Yizkor Book Project: January 2011 update

The JewishGen Yizkor Book Project reports that six new projects, 17 new entries and 19 updated projects were added during January 2011.

Additionally, two books (Ruzhany, Belarus; Daugavplis/Dvinsk, Latvia) have been completely translated and are on the site.

New projects have been added to the growing list of those requiring translation fund contributions; they are. Kurow, Poland; Lowicz, Poland; and Volodymyr Volynskyy (Ludmir), Ukraine. To donate funds, click here.

Brian Reiser, coordinator of the Kolki, Ukraine Yizkor Book, has prepared helpful notes on using a Facebook "Cause" to raise money for the Yizkor Book Translation Funds.

The project needs translators, necrology transliterators and HTMLers to help with a large volume of material to be placed online.

Six new projects:
- Bivolari, Romania (Our town Bivolari)
- Daugavpils, Latvia (In Memory of the Community of Dvinsk)
- Derecske, Hungary (Memorial book to the Jews of Derecske and its environs)
- Tarnogrod, Poland (Book of Tarnogrod; in memory of the destroyed Jewish community)
- Tuchin, Ukraine (Tuczin-Kripa, Wolyn; in Memory of the Jewish Community)
- Zborov, Ukraine (Memorial book of the community of Zborow)

17 new entries:
- Blaszki, Poland (Pinkas Poland)
- Gadunavas, Lithuania (Pinkas Lita)
- Garliava, Lithuania (Pinkas Lita)
- Gastynai, Lithuania (Pinkas Lita)
- Geguzine, Lithuania (Pinkas Lita)
- Geleziai, Lithuania (Pinkas Lita)
- Gelgaudiskis, Lithuania(Pinkas Lita)
- Giedraiciai, Lithuania (Pinkas Lita)
- Gintaliske, Lithuania(Pinkas Lita)
- Girkalnis, Lithuania (Pinkas Lita)
- Givyai Skrudziai, Lithuania (Pinkas Lita)
- Gudeliai, Lithuania (Pinkas Lita)
- Gudiniskiai, Lithuania (Pinkas Lita)
- Gudziunai, Lithuania (Pinkas Lita)
- Jezow, Poland (Pinkas Poland)
- Ujazd, Poland (Pinkas Poland)
- Ukmerge, Lithuania (Pinkas Lita)

19 updates to existing projects:
- Bedzin, Poland (A Memorial to the Jewish Community of Bendin)
- Dabrowa Gornicza, Poland (Book of the Jewish community of Dabrowa Gornicza and its destruction)
- Dieveniskes, Lithuania (Devenishki book; memorial book)
- Fehergyarmat, Hungary (Our Former City Fehergyarmat)
- Gorodets, Belarus (Horodetz; history of a town, 1142-1942)
- Kovel', Ukraine(Kowel; Testimony and Memorial Book of Our Destroyed Community)
- Lowicz, Poland (Lowicz; a town in Mazovia, memorial book)
- Merkine, Lithuania (Meretch; a Jewish Town in Lithuania)
- Ostrow-Mazowiecka, Poland (Memorial Book of the Community of Ostrow-Mazowiecka)
- Rafalovka, Ukraine (Memorial book for the towns of Old Rafalowka, New Rafalowka, Olizarka, Zoludzk and vicinity)
- Ruzhany, Belarus (Rozana; a memorial book to the Jewish community)
- Sanok, Poland (Memorial Book of Sanok and Vicinity)
- Serock, Poland (The book of Serock)
- Siedlce, Poland (On the ruins of my home; the destruction of Siedlce)
- Skuodas, Lithuania (Memorial Book of Skuodas)
- Slutsk, Belarus(Slutsk and vicinity memorial book)
- Turka, Ukraine (Memorial Book of the Community of Turka on the Stryj and Vicinity)
- Volodymyr Volynskyy, Ukraine (Wladimir Wolynsk; in memory of the Jewish community)
- Zelechow, Poland (Memorial Book of the Community of Zelechow)

The Yizkor Book Master Name Index (YBMNI) has also been updated with some 13,000 records added since July 2010; currently, it has some 18,000 records covering Poland, Ukraine, Greece and Lithuania.

Questions on the project, on specific books, on contributing or volunteering? Contact project manager Lance Ackerfeld.

For more, check the Project's translations page.

Southern California: Leaving the Pale of Settlement, February 13

Some 80% of our ancestors lived in Poland and the western Russia Pale of Settlement in 1880.

Why they left such a "nice place" is the topic of the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of the Conejo Valley and Ventura County (JGSCV), on Sunday, February 13.

The program runs from 1.30-3.30pm at Temple Adat Elohim, 2420 E. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks. There is no charge to attend.

Speaker Hal Bookbinder will present "Why Did Our Ancestors Leave a Nice Place Like the Pale?"

Most Jewish genealogists are aware of the pogroms and mass exodus of our ancestors over the next generation. Hal's talk will provide background on the 120 years of the Pale from its formation at the turn of the 19th century to its dissolution during WWI.

Understanding this period in history provides context to the lives of our ancestors in the Pale, and their decision to leave everything behind for new lives elsewhere. The Pale of Settlement, in the Russian Empire, included much of  present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Moldova, Ukraine and parts of western Russia.

The Pale afforded permanent residency to Jews, and beyond its borders, Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited.

Hal Bookbinder has been researching eight family lines for more than 27 years, identifying 4,000 relatives and tracing two lines into the mid-1700s. A JGSCV founding member and former JGSLA and IAJGS president, he created and continues to edit the annual Jewish Genealogical Yearbook.

In 2010, he received the IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to Jewish Genealogy, and was recently elected to the JewishGen Board of Governors. He has spoken at numerous conferences, synagogues and society meetings on topics from computing to geography to brick walls.

For more information, contact the JGSCV or view its website.

Boston: Finding lost families, Dec. 12

Tracing the Tribe has - over the years - discovered Talalay relatives in St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Mogilev, Moscow, as well as those in the US, Germany and Israel.

It is always an interesting experience to reconnect with "lost" relatives, who each provide details previously unknown.

Finding and reconnecting lost relatives in the FSU and Russian Empire is the focus of the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston, on Sunday, December 12.

The program, featuring a panel of experts, begins at 1.30pm at Temple Emanuel, Newton Centre. There is no admission fee.

US descendants of immigrants from the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union report on finding relatives from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and a recent Soviet émigré reports on finding descendants of his family who came to the US in the earlier waves of immigration.

Speakers include:

-- Aaron Ginsburg: A first-generation American; founder and president of The Friends of Jewish Dokshitsy. He spearheaded an international effort to help the local government of Dokshitsy, Belarus restore and re-dedicate the town’s Jewish cemetery. He recently organized a Dokshitsy reunion in Rhode Island (documented at Tracing the Tribe). He has been involved with cemetery restoration, shtetl and family history since 1995.

-- Yefim Kogan: Born in Kishinev, Moldova; emigrated from Moscow in 1989. Since then, his extensive genealogical research has enabled him to trace part of his family to the mid-18th century and to find relatives in the US who left Russia in 1906. Currently a graduate student at Hebrew College with a focus in Eastern European Jewish cultural history, he has presented on Jewish history in Bessarabia and genealogy at IAJGS conferences. He is a volunteer JewishGen coordinator.

-- Carol Clingan: A third-generation American, her grandparents came from Belarus and Ukraine. Over nearly 20 years of research, she has traced family back to the early-19th century and discovered relatives still living in the FSU. She is JGSGB vice-president and Program Committee co-chair.

For directions, click here.

Boston-area readers should mark this upcoming date:
-- January 16: Robert Weinberg, "DNA of the Jewish People, Similarities and Differences."

For more information on JGSGB programs, click here.

Boston: Belarus Jewish history, cemetery restoration, Nov. 7

Boston readers with roots in Belarus should not miss the next program of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston on Sunday, November 7.

The meeting starts at 1.30pm at the Gann Academy, 333 Forest Street, Waltham.

Speakers Michael Lozman and Rochelle Goldberg Ruthchild will provide an inside look at the history of Jews in Belarus and the work being done on Jewish cemeteries.

Rochelle Goldberg Ruthchild, a Research Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, will speak on the history of Belarus’ Jewish community, noting that there was always a large Jewish population in that area of the world but that Belarus did not come into existence as a separate country until 1991.

Dr. Michael Lozman will speak about his work in protecting, preserving and restoring Jewish cemeteries destroyed by the invading Nazis and further deteriorated by neglect due to the absence of returning Jews as a result of the Holocaust. He and his team have to date restored ten Jewish cemeteries in Belarus, and have more planned for future years.

Fee: JGSGB members, free; others, $5.

For directions, click here. For more on the JGSGB, click here.

Heads-up:

December 12:
Aaron Ginsburg and a panel, "Finding relatives from the former Soviet Union."

January 16:
Robert Weinberg: “DNA of the Jewish People, Similarities and Differences”

Belarus: A few shtetl Jews survive

Many readers of Tracing the Tribe have roots in Belarus, where some 98% of rural Jews were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Our TALALAI family lived in both Mogilev and in the agricultural colony Vorotinschtina adjacent to the hamlet of Zavarezhye - some 12 miles southwest of the major city of Mogilev, lost some 300 souls on one day in 1941. The only ones to survive - a mere handful - had been away that day. Other branches were murdered in Gorki, north of Mogilev. Some branches were evacuated to Tashkent and returned to find nothing. And, of course, there was the Minsk ghetto, where other members were murdered.

Fortunately, our closest family had immigrated to the US beginning in 1898 and through 1920. From family documents and partial family trees found among the earliest immigrants' belongings, we know they stayed in touch with family back home, and were aware of what happened.

When Minsk researcher Yuri Dorn visited the colony a few years ago, he sent me photos of still beautiful green fields, of dilapidated houses and also spoke to the few elderly people in the area. One elderly woman had remembered some of my relatives, whom she knew as a young girl.

Judith Maloff of The Forward recently traveled to Belarus and visited with some of the remaining elderly and ill shtetl Jews.

Her story offers historical facts of those times, along with the photos and stories of some of these individuals.

The interviews we see in Holocaust documentaries are but fragments of lives. Subjects talk about their horrendous concentration camp experiences, and the story ends. But suffering has continued in Belarus for many of the elderly, who are among the poorest Jews in the world. Unlike survivors who moved to relatively comfortable circumstances in Israel or the United States, those who remained in Belarus endured religious intolerance under the Soviets after the war. Now they are finishing their days with further deprivation.

It’s a lonely life for Jews who returned to their shtetls after nearly everyone else was massacred. More than 600,000, or 90%, of Belarusian Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust. Today, most of these market towns have but a handful of Jews left struggling to get by on pensions so slim — sometimes no more than $120 a month — that they sometimes have to choose between heat and food. These survivors are often sickly, and unlike most Belarusian elderly, they lack extended family to take care of them.

The story mentions the Hesed welfare centers, supported by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which provides home visits, food and aid in the winter. The JDC also distributes compensation funds to Nazi victims.

These few souls are the remnants of nearly-vanished shtetl life.

Maloff interviewed them and Diana Markosian photographed them, in evocative black and white

-- Grigory Hosid, 86, of  Grodno. Prewar Jewish population was 21,000; today, 600.

-- Riva Lazarevna Katz, 85, of Ivenets. Prewar Jewish population was 1,200; today four.

-- Faina Paley, 75, of Bobruisk. Prewar Jewish population was 27,000; today, 1,260.

-- Grigory Kagan, 79, of Kirovsk. Prewar Jewish population unknown, today, one.

-- Ida Mikhailna Kaslova, 75, of Buda-Koshelevo. Prewar Jewish population was 500; today, one.

Do read the comments to the story, which also provides a link to the Survivor Mitzvah Project of Los Angeles, which provides additional help.

Yizkor Book Project: September additions, updates

Thanks to many volunteers who translate, transliterate, transcribe and edit material, the Yizkor Book Project at JewishGen.org continues its growth.

During September, there were four new projects, three new entries and 29 updates to existing projects. The items are organized by country below:

(NP=new project, NE=new entry, U=update)

BELARUS
NE Soly, Belarus (Pinkas Poland)
U Gorodets, Belarus (Horodetz; history of a town, 1142-1942)
U Karelichy, Belarus (Korelitz; the life and destruction of a Jewish community)
U Slutsk, Belarus (Slutsk and vicinity memorial book)
U Stolin, Belarus (Stolin; a memorial to the Jewish communities of Stolin and vicinity)
U Svir, Belarus (There once was a town Swir; between the two world wars)

HUNGARY
NE Karcag, Hungary (Pinkas Hungary)

LITHUANIA
U Dotnuva, Lithuania (Letters from Dotnuva)
U Lithuania (Lite, vol.2)
U Lithuania (Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities, Lithuania)
U Merkine, Lithuania (Meretch; a Jewish Town in Lithuania)
U Rokiskis, Lithuania (Yizkor book of Rakishok and environs)
U Svencionys, Lithuania (Svinzian region; memorial book of 23 Jewish communities)
U Valkininkai, Lithuania (Olkeniki in flames; a memorial book to Olkenik in the Vilna district)

POLAND
NP Frampol, Poland (Frampol book)
NE Przemysl, Ukraine (Pinkas Poland)
U Bedzin, Poland (A Memorial to the Jewish Community of Bedzin)
U Czestochowa, Poland (The Jews of Czestochowa)
U Dabrowa Gornicza, Poland (Book of Jewish community of Dabrowa Gornicza and its destruction)
U Debica, Poland (The Book of Dembitz)
U Grajewo, Poland (Grayewo Memorial Book)
U Jewish Music in Poland between the World Wars
U Kaluszyn, Poland (The Memorial Book of Kaluszyn)
U Katowice, Poland (Katowice: Rise and Decline of the Jewish community; Memorial Book)
U Kutno, Poland (Kutno and Surroundings Book)
U Ostrow-Mazowiecka, Poland (Memorial Book of Ostrow-Mazowiecka)
U Sanok, Poland (Memorial Book of Sanok and Vicinity)
U Serock, Poland (The Book of Serock)
U Siedlce, Poland (On the ruins of my home; the destruction of Siedlce)
U Tykocin, Poland (Memorial book of Tiktin)
U Zelechow, Poland (Memorial Book of the Community of Zelechow) [Polish]

ROMANIA
U Halmeu, Romania (In memory of the communities of Halmin-Turcz and vicinity)

UKRAINE
N Bol'shoy Zhelutsk, Ukraine (Memorial Book of the Community of Zoludzk)
NP Khust, Ukraine (The Jewish community in Chust and its surrounding villages)
NP Novoseltsy, Ukraine (Nova Sulita)
U Rivne, Ukraine (Rowno; a memorial to the Jewish community of Rowno, Wolyn)

Find all new additions and updates here.

San Francisco: Safari in Poland, Oct. 17

Experience a safari in Poland - a data safari - with researcher Robinn Magid at the next meeting of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society on Sunday, October 17.

Doors open at 12.30pm (program at 1pm) at the Oakland Regional Family History Center, 4766 Lincoln Avenue Oakland, CA 94602

Magid will present "Data Safari in Poland: Discovering the More Elusive Tracks of Our Ancestors."

In May 2010 Robinn returned to Lublin, Warsaw and Krakow with the intention of finding history, documentation,and imagery remaining “in the field” relating to the Lublin-area towns where her family lived in 18th-century Poland.

Her “data safari” goals included exploring the surviving Holocaust documentation beyond vital records to track individuals who “disappeared” in the war.

Magid's talk is a summary of her trip to discover if the envelope of available genealogical data can be pushed into the 18th century at one end, and through the Holocaust at the other end.

Along with a colorful presentation of “what she found on safari,” Robinn will focus on resources she found to before her trip, and how to maximize the probability of finding answers to vital questions while hunting for little-used information in the archives.

A long-time SFBAJGS member, she is also a JRI-Poland board member and a compulsive genealogist since her retirement from management consulting with an international CPA firm in 1991. She holds a BA (UCLA) in economics

In 2001, she realized her childhood dream of visiting Poland and “walking a mile in her grandmother’s moccasins.” Her research includes tracing Jews in Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Galicia.

Atlanta: Bielski story, Sept. 26

Readers in Atlanta will have an opportunity to hear filmmaker Sharon Rennert of Los Angeles on Sunday, September 26.

The program begins at 2pm, at the Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum on "In Our Hands: A Personal Story of the Bielski Partisans." For more information, click here.

She is the granddaughter of the group’s commander, Tuvia Bielski, and has been exploring her family legacy from Brooklyn to Belarus, Israel and Lithuania.

The multi-media presentation provides a unique and personal glimpse into the real characters behind "Defiance" and includes Bielski family movies and excerpts from her upcoming Bielski documentary.

Sharon presented this program at the last two IAJGS conferences. Local JGSs, synagogues or JCCs interested in having her speak, may reach her via her website.

Thanks to Pamela Weisberger for this pointer.

Boston: 24 years leads to three databases!

What a great story about a Boston-area Jewish genealogist who's been researching for 24 years and has created three databases linked to the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston's website.

The databases include state-wide synagogues, cemeteries and Jewish newspapers.

The news has spurred me to investigate once again our Boston and Springfield branches of TALALAI (TALL, TOLLIN), CONVISER and others.

In fact, I found on the synagogue list the Springfield congregation built by our first TALALAI immigrant to the US. Mendl (Max) TOLLIN from Mogilev/Vorotinschtina, Belarus, arrived in 1898 and was a builder who constructed the first Kadimah synagogue building, its cemetery, the first and second homes for the aging and residential housing.

According to the database, Congregation Kodimoh (sometimes spelled Kadimah), was founded 1916/1919 in Springfield, and closed in 2007 after merging with the Longmeadow Alliance of Orthodox Congregations.

In the database of Jewish newspapers, I found two for Springfield, one running from 1929 and the other from 1952. Accessing those microfilms may well be my first task when attending the 2013 international conference on Jewish genealogy in 2013, to be hosted by the JGSGB. We genealogists plan ahead!

The story, on Boston.com (the Boston Globe's online portal), focuses on Dedham resident Carol Clingan's "hunger" for connection to her Jewish ancestry from Ukraine and Belarus to New England.

Many people tracing Jewish roots find stories with heartbreaking gaps as families were split apart by immigration and the horrors of the Holocaust, and records of birth, marriage, and death are often missing or deliberately destroyed.

Now, three new databases compiled by Clingan, who lives in Dedham, and others with the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston are about to go public to help Jews all over the world track their Massachusetts roots.

In the lists, every synagogue in the state is inventoried, as well as all Jewish cemeteries and newspapers, rendering the search for family a little more manageable for those starting out.
Clingan’s labor of love, which included searching through dusty archives and tapping the foggy memories of strangers to trace her grandparents’ emigration, two to Chelsea and two to Burlington, Vt., honors basic Jewish principles, she said.

According to Clingan, her labor of love honors basic Jewish principles. At Passover, as we read the Hagadah we are told to remember the exodus from Egypt as if it happened to each of us.

But, as genealogists know, that's not enough. We want to know much more than names, dates and places. We want to reveal the real stories of the people and their lives and the decisions they made to travel so far from their homes.

Clingan's database with 568 listings offers a listing of every congregation in the state, past and present.

It says when and by whom it was founded, the various locations it occupied, as well as when it closed and what happened to its records, and tracks the many mergers among congregations, to the last surviving one.

That list is cross-referenced to a cemetery database compiled by Groton resident Alex Woodle, and a third database prepared by David Rosen of Boston that lists the state’s Jewish newspapers. The plan is eventually to convert all the information into a database format and to make it accessible using a one-step search tool, but that may take time to implement.

Also quoted is JGSGB president Heidi Urich of Cambridge: “So many families were severed, and so many lost or left behind, that each piece you find is precious.’’

Judy Izenberg of Framingham tracks her work on large poster boards, as she investigates her family from Russia (Novograd Volynsk and Olinka), which settled in Chelsea and attended the Orange Street Shul. Two of Clingan's grandparents - her maiden name was Isenberg - settled in the same place and attended the same synagogue. Their mothers were high school classmates.

In another warm fuzzy part of the story, Isenberg is using the databases to find about relatives who went to Argentina 90 years ago. Using leads from the lists and with the help of others, she's found the South American relatives and is, in fact, leaving for Buenos Aires next week to meet them.

According to Woodle, the first Jew in the Boston area was Solomon Franco, - a well-known Sephardic name - in 1649. He returned to Europe because he could survive economically. However, from the mid-19th century, Boston had a Jewish community of German and Russian Jews.

Another Sephardic Jew, dry goods merchant Judas Monas was a Hebrew teacher at the Spanish-Portuguese synagogue in New York, came to Harvard College and taught Hebrew for 40 years. In 1735, the college published the "Grammar of the Hebrew Language." To keep his post, however, he had to convert to Christianity.

Several other genealogists are mentioned in the detailed story. Congratulations to reporter Michele Morgan Bolton, who got all the details right!

Read the complete story at the link above, and see the database links at JGSGB.org.

Belarus: Guess what I found in Gomel?

As Tracing the Tribe often mentions, dedicated researchers around the world cooperate to transliterate, translate and make available little-known records.

While I often receive information and write about new projects, I rarely discover anything for our elusive TALALAY family.

Last week was very different, and thanks go to Paul Zoglin for another piece of family history.

Let's backtrack a bit and I'll provide you with a snapshot of our Mogilev-centered family.

Rabbi Leib ben harav Mikhl TALALAI had numerous children: Bashe, another daughter (name unknown), Movsha, Ber (my direct ancestor), Mikhel, Anshel, Pinkhas Leizer, Chaim Velvel. There may another one or two according to some single records.

This story concerns Anshel ben harav Leib. Anshel's birth was noted in the Mogilev Crown Rabbinate records, written in Rabbi Leib's beautiful Hebrew handwriting. Some birth records say 1834, others 1837; he died 22 August 1884 in Moscow. He was married twice, but we only know his second wife, Perla bat Elkanon Minken Muenster.

Anshel's children were Benzion Mikhl from the first marriage, and Avram, Chaya Sora, Minai, Sonia (MENUHIN), Rosa (BERLIN), Yosef Yoel (Joseph), and three children who died very young (Leib, Leah and a second Leib).

Anshel and his children nearly all were born, lived and died in Moscow, except for Yosef (Joseph) who lived in Moscow, then in Berlin until 1933 and then to England and the US.

We knew Yosef Yoel (Joseph) was married to Sophie Brusterman of Gomel. They were the parents of Naum (who settled in Toronto), Anselm (Cleveland), Leo (New Haven) and Paul (Baltimore). Naum's son Victor was my excellent co-investigator into our family history before his recent death.

We know the birth and death dates for most of Anshel's children and grandchildren and whom they married, but who Avram's wife was a mystery. We knew his children, all born and died in Moscow, were Mina (CHERNIAK), Anselm and Boris.

Now thanks to Paul Zoglin and his team's work in Gomel vital records we know more about Avram.

Paul sent me the surname list for brides and grooms.

Since I knew we had a Gomel connection (Joseph and Sophie), I ran down the names quickly and saw several names of interest, particularly those families who I knew married into our Mogilev TALALAY family, including AZBEL (several marriages), BAEVSKY (a marriage gift of a book to my great-grandparents was signed by the family), BALTER, BERLIN, BRUK, CHERNYAK, DONIN, DYSKIN, ENTIN, GINZBURG, IOFA/E, IOFFA/E, KATSNELSON, KHANIN, KROLL, KRUGLYANSKY, MIKHLIN, PERLIN, PINSKY, RAKHLIN/ROKHLIN, RASKIN, RATNER, RAYKHENSHTEIN, SHUB, SHULMAN, IASIN/YASIN/YASINOV and others.

There is a separate list of bride's surnames as well, and I saw names of interest here as well: ALTSHULER, AZBEL, BOLOTIN, OMDIN/EMDIN, RAKHLIN/ROKHLIN, RASKIN, RATNER and others.

Gomel was one point of a triangle; the others being Mogilev and Bobruisk. People from Mogilev, the largest of the three cities, often married people from Gomel and Bobruisk, opened businesses or branches in those other cities, and thus it seems rather common for people to have relatives in the other two cities. As families got together to celebrate weddings and holidays, it stands to reason that the young people attending weddings met each other, leading to additional marriages.

If you are searching Mogilev, Gomel and/or Bobruisk and surrounding shtetls, make sure to look at records for the other two and you might find interesting connections.

In both the groom and bride lists, many shtetls are listed near the three larger locations.

The kicker, of course, was seeing Avram (Joseph's brother) TALALAY as a groom on line 2137.

I wrote to Paul and asked about this particular record. He provided the following information:

Abram, son of Anshel, TALALAY, 35
married Dveyra, daughter of Abram, KAPLAN, 21
on 10 January 1902 in Gomel

Are you searching Gomel (or Bobruisk or Mogilev)? You might want to contact Paul Zoglin for more information.

Now's a good time to remind researchers that contributions to continue special projects are always welcome, so ask Paul about that as well.

But you must promise to let Tracing the Tribe know if you find records of interest!

Thank you, Paul!

Seattle: What's in a name?

Marlene Schiffman of Yeshiva University provided an interesting session at the Association of Jewish Libraries conference on the historical impact of modern governments on Jewish names.

Focusing on Ashkenazi names, she covered the concept of "legibility," (a better term might be "visibility") or the identifying of a person, essential to the modern state. The phrase "name it - organize it" summed up the concept.

In 1843 Paris, other modern organizational tools were also used, involving language, uniform codes, registration, surnames, legal issues and taxes. "The object was to enumerate, register or conscript," said Schiffman, who stressed that this was not so much for personal identity but for state control. Thus, Personal surnames became important.

In Austria, Jews were given more freedom in the late 18th century and were also subject to the draft. They were required to obtain surnames from a list of German names, and even to choose given names from a list. While this was hailed by secular Jews, others considered it a conspiracy. Jews were integrated into the population.

In 1804, in multicultural Russia, a surname law was passed, even though Russian Jews tried to remain invisible to avoid the draft. As many genealogists are aware, many brothers in the same family often adopted different family names as another way of remaining "illegible."

In 1836, the Crown Rabbinate began keeping registers. In my own experience, the seven microfilm rolls of registers kept by the Mogilev (Belarus) crown rabbi have been invaluable research tools. Crown rabbis were later replaced with state rabbis, and by the 1850s, Jews and others were no longer invisible.

According to Alexander Beider, she added, there is no extant direct testimony of this or lists of surnames, there are evident naming patterns with Jews. For example, in Belarus, many names end in -in (Sorkin, Dvorkin, Belkin), deriving from female names (Sora, Dvora, Bella).

In 1857 Russia, Jews couldn't change their surnames. After they had finished their term of army service, they could take their godfather's name if they converted.

In Poland, Jews were assigned surnames at various times from 1787-1807. In 1821, when Poland was under Russian control, they handed out "certificates of names," which had to be carried and used for all civil or legal transactions. By 1824, most Jews had names.

In 1808, Napoleon forbid toponyms (those indicating a geographical location). Names from a list were adopted unless the name in question had already been used for a long time.

In Austria and Galicia, many names were pejorative or negative, with stories describing blackmail and bribes for a better name. The King of Poland decreed that each family was to have "a unique name" - unfortunately, it meant that six brothers may have required six different surnames. In 1787, names selected had to be approved.

Governments believed that standardized, permanent surnames would lead to greater interaction, would be more useful and help administration, track criminals and refugees. It was easy to identify Jewish names.

In Prussia and Germany, 1821 saw the acquiring of permanent names and citizenship for Jews. But by 1938, they could no longer adopt "Aryan" names. They couldn't change their surnames, had to return to non-German names, and also were required to add Sara or Israel to their given names, as identifiers.

Jewish names, said Schiffman, became Jewish "branding" in 1941, with the introduction of the yellow patch and tattooed numbers.

In the US, it was very easy to change a surname. Many immigrants did that as soon as they left Ellis Island, thus obscuring their origins.

The session conclusion was that modern governments needed to accelerate the control of population assets. When the naming process was complete, the government could see a specific group as a whole.

An interesting session, to be sure.

JewishGen: ShtetLink pages updated

The creators and webmasters of ShtetLinks at JewishGen strive to preserve the memory of their ancestral towns and villages.

An update sent by Susana Leistner Bloch indicated the following new and updated links:

Here are the new ones:

-- Belozerka, Ukraine
-- Dzialoszyn (Zaloshin), Poland
-- Eger (Erlau), Hungary
-- Mattersburg (Nagymarton,Mattersdorf) , Austria
-- Osjaków (Shakev), Poland
-- Volodymyrets (Vladimirets), Ukraine
-- Wloclawek (Vloatzlavek, Leslau)
-- Zhuravno (Zurawno, Zuravna) (G)

Some shtetlpages were created by individuals who can no longer maintain them. Those sites are considered "orphaned" and are available for "adoption." Here they are:

-- Borisov, Belarus
-- Craiova (Belkiralymezo, Canalu) / Dolj County, Romania
-- Kamiensk (Kaminsk), Poland
-- Krnov (Jaegerndorf), Czech Republic
-- Lask, Poland
-- Rozdil (Rozdol), Ukraine

Pages recently updated:

-- Berdichev/Berdychiv, Ukraine
-- Bodrogkeresztur (Keresztur)
-- Podgaytsy (Podhajce) (G)
-- Radom, Poland
-- Yurovshchina (Labun)

If you wish to create a ShtetLinks webpage for your ancestral shtetl or adopt an existing "orphaned" shtetlpage, contact the project.

There are even people to help you creat a webpage for your ancestral home. Contact Susana Leistner Bloch for more information.

Reunion: Dokshitsy diaspora, August 20-22

Are you a descendant of Dokshitsy?

Your destination this summer should be the Dokshitsy Diaspora Reunion, August 20-22, in Warwick, Rhode Island.

Aaron Ginsburg has been planning this for some time, and people are coming from Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.

It's a chance to meet other descendants.

Speakers will include Eva Fogelman, who will speak on the psychology of remembering your Dokshitsy roots. A National Archives speaker is anticipated.

Also coming will be Joel Alpert. He created the Dokshity website and coordinated placing the Yizkor book English translation online. Another participant was born in the town.

The reunion will be held at the Radisson Providence Airport Hotel, with special rates for Dokshitsy descendants.

Visit the Dokshitsy Facebook Page here for more information or visit JewishDokshitsy.org for much more, including gravestone photos.

Belarus: Gomel project news

Are you researching Belarus? Is Gomel one of your towns of interest?

Tracing the Tribe has an ancillary interest in Gomel as well. Although Mogilev and environs seems to be the focus of our research, Joseph Talalay of Vorotinschtina married Sophie Brusterman of Gomel. They moved to Moscow, Berlin, London and eventually the US.

Forming a rough triangle, Gomel was in the south, with Bobruisk to the northwest and Mogilev to the north. People from one often went to another for marriage or business. We had Mogilev relatives who went to live in Bobruisk over the years. If you are researching any of these three cities, check available records for the other two - you might find a few surprises!

If you are also interested in the town, read this update from Paul Zoglin of the Gomel (Belarus) project.

The group has been working on translating the first set of Gomel records (marriage records 1888-1905). The work resumed a few weeks ago, he writes, but it is slow going because the records are hard to read.

Paul hopes he may have something before the JGSLA 2010 conference, but it might be later. He will be attending JGSLA 2010, and adds that 10 other group members people will also be present.

A conference get-together may take place for the Gomel research group at 9.30pm Sunday, July 11. All Gomel researchers attending the conference should contact Paul for more information - he's very interested in meeting with them during the conference.

He is also working on the old Jewish neighborhoods in Gomel, and has been investigating the passenger manifests of immigrants from Gomel and recording their street addresses, if and when they appear.

Paul asks Gomel researchers to share with him any additional addresses - if known - of their families. He'll be visiting Gomel in July and plans to take photos of the buildings. Although, he says, "not much remains in Gomel from before the revolution" it is possible some of the old buildings survived.

If Gomel is one of your towns, contact Paul to see how you can help the project move forward and to participate.

Yad Vashem: Reconnecting a family

My annual summer trips provide many opportunities to interact with genealogists and family historians, while meeting with old friends and new.

On Sunday, I attended a board meeting of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society. Held at the home of my hosts and good friends, Rosanne and Dan Leeson, it was great to see so many old friends.

One new person was Israeli businessman Avner Yonai, who has been Yad Vashem's area volunteer coordinator for the Shoah Victims' Names Recovery Project Pages of Testimony. Avner also attended the group's brick wall session on Tuesday night (see separate blog post on this event).

The new Yad Vashem blog has detailed the story of Avner's successful discovery and reconnection to a living descendant of his aunt Bluma, murdered in the Holocaust.

The reunion was faciitated through Avner's research in the Pages of Testimony and the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names database.

In a tale spanning across Poland, Belarus, Israel and the US, Avner Yonai (38) a native Israeli businessman living in California, recently connected with a lost relative after discovering Pages of Testimony submitted by his grandfather in memory of family members who were murdered in the Shoah.

His maternal grandfather, David Rybak, was born in Gora Kalwaria (Ger), Poland, and Avner recently found David's travel and aliyah documents.

David had emigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1935, before the Nazi invasion of Poland. A brother, Beryl, stayed in Poland and was murdered in 1942 with his wife Bluma (Goldhecht) in Treblinka. Her brother Yaacov survived, moved to Israel and submitted a Page of Testimony (PoT) for her in Israel in the 1950's.

Avner discovered that David had also submitted a PoT for Bluma.

Yaacov and David were both from Ger, and were members of the town's Mandolin Orchestra (photo above), conducted by David's brother, Beryl. The group performed during the 1920s-1930s; most were killed in the Holocaust.

The group is remembered in the Gora Kalwaria Yizkor Book, where Yaacov wrote:

“A unique orchestra directed by Beryl Ryback …who knows? Under different circumstances Beryl could well have gone on to become a world-renowned conductor."

This all exists only in the memories of the survivors of Ger, in all the countries of the world where they have been scattered…from time to time they feel a longing for this beautiful romantic past, that belongs to a past that is dead and buried… The Jews of Ger died the deaths of martyrs by the hands of the vile Nazi murders!”

Avner used the PoT contact information given by Yaakov to trace his family and found Yaakov's grandson Giora. The two branches were reunited at the Goldhechts' home in Israel.

Neither Avner's mother nor his uncle knew their father had submitted the PoTs.

Avner has recently launched a Facebook page dedicated to The Mandolin Orchestra of Ger, as well as efforts to stage a reviva concert of the group.

For more, and to see photos, click the link above.

Tracing the Tribe always advises searching the Pages of Testimony at the link above. Remember that additional pages are added all the time, so even if you've checked in the past and found nothing, there may now be new pages of interest.

New Jersey: When the Holocaust strikes home, May 27

When the Holocaust strikes home, with Roger Flartey, is the topic for the next Jewish Genealogical Society of Northern New Jersey on Thursday, May 27.

The program begins at 7.30pm, at the YM-YHWA, in Wayne. The library opens at 7pm. At left, see section of a 1780 map of northern New Jersey. It looks "just a little different" these days!

Flartey, an attorney, has been interested in genealogy since the early 1980s.

While researching his maternal grandfather's family, he discovered that a number of relatives had been killed during the Holocaust in what is now Belarus. The results of his investigation were detailed in his short book, "The Holocaust Strikes Home."

A member of the Northern New Jersey JGS, he is a lifelong New Jersey resident.

Fee: No charge; all are welcome.

For more information and directions, click here.

JGSLA 2010: Belarus events set

As a charter member of the Belarus SIG, this group is dear to Tracing the Tribe's genealogical heart.

Belarus SIG began life as a crowded birds-of-a-feather meeting spearheaded by Daveid Fox, at the Boston 1996 conference and became a SIG at the 1998 Los Angeles event. The speaker in Boston was a then-recent Mogilev immigrant to Brooklyn, Bella Nayer, who had been very involved in community affairs.

The map (above left) is a 1916 map of Belarus. 

The graphic (below right) is a woodcut of the Mogilev synagogue.

What does the SIG have planned for its return to its birthplace?

Tracing the Tribe has already covered the Belarus luncheon (Tuesday, July 13) speaker: Moscow born, Jewish filmmaker, researcher and travel professional Michael Masterovoy.

The luncheon description reads:

 "In 1793,the central part of Belarus, including Minsk, became a part of the Russian empire. In addition to being the capital of Belarus it was also a center of Jewish life and home of many Torah sages and Yeshivas that attracted students from all over Europe. Before World War II, Jews made up 40% of the total  population in the city. Join Moscow born, Jewish filmmaker, researcher and travel professional, Michael Masterovoy, as he takes you on a tour of a present-day Belarus, which resonates with the past. View a short video of several Belarusian shtetls, walk the streets of Movsha Shagal's (Marc Chagall's) Vitebsk with Michael (and view the museum) and learn about the positive aspects of travel to a socialist state with a human face, the land of vodka and honey that echoes with the footsteps of our ancestors."

The luncheon is a fee-added event. Belarus SIG luncheons are always well-attended - sign up early and avoid disappointment.

The Belarus SIG business meeting is set for later the same day and will feature the group's progress and achievements.

The group also plans to be part of the Sunday opening day Market Fair, from 2-4.30pm.

The Market Fair will feature experts and mavens staffing "pushcarts" and offering assistance and guidance, representing nearly every region where Jews once lived. "Wares" will include old maps, vital records, landowner records, historical photos and postcards, translation, crafts, cooking and much more.

Food (including kosher) will be available for purchase. And don't miss the great klezmer concerts (yes - two of them!) by Yale Strom and Hot Pstromi, after the Market Fair and again in the early evening.

For more information on the Belarus SIG, its treasure trove of databases and much more, click here.

Yizkor Book Project: Additions and updates during April

The dedicated volunteers at the Yizkor Book Project at JewishGen were busy in April. See below for the complete list of additions, new projects, updates and more.

Four new Translation Fund Projects have been organized for Debica and Grajewo (Poland), Leova (Romania) and Olkeniki (Lithuania). These projects collect funds to hire professional translators so these books can be made accessible online. Readers with roots in these geographical locations (and others) are invited to contribute to the Translation Fund.

The list, with links to each community, is organized by country:
(NP=New Project; N=New Entry; U=Updated)

AUSTRIA

NP -- Neunkirchen (The Holy Community of Neunkirchen: A story of Jews in their native land)

BELARUS

NP -- Disna (Disna; memorial book of the community)
U -- Antopol (Shards of Memory: Messages from the Lost Shtetl of Antopol)
U -- Ruzhany (Rozana; a memorial book to the Jewish community)
U -- Smarhon (Smorgon) (Smorgonie, District Vilna; memorial book and testimony)
U -- Voronovo (Voronovo: Memorial Book to the Martyrs of Voronovo)

LITHUANIA

N -- Backininkeliai (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Balsiai (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Baltiskis  (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Baltmiskis  (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Baltusova (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Baranas (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Bariunai (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Barova (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Barsenai (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Barstyciai (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Bartininkai (Pinkas Lita)

POLAND

NP -- Grojec (Grizer Scroll)
NP -- Grudki (Horodok; in memory of the Jewish community)
NP - Serock (The book of Serock)
N -- Baligrod (Memorial book; dedicated to the Jews of Linsk, Istrik and vicinity)
N -- Lutowiska (Memorial book; dedicated to the Jews of Linsk, Istrik and vicinity)
N -- Ustrzyki Dolne (Memorial book; dedicated to the Jews of Linsk, Istrik and vicinity)
U -- Bedzin (A Memorial to the Jewish Community of Bendin)
U -- Bialystok (The chronicle of Bialystok)
U -- Brzeziny (Brzeziny memorial book)
U -- Chelm (Commemoration book Chelm)
U -- Czyzew-Osada (Czyzewo Memorial Book)
U -- Dabrowa Gornicza (Book of the Jewish Community of Dabrowa Gornicza and its Destruction)
U -- Debica (The Book of Dembitz) - additions to Polish section
U -- Kaluszyn (The Memorial Book of Kaluszyn) - necrology
U -- Katowice (Katowice: the Rise and Decline of the Jewish community; Memorial Book)
U -- Kutno (Kutno and Surroundings Book)
U -- Lesko (Memorial book; dedicated to the Jews of Linsk, Istrik and vicinity)
U -- Miedzyrzec Podlaski (Mezritsh book, in memory of the martyrs of our city)
U -- Opoczno (The Book of Opoczno: memorial for the destroyed community)
U -- Piotrkow Trybunalski (A Tale of One City: Piotrkow Trybunalski)
U -- Ryki (A memorial to the community of Ryki, Poland) - additions to Polish section
U -- Zelechow (Memorial Book of the Community of Zelechow ) - added pictures to Polish section

UKRAINE

N -- Skhodnitsa (Memorial to the Jews of Drohobycz, Boryslaw and surroundings)
U -- Kolomyya (Memorial book of Kolomey and surroundings)
U -- Ivano-Frankivsk (Towns and Mother-cities in Israel: Memorial of the Jewish Communities which Perished)
U -- Vystosk (Our town, Visotsk; Memorial Book)

See all additions and updates flagged here.

Ancestor Approved: 10 things about my ancestors

Tracing the Tribe has received the Ancestor Approved award from Pat and Judy, the GenealogyGals.

Their blog is a joint effort.

Award recipients are supposed to report on 10 things learned about our ancestors that have surprised, humbled, or enlightened us, and then pass along the award to 10 more genealogy bloggers who are doing their ancestors proud.

1. Surprised: At the life of my maternal great-grandmother Riva BANK TALALAY - born in a shtetl outside Kovno - who was ran away to the Gypsies - so the story goes - to avoid a disliked marriage. Along the way, she learned herbal healing, midwifery, reading tarot cards and palmistry. When she did marry Aron Peretz Talalay and moved to his agricultural colony Vorotinschtina, some 12 miles southwest of Mogilev, Belarus, she was known for creating the first closet in the shtetl. In Newark, New Jersey, she was also a midwife and healer and well-known for getting her way to make living better for her family.

2. Surprised: That the generation-to-generation one-liner - "This was our name in Spain" - has been corroborated by archival research in Spain and DNA genetic testing.

3. Enlightened: Our TALALAY family's first immigrant ancestor met an English-speaker on the boat over in 1898 who advised him to change his name as no one would give a job to Mr. Tell-a-lie. Thus TOLLIN, TALLIN, TAYLOR, TOLL, TALL and - of course - those lost Philadelphia FEINSTEINs, came about.

4. Enlightened: My maternal FINK (Suchostaw, Galicia -> Ukraine) grandfather and his brothers had a large building maintenance company in New York City. Once, during a window-cleaners' strike, a worker was quoted as calling his employers, "those rats, the FINKs." According to family story, the term "rat-fink" was born.

5. Surprised: On hearing that my mother, as a teen, used to swim across Kauneonga Lake (Catskills, Sullivan County, about 10 miles from Monticello) frequently. It is a very large lake!

6. Humbled: To have found at least one lost branch of the Dardashti family, and thus fulfilling a request of my husband's eldest aunt Nane-jan - made more than 35 years ago in Teheran - to find the lost branches (descendants of relatives who became Moslem) and tell them that they had cousins who thought about them all the time.

7. Humbled: To think about the difficulties Nane-jan underwent as the first Jewish girl to go to school in Teheran in 1902. The community stopped buying from her father, a butcher, and she endured taunts and attacks on her way to school. All her sisters also went to school, with some of them becoming French teachers. It wasn't easy being a father with such advanced enlightened thinking in those days.

8. Frequently flabbergasted when thinking of our newly-connected TALALAY-KATSNELSON relatives (from Bobruisk, Belarus) in Melbourne, Australia. Their eldest daughter Nelly is a journalist and her daughter is Miliana. I'm Schelly, a journalist and our daughter is Liana. Do you also hear Twilight Zone music?

9. Surprised at how much cousin Leon in Melbourne and I resemble each other. His mother was a Talalay whose father (Gamshei) had moved (reasons still unknown) from Mogilev to Bobruisk.

10. Still shocked: My late cousin Victor Talalay (Toronto) and I both located information about the family branch in Israel at the same time, decades ago, when we separately visited Israel and found the data in the English phone book. We each dutifully copied the info and held onto the scraps of paper with name, address and phone number for decades. I finally wrote and located the granddaughter as her grandfather, who placed the entry every year, had died only a year or so prior. He had placed the info in the English phone book every year hoping that US relatives would find it and contact him. He had arrived from Berlin (after leaving Mogilev in 1902 and going to London and Germany) to Israel in 1933. Moral: Never procrastinate when it comes to following up on all clues to family history.

Since I am coming into this award late - procrastination still runs in our family - and I believe almost all bloggers have already been tagged, I am awarding this coveted prize to everyone who has not already been noted.

Belarus: Dokshitsy Diaspora Reunion, August 20-22

Tracing the Tribe reported earlier on the planned Dokshitsy (Belarus) Diaspora Reunion.

Aaron Ginsburg of Natick, Massachusetts has provided more information on the reunion which will take place in a suburban Boston hotel, from Friday-Sunday, August 20-22. See Tracing the Tribe's earlier post for additional details.

There's also a tentative program which may also help other researchers attempting to plan such a reunion for their own ancestral villages.

Aaron's message is doubly important at this time of the year:

Passover is a time when we are called on to remember our shared past.

We remember Sinai because we know that our ancestors were there; we remember Dokshitsy because our ancestors were there.

The road from Sinai to today runs through shtetlach like Dokshitsy where so many of our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents began their lives.

The lost Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, including Dokshitsy, are part of a past that continues to unite us no matter where we live.

Aaron reminds Dokshitsy descendants that volunteers are needed to help out, families to create presentations and talks about their family histories from the shtetl to the Diaspora.

Descendants who wish to participate and help in planning should contact Aaron through the group's website or Facebook page (Jewish Dokshitsy).

Tentative Schedule:

Friday, August 20
5-8pm: Sign in, cocktails, light snacks, introductions, and networking.
7.30-8.20pm: Services, followed by dinner (Kosher option).

Saturday, August 21
7-9am: Services
8.15-9am: Breakfast
9am: Organizers' welcome and introductions
9.30am: Dokshitsy– a vanished world
10.45am: The Dokshitzers who left – how a small shtetl gave rise to the Dokshitsy Diaspora
Noon: Lunch
1pm: Dokshitzers who stayed – the Holocaust in Dokshitsy; the Dokshitsy Cemetery Restoration Project; future remembrance projects
2:15-4pm: Family Presentations
4-7pm: Break
7pm: Pre-dinner presentation; slide show; photographs
8-11pm: Dinner, informal sharing experiences, family stories

Sunday, August 22
8-11am: Light breakfast and goodbyes

When will YOU plan a reunion for your ancestral shtetl's descendants?