tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91412979005950989432017-09-03T15:27:21.139-04:00Past-Present-FutureSmadar Belkind Gersonnoreply@blogger.comBlogger143125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-66468407158440109222014-10-08T15:26:00.000-04:002014-10-08T19:04:22.100-04:00So Close and Yet So FarHow long has it been since I've been asking the simple question, where are the Bloomfields from? More specifically: <b>what village where they from? </b>Probably six years? America is a land of immigrants and William Bloomfield, my great-grandfather immigrated from somewhere in the Russian Empire. The hunt after this elusive village, is what makes genealogy fun. I share this journey with another Bloomfield cousin and together, systematically and patiently we have tried to pinpoint the shtetl.<br /><br />Let's review the evidence so far:<br />The Bloomfields records have sent us on all over the map. I've examined the records of Moses Bloomfield, his siblings (Harris Blumenfeld and Mary Pincus) and seven sons and generated a list of towns. Check out the google map I created:<br /><br /><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="350" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=52.556316,24.466553&spn=3.573659,8.745117&t=h&z=7&output=embed" width="425"></iframe><br /><small>View <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=52.556316,24.466553&spn=3.573659,8.745117&t=h&z=7&source=embed" style="color: blue; text-align: left;">Bloomfield Russian Towns</a> in a larger map</small><br /><ol><li>Malec (a town in Pruzhany district, Grodno region in current day Belarus) also known as: Malech [Rus], Malecz [Pol], Maltsh [Yid], Maleč [Bel], Maltch, Malch, Moletch- listed as Moses Bloomfield permanent residence from Harry Bloomfield's birth certificate, and on Harris Blumenfeld naturalization papers and Mary Pincus' ship manifest as their place of birth.</li><li>Pruzhany (a town and district in the providence of Grodno also in Belarus)- from Mary Pincus's naturalization papers and Minnie Bloomfield (Crane) naturalization papers which name Pruzany as her husband William's place of birth.</li><li>Grodno (a town, a district and a province in what is now current day Belarus)- from William Bloomfield's WWII draft registration.</li><li>Slawatczye (a town in Biała district, Siedlce and province, currently in Poland, 25 miles from the city of Brest) from Harry Bloomfield's birth certificate and WWI draft registration.</li><li>Brest (a town and a district in the province of Grodno now also in Belarus)- from Harry Bloomfield's WWII draft registration.</li><li>Wladimiretz, Wolyin- Determining which town this is referring to, is a bit difficult. Wladimiretz was mentioned on the ship manifest for Moses, Freida Toby and their four youngest sons. The name Vladimerz was mentioned on Barney Bloomfield's preliminary form for Petition of Naturalization. I believe this is the town of Vladimirets in the district of Lutsk and the province of Volhynia (also known as Wolyn). This town is known by many names which include: Włodzimierzec [Pol], Volodymyrets' [Ukr], Vlodimiretz [Yid], Vlodzhimyerzets, Wladimirez, Vlodzimezhets, Vladimirei and Volodymyrec'. Before WWI, it was called, like it is now, Vladimirets. Confusingly it could also be Volodymyr Volynskyy [Ukr] also known by many names such as Vladimir Volynskiy [Rus], Włodzimierz Wolynski [Pol], Ludmir [Yid], Lodomeria [Lat], Ladmir, Lodmer, Ludomir, Vladimir Volinski, Vladzimyrz, Włodzimierz, Wladimir, Wladimir Wolynsk, Wolodymyr-Wolynskyj, which was in the district of Vladimir and the same province of Volhynia. Before WWI, this town was known as Vladimir and that is why my sense is that it's not the correct town mentioned in the manifest. What do you think?</li></ol><b>Making sense of the list of towns:</b><br />A close examination suggest that some of the named locations are one and the same.<br /><br /><ul><li>Pruzhany for example was mentioned only on Mary Pincus' naturalization papers, while her ship manifest specifically mentions Malec. This suggest that Malec is the more specific location and Pruzhany is the district not the town. </li><li>Grodno is mentioned only on William's draft registration but it is also the province where Malec is located. Since on Minnie's naturalization papers, Pruzhany is William's place of birth, it seems that Pruzhany in the Grondo province is the more specific location and Grodno the town can be eliminated. William could s</li><li>Slawatczye was only mentioned in Harry Bloomfiled's birth record from 1892 and his WWI draft registration. The draft registration names Brest as the town and Slawatczye as the state. This seems to be backwards. Since, Brest is not mention with regards to any other family member it seems Brest the town can be eliminated from the list. Slawatczye remains on the list as Harry's place of birth. This birth record does say the family was from Malec, and only temporary residence of Slawatczye, meaning that they may have moved to Slawatczye but did not change their permanent residence. This makes Slawatczye an likely ancestral village. </li><li>Finally, Vladimirets seems to be the Bloomfields last residence before coming to America. It's unlikely that the ship manifest correctly described all their places of birth since we have confirmed that Harry was indeed born in Slawatczye and not Vladimirets. It seems much more likely that the younger three siblings were born in Vladimirets. Though Vladimirets could have been where Moses and Freida Toby were born as well (and possibly where they returned to before going to the US), it seems more likely though that Moses was from Malec as he was registered as a permanent resident there and back then it was difficult to change one's permanent residence. Freida Toby's place of birth is a whole other mystery. Barney Bloomfield's naturalization papers state he was born in Vladimirets but qualify that he is not sure the name of the town. This suggests that they lived in the region of Vladimirets, but not necessarily the town of Vladimirets.</li></ul><div>Using this train of thought we trim the list to 4 towns: Malech, Pruzhany, Slawatcyze and Vladimirets (or Volodymyr Volynskyy).</div><div><br /></div>As I mentioned in: Bingo! A letter from the Genealogy Program at USCIS! <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2014/06/treasure-chest-thursday-letter-from.html" target="_blank">Part I</a> and <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2014/09/treasure-chest-thursday-bingo-letter.html" target="_blank">Part II</a>, Minnie Crane' (William's Bloomfield's wife) naturalization papers listed Williams place of birth as Pruzhany. This seemed a bit disappointing because it did not specify if he was born in Pruzhany the town or the district. Since then, I've been waiting for William's naturalization papers to arrive from USCIS. I'm still waiting. But, thanks to one of my readers, renowned blogger—<a href="http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/" target="_blank">Legal Genealogist</a>—Judy Russel, I need not wait any longer. Judy, kindly took the a little time to research William Bloomfield. She brought to my attention, that his naturalization papers are now online at <a href="http://ancestry.com/">Ancestry.com</a> as part of the Houston naturalization papers collection. I'm not sure how long the collection has been online but it's not on the <a href="http://www.ancestry.com/cs/reccol/default" target="_blank">new and updated list of collections</a> which goes back to July 2nd. I guess I need to be studying this list more often, since somehow I missed this even though I'm on ancestry pretty much everyday. Unfortunately no little leaf pointed me to these new records, but fortunately, I am part of a wonderful genealogy community and Judy Russel alerted me much faster than Ancestry. Thanks Judy!<br /><br />So, finally, after all this time, I bring to you <b>William Bloomfield's Declaration of Intent to become a United States citizen:</b><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DjwH6ZG_2Eg/VDS60P_4ldI/AAAAAAAAC0w/iBHOLfJ6yVU/s1600/William%2BBloomfield%2BDeclaration%2Bof%2BIntent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DjwH6ZG_2Eg/VDS60P_4ldI/AAAAAAAAC0w/iBHOLfJ6yVU/s1600/William%2BBloomfield%2BDeclaration%2Bof%2BIntent.jpg" height="400" width="297" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">William Bloomfield Declaration of Intent (Click to enlarge)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>So Close and Yet so Far!</b><br /><b><br /></b>Unfortunately, this records did not bring us any closer to answering the big question. William lists his place of birth as Pruzany. Thanks gramps! Did you mean you were born in the town of Pruzany? Or where you born in Malec where you father and his siblings seem to be from and which is in the district of Pruzhany? Will I ever know the answer?<br /><br />One new and very important clue provided by these documents is William's arrival information including the date and the name of the ship:<br /><br />William arrived from Rotterdam on the Rotterdam on the 22 Dec 1903.<br /><br />I was hopeful that maybe the ship manifest—another document I've been after for years—would shed some light on the subject. The manifest was not indexed which explains why it was so difficult to track-down without the specific ship information. Yet gain, luck was not on my side. While so many ship manifest forms have a column for place of birth, William's did not.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xHn-xUPYWyA/VDS6z-gxGQI/AAAAAAAAC0o/jL8jZ10idOw/s1600/Wolf%2BBlumenfeld%2BImmigration%2BRecord.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xHn-xUPYWyA/VDS6z-gxGQI/AAAAAAAAC0o/jL8jZ10idOw/s1600/Wolf%2BBlumenfeld%2BImmigration%2BRecord.jpg" height="318" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wolf Blumenfeld Ship Manifest (click to enlarge)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">See the close up for Williams entry on line 9:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ki4Qmo7HswE/VDS931T08DI/AAAAAAAAC1E/L4yx4yKJSRg/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-10-08%2Bat%2B12.28.03%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ki4Qmo7HswE/VDS931T08DI/AAAAAAAAC1E/L4yx4yKJSRg/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-10-08%2Bat%2B12.28.03%2BAM.png" height="23" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(click to enlarge) Close up of Line 9, Wolf Blumenfeld Ship Manifest: William Blumenfeld, 18 M, Merchant, able to read and write, Nationality: Russia, Race or People: Hebrew, Last residence: Kuselin, Final Destination: Fall River, Trip paid for by: brother, In possession of $5, Going to Join: brother M. Blumenfeld, 965 Pleasant Street, NY.</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What it did provide was a last residence: Kuselin, a place I never heard. There is a town in today's Ukraine called Kiselin [Rus, Yid], also known as Kisielin [Pol], Kysylyn [Ukr]. In 1903 Kiselin was in the district of Vladimir, the providence of Volhynia, which was part of the Russian Empire. It is located between Vladimirets and Volodymyr Volynskyy, but closer to Volodymyr Volynskyy (only 21 miles). I believe Kuselin may indeed be the town because it would be consistent with the fact that the family reported Wladimiretz as their last residence, since Kiselin was very near to Volodymyr Volynskyy. Wladimiretz may even be the referring to the name of the district Vladimir and the actual town may have been Kuselin. William who was only was only 16 in 1903 (according the his 1887 year of birth which he used consistently thought his life) was likely living with his family. (The fact that he reported to be 18 on the manifest is not troubling since many underage travelers lied about their age in order to be allowed to travel alone). </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>The answer to the big question: what was the Bloomfield's ancestral village? Remains confusing and illusive. Maybe my question is the problem. Maybe the question is too big and not focused enough. Which ancestor does ancestral village refers to? William, my great-grandfather, or a generation above? Am I asking where they were born or where they lived? Do I mean, where would they consider themselves to be from? Where they grew up? or perhaps where their ancestors lived? </div><div><br /></div><div>Perhaps I assumed when I formulated this big question, that they lived in one place until they moved to America. The Bloomfields seem to have embodied the term the wandering Jew. This close review of the records answer a lot of questions smaller questions and helps outline a timeline the family's whereabouts.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Answer for Now: </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>The town of Malec, in the district of Pruzhany seems to be where Moses's generation was born. If Moses was not born there in 1854, he considered it his permanent residence, and his younger siblings were born there (1871-1873). It is possible that some of Moses's older children were also born in Malec since William (the third oldest) was born in Pruzhany in 1887. The next son, Harry was born in Slawatczye in 1892 which means that between 1887 and 1892 the family moved, since Slawatczye is not in the district of Pruzhany. By 1903 the family living the Vladimir district where Barney was born (second to youngest son). They were very likely to be living in the town of Kuselin in 1904, the date William departed for America. </div><div><br /></div><div>Malec continues to appear to be the closest approximation to an ancestral town. There is much more research to do, but from now, there will be only small questions such as: Where were each of the Bloomfield children born? How would you go about obtaining the answers? My plan is to obtain missing naturalization papers for Aaron, Max, Harry, Joseph, Barney and Benjamin. A trip to the National Archives in Waltham is probably where I'll start since they all lived in New England. These records promise to provide ship manifest for the older two brothers, Aaron and Max. Where would you look next? </div>Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-68189144497281453182014-10-03T13:18:00.003-04:002014-10-03T16:51:56.343-04:00Friday's Faces From the Past: Descendants DiscoveredOn Friday <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/12/fridays-faces-from-past-charles-coff.html#comment-form" target="_blank">Dec 6th, 2013 I featured Charles Coff as my Friday's face from the past</a>. Charles Coff was not a relative of mine, but his beautiful portrait alongside a family group photo were prominently displayed in my great-grandmother's photo album. My only clues were an inscription on the back, dated 1917 which described his "deep friendship" with Minnie Crane, my great-grandmother. "Deep friendship" seemed to be a code word for their courtship, as Minnie, in her <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/minnie-crane-and-smadar-belkind-gerson/stored-treasures/paperback/product-18799131.html" target="_blank">memoir</a> describes multiple suitors during her glory days of being a young single woman in Hartford and New York City. The group photo of the Coffs, dedicated to Minnie by Charles, suggests that she knew and was probably friends with his family as well.<br /><br />Through last winter's post, I was hoping to return these vintage photos to Coff descendants. It seemed very likely that the Coff family no longer owns copies of these photos or maybe they have the photo but can not identify the people in them. Since they are scanned and included in my records, I felt happy to send the originals to a family member who might want them. As part of the earlier post, I did a bit of research about the Coffs, but lost track of them and their whereabouts after 1919 and found no descendants.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-caA2q_2Ntw8/UqH8OXKH6NI/AAAAAAAACrI/CTh_a9NC8bE/s1600/Coff%2BCompany%2BMarch%2B29%2B1917.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-caA2q_2Ntw8/UqH8OXKH6NI/AAAAAAAACrI/CTh_a9NC8bE/s1600/Coff%2BCompany%2BMarch%2B29%2B1917.tiff" height="320" width="204" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles Coff with arms around his sister<br />Sophia Coff (identified by her granddaughter). The<br />other three man in the photo are likely <br />also Coff siblings. One is probably Samuel. </td></tr></tbody></table>Last week, to my amazement, I received a comment on the post from a Coff descendant (who goes by the online name, Doctorbak). She is the granddaughter of Sophia Coff, the woman in the photo with her brothers. Recently, Doctorbak came across a photo of her grandmother Rose (who died before she was born) with a young man, probably her husband, back in Russia. Doctorbak and her siblings realized that they never knew Rose's husband name. On a whim, she googled Rose Coff and what she found was a link to my blog and a history of her family's early years in Hartford. Doctorbak never met Charles Coff nor any of Sophia's siblings.<br /><br />This is the first time that thanks to the power of google, my blog has successfully found a home to an orphaned photo. Though this not the first time people researching their family history have connected to me through google and my blog, it is the first time that I am able to solve a photo mystery in this manner and return the photograph, along with some genealogy research to a family. One of the advantages using blogger is that google gives high priority to these posts in their search engine. Labeling (or tagging) individuals mentioned in a post, is a tool I use to increase the online visibility of these ancestors. If you are a blogger and do not label your ancestors, I highly recommend you start doing so. It works!<br /><br />The Coff descendants were looking for the name of their great-grandfather, husband of Rose Coff. I believe it may be Moses, since Rose is listed as widow of Moses in the 1914 Hartford City Directory. More research would need to be done to prove that indeed Moses was the man in their photo, but thanks to the Friday's Photo From the Past series, they are now one step closer to identifying their mystery man and to find answers to many more family history questions they didn't know they had.<br /><br />Happy Friday everyone!<br /><br />Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-54445859934022586952014-09-23T07:00:00.000-04:002014-09-23T07:00:02.385-04:00Treasure Chest Thursday: Bingo! A letter from the Genealogy Program at USCIS! Part IIA few months ago I reported about a promising letter I received from USCIS in the post: <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2014/06/treasure-chest-thursday-letter-from.html" target="_blank">Treasure Chest Thursday: Bingo! A letter from the Genealogy Program at USCIS!</a> Part II. Finally, after what seemed like an eternal three months, the awaited naturalization papers for Minnie Crane (Menuche Kranowitz) finally arrived.<br /><br />As you may remember, Minnie's naturalization papers have been difficult to find. I've been after them for more than five years. The hope in obtaining these papers was not so much to learn about Minnie, but more importantly to learn about her husband, William Bloomfield.<br /><br /><b>The Big Question: What was the Bloomfield's ancestral village?</b><br /><b><br /></b>For years, the Bloomfield cousins have been trying to answer a simple question. Where are the Bloomfields from? More specifically, what is the name of the village in Russia they came from? Moses and Frieda Bloomfield (known as Belous or Belo-oose in Russia) had seven grown sons (among them my great-grandfather, William Bloomfield). Where were they from? In order to be able to locate documents for the family in Europe, it is essential to identify where they were from.<br /><br />Our joint efforts have lead to many many documents tracking the Bloomfields in the US including, ship manifests, draft registration and some naturalization papers (few) mostly named Russia or Grodno as the place of birth. Some family members papers named Pruzhany as their town of birth others named Vladimirets, Brest. Harry's birth certificate is from Slawatycze, and states that his father Moses was from Malech. In addition there is evidence that both Moses' brother (naturalization papers) and sister (ship manifest) were born in Malec.<br /><br />The answer to this apparently simple question, maybe quite complex. Many Jewish family, moved frequently and it is very possible that different family members where born in different towns. Malech, a small shtetl in what is now Belarus, is in the Pruzhany district part of the Grodno Providence of what was then the Russian Empire. It seems to be where Moses' generation was from. Moses then moved his family and it is not clear where all the children were born. <br /><br />As I mentioned in Part I of this series, because of the cost involved in obtaining these records, I've had to prioritize. I decided to begin with my own great-grandfather William Bloomfield. When the USCIS search failed for William, I proceeded with a search for Minnie's documents in the hope it would shed light onto William's naturalization papers.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lRtaMKIjo3Q/VBYQnnMK2nI/AAAAAAAACxE/rIt0fm00Khg/s1600/photo%2B1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lRtaMKIjo3Q/VBYQnnMK2nI/AAAAAAAACxE/rIt0fm00Khg/s1600/photo%2B1.JPG" height="400" width="307" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Menuche Krainowitz Bloomfield<br />Petition For Naturalization<br />[Click to Enlarge]</td></tr></tbody></table><b>Double Bingo! </b><br /><b><br /></b>Sure enough, Minnie's naturalization papers did contain the clues I was after. According to the document, William was born in Prusinian, Poland. This could mean he was from the Pruzhany district or from the city of Pruzhany.<br /><br />In addition, it's as if Minnie answered my question regarding how to locate William's naturalization papers directly:<br /><br />"My husband was admitted to citizenship on November 4, 1925 in the United States District Court at Houston, Texas, and certicate of Naturalization no. 2180218 was issued to him."<br /><br />Another interesting bit of information is how Minnie reported her legal name in 1928: Menuche Krainowitz Bloomfield. Though in most documents, she had been using Minnie Crane (including her marriage certificate from 1920), she used the name that she used in Europe when filing for naturalization.<br /><br /><b><br /></b><b><br /></b><b>The Next Step</b><br /><b><br /></b>Now it's time to write the USCIS again and provide them William's naturalization information. Hopefully, knowing he filed in Houston, having the dates and the number of his naturalization certificate, they will be able to locate his record. This record, may have a more specific town than just Pruzhany. In addition, it should contain William's arrival info into the US including the date and ship. Unfortunately, this will require a new Index search (3 months) and then at least another three months to request the records if the do find them. My next recourse, if they can not identifying in their archive is to contact the Texas courts directly. I promise to share the results on a future post, though we will all need a lot of patience!<br /><br />In the comments on Part I of this series, some of you expressed interest in obtaining records from the USCIS for the first time. Have you had any luck? Please share your experience with us.Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-34199035143249029662014-09-15T12:40:00.000-04:002014-09-15T12:41:54.955-04:00Pilgrimage to New Britain CemeteryThis week, I had a chance to visit the Beth Alom Cemetery in New Britain, Connecticut. The cemetery has been on my to do list for a long time. The small cemetery, is the resting place for Aaron Kranowitz, along with many members of his family. Apparently, Aaron is the first of the Kranowitz's to come to America well deserving a tribute visit to his grave. In addition, to saying a blessing in his memory, there was hope the stone itself could answer some research questions. I've driven past New Britain scores of times in the past few years. Usually, the car was packed with my family members who were eager to get home and had no desire to trample through an old Jewish cemetery, looking for forgotten ancestors.<br /><br />My family is in the midst of a transition period. Only three weeks ago, my oldest son left home to begin his college journey. Turns out, he couldn't live without his keyboard. The nice mom that I am, I decided to make the two hour trip and drop it off. Clearly, I had ulterior an motive in agreeing to take the drive. Mostly, I just wanted to visit him. We had a lovely visit and a great brunch together (some of the best banana pancakes I've ever had). On the way home, I realized I had time for a short detour to New Britain and there was no one in the car to complain about the genealogy field trip.<br /><br />There are a lot of research destinations on my New Britain/Hartford list: the public library (to look at New Britain High School yearbooks), various address where my ancestors lived and the Rose garden my great-grandmother loved. Since my time was limited ( I had another son who needed to be picked up from school), I decided that the cemetery would be the quickest and most productive stop.<br /><br />Google had no problem locating the small cemetery at 48 Allen Street, only about ten minutes out the way home. The gate was wide open and I parked near the office. I was hoping to find a map, but as luck would have it, the office was locked and gave the appearance that it has been locked for many years. The search for the graves, took a bit longer than expected without a map, but eventually I did located most of the graves. Most importantly, I found Aaron Kranowitz's grave and next to him, his wife Sophie. I did my best to clear the overgrown grass, laid a small stone on each grave and said Kaddish for my relatives. Before heading back to Boston, I photographed all the graves.<br /><br />The quick trip, was a reminder of how important it is to obtain original documents, in this case, the actual gravestone.<br />I had two questions regarding Aaron Kranowitz was:<br />1. What were his parents names?<br />2. What was his Hebrew name?<br /><br />Aaron Kranowitz, is Moshe Aaron Kranowitz (my second great-grandfather)'s brother. While Moshe Aaron's parents according to our family tree (compiled by family elders including my great-grandmother) were Lazar and Chaya Bryna. None of Moshe Aaron's siblings were on the tree, but I've since learned the names of 4 brothers and 2 sisters from various sources. Aaron, was one of the brothers. The problem is that Aaron Kranowitz's entry on JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) (a database of names and other identifying information from cemeteries and burial records worldwide) listed Aaron's parent's names as Leibel and Bertha.<br /><br /><div id="record-header" style="background: -webkit-gradient(linear, 50% 0%, 50% 100%, from(rgb(158, 175, 103)), to(rgb(86, 108, 17))) rgb(255, 255, 255); border-left-color: rgb(175, 180, 135); border-left-style: solid; border-right-color: rgb(175, 180, 135); border-right-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(175, 180, 135); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.8181819915771px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; padding: 3px 5px;"><h2 style="color: #fefefe; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1411&enc=1" style="color: white; text-decoration: none;" title="Learn more about the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR)">JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR)</a> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="about" style="color: #c3be7f;">about</span> Aaron Kranowitz</span></h2></div><div id="record-main" style="background-color: white; border: 5px solid rgb(213, 220, 168); color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.8181819915771px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; position: relative;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="p_recTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; border: none; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; position: relative; width: 506.363616943359px;"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;" valign="top"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="p_resultTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><th style="background: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #666666; font-weight: normal; padding: 3px 4px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top; width: 124px;">Name:</th><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 3px 12px; vertical-align: top;"><span class="srchHit" style="font-weight: bold;">Aaron Kranowitz</span></td></tr><tr><th style="background: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #666666; font-weight: normal; padding: 3px 4px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top; width: 124px;">Birth Date:</th><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 3px 12px; vertical-align: top;">1863</td></tr><tr><th style="background: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #666666; font-weight: normal; padding: 3px 4px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top; width: 124px;">Death Date:</th><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 3px 12px; vertical-align: top;">26 Dec 1916</td></tr><tr><th style="background: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #666666; font-weight: normal; padding: 3px 4px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top; width: 124px;">Age at Death:</th><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 3px 12px; vertical-align: top;">53</td></tr><tr><th style="background: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #666666; font-weight: normal; padding: 3px 4px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top; width: 124px;">Burial Plot:</th><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 3px 12px; vertical-align: top;">G 30</td></tr><tr><th style="background: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #666666; font-weight: normal; padding: 3px 4px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top; width: 124px;">Burial Place:</th><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 3px 12px; vertical-align: top;">New Britain, Connecticut, United States</td></tr><tr><th style="background: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #666666; font-weight: normal; padding: 3px 4px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top; width: 124px;">Spouse Name:</th><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 3px 12px; vertical-align: top;">Sophie</td></tr><tr><th style="background: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #666666; font-weight: normal; padding: 3px 4px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top; width: 124px;">Father Name:</th><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 3px 12px; vertical-align: top;">Leibel</td></tr><tr><th style="background: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #666666; font-weight: normal; padding: 3px 4px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top; width: 124px;">Mother Name:</th><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 3px 12px; vertical-align: top;">Bertha</td></tr><tr><th style="background: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #666666; font-weight: normal; padding: 3px 4px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top; width: 124px;">Cemetery:</th><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 3px 12px; vertical-align: top;">Beth Alom</td></tr><tr><th style="background: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #666666; font-weight: normal; padding: 3px 4px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top; width: 124px;">Cemetery Address:</th><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 3px 12px; vertical-align: top;">Allen Street</td></tr><tr><th style="background: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #666666; font-weight: normal; padding: 3px 4px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top; width: 124px;">Cemetery Burials:</th><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(234, 234, 234); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 3px 12px; vertical-align: top;">2060</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div><br />Since there is much proof that Aaron is indeed Moshe Aaron's brother, my sense was that the JOWBR entry was mostly a mistake. The way this database is entered on Ancestry.com it is not clear where the information came from. It is not specified whether it came from the cemetery or the burial record? Could there be a transcription error? This is the reason for my first question. What were the names of Aaron Kranowitz's parents, Lazar and Chaya Bryna, or Leibel and Bertha?<br /><br />The second question, concerning Aaron's Hebrew name, arrises from the fact that Moshe Aaron and Aaron Kranowitz, shared the name Aaron. It seemed unusual, yet not unheard of, that the brothers would have the same name. My great-grandmother Minnie, refers to Aaron as Oscar or Osher in her memoir, but in all the US records (including city directories, census records, naturalization records), he appears as Aaron. I postulated that Aaron (though Hebrew) was the Americanized name he chose for himself. Possibly he chose the name in honor of his brother Moshe Aaron. My guess was that he had a different Hebrew and/or Yiddish name. Osher was probably his Yiddish name and the name my great-grandmother heard back in Russia. Often people continued to use their Yiddish names among the family even though on legal documents they used a more Americanized name. This would explain why my grandmother thought of him as Osher and maybe wrote Oscar in the memoir, thinking it was the Americanized version her readers would understand. On the Russian Voter and Tax registration list from 1875, Lazar is listed along with five sons. There is an Osher, son of Leizor (Yiddish for Lazar) in Belitsa (the Kranowitz' hometown). Is this Osher, indeed Aaron Kranowitz?<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-12jzRsj7ih8/VBI9NoNdHrI/AAAAAAAACws/MiLfPkcWJd4/s1600/41607ef5-ef58-433c-9297-3ac9de615374.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-12jzRsj7ih8/VBI9NoNdHrI/AAAAAAAACws/MiLfPkcWJd4/s1600/41607ef5-ef58-433c-9297-3ac9de615374.jpg" height="166" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tax and Voter's list 1875 (Litvak Sig) [Click to Enlarge]</td></tr></tbody></table>The answer for both questions, was indeed on the gravestone:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v_lL5sG1HjQ/VBI5bmDZtKI/AAAAAAAACwc/Kpz4L3oxz4I/s1600/f2945244-dac9-4e5f-bf90-4a5be5e3fa0c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v_lL5sG1HjQ/VBI5bmDZtKI/AAAAAAAACwc/Kpz4L3oxz4I/s1600/f2945244-dac9-4e5f-bf90-4a5be5e3fa0c.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />The top Hebrew line is difficult to read (I should have done a better job with the grass), but the caption reads: Buried here is Asher son Eliezer (Hebrew for Lazar or Leizer). Aaron, is indeed Lazar's son. The JOWBR entry which is a secondary source, is less reliable and very likely incorrect. Aaron's Hebrew name is Asher (Hebrew for Osher). He indeed is the same Osher from the Russian Voter and Tax payers list.<br /><br />Sophie Kranowitz lay next to her husband and her stone contained two new pieces of information as well:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L7QikZwteZE/VBI8hf0WZ8I/AAAAAAAACwk/VPXZBuDH-Dg/s1600/4a2e6a62-ee36-4f61-8afa-cc0e7d72c0d7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L7QikZwteZE/VBI8hf0WZ8I/AAAAAAAACwk/VPXZBuDH-Dg/s1600/4a2e6a62-ee36-4f61-8afa-cc0e7d72c0d7.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Sophie's Herbrew name was Shifra, and she was the daughter of Abraham. Thanks to this new piece of information, I discovered another record for Aaron and Sophie, a marriage certificate index. I have not seen the microfilm of the original marriage certificate yet, but this is the index I found:<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gThPFYnEaAE/VBI-UgMEhbI/AAAAAAAACw0/c6KgYuhPXKg/s1600/7aba0027-aec1-4f09-8a74-fa530ffeec94.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gThPFYnEaAE/VBI-UgMEhbI/AAAAAAAACw0/c6KgYuhPXKg/s1600/7aba0027-aec1-4f09-8a74-fa530ffeec94.jpg" height="35" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Index Lithuanian Marriages and Divorces, All Lithuania Database (Litvak Sig) entry for Osher Krainovich and Shifra Grozen, 13 Jan 1886 [Click to enlarge]</td></tr></tbody></table><br />I had seen this record before, but since this was a record from Vilna and not Belitsa, and I didn't know Sophie was Shifra, I was unable to confirm this marriage corresponded to Aaron and Sophie. On the 1900 US census, Aaron and Sophie reported being married for 15 years which places their wedding date to about 1885, consistent with the above record dated 13 Jan 1886. Aaron also reported arriving in the US in 1886. Since he married in early January, we can assume he arrived shortly after he married. Aaron is listed as 27 years old, placing his year of birth as 1859, while the tombstone implies he was born about 1862-3. This four discrepancy can easily be explained by the fact that many people did not know their exact year or date of birth. They also had many reason to want to appear older or younger at certain points so it is not uncommon to see different years of birth for the same person on different documents. Aaron's date of birth is 1863, 1862 (1900, 1910 US census), 1859 (Hamburg ship manifest for Isser Krinowitz from Wilno, arriving 17 Aug 1886). Interestingly, the earliest record, the ship manifest, closes in date to the marriage record and the one most likely to have Aaron himself as the informant, is the most consistent with the year of birth in the marriage record. All of this evidence suggests that the marriage record indeed corresponds to our Aaron Kranowitz and his year of birth is likely to be in about 1859.<br /><br />Luckily this microfilm from Vilna is available through LDS familysearch.org and I should be able to review it in a few weeks. This 1886 document promises to be the oldest original document for the Kranowitz family that I will be able to examine. For now, I look forward to returning to New Britain for further research.<br /><br />If you haven't visited a cemetery on your list, I highly recommend you take the trip. Has a visit to a cemetery help move a long your research? Do share your story!Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-64605983120769934642014-06-12T14:50:00.000-04:002014-09-14T15:53:02.799-04:00Treasure Chest Thursday: Bingo! A letter from the Genealogy Program at USCIS!How long have I been researching my great-grandmother Minnie Crane (aka Menuche Kranowitz, Minnie Bloomfield, Minnie Heintz, Minnie Falk and Moma)? At least five years! In these five years, I have amassed a large amount of information about the only great-grandmother I had the privilege of knowing, and as most of you know, I even published her <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/minnie-crane-and-smadar-belkind-gerson/stored-treasures/paperback/product-18799131.html" target="_blank">memoir</a>. Yet, holes in this research remain. One of these glaring holes is Minnie naturalization papers.<br /><br /><b>Don't you love naturalization papers?</b> I do. They are full of important genealogical pieces of information. Information such as place of birth, arrival information including ship manifest and sometimes even photos. I have successfully found naturalization papers for many relatives, near and far, but Minni's has managed to remain hidden.<br /><br /><b>Research Background:</b> The first time Minnie appears on the US census was in 1920 (1), living in Hartford, Connecticut with her brother Harry, his wife Sarah and their oldest son <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2014/05/fridays-faces-from-past-smokey-flossie.html" target="_blank">Herb (the one who just passed away last month at the age of 94)</a>. On the census, Minnie was listed as an alien. By the end of 1920, she married my great-grandfather, William Bloomfield in New York City (2). William, was enumerated in Houston, Texas on the 1920 census. He was living with his uncle Morris Aaron Pomerantz and family. William's immigration status on this record was listed as Pa, which stands for Papers Filed, meaning he had submitted his declaration of intent and was in the process of becoming a citizen. By the 1930 US census (3), they were both naturalized and living in Houston (after an almost three year period in New Hampshire). <br /><br />Texas naturalization records, are not readily available online. Because of the time period, it is not clear whether Minnie was naturalized as a "derivative" of William's naturalization, or became naturalized on her own right, as was required by the Cable Act passed in 22 Sep 1922 (4) when women began filing for citizenship independently from their spouses. It seemed prudent to search for William's papers first. In any case, William's papers, promised to answer more of my research questions: where was William born? Aboard what ship did he arrive to America? I already knew the answer for these questions for Minnie who was born in Belitsa, Russia (now in Belarus), and she arrived aboard the Grosser Kurfurst, on 7 Jan 1914 (I have the manifest) (5). Therefore, finding Minnie's naturalization, was not high priority, while William's documents took precedent.<br /><br /><b>Where did William file for citizenship? </b>By 1920 (6), he had been living in Texas for about 5-6 years. In all likelihood, he filed in Texas, but prior to his Houston stint, he lived in Claremont, NH, Pittsburgh, PA and New York City. It's possible he filed in any of those places. NARA had no records for William. After months of waiting to hear from USCIS, I got a disappointing reply that they also were unable to located any naturalization papers for William.<br /><br /><b>What next? </b>When the search for William's naturalization record reached a dead end, I decided to try my luck one more time and order a second USCIS Index search, this time for Minnie. Having had no success with <a href="http://www.uscis.gov/genealogy" target="_blank">USCIS</a> so far, I must admit, I was reluctant. It costs $20 for an index search and takes about 3 months to receive a reply. It then costs another $20 or $35 to order the documents they locate. When you are researching as many ancestors as I am, $55 per document can really add up. But Minnie's naturalization papers are important to me, and not just for the sake of completeness. I am hoping the they will provide a clue to William's missing papers. And so, I bit the bullet and paid for yet another index search.<br /><br /><b>Advantages of ordering naturalization papers from the USCIS over NARA: </b>If you are not familiar with the USCIS genealogy program, you should check out their website <a href="http://www.uscis.gov/genealogy" target="_blank">http://www.uscis.gov/genealogy</a>. The advantage of obtaining naturalization papers from the USCIS, is that their files may be much more complete than NARA's records and may include the following types of documents(7):<br /><br />Naturalization Certificate Files (C-Files), September 27, 1906 to March 31, 1956<br />Alien Registration Forms (Form AR-2), August 1940 to March 1944<br />Visa Files, July 1, 1924 to March 31, 1944<br />Registry Files, March 1929 to March 31, 1944<br />A-Files, April 1, 1944 to May 1, 1951<br /><br />To learn more about what each of these categories of files contains, visit <a href="http://www.uscis.gov/history-and-genealogy/genealogy/historical-records-series-available-genealogy-program#C" target="_blank">http://www.uscis.gov/history-and-genealogy/genealogy/historical-records-series-available-genealogy-program#C</a><br /><br /><b>Bingo! </b>Last week, I finally heard back from the USCIS genealogy department about Minnie's Index search (see letter). According to the letter they located a C-File for Menuche Krainowitz Bloomfield. The personal identification information they provided all checks. The second file for Menuche Blumovicz is not hers.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w1ffJZFVQQM/U5nhMHdHmMI/AAAAAAAACus/7WhHWnwTbWA/s1600/USCIS+Letter+Minnie+Crane.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w1ffJZFVQQM/U5nhMHdHmMI/AAAAAAAACus/7WhHWnwTbWA/s1600/USCIS+Letter+Minnie+Crane.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Letter from USCIS re: Index search Minnie Bloomfield29 May 2014 (8)</td></tr></tbody></table>A C-File is a Naturalization Certificate File which according to their website contains "copies of records relating to all U.S. naturalizations in Federal, State, county, or municipal courts, overseas military naturalizations, replacement of old law naturalization certificates, and the issuance of Certificates of Citizenship in derivative, repatriation, and resumption cases. Standard C-Files generally contain at least one application form (Declaration of Intention and/or Petition for Naturalization, or other application) and a duplicate certificate of naturalization or certificate of citizenship. Many files contain additional documents, including correspondence, affidavits, or other records. Only C-Files dating from 1929 onward include photographs."<br /><br />Unfortunately, Minnie was naturalized on 22 Nov 1928 (before photos were included), but I am now hopeful that her paperwork, may reveal some information about William Bloomfield and might help identify his ship manifest and/or his naturalization papers.<br /><br />I've now paid the additional $20 fee to obtain Minnie's C-File. I promise to report back when I get my hands on this precious documents!<br /><br />Have you received any interesting files from the USCIS, or do you obtain all your naturalization papers from NARA? I'd love to hear what you've discovered.<br /><br />Sources:<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (1) 1920 U.S. census, Hartford City, CT, population schedule, Hartford County, ward 2, p. 375D (stamped), Enumeration District (ED) 54, sheet 8A, dwelling 42, family 149, Minnie Crane; NARA microfilm publication, T625 roll 182.</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (2) New York City Department of Heath, marriage certificate 271 (1920), William Bloomfield-Minnie Crane; New York City Department of Public Records, NY. </span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (3) 1930 U.S. census, Houston City, TX, population schedule, Harris County, ward 2, Enumeration District (ED) 55, sheet 34A, dwelling 237, family 248, William and Minnie Bloomfield; NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 2345.</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><i> </i> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(4)<i> Family Search Wiki </i>(<a href="https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/United_States_Naturalization_Laws" target="_blank">www.familysearch.org</a>: accessed 12 Jun 2014), "United States Naturalization Laws," last edited, 13 October 2010.</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (5) <i>Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897, </i>microfilm publication M237, (Washington: National Archive and Records Service), roll 675, arranged by date of arrival; SS <i>Grosser Kurfurst</i>, 7 Jan 1914, for Menuje Krajnowitz, p. 144, line 22; New York, "<i>Passenger Lists, 1820-1957,</i>" digital image, <i>Ancestry.com</i> (www.ancestry.com: accessed 12 Jun 2014).</span><br /><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (6) 1920 U.S. census, Houston City, TX, population schedule, Harris County, p. 84 (stamped) Enumeration District (ED) 39, sheet 6B, dwelling 40, family 145, William Bloomfield; NARA microfilm publication, T625 roll 1812.</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (7) <i>United States Citizenship and Immigration Services </i>(<a href="http://www.uscis.gov/genealogy">www.uscis.gov/genealogy</a>: accessed 12 Jun 2014), "Historical Records Series Available From the Genealogy Program,"last edited 27 Sep 2013.</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (8) Lynda K. Spencesr, Chief Genealogy Section, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Washington, D.C., to Smadar Belkind Gerson, letter, 29 May 2014, Index search for Minnie Bloomfield, GEN-10115890; Personal correspondence, privately held by Belkind Gerson, MA.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-18843581117948174242014-05-30T17:21:00.001-04:002014-05-30T17:22:27.367-04:00Friday's Faces From the Past: Smokey, Flossie and SkippyEarly in the month of May, when I was hoping for some sunshine, I posted a summary photo of <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2014/05/fridays-faces-from-past-summer-is.html" target="_blank">my great-grandmother Minnie, visiting her nieces and nephews in Atlantic City</a> in 1926. The photo sparked a family discussion and over the identity of the baby in the photo. I felt it was my grandmother's first cousin Flossie, but not everyone agreed. To confirm the identification, I dug up this second photo, taken maybe a year later.<br /><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7_2TUCeknhc/U4jw5O75u0I/AAAAAAAACt0/jrkjn-T88DI/s1600/Herb+Sidney+and+Flossie+Crane_1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7_2TUCeknhc/U4jw5O75u0I/AAAAAAAACt0/jrkjn-T88DI/s1600/Herb+Sidney+and+Flossie+Crane_1024.jpg" height="400" width="281" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sidney (Smokey), Flossie and Herb (Skippy) Crane c.1927</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In this beautiful studio portrait, Flossie is seated among her two older brothers, Sidney and Herb Crane. Last week, Herb, the eldest of the Crane siblings passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, music and loved ones, in his home. He was 94 years old. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The 2009 Kranowitz reunion was were I met, Herb, Sid, Flossie and Miriam Crane. Since the reunion, three of the four Crane siblings passed away, leaving only Flossie. It has been tough loosing so many of our family elders. Herb was the eldest of the Kranowitz cousins at the reunion and impressed all of us with his love for life and his sharp mind. He became a very active supporter of my research, contributing memories, stories and even a DNA sample. Constantly, Herb reinforced how important it was to record our family history. He will be greatly missed!</div>Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-73734878568823604962014-05-14T07:00:00.000-04:002014-06-05T20:44:10.379-04:00Breaking the Brick Wall - Step By Step<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lm7JWMOj_qI/U3LI3HhepYI/AAAAAAAACtg/FxUxlsTSh0E/s1600/Bogdanow+Brick+Wall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lm7JWMOj_qI/U3LI3HhepYI/AAAAAAAACtg/FxUxlsTSh0E/s1600/Bogdanow+Brick+Wall.jpg" height="229" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What's Brick Wall?<br />Where you ancestors are just beyond your reach!</td></tr></tbody></table>What is a brick wall? A brick wall is what separates you from those ancestors whom are just beyond your reach! <br /><br />Are you frustrated by brick walls blocking you from your ancestors? I have plenty of imposing walls and I bet you do too. Recently, one of my most imposing walls came tumbling down. This post will be the first in a new series which will use Mollie Bogdanow (Katz)'s story as a case study and share some tips of how to bring down brick walls.<br /><div><br /></div>Allow me to refresh your memory. Mollie, my great-grandmother, has been somewhat of a mystery. For years, knew very little about her. What the earlier posts which featured Mollie on this blog, as part of the <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/03/day-29-fearless-female-fridays-faces.html" target="_blank">Fearless Females</a> series and on the <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/06/fridays-faces-from-past-bogdanows.html" target="_blank">Friday's Photos from the Past: Bogdanows</a> have in common, is that they demonstrate how little I knew about this elusive ancestor.<br /><br /><b>Step 1: Examine the Wall Itself</b><br /><br />The first step in breaking down a wall, is to examine what you know, which in Mollie's case could be summarized in a few bullet points:<br /><br />Mollie Bogdanow:<br /><ul><li>Maiden name: Katz</li><li>Father: Jacob Katz </li><li>Birth: 8 Dec 1884 (according to the her death certificate) or 1886 (according to her tombstone), in Galicia, Austria.</li><li>Arrival in the US: between 1900-1902 (1920 and 1930 census respectively).</li><li>Marriage: Abraham Bogdanow, 15 Oct 1911, NYC.</li><li>Additional names: Mollie Cohen. (Katz is a Hebrew acronym, caf"tazdik which stands for Cohen Tzedek (which means righteous priest). Many families used both names interchangeably). </li><li>Children: Morris and Gwen Bogdanow.</li><li>Residence: </li><ul><li>NY until after 1915. </li><li>Jersey City, NJ between about 1920 and 1943 </li><li>Houston, Texas 1943- 1952.</li></ul><li>Death: Houston on 23 Feb 1952.</li></ul><div><b><br /></b><b>Step 2: Evaluate What You Have</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Looking at this data, I noticed that there is very little information about Mollie before she married. I had failed to locate census records for Mollie prior to the marriage. Her common last name did not help. There were several Mollie Cohens and Mollie Katzs living in New York around the turn of the century and since I didn't know much about Mollie, I couldn't pin point, which one was my Molly. </div><div><br /></div><div>Mollie's ship manifest was also frustratingly evasive. It was impossible to identify the correct record without knowing her town of birth or the name, which she may have used in Austria. Most Jewish immigrants entered the country using their Yiddish or Hebrew banes. They tended to Americanize their names within a few years of living in America. I had no idea what first name Mollie may have used and compounded with the Cohen/Katz surname, there was no easy way to find her ship manifest.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another set of missing records were the immigration and naturalization records for Mollie and Abe. According to the 1920 census, Abe's papers were pending and Mollie was an alien. By 1930 they were both naturalized. Mollie may have become naturalized with her husband; however since in 1922 immigration law changed and women applied for their own citizenship, Mollie may have had her own naturalization file. The Bogdanows were living in Jersey City at the time. These naturalization records are not available online. I realized I had yet to request them. Since my research covers so many ancestors, I usually try to obtain all the records I can find for free and online before I begin spending a lot of money on documents. </div><div><br /></div><div>The last document, which was most glaringly missing, was Mollie and Abe's original marriage certificate. I located this record on German Genealogy Group but I realized that I had never ordered the original (probably another money saving measure I had taken). I had the information from the index, but clearly the original needed to be reviewed.<br /><br />Undoubtedly, I didn't have much, but at least some documents were within reach. If I hoped to break down this particular brick wall, it was time to start paying for documents. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Step 3: Order Documents</b><br />I requested the marriage certificate from the <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/archives/geneology.shtml" target="_blank">City of New York</a> and ordered an Index search from the <a href="http://www.uscis.gov/genealogy" target="_blank">US Citizenship and Immigration</a> records. An Index search is the first step to obtain the immigration file from the USCIS when you don't know the file number. The problem is that it can take up to three months just to get a reply. Then, if they find your ancestor, it can take a few more months to obtain the record. I'm still waiting!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Step 4: Evaluate What You Do Not Know </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>There was a lot I didn't know about Mollie. I could think of so many questions and things I wanted to know about this Austrian great-grandmother. Where in Austria was she from? What is the name of the village where she was born? What was her given name when she was born? What was Mollie's mother's name? Did she have any siblings? When did Mollie arrive in the US? Did she have any family in America? Where did she live in NY before she married Abe? </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Step 5: Focus the Research</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>There were too many unknowns. One of the most important lessons I learned at the BU Genealogical Research course was to focus my research. Mollie's case truly needed focus. I chose to tackle one question. Before I share with you the question, I would love your feedback. If you had to choose one question to answer about Mollie, which of the above questions would you chose? And why?</div>Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-45642330953197097682014-05-02T07:00:00.000-04:002014-05-03T11:22:33.864-04:00Friday's Faces From the Past: Summer is Around the CornerIt's Friday, which means it's time to pull out another of my favorite photos from the archives. This one is from 8th of July 1926 (according to the inscription in the back). Can you identify the ancestor in the photo?<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7IzJaZ6dzSY/U2J2oVrchZI/AAAAAAAACtA/S-eS-Jf9Ycs/s1600/Minnie+in+Atlantic+City+July+8+1926.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7IzJaZ6dzSY/U2J2oVrchZI/AAAAAAAACtA/S-eS-Jf9Ycs/s1600/Minnie+in+Atlantic+City+July+8+1926.jpeg" height="282" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge</td></tr></tbody></table>You might have to click on the photo in order to get a better view, but if you look at the woman surrounded with three kids to the right hand side of the boat, you should be able to recognize Minnie Crane (who would have been <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2014/04/happy-birthday-great-grandma.html" target="_blank">118 a couple of days ago</a>). My uncle, actually pointed out that April 30th was a fictitious birthday. She didn't know her real birthday (not uncommon back in the 1890s in poor Jewish families where parents had more to worry about than remembering their children's date of birth), so she made one up.<br /><br />Back to the boat. In this photo, she is seated with her daughter Ethel (my grandmother) to the right and her nephews Fred and Herb Crane to her left. By 1926, Minnie was living in Houston, Texas, so this must have been a summer trip up north to visit her siblings in Atlantic City. I think the woman in the white dress and light hat, seated 3rd from the front, on the left, across from Minnie, maybe Sara Crane, Minnie's sister-in-law. She is holding a little girl who is probably her daughter Flossie who was born in 1924. I don't recognize any of the other people on the boat, maybe some of my elder cousins will?<br /><br />I chose this picture because it reminds me of summer. Summer has been so hesitant to arrive this year to Boston. We really need it after the long winter we had, therefore, I thought maybe this beautiful vintage photo of a summery scene, can conjure some warm rays of sun. Enjoy the weekend everyone!<br /><br />Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-88801342666671237642014-04-30T07:00:00.000-04:002014-04-30T07:00:09.155-04:00Happy Birthday Great Grandma!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rHttFyR6M0s/U1_cBBYBYGI/AAAAAAAACsw/ZTIJLhDkOYA/s1600/Minnie+Crane+1917.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rHttFyR6M0s/U1_cBBYBYGI/AAAAAAAACsw/ZTIJLhDkOYA/s1600/Minnie+Crane+1917.jpg" height="320" width="214" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Minnie Crane 1917</td></tr></tbody></table>I can't think of a better day for returning to the blog, than today, my great-grandmother's birthday. Minnie Crane born Menuche Kranowitz and also known by her married names Minnie Bloomfield, Minnie Heintz and Minnie Falk (now that is a lot of names), was born 118 years ago today. Aside from the gift of life, Minnie gave me many gifts throughout the years I had the pleasure of knowing her, but the biggest gift of all, was her journal, which I helped her turn into a book, thirty years after she passed away. This <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/minnie-crane-and-smadar-belkind-gerson/stored-treasures/paperback/product-18799131.html" target="_blank">Stored Treasure</a>, is the gift that keeps on giving. Only recently, I got an e-mail from Minnie's great nephew who was extremely moved by reading the book. I hope it's alright with my cousin, that I share his kind words. In his letter, he thanked me for putting the book together, but I know he is also thanking Minnie for if she hadn't written down her story, it would have been lost.<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IeMPFmiFY7E/U1_aqfFXOWI/AAAAAAAACsk/GIBzLp5NzGE/s1600/Minnie+at+the+Wailing+Wall+1969.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IeMPFmiFY7E/U1_aqfFXOWI/AAAAAAAACsk/GIBzLp5NzGE/s1600/Minnie+at+the+Wailing+Wall+1969.jpg" height="320" width="222" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Minnie at the wailing wall, Dec 1969</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"Stored Treasures... came last night, and she [Minnie's great-nephew's wife] surprised me with it as a late Hanukkah gift. I just finished reading it from cover to cover.<br /> I am speechless. What an incredible thing of beauty and act of love you have created! I can't begin to convey to you how thoroughly I enjoyed reading it, and how much I learned about my family, my namesake and myself. You have done something wonderful, not just for your immediate family, but for your extended family as well.<br /> You probably don't remember, but in the fall of 1973 I came to Israel as a volunteer to do civilian work during the Yom Kippur war.... while I was in Jerusalem, I remember standing at the Western Wall for the first time. I'm not a particularly religious person, but I remember experiencing an incredible feeling of connectedness to something timeless, something greater than myself. I had never felt anything like that before. Since then, I've only felt anything like it three other times in my life. The first two times were at my two childrens' b'nai mitzvot, when I handed them to torah. The third was when I read your book."</blockquote>Minnie's story has moved not only family members, but complete strangers in similar way. She provide a unique window into a time period and a places, which no longer exist. Like genealogy itself, her story is personal yet universal at the same time. Thank you Minnie and Happy 118 birthday!<br /><br /><br />Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-83544639374530717352014-04-28T21:39:00.000-04:002014-04-28T22:33:33.814-04:00Returning from Sabbatical: Back and open for business!Past-Present-Future is back from sabbatical! I am proud to announce that this week, I completed Boston University's, Genealogical Research course. It's been an intense experience, one in which I learned a tremendous amount and at the same time discovered that I have much more to learn.<br /><br />As I mentioned in my last post before leaving blogging for the semester, we were asked not to blog about the course, so unfortunately, I can't really give much detail. I believe I am allowed to highly recommend the course. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to send me a personal note or an e-mail and I'll be happy to talk about my experience. I'm not sure when I'll actually have my certificate, but it will be a proud moment!<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LSOk2wxLrSw/U18HTH1PlgI/AAAAAAAACsU/oZOktsAB7rs/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LSOk2wxLrSw/U18HTH1PlgI/AAAAAAAACsU/oZOktsAB7rs/s1600/photo.JPG" height="229" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Behind the Brick Wall</td></tr></tbody></table>For now, I'm excited to return to blogging. There is much I look forward sharing since though the blog was on hold, my research was not. On the contrary, thanks to the course, I feel more equipped than ever to break down brick walls.<br /><br />Here is a heads up of posts to come:<br /><br />1. Remember Mollie Bogdanow? I've written about this great grandmother several times, as part of the Fearless female series: <a class="gs-title" href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/03/day-29-fearless-female-fridays-faces.html" style="background-color: white; color: #392bf4; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; height: 1.4em; line-height: 21px; overflow: hidden;" target="_blank"> 29: Fearless Female: Mollie Bogdanow</a>, as part of Friday's Faces From the Past series <a class="gs-title" href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/06/fridays-faces-from-past-bogdanows.html" style="background-color: white; color: #392bf4; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; height: 1.4em; line-height: 21px; overflow: hidden;" target="_blank">Friday's Faces from the Past: The Bogdanows</a> and <a class="gs-title" href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/01/where-were-they-100-years-ago.html" style="background-color: white; color: #392bf4; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; height: 1.4em; line-height: 21px; overflow: hidden;" target="_blank">Past-Present-Future: Where Were They 100 Years Ago?</a>. Mostly I've written about how little I know about Mollie, she is one of my biggest brick walls. Well, the wall literally came tumbling down! I'll be posting a new series about how I broke through.<br /><br />2. Remember the post <a class="gs-title" href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/01/bullish-on-genetic-genealogy.html" style="background-color: white; color: #392bf4; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; height: 1.4em; line-height: 21px; overflow: hidden;" target="_blank">Bullish on Genetic Genealogy!</a> Since 2012 when I did had my DNA tested on FamilyTreeDNA, I've been meeting genetic cousins, and writing about the experience in posts such as <a class="gs-title" href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-mitochondria.html" style="background-color: white; color: #392bf4; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; height: 1.4em; line-height: 21px; overflow: hidden;" target="_blank">My Mitochondria</a>. Despite my vast family tree, until recently, I've never been able to workout any family relationship. All that has recently changed and I can't wait to share this story!<br /><br />3. Guess who has an FBI file? I recently learned that one of my ancestors has an FBI file. You'll have to come back, to find out who.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Which series would you guys like me to start with? Write me a comment with your vote!Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-70113244229217622362014-02-04T13:12:00.000-05:002014-04-28T21:07:58.959-04:00Blogging Sabbatical!<a href="http://www.imagechef.com/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="ImageChef.com" border="0" src="http://cdn-users1.imagechef.com/ic/stored/2/140204/samp5dee7bf244adbcf4.jpg" /></a>Past-Present-Future is on a "short" vacation. Despite the fun beach umbrella photo, this is not a travel vacation. It is more like a blogging sabbatical.<br /><br />I am currently taking part in the Boston University Online Genealogy Research course. So far the course has been great! The problem it, that it is much more time consuming than I imagined and I am finding it difficult to find time for blogging on top of the course workload and my family responsibilities.<br /><br /><b>I plan to be return to blogging in full force at the end of April, 2014</b> (once the course ends). I hope to blog a few times between now and then, so do check in! They did ask us not to blog about the course, so I will not be sharing my experience in the class on this blog.<br /><br />In the meantime, if you missed some of my old posts, this is a great time to check them out! Do leave me comments when you stop by. I'd love to hear from you!<br /><br /><br /><br />Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-79181358486095360282014-01-01T19:45:00.002-05:002014-01-01T19:45:47.311-05:00Happy 2nd Blogiversary!<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.imagechef.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="ImageChef.com" border="0" src="http://cdn-users1.imagechef.com/ic/stored/2/140101/samp09f57eeb39a22128.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Happy 2014 to all and a special happy blogiversary to Past-Present-Future which is two years old today!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Though I have not been posting as regularly, it's been a good year on the blog. There have been some very popular posts, great feedback and lots of comments from my readers, recognition from the online genealogy blogging community, and connection to long lost cousins. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The top 10 all time popular posts are as follows:</div><br /><ul><li><a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2012/01/photo-worth-thousand-words.html" target="_blank">A Photo Worth A Thousand Words</a></li><li><a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/08/highlights-from-iajgs-international.html" target="_blank">Highlights from IAJGS International Conference of Jewish Genealogy</a></li><li><a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2012/12/brick-wall-comes-down.html" target="_blank">Brick Wall Comes Down!</a></li><li><a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2012/04/holocaust-memorial-day-learning-from.html" target="_blank">Holocaust Memorial Day: Learning from the Past, A Vigil Against Hate</a></li><li><a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-adventures-of-tracking-down.html" target="_blank">The Adventures of Tracking Down a Marriage Record from Galicia</a></li><li><a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2012/12/should-genealogist-spill-family-secrets.html" target="_blank">Should Genealogist Spill Family Secrets?</a></li><li><a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2012/07/springfield-vermont-home-of-simpsons.html" target="_blank">Springfield Vermont, Home of the Simpsons and the Bloomfields</a></li><li><a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-next-big-thing.html" target="_blank">The Next Big Thing!</a></li><li><a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/07/fridays-faces-from-past-photo-challenge_19.html" target="_blank">Friday's Faces from the Past: Photo Challenge Solved</a></li><li><a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-mitochondria.html" target="_blank">My Mitochondria</a></li></ul><br />Surprisingly, or not, is that <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2012/01/photo-worth-thousand-words.html" target="_blank">A Photo Worth A Thousand Words</a> continues to top the list. Surprising because it was also last years winner. Not so surprising since it is a great post!<br />Interestingly, only three post from 2013 managed to make the list. I believe this is because older posts are continuing to get views, which is a great thing.<br /><br />Google, twitter and facebook are the top referring sites to Past-Present-Future, followed by pages from within Past-Present-Future.<br /><br />I wish you all a wonderful year, full of happiness, good health and peace! Hope to see you back here at Past-Present-Future soon!<br /><br />Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-33230839425914533232013-12-11T07:00:00.000-05:002013-12-11T07:00:00.941-05:00How Important is a Good Translation?How important our translations in the work of genealogist? If your family came from countries which are not English speaking, you surely understand the important of trying to translate original documents.<br /><br />Recently, I become involved in translating the <a href="http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Kamenets/Kamenets.html" target="_blank">Kamenets-Litwosk memorial book</a>. The translation of this book is part of a large push by <a href="http://jewishgen.org/" target="_blank">JewishGen.org</a> to translate hundreds of Yizkor (memorial) books written after the holocaust by surviving members of many towns and cities from Eastern Europe. For years these books have been largely unavailable to the general public because of the few copies in circulations and the lack of translations into English from Hebrew and Yiddish. When I submitted a few translations, relevant to a branch of my family to the Kamenets project, I learned they were in the process of trying to get the book ready for publications in English. I've offered to translate as much of the pending Hebrew sections as I can. Being a native Hebrew speaker, but not a professional translator has added to the difficulty of this task. I left Israel at the age of thirteen, yet I've made a concerted effort over the years to maintain a high level of Hebrew. The Yizkor books are written in an old style Hebrew, repleted with elevated vocabulary and many religious references and texts as well as scores of abbreviations all of which are a challenge for me. As I plow through these sorrowful chapters, stories full of longing to a culture long destroyed and unfathomable tragedy, I struggle with how to translate the words into an English which makes sense to the modern reader, yet remain true to the original intention of the writer.<br /><br />Working on the Kamenets book, motivated me to try and have another of the Yizkor books dear to my heart translated, the Belitsa book. Those of you who read my memoir, Stored Treasures, will recall that Minnie Crane, my great grandmother is from a small shtetl in what is now Belarus, called Belitsa.<br />(53°39' N, 25°19' E) located 16 miles south of Lida and also known as Белица in Russian. Yiddish: בעליצע in Yiddish, Беліца in Belarusian, בייליצע in Hebrew and Bielica in Polish.<br /><br />Simeon Baker (Botschkowsky), Minnie's nephew, was a part of the original Belitsa landmanshaft (community) organization and an integral part of the publication of the Belitsa Yizkor book. He wrote the introduction (the only section of the book published in English), as well as a few other chapters in Yiddish. Minnie wrote one of the last chapters of the book, in Yiddish. A few years ago, Simeon's son, gave me a copy of the Belitsa book. A large part of the book is in Hebrew, but the Yiddish section remains out of my reach. The Belista book is not listed on the <a href="http://jewishgen.org/Yizkor">JewishGen.org/Yizkor</a> book project, which means no one had voluteered to take on the project of translating this book. Heading the project requires creating a proposal, prioritizing which sections to translate and raising funds for the translations and eventual publication. Since Belitsa, was a tiny shtetl, with a Jewish Population of 679 in 1897 which went down to 483 in 1921, it was not surprising no one had been found to translate the book. I was in the process of preparing a proposal for the project, when I made a last minute search for an available translation. Last summer, I heard there was a translation somewhere, but I never found it assume the information I had was wrong. I contact my source again, a researcher in holocaust studies who directed me to a translation which was available at the <a href="http://www.ushmm.org/" target="_blank">United States Holocaust Memorial Museum</a>. To my amazement, this 2010 publication of the English version of the Belitsa book, was available not only at the holocaust museum, but at various university libraries. Within a few hours, I held in my hands Brandeis's only copy of my ancestral shtetl's Yizkor book translated by Jacob Solomon Berger.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AJtMfDRFL_c/UqetRdayFhI/AAAAAAAACrw/4i5XxOB8U7U/s1600/Picture.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AJtMfDRFL_c/UqetRdayFhI/AAAAAAAACrw/4i5XxOB8U7U/s320/Picture.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Original Yizkor book (right), Jacob Solomon Berger's translation (left)</td></tr></tbody></table>Genealogy is a jigsaw puzzle. I was hoping the new translations would solve parts of this puzzle, yet as often is the case, rather than answers, I find myself asking more questions.<br /><br />Previously, I had in in my possession two translations from Yiddish to English. Two, I believed were done by Minnie. The first was for a chapter Simeon wrote about his father. He left a translation for the same chapter and they are quite similar, though not identical. The second was a translation of Minnie's chapter, a chapter about her brother Bernard Crane. I included much of this translation in her Memoir. I was curious as to the quality of the Yiddish translation in the book I had just taken out of the library, and shockingly, I found that Berger's translation differed in three key places:<br /><br />The first paragraph in Minnie's translation talks about her father's only sister, but never mentions a name. Berger's translation mentions her name twice, Tsin'keh. I looked at the Yiddish and there it was easy enough to detect: צינקע.<br /><br />Further more, Minnie's original translation of the second paragraph reads:<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nXBrva2B02w/UqeqaG7uq5I/AAAAAAAACrU/arnCg1Vjxqs/s1600/photo+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="184" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nXBrva2B02w/UqeqaG7uq5I/AAAAAAAACrU/arnCg1Vjxqs/s320/photo+1.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First section of a translation to the Minnie Crane's Belitsa<br />chapter about Bernard Crane. (Click to enlarge).</td></tr></tbody></table><blockquote class="tr_bq">"... he (her father Moshe Aaron Kranowitz) became a teacher in <b>one of the surrounding villages</b>." at the end of the paragraph she reveals an important genealogical clue: "... a romance developed, and the teacher married the oldest <b>granddaughter of the house of Jacob Yarmovsky</b>. <b>The sons were later a well known Hebrew teacher in Pinsk, the other a building contractor in Atlantic City</b>."</blockquote><br /><br /><br />Years ago, when I found her translations, I learned a lot from this short paragraph. I learned how Minnie's mother, Feige Yarmovsky, met her husband, Moshe Aaron. I learned she was from a near by village to Belitsa but there was no name of the village. I learned that her grandfather's name was Jacob Yarmovsky and she was the oldest granddaughter. According to this paragraph one of her uncles was a teacher in Pinsk and the other a contractor in Atlantic cities. Other parts of the memoir contradicted this fact and the two aforementioned uncles turned out to be her brothers, not her uncles.<br /><br />Berger's translations reveals different information:<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Jm-vSnSU7fc/UqeqaW8FsBI/AAAAAAAACrY/XSVOgSQfFYY/s1600/photo+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Jm-vSnSU7fc/UqeqaW8FsBI/AAAAAAAACrY/XSVOgSQfFYY/s320/photo+2.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Same chapter by Minnie Crane, translated by Jacob S. Berger<br />(click to enlarge).</td></tr></tbody></table><blockquote class="tr_bq">"...he became a teacher with a rich settler in the village of <b>Peskovty</b>." Note: he actually names the village! Then, further down it reads: "There my father studied Torah with the small boys, the grandchildren of the settler. But the girls of the family would also listen to the lessons. And from this, it happened that a marriage was arranged for him, with a girl named Faygl, who was a daughter of Yankl Yarmovsky, a well-known Hasid from <b>Slonim</b>."</blockquote><br />The section about the son's or rather uncles was completely missing.<br /><br />This made my mind spin. I had resolved the uncle dilemma years ago. I've learned a lot about the Atlantic City contractor Harry Yarmovsky and felt this was a typo in her translation. But I never tried to check the Yiddish. Now that I had a very different Yiddish translation, I decided to look at the Yiddish more carefully. Clearly, Berger would not have made up names of villages. Were those in the original Yiddish? Was she the daughter or the granddaughter of Jacob (Yakov in Herbrew and Yankl in Yiddish)?<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UWQZqwjbyuA/UqeqaUMIMeI/AAAAAAAACrc/lvQaYOvnmto/s1600/photo+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="216" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UWQZqwjbyuA/UqeqaUMIMeI/AAAAAAAACrc/lvQaYOvnmto/s320/photo+3.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Original chapter by Minnie Crane in Yiddish from the<br />Belitsa Yizkor book (click to enlarge).</td></tr></tbody></table>Even without understanding Yiddish, it was not difficult for me to spot the name of the villages: פיעסקאווצי and סלאנימער חסיד (which means Hassid from Slonim). The Yiddish paragraph ends there, omitting the section about the uncles. Why had Minnie left out the names of these villages and her father's sister Tsin'keh in her translation? I've been trying to figure out for years, where the Yarmovsky family was from, and here it was in plain Yiddish, right under my nose for all these years.<br /><br />Google translator has it's limitations but when I entered the last sentence in the paragraph:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">קומען א שידוך צווישן אים און א מיידל מיטן נאמען פייגל, וואס אין געווען א טאכטער פון יאנקל ירמאווסקי, א באוווסטער סלאנימער חסיד. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">This is what google came up with: ... "enter a shidukh between him and a girl named bird in which being a <b>daughter</b> of yankl irmavski, a known Slayer Hassid." </blockquote>Google doesn't know the word Shidich, which means match. It also didn't realize that Feigel is a name and gave the literal translation, bird. In addition, it failed to recognize Yarmovsky as a name, and Slonim the village, but it clearly says that the match was made between Feige who was a daughter of the house of Yankl.<br /><br />Now, I'm left with many new research questions rather than answers:<br /><br />1. Who typed the copy of the article Minnie wrote in English? Did she type it herself? Did someone else? Was it a draft for the Yizkor article? Or was it a translation she prepared for her daughter and grandchildren? If this was a draft, could she have submitted this draft and someone edited it? Possibly her nephew Simeon. Did he add the names of the villages? On the other hand, if this was a translation prepared for the family, did she choose to omit certain details which didn't seem important, such as names of villages they never heard of? Did she choose to add facts instead, such as the details about the uncles/brothers?<br /><br />2. The big question: was Yankel Yarmovsky her father or grandfather?<br /><br />At this point I can only theorize on the answers to these new questions.<br /><br />1. If this was an early draft, or a late translation, I'm not sure, but the names of the villages were documented in the Yizkor book and it is significant. I have yet to locate this so called Peskovty village, nor the a Yankel Yarmovsky in Slonim but this is a very important clue in tracing the Yarmovsky family. From the paragraph, it seems Yankel was originally from Slonim but later on in life he lived in Peskovty.<br /><br />2. The second dilemma is even more complex. According to our family tree, Feige's parents were Vevel and Chaya Minucha Yarmovsky. This information was on the original printed copy of our family tree which I inherited from my grandmother and which has proven to be very accurate. Vevel parents are not on the tree. When I first read Minnie's typed translation, I was excited to add a new forefather, Jacob (Yankel) Yarmovsky to our tree as Vevel's father. Now, I'm not so sure. Could Vevel have been Vevel Jacob (Yankel) or Jacob (Yankel) Vevel? Or was the name Vevel on the tree a mistake. This tree, compiled since the 1970s is not sourced, therefore I have no way of knowing who provided his name. It could have been Minnie or someone from her generation, but I can not be sure?<br /><br />It is clear that in her typed translation, she did make a mistake with the generations. She lists Feige as the granddaughter of Jacob while her brothers she lists as Jacobs sons. One of the statements is wrong, the question is which ones? Why does the Yiddish translations state she was the daughter of the house of Yankl? In Jewish tradition, one often describe someone as being "son of the house of ...". Could she have not meant literally: "daughter of the house of Jankel Yarmovsky", but rather mean granddaughter of the household? Who was the famous Hassid? Was it her father or grandfather? It could be that her grandfather was the rich settler from the town of Peskovty and her father the Hassid from Slonim? Or visa versa? Or were they both same man as the paragraph seems to imply?<br /><br />Bottom line, I don't know! I'm confused! I've proven to myself that it is very important to look at the original sources and not rely solely on translations. In this case, I still can't make heads or tales of this part of the story! Your input would be greatly appreciated!Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-46069513689544542142013-12-06T11:46:00.000-05:002014-10-03T12:44:33.358-04:00Friday's Faces from the Past: Charles CoffToday's face from the past is Charles Coff. There are three photos of Charles my great-grandmother's Minnie Crane's album from 1917. Two are duplicates of a formal portrait of Charles and the third is a family photo of what looks like him and his siblings. Both images have an inscription in the back, yet I have no idea who he is. I don't know the nature of his relationship to Minnie was, besides a "deep friendship" as he describes. My guess is that he was another of her suitors. He looks quite young in these photos.<br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-px5v05IATNU/UqH8MEDy9FI/AAAAAAAACqk/jYeCBPBalZQ/s1600/Charles+M+Coff+Dec+1+1917.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-px5v05IATNU/UqH8MEDy9FI/AAAAAAAACqk/jYeCBPBalZQ/s320/Charles+M+Coff+Dec+1+1917.tiff" height="320" width="199" /></a></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jpTYpBb2_1k/UqH8IPBQVzI/AAAAAAAACqE/U-XXVvH3pgA/s1600/Charles+Coff+Dec+1,+1917.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jpTYpBb2_1k/UqH8IPBQVzI/AAAAAAAACqE/U-XXVvH3pgA/s1600/Charles+Coff+Dec+1,+1917.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jpTYpBb2_1k/UqH8IPBQVzI/AAAAAAAACqE/U-XXVvH3pgA/s320/Charles+Coff+Dec+1,+1917.tiff" height="320" width="199" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-caA2q_2Ntw8/UqH8OXKH6NI/AAAAAAAACrE/vLpPQO3DGXY/s1600/Coff+Company+March+29+1917.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-caA2q_2Ntw8/UqH8OXKH6NI/AAAAAAAACrE/vLpPQO3DGXY/s320/Coff+Company+March+29+1917.tiff" height="320" style="cursor: move;" width="204" /></a></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TKgAP3u61Ig/UqH8JecOvvI/AAAAAAAACqM/fAaK4OJn1Wg/s1600/Coff+Company+Back+March+29,+1917.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TKgAP3u61Ig/UqH8JecOvvI/AAAAAAAACqM/fAaK4OJn1Wg/s1600/Coff+Company+Back+March+29,+1917.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TKgAP3u61Ig/UqH8JecOvvI/AAAAAAAACqM/fAaK4OJn1Wg/s320/Coff+Company+Back+March+29,+1917.tiff" height="320" width="204" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Here is what Ancestry has to say about Mr. Charles Coff:<br /><br />Charles Coff lived in Hartford as early as 1914, at first with his sister Sophia and then with the rest of his family, his mother Rose (widow of Moses, brother Samuel and sister Anna. Charles worked both as a barber and a clerk. His two sisters were dressmakers and his younger brother was a student.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vicxZuk2YSw/UqH8Kjb3_1I/AAAAAAAACqU/zy_ABBDEtPQ/s1600/Hartford+City+Directory+1914+Charles+Coff.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vicxZuk2YSw/UqH8Kjb3_1I/AAAAAAAACqU/zy_ABBDEtPQ/s320/Hartford+City+Directory+1914+Charles+Coff.png" height="38" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hartford City Directory 1914</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Rd0N1rwNrNc/UqH8LVV5RiI/AAAAAAAACqc/8XWgTqrn83w/s1600/Hartford+City+Directory+1916+Charles+Coff+.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Rd0N1rwNrNc/UqH8LVV5RiI/AAAAAAAACqc/8XWgTqrn83w/s320/Hartford+City+Directory+1916+Charles+Coff+.png" height="67" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hartford City Directory 1916</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G_orHwRHbIA/UqH8MuKMF7I/AAAAAAAACqo/SWOk5_nJrEw/s1600/Hartford+City+Directory+1917+Charles+Coff.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G_orHwRHbIA/UqH8MuKMF7I/AAAAAAAACqo/SWOk5_nJrEw/s320/Hartford+City+Directory+1917+Charles+Coff.png" height="75" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hartford City Directory 1917</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Charles, or rather Charels Moses Coff, registered for the draft on June 5, 1917. He was born in Cherson, Russia, on March 18, 1894, making him 23 years old when the above photos were taken. Minnie would have been 21 then. He has not yet become a US citizen. Here he listed himself as a salesman and single.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-we9bFfl5mMw/UqH8NoG2R5I/AAAAAAAACq0/A_0S2Z6gzv4/s1600/U.S.+World+WarI+Draft+Registration+Cards+June+5,+1917+For+Charles+Moses+Coff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-we9bFfl5mMw/UqH8NoG2R5I/AAAAAAAACq0/A_0S2Z6gzv4/s400/U.S.+World+WarI+Draft+Registration+Cards+June+5,+1917+For+Charles+Moses+Coff.jpg" height="201" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charels Moses Coff, 1917 Draft Registration Card</td></tr></tbody></table><br />In 1919 he is listed as a student. This means he most likely was not drafted nor did he enlist. He also did not die during the influenza epidemic of 1918 which took the lives of so many young men.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dWK-R7OZAZI/UqH8OSlJQpI/AAAAAAAACq4/e7ER6I3MePg/s1600/Hartford+City+Directory+1919+Charles+Coff.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dWK-R7OZAZI/UqH8OSlJQpI/AAAAAAAACq4/e7ER6I3MePg/s320/Hartford+City+Directory+1919+Charles+Coff.png" height="84" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hartford City Directory 1919</td></tr></tbody></table>After this I loose Charles and the rest of the Coff clan. I can't find them in the 1920. It's very likely the family moved.<br /><br />These are such nice quality photos, I bet his descendants if he had any, would love to see them.<br /><br />Have a wonderful weekend!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-69534446093470505882013-11-25T15:19:00.000-05:002013-11-25T19:11:36.629-05:00Learning about Ancestors from the Connecticut Military Questionnaire<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Ispd06otrs/UpOPB-AoqHI/AAAAAAAACpA/RgL7ZaSYS_I/s1600/a6cb7edc-139d-45f0-8d8c-55a446a4cf1a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Ispd06otrs/UpOPB-AoqHI/AAAAAAAACpA/RgL7ZaSYS_I/s320/a6cb7edc-139d-45f0-8d8c-55a446a4cf1a.jpg" width="202" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Louis Harold Kranowitz</td></tr></tbody></table>On Friday, we met <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/11/fridays-faces-from-past-louis-harold.html" target="_blank">Louis Harold Kranowitz</a>. As promised, there is much more to the Louis Kranowitz story. The photo featured on Friday's Face from the Past post, is one of two photos of his photos my great-grandmother kept the album. Interestingly, the second photo is also from his service days. In this dreamy cloud portrait he looks even more handsome.<br /><br />These two portraits, taken most likely before Louis left for war, sparked my curiosity about this family member. Military records seemed like a good place to start. Not many records survived from WWI, so I wasn't sure how much luck I would have.<br /><br /><b>Draft Registration</b><br /><br />The draft registration card pulled up immediately and was surprisingly easy to read. The card provided the following information:<br /><br />Name: Louis Harold Kranowitz<br />Address: 218 North Street, New Britain, CT<br />Birth: July 25, 1892 New York, NY<br />Age: 25<br />Citizenship: Natural Born Citizen<br />Occupation: Assistant Pharmacist<br />Employer: Clark and Brainerd, New Britain, CT<br />Dependents: Mother<br />Marital Status: Single<br />Race: Caucasian<br />Medium Hight, Slender, Brown Eyes, Black Hair. No disabilities.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mwcMkRAnWL0/UpORdTE7_TI/AAAAAAAACpM/_bpp3a6WMEk/s1600/U.S.WorldWarIDraftRegistrationCards1917-1918ForLouisHaroldKranowitz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="206" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mwcMkRAnWL0/UpORdTE7_TI/AAAAAAAACpM/_bpp3a6WMEk/s400/U.S.WorldWarIDraftRegistrationCards1917-1918ForLouisHaroldKranowitz.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Louis Harold Kranowitz, WWI Draft Registration Card.<br />(Click to Enlarge). Source: <a href="http://ancestry.com/">Ancestry.Com</a></td></tr></tbody></table><b>Connecticut MIlitary Census</b><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5Qv1YxMJFP0/UpOYMZt0DyI/AAAAAAAACpc/FcnjXLRAqw8/s1600/ConnecticutMilitaryCensus1917+Louis+Kranowitz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5Qv1YxMJFP0/UpOYMZt0DyI/AAAAAAAACpc/FcnjXLRAqw8/s320/ConnecticutMilitaryCensus1917+Louis+Kranowitz.jpg" width="249" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Louis Harold Kranowitz<br />Connecticut Military Census Feb 27, 1919<br />(click to enlarge).<br />Source: <span style="font-size: x-small;">UT, USA: <a href="http://ancestry.com/">Ancestry.com</a> Operations, Inc., 2012</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Original data: Connecticut Military Census of 1917. </span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Hartford, Connecticut: Connecticut State Library.</span></td><td class="tr-caption"></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Next, I recalled the Connecticut Military Census of 1917. In <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/02/mystery-monday-max-crane.html" target="_blank">February of this year, I discovered and shared Max Crane's Military Census</a> record. All men of 16 year of age and older, filled these out. I had a little trouble finding Louis's Military Census since for some reason it was not indexed. Eventually, by scanning all the New Britain Kp-Kz records, I found it!<br />The document provides a few new facts about Louis:<br /><ul><li>He had no other trade than Pharmacy. </li><li>He was 5'7'' tall and weighed 135 pounds (slim indeed).</li><li>Here he reported he supports two people, but doesn't disclose who. </li><li>No prior military service.</li><li>He can ride a horse and handle a team, but can not drive an automobile or a motorcycle. </li><li>He can not understand telegraphy or operate a wireless. </li><li>He has no experience with steam engines, electrical machines or boats (power or sail). </li><li>No experience with simple coastwise navigation or high speed marine gasoline engines.</li><li>Is not a good swimmer. </li></ul><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2iRCzqf3coU/UpOe-LtbcNI/AAAAAAAACps/z07Fm7SyLk4/s1600/Connecticut+Military+Questionnaire+Louis+Kranowitz+P.+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2iRCzqf3coU/UpOe-LtbcNI/AAAAAAAACps/z07Fm7SyLk4/s320/Connecticut+Military+Questionnaire+Louis+Kranowitz+P.+1.jpg" width="251" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Connecticut Military Questionnaire<br />Louis Harold Kranowitz (pages 1/4)</td></tr></tbody></table><br />What I didn't expect to find was the following amazing document.<b> A Connecticut Military Questionnaire 1919-1920. </b>Now, if you haven't seen one of these documents, I highly recommend you take a look, especially if you have ancestors or family members from Connecticut who served in WWI. They are absolutely fabulous! It's a four page questionnaire handwritten by the veteran. In many cases if the soldier died on duty, the form was filled out for that person and a photo if available was attached.<br /><br />In these questionnaire the veterans were asked to fill out many details about their service in the war. The information is very detailed and include among other information: draft date, unit, rank, military number, where and when they served, travel, injury and discharge.<br /><br />Here is a summary of Louis Harold Kranowitz military service and other new facts about him:<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g9ROk9DKZNw/UpOe-ebtKdI/AAAAAAAACpw/voZ7DtPo0KA/s1600/Connecticut+Military+Questionnaire+Louis+Kranowitz+P.+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g9ROk9DKZNw/UpOe-ebtKdI/AAAAAAAACpw/voZ7DtPo0KA/s320/Connecticut+Military+Questionnaire+Louis+Kranowitz+P.+2.jpg" width="251" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Connecticut Military Questionnaire<br />Louis Harold Kranowitz (pages 2/4)<br />Click to enlarge:<br />Source: <span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://ancestry.com/">Ancestry.com</a>. Connecticut, <br />Military Questionnaires, 1919-1920 </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Provo, UT, USA: </span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: left;">Original data: Connecticut State Library,</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: left;">Hartford, Connecticut.</span></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><ul><li>Mother's maiden name: Gross.</li><li>Drafted and inducted into the army on Oct 4, 1917, about 8 months after he first filled out the Connecticut Military Census. </li><li>Reported to Camp Devens in Massachusetts.</li><li>Rank: Private</li><li>Unit: Medical Corps of the National Army (If you look closely at his photo, Louis is wearing a Medical Corps pin).</li><li>Identification #: 1690365</li><li>Trained at Camp Devens for about seven month until May 30, 1918.</li><li>While at Camp Devens he was promoted to Sergeant on April 4, 1918.</li><li>Embarked from Newport News, Virginia on Jun 20, 1918 on the USS Tenadores. </li><li>The USS Tenadores arrived at Brest, France on July 13, 1918.</li><li>From Brest he proceeded to Cosne, France. The journey lasted 9 days and he arrived on July 22, 1918. </li><li>Stationed in Cosne for five months until Dec 22, 1918.</li><li>Continued to Treves Germany where he remained for the remainder of the war, until August 30, 1919. </li><li>Returned to the US aboard the USS Kroonland which arrived in Hoboken on Sep 10, 1919. </li><li>Discharged from service at Camp Devens on Sep 16, 1919 and return to his civilian life as a pharmacist. </li></ul>(Note: Armistice day was Nov 1, 1918, but the war did not officially end until a series of treaties were signed in 1919 and as late as 1920).<br /><br />Unfortunately, Louis chose not to elaborate much when asked to respond to his experience in the military (last two pages of the survey). He reported that he was in favor of serving and that his state of mind was good. According to him, the effect of his experience both in the US and abroad on his state of mind were good.<br /><br />As you can see, this type of record is a gold mine of information. Armed with the wealth of details from this questionnaire I should be able to learn much more about his experience. I've also found similar records for his brother William Carl Kranowitz who served in Naval Intelligence, as well as Minnie's brother, their cousin William James Crane.<br /><br />If you think you may have had a relative who died during WWI and was from Connecticut, be sure to check these records. While browsing the New Britain records, I also found many young men who died of influenza while still in training in the US. Often their photograph was included as well.Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-67508725975299387222013-11-22T10:19:00.004-05:002013-11-22T10:19:56.644-05:00Friday's Faces from the Past: Louis Harold Kranowitz<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-niIjhS0k1ko/Uo90-ev3yfI/AAAAAAAACow/8mxwwrGgkhA/s1600/Louis+Harold+Kranowitz+1918,+New+Britain,+CT.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-niIjhS0k1ko/Uo90-ev3yfI/AAAAAAAACow/8mxwwrGgkhA/s320/Louis+Harold+Kranowitz+1918,+New+Britain,+CT.tif" width="220" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Label on back: Louis Kranowitz<br />New Britain, Conn 1918</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Louis Harold Kranowitz (1892-1960)<br /><br />This handsome young soldier was a cousin of my great-grandmother Minnie. Louis and his family welcomed Minnie and her brothers into America and were influential in their decision to live in Hartford, Connecticut during their early years in this country. Louis, son of Aaron and Sophie Kranowitz was born in New York, but spent most of his life in New Britain, CT. He was the middle child, squeezed between two older sisters, <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/02/fridays-faces-from-past-mystery-lady.html" target="_blank">Berth and Lena</a> and two younger brothers, William and Bernard.<br /><br />Remember the story of <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/04/treasure-trail-heating-up.html" target="_blank">Max Crane (Kranowitz)'s beating in New Britain</a>? In Part III: of that series: <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/04/why-was-max-hanging-around-block.html" target="_blank">Why Was Max Hanging Around the Block?</a>, I concluded that Louis Kranowitz, 16 years old at the time, was probably Max's companion the day he received the beating which made headlines in 1909.<br /><br />This photo of Louis Kranowitz was taken sometime in 1918, during the last year of World War I. Louis was twenty-five years old. I found the photograph in Minnie's album. Neatly labeled on the back, in her own handwriting, she places Louis in New Britain, CT. He may have not left for battle yet. By 1918, Louis had graduated from Columbia University where he studied pharmacy.<br /><br />Check back next week for more about Louis!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-53605219921428873542013-11-18T16:17:00.002-05:002013-11-20T00:12:03.151-05:00A Gift for Dad<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ikFqqDOXpBU/UoqCcdxEuiI/AAAAAAAACog/NgUKGiuYl5s/s1600/Smadi+with+Zigo+July+1968.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="252" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ikFqqDOXpBU/UoqCcdxEuiI/AAAAAAAACog/NgUKGiuYl5s/s320/Smadi+with+Zigo+July+1968.tif" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My grandfather Baruch Lavi (aka Zigmond Jampel)<br />proudly showing me off.</td></tr></tbody></table>Imagine growing up without grandparents. Difficult isn't it? This day and age, people live longer and longer. Most of us are lucky enough to know most or all of our grandparents, and sometimes our great-grandparents. Myself, I was fortunate. I knew all five of my grandparents and one great-grandmother. Yes, five. My grandfather remarried and his wife was a wonderful, bonus, grandmother to all of us grandkids.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5_0xH_4JFRw/UopSY69kToI/AAAAAAAACoQ/3erTt-cFkkU/s1600/Zigo+lifting+Arik+1+y:o.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5_0xH_4JFRw/UopSY69kToI/AAAAAAAACoQ/3erTt-cFkkU/s320/Zigo+lifting+Arik+1+y:o.jpeg" width="225" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My grandfather in a similarly proud pose with my father</td></tr></tbody></table>My father is a pretty cool grandfather himself. Saba, or grandfather in Hebrew, is what my kids call him. In fact, almost all the kids who have ever come across my dad take to calling him Saba. He has embraced the role of grandfather and has "adopted" a bunch of grandkids along the way. Ironically, my dad never met his own grandparents. He never experienced the luxury of spending the evening at his grandparents home and being pampered by them. He could only imagine what it would be like to curl up with his grandfather and read a book. Sadly, like many Jews of his generation, he lost all his grandparents in the holocaust, before he was born.<br /><br />Despite this tragic loss, dad had a happy childhood. He grew up barefoot, running around the fields of a young kibbutz. The kibbutz provided a freedom rarely offered to children today. Kibbutz children spent their days outdoors, playing in the orange groves, working with the livestock or swimming in the water hole. Most of the founding members of the kibbutz lost families in the holocaust as well. They became each other's family and sheltered their children from their own sorrow by never discussing the loss. When my dad tried to learn about his grandparents, he was usually turned away. Eventually, he stopped trying.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rH3u7gKghks/UopSW8EomdI/AAAAAAAACnw/SWv7lPO1_tE/s1600/Arik+on+the+tricycle.jpeg.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rH3u7gKghks/UopSW8EomdI/AAAAAAAACnw/SWv7lPO1_tE/s320/Arik+on+the+tricycle.jpeg.jpeg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My father on Kibbutz early 1950s</td></tr></tbody></table>It's been five years since I first presented my dad a small clue about his grandparents—four Yad Vashem Testimony sheets for each of his grandparents. This elusive testimonies, filled out by my grandparents, contained more information than we ever knew about their parents. Their names, the date and place of birth, their occupations, their parents names and their last known address. Reading these documents brought tears to my father's eyes.<br /><br />Five years of genealogy research may be a long time, but progress has been slow, particularly in Eastern Europe. Today, I probably could have found the same Yad Vashem documents in a couple of minutes. Their search engine has improved tremendously. Back then, the search engine did not recognize that the letter "J" in Polish would be spelled with a "Y" in English. This problem, lead to months of frustration at the time.<br /><br />Though I remained hungry for more information about those we lost in the holocaust, I've mostly come up short. For the past few weeks I've reported of my first major breakthrough on this branch of the family. I've not only <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/11/brick-wall-comes-tumbling-down.html" target="_blank">identified a marriage record</a> of my father's great-grandparents, but I also <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-adventures-of-tracking-down.html" target="_blank">connected with a potential cousin</a>. When he heard about my discovery he was amazed. "How pleased your grandfather would have been to know of your work and dedication to this project" he told me.<br /><br />Today, I'd like to award my father, gift! A new document, this time pertaining not to his great-grandparents, but to his grandmother. Cecylia Jampel born Cecylia Reiter and fondly known as Cyla.<br />Five years ago, no one in my family remembered Cecylia's name. When I entered her onto my tree, she had no first name, and only a married name, Jampel. Today, I share with all of my faithful readers and my dad, Cecylia's birth certificate and try to reconstruct a little bit of her story.<br /><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VSdzOkw1Fwc/UopRVTg-liI/AAAAAAAACnQ/2s1eZ-Hu26w/s1600/Birth+Record+Cecylia+(Cyla)+Reiter+Zelnik+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="435" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VSdzOkw1Fwc/UopRVTg-liI/AAAAAAAACnQ/2s1eZ-Hu26w/s640/Birth+Record+Cecylia+(Cyla)+Reiter+Zelnik+.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Souce: JRI Poland/JewishGen</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Cecylia (Cyla) born on Oct 1st, 1891 in the city of Lwow, (pronounced Lvov) in the province of Galicia which was then part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. She was born in house #27 of Zotkiewska Street (See: <a href="http://www.lvivcenter.org/en/umd/mapdetails/plan-krolewskiego-stolecznego-miasta-lwowa-1890/" target="_blank">Map of Lwow from 1890</a>. Ul Zotkiewska can be found at MNO 4&5 ). Three days later, there was a naming ceremony for her at the same address. Cyla, like many Jews of her generations was officially born out of wedlock. She was therefore recorded as illegitimate. This most likely means that her parents were only had a Jewish wedding which was not valid in civil courts at the time. Her mother Rachel Reiter was listed as single, residing in Lwow and cohabitating with the shoemaker Yakob Zelnik. Rachel is the reported daughter of Ciny Reiter from the town of Kulików. The two witnesses to the birth were Hezz Rochmes and Leiser Reich, both lime dealers from Lwow. Betty Frenkel was the midwife. Note Cyla was given her mother maiden name Reiter, which in turn is her mother's maiden name as well. Again this is because the parents were only married according to Jewish law.<br /><br />Zotkiewska Street, surrounds a large park in the city which surrounds the Union of Lublin Mound (Kopiec Unii Lubelskiej). This monument sits at the top of a man made hill known as High Castle. Construction of this monument to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Union of Lublin was finished in 1890, only a year before Cyla was born. I was able to locate the area in google maps today. The park looks run down, and I'm not sure the street numbers are the same, but here is what building #27 looks like today.<br /><br /><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="350" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=embed&saddr=%C5%BC%C3%B3tkiewska+27,+Lviv+ukraine&daddr=&hl=en&geocode=FX6a-AIdWKVuASmDeF4gDd06RzH61yyLjZtpAQ&aq=&sll=49.848658,24.034599&sspn=0.005057,0.012617&t=h&mra=ls&ie=UTF8&ll=49.848658,24.034599&spn=0.005057,0.012617&layer=c&cbll=49.846972,24.028688&panoid=o0lmFfkj3idjTau2o5cg5Q&cbp=12,242.41,,0,0&output=svembed" width="425"></iframe><br /><small><a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=embed&saddr=%C5%BC%C3%B3tkiewska+27,+Lviv+ukraine&daddr=&hl=en&geocode=FX6a-AIdWKVuASmDeF4gDd06RzH61yyLjZtpAQ&aq=&sll=49.848658,24.034599&sspn=0.005057,0.012617&t=h&mra=ls&ie=UTF8&ll=49.848658,24.034599&spn=0.005057,0.012617&layer=c&cbll=49.846972,24.028688&panoid=o0lmFfkj3idjTau2o5cg5Q&cbp=12,242.41,,0,0" style="color: blue; text-align: left;">View Larger Map</a></small><br /><br />From additional family records, I learned that my great-grandmother Cyla was the second oldest of at least eight children, five boys and three girls: Nachman b. 1888, Karol (Chaskel) Leib (Leon) b. 1889, b. 1893, Maurycy Herman b.1895, Regina b.1898, Anna b.1890-d.1891 and Kazimierz b.1903. Her father, whose full name was Simon Jakob Zelnik was born in 1864. For now the fate of her parents and siblings is unknown to me.<br /><br />Cyla married Leon Jampel, a tailor, around 1910. She was a seamstress. They had my grandfather in 1913 when she was twenty two years old. Leon would have been around twenty five years old when they had their first child. They had their second and last child Michael, eighteen years later, in 1931. They lived and worked at #18 Kosciuszko Street, right next to Ivan Franko National University and another large park of the same name. (see map: <a href="http://www.lvivcenter.org/en/umd/mapdetails/plan-krolewskiego-stolecznego-miasta-lwowa-1890/" target="_blank">Map of Lwow from 1890</a>. L 6, 7). I couldn't quite find the street on google map because it's in Ukrainian, but the University is still there. This was their last known address before being expelled to the ghetto. They most likely were forced to work at the Yanovska forced labor camp and died either at the ghetto or the camp by 1943. Cyla would have been about 52 years old.<br /><br />This is it for now! I am hopeful that I will discover more bit of this story in the weeks and months to come!Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-30233265345731550362013-11-15T13:26:00.001-05:002013-11-15T15:39:47.677-05:00Friday's Faces from the Past: Bertha Ruderman<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pH--OFCuJco/UoZlmr9mViI/AAAAAAAACnA/Xtd-owrBkz4/s1600/Rebecca+Mishkind+and+3+daughters+1914+(Bertha+Ruderman).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pH--OFCuJco/UoZlmr9mViI/AAAAAAAACnA/Xtd-owrBkz4/s400/Rebecca+Mishkind+and+3+daughters+1914+(Bertha+Ruderman).jpg" width="371" /></a></div><br />This is by far one of my favorite vintage photos. It's a picture of Bertha Ruderman with her mother (Rebecca Mishkind) and two sisters, Helen and Salllie Ruderman. Bertha married into my husband's family. The photo came to my attention thanks to ancestry's shaky leaf and the ancestry contributor who posted it, graciously shared it with me. The photo was taken in 1914.<br /><br />I love everything about this photo, the pose, the distinct look in each of their eyes and their outfits. Most endearing is Bertha, who despite not wearing any shoes has a sense of elegance with her wonderful hat and red flower—a late retouch.<br /><br />Enjoy and have a great weekend!Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-41228268169832019992013-11-12T11:13:00.000-05:002013-11-13T11:18:00.692-05:00Brick Wall Comes Tumbling Down!This is the moment genealogist live for—when hours of work finally lead to a breakthrough! The eureka moment!<br /><br />Remember the Polish marriage record for Mechel Speiser and Rachel Jampel from <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/11/brick-wall-comes-tumbling-down.html" target="_blank">last post</a>? Mechel are my great-great-grandparents. They are part of a very large paternal brickwall. Finding such an important clue, about this Galician family lost in the holocaust, offered a glimmer of hope. Pulling out this first brick, might bring down the entire wall.mTo experienced genealogists, it's clear that bringing down a such a sturdy wall, requires the stars to actually align. It seems that seeing both the movie Gravity and Ender's game, helped align the stars for me!<br /><br /><b>Translating the Marriage Certificate</b><br /><b><br /></b><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DIPK3cKI0nU/UnEJse20PWI/AAAAAAAAClQ/8fA37IPuUAQ/s1600/Marriage+Certificate+for+Mechel+Speiser+and+Ruchel+Jample+from+JewishGen..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="303" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DIPK3cKI0nU/UnEJse20PWI/AAAAAAAAClQ/8fA37IPuUAQ/s400/Marriage+Certificate+for+Mechel+Speiser+and+Ruchel+Jample+from+JewishGen..jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Once again, marriage record for Mechel and Rachel so you wont have to scroll back to last weeks post.<br />(Click to enlarge)</td></tr></tbody></table><b><br /></b><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NpezK55LpCo/UnpNZJPno-I/AAAAAAAACmI/gZvRUahnmQM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-11-06+at+9.07.45+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="25" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NpezK55LpCo/UnpNZJPno-I/AAAAAAAACmI/gZvRUahnmQM/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-11-06+at+9.07.45+AM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Index from JRI-Poland for Mechel and Rachel's marriage record.<br />(Click to enlarge)</td></tr></tbody></table><b><br /></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Step number one was to translate this Galician marriage record. If you look at the record closely, the first thing you will appreciate is the truly beautiful handwriting. No one write like this anymore. Lucky for me, the person who recorde Mechel and Rachel's wedding in 1904 did. Another bit of luck was the quality of the scan. Without understanding polish, the names and the places are quite legible and concur with what the JRI-Poland Indexer had submitted for this record.<br /><br />Clearly, there was much more information on the record. The next step was to translate the record in it's entirety. <a href="http://jewishgen.org/">JewishGen.org</a>'s service <a href="http://www.jewishgen.org/ViewMate/" target="_blank">ViewMate</a> is ideal for posting a document or a photo such as a gravestone in need of translation. Within a few days, knowledgeable contributors from all over the globe response and help with the translation. I've had good luck with this service before, so I posted the record. When I hadn't heard from viewmate, I also posted on the facebook group Jewish Genealogy.<br /><br />In the meantime, impatience got the best of me and I decided to take a stab at it myself. Using mostly google translator, a <a href="http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Krakow/kra_occupations.htm" target="_blank">list</a> of typical Jewish Polish occupations from <a href="http://jewishgen.org/">JewishGen.org</a> and a magnifying glass, I set out to translate the one hundred and ten year old document.<br /><br /><b>Mechel and Rachel's Marriage Record Translation:</b><br /><b><br /></b><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">The bridegroom: Mechel Speiser, a native of Wola Jakubowa, residing in Rychcicach, innkeeper (or tavern keeper), son of the deceased alleged parents Seliga Speiser and Laji of the house of Freiman. 62 years old. Marital Status: Single.<br />The bride: Rachel Jampel native of Dobrowlany and living in Rychicach, daughter of Mendla Jampel from Dobrowalny and the deceased Laji of the house of Freilich. 40 years, 7 months and 2 days old. Marital status: Single.<br />Marriage recorded on 14th of August, 1904 in Drohobycz. Rabbi: Ch K Horowitz, Witnesses: Israel Hel, Merchant and Moses Freiman, merchant.</blockquote><br /><br />The Jewish Genealogist on facebook, were fastest to respond, and a lovely woman from Indiana quickly helped me decipher a lot of the basic information and conquered with my own conclusions. Other native speakers chimed in agreed. ViewMate contributors agreed as well. Only the last column on the right, titled notes, remains untranslated. This note seems quite long and mentions the date of the actual marriage several times. I can't make heads or tails of the polish for now.<br /><br /><b>Building A Tree for Mechel and Rachel</b><br /><br />Ten days ago, I attended a workshop with Stanley Diamond, founder of JRI-Poland, sponsored by the <a href="http://www.jgsgb.org/" target="_blank">Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston</a>. The attendees were instructed to bring specific question and I was hoping for help with the Speiser/Jampel research. In preparation for the workshop, I was able to create a tree for Meche and Rachel. The amount of records available for the Drohobycz region on JRI-Poland was impressive. Equipped with a better understanding of marriage practices in Galicia and how to decipher polish vital records, I was able to carefully reconstruct a family tree. I identifed Mechel's parent, four grandparents, three siblings, two wives and nine children, going back to the late 1700s. Rachel, turns out was his second wife. So far, I've identified two of her grandparents and two siblings.<br /><br /><b>One Eureka moment:</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9sjYyugybhc/UnpYMDqqmMI/AAAAAAAACmY/fNbcT7p09Mc/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-11-06+at+9.54.12+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="92" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9sjYyugybhc/UnpYMDqqmMI/AAAAAAAACmY/fNbcT7p09Mc/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-11-06+at+9.54.12+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Mechel Speiser's signature!</div><br />Finding Mechel Speiser's signature! Mechel's signature appears on many of his children's birth and death certificates. Sadly, many of his children were stillborn or died young. This signature is from the birth record of Simon Jampel born on the 8th of March, 1898 and died in 1916. Mechel was the witness on occasions.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fA1nClFtkts/UnpanHnNvRI/AAAAAAAACmk/bu6BfDw4ZOY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-11-06+at+10.02.51+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fA1nClFtkts/UnpanHnNvRI/AAAAAAAACmk/bu6BfDw4ZOY/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-11-06+at+10.02.51+AM.png" width="155" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Description of mother of<br />Simon Jampel in his<br />Birth Record </td></tr></tbody></table>All of Mechel's children except one (Udel) were registered as illegitimate and under the their mother's maiden name, Jampel. Simon's record in particular, provides a wonderful insight. It actually documents Mechel and Rachel's Jewish wedding.<br /><br />Under the description of Simon's mother it says that Ruchla Jampel (Ruchla is a nickname for Rachel), resident of Rychcicach, wife and then in a parenthesis (/: tylko wedle praw mojżesza ...) which means only according to the laws of moses. Thanks Google Translator! This government official, also with impeccable hand writing, clearly explained that Simon's parents were married by Jewish law, commonly referred to at the time as the Laws of Moses.<br /><br />Udel's birth record is fascinating as well. Udel, born in 1905 was the only record I found for a child born to the couple after their civil marriage. She, unlike the rest of her siblings is registered as Udel Speiser. In this record, Rachel, for the first time, is recorded as Rachel Speiser of the house of Jampel (see right hand column). Mechel and Rachel's civil marriage is clearly documented in this record (see box under Mechel's name). It provides the 1904 record locator as Karta #45 and entry #89. Note, Udel is reported as legitimate, that is not being born out of wedlock, slubne. Another important gem found on many of these records is the family's address: House #225 (see left). At the time, since the villages were so small, there were no street names, Instead houses were numbered. House #225 must have been the inn where they lived an worked. If a cadastral map of the village exist, I should be able to locate the exact location of this property.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5VKWcJCFvEY/Unpeo5CEUFI/AAAAAAAACmw/6lsc6satk8w/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-11-06+at+10.21.16+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5VKWcJCFvEY/Unpeo5CEUFI/AAAAAAAACmw/6lsc6satk8w/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-11-06+at+10.21.16+AM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />Very quickly I became an expert at deciphering the polish understanding these old documents. By discovering so much information, I was answering many of my own questions. The only question left for the head of JRI-Poland was: what about the records whose scan quality is so poor that I can't make out the handwriting? Unfortunately, some of the older records I uncovered were practically illegible aside from the names and dates. This was the question I saved for the workshop.<br /><br /><b>Brick Wall Tumbles</b><br /><br />The wedding record unlocked such a wealth of information, I was ecstatic. Bricks were tumbling all around me. And then...the night before the JRI-Poland workshop, I received a note in my Inbox. Participants in the workshop were encouraged to submit a list of the surnames and towns they are researching. One of these participants noticed that her and I shared the surname Speiser and the three Galician towns where the Speisers roamed. A potential cousin! I couldn't believe it. Less than thirty, local genealogist were to attend the workshop the next day. What are the chances to connect with a cousin?<br /><br />We met briefly at the workshop and promised to talk afterwards. When I asked Stanley Diamond how to obtain better quality scans, he explained that this particular set of digital records from AGAD originated from microfilm. The two step process in creating the scan, reduces the quality. If sharpening the image on photoshop doesn't work (I tried, it didn't), there does exist a possibility of obtaining better scans directly from the polish archives which is constantly updating it's digital collection. He kindly gave me some suggestions of how to go about obtaining them.<br /><br /><b>Finding An Actual Cousin</b><br /><b><br /></b>This is not the first time I find a cousin. The internet has brought me together with many known long lost cousins. This is the first time though, I find a potential cousin I only knew about in theory. I always believed that my Polish grandparents, who lost everyone in the war, must have had aunts or uncles and cousins. I knew nothing about these lost cousins, except for the fact that my grandparents searched for years for survivors and never found anyone. My grandfather had only one set of cousins in Australia (last name Reiter). My grandmother had a brother who survived Auschwitz and one cousin who left Poland before the war, resided for several years in Israel and then moved to America. I found it hard to believe that at a time when there were such large families, my grandparents didn't have any distant cousins who survived the war or survived by leaving Europe before the war.<br /><br />Turns out, this potential Speiser cousin is a descendant of one of Mechel Speiser's siblings, Lea Speiser. Our common ancestors are Mechel Speiser's parents Selig Speiser and Leibe Freiman. Both of us have been studying at the same Polish documents and feel with a large degree of confidence that we have the correct family. According to my new found 3rd cousin once removed, her great-grandmother Lea came to America in 1907. At the age of 50, widowed with most of her children in America, she finally joined them. This would explain why my grandfather did not know about this branch of the family. My grandfather was born in 1913, six years after Lea left Galicia. He never met this great-aunt Lea, or any of her children. Lea, passed away in 1933, six years before WWII and around the time my grandfather made Aliya to Palestine. It's difficult to say if Lea's nephew Leon (my great-grandfather) kept in touch with his aunt, but by the time was a young adult, he was far removed from Lea's family and probably had no way of getting in touch with them after the war.<br /><br />Interestingly, while my story is steeped in Holocaust tragedy and loss, for my new found cousin, losing relatives in the war was a revelation. Their extended family immigrated to America before World War I. They felt blessed to have made the choice to leave Galicia and like many American Jewish families, watch the War with horror but were not personally affected. Since she was born after the war, it is very likely that the elder generations in her family, such as her grandfather, did know of many cousins who lost their lives in the war, but to her recollection, and not surprisingly, no one talked about it. Meeting me, had opened her eyes to the story of those who were left behind. Like me, she knew leaned of these extended Speiser branches only thanks to her detailed genealogical research.<br /><br />Family historians live for the moments when brick walls crash, living relatives are found and better yet research collaborators are discovered. The best part, we live in the same city! Together, we hope to learn more about our shared family history.<br /><br /><b>What's next?</b><br /><br />The next logical step is to prove our family relationship via DNA. In the meantime, we've joined each other's trees and have began sharing our work. Ancestry.com's little leaves would have made the connection between us eventually, but we beat them to it. The amazing thing was that we found each other at a small workshop. I can't wait to tell my dad that I not only found his third cousin, but that there are lots more cousins where she came from!<br /><br />Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-35207019522705564052013-10-30T13:31:00.002-04:002013-10-30T14:15:10.525-04:00The Adventures of Tracking Down a Marriage Record from GaliciaLast week I wrote about a breakthrough in the Jampel branch of my family research ( <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2013/10/tips-for-finding-ancestors-on.html" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Tips for Finding Ancestors on www.genealogyindexer.org</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> ). As I mentioned, my father's side of my family tree is one of my biggest brick walls, due in large part to the holocaust. This year, my goals is to improve my research skills for Eastern Europe. My hope is to learning more, not only about my father's side of the family, but my mother's and my husband's families as well—all of whom </span>immigrated<span style="font-family: inherit;"> from different parts of the Russian Empire. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Last week's discovery, was monumental for me as it is the first independent record I have identified belonging to my father's family—my great-grandfather Leon Jampel.</span> This week, I'd like to share a new document: a marriage registration for Mechel Speiser and Rachel Jampel, whom I believe are Leon's parents. This awe inspiring document has been baffling me since the moment I came across it a few days ago. Hopefully, you, my expert readers will great insight into this galician marriage record!<br /><br /><b>Research Questions: </b>Is this my great-great-grandparents marriage record?<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DIPK3cKI0nU/UnEJse20PWI/AAAAAAAAClM/CjxmSzPY_pQ/s1600/Marriage+Certificate+for+Mechel+Speiser+and+Ruchel+Jample+from+JewishGen..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="302" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DIPK3cKI0nU/UnEJse20PWI/AAAAAAAAClM/CjxmSzPY_pQ/s400/Marriage+Certificate+for+Mechel+Speiser+and+Ruchel+Jample+from+JewishGen..jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marriage Register for Mechel Speiser and Rachel Jampel possibly my great-grandparents (entry 89)From JewishGen.org. Click to enlarge.Drohobycz PSA AGAD Births 1877-1905 Marriages 1877-81,84-91,93-97,99-1905 Deaths 1852-96,98-1905Lwow Wojewodztwo / Ukraine(records in Fond 300 in AGAD Archive)Located at 49°21’ 23°30’Last updated May 2007</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><b>Background</b><br /><b><br /></b>I've known about this particular record since 2009. Years ago, when I first found the Yad Vashem witness testimony form my grandfather filled out for his father Leon Yampel, I learned his parents names were Michael and Rachel.<br /><br />I also learned that Leon had two last names Speiser and Yampel which in Polish was actually spelled Jampel (pronounced like a Y).<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ESUW72hVf20/UnE4asSNM7I/AAAAAAAACl4/VhjHJZsp3fI/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-10-30+at+12.48.04+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ESUW72hVf20/UnE4asSNM7I/AAAAAAAACl4/VhjHJZsp3fI/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-10-30+at+12.48.04+PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Closeup of Yad Vashem Page of Testimony for Leon Jampel filled out by my grandfather in 1999. Note he reports his fathers name to be Leon (Arieh Leib) Yampel (Speiser). Father's name Michael Yampel (Speiser) and mother Rachel maiden name unknown.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />For this testimony I learned Leon was born in a place called Rychcice. This priceless information helped narrow down a JewishGen.org search for the Jampel family. I discovered a set of indexed records for the Jampel and Speiser family in Rychcice. Here is the entry for the marriage record:<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-n6thHOE6xKo/UnEOVR9RFzI/AAAAAAAAClY/nEqi-iASpYE/s1600/Mechel+Speiser+and+RAchel+Jampel+Mariage+Reg+Index+from+Jewish+Gen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="36" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-n6thHOE6xKo/UnEOVR9RFzI/AAAAAAAAClY/nEqi-iASpYE/s640/Mechel+Speiser+and+RAchel+Jampel+Mariage+Reg+Index+from+Jewish+Gen.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Index for above document <span style="font-size: x-small;">From </span><a href="http://jewishgen.org/" style="font-size: small;">JewishGen.org</a><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Click to enlarge.</span></td></tr></tbody></table>Note: The above screen shot was taken today. In 2009, when I first did this search, the left hand column (View Image) did not exist.<br /><br />I remember studying this index along with the other Jampel records and feeling unsure that it belong to my family. The names Mechel and Rachel matched my grandfather's report of Michael and Rachel. Michael, in Hebrew pronounced Micha-el could certainly have been Mechel in Yiddish. The name of the village is also consistent, Rychcice. But two things bothered me about this index record.<br /><br />1. <b>The year of marriage:</b> 1904. According to my grandfather, his father Leon was born in 1883 or 1888 (Note: both years of birth were reported by my grandfather on the 1955 and 1999 testimonies. I'm not sure which is correct, but I assume his memory was more accurate in 1955 so most likely the correct dob was 1888). How could this be his parents marriage record, if this is for a a marriage which took place in 1904? Leon would have been about 16 years old in 1904. Mechel, the groom was 62 years old in 1904, while Rachel the bride was 40 years old, 7 months and 2 days old in 1904 (I love the detail in this index). They were certainly old enough to be his parents but if they only got married in 1904, it's unlike they were his parents. There were several birth records (not included here) in this village for children of Mechel and Rachel, several of whom were born prior to 1904. The earliest was for a Samuel Seinwel from 1885. There was no record for a Leon or Leib. These other children suggests that Mechel and Rachel were together since as early as 1885, but were not officially married until 1904.<br /><br />2. <b>The surnames</b>: If Leon's last name is Jampel, why would his mother's maiden name be Jampel and his father's name Speiser? I had a difficult time making heads or tails of this. If there was a tradition of taking the mother's maiden name in this village, than why does Rachel have her father's last name (Mendel Jampel) and not her mother's Laje (Freilich), and respectively so does Mechel Speiser, son of Selig Speiser and Laje (Freiman). My grandfather himself seemed to think Leon had both names, Mechel and Speiser. But he seemed to feel that so did his grandfather Michael, while he did not know his grandmother's maiden name. If there was a tradition of taking the mother's maiden name, my grandfather was not aware of it.<br /><br />I remember not being able to resolve these conflicts at the time. There were too many doubts for me to order the original document from Poland. At that early stage of my research, I was not ready to pay for documents, especially ones I would not be able to read and nor be sure it belonged to my relatives. I decided to shelves these indexes to my shoe box. I placed another set of indexes for the Jampel family in the shoe box. These additional indexes suggested that Mechel in question was married and had children with a Chaje Jampel (daughter of Samuel Seinwel and Itte Malke Jampel) who died at childbirth in 1883. He then, went onto have children with Rachel Jampel who could have been a cousin of Chaje. Interestingly, Rachel and Mechel's first child is Samuel Seinwel.<br /><br /><b>Breakthrough: </b><br /><b><br /></b>This week, I returned to my shoe box. It's not the first time since 2009 that I re-examine this records. In fact, I return to JewishGen.org on a regular basis as they are continuously adding new records. This time, I noticed the little box on the left hand corder which said, view image in blue. When I clicked on the <a href="http://agadd.home.net.pl/metrykalia/300/sygn.%202397/pages/PL_1_300_2397_0043.htm" target="_blank">view image link</a> it took me to a scan of an original document from Poland! At the IAJGS2013, I learned that JRI poland together with JewishGen and the Polish Archives in the process of digitalizing their collection but this was the first time, any of my searches on JewishGen have linked me to a scanned image. Seeing this image was a eureka moment for me.<br /><br />The view image link above actually does not take you to Mechel and Rachel's marriage record. Even without knowing polish, the names at the top of these records, did not seem to match my family surnames. It seemed to be mis-attached. I went back to the Index and saw that the Akta# was 89. I was not sure what Akta# was but my guess was that it refers to an record entry number since the image I was directed to had entries 85 and 86, I decided I need to scroll forward. Scrolling two pages ahead, brought me to entry 89. And sure enough, the names I was looking for were written in an old, beautiful script.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W8Wu3h9eFOk/UnEaQyxr-DI/AAAAAAAAClo/oSM205T80_A/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-10-30+at+10.39.19+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W8Wu3h9eFOk/UnEaQyxr-DI/AAAAAAAAClo/oSM205T80_A/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-10-30+at+10.39.19+AM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Closeup of part of the marriage record for Mechel and Rachel.</td></tr></tbody></table>The form seems to be written in both German and Polish. Since Galicia was part of the Austria-Hungarian empire, many official forms were in German as well as the local language. I'm guessing the handwritten section are in Polish.<br /><div><br /></div><div><b>Resolving the Conflicts</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Thanks to the amazing efforts of many organizations and genealogist, I can now study this original marriage record without out having to pay to obtain it (or travel to Ukraine). Amazingly, all the records in this particular collection have been scanned and include birth and death records for many of Mechel's children from both his marriage. Obtaining these and other records would have cost me quite a bit. Now they are free! Many hurdles remain. After attending the JewishGenealogy conference, I am more confident I can decipher enough of this record to decide if it is worth translating. From all the records, I feel this marriage record is my best place to start. If I can feel confident that this Marriage record belongs to my great-grandparents, than I will be able to piece together much of their family tree from the rest of the records in this collection. In order to do so, I must resolve the two conflicts listed above, the date of marriage and the maiden names. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>History of Jewish Marriages in Galicia</b></div><div><br /></div><div>To resolve these conflicts, I had to get a better understanding of the history of Galicia. At the conference, I attended several talks about Galicia. Now that my son's Bar Mitzvah is over, I'm also watch lectures I purposely skipped since they were available on the conference live feed. I've been watching these videos at a feverish pace since they are only available until Nov 15th. (If you have any interest in Jewish Genealogy, and did not have a chance to attend the conference, I highly recommend subscribing the the live stream at: <a href="http://www.iajgs.org/2013live/">http://www.iajgs.org/2013live/</a>. There is still two weeks and the talks are well worth it!) Yesterday, while listening to Pamela Weisberger from <a href="http://www.geshergalicia.org/" target="_blank">Gesher Galicia</a>'s talk about Cadastral Maps, Landowner, School & Voter Records: New Horizons for Genealogist, I learned a tidbit which helped me resolve both my conflicts. Now, I may have learn this piece of information at the conference as well, but yesterday since I've been studying this marriage certificate, the information she clicked fro me.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hidden deep in Pamela's explanation about the growing online collection of Cadastral maps, was a comment about maiden names in Galicia. Pamela explained that since many of Jewish marriages in Galicia were religious and not civil, they were not recognized by the state. Therefore, the children of these marriages were illegitimate and were registered with their mother's maiden name rather than their father's surname! </div><div><br /></div><div>Immediate, I looked into the history of Jewish marriages in Galicia.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>In 1776 Empress Maria Theresa among other taxes, levied an expensive tax on registering Jewish marriages. Between 1781-1789, her son, Emperor Joseph II issues a series of Decrees of Tolerance for all religious minorities. This was part of his vision to transform the Jews in Galicia into good taxpaying Austrian. These decrees were filled with contradictions, some hindering and some aiding the Jews. Marriage were to be regulated by the government. Jews who felt marriage was a religious issue, strongly resisted this decree. Like many of these decrees, it remained on the books but was not strictly enforced. Beginning in 1787 Jews were required to chose fixed surnames rather than the earlier patronymic system. They were also required as a congregation to record births, deaths and marriages. In 1810 civil marriages became the only officially recognized marriage in Austria. In attempt to encourage Jews to convert, a marriage certificate could only be purchased after passing a Catholic catechism exam. Most Jews chose to ignore these laws. Jewish marriages preformed by Rabbis continued but were not legally recognized. Children born from these marriage were considered illegitimate. The test requirement was removed only in 1859. Starting in 1877 after the ratification of the Austrian constitution, Jews were given equal legal civil status. Local chief rabbi become responsible for recording birth, death and marriages in a standardized format and transmitting it to the official local registrars rather than keeping them in local Jewish books. (sources: <a href="http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Galicia" target="_blank">www.yivoencyclopedia.org</a>, <a href="http://www.zolynia.org/galicia.html" target="_blank">www.zolynia.org</a>).</div><div><br /></div><div>While these were the imperial decrees, it may have taken a while for the community to adopt them and therefore even though Mechel and Rachel could have legally gotten married around 1885, this certainly explains why they didn't do so and while all of Mechel's children from both his marriages carried his wife's surname. It's possible Mechel and Rachel chose not to register their marriage since they couldn't afford the cost. Certainly the political turmoil explains why they may have chosen to have their children "out of wedlock". I have found no historically explanation for why they would have chosen to get married in 1904 after having been together since before 1885. It's possible Mechel wanted to be sure his wife inherited his property. He was 62 when he finally legally married Rachel and she was much younger (only 40 years old).</div><div><br /></div><div>A better grasp of the history of Jewish marriages in Galicia makes me quite certain that this is the marriage record of my great-grandparents. Neither the date nor the maiden name inconsistency no longer concern me. Now more than ever, I want to translate this record. I've posted a request for help in <a href="http://www.jewishgen.org/ViewMate/">www.jewishgen.org/ViewMate</a> and hope that a Polish speaking volunteer will help me decipher the document. In the meantime, I am curious what you guys think.</div><div><br /></div><div>Are Mechel Speiser and Rachel Jampel from this marriage document my grandparents? What lead them to finally get married in 1904? How do you suggest I continue? </div></div>Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-79302666660484450202013-10-21T20:44:00.003-04:002013-10-21T22:21:31.658-04:00Tips for Finding Ancestors on www.genealogyindexer.orgYesterday I treated my self to the <a href="http://www.jgsgb.org/" target="_blank">Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Boston</a> (JGSGB) talk. Even tough the meetings take place right next to my house, I don't make it to the meeting as often as I would like. Our local Jewish Genealogy society is truly a great group of people. It's a very active and hardworking group. This summer they hosted the annual <a href="http://www.iajgs2013.org/" target="_blank">International Conference on Jewish Genealogy</a> which was a great success. The conference inspired me to try to go to more meetings, and so, despite the fact that the Patriots were playing, I decided to skip out for a two hour break and head to the talk.<br /><br />Logan Kleinwaks, founder and creator of the <a href="http://www.genealogyindexer.org/">www.genealogyindexer.org</a> website was yesterday's guest speaker. I don't know how many of you are familiar with this site. If you are not, and you have ancestors in Central and Eastern Europe, I highly recommend you check it out!<br /><br />I must admit that I had come across <a href="http://www.genealogyindexer.org/">www.genealogyindexer.org</a> in the past and I didn't have much luck. I remember trying a few searches and not coming up with much which was legible. A lot of the results were in Polish or Russian and I quickly gave up. After going to some of the Polish Government Archives talks at the Jewish Genealogy conference this summer, I've become a bit braver at trying to navigate through documents in foreign languages, and that is the main reason I decided to attend Logan's talk, and boy, am I glad I did!<br /><br /><b>What is GenealogyIndexer? What makes it different? </b><br /><br />GenealogyIndexer is a free search engine, not unlike google, but specific for genealogy. The search engine scans a huge and ever growing database of Directories (mostly from central Europe), Holocaust Yizkor books, Polish and Russian military records, personal and community histories and some school records. It uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to index and make these records searchable. You can search in English or in Polish, Russian, Hebrew or Cyrillic (with the keyboard provided on the left).<br /><br />Here are a few tips from the talk which I learned and which already yielded results.<br /><br /><b>Tip #1</b><br />On the home page it says: <span class="hl" style="background-color: #ffff66; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.75px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">PLEASE READ </span>in bright yellow! Logan, saved us the trouble and explained what this was all about. I don't think I read this section the first time I visited this page. The instructions are a bit technical about downloading a plug-in, so even if I did glance at them the first time around, I probably skipped it. Well, I have a Mac and turns out, this plug-in is very important for the Mac. I was unable to view most of the images without this plug-in. Installing the plug-in was free and easy and voila! I can now see and browse through Polish Business Directories from the early 1900!<br /><br />Let's take a search I did for Leon Jampel as an example. One can search by surname, first name, town or any keyword. My paternal grandparent's families are my biggest brick walls since they died in the holocaust. Leon Jampel, was my paternal great-grandfather, and I know almost nothing about him. The only documents I have for Leon Jampel are two <a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2012/01/truth-in-all-i-do.html" target="_blank">Yad Vashem Testemony</a> Sheets my grandfather filled out for Leon (his dad).<br /><br />When I typed Leon Jampel into the GenealogyIndexer, a long result list appeared. The search results look a lot like a google search result. Here is a screen shoot of the top part of the search.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KjkpbdctNVY/UmW0_fDScwI/AAAAAAAACkA/2XMW9YimFtY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-10-21+at+7.12.01+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KjkpbdctNVY/UmW0_fDScwI/AAAAAAAACkA/2XMW9YimFtY/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-10-21+at+7.12.01+PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Screen shot of <a href="http://www.genealogyindexer.org/">www.genealogyindexer.org</a> search for Leon Jampel (click to enlarge).</td></tr></tbody></table><br />There were a lot of Jampels and a lot of Leons. The search engine found every page in the database that has both Leon and Jampel. The 9th result was the one the looked promising. It highlighted in yellow <span class="hl" style="background-color: #ffff66; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Jampel</span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span class="hl" style="background-color: #ffff66; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Leon</span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">, </span>together:<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nf73KkxCfDY/UmW2WyxmfFI/AAAAAAAACkI/I42k06H5eZE/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-10-21+at+7.14.21+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="36" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nf73KkxCfDY/UmW2WyxmfFI/AAAAAAAACkI/I42k06H5eZE/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-10-21+at+7.14.21+PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 9th entry on the www.genealogyindexer.org search for Leon Jampel. (Click to enlarge).</td></tr></tbody></table>This result is from the 1935/1936 Lwow, Stanislawow, Tarnopol area Address and Business directory.<br />If you look closely, this snippet from the directory is all in Polish. Prior to the talk on Sunday, I would have quit at this step. All I can make out is Jampel Leon. The rest is gibberish. But, I am pretty confident, this is my great-grandfather, since I know he lived in Lvov (Lwow) most of his life and most likely died around 1943. If this is a Business Directory from Lvov in 1935/1936, this must be the listing for my great-grandfather. If so, it's the only document I have ever been able to find for him which was not filled out by my grandfather. It should contain at least an address, if not an occupation. Emboldened by what I learned from the talk, I clicked on the link.<br /><br />As warned by Logan, without the djvu plug-in, I got a prompt to download the page, which I was unable to open. So, I went ahead and follow tip #1 from the talk and <a href="http://www.caminova.net/en/downloads/download.aspx?id=1" target="_blank">download the plug-in</a>. It was free and took about 7 seconds to download. It opens automatically to the installation window, and so I went ahead and install, which took only a few more seconds. This time, when I clicked on the Directory Link once again this is the image I got:<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q2jc0UDwB4M/UmW5xJAjJmI/AAAAAAAACkU/aBB55JvTFU4/s1600/Genealogy+Indexer+-+1935:1936+Lwow,+Stanislawow,+Tarnopol+++More+Address+and+Business+Directory.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="231" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q2jc0UDwB4M/UmW5xJAjJmI/AAAAAAAACkU/aBB55JvTFU4/s400/Genealogy+Indexer+-+1935:1936+Lwow,+Stanislawow,+Tarnopol+++More+Address+and+Business+Directory.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">www.genealogyindexer.org p. 169 from the 1935/1936 Lwow, Stanislawow, Tarnopol Directory (Click to enlarge)</td></tr></tbody></table>Now, if you zoom in, you can see this is all in Polish. Pretty intimidating! At least is was for me. Luckily, it's pretty obvious we are in the Lvov section not Tarnopol (top of the page) and since it was alphabetical, I could easily see we were in the Js. Finding Jampel was not difficult. Here is a close up, so you do not have to strain your eyes:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f1pMF3q_3pk/UmW6wmXZpoI/AAAAAAAACkc/yaFVxEPQg2U/s1600/1935:1936+LWow+Directyory.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="86" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f1pMF3q_3pk/UmW6wmXZpoI/AAAAAAAACkc/yaFVxEPQg2U/s400/1935:1936+LWow+Directyory.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Closeup of Lwow Directory, Jampel, Leon.</td></tr></tbody></table><b>Tip #2</b><br /><br />Use google translator!<br />There are only two words and a number beyond Leon's name and before the next listing of a Jampoler. The two polish words are: Krawiec and c, Kościuszki . I've looked at enough US City Directories to venture a guess that the number must be a street address, so I'm guessing Kosciuski is a street. Also from my US City Directory experience (and from Logan's talk), I'm guessing the first word, krawiec is an occupation. I when I asked google translator, my suspicion was confirmed.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-arqMU8LY6dA/UmW8JfDDGUI/AAAAAAAACks/RVZEo0Blwsw/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-10-21+at+7.42.46+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="126" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-arqMU8LY6dA/UmW8JfDDGUI/AAAAAAAACks/RVZEo0Blwsw/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-10-21+at+7.42.46+PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screen Shot of Google Translate for the Polish Word Krawiec</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Krawiec means tailor. My great-grandfather was a tailor! I have the right guy! On the Yad Vashem testimony, my grandfather wrote that his dad was a tailor. I went back to the testimony to check for the last know address. My grandfather actually filled out the Yad Vashem forms twice. Once in 1955 and then again in 1999. I think he may have forgotten that he had filled them out, so just in-case, in 1999 he did it again. The information he provided was a bit different. In the 1955, he lists a Berka Yuselevitz Street in Lvov (It's written in Hebrew, so I'm not attaching it here). But in 1999, this is what my grandfather wrote as the last know address before the expulsion to the ghetto.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GSJnjFRcnaI/UmW-iU-ErwI/AAAAAAAACk4/lSwc6kEyLiQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-10-21+at+7.49.19+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="35" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GSJnjFRcnaI/UmW-iU-ErwI/AAAAAAAACk4/lSwc6kEyLiQ/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-10-21+at+7.49.19+PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Closeup of Yad Vashem Testemony page for Leon Jampel, filled out by his son Baruch Lavi in 1999.<br />Translation of the hebrew: Address-before the expulsion, Country- Poland Region-Lvov</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Notice the street name is the same as the Kościuszki the one from the Polish directory. My grandfather didn't list a house number, but I'm pretty sure it's the same street. Lvov Jews who survived the initial pogroms after the Nazi invasion were moved to the ghetto on November 8th, 1941. It's very likely that Leon Jampel, would have lived at the Kościuszki address at least from 1935 until 1941. This may have been the address where my grandfather's parents lived for a long time. He may have even grown up on this street and that is why it was easier for him to remember this address in 1999 (when he was 85 years old). The Yuselevitz address may have been the last known address from the ghetto, an address he would have remembered in 1955, only 8 years from the last contact he had with his parents, but that he may have forgotten years later.<br /><br />Turns out, I did not learn any new details from the Business directory information aside from a house number. But considering I know so little about Leon Jampel, this is truly an emotional find. Finding him on an official document from Poland was a deeply moving experience. It has given me hope that I may find more documents not only for Leon, but for the rest of his family who perished tragically in the holocaust.<br /><br />Reading these dense documents in Polish is a painstakingly slow process. A process I may not have undertaken, if I had not attended Logan Kleinwaks talk yesterday. Now that I have a better understanding of the <a href="http://www.genealogyindexer.org/">www.genealogyindexer.org</a> site, I am confident I will continue to find more information which will help me piece together my family's story. For the latest updates on GenealogyIndexer.org follow them on twitter @gindexer.<br /><br />Here are a few more tips to help you navigate the page:<br /><b><br /></b><b>Tip #3-</b>Don't forget to use the sound-index option and the OCR-adjust option if you not having any luck.<br /><b>Tip #4-</b> If you have a common last name, narrow down your search.<br /><b>Tip #5- </b>Read and use the advance search suggestions. These are similar to other advance search options on google or ancestry.<br />Tip #6- If you need help, use the forum. Ask specific questions. Logan is very approachable and answers a lot of the questions, as do other users.<br /><br />Best of luck exploring this amazing resource!Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-29348606850318235222013-10-18T09:43:00.000-04:002013-10-18T09:44:21.118-04:00Friday's Faces from the Past: Sam Friedberg<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SiansjzAtzY/UmE4K5m_RAI/AAAAAAAACjY/fjtrlZH2b10/s1600/Ruth+and+Sam+Friedberg+1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SiansjzAtzY/UmE4K5m_RAI/AAAAAAAACjY/fjtrlZH2b10/s320/Ruth+and+Sam+Friedberg+1.jpeg" width="236" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sam and Ruth Friedberg, 1949</td></tr></tbody></table><br />This week, we lost a family member, Sam Friedberg. Sam passed away on Tuesday after a brief battle with a very aggressive Lymphoma. He was 86 years old.<br /><br />Sam's wife Ruth, was my grandmother's first cousin. I had the pleasure of meeting Sam at his home in San Antonio a few years ago. My family and I enjoyed Sam and Ruth's company as they shared family stories and family history with me. Sam, an well respected doctor, took on the hobby of painting during his retirement. I particularly enjoyed the painting he did inspired by my second great-grandparents, which he shared with me during that trip. Sam will be missed! Click here for his <a href="http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sanantonio/obituary.aspx?n=samuel-friedberg&pid=167572267&fhid=7331" target="_blank">obituary</a>.<br /><br /><br /><br />Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-38032790026919961992013-10-16T15:56:00.000-04:002013-10-16T15:56:37.247-04:00How Does a Bar Mitzvah Connect to Genealogy?It's been a much longer break than anticipated but I'm finally back! During my two and a half month absence from the genealogy blogging scene, I dedicated my time almost exclusively to my youngest son's Bar Mitzvah. The event was fast approaching required my full attention to both help my son prepare, as well as pull off a successful celebration which would follow. As much as I missed blogging, my blog, is not only about the past, but also about the present and the future. This right of passage, the Bar Mitzvah, brings together the past, the present and the future. The last few months I focused on the present, making the Bar Mitzvah happen, and now—re-energized and rejuvenated—I am excited to return to blogging!<br /><br />The Bar Mitzvah (Bat Mitzvah in the case of girls) milestone, connect each Jewish young person with their past. I have three sons, so this is our third and last Bar Mitzvah. Each event was completely different, reflecting the personalities of each child. Mirroring our families life, the first was held in Mexico, the second in Israel and the third here in Boston. Since my eldest son's Bar Mitzvah, I've connected this ceremony with genealogy. Thanks to his Bar Mitzvah project of researching his roots, we began an online family tree. This first family tree sparked a deep passion for genealogy in me.<br /><br />Interestingly, this time around, another connection to family history emerged. Most Jewish children, read the Torah for the first time on their Bar Mitzvah. I'd like to take a pause here and explain. Some people believe that to have a Bar Mitzvah, means reading the Torah. That is actually not true. One does not have a Bar Mitzvah. One becomes a Bar Mitzvah by turning 13 (for boys) or 12 (for girls). In Jewish tradition, this means that a Bar Mitzvah is a person old enough to follow the Mitzvot (commandments). It basically means that as a Bar Mitzvah you have the same rights and responsibilities of a Jewish adult. It is the first time you <b>can</b> be called up to the Torah and take a turn to read from the Torah in temple. You do not have to do it, but you may have this privilege if you would like. Being called up to the Torah or reading from the Torah is always an honor. Doing so for the first time, is a cause for celebration. That is where the tradition comes from. The big parties often held today, are a relatively modern elaboration of this ancient custom.<br /><br />My son was both excited and nervous about reading the Torah. He had a wonderful teacher who taught him the traditional cantillation (tropes) and helped him master the difficult task of reading without vowels (the Torah scroll has no vowels or punctuation). He studied his Torah portion and prepared a <i>Dvar Torah</i>, the speech which teaches the community something new about the weekly Torah portion. Before we knew which Torah portion he would have to read (it depends on the date of the Bar Mitzvah), he was nervous that he would not be able to relate to his portion and would not know what to say. But then, when he saw his portion, he was thrilled. After reading the first sentence he exclaimed: "Mom, this portion was written for me!"<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kZegOz6HtfA/Ul7ldUwzIOI/AAAAAAAACjI/XnbTy2c4988/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-10-16+at+3.13.11+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kZegOz6HtfA/Ul7ldUwzIOI/AAAAAAAACjI/XnbTy2c4988/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-10-16+at+3.13.11+PM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My son practicing to read from the actual Torah scroll using a "yad,"<br />a silver hand to help him find his place. The yad is used to avoid touching the<br />scroll with one's had which can damage the delicate text.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Lech Lecha (Genesis 12), is one of the most famous chapters of the Bible. it begins with the following sentence: "And the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your land and from your birthplace and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you." My son, could completely relate to Abram (Abraham before God changed his name from Abram to Abraham). He too left his land (Mexico), his birthplace and the land of his father and went to a new land, the United States. It made for a great Bar Mitzvah speech!<br /><br />That one sentence immediately connected my son to his past and his family history. Not only was he born in Mexico, but Mexico was the land of his forefathers for generations. Abraham's story, is the story of the Jewish people and their wanderings in pursuit of a better life and religious freedom. Glowing with pride, I listed to him make this connection to his own family history. I thought not only of our Mexican ancestors, but those from Eastern Europe to immigrated to America and to Israel in search of a better life. Much of my genealogy work is focused on their immigration paths. It was very special to see that even though he did not make a family tree as a Bar Mitzvah project like his brother, he also gained a deep understanding of how the Bar Mitzvah connects him to those who came before him. This insight strengthen his foundation and I am confident it will serve him in the future as he becomes an independent young adult.<br /><br />Do you have stories to share about rights of passage and their connection to your family history? I'd love to hear them.<br /><br />Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-31389894642735914202013-08-06T21:49:00.000-04:002013-08-06T21:56:11.403-04:00Highlights from IAJGS International Conference of Jewish GenealogyThis week, I'm attending my first genealogy conference (not counting RootsTech which I attended from home). The <a href="http://www.iajgs2013.org/" target="_blank">33rd IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy</a> is here in Boston this week, and I just couldn't pass it up! I've come to admire all those official bloggers from who blog daily while attending a conference! Personally, I can't barely find time for lunch or a bathroom break, let alone blog.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cIVuMPfzttU/UgGnL4mRuxI/AAAAAAAACiY/NOVAU6Mj-og/s1600/Picture.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cIVuMPfzttU/UgGnL4mRuxI/AAAAAAAACiY/NOVAU6Mj-og/s320/Picture.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Badge!</td></tr></tbody></table>For those who are interested in what's going on in the conference but could not attend, there are a few ways you can take part in the action. For the first time in it's history, the IAJGS is transmitting live. If you couldn't make the conference, you can visit <a href="http://www.iajgs2013.org/live.cfm">http://www.iajgs2013.org/live.cfm</a> and register to view on-line. There are two feeds every session which will be available for three months. For a more extensive audio recording of the conference and the complete DVD, visit <a href="http://audio.iajgs2013.org/">http://audio.iajgs2013.org</a>.<br /><br />Here are some of my highlights of the conference:<br />1. Keynote: Aaron Lansky of the <a href="http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/" target="_blank">Yiddish Book Center</a> gave an inspirational talk titled: Emerging Tools for Jewish Genealogical Research. Lansky, told the incredible story of how he saved one million Yiddish books, which the center is rapidly making available on-line for free. Thanks to this amazing project at the <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/108911242424577342163" target="_blank">+Yiddish Book Center</a>, Yiddish literature, almost extinct thirty years ago, is about to become the first fully available and searchable literature online. Great news for the Jewish people in general and for Jewish genealogist in particular!<br />2. Ava Cohn, also known as <a href="http://sherlockcohn.com/" target="_blank">Sherlock Cohn</a>, is a photo genealogist who gave a great titled: Clued-In: The Stories are in the Details. I was lucky to get a seat in the overflowing conference room. As most of you know, I love learning the stories and behind the photos, so this talk was a highlight for me!<br />3. JRI-Poland sponsored a Luncheon where Andrzej Folwarczny spoke about The Current State of Polish-Jewish Relations. Andrzej Folwarczny heads a non-profit Forum for<a href="http://www.dialog.org.pl/en/" target="_blank"> Dialogue Among Nations Foundation</a>, working to foment Polish-Jewish dialogue, eradicate anti-Semitism and teach tolerance through education. He presented their education program, The School of Dialog which teaches polish students from rural villages about the Jewish history of the former shtetl and bringing them together with Jewish families researching their roots in the shtetl. The high school students, help research the ancestors and present them to the descendants when they visit the village on the ancestral trip.<br />4. Andrew Zalewski author is the author of a book called, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Galician-Trails-Forgotten-Story-Family/dp/098558940X" target="_blank">Galician Trails</a>. I attended this talk, because my paternal grandparents are both from Galicia. The session was an absolute delight. Zalewski personal family history research, took him all throughout Galicia. His book provides an incredible window into the regions history. I can't wait to read my signed copy!<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />5. Calling All Readers: A Literary Trove for Jewish Genealogists<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>by <a href="http://www.ellencassedy.com/" target="_blank">Ellen Cassedy</a> and <a href="http://familyroutes.me/" target="_blank">Lois Rosen</a> certainly called my attention. I love to read, and I devour genealogy related books, both novels, memoirs and non fiction. We all walked out of a huge recommended reading list, which they will post on their websites and include suggestions made during the conference. If you enjoy these kinds of books, I highly recommend you check out the list.<br />6. One of the best presentations I attended was <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/118349523207603765809" target="_blank">+Emily Garber</a>'s, Beyond the Manifest: Confirming One's Ancestral Origins Using Alternative Sources. Emily, whose blog, the <a href="http://extrayad.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">ExtraYad</a> I've been following for some time, used her family as a case study and manage to make a fairly technical presentation, full of informative tips of how to discover an ancestral town in a very fun and clear fashion. Meeting Emily in person was a true highlight. Her exhaustive and extensive research inspired me to believe that one day be able to find some of the ancestral towns I'm after including the Bloomfield's evasive ancestral home.<br />7. Lastly, I'd like to highlight Zack Wilske talks about Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Citizenship Records. I actually attended two of his presentations which were jam packed with valuable information. I now feel confident that those illusive naturalization records are within my reach at the <a href="http://www.uscis.gov/history">http://www.uscis.gov/history</a> website. I highly recommend studying the site an requesting an index search for your ancestors!<br /><br />That's all folks for now! More highlights, at the end of the conference!<br /><br />Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9141297900595098943.post-40651071882390819372013-07-26T22:42:00.003-04:002013-08-03T17:01:36.645-04:00How Did I Miss This?The excitement of discovering a document for a family member never gets old! I relish each new record. As my genealogy research skills improved, I learned to pay close attention to the most minute details. So, how come often, when I review such a document months later, I discover something new—something I missed? Has it happened to you? Have you studied a marriage certificate inside and out, only to learn later that perhaps you over looked a witness who happened to be a family member? Yesterday, it happened again, and I have to admit, I love it when it happens! It's true, I do get frustrated with myself for missing important clues, but then again, the prize of learning something new about my ancestors makes it all worthwhile!<br /><br />Yesterday, I logged into my <a href="http://ancestry.com/" target="_blank">ancestry.com</a> account, as I do most days. At the top of my ancestry landing page stands the members connect activity newsfeed. Unlike Facebook or Tweeter newsfeeds, my ancestry feed barely moves. There are new listing once a week or sometimes less than once a month. Rarely, have these bits of information resulted in something relevant, so I tend to ignore them. When I do check, I often discover that members connected to me took information from my public tree. I don't mind, it's public, but can't help feeling disappointed that they haven't discovered anything new that might help my research.<br /><br />Yesterday was different. I noticed one of my favorite collaborators had attached new documents to family members we share. Our trees cross quite a bit, but my family is only related to him via an x-wife of a cousin of his. Still, he is an excellent researcher and meticulous with his documentation. Yesterday he sparked my interest since he was working on my second great-grandmother. I was curious to see if he discovered something I may have missed, so, I clicked on Freida Toby Bloomfield (Pomerantz) on his tree.<br /><br />The three documents he attached to Freida Toby, were not new to me. I had located these documents as well as three others. But when I glanced at his comments, immediately jumped out. The annotation next to the 1910 US census, a document I had looked at scores of times previously, pointed out that Freida Toby and Moses had 15 children 7 of whom were living in 1910. <b>Fifteen children!</b>!! How had I missed this fact?<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NmJ4udPvIEI/Uf1ufY4OngI/AAAAAAAACiI/Q4wR6kMHxNU/s1600/Bloomfields+Claremont+Ancestry.com+-+1910+United+States+Federal+Census.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="32" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NmJ4udPvIEI/Uf1ufY4OngI/AAAAAAAACiI/Q4wR6kMHxNU/s400/Bloomfields+Claremont+Ancestry.com+-+1910+United+States+Federal+Census.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close up of 1910 US Census for the Bloomfield Family from Ancestry.com<br />Click to enlarge. See line 47.<br /> Columns 11 and 12 are: Mother of How Many Children: Number Born: 15, Number living in 1910: 7</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U27WaIy-70M/UfLVZUvbruI/AAAAAAAACgw/vx0L3QuW6m0/s1600/Moses+and+Freida+Toby+Bloomfield+with+a+baby.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U27WaIy-70M/UfLVZUvbruI/AAAAAAAACgw/vx0L3QuW6m0/s400/Moses+and+Freida+Toby+Bloomfield+with+a+baby.jpeg" width="265" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Photo of Moses and Freida Toby Bloomfield with a baby.<br />The photo is from Marty Bloomfield's collection. It is not<br />dated. Marty believes the baby is either Joseph or one of his<br />younger siblings (Barney or Ben).<br />Most likely taken in Russia c1900-1906.</td></tr></tbody></table>The 1910 Census provided a wealth of clues. It lists not only Freida and Toby, and her husband Moses, but William (my great-grandfather), Harry, Joseph, Barney and Ben, all of whom were living with their parents, as well as three boarders, all of whom were cousins. The census lists their address as 179 North Street, in Claremont. It confirms William and Harry as well as the cousins were working at the Shoe factory (<a href="http://the-past-to-the-present.blogspot.com/2012/07/why-in-world-new-hampshire.html" target="_blank">Maynard Shoe Factory listed in the City Directory</a>), while the younger siblings were in school. I had studied this document inside and out. How had I overlooked this fact?<br /><br />Well known family folklore suggests the seven Bloomfield brothers had sisters as well, but none of them lived to adulthood or made it to America. The story, not surprising for a poor family in Russia around the turn of the century, had never been confirmed, but consistent with some facts we knew about the family. A thirty year span separates Aaron Bloomfield, born c.1875, from Benjamin his youngest Benjamin (the musician, actor and engineer), born c1905. The age gaps vary from a year between Barney and Benjamin, to almost ten years between Harry and Joseph suggesting other pregnancies and children who may have not lived to adulthood. Another relevant detail is the fact Freida Toby and Moses were first cousins. First cousin marriages often unmasked a silent carrier gene in a family, which can leads to disease. These types of diseases can lead to early miscarriages, mental retardation and premature death. Then there is Barney, who was rumored to be "slow" due to uncontrolled bleeding at birth. My husband, who is a pediatrician, theorizes that Barney mostly likely bled heavily because of a vitamin K deficiency which can result in what was known as hemorrhagic disease of the newborn. This self limited hemorrhagic illness, today treated with prophylactic vitamin K injection, was not well understood back then. In severe cases, it could lead to neurologic damage and death. If this is indeed happened to Barney, it certainly could have happened to other Bloomfield children, who may not have survived.<br /><br />For years, I understood the existence of Bloomfield daughters as a very likely truth, yet I found no birth certificates, graves or other documents to support this sad story. The 1910 Census, thanks to my <a href="http://www.ancestry.com/" target="_blank">Ancestry.com</a> connection, is the first paper proof for the existence of more Bloomfield siblings. This finding, magnified the harshness of my ancestors lives and the multiple tragedies they endured. Freida Toby and Moses had 15 children, 15 births (not counting miscarriages) and lost 8 children before 1910. Some were most likely girls. This sad reality, though not uncommon back then, surprised me. Once again, I was reminded of the importance of examining and re-examining documents. And if I was not a firm believer in the importance of collaboration and sharing of public family trees, I am fully now convinced! Are you?Smadar Belkind Gersonhttps://plus.google.com/115255770892187683297noreply@blogger.com8