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Our Family History

“Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.” JOEL 1:3

Do you know these people?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The people in the 2nd photo from the right are BLINDERMAN's. Who are the people on the far-right?

RESEARCH INFO & LINKS

ÜNAMESAKES & NAME ORIGINS

ÜSURNAMES IN OUR FAMILY TREE

ÜINTERNATIONAL TRACING SERVICE (ITS) TRIP REPORT - BAD AROLSEN, GERMANY MAY 2008

RESEARCH CODES

NAME

SOUNDEX

DAITCH-MOKOTOFF

Engelson

E524

065846

Friedman

F635

793660

Janowitz/Janovich

J512/J532

467400 / 467500

Katz

K320

540000

Levine

L150

876000

Pomerantz

P565

769640

Radisch

R320

934000

Rubin

R150

976000

Safer

S160

479000

Silbergleit

S416

487958

Streleckaja/Streletski

S364

298510 / 298451

Strelser

S364

298490

Weller

W460

789000

Yanovich/Yanowitz

Y532/Y512

167400 / 167500

Zemser

Z526

464900

 

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Common Spelling Variations

W is often substitued for V

H is often pronounced CH

Y is often substitued for I

SON is generally the same as SOHN

N is often inserted before S

OE is commonly the same as E

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Why Date Information May Vary

There is no way to know who gave information to a census taker. If the census enumerator came around during the work day, the adults, or at least the head of household, would not have been at home (unless they were unemployed or not at work that day per the census information.) The information could have been given by the spouse, a child, a neighbor, an elderly relative...

  • They may have lied intentionally for some personal benefit – e.g., to meet the residency requirement for becoming a citizen comes to mind or to disassociate themselves from some event that happened in the year they really immigrated.
  • They may have had a distrust of government officials, and did not want to answer truthfully.
  • They may not have understood the question, and perhaps gave the year they became a citizen rather than the year they arrived.
  • They may not have known the date they arrived.
  • Then there was the language barrier - whatever year they said may have been misunderstood by the enumerator, or could have just been written it down incorrectly.
  • It is logical to assume the date given in an earlier census might be more correct as it was closer to the date they arrived, so less likely to be forgotten. When looking for passenger arrivals, we generally used this date as a starting point. If we didn't find anything, we started with the date of the earliest document we had for them and worked backwards from there.
  • There were many spelling variations on names. In many cases, the person who collected the information just wrote down the name the way he thought it should be spelled or based on how it sounded. In other cases, people changed the spelling of their name over time.

Check out Any Day In History to see what happened on a specific date.

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TRACING GENETIC ROOTS

DNA testing in the field of genealogy is relatively new. The hope is that genetic tests can break barriers in family history. It is said that some of the tests can determine relationships with a 99.9% degree of accuracy. Given this, I have joined ranks with a group that calls itself the POMERANTZ COUSINS CLUB. They are descendants of David and Miriam Pomerantz and so far, we have been unable to make a connection between their family and ours. However, they have submitted DNA samples for testing, as have I. Now we await the results. If you are interested in adding your sample to the mix, we have used the services of Family Tree DNA - Genealogy by Genetics. Ltd. They are based in Houston and more information can be obtained via their website at: http://www.familytreedna.com/. I will update this website with results of these tests as soon as they are availbable.

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SOME USEFUL & INTERESTING REFERENCES MATERIALS & LINKS

NOTE: Clicking on any of the links below will take you out of this site. If you use them, use your BACK button to return to this site.

BOOKS

Alive From the Ashes by Avraham Harshalom; 1990, Milo Publishing House, Ltd., Tel Aviv --- The story of the Pruzany ghetto from its inception to its liquidation - 1939-1943.

Journey to a Nineteenth Century Ghetto - the memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik; originally published in Yiddish in 1913; Copyright 2002 by Warren State University Press --- offers a panoramic description of the author's experiences growing up in Kamieniec Litewski (kamenets-Litovsk).

Pinkas Pruzhany and its Vicinity - Pruzhany Yizkor book (memorial book)--- project that chronicles six communities that perished in the Holocaust. NOTE: Parts of this book are available online at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cpsa/pinkas1983/cover_page.htm

Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto - 1997-1998, Bullfinch Press; Little, Brown & Company Inc. ; US Holocaust Memorial Museum Project ---NOTE: This is also available as a History Channel video titled: Kovno Ghetto: A Buried History and is available through Amazon.com in VHS.

The Thirteenth Tribe: The Khazar Empire and Its Heritage - by Arthur Koestler 1976 --- Traces the history of the ancient Khazar Empire, a major but almost forgotten power in Eastern Europe, which in the Dark ages became converted to Judaism. Khazaria was finally wiped out by the forces of Ghengis Khan, but evidence indicates that the Khazars, themselves migrated to Poland and formed the cradle of Western Jewry.

The Wind of the Khazars - by Marek Halter - Trade paperback Edition , 2006 --- a fictional (but historically accurate) account of an entire warrior nation converted to Judiasm.

 

WEB LINKS

Listed below are links to many web sites you may find useful in your quest for answers about our family's history. To report any broken links, please EMAIL ME.

Link categories:

 

GENEALOGICAL RESOURCES (within the U.S. )

American Jewish Archives: www.americanjewisharchives.org/aja/index.html

Ancestry.com (pay-for-service): www.ancestry.com

Avotaynu (publishes works on Jewish Genealogy): www.avotaynu.com

Castle Garden : http://castlegarden.org

Center for Jewish History: www.cjh.org

Cimorelli Immigration Manifests Online: www.cimorelli.com/safe/shipmenu.htm

Cyndi's List: www.cyndislist.com

Ellis Island Site – where you can view records of immigrants who came to America through Ellis Island from 1892-1924. See actual ship manifest, photos and more. www.ellisislandrecords.org/

Family History Library (LDS): www.familysearch.org

The Feinstein Center for American Jewish History: www.temple.edu/feinsteinctr

FreeCEN (UK census records 1841-1891): http://freecen.rootsweb.com

Galveston Immigration Database (at Texas Seaport Museum):
www.tsm-elissa.org/immigration-main.htm

HIAS (The Hebrew Immigration Aid Society) Family Finder: www.hias.org/Find_Family/listings.html

International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies: www.iajgs.org

ICD (International Classification of Diseases): www.wolfbane.com/icd/index.html
Italian Genealogical Group (Grooms, Marriage, Death Indexes et al): www.italiangen.org

Jewish Family History Foundation: www.jewishfamilyhistory.org

JewishGen: www.jewishgen.org

Jewish Genealogical Society of New York: www.jgsny.org

The Jewish History Resource Center: www.dinur.org

Jewish Records Indexing-Poland: www.jri-poland.org

Jewish Web Index: www.jewishwebindex.com

Leo Baeck Institute: www.lbi.org

Library of Congress: www.loc.gov

Morton Allan Directory One Step Ship Search: www.stevemorse.org/ellis/cimorelli.html

National Archives: www.nara.gov
Naturalization Index, Eastern District (Brooklyn 1865-1956): http://italiangen.org/EDNSEARCH.STM

New York City Municipal Archives: www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/vitalrecords/home.shtml

New York Public Library, Dorot Jewish Division: www.nypl.org/research/chss/jws/jewish.html

New York Public Library, Genealogical Research: www.nypl.org/research/chss/lhg/research.html#census

New York Public Library, Yizkor Books:  www.nypl.org/research/chss/jws/yizkorbooks_intro.cfm

Online Polish Directories at the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/rr/european/pdir/poldir.html

Online Searchable Death Index & Records (A Genealogy Guide): www.deathindexes.com

Polish Jewish Society of America: www.pgsa.org

Repositories of Primary Sources: www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html

Routes to Roots Foundation: www.rtrfoundation.org

Roots – contains a link to the Social Security Death Index: www.rootsweb.com

Search Engine for Online Historical Directories: www.kalter.org/search.php

Selective Service System: History and Records: www.sss.gov/records.htm

Social Security Death Index Search: http://www.rootsweb.com/

Social Security Online: www.ssa.gov

Steven P. Morse: www.stevemorse.org

U.S. Census Bureau: www.census.gov

The USGenWeb Project - a group of volunteers working together to provide Internet Web sites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States . The Project is non commercial and fully committed to free access of genealogy information for everyone. Organization of the site is by county and state, providing links to all the state Web sites which, in turn, provide gateways to the county. The USGenWeb Project also sponsors important Special Projects at the national level. /www.usgenweb.com/

US Holocaust Museum Library - www.ushmm.org/research/library

Webpages by Steven Morse – a VERY useful aid for searching immigration and other records http://stevemorse.org/ (same as Steven P. Morse above)

Yad Vashem: www.yadvashem.org

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Archives and Library: www.yivoinstitute.org/archlib/archlib_fr.htm

 

FOREIGN RESOURCES

Argentina :

AMIA ( Buenos Aires, Argentina Cemetery Lookup): www.amia.org.ar/difuntos.asp

Archivo General de la Nacion (General Archives of the Nation): www.mininterior.gov.ar/agn/

Asociacion de Geneologia Judia de Argentina (Argentinian Association of Jewish Genealogy): www.agja.org.ar

CEMLA (Argentina Immigration Lookup): www.cemla.com/paginas/c_principal.htm

Direccion Nacional de Migraciones (National Immigration Services): www.migraciones.gov.ar

Registro Civil (Registry of Civil Status and Vital Records): www.registrocivil.gov.ar

Belarus:

Belarus Archives: www.archives.gov.by/eindex.htm

Canada :

Census of Canada, 1911: www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/1911/index-e.html

Library and Archives Canada: www.collectionscanada.ca
Montreal City Directories (1842-1950): http://bibnum2.bnquebec.ca/bna/lovell/index.html
Ontario Jewish Archives: www.ontariojewisharchives.org

Israel :

The Avraham Harman Institute for Contemporary Jewry, Jerusalem: http://icj.huji.ac.il

CAHJP (The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People), Jerusalem: http://sites.huji.ac.il/archives

Douglas E. Goldman Jewish Genealogy Center (at Beth Hatesutfoth): www.bh.org.il/Genealogy/index.aspx

The Center for Jewish Art, Jerusalem: www.hum.huji.ac.il/cja

Center for Research on Dutch Jewry, Jerusalem: http://dutchjewry.huji.ac.il

The Central Zionist Archives: www.zionistarchives.org.il
Chevra Kadisha, Tel Aviv (in Hebrew): http://www.kadisha.biz/

The Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Centre, Jerusalem: http://rosenzweig.huji.ac.il/

Holocaust: www.holocaust.co.il

Israel Genealogy Society: www.isragen.org.il

The Jewish History Resource Center ( Dinur Center, Hebrew University), Jerusalem: www.hum.huji.ac.il/Dinur

Jewish National & University Library, Jerusalem: http://jnul.huji.ac.il/

Lekket (World Union of Jewish Studies article search): www.lekket.com

Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem: www.leobaeck.org

The Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem: http://jewish.huji.ac.il
Mass Jewish Migration Database: http://mjmd.haifa.ac.il/

Mt. Scopus Library, Jerusalem: www.mslib.huji.ac.il/main/siteNew/?langId=1

Poland :

Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw: www.iam.pl/en/html

Biblioteca Narodowa w Warszawie (The National Library in Warsaw): www.bn.org.pl

Center for Jewish Culture, Krakow: www.judaica.pl
Central Military Archives for Polish Army (in Polish): www.caw.wp.mil.pl

Culture.pl (from Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw): www.culture.pl
Sienkiewicz's High School Graduates List (Czestochowa High School) 1885-present (in Polish): www.sieniu.risp.pl/absolwenci
Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage (English version): www.fodz.pl/index.php?l=0
Historical Sites of Jewish Warsaw: http://jewish.sites.warszawa.um.gov.pl

The Jewish Community of Poland: www.jewish.org.pl
Jewish Families Database (index of individuals of Moses confession, who survived Holocaust and are connected with Krakow):
http://archiwum.malopolska.pl/english/rodzinyzydowskie.php

Jewish Historic Institute: www.jewishinstitute.org.pl

Jews of the Old Lodz: www.lodzjews.com/indexus.htm

Poland and Danzig Business Directory (1930): www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=11649

Poland State Archives: www.archiwa.gov.pl/?CIDA=43

Poland State Archives Holdings Search: www.archiwa.gov.pl/?CIDA=376
Polish Center for Holocaust Research: www.holocaustresearch.pl/index1(en).htm

The Polish Jewish Forum: http://fzp.jewish.org.pl/english/engind.html

Warsaw Ghetto Internet Database: www.warszawa.getto.pl/en/site

Russia :

ArcheoBiblioBase "Archives in Russia" : http://www.iisg.nl/~abb/

Centre ORT-Gunzburg, St. Petersburg: www.ort.spb.ru/(Eng)/2nd_ort.htm

Russian State Historic Archives: http://www.feefhs.org/blitz/blitzfa.html

Russian State Library: www.rsl.ru

The State Historical Public Library of Russia: www.shpl.ru

 

SHTETL-ASSOCIATED SITES

JewishGen (ShtetLinks): www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org

Jewish Records Indexing - Poland - www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/jriplweb.htm

Memorial Book of Kamenets-Litovsk, Zastavye & Colonies - www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Kamenets/Kamenets.html

Multiple shtetls/towns/cities: www.zchor.org

Pruzhany Uyezd Research Society - www.purs.org

Wizna: www.wizna.com
 

FOREIGN MUSEUMS 

Belarus :

Marc Chagall Museum, Vitebsk: www.chagall.vitebsk.by

Israel :

Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center : www.babylonjewry.org.il/new/english

Beth Hatefutsoth, Museum of the Jewish People, Tel Aviv: www.bh.org.il

Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem: www.blmj.org/TheMuseu/Musmain.html

Ghetto Fighters' Musem, Western Galilee: www.gfh.org.il
Israel Museums Guide: http://www.ilmuseums.com/default.asp

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem: www.imj.org.il

The Memorial Museum of the Hungarian Speaking Jewry: www.hungjewmus.org.il

The Palmach Museum, Tel Aviv: www.palmach.org.il

The U. Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art, Jerusalem: www.jija.org

Lithuania :

The Museum of Genocide Victims, Vilnius: www.genocid.lt/Muziejus/eng/muzeum.htm

Museums of Lithuania: http://muziejai.mch.mii.lt/panorama.en.htm

The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, Vilnius: www.jmuseum.lt

Poland:

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oswiecim: www.auschwitz.org.pl

Galicia Jewish Museum, Krakow: www.galiciajewishmuseum.org/en/muzeum.html

Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw: www.jewishmuseum.org.pl

National Museum of Poland, Warsaw: www.mnw.art.pl

Warsaw Uprising Museum, Warsaw: www.1944.pl

Russia :

Jewish Museum of Yaroslavl: http://ceulmad.yaroslavl.ru/index_english.htm

  YIDDISH RESOURCES

All About Jewish Theatre: www.jewish-theatre.com
Der Bavebter Yid: www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/bavebter

The Dora Teitelboim Center for Yiddish Culture: www.yiddishculture.org
First Yiddish Language Conference, Czernowitz, 1908: www.ibiblio.org/yiddish/Tshernovits/Tshernovits.html

Folksbiene Yiddish Theater: www.folksbiene.org
International Institute of Social History (Yiddish Collection): www.iisg.nl/collections/yiddish/index.html

National Yiddish Book Center : www.yiddishbookcenter.org

Shtetl: Yiddish Language and Culture: www.ibiblio.org/yiddish
Vilna Yiddish Institute: www.yiddishvilnius.com

The Workmen's Circle: www.circle.org/wccjl.htm

The World of Yiddish: http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il

Yiddish Forward: http://yiddish.forward.com

Yiddish Radio Project: www.yiddishradioproject.org

Yiddish Stuff: www.haruth.com/Yiddish_Stuff.htm

Yiddish Voice: www.yv.org

 

CEMETERY INFORMATION

AMIA ( Buenos Aires, Argentina Cemetery Lookup): www.amia.org.ar/difuntos.asp

Find A Grave: www.findagrave.com

International Jewish Cemetery Project: www.jewishgen.org/cemetery
Jewish Cemetery Database Project Germany: www.jcdp.de

Jewish Cemetery Expedition and Archive: www.ipace.org

Jewish Data (pay-for-service): www.jewishdata.com
JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR): www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery

Polish Jewish Cemetery Restoration Project: www.pjcrp.org

 

MEDIA

Forward: www.forward.com

Haaretz: www.haaretz.co.il

Yiddish Forward (Forverts): http://yiddish.forward.com

Jerusalem Post: www.jpost.com

Polskie Radio (Radio Polonia): www.radio.com.pl/polonia/gb

Warsaw Voice (English version): www.warsawvoice.pl

 

OTHER USEFUL SITES

American Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center: www.redcross.org/services/intl/holotrace/index.html

Belarus Consulate, New York: www.belarusconsul.org

Belarus Embassy, Washington, D.C.: www.belarusembassy.org

Cyrillic Script: www.ia.net/~jcarroll/privet/script.html

David Dickerson's "Jewish Culture and History": www.ddickerson.igc.org/judaica.html
DNA Shoah Project: www.dnashoah.info

European Association for Jewish Studies: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~eajs/

European Council of Jewish Communities: www.ecjc.org

Federation of Eastern European Family History Societies: www.feefhs.org

Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, Inc.: www.hdec.com

Holocaust Survivors' Network: http://isurvived.org

Jewish-American Hall of Fame: www.amuseum.org/jahf

JewishEncyclopedia.com: www.jewishencyclopedia.com

Jewish Heritage Online Magazine: www.jhom.com
Jewish Telegraph: www.jewishtelegraph.com

Jewish Virtual Library: www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org

Learning about the Holocaust through Art: http://art.holocaust-education.net

National Foundation for Jewish Culture: www.jewishculture.org

National Polish American-Jewish American Council: www.npajac.org/021118/notes_20021118.html
Organization of Partisans, Underground Fighters and Ghetto Rebels in Israel: www.thepartizans.org

Polish Cultural Institute: www.polishculture-nyc.org

Polish Embassy: www.polandembassy.org

Polish Language Website: http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu

Ratner Center for the Study of Conservative Judaism (at the Jewish Theological Seminary): www.jtsa.edu/research/ratner

Refdesk.com: www.refdesk.com
Remember.org: http://remember.org
Ronald S. Lauder Foundation: www.rslfoundation.org

Sholom Aleichem Secondary School, Vilnius, Lithuania: www.jewishschool.lt/index.htm

SomethingJewish: www.somethingjewish.co.uk

Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive Virtual Cinema: www.spielbergfilmarchive.org.il/kv/5cat.html

Survey of Historic Jewish Monuments in Poland (1995): www.heritageabroad.gov/reports/doc/survey_poland.pdf

Survivors of the Shoah (Visual History Foundation): www.vhf.org

Time and Date: www.timeanddate.com
Together (American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and their descendants): www.americangathering.com

U.S. Embassy in Belarus: http://minsk.usembassy.gov/html/consular_services.html

Volunteers for Israel: www.vfi-usa.org

Yale University Library Judaica Collection: www.library.yale.edu/judaica

Yarzheit.com: www.yarzheit.com

 

To connect to COUSIN CONNECT:

 


 

ÜSURNAMES IN OUR FAMILY TREE

ÜNAMESAKES & NAME ORIGINS

 

 
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS WORK IN PROGRESS. WE ARE NOT SURE THIS INFORMATION IS ENTIRELY CORRECT, AND WE KNOW IT IS INCOMPLETE.
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