Newark NJ: Jewish Chronicle searchable online

Tracing the Tribe's TALALAY family became variously TOLLIN, TALLIN, TOLL, TAYLOR and FEINSTEIN.

The TOLLIN and TALLIN families settled in Newark, New Jersey (two brothers). Another TOLLIN branch was in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1899, and in Boston a few years later. TAYLOR went to Cleveland, and four TALALAI brothers went from Mogilev to Baku to Philadelphia where they took their sister's husband's name of FEINSTEIN and have been lost since.

A new online resource is the Jewish Chronicle of Newark NJ, which can be accessed at GenealogyBank.

The records include all sorts of social events ("hatch, match and dispatch"), community events, news of immigrant associations, local and international issues and much more.

GenealogyBank is for-fee, but the free search will produce small bits of the articles, usually enough to learn if it is relevant for your purposes.

Tracing the Tribe believes that all for-fee sites should offer free searching with snippets of the results. Learning what a site offers is the first step in deciding whether or not to allocate funds for that subscription!

A quick search showed that there were more than 6,000 mentions of TOLLIN, a few of TALLIN. Many of the first variant were from long before my great-grandfather Aron Peretz Talalai arrived there in 1905, but the ones from that time are very interesting, with many relevant results. The paper was published from 1921 until 1943, covering a major portion of the time that my family lived in that city.

GenealogyBank's resources cover newspapers in many states, and Tracing the Tribe found known family mentions in Massachusetts, Pennsyvania and Delaware publications.

Intrigued by anything with a Springfield origin, I found very detailed information on Max Tollin (Mendl Talalai), the first Jewish builder in the town, who constructed the first two homes for the aging, the Kodimoh synagogue and its cemetery. His children were also seen in many results.

In Newark, we saw results for the Mohliver Benevolent Society - Mohliver referring to Mogilev, Belarus - founded by friends and cousins of my great-grandfather, Aron Peretz Talalai TOLLIN.

Not to be outdone, the TOLLIN records in Philadelphia and Delaware were also quite detailed.

Long ago, when I was attempting to track down Mogilev-origin Tollins, I thought I was on the right track with Aron Tollin. However, he told me they were really Tolchinsky. The family's petition for a name change was one of the records in the results, confirming his story.

Where else can you access this paper? The Newark Public Library also has copies, as does the Jewish Historical Society of MetroWest. There is also some information on the Jewish Chronicle ot Chronicling America: Historical American Newspapers.

For more information, click here for a recent NJ Jewish News story about the archive.

Since GenealogyBank is free to search, what are you waiting for? In fact, there is now a discounted subscription  offer available now.

Seattle: Jewish genealogy society receives grant

Some time ago, Tracing the Tribe wrote about the grant program offered by Archives.com, and asked which Jewish genealogy group might be the first to receive one.

We are delighted to report that the newest $1,000 grant has been given to the Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State (JGSWS), to allow the group to begin a digitizing project of the 120-year-old Jewish Transcript newspaper.

Anyone with roots in Seattle or other Washington state communities will find a wealth of information on the Jewish community. JGSWS has wanted to work on this digitizing project for many years but did not have the resources to carry it out.

Tracing the Tribe is especially interested to learn about our JASSEN family, which arrived in Seattle around 1923.

The pages of this venerable publication contain community news; birth, marriage and death announcements, life cycle events and historical news. Currently, the issues are in bound volumes held in the Seattle Public Library. The goal is to digitize the pages and make the records searchable online and accessible to interested researchers around the world.

For those researching Sephardic families, this publication will be of great interest as Seattle has one of the largest Sephardic communities in the US, with origins in Rhodes, Saloniki, and Turkey.

According to the Archives.com blog post:

Archives is pleased to contribute to this project which will clearly have a positive impact on anyone researching their family history in Washington State.

JGSWS President Nancy Adelson notes, "Because of this grant, Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State will be able to start an important project that we've wanted to do for over seven years... Thank you so much for choosing us and our project! I can't tell you how much this means to the members of JGSWS and how it will help make Jewish genealogical research a bit easier."

For more information on JGSWS, view its website.

Is there a project that your group wishes to accomplish related to family history or preservation? Learn more and apply for a grant here.

Australia: False Holocaust memoir?

Forensic genealogist Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick is featured in an Australian story concerning allegations that a wartime memoir is false.

The Herald Sun story on Alex Kurzem, 75, who authored an international best-selling book ("The Mascot") describes the investigation by Fitzpatrick and her team.

She was instrumental in exposing Holocaust fakes Misha Defonseca and Herman Rosenblat some three years ago. Defonseca was forced to admit that "Surviving with Wolves" was false, and Rosenblat confessed he made up much of his "Angel at the Fence."

Kurzem has refused the newspaper's offer "to organise and pay for medical and DNA tests to help prove his identity and whether or not he is Jewish." He has refused unless he is paid $100,000 to undergo those tests.

His book allegedly describes his life as a Russian Jewish child, age 5, who survived the Holocaust by becoming the mascot of a Latvian military unit. The story was an award-winning 2004 ABC documentary and a movie about his life is being made by a French company.

According to the news story, Dr. Fitzpatrick's team also includes Melbourne Holocaust Centre senior staff and US psychologist Dr. Barry Resnick. Their files detail doubt about Kurzem, which has sparked three investigations by the Jewish Claims Conference, the German government compensation and pension department and the US Attorney's office.

Kurzem claims he watched his Jewish mother and siblings executed by the Nazis.

Read the complete story at the link above.

NY Times: Thomas MacEntee, Geneabloggers mentioned

Read an interesting story on family history resources online in the New York Times.

"Finding Family History Online," by Mickey Meece, can be read here.

The article included Ancestry, WikiTree, FamilyLink, Footnote, Tpestry, Facebook, Twitter and other sites.

Unusually, for a story dedicated to family history social networking, it did not mention MyHeritage.com.

Geneabloggers' own Thomas MacEntee was quoted:

Thomas MacEntee, a genealogy educator, writer and speaker, said the explosion of interest in genealogy was because of “an alignment of technology planets.” First came software, then the Internet and now social networks, he said.

“In the genealogy world, we have always been a social group,” said Mr. MacEntee, founder of GeneaBloggers.com, a community resource hub. “In a way, social media is a natural progression.”

...“This is a great time to be in genealogy,” said Mr. MacEntee, who became interested in the field after watching the 1977 television miniseries “Roots.”

Way to go, Thomas!

Northern California: 'When Leopold met Lena,' April 11

Pamela Weisberger will present a fascinating tale of 1890s' marriage, divorce and deception at the Los Altos branch of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, on Monday, April 11.

The meeting begins at 7pm, at Congregation Beth Am, 26790 Arastradero Road Rm. 5/6, in Los Altos Hills. The meeting is free.

"When Leopold Met Lena: Marriage, Divorce, and Deception in the 1890s" utilizes newspaper resources, court transcripts and more to reveal family secrets.

First came love, then came marriage—but on the heels of the baby in the baby carriage came accusations of adultery and two trials in New York City’s Court of Common Pleas. The unexpected discovery of a divorce decree in the 1890's New York Times “News of the Courts” led to scandal-ridden court transcripts held at the NYC municipal archives
and revelations of a family secret.

Beginning in Czestochowa, Poland, and Cracow, Austria, and continuing to Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Little Rock, Arkansas, the tumultuous, romantic, and litigious world of immigrant ancestors is brought to life in court records, graveyard inscriptions, newspaper articles, city directories, censuses, and vital records.

Enjoy the ride as Besser v. Besser is deconstructed and learn how present-day genealogical research can be used to solve 19th-century mysteries.

Documenting her family’s history for more than 30 years, Pam has conducted research in Germany, Poland, Ukraine, and Hungary with a specialty in newspaper research. She holds a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis and an M.S. from Boston University.

For more information and directions, click here.

Arizona: Historic Jewish time capsule opened

The Jewish History Museum in Tucson, Arizona, opened its century-old time capsule.

The Arizona Jewish Post covered the event that attracted hundreds of people.

The capsule was placed under the building's cornerstone - then the Stone Avenue Temple - when it was built in 1910. It was the first home of Temple Emanu-El.

It was removed and opened by US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (photo right. Credit: Marilyn Friedman/Jewish History Museum). Her father, Spencer Giffords, became a bar mitzvah in the synagogue.

The small metal box contained coins, a Masonic medal, old documents and newspapers from June 1910, including the Tucson Citizen and Arizona Daily Star, announcing that a bill for Arizona statehood (admitted February 1912) had been passed.

Speaking to the crowd before the box was chiseled out from beneath the cornerstone, Giffords noted that not only were Jews present in Arizona prior to statehood, they were involved in business, politics, education and “caring for the community.” Along with many of the other speakers, she remarked on the diversity of the Tucson community, noting particularly the participation of the Grand Lodge of Arizona Free and Accepted Masons — whose forebears had helped lay the cornerstone — in the day’s ceremonies.

Giffords wondered what Tucson would be like 100 years in the future.

When built, the structure cost less than $5,000, but more than $600,000 was spent to protect and preserve it. The building was effectively abandoned in 1999, prior to restoration efforts.
A new time capsule included histories of the Jewish community, and three congregations which began life in that building, a history of Southern Arizona's Holocaust Survivors, 2010 coins, copies of the Arizona Jewish Post and Arizona Daily Star, a flag of Israel, a US 48-star flag carried in the city on Arizona Statehood Day in 1912, and a copy of the day's events.

The cornerstone was rededicated by the Masons, who poured “the corn of nourishment, the wine of refreshment and the oil of joy” into the cavity.

For more information, click here.

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.

Footnote.com: The Great Chicago Fire, 1871

Footnote.com is a wonderful resource for original documents.

October 8 was the anniversary of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, and the site has a special collection of research material based on Chicago Tribune contemporary reports.

Primary sources available on Footnote.com for this historical event include:

--The original Chicago Tribune Article
-- Photo of Fire's destruction
-- Illustration of the Fire
-- Map of the Destruction
-- The Great Chicago Fire Footnote Page

Click here for more. Although Footnote.com is a subscription site, some collections are free and searches produce hits for free and fee materials. See what you can find in tthe site's extensive resources and you might find that a subscription could further your research.

On October 8, 1871, around nine o'clock in the evening, a fire started in the O'Leary's barn at 13 DeKoven Street and quickly spread throughout Chicago's business district.. Although legends hold O'Leary's cow responsible for causing the fire, the actual source is still unknown.

The blaze raged for two days, killing hundreds, destroying millions of dollars in property, leaving thousands homeless, and ravaging almost four square miles.

From the smoldering ashes, the citizens of Chicago began to rebuild and a new era began in the city's history. The resulting boom in building construction made Chicago one of the most populous, most economically profitable, and most modern cities in the United States. The Great Chicago Fire was a tragedy, but out of this disaster emerged the modern metropolis of Chicago.

Genes & Teens: Family DNA analysis

Everyone - even teenagers - are interested in DNA these days.

The Wall Street Journal carried a great "teens and genes" story.

Ann West, 17, of Cupertino, California can be called somewhat obsessive about analyzing her family's DNA.

The self-taught teen has been decoding her family's genome and has spoken at major conferences

Her father was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism in 2003, which encouraged him to get the family's genes sequenced using advanced technology at Illumina, Inc. The cost: $160,000 for the four people in the family. He wanted to know if anyone else in the family might be at risk for the same condition.

In 2007, they tested with 23&Me and received a break as Anne's father worked at Illumina, which offered a testing discount for employees. But he wanted to know more, and went for the full-genome testing for everyone.

Anne is the one analyzing the reams of data that is not interpreted by most testing companies. According to the story, it doesn't usually matter as most clients are academic scientists who have a cadre of assistants and the newest computers to do the work.

The teen - without those resources - decided to do it the "old-fashioned" way, by hand, on the family computer, using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to sort the information.

She's presented at major genetics conferences in Boston and New York, where scientists gave her their business cards, and her research led to a summer job at the lab of a prominent Harvard and MIT scientist.

She then created a series of formulas, using Excel's help function when she got stuck. One formula separated which portions of genetic data came from Mr. West's side of the family and which came from Mrs. West's side. That information helped her to plot graphs to see how genetically close she and her brother are to each other, and to each of their parents.


The next step was to look more closely at one of the 20,000 genes we all have. Anne focused on the Factor V gene. She inherited the same mutation that her father has, putting her at increased risk for embolisms.


She decided to see if she had any other additional mutations on the same gene from her mother's side of the family—something that might increase her risk even more. She discovered that she does have other mutations, but that researchers don't believe they will cause any health issues.

What's next on her agenda? Well, she says she hasn't yet taken driver's ed.

Read the complete story at the link above and read Anne's comment following the story.

New York: Gastro-genealogy, eating Jewish

Hey, if we can have "geneabloggers," we can have "gastrogenealogy," right?

Love Sephardic food from Italy, Spain, Portugal, North Africa, South America and other parts, but don't want to cook it at home?

According to the New York Times, chef Nikki Cascone's new restaurant, Octavia's Porch, will offer Jewish dishes from those places and more. Named for the Via del Portico d’Ottavia, in Rome’s Jewish ghetto, he opening is planned for November at 40 Avenue B (Fourth Street).

Info in other articles and blogs indicate the theme is "global Jewish cuisine." See the Village Voice blog - Fork in the Road - for an interview with Cascone on September 16. Here's a bit of it:

What's the status of your new restaurant?

The restaurant's name is Octavia's Porch. It's named after the Roman Jewish ghetto. There's a pizza there called Porta Octavia. We really wanted a story behind our name and that was one of the first places I realized that there were Jews all over the world -- even places like Italy -- doing unbelievable food that had an influence on the cuisine in the countries they resided in. I didn't know that before then and felt pretty naive being that I had a Jewish mom and an Italian dad.

Are you working on menu items yet?

We started recipe testing this week and tasting. There's Eastern European influences, Egyptian, Ukrainian, Hungarian ... you name it. It is global Jewish cuisine. I wanted to emphasize that Jewish food is more than just deli, which really was invented here in New York City. I'm trying to do classic dishes with a modern "Nikki" twist and expose people to less traditional dishes that they may not have seen from some other parts of the world. You eat it and think, "Oh, that's Jewish?" Things like eggplant caponata that the Arabics and Jews introduced to Italians, then Italians got all the credit for it. Jewish really was the first fusion cuisine.

Will the food be kosher?

The restaurant is Jewish by culture and not by religion. So, although we're not going to be kosher, we are not going to serve shellfish and pork.

The second part of the interview is here; learn what the chef ate at her post-Yom Kippur break-fast.

UK: Leeds celebrates Jewish heritage

The city of Leeds (UK) will celebrate 150 years of the city's Jewish history and heritage with an event titled LJ150. In connection with museum exhibits, an appeal is being made for items of interest. See below for details.

The Yorkshire Evening Post covered the story about the event which will be launched in October by Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks to mark the beginning of the first Jewish History Month in the city.

Organised by Makor, the Jewish cultural office for Leeds and Yorkshire, the event will feature memorabilia on the first purpose-built synagogue in Leeds - opened on Belgrave Street in 1860.

"We want to create a real celebration of our unique heritage and invite members of the wider community to volunteer their reminiscences and ideas," said Helen Frais, Makor's project manager.

On November 28, LJ150 will sponsor a heritage day at Leeds City Museum, featuring stalls exploring Jewish heritage over the ages and a mock Jewish wedding, and videos of Jewish life now and then.

Frais is appealing for vintage outfits for the mock ceremony focusing on clothing from Jewish-based firms Burtons and Marks and Spencer. She is also asking for sewing machines and textiles including tailors' dummies, stools and pressers for the museum exhibit.

On February 27, 2011, a sculpture day with Frances Segelman is planned. The artist, who has created pieces of art for the royal family, is offering an opportunity for a community member to have their head sculpted. Sealed bids over £1,000 will be accepted for nominations through the end of September.

For more information, read the complete article at the link above.

New York City: Jewish walking tour, Sept. 25

James Kaplan will lead a walking tour to important lower Manhattan Jewish sites at 1pm, Saturday, September 25.

The New Rochelle resident - a Wall Street tax and estates lawyer in his real life - has been leading walking tours for some 25 years.

According to Kaplan, "Jewish history in New York is Jewish history in America."

In 2004, he began developing a tour of key Jewish historical sites when he was commissioned to lead a tour for the 350th anniversary of Congregation Shearith Israel, the first Jewish congregation (formed in 1654) in what is now the US.

The tour will track Jewish history from the arrival of 23 desperate Jews from Recife, Brazil in 1654, to the role American Jews played in the establishment of Israel in 1948.

The tour - rain or shine - will take two-to-three hours and cover about two miles, starting at the point where the refugees landed and concluding at the Jewish cemetery on St. James Place.

Kaplan began developing the tour of key Jewish historical sites in 2004, when he was commissioned to lead a tour for the 350th anniversary of Congregation Shearith Israel, the first Jewish congregation (formed in 1654) in what is now the US.

On the tour is today's parking garage, where the refugees first established a synagogue on South Williams Street.

LowerHudson.com covered the story by Gary Stern.

For more details, read the complete story at the link above.

Washington DC: Tracing family secrets, Sept. 19

Learning a single family secret can set us on discovery road. Author Steve Luxenberg had just that experience.

Steve ("Annie's Ghosts") will present "Genealogy From the Inside Out: Tracing a Family Secret From a Single Clue," at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington on Sunday, September 19.

Discovering a family secret – a hidden relative, marriage, divorce or cause of death - may change dramatically our understanding of our family tree. How do we - how can we - pursue that single clue?

Steve is one of my favorite people and I highly recommend attending his programs. His career as a professional journalist has provided the tools and experience to investigate and interview. Tracing the Tribe believes that a good genealogist or family historian must develop the same tools as those of investigative journalists.

If you haven't read "Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret" - now in paperback - do read it before this meeting.

The meeting starts at 1pm, with the program at 1.30pm, at B'nai Israel, 6301 Montrose Road, Rockville, Maryland. It is open to people of all faiths and guests are welcome. A book-signing is also scheduled.

In 1995, Steve, an associate editor at the Washington Post, discovered that his mother (in her 70s) had been hiding the existence of her then-deceased sister. This was the impetus for his odyssey to unravel the rest of the story, including his aunt's 30 years in a psychiatric institution.

Steve's PowerPoint presentation will bring attendees along on his journey down discovery road as he wrote his award-winning book.

Following clues and leads, the process includes burial records, birth certificates, hospital records, immigration documents and wartime records, to develop a fascinating paper trail. One result of his investigation was a significantly changed understanding of his family history and societal stigma regarding mental health.

For more information and directions, see the JGSGW website.

NOTE: Mark your calendars as the JGSGW will host the 31st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, 14-19 August 2011, in Washington DC.

Boston: NEHGS, newspaper research, Sept. 15

The New England Historic Genealogical Society, in addition to its new AmericanAncestors.org website, offers excellent programming with expert speakers at its Boston headquarters.

Elissa Scalise Powell CG will present "Windows to the Past: Newspaper Research," at 10am, Wednesday, September 15, at the NEHGS, 99-101 Newbury St., Boston, Massachusetts. The program is free and open to the public.

Newspapers contain more than obituaries -- they record many important events in our ancestor's lives and can be a substitute for missing vital records. Learn how to access them online and off in order to reap the huge rewards that are hidden in their pages.

A Pennsylvania resident, Powell has been doing genealogical research since 1985, and has been helping others find their ancestral roots since 1990. She became a Certified Genealogical Records SpecialistSM (CGRS) in 1995 and, in 2005, changed her designation to Certified GenealogistSM (CG).

In addition to being a national and regional speaker, Powell is the Professional Genealogy course coordinator, Institute for Genealogy and Historical Research, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama; Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy instructor, Salt Lake City; and an expert and instructor at Boston University's Certificate in Genealogical Research program.

She has authored articles and book reviews published in NGS NewsMagazine, NGS Quarterly, APG Quarterly, Digital Genealogist, and the now-defunct Genealogical Computing.

For more information visit AmericanAncestors.org.

Kids: Disney Channel, genealogy and a song!

Genealogists are always wondering how to get kids involved in family history.

Looks like the Disney Channel will be helping out with our perennial quest with its new show - "My Family Tree" - set to air in November, which spotlights kids with interesting family histories, visiting relevant locations and speaking about their ancestors.

The Disney Fan Magazine offered a glimpse of the new series:

Genealogy and geography are set to come together in a new Disney Channel series to premiere in November. “My Family Tree” will showcase kids from around the country engagingly reporting on their interesting ancestors and roots.

Camera crews were in Marblehead, Massachusetts, with the Gerry family (Florida residents) who trace back to Elbridge Gerry, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Massachusetts governor (1810-1812) and the fifth US vice president (1813-1814).

He was born in Marblehead in 1744 and worked in the shipping business with his father and brothers. Heard the term "gerrymandering"? It was named after Elbridge and refers to redistricting to favor the party in power during elections.
The episode's star is his descendant, Noah Gerry, 12, who reports on various town locations for the show.

A quote from Disney spokesperson Patti McTeague stated that the children featured in the series all “have self-esteem and a gift of storytelling.”

The Marblehead Patch carried a more detailed story on the places filmed.

Among them were the Gerry School, Gerry Playground and the Gerry 5 VFA. They started the day near the Marblehead Lobster Company, with Gerry Island just offshore.

Noah also visited Elbridge Gerry's historic home on Washington Street, which stopped traffic and attracted many curious onlookers. Noah spoke into the camera, "This is our last stop. Elbridge Gerry was born in this house."

This week was Noah's first visit to Marblehead and it's not exactly what he expected.

"Actually, it's way more modern than I imagined," he said. "I had always pictured it with horses and wagons."

The Gerry family said they were surprised, and thrilled, to realize their family name is such a big part of Marblehead.

Noah's mother, Dr. Charlotte Gerry says the family has always known of their connection to Gerry, but "we'll go home now with a better sense of our heritage ... and with even more pride."

Noah caught the acting bug during a Disney show audition in Florida. He's appeared in several commercials and a sitcom pilot, and his sisters have starred in national commercials.

This isn't the first time Disney has ventured into family history. See four press releases here from back in 2000, when "The Tigger Movie" was released.

There's also a great song - "Round My Family Tree" - but I couldn't find the English lyrics on YouTube, so here's the animation with Finnish soundtrack. Still good for the linguistically-challenged. Should we be singing it at genealogy conferences?

Tracing the Tribe says to watch out for merchandise tie-ins, and suggests the following:

-- dolls that "speak" their ancestors' names

-- kid's sized toolboxes: mini microfilm readers, rolls of film, sets of "old" photos.

-- Fanny (or Freddy) the Family Tree - a stuffed warm and fuzzy tree toy

-- Sets of family tree equipment: "Let's Play Genealogy!"

-- Family group charts and pedigree sheets, with bright stickers and more.

There's a world of opportunities out there!

Poland: Nowy Dwor Jewish Cemetery, Memorial Project

Ze'ev Shaked has provided an update for descendants and friends of the Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki Project.

At left, a broken tombstone excavated in 2009.

For more information and photos, click here.

-- Fence and gate construction is ongoing and will be completed next month. Rabbi Michael Schudrich (chief rabbi of Poland) and his assistant are working with the construction company to ensure work is conducted according to Jewish law and tradition. Photos are on the website above. http://www.nowydworjewishmemorial.com/

-- Ze'ev will be in Nowy Dwor in mid-October to view the completed fence and gates and distribute final payment.


-- During his visit, he'll meet with the contractor to discuss the scope and preliminary cost estimate for the memorial, meet with the mayor and the city of Nowy Dwor to discuss the project's second phase; additional tombstones will be excavated before and during his visit; and he will spend a day at the archives to look at more names and certificates. An idea for the memorial's design was received from an Israeli retired architect, and logistics and cost will also be discussed.

-- Beginning in October 2010, organizing committee members in Israel and the US will initiate a major fundraising campaign for the memorial and completion of the entire project.

-- The dedication ceremony in 2011 will be either Tuesday, July 26, or Wednesday, July 27. Ceremony details and other events will be discussed with Nowy Dwor's mayor. The plan is to commemorate the Jewish cemetery's restoration and the memorial, but to celebrate the town's Jewish heritage. Events being considered: Jewish pre-war klezmer music concert, a Sholom Aleichem play or "Fiddler on the Roof" (the play) in Polish/Yiddish performed by local high school students, guided tour to Modlin, boat sailing on the Narew, and other events. By next year, the town will have at least 200 rooms for visitors.

-- The committee plans to invite Polish government dignitaries, the Israeli Ambassador to Poland and possibly dignitaries from Israel, as well Jewish representatives in the US Congress. Some families to include to visit Auschwitz after the events. Ze'ev would like to see the participation of Israeli high school students.

-- The project was recently covered by two Jewish papers in the US; the articles are on the project website. Project members who reside in towns and cities with Jewish publications are asked to work with them to publish a similar article.

-- US Congressman Barney Frank sent a letter of support to Nowy Dwor's mayor.

For more information, to donate, to assist in some way, see surnames associated with the town, see the project website at the link above, and contact information with project leaders. Visit the project on Facebook.

Ellis Island: A rose by any other name...

If I had only one penny each time I've heard this story.

Do we need a national day to convince people that their names were not changed at Ellis Island? How can we convince people that the romantic myths in their family are simply that - a myth?

No one's name was "stolen," "changed," "Anglicized," "transliterated" or "translated" by an Ellis Island clerk, as stated in a New York Times story and reader comments (see below). Marion Smith of the CIS has always stressed that not one documented case of such an action has ever been found. It is strange that Smith is quoted in this New York Times story (see below) and did not provide that information - or wasn't asked the right question.

Passenger lists were compiled from immigrants' documents before embarkation. Such documents included ship tickets, passports or other travel papers. At Ellis Island, the clerks merely checked off the names from the list.

Every once in a while, another writer or publication - which should know better - stirs up the issue again providing misinformation. This time it was Sam Roberts and the New York Times.

Also perpetuating the myth is a photo caption in the story: An undated photograph from Ellis Island, where officials sometimes transliterated the surnames of immigrants. No, they didn't. The list was written prior to embarkation, and the Ellis Island staff included many who were immigrants themselves and who spoke nearly every language in the world. Since names were merely checked off the list, there was no opportunity to transliterate names.

However, as most genealogists know, there was nothing to prevent an immigrant from changing a surname the minute they set foot in the city. Some had previous relatives who had already changed the name an the newcomer adopted that name. Some were helped to immigrate by relatives and changed their surname to that of the relative who helped.

In my own family, four TALALAI brothers were brought to Philadelpha in the first decade of the 1900s, by their brother-in-law FEINSTEIN. They were so appreciative that they changed their surname to FEINSTEIN. We cannot find them, so if you know of any FEINSTEIN who were TALALAI, please let me know.

In 1898, when Max (Mendl) TALALAI arrived from Mogilev, Belarus, he had already decided on a new name. On the ship coming over, a fellow passenger who knew some English advised him to change it immediately upon arrival. "No one," he said, "would give a job to a Mr. Tell-a-Lie."

Max, the first relative to arrive, wrote home to Mogilev and Voratinschtina and told all the relatives that their new name was now TOLLIN. Most changed to that name after their arrival, although we do have some TALLIN, TOLL, TALL and TAYLOR.

And, of course, FEINSTEIN. A family joke was that perhaps they wanted a less Jewish name than TALALAI.

Other than perpetuating this myth, the story - "New Life in America No Longer Means a New Name" - is excellent as it addresses name changing by immigrants and the reasons why.

For many 19th- and 20th-century immigrants or their children, it was a rite of passage: Arriving in America, they adopted a new identity.

Charles Steinweg, the German-born piano maker, changed his name to Steinway (in part because English instruments were deemed to be superior). Tom Lee, a Tong leader who would become the unofficial mayor of Chinatown in Manhattan, was originally Wong Ah Ling. Anne Bancroft, who was born in the Bronx, was Anna Maria Louisa Italiano.

The rationale was straightforward: adopting names that sounded more American might help immigrants speed assimilation, avoid detection, deter discrimination or just be better for the businesses they hoped to start in their new homeland.

According to the story, the paper looked at more than 500 applications during June at New York's Civil Court. Only some six intended to Anglicize or shorten original surnames; most did it because of marriage, childbirth or other reasons.

Iyata Ishimabet Maini Valdene Archibald of Brooklyn changed her name to Ishimabet Makini Valdene Bryce. Guo Wi Chan of Forest Hills, Queens, changed his to Ryan Guowei Chan. And after Jing Qiu Wu, the Flushing, Queens, mother of 5-year-old Star Jing Garcia, divorced, she renamed her daughter Star Rain Wu, dropping her husband’s surname.

The US is much more diverse culturally than it was a long time ago, and there's less pressure to fit in. In fact, reminds the author, ethnic identity may be an asset for certain reasons, such as affirmative action programs.

In regards to the "name changed at Ellis Island" myth, Marian Smith, CIS senior historian is quoted, but not on this subject. Perhaps Smith wasn't asked the right question about that myth.

Now for the part of the story that the author and, in fact, the New York Times should have known better:

A century or so ago, some names were simplified by shipping agents as immigrants boarded ships in Europe. Others were transliterated, but rarely changed, by immigration officials at Ellis Island. Many newcomers changed their names legally, from Sapusnick to Phillips (“difficulty in pronouncing name, interferes with their business,” according to a legal notice), Laskowsky to Lake (“former name not American”) and from Katchka to Kalin (Katchka means duck in Yiddish and a particular Mr. Katchka was “subjected to ridicule and annoyance because of this”).

There's also a modicum of humor in the article concerning legal name changes. While most requests were generally granted, one case seems to have been simply bad luck as to the assigned judge:

... as recently as 1967, a Civil Court judge in Brooklyn refused to change Samuel Weinberg’s family name to Lansing “for future business reasons, such that my sons shall not bear any possible stigma.” The judge’s name was Jacob Weinberg.

The story continues and touches on some celebrities, ethnic individuals wishing to retain their names after marriage, easier names or spellings adopted.

Author Sam Roberts’s grandfather arrived as Samuel Rabinowitz, then Rubin and tchanged it to Roberts.

Read the complete story and all the comments.

Family Trees: How and why to care for them

How and why should we care for our family trees?

That's the question author Buzzy Jackson answers in her new book, "Shaking the Family Tree." Tracing the Tribe is waiting to receive our copy, but this review in Boulder, Colorado's Daily Camera was too good not to bring to you.

Buzzy is also a member of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado. You can see her book trailer here on RootsTelevision.

"Shaking the Family Tree" is a guide to start a reader into their own journey into their own family tree, all the dos and don'ts, all the ins and outs. At the same time, it's an introspective look by a younger-than-your-usual genealogy lover, an educated history buff to boot. Its reflections make a reader think long-term about their own lives even if they may never have occasion to dust off an old family album to learn much more of their surname.

In the story, Buzzy says:

"The lesson I drew from (a high school reunion) was one I kept drawing on this journey: We're all family. During gatherings like weddings and family reunions, we enter a collective subconscious agreement to emphasize and cultivate those subtle relationships, which make us feel even closer.... So much changes in one's first twenty or thirty years of life. And sometimes, it seems, relatively little changes after that. These new conceptions of time and aging were surely a part of why I'd gotten interested in genealogy in the first place. I was starting to experience the slightly desperate feeling of watching time slip away."

Tracing the Tribe understands exactly what she means, and I'm sure you do too.

The book, according to the article, starts with the question of why people want to trace family trees. And these range from confirming or disproving family stories, controversial rumors or if one is related to a celebrity.

"The ritual of time spurred my own quest: my wedding, the trimesters of my pregnancy, the birth of my son," she writes. "Aging is a powerful genealogical incentive. The further from our birth we get, the closer to our past we want to be."

I think it's a good review. You might want to get a copy - put it on your wish list - or gift a copy to relatives who don't exactly understand what and why you do what you do.

As soon as I receive my copy, I'll add my views as well.

Miracles do happen: Family history found

Miracles do happen.

Here's the story of a family history discovered in the backseat of a junkyard car.

Now, if someone out there could only find the 300-year-old TALALAY family history that was lost in the 1950s when the man - who brought it to the US from Belarus - died. It disappeared during the clearing out of his Florida apartment.

The Progress-Index.com (Petersburg, Virginia) story was a feel-good, warm-fuzzies recounting of a prayer answered.

The two-century history turned up after owner John Jarratt loaned the book to someone who worked for the city about 2 1/2 years ago. He didn't remember who or what happened to it since then. But this summer it came home. The photo (left above) shows details of one page.

His grandfather, also named John, organized the book, which includes documents related to the family history in Petersburg, including tax receipts, deeds and more from the early 1800s. In 1815, Jarratt paid $2.18 in tax on a piece of land.

The family traces its roots to three brothers - Alexander, Richard and John - who lived and worked on Pocahontas Island as free blacks.

"I'm the fourth John," Jarratt said with a laugh. He went on to say that his ancestors were doing well for the time period. "They were free, they owned a business, and they owned a house." The house they built is the only two-story and only brick structure on Pocahontas Island and it stands there still to this day.

Anna Jarratt said the house was even used as part of the Underground Railroad.

John Jarratt said that the records in the book even indicate that at times, the Jarratts owned slaves themselves.

In July, he was returning from North Carolina and told his sister-in-law he had been praying about the book. By the end of the next week he received a phone call from a Richmond woman who said that she had found something important in a junkyard in Charlottesville. She said he might want to have it back, and he was reunited with the book soon after.

The woman who found it said she knew it was special.

"The first time I saw it in the car, I just thought it was a photo album," Sumner said. But something drew her back to looking at the book. When she took a look inside she realized it was much more important. "I looked inside and realized it was pretty special."

She found the Jarratts and contacted them.

Read the complete story, see the photograph and the video at the link above.

Great story! Have you experienced anything like this? We all need encouragement that our lost histories may be returned in one way or another.

Food: Genealogy of gefilte fish

When my Teheran-born husband first heard "gefilte fish," he thought the name was "filthy fish." He soon learned that putting enough chrein (horseradish) on it made it palatable.

The Dallas Observer's Hanna Raskin offers a great story on the genealogy of this quintessential Ashkenazi holiday fare. It is a variation on "tell us what you eat, we'll tell you where you're from."

Gefilte fish, perhaps the most maligned food on the traditional Jewish High Holiday table, encodes its maker's ancestry as surely as hand-me-down stories and immigration papers, a local fishmonger says.

Jon Alexis of TJ's Fresh Seafood Market in Preston Forest Village claims he can almost always pinpoint where a customer's forebears first settled in the United States based on which fish they ask him to grind for their gefilte fish preparation. Although Alexis is quick to clarify his theory is based on purely anecdotal evidence -- "I don't want to upset anyone," he says -- he believes most recipes reflect a generations-old preference for certain flavors.

"These recipes are heritage, so you have that Antiques Roadshow thing," Alexis says.

Learn about the various mixtures of fish - pike, carp, whitefish, buffalo, tilapia, saltwater snapper - with a geographical tinge. Learn about the concoction with and without sugar, and what that might mean.

Nearly 50 years ago, someone suggested there was a "gefilte fish line" running about 40 miles east of Warsaw. West of it, it was sweet with sugar; to the east, it was hotter with chrein and pepper. Well-known to many Jewish genealogists searching Poland, many sugar refineries in Poland were owned by Jews and that's suggested as a possible reason.

Interestingly, though, nobody wanted credit for the sugary gefilte fish. Polish gentiles called it "Jewish fish" and Polish Jews called it "Polish fish." Gefilte fish has never been stylish.

Read the complete story at the link above, learn what a "fish dork" is, and read the comments.