new address. Searching hint - If you are looking for a specific death notice, use our site www.clevelandjgs.org to find the date so you do not have to go through a lot of articles. Or use The Jewish Independent 3 Feb 1922 - You can www.wrhs.org to find read about Zionist activities in Cleveland. the date of marriage notices. They also have death notices indexed. As you can see from the examples, the quality of the scanning varies. Also, there are some errors in the index.
There were lots of social clubs. Some vacationed together, as above. There were clubs that would hold debates. Some had men and women, but we saw many women’s clubs.
The Kol 9 Spring 2015 Local and Ohio
What is in our JGS collection at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple Library
From our website at come to visit at any time. If there is a class www.clevelandjgs.org: or a meeting taking place there, please “The Society maintains its own re- use discretion and work quietly. (Certain search library and encourages the collec- exceptions may occur.) The Library is tion of genealogical material and family staffed by Fairmount Temple's Librarian, histories. The research library, open to any Julie Moss, on most Tuesdays and Thurs- researcher, is housed in the Sam and Em- days from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. ma Miller Library of the Arthur J. Lelyveld “Most of our collection is now included Center for Jewish Learning at Anshe in the Library Catalogue, which can be ac- Chesed Fairmount Temple, located at cessed by Clicking Here: http:// 23737 Fairmount Blvd. in Beachwood, www.fairmounttemple.org/lifelong-learning/ Ohio. librarycatalogue/ .” Clicking takes one to a “The Library is open when the building website that has in the middle of the page is open (every day, all day and most week- “Please CLICK HERE for Library cata- day evenings) and researchers are wel- logue access!”
^ Put “Genealogy” as the subject and this is one of the entries that comes up:
Title: Searching for your ancestors : the how and why of genealogy Form: Book Call number: 929.1 D8 Author: Doane, Gilbert Harry, 1897- Location: JGSC Collection (on the right back wall of the library) Published 1980
^ You can also use “Genealogy” as a keyword.
^ Use “Cemetery” as a keyword and get 27 results: Cemetery indexes Book Call number: 929.509 C635 (Author) Cleveland Jewish Genealogy Society Location: JGSC Collection
^ “Family history” keyword brings up among others: From Russia to America : the Estrin family history of Zlate and her descendants Book Call number: 929.2 T58 Author: Logan Tusher, Marilyn. Location: JGSC Collection Library cont’d p. 11
The Kol 10 Spring 2015 Local and Ohio
Update on change in access to Ohio adoptees’ birth records
We wrote before in The Kol (Spring Applicants who are 18 or older can 2014, p. 17) about the upcoming change get their birth certificate and adoption de- in the Ohio law that sealed the birth rec- cree for a $20 fee, including a family ords of adoptees born from 1964 to 1996 medical history and a contact form given in Ohio, and adopted in Ohio or another by the birth parents. The form is available state. online at the Ohio Dept. of Health at As soon as the law changed, 250 odh.ohio.gov or can be requested by tele- people gathered at the Department of phone at 614-466-2531 (the Office of Vi- Health’s Office of Vital Statistics in Co- tal Statistics). lumbus to request a copy of their original Adelle Gloger posted, “This link will birth certificates. Adoptees born before give all information necessary to obtain 1964 and after 1996 were already able to adoption records www.odh.ohio.gov/ en/ see their original certificates. vitalstatistics/legalinfo/adoptfnl.aspx . “
Library cont’d from p. 10 and Nancy Deutsch-Sinderbrand family research : Including the following families : KOBLITZ, COBLITZ, ESAKOVICH (ESSEY), AKERS, DEUTSCH, LOWY, WODICKA-WACH Book Call number: 929.2 D29 Author: Deutsch-Sinderbrand, Nancy. Location: JGSC Collection Published 1992
What is in our library collection besides books: Cemetery enumerations done by Paul Klein and Gary Silverstein with some Hebrew names Family histories and family trees Copies of Jewish Independent obituaries done by Paul Klein (Look up the date on our website and view the obit at our library.) Cleveland city directories and some suburban directories The Kol from beginning to present Newsletters from other JGS groups Photographs High school / college yearbooks from the Cleveland area and Ohio Avotaynu the Journal of Jewish genealogy Maps of Europe as it was when our ancestors lived there
The Kol 11 Spring 2015 Local and Ohio
Ohio laws regulate cemeteries
While looking for something on the 517.32 Enclosure of Abandoned Cemetery Ohio State Bar Assn. website, we came 759.07 Conveyance of Lands Abandoned for across information on Ohio’s laws govern- Cemetery Purposes ing cemeteries. There are quite a few. 1715.02 Sale of Cemetery Grounds Not Usa- These are from the Ohio Revised Code at ble When a religious or educational corpora- http://codes.ohio.gov/orc. Many cover tion or society holds lands within the limits of a township cemeteries, but we list some municipal corporation which have been used here that do not. This is just for infor- as a cemetery… mation, we do not pretend to know all the 4767.02 Cemeteries required to register; du- legal interpretations. ties of division of real estate; exceptions. Some of the cemetery topics covered “Except as otherwise provided ... no per- are: son, church, religious society, established fra- 317.25 Veterans Grave Registration — ternal organization, or political subdivision of “The county recorder shall ... provid(e) for the state shall own, operate, or maintain a the registration of the graves of all persons cemetery unless the cemetery is registered who served in any war in which the United pursuant to section 4767.03 of Revised Code. States had a part and who were honorably ...Maintain a written record of each ceme- discharged from the United States army, tery registered with the division, which navy, or marine or nurse corps. ... they shall include such documentation as re- shall be available for public examination at quired ... The record shall be available for inspection by the public and copies shall all times.” 517.21 Abandonment or Discontinuance of be made available pursuant to … “ Cemetery: Removal of Bodies and Stones This last part makes us wonder about 517.22 Public Sale of Cemetery cemeteries that want to restrict information 517.23 Disinterment of Body Buried in Ceme- on burials. tery — has quite a lot of regulations.
A Colorful Jewish Clevelander by Cynthia Spikell
King Solomon Lived in Cleveland
King Solomon not only lived in Cleve- 1930’s in Cleveland. land, but he owned a hotel and had a wife. He was running the hotel in 1929 Solomon was born in 1866 in “Austria”, when, according to the June 6, 1929, Plain and immigrated in 1888. He changed his Dealer, a fire in an adjacent grocery store first name from “Samuel” to “King” when made the guests of the hotel at Woodland he naturalized in 1920. and E. 43rd have to evacuate. He was listed as an auto mechanic in He died in 1945 at the age of 83 and the city directory, but his King Solomon was buried at Mt. Olive Cemetery. He left Hotel was also listed in the 1921 directory. his widow Hannie, who died in 1968 at the King and his wife Hanie/Hanah/Hannie did age of 95. a lot of real estate deals in the 1920’s and
The Kol 12 Spring 2015 Local and Ohio
Member finds success after seventeen years of research
Member Sheila A. Adler wrote, “I was at a NA'AMAT meeting in the fall and Amy Wachs was the speaker. Prior to the meeting I told her that after 17 years of looking for my mother's missing family I had just found them in September and received a re- sponse at the end of September from my second cousin. She suggested that I write an article about my find. I decided that I would send my article to Avotaynu. The article ‘Never Give in to a Brick Wall’ will be on page 2 and 3 in the winter issue of Avotaynu (Volume XXX, Number 4, Winter 2014). “If it wasn't for Amy I probably would not have written the article. She gave me the idea to write it.”
When Sheila retired in 1997 she began Sheila looked for Celia and Sophie’s researching the maternal side of her family, mother, Mary Levine, who was supposed to which had disappeared in 1931. She knew that also be in Los Angeles, according to the JI obi- her maternal grandmother, Celia, died at age tuary. Again, city directories and a death certifi- 44 on April 29, 1931, when her mother was 11 cate search brought nothing. Sheila searched and her aunt was 19. Sheila also knew that the Ellis Island website and all the other usual although some of Celia’s family had lived in places with no results. Cleveland, Ohio, they had left because they Next Sheila tried to find her grandmother’s did not like Celia’s husband Harry, Sheila’s brother, Jacob (Jake) Levine, trying all sorts of grandfather. resources, even mailing letters to some possi- Sheila’s mother and aunt tried to find their bilities. Finally, when the 1930 census became mother’s family. In the 1950s they put a notice available, Sheila found Jacob Levine, his wife, in the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) young daughter and widowed mother, Mary bulletin, but got no response. Sheila’s mother Levine. Sheila also found them in the 1940 gave her all the papers she had about her census with a young son and their daughter, mother’s side of the family. Sheila put the pa- but no Mary Levine was listed there. With the pers into a large envelope. She thought that information she had, Sheila tried to find once she retired, the research would not be Jacob’s son, Eugene, and daughter, Estelle, too difficult, especially with the availability of but again found nothing. the internet. Sheila began to search for Boris Levine, Celia’s obituary from the May 1, 1931, another of Celia’s brothers, who is listed in the Cleveland Jewish Independent had names of 1931 obituary as living in Chicago. In the 1930 family members and the places where they census she thought she found him because lived. Sheila knew the family was from Minsk only one Boris Levine was living in Chicago at and that the surname was LEVINE. There that time, and was listed with his wife, Betty. In were errors in the obituary that caused Sheila the 1940 census Sheila found them again with to search in the wrong places for 17 years. a son, Eugene. When Sheila Googled Eugene, Celia’s sister was listed as Mrs. Sophie she found him in Sioux City, Iowa. Sheila wrote MOSINEEK, living in Los Angeles, California. him a letter and he responded. Yes, his par- Sheila tried using the Soundex to search ents were Boris and Betty Levine. They tele- Mosineek, and she also got copies of pages phoned, e-mailed and wrote for an entire year, from the Los Angeles city directories for that sending photographs, too. However, the more time period. A death certificate search brought they learned, the more they realized that they nothing. She also tried the variations MOSS were not related! Even so, they became good and MASS. Success cont’d p. 14
The Kol 13 Spring 2015 Success cont’d from p. 13 friends and still correspond. (Sheila was even 1940, her father had shortened his name to invited to his surprise 75th birthday party.) KURTZ. Douglas also had the wrong first Sheila’s mother died in 2013, about six name for her mother born in 1920, although months before Sheila began her correspond- the first name of her mother's sister born in ence with Eugene. Her mother knew that 1912 was correct. So he did not have any of Sheila had found Jacob and his family on the the younger generations who live in Cleveland census. on the family tree. Sheila says you should never give up, After researching for seventeen years, because you never know what will occur. Sheila had finally found her mother’s family. In September 2014, she was using Ances- Although her mother and aunt were not alive, try.com looking for her mother’s father’s World there were their four children, six grandchil- War I and II draft cards. At the bottom of a dren and fourteen great-grandchildren who draft card from World War I was the lower now know about their missing family. Douglas case word, “moisenco” in little blue letters. even sent a photograph of their great-grand- Sheila was in shock because maybe this was the “Mosineck/ Mosineek” family she had re- searched for so long. Sheila clicked on the word MOISENCO in Ancestry. She stated that, “A large Levine family tree with all of Celia’s siblings, spouses, children, and grandchildren appeared before me. A few items were incorrect, but the basics were certainly there. Boris Levine was actually Morris Levine. No wonder it had been impossi- ble to find him!” Sheila sent an e-mail to whoever had posted the tree, and also looked at Jewish Gen’s Family Finder to find searchers of a Moisenco family from Minsk. She contacted others searching Moisenco. She only got one parents, Chaim (Hyman) and Mary Levine response. It was from a new second cousin, (above), something the Cleveland family had Douglas, who had entered the family tree on never seen, and a photo of Mary Levine’s Ancestry.com. He e-mailed that he had little gravestone, with the years 1861 to 1937. information on the Cleveland family, though he Sheila says, “Never give up; you never had been researching for years. Sheila did not know what is around the next corner.” know about the Moisenco family, but she knew that Sophie Moisenco was her grand- Sheila Adler is a long time member mother’s sister. Sheila did not know that her of the JGS of Cleveland. She has re- husband was Sam nor that they married in searched both her own and her hus- Cleveland, Ohio, in 1914. She also did not band’s families and has traveled to the know that Douglas's father, Alexander, was areas in Europe where they lived. She born in Cleveland in 1916. has advanced degrees from Kent State Douglas’ grandparents, Sophie and Sam, University and John Carroll University. came to Cleveland in 1914 from Minsk be- Before she retired she was a special ed- cause Sophie’s sister Celia already lived ucation teacher for the Mayfield City there. Douglas and Sheila share the same Schools. She and her husband Dr. great-grandparents. Manfred Adler live in Solon, Ohio, and Douglas could not find Sheila as he was have two children and five grandchil- researching KURTZMAN, Sheila’s father’s dren. original name. When he was naturalized in
The Kol 14 Spring 2015 Queries
This was received by Sylvia Abrams: mation on Rabbi Guzik February 19, 2015 as well as any photos Subject: Information on Rabbi Joseph available. GUZIK On behalf of Rab- From: Jessica Setbon [email protected] banit Farbstein, I would like to find out if Dear Sylvia, there is anyone who remembers him, per- I am writing to you at the recommenda- haps former students, and can tell us tion of Sheryl Hirsh from the Lifelong more about him, perhaps some personal Learning Program in Cleveland. anecdotes from school days and any other I am looking for information on Rabbi information possible. Joseph Guzik, who taught in Cleveland We are in touch with Sean Martin at Hebrew Schools in the 1950s and 1960s. the Western Reserve Historical Society Rabbi Guzik hid from the Nazis during archives, to find official documents. But we WWII in the home of a kind Polish farmer. would really like to find people who are still During the three years he was in hiding, alive who remember him, for personal sto- he kept a diary in Hebrew which was re- ries. cently discovered in the archives of Yad I am also in contact with Gita Frankel. Vashem in Israel. In 1946 he came to Rabbi Guzik lived with her family for many Cleveland and died there in 1964. years. She has much to tell me. I am look- Rabbanit Esther Farbstein, Director of ing forward to speaking with her at length. the Holocaust Center at Michlalah Jerusa- Any additional contacts you can help lem College, is preparing his diary for pub- me find will be much appreciated. lication. Many thanks, She is interested in finding more infor- Jessica Setbon, Netanya, Israel
Adelle Gloger reported in January that she received a query from Sandra GOOD- MAN SCHOFER from Lexington, Kentucky. Sandra wanted to know if her ancestors were Jewish. She gave the names KOPF, SIEGAL, HIRSH, GOODMAN, and SACHEROFF. In April Adelle said that someone who had Cleveland, Indiana, relatives contacted her, and another person asked for help but provided no surnames!
Another query: lived and died in Cleveland during the mid- From: Yonatan Ben-Ari 1900s.
The Kol 15 Spring 2015 United States Michigan — the state just across the Ohio border
A Detroit, Michigan, Jewish Cemetery swallowed up by a GM plant
Jan Meisels Allen posted in De- the public twice a year for a total of cember 2014 how a Jewish cemetery six hours from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on dating back to 1868 with burials up to the Sundays before Rosh Hashanah 1948 is now in the middle of a GM and Passover. Congregation Shaar- car factory. There are over 1100 ey Zedek oversees the cemetery. people buried there. She wrote that For more information, go to now Beth Olem Cemetery is open to http://tinyurl.com/pq532ds .
Finding Detroit burials
Merle Kastner brought up the subject Someone reported, “The Cemetery of how to find Jewish burials in Detroit. database of the Jewish Federation of De- One source is www.jewishvirtuallibrary. troit has been offline for some time. Their org/jsource/vjw/Detroit.html . home page provides a name and email Digital obituaries from the Detroit address to contact them for look-ups. Jewish News are available at http:// http://jewishdetroit.org/community-guide/ djnfoundation.org/the-archive/ . jewish-cemetery-index/ .”
Archived articles from The Detroit News Jan Meisels Allen also posted that mentioned being able to access two mil- 100 years of archival materials from The lion typed index cards, some dating to the Detroit News “are being transferred to the 19th century, and then go to the microfilm State Archives of Michigan in Lansing to read the story. Jan provided the Ti- where it will be digitized and then availa- nyURL http://tinyurl.com/oj5vr88 . ble to the public—for the first time.” She
Michigan Death Certificates 1897-1939 available for free
Dick Eastman posted an announce- with additional certificate images to be re- ment in March from the SeekingMichi- leased each year as privacy restrictions gan.com web site: are lifted…Together with the records from “The Archives of Michigan is thrilled to 1897-1920 that have been available here announce that images of Michigan death for years, this collection makes Seeking certificates from 1921-1939 are now avail- Michigan the one-stop destination for more able for free here at Seeking Michigan. than 2.6 million free, publicly-available The index for records from 1940-1952 will 20th century death records for your Michi- be made available in the next few weeks, gan ancestors.”
Find the website at http://seekingmichigan.org/look/2015/03/17/theyre-here .
The Kol 16 Spring 2015 United States Want to earn more money? Americanize your name
Reported by Dick Eastman in his sented the program "Passing or Cover- online genealogy journal in January 2015, ing? Debates over Name Changing in the “Immigrants who Americanized their Years After World War II”. names earned 10 percent more — irre- The publicity for the event read, spective of occupation — than immigrants ”Thousands of name change petitions who kept their original, ethnically marked were submitted to the New York City Civil names, according to a study by the Insti- Court during the 1940s and 1950s. A dis- tute for the Study of Labor.” proportionate number of them were sub- Three researchers found that immi- mitted by Jews. Debates over Jewish grants who changed their names to Wil- identity at this time tended to equate liam, John, or Charles between 1900 and name changing with passing and escap- 1950 earned ten percent more than their ing the Jewish community.” Kirsten Fer- peers no matter what their occupation maglich, Associate Professor of History was. and Jewish Studies at Michigan State Uni- Go to http://goo.gl/9kdACX for more versity presented the program. information. On the other hand we have read that We cannot say that those three the reason that name changing was not names would have been used by our Jew- widespread in South Africa was that ish relatives, but we know that there was a Jews, British settlers and Boer settlers lot of Americanizing of first names in those kept separated, and Jews usually kept years. their Orthodox beliefs and practices. Surnames were often changed. In January 2015 the JGS of Michigan pre-
Where to find death notices for New York relatives
In a discussion of how to find death notices for non-famous Manhattan ancestors, these suggestions were made:
• Paid death notices in The New York Times available at their digitized archives online • ProQuest databases of New York Times and other newspapers including The NY Times and many other papers, including historical American Jewish newspapers: The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger (1857-1922),The Jewish Advocate (1905- 1990), The American Israelite (1854-2000), and Jewish Exponent (1887-1990). Proquest is available only at universities and libraries. • Unusual deaths might have merited a news story in a newspaper. • Pamela Weisberger wrote, “… the untimely deaths of children on the lower east side at the turn of the century in items like ‘Deaths of the Week’ where the name, age and address was provided by the paper. These were not notices paid for by the family, just a regularly run column listing unfortunate deaths…” • Brooklyn Eagle http://bklyn.newspapers.com/ • Old Fulton New York Postcards has New York newspapers www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html
The Kol 17 Spring 2015 United States
FBI database not just for black sheep anymore
You do not have 1960 who enlisted in the military or to have had a crimi- applied for a government job nal in your family to ^ fingerprint index cards make use of this ^ criminal history files dating back to the new database. The early 1970s and before Next Generation Identification Sys- When a person dies or turns 110 years tem was created by old, the FBI gets rid of the file. They keep the FBI, using iden- paper fingerprint cards of notorious crimi- tity files it holds, in order to make faster nals, but destroy other cards after digitiz- and better searches possible. In the ing them. 1920’s the U.S. Army gave 800,000 files to Go to http://tinyurl.com/orf8r8d (original the FBI, which became the basis of its col- = www.fbi.gov/news/stories /2014/august/ lection which now includes digitized forms cjis-digitizes-millions-of-fbi-files-in- of more than 30 million records and 83 mil- modernization-push ). lion finger print cards. We wrote in an earlier Kol about ac- Most of the files contain, as Jan cessing FBI files at http://vault.fbi.gov/. For Meisels Allen reported, a Freedom of Information Act request for ^ civil identity files of people born prior to information go to: www.fbi.gov/foia/ .
More online from FamilySearch.org
New or added to online files from www.FamilySearch.org: * California, Oakland, Alameda County, Newspaper Record Collection, 1985–2011 * Colorado, Naturalization Records, 1876–1990 * Delaware, Marriages and Marriage Licenses, 1713–1894 * Georgia, Brunswick Passenger Lists, 1904–1939 * Hawaii, Honolulu Passenger Lists, 1900–1953 * International, Currentobituary.com index, 2001–2014 * Massachusetts, Boston Passenger Lists, 1820–1891 * Massachusetts, Federal Census Mortality Schedule, 1870 * Massachusetts, Federal Census Mortality Schedule, 1880 * New York, Passenger Lists, 1820–1891 * New York, Records of the State National Guard, 1906–1954 * Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013 * Texas and Arizona Arrivals, 1903–1910 * Texas, El Paso Manifests of Arrivals at the Port of El Paso, 1905–1927 * U.S., BillionGraves Index * United States Passport Applications, 1795–1925 * United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980–2014 * Virginia, Alexandria Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels, 1946–1957 * Wisconsin, Milwaukee Passenger and Crew Lists, 1922–1963
The Kol 18 Spring 2015 United States
Jewish burials in Indiana
Dawne Slater-Putt CG(SM) wrote mation you might glean. It is likely that “Using Records in Tandem” in “Genealogy there are at least some people in the cem- Gems: News from the Fort Wayne Li- etery record book whose names do not brary”, No. 130, December 31, 2014: appear in the cemetery transcription vol- “Cemetery transcription books can be ume. the equivalent of a gold mine for genealo- “The Genealogy Center also has nu- gists, particularly if the book has the tran- merous volumes of photocopied, tran- scriptions arranged as the stones are in scribed or abstracted funeral home or mor- the cemetery, and not alphabetized. ... tuary records, including D. O. McComb, Cemetery ‘indexes’, as we often refer to Klaehn and Mungovan, among others. them, usually are compiled by walking in Fort Wayne’s Jewish residents have not the cemetery and taking notes of the in- traditionally used one particular funeral scriptions on the stones.” …. home, so records of the individuals buried “For example, The Genealogy Center in the Orthodox Jewish Cemetery might be has a series of cemetery transcription found in any of the several funeral home books for Allen County, Indiana, compiled record volumes in the collection. in the 1980s by the Allen County Genea- “Finally, the Genealogy Center has a logical Society of Indiana, Inc. The Wayne series of record books for the Congrega- Township volume in this series (977.201 tion Achduth Vesholom of Fort Wayne, the al5altb) includes inscriptions for the Ortho- oldest synagogue in the state of Indiana dox Jewish Cemetery on Old Decatur (977.202 f77foje). This synagogue is a re- Road. Information from the stones is given formed congregation and the cemetery in the volume, including such rich detail noted at the beginning of this article was as: ‘in memory of: Sabine Gartner, Otto founded as an orthodox cemetery. Howev- Gartner, Tea Gartner, and relatives killed er, the cemetery is now known as the Fort in concentration camp, as inscribed on the Wayne Jewish Cemetery and is open to all reverse side of the marker of Gertrude R. Jews and not affiliated with either of Fort Gartner, Frankfort, Germany, 1921-1975, Wayne’s Jewish congregations, according and Kurt Gartner, Ruppinchteroth, Germa- to the website of the temple – Congrega- ny, 1918-. tion Achduth Vesholom at “To complement the information from www.templecav.org/campus5200/ the transcriptions of the stones in the Or- campuspartners/tabid/4507/default.aspx. thodox Jewish Cemetery, the genealogy “Another popular burial place for Fort center also has a volume titled Orthodox Wayne’s Jewish residents is an area of Jewish Cemetery Records, Fort Wayne, Lindenwood Cemetery. The genealogy Indiana (977.202 f77foj). This book is not center also has copies of the original in- indexed, but if your ancestor’s name ap- ternment books and abstracted burial rec- pears in the Orthodox Jewish Cemetery ords covering particular periods of years listings in the Wayne Township cemetery for Lindenwood in its collection, as well as transcription volume, or was a member of a database on the website at the Jewish community in Allen County, it www.genealogycenter.info/search _linden. might be worth your time to page through php.” the book to see what additional infor-
The Kol 19 Spring 2015 United States
Do you have relatives from the American West?
The Western States Jewish History If you wish, you can submit material Association has created a virtual muse- for an exhibit on a Jewish pioneer, a Jew- um at www.jmaw.org/ . The ish organization, or a synagogue plan is to eventually cover the of the west for no charge at the area west of the Mississippi present. Areas to be accepted River that we call “The West”. also include Wisconsin, Minneso- Jan Meisels Allen wrote, ta, Alaska, Hawaii, British Colum- “Some of those larger settle- bia, Yukon Territory, Alberta, ments had Jewish populations that Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and the ranged from 3-7 percent when the entire Mexican states of Baja, Sonora, Chihua- United States had less than 1 percent hua and Coahuila. Jewish population.” The Western States Go to www.jmaw.org/submissions/ Jewish History Journal has provided for links for submissions and more infor- most of the photographs posted at the mation. website.
World War I draft registration Someone posted the question, had registered. By evening restau- “Where and how were the U.S. rants were in some cases refusing draft registration cards for WWI to serve young men who showed filled out?” up without the lapel pin.” Allan Jordan replied that the “They (government employees) cards were filled out at official gov- were processing large volumes of ernment locations. One of the reg- cards so I am sure the men were istrations (there were three) was on the honor system to be accurate done entirely on a single day, and it in their answers. I don't believe was considered a very patriotic there was any way for the officials thing to do. “Long lines formed and to be validating the information at if I recall correctly the registrant that moment.” was given a lapel pin to signify they
U.S. Census takers recording information Any of us who have used old U.S. arrived relatives would likely have spo- Census forms to find information on our ken. So this posting by Marv Goldberg relatives have noticed that some of the interested us. “I called the user helpline spelling and information seems at odds for the Census Department yesterday and with what we “know” (or think we know) they (told) me that all censuses back then about our family. When we look at the were conducted in English, because eve- names of the census takers, we see that ryone spoke English. Sometimes the gov- often they did not seem able to speak or ernment scares me.” understand Yiddish, which our newly-
The Kol 20 Spring 2015 United States
Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness is Back Online
Bridgett Schneider who was creator along Bridgett Schneider sent an email message to with Doc Schneider of the site Random Acts of all registered users stating that major prob- Genealogical Kindness died in November lems had developed with the site’s hard drive 2011. The site went offline, until January plus the overall health of the administrator was 2015, when Dick Eastman reported that it was not favorable. The site went offline.” back online. “More than 4,000 volunteers in “The site www.raogk.org web site now every U.S. state and many international loca- states, ‘We are trying to rebuild the RAOGK tions used the site to help other genealogists. site. It will take a little more time to get it back The volunteers agreed to do at least one free to its former glory. Our volunteers take time to genealogy research task per month in their do everything from looking up courthouse rec- local area as an Act of Kindness. The RAOGK ords to taking pictures of tombstones. All they volunteers agreed not to charge for their re- ask in return is reimbursement for their ex- search time; however, researchers were re- penses (never their time) and a thank you.’ “ quired to reimburse the volunteer for expens- Your editor was able to make use of the es incurred in fulfilling the research request site in the past, and also took tombstone pho- ….” tos for people in far-off states. It might be “The original Random Acts of Genealogi- more useful than asking on the JewishGen cal Kindness (RAOGK) website was in opera- mailing list for help on research on such things tion for more than a decade, benefitting thou- as court records, etc., especially outside of sands of genealogists. In mid-October, 2011, large Jewish population centers.
New York City Board of Health limits access to death records from 1949 to the present
The following is abridged from Dick East- individual identified on a death certificate filed man's Online Genealogy Newsletter of Febru- with the Department as the person in control ary 18, 2015. He credits the IAJGS Public of the disposition; (3) a party with a property Records Access Monitoring Committee:. right who demonstrates to the Department “The Board of Health for the City of New that information beyond the fact of the death York adopted changes … in late 2014…. Ba- of the decedent is necessary to protect or as- sically it expands access to confidential medi- sert a right of that party; (4) a funeral director cal reports for deaths that occurred prior to who requests the record or information within January 1, 2010 and clarifies who may obtain twelve months of when the death of his or her a death certificate … genealogists are not in- client was registered; or (5) persons or gov- cluded. ernment agencies who otherwise establish “The only persons who may obtain or in- that such records are necessary or required spect records, files, reports, transcripts about for a judicial or other proper purpose or to deaths are: (1) the spouse, domestic partner, prevent the misuse or misappropriation of parent, child, sibling, grandparent or grand- City, state or federal governmental funds.” child of the decedent, (2) the legal repre- sentative of the estate of the decedent, or the
The Kol 21 Spring 2015 United States
Project to document Jewish communities of Western Pennsylvania
Susan M. Melnick, Director of the ness papers and photographs while they Small Town Jewish History Project of the are still available. Plans include the collec- Senator John Heinz History Center in tion of oral histories. All donated materials Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in association will become part of the Rauh Jewish Ar- with the Smithsonian Institution, posted chives at the Heinz History Center where about the project for western Pennsylva- they will be preserved and made accessi- nia: ble to researchers. The Rauh website “The Small Town Jewish History Pro- "Generation to Generation" (jewishfami- ject, a grant-funded project of the Heinz lieshistory.org) will be used as a platform History Center, was launched on March 1, for presenting collected materials. 2015, to document the once thriving Jew- “For more information, or if you are ish communities of Western Pennsylvania. looking for a home for materials related to With congregations closing and the popu- Jewish life in Western Pennsylvania, lation of Jews in regional small towns di- please respond to me personally at minishing, the purpose of the project is to 412.454.6315 or collect records of congregations and or- [email protected].” ganizations as well as personal and busi-
Department of Veterans Affairs wants to compile a genealogy da- tabase of 10 million new individual genealogies per year
Dick Eastman reported in September 2014 ter understanding of the heritable contribution in his “The Daily Online Genealogy Newslet- to many different disease and health traits in ter” that the U.S. Department of Veterans Af- the VA population and will form the basis for fairs wants to hire a company to build a gene- many VA genetic studies.” They also wrote,”… alogy database as a “Genealogy Medical Phe- will allow many hypotheses to be tested, and notype Resource Database”. The agency will result in additional hypotheses for further wants to put ten million new individual geneal- investigation. The resource could someday ogies per year in electronic format, starting provide the basis for individual relative risk es- with people with roots in Washington and Ore- timations, segregation studies, disease associ- gon. If that works, the VA wants to add ten mil- ation studies, pharmacogenomic studies, gene lion per year until there is a U.S. genealogy of expression studies, directed clinical trials and 100-200 million individuals, linked to the entire more for the VA population and perhaps the VA system . world. The VA hypothesizes that the VHA will The VA wrote, “The VA computerizes vast one day use it to identify and better under- amounts of data on diagnosis, treatment, and stand many health-related predisposition outcomes. When paired with genealogical da- genes. A better understanding of the genetic ta, the VA resource will exceed other similar contribution to all aspects of health will lead to resources that exist, or are being created, in improvement in health care.” any other country. This resource will allow bet-
The Kol 22 Spring 2015 United States
Immigration through Galveston, Texas
We tried the online list of immigrants thousand Jewish immigrants entered through through the port of Galveston, Texas, website Galveston. The database was compiled from again. It had been down for quite a while. It is ship passenger lists. You must search by sur- a free database created by the Texas Seaport name. Go to http://tinyurl.com/llk334e (original Museum, containing 130,000 passengers from http://www. galvestonhistory. org/attractions / 1846-1948. maritime-heritage/galveston-immigration- We have written about the Galveston database). In our search, we found relatives Movement before, because Galveston was the who had entered at Galveston bound for Min- port of entry for many Jewish immigrants, es- neapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota. pecially from 1907 to 1914. It is said that ten
Resources
Guide to Law Online gives access to federal records
The Library of Congress and William S. Hein & Co., Inc., agreed to offer free online access to historical U.S. legal materials from HeinOnline. Go to www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/federal.php?loclr=bloglaw OR http://tinyurl.com/kyrk9re . You may browse and download up to 20 pages of PDF’s per download. Thanks to Jan Meisels Allen for posting this information.
Collection started by a man to trace his one Jewish grandparent
Todd Knowles is a Jewish genealogy specialist individual scraps of paper to compile 150 individual at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. This pedigrees, with over 7,500 records… but because is from a FamilySearch announcement: of the complexity and numbering system of her “The Knowles Collection, a quickly growing, collection, searching it was difficult, so Knowles If you are free online Jewish genealogy database linking gen- decided to make it electronic. con- erations of Jewish families from all over the world, “Knowles used the tools available to him at cerned reached its one-millionth record milestone and is FamilySearch.org, such as census records, pro- about now easily searchable online. (It began with) histor- bates, synagogue records, and cemetery rec- ical records gathered from FamilySearch’s collec- ords, to begin publishing more than 10,000 Jew- post- tions. Now the vast majority of new contributions ish names hailing from the British Isles. Eventual- death are coming from families and private archives ly, his collection of Jews of the British Isles grew baptism, worldwide. The free collection can be accessed at to 40,000 names. perhaps FamilySearch.org/family-trees. “Today, Jewish communities worldwide are read the “The databases (have) people … linked as adding their own records to the popular Knowles info, and families and the collection can be searched by Collection online. The Knowles Collection has do not name… All records are sourced and show the peo- grown from Jews of the British Isles (now with add your ple who donated the records so cousins can con- 208,349 records), to Jews of North America relatives’ tact one another. New records are added continu- (489,400), Jews of Europe (380,637), Jews of names. ally, and the collection is growing by about 10,000 South America and the Caribbean (21,351), Jews names per month from over 80 countries. Correc- of Africa, the Orient, and the Middle East tions are made as the need is found, and new links (37,618), and the newest one, Jews of the South- are added continually.” ern Pacific (21,518). While researching his grandfather, Knowles “The Knowles Collection can be accessed at found the “Mordy Collection in England, which had FamilySearch.org (click Search, and then click Ge- been compiled by Isobel Mordy... She had used nealogies).”
The Kol 23 Spring 2015 International
Polish birth / marriage / death records access
The Polish Legislature has passed a tration offices are allowed to take up to 10 new law starting March 1, 2015, that af- years to transfer marriage and death rec- fects access to birth/marriage/death rec- ords to the State Archives. ords. There will be a 100 year wait for birth The Gesher Galicia SIG had contacted records and an 80 year wait for access to members of the Polish legislature to sug- marriage and death records. This is good gest a shorter transfer period and fewer in a way, because before this law, access years after death to access the records, to marriage and death records was only but that did not influence the legislature. after 100 years. However, local civil regis-
Latest translated records from Lithuania
Howard Margol posted an updated months, when they will be added to the LitvakSIG Records Acquisition Report in LitvakSIG All Lithuania Database and the January. The records are translated and JewishGen Lithuania Database. are available on the appropriate LitvakSIG We have abridged the list for space District websites. A contribution of $100 to considerations, only listing the archive and a District Research Group allows you to town name. see the records without having to wait 18
KRA - Kaunas Regional Archive LCVA - Central Archive Kaunas Uyezd Plunge Siauliai Uyezd Vabalninkes (Panevezys) Seirijai (Suwalki) Vilnius Jonava
LVIA - Historical Archive Aleksandrov area (volost) Plunge (Telsia) Marijampole (Suwalki) (Lida District) Vishnevo (Oshmiany) Panevezys District Suwalki Guberniya Vasilishki (Lida) Telsiai District Raseiniai Voronovo (Lida) Siauliai District Sakia (city) (Suwalki) Vistytis (Suwalki) Sejny district Naumiestis (Wladyslawow) Plissa (Disna) Suwalki District district (Suwalki) Postavy (Disna). Disna Marijampole
FamilySearch.org new or revised Canada Census, 1911 Canada, New Brunswick Provincial Marriages 1789–1950 Canada, Newfoundland Census, 1921 Canada, Nova Scotia Marriages, 1907–1932 Canada, Prince Edward Island Marriage Registers, 1832–1888 Hungary, Civil Registration, 1801–1980 Slovakia, Church and Synagogue Books, 1592–1910 Ukraine, Zaporizhia Poll Tax Census (Revision Lists), 1811–1858
The Kol 24 Spring 2015 International
Recording births in Tsarist Russia
When someone posted tration, and the date of the birth. The court a query about how births rabbi would record the information on were recorded in Tsarist forms supplied by the Russian government Russia, a response was in Russian and Hebrew. The witnesses given stating that each would affirm that the court rabbi had cor- religious community rec- rectly recorded what the father had told orded its own statistics. him.” Dou, Gerrit When a Jewish birth oc- Then the court rabbi made out the curred, the father would go to the appoint- form. Each month he compiled the number ed court rabbi who would gather witness- of male and female births. “One copy of es, “…usually the court rabbi's neighbors. the form was sent to the guberniya author- The father would tell about the birth, an- ities and one copy of the form was sent to swering the court rabbi’s questions about the uyezd authorities.” The court rabbi the names of the father, mother and child, may have kept a third copy. as well as their status and place of regis-
More information on Russian vital records in Lithuania We also found this information from co-religionists in the rural communities and Howard Margol, past president of the In- cities. Elections are to be carried out every ternational Association of Jewish Genea- three years. The elected serve, on approv- logical Societies (IAJGS), and of Litvak al of the gubernia authorities, and take the SIG. Someone had asked about registra- ensuing oath on a form” Part of the rabbi’s tion in Lithuania. He used the Evreiskaya job was “to carry out, solely by his offices, Encikolpedia (Jewish Encyclopedia). St. all the rites of circumcision and naming of Petersburg, 1908-1913 as his resource. infants, weddings, dissolution of marriages, “During the 19th and early part of the and burials ... and to keep metrical books 20th centuries, the Russian Empire had a in all its sections and to submit copies of network of official state rabbis (Kazenyi them annually to gubernia authorities, in Ravin).The 1804 statute concerning the or- Hebrew and Russian language." ganization of the Jews confirmed their tra- The laws specified what kind of educa- ditional right to elect rabbis. These rabbis, tion the rabbi had to have, and the law who had to be approved by Gubernia au- changed over time. “Most importantly, they thorities, were entrusted ‘to oversee the had to know enough Russian to keep met- rites of faith and to judge all disputes relat- rical books, since the registers were kept in ing to the religion.’ In 1812, it was stipulat- both Hebrew and Russian and the ed that a state rabbi had to be literate in certificates produced to various state agen- Russian, Polish, or German. cies were in Russian.“ “According to the Regulations of 1835, Howard mentioned that the elector lists the rabbi was the keeper and interpreter of for the rabbis is a good source of names Jewish laws. In this post, a learned and re- for our research. spected Jew was appointed, elected by his
The Kol 25 Spring 2015 International
Memoir of yeshiva in Belarus
A book reviewed in the respondence of Ernest Guggenheim he January 8, 2015, edition of tells of his experiences and also of how the Broward Jewish Jour- the conditions in Europe affected the stu- nal - North (florida jewish- dents. The yeshiva had to move to Japan, journal.com) told of a ye- then to Shanghai, and finally to Israel and shiva in Mir, Belarus. In Brooklyn. The reviewer, Rabbi Jack 1938 a French yeshiva stu- Riemer, says, “…worth reading because dent went to study there. In (it) captures the spirit of a world that once Letters from Mir: The Cor- was.”
Jewish Heritage Europe website as an information clearing house
Adelle Gloger recommended the web- foundations, state and civic organizations, site www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu/ . monuments protection authorities and oth- We checked it out and this is from the er stakeholders and interested parties. website: “As a project of the Rothschild Foun- “Jewish Heritage Europe aims to facil- dation (Hanadiv) Europe, our goal is for itate communication and information ex- JHE to be a clearing house for a variety of change regarding projects, initiatives and such information and a go-to online re- other developments concerning Jewish source for people involved or interested in heritage and Jewish heritage sites: resto- Jewish heritage to find addresses, con- ration, funding, ongoing projects, best- tacts and news. Please subscribe to our practices, advisory services and more. We newsfeed! You can also follow us on Fa- hope to foster contacts among Jewish cebook and Twitter.” communities, private individuals or bodies,
Bialystok Jewish Cemetery exploration by drone
No sooner had we entered the article epitaphs, videos and above, than we came across this: other digital resources Dick Eastman cited an article on the on the Bagnówka Jewish Heritage Europe website that tells Jewish cemetery as about a tour of a Jewish cemetery in Bi- well as scores of other Jewish cemeteries alystok, Poland, by drone. It is the only (and other heritage sites) in northeastern one of “Białystok’s pre-war Jewish ceme- Poland.” (from the website) There is a vid- teries to have survived largely intact, has eo at long been documented in detail, thanks to http://podrozniccy.com/en/poland/jewish- the heroic efforts of our JHE friend Tomek cemetery-bialystok. Wisniewski — his huge bagnowka.com website hosts digital photos, translations of
The Kol 26 Spring 2015 International
Files list all Eastern European and Western European towns
Joel Ratner posted a site for a file of all Eastern Euro- pean towns in Excel format. Original address: https:// dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/ 27782628/Town% 20locations%20-%20Eastern%20Europe.xlsx OR http://tinyurl.com/qc7jd36 supplied by the moderator. Joel also listed a file for towns in Western European countries https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/27782628/Town%20locations%20-%20Western% 20Europe.xlsx OR http://tinyurl.com/qzaoe7j supplied by the moderator. The moderator commented that since the Excel files are so large, they might take a while to load. Joel Ratner [email protected]
Index to this issue
Calendar 2 January Our newsletter 4-5 March Holocaust survivor’s story 6 April Family who stayed in Poland 7 Local and Ohio Old Jewish newspapers 1, 8-9; records 3, our JGS library 10-1, Ohio cemetery law 12, colorful Clevelander 12, member finds success 13-4 Queries 15 United States Michigan 16, Changed names 17, New York City death records 17, 21; F.B.I. 18, FamilySearch 18, 30, Indiana burials 19, WWI Draft 20, Jews of the West 20, Census takers 20, RAOGK 21, western Pennsylvania 22, V.A. database 22, Galveston immigration 23, federal law online 23 International Knowles Collection 23, Polish BMD 24, Lithuania 24-5, 28, Family Search 24, Tsarist Russia births 25, Belarus yeshiva 26, Heritage Europe 26, Bi- alystok cemetery 26, all European towns 27, Galician towns 28, defunct cemeter- ies 28, UK newspapers 29, Kingdom of Poland 29, Latvia 30, 33, Polish syna- gogue replica 30, Argentina 31, old Czechoslovakia 31, Polish cemeteries 31, Ukraine 31, 32 Holocaust Vishniac photographs 33, France 33, Shanghai 33, Slovakia 34, Lithuania 34, stolen art 34, JDC collection 35, survivor interviews 35, USHMM expanding 35, Remembrance Alliance 35, ITS glossary 36, Austria cemetery 36 Techniques translate Cyrillic 36, DNA 37 Resources port indexes 37 Member News 3, 38 Tante Jennie research plan, foreign alphabets 39 Society information new officers 3, contact information 40
The Kol 27 Spring 2015 International
Galician Town Locator Pamela Weisberger, President of city in the year 1900, including their judi- Gesher Galicia posted that if you are un- cial and administrative districts, and the sure which town in Galicia was yours, or location of the Jewish, Roman Catholic are confused about town spellings, you and Greek Catholic congregations. If you can use the Galician Town Locator at have had trouble finding your shtetl on www.geshergalicia.org/galician-town- JewishGen's database, and you know it locator/ . was in Galicia, it will be on this list.” She wrote, “This is an easy-to-use al- Main address www.geshergalicia.org . phabetical list of every town, village and
All Lithuania Database expands
The database has added 47,469 new SIG, wrote, “Please search even if you records; many districts are represented. don't think you'll find anything. Some types The records added cover births, deaths, of records fall into categories which don't marriages, divorces and tax lists. Revision fully explain the type of record due to the and similar lists were still being processed template we have to use. For example, the and when available, there will be an an- new records include Real Estate Owners nouncement. and different types of Savings Bank rec- Eden Joachim, President of the Litvak ords.”
Speaking of Lithuania...
We often quote Howard Margol, ex- with Jewish leaders. There will be sight- pert on Lithuanian research. He is offering seeing, and two days to visit and spend another group trip to Lithuania. This year it time in your shtetl, (or shtetlach). Almost is scheduled for July 21 to 31. He has all meals are included; the hotels and bus- been doing these trips for over 20 years. es are select. For details and a full itiner- He and Peggy Mosinger Freedman will ary of the trip, go to facilitate visits to archives, synagogues, www.litvaktrip.peggyspage.org, or e-mail ghettos, Holocaust sites, and meetings [email protected].
Defunct cemeteries Moshe Schaeffer of Jerusalem is look- working on a project about Jewish ceme- ing for a list of cemeteries that no longer teries. If no list exists, he would appreci- exist, “whether they were destroyed by ate information about such cemeteries. man or by nature or if the place is still Contact him at there but there are no tombstones.” He is [email protected] .
The Kol 28 Spring 2015 International
Packrats rejoice — Newspaper storage in the UK
The British Library issued a press re- ry week are received by the Library lease about its new long-term home for its through legal deposit.” UK national newspaper collection with “The National Newspaper Building is more than 60 million newspapers spanning located at the British Library’s northern site three centuries. The collection is kept in a at Boston Spa, West Yorkshire.” Boston facility that maintains both constant tem- Spa is a village and civil parish in the City perature and humidity, and a dark and air- of Leeds metropolitan borough. (Downton tight low-oxygen environment to eliminate Abbey locale) the risk of fire. Because of the low-oxygen They have plans to digitize more pag- environment, robotic cranes are used for es, and “10 million pages are already fast retrieval. available online at “Spanning more than three centuries, www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk which (the collection) comprises local, regional offers a subscription service – or can be and national newspapers from across the viewed for free in any of the British Li- UK as well as many overseas titles. It is an brary’s Reading Rooms, including Boston invaluable historical resource for tens of Spa.” It is necessary to register as a re- thousands of researchers every year and searcher if going in person. continues to grow as some 1200 titles eve- The British Library site is www.bl.uk .
Former Kingdom of Poland geographic dictionary
In “Genealogy Gems: News from the Fort “...Each entry in the gazetteer usually contains Wayne Library”, No. 123, May 31, 2014 , Sara Al- the following information: Type of locality (village, len told about the Slownik Geograficzny Krlestwa city, etc.), district, community, parish, population Polskiego (Geographic Dictionary of the Former figures (including the number of Jews, if applica- Kingdom of Poland). She wrote in part, ble) and more. “Researchers studying Eastern Europe will “...There is a detailed translation guide at the want to consult the Slownik Geograficizny Krlestwa beginning of Volume 1 that allows readers to trans- Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich, compiled late key points of the entries, and was used to by Filip Suliemierski between 1880 and 1902. translate the ... text above. Another option for Loosely translated into English, the title reads Geo- translation includes copying out the text and enter- graphic Dictionary of the Former Kingdom of Po- ing the information into an online text translation land and Other Slavic Lands. A copy of this 15- tool such as Google Translate: https:// volume set is available on 173 microfiche in The translate.google.com/ Genealogy Center (filed under Poland). This gaz- “...A digital version of this gazetteer is also etteer is an A to Z compilation of places in Eastern available online at the University of Warsaw’s web- Europe that were once part of Poland or had site (http://dir.icm.edu.pl/Slownik_geograficzny/). Polish inhabitants in the 19th century, including the Several online translations of selected entries are partitions of Austrian and Russian Poland, but not also available at the Polish Genealogy Society of German Poland. It also incorporates portions of America’s website (http://www.pgsa.org/Towns/ these other modern-day countries: Russia, townindex.php), Polish Roots website (http:// Ukraine, Belarus, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hun- polishroots.org/GeographyMaps/S%C5% gary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Ro- 82ownikGeograficzny/tabid/61/Default.aspx), and mania. other locations.”
The Kol 29 Spring 2015 International
History of Riga, Latvia
Arlene Beare, who has been a leader my site. The three volumes are an in Latvia research, posted about Riga his- abridgement of the multi-volume Encyclo- tory before and during the Holocaust. pedia of Jewish Communities published in “Yad Vashem has given me permission Hebrew by Yad Vashem. to publish on my Riga Kehilalinks page an “There is a forward to these three Eng- Extract from their Encyclopedia. This his- lish volumes by Eli Wiesel translated from tory of Riga has been taken from the En- the French by Fred Skolnik. ISBN 0-8147- cyclopedia of Jewish Life before and dur- 9376-8 ing the Holocaust published in English in “If you would like to read this Riga His- three volumes by Yad Vashem. The copy- tory go to the Riga page right belongs to Yad Vashem who have http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/riga/ kindly given me permission to upload it to rigapage.htm .”
Wooden synagogue to be built in Poland
If your family came from Poland, you might be interested in a replica of a 300 year- old synagogue that is planned for construction at the Museum of Folk Architecture in Sanok, Poland. They already have a replica of a pre-war town there. They intend to remain true to how the original synagogue would have been built. Go to http:// tinyurl.com/PolaniecWoodenSynagogue for more information.
United States
Even more FamilySearch.org updates
California, San Diego, Airplane Passenger and Crew Lists, 1929–1954 California, San Francisco Passenger Lists, 1893–1953 Florida, Key West Passenger Lists, 1898–1945 Minnesota, Baudette, Warroad, and International Falls Passenger Lists, 1910–1923 New York, New York City Births, 1846–1909 New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1866–1938 New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795–1949 New York, New York, Soundex to Passenger and Crew Lists, 1887–1921
Always remember that for the nearly illegible script. So if you are FamilySearch online material, the looking for a name and cannot find it, indexers were not familiar with Jewish try permutations of the name. names, and had to read unfamiliar or
The Kol 30 Spring 2015 International Inquiries about relatives in Argentina The Argentine Association for Jewish database at no charge, since it is not Genealogy has a database of more than online. Send a brief query of a name to 230,000 Jews that live or lived at Argenti- [email protected] . They prefer to have the na, and some data for deceased in other query in Spanish, but you could use South American countries. Rolando Gail, Google to translate your message. The so- AGJA secretary, has stated that volunteers ciety’s website is at http://www.agja.org.ar. in his organization are willing to search this
Charles University in Prague database A posting to the JewishGen Discus- named LEVY. They attended from 1921– sion Group noted that Charles University 1932. The search engine has the useful in Prague has started digitizing its student feature that it looks for the string of char- database for 1882–1945. It is located at acters presented so that a search for http://is.cuni.cz/webapps/archiv/public/? “levy” also produces results for LEVYCKIJ, lang=en. It currently has only four persons LEVYOVA AND VAHYLEVYC.
Search Polish cemeteries’ gravestone records Dick Eastman reported a posting by gravestones in Poland. Stanley Diamond concerning an agree- “A routine JRI-Poland search at ment between Jewish Records Indexing – www.jri-poland.org will now generate Poland and the Foundation for Documen- search results that include entries from the tation of (Polish) Jewish Cemeteries FDJC database and link directly to both (FDJC). Now a search of the JRI-Poland digital images and full transcriptions of the database links to the Foundation’s Data- gravestones.” You can search by sur- base with more than 200,000 gravestones name, given name, and town or a combi- from 81 towns. This is the most extensive nation of these, plus by year ranges. source for locating Jewish Cemetery
Ukraine SIG reported these projects are online or in the works: ^Birth records from Nikolayev, Priluki, Odessa ^Metrical (vital) records for Letichev uyezd, ^Vinnitsa Archives, Ternivka, 1903 census from the Khmielnitsky Archives -- most ^Nezhin images from microfilm records between 1838 and 1852 -- including ^Records from Nikolayev 1875 census Z inkov, Medzhibozh, Letichev, Dera zhnya ^1818 census Rozhev and Chabno, Rado- and other towns mysl' ^Priluki deaths 1865, 1866,1868; divorces There are 3491 members of the Ukraine 1855 discussion list as of December 2014. ^1875 Zinkov revision list Find the SIG at www.jewishgen.org/ Scans of Microfilms Acquired: Ukraine/default.asp . ^Priluki -- Deaths, Divorces, Births, Marriages ^Moshny 1886 births
The Kol 31 Spring 2015 International
Experienced researcher reports on the difficulty of doing research in Ukraine now
Richard Spector sent this e-mail: ents don't necessarily want to know them. “Here is the most interesting email I However the time passes, and there is received in February this year from Alex nothing I can do with it. There are situa- Dunai when I asked him why it was taking tions when paying extra costs significantly a long time for him to give me an estimate facilitates things, but unfortunately not in of doing some research on birth records in all cases. (Richard thinks he means Kiev. As you know, Alex is the preeminent bribes.) Jewish archival researcher in the Ukraine, “Like the majority of my clients you although he isn't Jewish. He was the man want to know the cost of the research be- who did the research for and was the trav- fore I start. So I need to know what docu- el guide for Daniel Mendelsohn whose ments are available and how extensive book The Lost: The Search for Six of Six they are before going to the archive. Well, Million was very popular when it came out in this case frequently it is necessary to about 18 months ago. wait. “I could tell that the minimal cost "Dear Richard, would be US $750,which would include “As you know, the documents I work my services as a researcher, the time nec- with are not stored in my home library. I essary for travel and travel expenses. travel all over Ukraine to various cities' ar- You would send me a check, I would go to chives for research. Some archives are Kiev, order the documents, come next day easier to deal with, some are more diffi- and get a reply they are not available. All I cult. Unfortunately I have no control over would have to do is to go back home wait- the documents' availability and have to re- ing for another opportunity. Would it be ly on cooperation of the archival employ- satisfactory for you? I doubt it. And this is ees, starting from the director of the ar- understandable. So I need to maneuver, chive and on to the person who collects make inquiries and arrangements through my order, then the one who picks the nec- the phone calls, ideally to preorder the essary files from the storage, and then the documents to have them ready when I one who brings the files to the reading come. hall. I depend even on the elevator that is “Anyways, I understand that much used for delivery of the documents from time passed, however I am not ready to storage to the reading hall. Actually the tell what the cost will be and I don't know reading hall elevator in the Kiev archive when I learn it. You can wait when I will broke in December and didn't operate have the cost estimate or you certainly through almost entire winter of this year. can look for somebody else. Sorry. “I usually don't complain and don't ex- plain all these details to my clients, be- “Best regards, cause these are my problems and my cli- Alex"
The Kol 32 Spring 2015 Holocaust
Roman Vishniac’s photographs of Eastern European Jews
Pre-Holocaust photographs taken by tion Committee hired Vishniac to take the Roman Vishniac are available online at photographs of Jews in Eastern Europe. http://vishniac.icp.org/. The sponsors are The book of his photos, A Vanished World, The International Center of Photography was published in 1983. In September and the United States Holocaust Memorial 2015, ICP will publish Roman Vishniac Re- Museum. You can search for ancestral discovered, a 384-page monograph that towns by name in “keyword”. There are will feature more than 400 mostly un- 9,000–10,000 images available. published works by Vishniac. The American Jewish Joint Distribu-
Latvia — Riga ghetto list www.rgm.lv/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Rigas-geto-maju-gramatas.pdf
France — Upcoming article on de CAMONDO family
The author David our article. Laskin posted a query Laskin wrote, “… the Camondos were about the de CAMON- an extremely wealthy and cultured bank- DO family of Paris and ing family who mingled with Paris high so- Istanbul, looking for ciety. Comte Moise de Camondo's man- material for his upcom- sion near Parc Monceau in Paris is now ing article in the open to the public as the Musee Nissim de Museum, from Wikipedia Commons Hadassah magazine. Camondo. The count died in 1935; during We were able to the War, his heirs were seized by the Na- send him our 2007 article from The Kol zis and murdered at Auschwitz.” As he and also the name of the French Jewish- surmised, there are no survivors of the genner who supplied some information for family.
Refugees in Shanghai
Megan Lewis, Reference Librarian of www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/ the United States Holocaust Memorial Mu- shanghai-visas/). seum, posted information about a new dig- The site lists the names included in ital collection at the National Archives and the collection, but to access the material, Records Administration website: "Visa In- you have to go to the National Archives vestigation Records of the Shanghai Dias- branch in College Park, Maryland. pora Communities, 1946-1951" at http:// tinyurl.com/pnb2vo2 — (originally http://
The Kol 33 Spring 2015 Holocaust
Do not give up hope to find information -- anything can happen
Jan Meisels Allen posted a message Genealogy Society (Sydney) made it pos- about family photographs and letters sible that the grandson of Rabbi Samuel found in an attic in Slovakia 70 years after Gottshall, who is the son of Rabbi Benja- the family was deported. The items, which min Gottshall, was contacted. Rabbi Ben- belonged to the family of Rabbi Samuel jamin Gottshall immigrated to Australia GOTTSHALL, were given to the city's Mu- after surviving the camps. Jan received e- seum of Jewish Culture with the hope the mails from all over the world with infor- family could be identified and relatives lo- mation about the family. She thanked cated. Later, Jan posted that Robyn Robyn and all the others who responded Dryen, president of the Australian Jewish to her message.
Lithuania — maps
In his online newsletter Gary Mokotoff WebAtlas/0_Lite_A2.htm.” mentioned a website that has maps of Lit- There are even maps that show differ- vak Jewry created by Dovid Katz: http:// ent pronunciations for the same word. dovidkatz.net. You need to know Yiddish You can subscribe to Gary Mokotoff’s to make full use of that website, BUT he newsletter “Nu? What's New? The E-zine also has a map collection at of Jewish Genealogy from Avotaynu” www.dovidkatz.net/WebAtlas/ for $12 a year. Check www.Avotaynu.com. AtlasSamples.htm, which could be used by non-Litvak researchers. Examples giv- en are “’Map of the Lithuanian Jewish Communities: Links to Their Holocaust Fate.’ at www.dovidkatz.net/dovid/ Lithuania/Holocaust/LT-Holocaust- small.html and ‘The Classic Litvak Territo- ry’ at /www.dovidkatz.net/
“Woman in Gold” movie
Randy Schoenberg, a lawyer and of the owner. coordinator of the Austria-Czech SIG, Maria Altman’s aunt’s portrait was the chairman of the board of the Los Angeles “Woman in Gold” that was kept by a Museum of the Holocaust, and member of Vienna museum. The case was heard in the JewishGen Board of Advisors, told a the U.S. Supreme Court as well as in few years ago at an IAJGS conference Austria. about the long court case he worked on to The movie starring Helen Mirren as get six Gustav Klimt paintings stolen by Maria Altman, was advertised to open on the Nazis during WW2 back for the niece April 1, 2015, in some cities.
The Kol 34 Spring 2015 Holocaust
JDC puts two post-Holocaust collections online
The American Joint Distribution Com- Also, the JDC will put its Poland col- mittee has digitized all of its post- lection from 1945 to 1949 online with Holocaust era collections from 1945 to free access. The collection documents its 1954. You can search by text collection, assistance to holocaust survivors. The photo collection or names of persons, Communist Authorities had control of the ships or places at http:// collection previously. Go to http:// tinyurl.com/6nhctzh . If you have ques- tinyurl.com/nhrj5vw OR http://tinyurl.com/ tions, there is a contact form available at: mn9rukb . http://archives.jdc.org/about-us/contact- us.html . The e-mail address is ar- [email protected] .
Holocaust survivors’ recorded interviews
We tried this website and living in Britain. Try http:// found it useful. There is an al- tinyurl.com/kajqgxb , phabetized list of participants. which has some background The British Library has “Jewish information, or directly at http:// Survivors of the Holocaust” tinyurl.com/nxxj642 . online, which has 289 oral his- tory interviews with survivors
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum running out of... Because its collection is expected to to store and conserve materials, to be built grow so much, the USHMM needs more in Bowie, Maryland, near Washington, room. Holocaust survivors David and Fela D.C., and to open in 2016. Shapell donated money to create a facility
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
Hungary assumed the Chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The new chairman is Szabolcs Takács, State Secretary in the Prime Minis- ter’s Office of Hungary. To read more go to
www.holocaustremembrance.com/media-room/stories/ihra-handover
The Kol 35 Spring 2015 Holocaust
International Tracing Service English glossary Pamela Weisberger of the Gesher Ga- German handwriting) and continues with licia SIG posted in January about a free an alphabetical listing of words, phrases English "Glossary of Terms and Abbrevia- and often-confounding wartime abbrevia- tions Found in the Archive of the Interna- tions. Certain vocabulary words and occu- tional Tracing Service" (Bad Arolsen) pational terms translated here are also available at https://secure.ushmm.org/ found in German-language metrical rec- individual-research//Glossary.pdf. ords including those of the Austrian Em- The United States Holocaust Memori- pire and Galicia.” (The Kol carried a chart al Museum created and updates the of the old German handwriting in our Au- guide. “It begins with a guide to Sutterlin tumn 2014 issue.) script (Sutterlinschrift: the historical form of
Jewish Cemetery in Eisenstadt, Austria
In 1922 a book Die Grabinschriften along with available information about the des alten Judenfriedhofes in Eisenstadt deceased. Eventually they hope to photo- (Austria) gave inscriptions from the Old graph the rest of 14 cemeteries which con- Jewish Cemetery of Eisenstadt. Because tain 8,000 graves. For information go to of the changes in the stones over time, the http://goo.gl/QdzwPB and www.ojm.at/ Osterreichische Judische Museum blog/friedhoefe/ . (Austrian Jewish Museum) is planning the If you Google " Old Jewish Cemetery identification and mapping of surviving of Eisenstadt", you will see graveyard rab- gravestones. They plan to photograph bit photos for the cemetery. each stone to post on the museum site
Techniques
Google Translate App used for Cyrillic image Bob Fitterman posted a way to trans- from the computer screen onto my phone late documents that are images easily. He screen. It wasn't all entirely readable, but can sound out Cyrillic, but does not under- it was enough to figure out section head- stand what he is reading. He could not put ings of the document. the Cyrillic image on the screen into “Note that some languages support Google Translate. “What I did that was this instant translation while others only new was I picked up my phone, where I support a scan feature that requires tap- have installed the Google Translate App, ping the screen and then selecting an ar- and pointed it at the screen. (My exact ea to translate which is much more cum- steps were to choose from Russian to bersome. Yiddish is unsupported and English translation, then press the camera handwriting will not work either. I'm sure icon at the lower-left corner.)” that things like headstones will completely The app “started translating words confuse the program.”
The Kol 36 Spring 2015 Resources
Steve Morse links to ports indexed at FamilySearch.org
The Steve Morse One-Step Home page under “Other Ports of Immigration: Vari- ous Ports” links to passenger list indexes on FamilySearch.org. Go to http://stevemorse.org/ellis/free.html. Ports listed are:
Baltimore (1820 - 1948) Boston (1820 - 1943) Key West (1898 - 1957) Los Angeles (1907 - 1948) New Orleans (1820 - 1945) New York (1820 - 1891) New York (1925 - 1957) Philadelphia (1800 - 1945) San Francisco (1893 - 1953) Seattle (1890 - 1957) Wilmington, North Carolina (1898 - 1958).
^^ Use the Ellis Island Gold Form to search the New York (1892–1924) lists.
Remember, what port your relative entered depended on where the shipping line had docking privileges, so even “unlikely” ports should be searched if you have had trouble finding relatives.
DNA solves problem they did not know they had
The old saw “Truth is stranger than fiction” certainly applies to this story. At the Bronx, New York, Fordham Hospital two male babies were switched in 1913. In 2014 their children found from DNA tests that the father who was raised Irish was Ashkenazi Jewish, and the one raised Jewish had Irish ancestry with no Ashkena- zi heritage. The stories are posted at Alice's Story: www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/2015/02/switched-at-birth-unravelling-century_ 27.html or http://goo.gl/oDCb8d and Jess's Story: https://strangepilgrimage.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/and-who-wouldve-thought-it- figures/ or http://goo.gl/JhQM7L .
The stories are interesting. If it were not for DNA testing, this would never have come to light.
The Kol 37 Spring 2015 Member News
Welcome to new members:
Aaron and Karen Appell William Robbins
Patricia Dambis, who bid on her mem- bership through the WVIZ televised auction, then was very busy with traveling for work, and attended her first meeting in April.
Amy Wachs will be a speaker at the 2015 National Genealogical Society Annual Conference in May, which will be held in St Charles, Missouri. She will present three programs on topics about Eastern Europe. Amy is also on the Nominations Committee for Litvak SIG.
Ken Bravo spoke to the Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland in March. He presented his talk “Why the New York Times is Wrong – Using Basic Genealogy Tools and Methods to Show that Your Family Name Was Not Changed At Ellis Island”. He also was on Blogtalkradio online with the presentation.
Lance Ackerfeld thanked volunteers, including Helen Rosenstein Wolf, who have been tirelessly typing up English sections from various Yizkor books.
Sally Wertheim received the Ruby Bass Award from the Jewish Federation of Cleveland for Women’s Campaign volunteerism and dedi- cation to the Federation.
The Kol 38 Spring 2015
Ask Tante Jennie™, the genealogy maven (or at least she thinks so)
Dear Tante Jennie, Sure, it is fun to go I am starting to learn about my fami- online and fish for infor- ly’s history. I am working on it, but I do not mation. A big online com- feel confident. Can you give me a few tips, pany makes attractive television ads say- Tante Jennie? ing how easy it is. But that is not the best way to do good research.
Candace B. Sirius Tante Jennie Dear Candace, I was reading an article recently by Dear Tante Jennie, Curt B. Witcher, who is head of the gene- When researching I sometimes see alogy department of the Allen County Pub- words in foreign alphabets. How can I de- lic Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Your cipher them? question reminds me of something he Dietrich Iznotulaff wrote, “First, commit to being more of an investigator than a stuff-gatherer. … Tending toward being more of an investi- Dear Dietrich, gator would mean that one had a con- Miriam Weiner's Routes to Roots sistent routine that is followed in research Foundation website has nine guides to for- activities: gathering evidence, properly eign alphabets, including printed and cur- and completely recording that evidence sive script, English equivalents and pro- with all appropriate sourcing, and analyz- nunciation. ing that evidence to uncover new research For each, enter leads.” www.rtrfoundation.org/webart/ So when you are doing your family ForeignAlphabets-- followed by the ap- research, have a specific goal in mind. For propriate pdf address. Example: example: When did Abraham Cohen mar- www.rtrfoundation.org/webart/ ry Hattie Levy? If you find that fact, record ForeignAlphabets--Yiddish.pdf . where you found it (a library, courthouse, or where online) and also record the title Hebrew Yiddish.pdf of the source and the page or location, or Hungarian (Magyar) Magyar.pdf web address. Then look at the information German Deutsch.pdf Lithuanian Lith557.pdf to see if it contradicts what you have al- Polish Polish.pdf ready researched. Are the people the cor- Romanian Romanian.pdf rect people you are related to? Did they Russian Russian.pdf get married in a year that is not likely? If Ukrainian UkraB1D.pdf you see that the people are not your rela- Yiddish Yiddish.pdf tives, it would not be the first time that someone has been mistaken. Tante Jennie
The Kol 39 Spring 2015
2015 Officers Affiliated with the President -- Charles Lissauer International 1st Vice President – TBA Association of 2nd Vice President – Membership Jewish Marlene Englander Genealogical Secretary -- Adelle Gloger Treasurer -- Amy Wachs Membership is by calendar year. Immediate Past-president -- Annual Single Membership is $25; Helen Wolf annual Family Membership is $35. (Past presidents are board mem- Membership form is on our website. bers) (See below.) Editor of The Kol (Appointed) -- Send 2015 dues check and com- Cynthia Spikell pleted form to: JGS of Cleveland Board of Trustees (Three-year Mrs. Marlene Englander term) 3000 East Belvoir Oval Ending December, 2015 -- Shaker Heights OH 44122 Sylvia Abrams Ending December, 2016 -- To contact the President or to send Becky Werman a query, e-mail Ending December, 2017 [email protected] Stewart Hoicowitz or send snail mail to:
Jewish Genealogy Society Webmaster Paul Wolf of Cleveland c/o Menorah Park 27100 Cedar Rd. The Kol is published at least three Beachwood OH 44122 times a year and is sent electroni- cally to members, other JGS To contact other officers, go to our groups, and libraries. Paper copies website and click on their e-mail ad- are kept in our library. dresses.
www.clevelandjgs.org/
Content not copyrighted by the author is copyrighted by the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland © 2015
The Kol 40 Spring 2015