WDYTYA: Gywneth Paltrow & JRI-Poland

Jewish Records Indexing-Poland played an essential part in research for the new episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" - spotlighting actress Gywneth Paltrow - to be aired Friday night, April 1, on NBC.

Paltrow's family's original name was PALTROWICZ, a rabbinical family from northeastern Poland, specifically Suwalki, Lomza and other towns. JRI-Poland offers 90 records for the family.

JRI-Poland will appear in the credits for the episode.

Our dear friend Montrealer Stan Diamond (co-founder and executive director of Jewish Records Indexing-Poland) called Tracing the Tribe the other day to let us know about the JRI-Poland connection.

For readers not familiar with JRI-Poland, it is a continually growing resource of more than 4.2 million records used by many readers to discover family data.

The following press release provides more information:

Jewish Records Indexing - Poland

4.2 million Polish-Jewish records database is key resource for Gwyneth Paltrow episode of NBC's "Who Do You think You Are?

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s ancestral search, told in a new episode of NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?”, might not have happened if not for Jewish Records Indexing - Poland.

The April 1st episode of the documentary series features Academy Award-winner Paltrow’s search. The U.S. born daughter of producer Bruce Paltrow ("St. Elsewhere," "The White Shadow"), her roots go back to a long line of rabbis named Paltrowicz from northeastern Poland and the towns of Suwalki, Lomza and nearby shtetls.

The show’s researchers were able to tap into JRI-Poland’s online database as the starting point in documenting Paltrow's ancestry. The website has 90 record entries for Paltrow's ancestors and the WDYTYA team said "JRI Poland is a wonderful resource for anyone researching Jewish Polish ancestry and was invaluable during the research for the Gwyneth Paltrow episode."

Founded in 1995, JRI-Poland was an outgrowth of Montrealer Stanley Diamond's need for access to Jewish vital records of the former Lomza Gubernia area of Poland for research into his family’s genetic history. Diamond is Executive Director and the organization has a global board, hundreds of volunteers serving thousands of researchers, funded by groups and genealogists around the world.

JRI-Poland is creating searchable on-line indices of Jewish records from current and former territories of Poland. The vast database of records going back to the late 18th century belies the misleading notion all the Jewish records of Poland were destroyed in World War II.

The searchable database has indices to 4.2 million records from more than 550 towns, with thousands added every month, vital records and censuses from the Polish State Archives and other sources both inside and outside of Poland. The database also includes army draft lists, cemetery burial indices, ghetto death records, birth, marriage and death announcements in newspapers in Poland, and more.

JRI-Poland has been recognized by the medical and scientific communities for the potential benefit for Ashkenazic families trying to trace medical histories, particularly those at increased risk for hereditary conditions and diseases. As a result of statistical analyses indicating a high incidence of medical and genetic abnormalities in individuals of Polish-Jewish descent, JRI - Poland is creating a finding aid for those who may need answers to medical-related questions or require bone marrow or other transplants. Because of this, JRI-Poland has received commendations from the Gift of Life Foundation and the National Marrow Donor Program.

For more information,  visit JRI-Poland, or contact Stanley Diamond. And for more information on the upcoming episode, click here.

Thank you, Stan, for creating this valuable resource for so many researchers. JRI-Poland's many volunteers are also to be commended for their work over the years and in advance for their future contributions.

Poland: JRI-Poland adds many new records

JRI-Poland executive director Stanley Diamond (Montreal) has informed Tracing the Tribe about two new additions - nearly 74,000 entries - to the JRI-Poland database. The database currently holds some 4.1 milion records.

Yesterday, JRI-Poland's sshtel Co-Op Coordinator Hadassah Lipsius (New York) let us know about the addition of more than 28,000 entries indexed from LDS (Mormon) microfilms, including data from Wawolnica, as well as Checiny, Chelm, Kepno, Kozienice, Krzepice, Miedzyrzec Podlaski, Opole Lubelskie, Skierniwice, Sulejow, and Szydlowiec.

Today, Stan noted the new batch - records NOT filmed by the LDS - which are now online as part of JRI-Poland's PSA Project

Jewish Records Indexing - Poland, says Stan, creates indices of Jewish vital records from two prime sources:

• LDS (Mormon) microfilms of Jewish records, generally ending1860s-1870s and indexed under the Shtetl's CO-OP project.
• Index pages purchased from the Polish State Archives or created by archival staff (prior to November 2006). These are the PSA project.

Towns covered in this addition are: Brzesko, Czyzewo, Frampol, Gostynin (Books of Residents), Grabowiec, Hrubieszow, Jarczow, Jozefow Bilgorajski, Krasnobrod, Krasnystaw, Lancut (1910 Census), Laszczow, Leczna, Nowy Sacz, Nowy Wisnicz, Nowy Zmigrod, Raciaz (Books of Residents), Radymno, Sokolow Malopolski, Szczebrzeszyn, Tarnobrzeg, Tomaszow Lubelski, Turobin, Uchanie, Warszawa, Wysokie (in the Zamosc area), Zamosc and Zolkiewka.

Except as noted, the new/updated data are indices to birth, marriage and death records.

Some of the above towns' records are in the Zamosc branch of the PSA. A separate announcement by Zamosc Archive Coordinator Shelley Pollero is forthcoming.

SEARCHING

Search by surname AND town OR surname AND geographical area. For hints on maximizing your search results by using geographic coordinates, click here. TIP Don't search by town name only as this will not generate results!:

THANK YOU

Stans thanks JRI-Poland's database manager Michael Tobias, associate director Hadassah Lipsius and our support team of Howard Fink and Meira Putterman, dedicated Town Leaders and Archive
Coordinators and contributors whose efforts and generosity have helped the JRI-Poland database grow.

Towns for which there is no online data yet: Go to the "Your Town" link on JRI-Poland to contact the Town Leader for your town. If a Town Leader is not listed, contact the Archive Coordinator for that town. If your town is not listed, send an email.

DONATIONS

To support indexing of your ancestral town or help JRI-Poland's efforts to index Jewish records from all areas of Poland, click here.

Przemysl: Blog, new forum

Even if you can't pronounce it, Przemysl researchers have set up a forum to compare notes and supplement resources found on JewishGen, JRI-Poland and Gesher Galicia.

Find the blog here and the forum here and see the list of topics being discussed.

The blog's title is "The Jewish Przemysl Blog - Sons and daughters of Jewish Przemysl, researching and remembering 700 years of Jewish life in our town."

The grassroots effort wil enable researchers to access context and history, while sharing information and collaboration among those with shared roots.

Participants will be able to compare notes, research and family stories. The blog is written by David Semme.

According to a report, some 55 people are aready registered for the forum, which is providing lively discussions, research breakthroughts and more.

Organizers are asking members to make suggestions as to improving he forum structure and functionality.

Go to the blog above and the forum link, click on the registration link.

Check out the new forum if your ancestors came from the town or environs.

Poland: Nowy Zmigrod birth records

Some 1,400 new birth records for Nowy Zmigrod have been added to Jewish Records Indexing - Poland.

They cover the years 1866-1889, and were in the Skoyszyn branch of the Polish State Records.

Search the records in the JRI-Poland data base.

Data includes the names of parents, and may include the parents' year of marriage or a data of death for a child that did not survive.

Some 500 surnames are mentioned in the records. See the name list here.

The records also reference some 150 towns - often nearby shtetls - in addition to Nowy Zmigrod, and indicating where the mother or father was born. Most frequently mentioned are Biecz, Brzezowa, Desznica, Dukla, Gorlice, Grab, Halbow, Jasienica, Katy, Korczyna, Kotan, Krempna, Nowy Sacz, Tarnow and Toki.

For more information, contact town leader Phyllis Kramer.

Boston: Interwar Polish Jews, January 9

Boston area readers will learn about the Jews of interwar Poland at the fourth annual lecture on Jewish genealogy, presented by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston and Hebrew College, on Sunday, January 9.

The program - "No Way In, No Way Out: The Jews of Interwar Poland" with speaker Adam Teller - will begin at 3.30pm at Hebrew College, Newton Centre. The event is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required; seating is limited.

An associate professor of history and Judaic Studies at Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island), London-born Teller studied at Oxford University. He received a PhD in modern Jewish history at Hebrew University (Jerusalem), and was on the facuty of Haifa University before moving to Brown this year.

 
Polish Jews between the two World Wars were caught in political and economic cross-winds as they emerged from the confines of the Russian and Austrian Empires into a new world of competing national identities and powerful ideologies.
 

This program presents the history of the Jews in interwar Poland along two dimensions, political and cultural.

The extraordinary trilingual culture of Polish Jewry—Yiddish–Polish–Hebrew—enjoyed an almost unprecedented period of blossoming in these twenty years. Its remarkable achievements encompassed literature, the press, the theater, painting, and the cinema, while surrounded by mounting hostility. This is the story of Polish Jewry’s tragic second Golden Age. 

Hebrew College is located at 160 Herrick Road, Newton Centre.

The next JGSGB program is on January 16, when Robert Weinberg will speak on "DNA of the Jewish People, Similarities and Differences."

The society will also present a comprehensive intro Jewish genealogy course at Hebrew College, beginning February 7.

For more information, click here.

Jewish Music: International winners announced

Musicians in the family?

Here are more you may not have known about. They are the winners of the second International Jewish Music Festival, held in Amsterdam.

Participants included 24 groups from 12 countries.

As in 2008, the Amsterdam-based festival managed to attract top ensembles from around the world to this unique competition. The pre-selected 24 ensembles came from 12 countries and four continents. For them, this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to showcase their talent for an audience of programmers, agents and aficionados. The jury included world-renowned Yiddish singer Adrienne Cooper and klezmer expert Hankus Netsky.

Eight workshops were also presented, incuding Adrienne Cooper's Yiddish/Ladino masterclass and the famed Hankus Netsky's Instant Klezmer workshop.

The first-place winner was a Chassidic band, The Heart & The Wellspring (Israel).

Other winners:

Mames Babegenush (Denmark)
Voice of the Levites (Israel)
Shir (UK) - Best Yiddish song
Di Gojim (Netherlands)
Yonit Shaked Golan & Gabi Argov (Israel)
Lafra (Spain) - Best Sephardic performance
Klezmafour (Poland)
Trio C Tot De Derde (Netherlands)
Vent d'Ouest Klezmer Band (France)

To view an 11-minute documentary of the finale, click here.

Ger Mandolin Orchestra: Plucking the strings

There are as many reasons for researching our families as there are genealogists.

For Avner Yohai, an Israeli living in Northern California's Silicon Valley, it was the strings - the mandolin strings, to be more specific.

I first met Avner at a board meeting of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, held at my friend Rosanne Leeson's home in Los Altos early this past summer. We connected again in August at the 30th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, in Los Angeles.

The photo (above left) is of the Ger Mandolin Orchestra in the 1930s.

Tablet Magazine, which always offers a good read, carried a story by Alexander Gelfand, on Avner's family and research, and the "Aha!" moment that kickstarted Avner's interest in family history.

Have you ever had one of those moments—one of those epiphanies—when everything is illuminated?



Avner Yonai did. And it came, fittingly enough, while he was watching the film Everything Is Illuminated, based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. Which led, of course, to the mandolins.


But first, the epiphany.

In 1932, his father's family went from Poland to Palestine. In 1935, members of his mother's family followed the same trip. The ancestral town was Gora Kalwaria - Ger, in Yiddish. Those who didn't leave, died in Treblinka.

His family didn't talk about Poland, and he himself didn't think about it until he saw "Illuminated." Most of the town's residents died in a massacre on March 18, 1942. Avner was born on March 18. Do you hear Twilight Zone music?

In two weeks, he was in Ger, looking for family information. A 94-year-old survivor showed Avner the Ger Yizkor book and showed him the photo of his grandfather, great-uncles and a cousin, from the 1930s. That was the photo above, also on Avner's business cards.

Mandolin orchestras were all over in the early 20th century, mostly performed by immigrants (and amateur musicians) who kept their memories of home alive through familiar music.

However, the instrument is not a new one and dates to 15th century Italy with lots of Baroque and classical music. It spread rapidly across Europe, where many countries each have their own style of music.

In the 19th century, mandolins were made in various sizes, each with a different "voice," just like string quartets and larger ensembles. The sizes sounded like a viola (mandolina), a cello (mandocello) or a bass (mandobass), providing musical richness to the sound.

In the story, author Gelfand relates his own experience with mandolin music in Montreal. His maternal grandfather was from Krynki (Krinek), some 150 miles northeast of Yohai's ancestral town of Ger.

The photo spurred Avner to "lost" relatives in Israel, much more detailed research and to recreate the group.

But Yonai is not one to give up easily. He has used the genealogy website JewishGen and the YIVO archives to find contacts and archival materials among the scattered descendants of the Jews of Ger. He has hired a doctoral candidate in ethnological studies at the University of Warsaw to pore over old newspapers, sheet music, record catalogs—anything that might hint at the mandolin orchestra’s repertoire. Together with the Israeli mandolinist Benny Bilsky, who has volunteered to act as music director for the project, he has even visited the large community of Gerrer Hasidim in Bnei Brak, Israel, searching for tunes that might have found their way into the orchestra’s book.

Thanks to Avner, a newly recreated Mandolin Orchestra of Ger will perform in March at the 26th Jewish Music Festival.

Now, as you look for your family's heirlooms and photos, keep an eye out for old mandolin music as well, and let Avner know.

Read the complete story at the Tablet link above.

Poland: JRI-Poland, Museum of History of Polish Jews sign agreement

In a new development, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland and the Museum of the History of Polish Jews have signed an agreement which will enable each of JRI-Poland's "Your Town" pages.

JRI-Poland executive director Stanley Diamond of Montreal announced the new agreement:

We are delighted to announce that Jewish Records Indexing-Poland and the Museum of the History of Polish Jews have signed an agreement where each of JRI-Poland's "Your Town" pages will have a link to the Museum's Virtual Shtetl pages for the same towns -- and vice versa.

This will enable those reading about their town in the Museum's Virtual Shtetl site to learn about surviving records for their families by clicking on the link to the JRI-Poland page for the same town.

There will be more than 1,000 linked towns and villages.

JRI-Poland contains an index to more than 4 million records of the Jewish presence in Poland - mostly birth, marriage and death records.

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews will open in 2012 on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto.

For more information on the agreement, click here and 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.

Oregon: 'Lost town of Trochenbrod,' Oct. 12

Avrom Bendavid-Val will present "The Heavens are Empty: Discovering the Lost Town of Trochenbrod," at the Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon meeting on Tuesday, October 12, in Portland.

The meeting begins at 7.30pm, at Congregation Ahavath Achim, 3225 SW Barbur Blvd.

The town of Trochenbrod was created by city Jews as an agricultural village in a marshy area isolated in the forest in Volyn Province, in the Jewish Pale of Settlement, in the early 1800s. This beginning as a rural farming community happened at a time when no Jews were farmers—at that time Jews couldn’t even own land.

As Trochenbrod gradually took on the character of a town and grew to its final population of about 5,000 people it became the only free-standing Jewish town ever to exist outside the biblical Land of Israel.

Trochenbrod developed into a thriving regional commercial center with a highly diversified and essentially self-sufficient economy.

In Trochenbrod everyone—shopkeepers, farmers, craftspeople, workers, teachers, livestock traders, factory owners…everyone—was Jewish; and the languages the townspeople spoke in the street and in their homes were Yiddish and modern Hebrew.

When Bendavid-Val was working in Poland in 1997, he decided to visit Trochenbrod, the ancestral town of his father and grandfather.

He discovered that there were no physical remnants of Trochenbrod and that it had been a unique settlement in many ways. He documented the town's history from its creation in the early 1800s to its destruction in 1942.

His book about Trochenbrod will be released by Pegasus Books early this month. If you obtain the book before the program, he will sign your copy at the event.

Attendees who arrive by 7pm will receive expert assistance with genealogy problems, and questions may be sent ahead of time.

Fee: JGSO members, free; others, $5 donation requested.

JRI-Poland: New FAQ, online contributions

Jewish Records Indexing-Poland executive director Stanley Diamond of Montreal advises readers that two additions have been made to the site.

There's a completely new FAQ and online credit card contributions will now be accepted.

Friends and supporters can make credit card contributions online and designate the town indexing projector projects to support at the same time.

See the JRI-Poland website, and the direct link to the contributions page.

The new FAQ has been rewritten by JRI-Poland Board Member Susan Stone and includes considerable additional information and detail.

Check JRI-Poland frequently for updated town information.

Book: 'Jewish Bialystok and Its Diaspora'

My great-grandmother Rebecca Fink (aka Regina Halpern Weintraub) was born in Skom Bobl, athough she lived in Suchostaw (Galicia->Poand->Ukraine).

Where?

My grandfather, Szaja (Sidney) Fink, always said she was from Bialystok and included the other place as well. No one ever heard of it. I assumed it had long ago disappeared as a neighborhood swallowed up by beautiful downtown Bialystok.

Years ago, on a visit to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, I checked out the Slavnik Geografnica. This multi-volume Polish-language work was published at the end of the 19th century and includes references for many "dots on the map," hard to find elsewhere.

Imagine my surprise to find not only Rebecca's hometown but also entries for our Talalay towns of Mogilev, Zavarezhye and Vorotinschtina. Of course, the spellings were in Polish (Vs represented by Ws, and other substitutions.

There is now a remarkable book covering Bialystok, its history and diaspora throughout the world.

"Jewish Bialystock and its Diaspora," by Rebecca Kobrin, published by University of Indiana Press, and covering the city and its immigrants who settled throughout Europe, the US, Canada, Israel, Australia and South America.

Kobrin has spoken at past international Jewish genealogy conferences.

The Russell and Bettina Knapp Assistant Professor of American Jewish History at Columbia University, Kobrin has also spoken to Jewish genealogy societies about landsmanshaftn and these organizations' connections to the old country.

The mass migration of East European Jews and their resettlement in cities throughout Europe, the United States, Argentina, the Middle East and Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries not only transformed the demographic and cultural centers of world Jewry, it also reshaped Jews' understanding and performance of their diasporic identities.

Rebecca Kobrin's study of the dispersal of Jews from one city in Poland - Bialystok - demonstrates how the act of migration set in motion a wide range of transformations that led the migrants to imagine themselves as exiles not only from the mythic Land of Israel but most immediately from their east European homeland. Kobrin explores the organizations, institutions, newspapers, and philanthropies that the Bialystokers created around the world and that reshaped their perceptions of exile and diaspora.

If your family hails from Bialystok, this is the book for you. Read more 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.

Shanghai: Polish citizen registration book online

JRI-Poland now features the 918 index entries of Polish Jewish refugees who visited the Polish Consulate in Shanghai from 1934-41.

For more on the database, click here to learn more about the records and Jews in China.

In a 1992 visit to the Polish Consulate in Shanghai, Dr. Jonathan Goldstein, then a research associate at Harvard University's Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, and three other scholars, were shown a 200-page register listing Polish citizens who passed through Shanghai between January 9, 1934 and December 16, 1941.

This register was the standard one used by Polish diplomatic missions around the world to record their citizens who called on the Consulate, whether they were visiting or residing in the country. Typically, these records enabled the missions to provide consular services, invite its citizens for celebrations of national days, or contact them for other official reasons.

The following information was recorded in the register in Polish:
Registration number
Registration date
Full name of registrant (maiden name, if provided)
His or her profession
Religion (Mojzeszowa for Jewish)
Birth date and place
Marital status
Last known address in Poland (non-existent for most Jews)
Address in the consular region
Documents submitted (usually a passport)
Name and birth date and place of wife and children
Passport expiry date
Remarks

The register covers two pages; here is a sample page:

The JRI-Poland Index includes the following fields:

Registration Number
Date entered in register
Surname
Maiden Name (if provided)
Given Names
Place of Birth as Written
Place of Birth - Current Name (if different)
Current Country of Place of Birth
Date of Birth
Marital Status

In line with the the cooperative arrangement with JewishGen, which hosts JRI-Poland's database and website, the Polish citizen database will also be included in the All Poland Database and the JewishGen Holocaust Database.

JRI-Poland has created digital images of the register pages and will send electronic copies of the relevant pages to interested researchers. Contact Mark Halpern to obtain a copy of the page for individuals in the database.

JRI-Poland volunteer Peter Nash (of Australia) has documented and shared his knowledge of Jewish research in China. He and his parents were German refugees in Shanghai. JRI-Poland has reprinted Peter's excellent paper (presented at the New York 2006 international conference on Jewish genealogy), "China - Unusual Resources for Family Research." Read it here.

Projects like this cannot be accomplished without the input, hard work and cooperation of numerous individuals. Mark Halpern of JRI-Poland specifically thanks Selma Neubauer (Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Philadelphia) and JGSGP volunteers for creating the database.

Former Sino-Judaic Institute president Dr. Albert Dein provided copies of the Shanghai Consulate register, Peter Nash reviewed the database and the webpages, Michael Tobias for placing the database online, and Hadassah Lipsius and her web team for creating the webpages.

JRI-Poland: 39,000 new entries and more

Researchers looking for Polish ancestors should begin their search at Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, which has more than 3.6 million records in its database.

New material has just been posted.

Shtetl CO-OP coordinator Hadassah Lipsius recently announced that 39,000 new entries had been added to the JRI-Poland database. These had been indexed from the LDS (Mormon) microfilms.

JRI-Poland executive director Stanley Diamond of Montreal has announced that an additional batch of indices - from records not filmed by the Mormons and which are part of the PSA Project - are now online.

JRI-Poland creates indices of vital records from two main sources, the LDS microfilms of Jewish records, dating through the 1860s-1870s, which are under the Shtetl CO-OP Project; and Index pages purchased from the Polish State Archives (PSA) for Jewish records not filmed by the LDS and indexed under the JRI-Poland PSA project.

The new addition includes new and updated files with some 29,000 entries, that have been fully funded and eligible to go online.

The towns include: Bielawy, Bolimow, Filipow, Glowno, Jezow, Lancut, Mielec, Nowe Miasta nad Pilica, Nowy Korczyn, Przedborz, Sobota, Sulejow, Tuszyn and Zablocie.

Search by surname and town OR surname and geographical area. Maximize results by using geographic coordinates. Do not search by town name only (no results will be generated).

To learn more, go to JRI-Poland; contact the Town Leader for your town of interest, or the Archive Coordinator. If you have questions, send an email.

Poland: JRI-Poland, Kielce-Radom SIG agreement

Stanley Diamond, executive director of Jewish Records Indexing-Poland (JRI-Poland), has just informed Tracing the Tribe of this important announcement concerning an agreement with the Kielce-Radom Special Interest Group (K-R SIG)

In 2004, following years of outstanding contributions of in-depth research in this geographical area of Poland, the K-R SIG Journal ceased publication of its hard copy journal. During and since that time, the indices of many towns published in the Journal were transferred to JRI-Poland and are available in the online searchable online database.

With the new agreement, full extracts for tens of thousands of records from all towns, originally published in the K-R Journal, in addition to thousands more extracts - that had not been published - will be integrated into the JRI-P database in its freely available and searchable online database.

The extracts are from LDS microfilms of Polish-Jewish records.

- The K-R SIG web pages are now been integrated into the JRI-Poland website and all information concerning K-R SIG data is now available through a thumbnail link at the bottom of the JRI-P home page (link above).

- All K-R SIG Journal editions have been scanned and now online at JRI-Poland, freely searchable and downloadable PDF files.

- To benefit previous Journal subscribers and all researchers with an interest in the geographical area covered in the former Kielce and Radom Gubernia - and as part of the closing of its accounts - the K-R SIG management has made a generous grant to JRI-Poland for the funding of records from these areas.These funds have enabled JRI-Poland to complete funding for the following towns originally indexed under the JRI-Poland/Polish State Archives (PSA) project.The data for these towns is now searchable online:

Bodzentyn: BMD 1885-1904
Checiny: BMD 1885-1903
Daleszyce: BMD 1897-1904
Grojec: BMD 1878~1902
Konskie: BMD1885-1904
Ksiaz Wielki: B1869-71,87-99; M 1862-1880; D_1869-71,97-99 (some Krakow data)
Lopuszno: BMD 1874-1904
Miechow: BMD 1870~1903+1872-74 (some Krakow data)
Mogielnica: BMD 1878-1901
Radom: Books of Residents
Radoszyce: BMD 1885-1904
Warka: BMD 1878-1901,1903
Wloszczowa: BD 1824-1903; M 1823~1903
Wolanow: BMD 1878~1903

On behalf of the board of JRI-Poland and the K-R SIG management, Stanley writes:

I would like to take this opportunity to extend our heartfelt appreciation to Warren Blatt, founding editor of the Journal and K-R SIG Advisory Group members Debra Braverman and Carol Isaak who made the decision to entrust JRI-Poland with their valuable work.

At the same time, I would like to offer special thanks to Hadassah Lipsius and Meira Puterman who had the major task of adapting the K-R SIG web pages (and PDF links) to the JRI-Poland web site and to JRI-Poland Database Manager Michael Tobias who processed all the new data so quickly for this special launch.

What excellent news to start the Jewish New Year 5770, with so many accessible online resources. Thank you to everyone involved.

Poland: JRI-Poland adds 90,000 records

Jewish Records Indexing-Poland announced the addition of 90,000 additional records.

The new entries to the JRI-Poland online searchable database are from 32 towns. For 19, the data is completely new. Other towns have been updated with data.

The new indices are from Shtetl CO-OPS (records indexed by JRI-Poland volunteers from LDS/Mormon films), Polish State Archives (PSA) projects (data previously indexed under the PSA project, funded and now eligible to go on the database), and some projects from other sources(stay tuned for more announcements!).

JRI-Poland currently has more than 3.56 million Polish Jewish records.

Search by surname and town, or surname and geographical area. For search hints, click here. Do not search by town name only (no hits will result).

There are more than 100 towns for which JRI-Poland has data that cannot be uploaded for searching because the costs of indexing are not yet fully funded.

Learn about at the "Your Town" link at the website. Contact the Town Leader for your town. If there is no Town Leader listed, contact the Archive Coordinator for that town. If there is no information on that town, email the site.

Support your town's indexing or help JRI-Poland's efforts to index Jewish records from all areas of Poland. Click here for more information.

Poland: Lodz commemoration, Aug. 27-29

The 65th anniversary of the liquidation of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto by Germany will be held in Lodz, August 27-29.

There is more information here on the Lodz Website on JewishGen.

Click on the link for more details and registration details. Register online and view the program listing events before August 27.

If your family lived in nearby communities before the Holocaust, they may well have been in the Lodz Ghetto.

Will you attend this event? If so, consider writing about your experience or taking photos to be posted on the Lodz/LARG websites.

For more information, contact Roni Seibel Liebowitz, Lodz Archive coordinator, JRI-Poland.

JRI-Poland: Pruchnik, Wyszogrod records added

Jewish Records Indexing-Poland always updates its databases in the months leading to the annual international conference on Jewish genealogy.

This year, the 29th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy is set for August 2-7, in Philadelphia (click here for program, registration and all details).

Two more record groups - for Pruchnik and Wyszogrod - have just been added to JRI-Poland, according to the organization's executive director Stan Diamond of Montreal.

Such projects cannot be completed without the generous support of many researchers around the world who have made it possible to disseminate this priceless information and preserve it for future generations of descendants.

Pruchnik

Indices are available to all surviving pre-1905 birth and pre-1904 marriage and death records of this town. In 2005, registers were transferred from the Pruchnik Civil Records Office to the Prezemsyl branch of the Polish State Archives.

Indexed records include 4,300 birth, marriage/banns and death entries over 70 years, 1,100 different surnames (and variations), covering Births (1834-1905), Marriages (1885-1903, including Banns)' and Deaths (1835-1903).

Entries include names of both parents, mother's maiden name, age at marriage and death, and town in which individuals lived at the time or previously.

As is the case with many records, there are references to more than 250 other nearby towns and villages, which may provide additional clues to researchers who follow the "cast a wider net" theory of Jewish genealogy. Always look at surrounding villages and towns for information.

Towns and villages with more than 10 references in this collection are the following:

Blazow 10, Bystrowice 18, Chorzow 43, Cieszanow 10, Czelatyce 79, Czudolowice 10 , Czudowice 20, Dubiecko 18, Dukla 9, Dynow 22, Grodzisko 11, Hawlowice 30, Jaroslaw 38, Jodlowka 154, Kanczuga 27, Kosienice 10, Kramarzowka 98, Krzywcza 11, Oleszyce 21, Przemysl 23, Przeworsk 12, Raczyna 152, Radymno 10, Rokietnica 233, Rozborz 176, Rozniatow 13, Rozwienica 22, Rudolowice 31, Rzeplin 37, Sieniawa 16, Siennow 10, Swiebodna 46, Tuliglowy 57, Tyniowice 38, Wegierka 111, Wieckowice 44, and Wola Wegierska 30.

Do you have questions about the Pruchnik project or the records? Email Pruchnik Town Leader David Fielker.

Wyszogrod

Funding has been completed for 1886-1905 vital records (birth, marriage and death) which are now online.

There are 4,400 records in this group from the Plock branch of the Polish State Archives, and are searchable now online at JRI-Poland.

JRI-Poland has also indexed the Wyszogrod Books of Residents, with more than 5,500 entries, including individuals born as early as 1806. Fundraising is still going on for this part of the project. To learn how to contribute, for information or for extracted surname lists from the records, send an email.

Take the time to look over the many resources of JRI-Poland.

Records are added all the time, so remember to check the database frequently. What was missing a few months ago, you may find today.

Poland: Many new records on JRI-Poland

If you are looking for your Jewish family history in Poland, your best bet is to access the amazing searchable online resources of Jewish Records Indexing-Poland.

These resources have grown over the years to a database currently with 3.5 million unique Jewish Polish records, thanks to the inspiration of founder and executive director Stan Diamond of Montreal, and a very dedicated group of volunteers.

Using JRI-Poland's database, I've been able to reconstruct the major portion of my maternal grandfather's FINK family of Suchostaw and Skalat, discover multiple marriages in the lives of certain couples, related birth records in other towns and additional (previously unknown) branches in still other locations.

Do search JRI-Poland for your names of interest. Remember that many families had branches in other countries. Your German, Russian or Belarus family may have easily had a branch that settled in Poland at some point in history, or vice versa! It always pays to check JRI-Poland.

Additionally, remember to think "Creative Spelling." Names spelled in the original Polish will look very different from their anglicized versions. Search using the Daitch-Mokotoff Phonetic Soundex system.

The annual conference always includes numerous programs on Poland, Galicia and the general area, as well as JRI-Poland's always-sold-out popular luncheon. See the online program and all conference details for the 29th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, August 2-7, in Philadelphia.

According to Diamond and shtetl co-op coordinator Hadassah Lipsius (New York), many new records have been added to JRI-Poland:

- 55,000 new entries for 36 towns. Many of these towns are appearing for the first time, while others have been updated with information from later years. The new records are from the Shtetl Co-ops (indexed by JRI-Poland volunteers from LDS microfilms), from Polish State Archives (projects fully funded and accessible via the database) and other projects by the Czestochowa-Radomsko Area Research Group (CRARG). Search parameters include surname AND town, or surname AND region, or search by geographic coordinates.

-More than 100 towns are not yet represented online as projects have not yet been completely funded to recover indexing costs. To check your town's status, click "Your Town" on the site. For more information, contact the town leader, if one is listed, or the archive coordinator, or send an email.

- New LDS data is from Bydgoszcz, Firlej, Gora Kalwaria and Zarnow. Data was added and updated for Bychawa, Golub Drobzyn, Krotoszyn, Nowogrod, Plonsk, Pruchnik and Warszawa. Nearly 18,000 new LDS indices are now available on the database.

- Warsaw data added. Three additional Warszawa LDS films are now accessible on the databas, including: 4,435 new Warszawa indices. This encompasses District I - Birth, Marriages and Deaths, 1860; District III - Birth, Marriages and Deaths, 1860; District IV - Births 1860, 1862, Marriages 1860, 1862 and Deaths 1860; District VI - Marriages 1862-1864.

- Researchers are encouraged to make a donation to support their towns' indexing and placement on the database; click here for details. JRI-Poland is a 501(c)(3)independent non-profit tax-exempt organization under IRS code (US).

- JRI-Poland's database is hosted on JewishGen.

Happy hunting!