Poland: Warsaw Jewish Museum

Germany is giving 5 million euros for the Warsaw Jewish Museum, according to this Haaretz article.

The German government signed an agreement Monday to provide 5 million euros for the construction of a museum in the Polish capital of Warsaw to document the millennium-long history and culture of Jews in Poland.

The agreement, signed by German Ambassador Michael Gerdts and a Polish sponsorship group, will make funds available for the preparations for the museum's permanent exhibition.

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews is set to open in 2010, across from a memorial to those killed in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943.

Before the Nazi German invasion in September 1939, 3.5 million Jews lived in Poland. By 1945, most had been murdered by the Nazis.

The contribution is meant as an additional contribution to redress the suffering of Jews caused in the name of Germany and on Poland as well.

"It is also to make clear that Germans continue to acknowledge their responsibility for this tragic past," the ambassador said.

The agreement was signed in an office building which was the site of the Grand Synagogue before the war. It was blown up by the SS commander who quelled the Warsaw ghetto revolt.

Read more here

Just the facts: Holiday gatherings

Thanksgiving (for readers in the US) and Chanukah are only a few weeks away. Plan to advantage of family gatherings to collect information on your family's unique history.

Think about taking pictures and also video holiday dinners. Prepare and send questionnaires in advance for guests to complete and bring to the gathering. You could threaten not to give them dinner if they don't turn in the answers, but that's not really nice - just don't give them dessert!

Hopefully, the gatherings - at your house or at the relatives - will include several generations. In addition to questionnaires, make sure to give the attending guests the latest updates to your family history research.

Record older generations telling the stories they heard from their grandparents, as well as younger generations asking questions about the family.

There are many oral history websites offering hundreds of possible questions. among the most useful for older generations:

Where did our family come from?
What was our original name?
Are there any unusual stories about our name or origin?
Do we have any famous or infamous ancestors?
How did our family get here? (wherever "here" is)
Do we have branches in other countries?
What was the first family event you attended as a small child?

Younger generations might want to know how parents and grandparents met, how earlier generations immigrated on ships or train, and how they walked from home to school and back again twice each day - uphill both ways - in high snow drifts.

Try this ice-breaker: Write questions on slips of paper, fold them and let each guest select one. They can choose to answer the surprise question themselves or ask the question of someone else.

Search the web for "Oral History questions" or check the great resources here on Cyndi's List.

San Francisco: Researching Poland, Nov. 18

The San Francisco Bay Area JGS will host Judy Baston - a long-time researcher of Polish records - who will discuss "Doing Research in Poland."

Baston serves on the Jewish Records Indexing-Poland executive committee and is a volunteer librarian at the Jewish Community Library

She will discuss a variety of ways to find a Polish ancestral town, how to determine what records exist for that town, and how to make the most of the JRI-Poland database and website - as well as other hints to help enhance Polish research.

The meeting begins at 1pm, Sunday, November 18, at the Jewish Community High School in San Francisco.

For directions and more details, click here.

What's Inside: LitvakSIG Online Journal

If you are researching your Lithuanian Jewish relatives, here's another excellent online genealogy journal, the Litvak SIG Online Journal, edited by Judi Langer-Surnamer Caplan.

She's just announced a list of articles available online here:

"Sveksna: Our Town"

"About 'Surinamers' Who Are Not from Suriname: A Search from Shoe Box to Internet"

"On the Front Line in Lithuania in 1915: Narratives of Jewish Eyewitnesses Part 2"

"Lithuanian Jews on Postage Stamps: Ben Shahn 1898-1969"

"The Zeimelis Jewish Cemetery"

"What Does a Litvak Look Like?"

"South African Landsmannschaften Records"

"Never Judge an Archival Collection by Its Description or, Never Judge a Book
by Its Cover: The contents of YIVO's Lithuanian Communities of the Interwar
Period Collection"

"Litvaks and Their Calendars or How to Navigate Between the Torah Portion
and the Hebrew, Gregorian and Julian Calendars"

If you are searching your Lithuanian relatives, take a look at these informative articles.

Florida: Broward County JGS in the news

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Broward County was featured in a Miami Herald story detailing how it helps people explore their roots.

Martin Shames has traced his ancestors back to the early 19th century. He believes others can do the same if they have the tools and knowledge.

To help get people on the road to finding their roots, Shames will be one of several speakers at a seminar on Nov. 18 by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Broward County, where he serves as president.

The group's members will offer presentations at the Soref Jewish Community Center in Plantation in the program Jewish Genealogy 101: A Four-Hour Route to Your Roots. The topics should help novices kick-start their search, as well as provide new techniques to experienced genealogists, said Shames, of Hollywood.

"There is focus on areas of Jewish interest, but the information is useful to people of all faiths and cultures," he said.

Originally an annual event, the program will now be presented twice a year.

Shames will share his personal experiences on finding loved ones who perished in the Holocaust; the society's founder, Bernard Kouchel, will offer a beginner's guide, while other members will present information on organizational skills, interviewing and finding data.

Shames has been searching his roots for 40 years and says that attendees will learn many techniques and resources.

The society, which will celebrate its 19th anniversary in December, maintains a 300-volume reference library.

To read more, click here.

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

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

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

Featured articles:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Books: Passing the genealogy torch

When I saw author Tami Lehman-Wilzig's newest children's books, I wanted to tell the entire genealogical community.

The books - in the Jewish Heirloom Stories Series - convey the importance of preserving and sharing family information while working to strengthen inter-generational bonding between children, parents and grandparents.

Each demonstrates specific Jewish values through a folktale, focuses on an unconventional family heirloom, and provides a section encouraging children to sit down with parents or grandparents and write their own story about a family heirloom.

What could be better for parents and grandparents who are themselves interested in genealogy?

Mayer Aaron Levi and his Lemon Tree and Lotty's Lace Tablecloth ($12.95, ages 6-10, Gefen) each offer a helpful online teacher/ parent guide, mentioning Avotaynu and JewishGen for more information.

In Mayer Aaron Levi and His Lemon Tree , Mayer Aaron lives in a small village, studies Torah and goes to the synagogue. The difference is that he owns a lemon tree and his wife Raizel brews special lemonade when the fruit is ripe.

How can genealogists not love the opening? A very contemporary kid says:

"My name is Joshua," he says. "I’ve just come back from my grandparents’ house. Grandpa gave my dad a black iron pot filled with soil and a small tree trunk … It’s a thick branch chopped off the lemon tree that stood in a large vat in my great-great grandfather’s front yard over 70 years ago. There’s a story behind this …"

And he tells the story of the family lemon tree and his ancestors.

In Lotty's Lace Tablecloth, a young girl wants to become a famous lace maker and begins learning her art. She also works on a lace tablecloth for her dowry. She plans to use it every Shabbat, but the Empress sees it and buys it. Everything ends happily and a tablecloth is handed down from generation to generation.

Chanukah is only a few weeks ago, and these books might fit right into your gift plans.

Bessarabia project: Volunteers needed

Does Bessarabia figure into your ancestral history? Are the towns of Kishinev (Chisnau) or Balti (Beltsy) familiar? Can you read and transliterate accurately from Hebrew and Cyrillic?

A project is underway to transcribe information from vital records (birth, marriage, death) for Kishinev and Balti in the former Russian gubernia of Bessarabia; data is being placed in the JewishGen Romania Database.

According to Romanian Special Interest Group (Rom SIG) coordinator Bob Wascou of Sacramento, CA, the original records are at the National Archives of the Republic of Moldova (NARM) in Chisnau, Moldova. The records were microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, and provided to JewishGen on CD-ROMs. The microfilms are available through the LDS Family History Library and all LDS Family History Centers.

Created by the Jewish communities in the towns where events took place, the text is in both Russian (Cyrillic) and Hebrew script; some are in Russian only.

The database currently contains more than 103,000 records, says Wascou, and the majority of remaining records are for Kishinev (today Chisnau, Moldova) and Beltsy (today Balti, Moldova).

This is where you may be able to help: Wascou seeks more volunteers to input data into an Excel template or quality control records that others input.

Volunteers must have the ability to read Hebrew or Cyrillic as required; to view JPG images as email attachments; knowledge of Excel and ability to input data into Excel template; have a high degree of accurate data entry. All entries will be made in Latin letters; transliterated as necessary from Hebrew or Russian according to standardized guidelines.

If this sounds like something you can and want to do, and thereby assist researchers around the world without your language skills, here's a chance to do your good deed for genealogy. Additionally, if your family comes from the area, you might uncover interesting family records while helping global Jewish genealogists to access this information.

To volunteer for the project, write Bob Wascou at robertw252@aol.com and tell him about your language skills. For more information, click here.