What's Inside: "The Galitizianer," Fall 2007

The fall 2007 issue of Gesher Galicia's quarterly journal, The Galitzianer, has just gone to press, reports research coordinator Pamela Weisberger, and will soon be mailed to members.

It contains reports from town and region research group leaders and yizkor book updates, a report on Gesher Galicia's October 21 Regional Meeting in New York City, an update on the "Cadastral Map and Landowner Records Project," the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, school records from Dubiecko and the Bolechow Jewish Heritage Society.

Featured articles:

"Belzec Museum Needs Your Help" explains how to access a questionnaire to provide information to the museum on relatives who might have perished there.

"JRI-Poland and AGAD," by Mark Halpern, elaborates on how to order records from the Polish State Archives, along with his surprising discovery of Holocaust-era records in the Lviv Archive (LDS) microfilm for Tarnopol, starting on July 4, 1941, two days after the Nazis invaded and occupied that town.

"Life in Podhajce" by Pearl Zinn Forman. Born in Galveston, Texas in 1896, she wrote this account of her ancestors' lives in honor of her granddaughter's bat mitzvah in 1969.

"A Clue to Our Roots," by Saul Zeichner, deals with Jewish surname history, origins and meanings.

"Where Did All These Relatives Come From?" by Elaine Sanders Kaplan, details her growing family tree, along with experiences in using the Yad Vashem database to discover unknown relations.

"In the Matter of Chaim Mendel Pickholz vs Assicurazioni Generaliu S.p.A.,"
Israel Pickholtz demonstrates filing a Holocaust-era life insurance claim to learn more about about a possible relative whose name he discovers on the ICHEIC (International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims) searchable database of policy holders of the Italian Generali insurance company.

"Return to Bukachevtsy," by Linda Cantor, details a second visit to her maternal grandmother's town and efforts to erect a wall around its Jewish cemetery.

"The Naval Side of British History," by Anthony Rudolf, is a family memoir, showing how the "powers that be, both lay and religious, were engaged in a process of acculturation, the Anglicisation of the youngsters" - the children of immigrants to Great Britain in the early 20th century.

"City of Skalat and Village of Stary Skalat in 1890" - a translation from the
Slownik Geograficzny - tells us that industry during 1881-1885, included "2 fish merchants, 2 brass merchants, 2 wheelwrights, 2 watch/clock dealers, 1 plaster factory, 3 potters, 6 coopers, 53 cobblers/shoe makers, 2 cotton makers, 1 rope maker, 4 weavers and printers, 10 furriers..." and that "the city is a very muddy one, populated by many Jews, where the farmers live in the suburbs, and everyone blends in together." This is part of a series of English translations from this very useful resource.

"Converted Galician Jews," by Pamela Weisberger, covers the document, "Judische Familien In Galizien" (Jewish Families in Galicia) - a compilation of names of Jewish men, women and entire families, born in or residing in Galicia, who converted to Christianity.

Now that readers with Galitizianer roots are excited about the wealth of information, remember that the journal is only distributed to members of Gesher Galicia. For information on how to join, click here.

This issue is personally very interesting as my FINK family comes from Skalat, and one of my grandfather's sisters married a Podhacjer (POWERS).