Carnival of Genealogy: An unusual topic, October 1

Some time ago, Tracing the Tribe wrote a post entitled "If your blog died today."

The idea came from ProBlogger Darren Rowse, who asked "If your blog died today, what would it be remembered for?"

Jasia of Creative Gene - our Carnival of Genealogy Queen - ran with the idea and Tracing the Tribe is hosting the 81st edition of the COG:

"Your Genealogy Blog's Obituary: If your blog ended or was lost/deleted today, how would you write its obituary?

What were the highlights of your blog?

What is its history?"

The deadline for submissions is October 1. Submit your blog article to the 81st Carnival of Genealogy using the carnival submission form.

Darren's post was a two-part assignment which will provide more input. Here are some questions that might help:

- What do you want people to say about your blog?
- How do you hope it will have been perceived?
- What will people miss about it the most?
- What ground has it broken?
- What has it achieved?
- How has it helped people?
- Write an obituary for your blog as you think others see it now.
- What would they say about it?
- What would people miss about it?
- What has it achieved?
- How has it fulfilled a need or service in people’s lives?
- What ground has it broken?

Tracing the Tribe is rubbing its virtual hands in glee over the prospect of reading all your submissions.

Remember to please use a descriptive phrase in the title of any articles you plan to submit and/or write a brief description/introduction to your articles in the "comment" box of the blog carnival submission form. This will give readers an idea of what you've written about and interest them in clicking on your link.

Thank you to footnoteMaven for creating the excellent 81st COG badge above.

I'm looking forward to reading your posts.

New Jersey: Newark's Jewish community

Does Newark, New Jersey figure in your family's history? At one point in history, the city had 53 synagogues; today, only a few remain.

My TALALAY/TOLLIN branch settled in Newark, when my great-grandfather Aaron Peretz Talalay (changed to Tollin) arrived from Vorotinschtina, Mogilev, Belarus. Already living in Newark for quite some time was Aaron's maternal aunt Dora YASIN/JASSEN and her husband, Meyer KONVISER. Zayde and his family were joined by his brother David and his family a few years later. Several families formed the Mogilev Benevolent Society.

If your family's like mine, the NewarkUSA blog, authored by L Craig Schoonmaker, will provide some color. He has included 19 photos of places, documents and more in this post.

The story covers Ahavas Sholom (the state's oldest continually operating synagogue, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2006) and the Jewish Museum of New Jersey, which are located at 145 Broadway in Newark's North Ward, which opened in December 2007.

The post offers links to other stories that may be of interest, such as an exhibit on the Weequahic community.

Most of the story is a 2008 interview with museum president Max Herman.

The author cites a Google Books Limited Preview of The Enduring Community: the Jews of Newark and MetroWest by William B. Helmreich (1998), for more information.

Why a Jewish museum for New Jersey? Jews have lived in New Jersey for more than two centuries, and today it is home to almost a half-million Jews, the fourth largest community after New York, California and Florida. They live in all of the state's 21 counties.

The interview covers the founding of Ahavas Shalom with founders Ada and Leopold Jacobson looking for a place to hold the bris (Jewish ritual circumcision) for their first son. They couldn't find a place, held the event in their apartment and later founded the congregation, raising the funds to construct the building in 1922 or 1923.

The Aron Kodesh (the Ark that holds the Torah scrolls) dates from the 1870s and is the oldest in New Jersey. It was brought over from from Rodeph Shalom in New York City. Herman recounts that the ark was huge, a mahogany structure much larger than present, with a spire adding another 10 feet in height and longer on each side. The extra pieces went into constructing the bima, the platform where rabbi and cantor conduct services.

Although the museum had been told the Ark was donated, said Herman, Hadassah Bachman, 90, recently came to the museum and said her father, grocer Hyman Bachman, was the congregation's president and that he and Leopold Jacobson had brought the ark to Newark. Jacobson was a cabinetmaker and the grocer had a truck. They took apart the Ark, brought it over and reassembled it.

By the late 1980s, the then-Orthodox congregation's membership had decreased and it was in trouble, having trouble gathering a minyan to hold services. A scandal of sorts was hinted at by Herman but a prominent Newark attorney Ben Arens saved the synagogue from being sold. During a clean-up visit, a man named Eric Freedman was involved and Arens "strong-armed" him into becoming president, a post he continues to hold. It is a Conservative congregation today.

It seats about 110 and Herman said they get a full-house during the High Holy Days, but a normal Shabbat is 15 or 20. Most congregants are from the suburbs and have a nostalgic connection to the place. Herman notes that most come from Livingston, West Orange, South Orange, Montclair and the Caldwells - all in Essex County. Some people are evening moving back to the city.

The congregation includes Jews who have gravitated to Newark from Brazil, Ukraine and Sudan. Herman mentions they have several African-American members.

One in particular is Yehuda Ben-Levi, who traces his origins to Sudan, and then to South Carolina thru slavery, and it's an interesting story. A lot of the folks that come here have kind of interesting histories or genealogies about how they got to this place. But the doors are always open.

The Newark City Council gave the congregation a certificate of commendation when the synagogue was rededicated after renovations. The New Jersey Historic Trust helped the project with a $126,000 grant.

Referenced in Schoonmaker's post is another NJJN article (2007) which quotes Max Herman, and covers the museum's opening exhibit, demonstrating the range of New Jersey Jewish life, from Paterson's silk workers, Vineland's farmers and south Jersey's communes, such as Roosevelt.

Read Schoonmaker's complete post at the link above.

Texas: A Sephardic New Year

In Texas, the Sephardic and Hispanic Jewish families celebrate the New Year with a Latin flavor.

The Houston Chronicle story focuses on families from Mexico, Cuba or South America as customs from their communities of origin are still celebrated.

Martin and Denise Yudovich have raised a brood of proud Texans who all speak perfect English, yet they remember their childhoods in Mexico by singing songs and saying prayers in English, Spanish, Hebrew and Yiddish at holiday celebrations.

“Yiddish was the language used by our parents and grandparents,” Denise Yudovich explains. “Back then prayers were said in Yiddish and Hebrew, and we kids all spoke Spanish.”

Of the 45,000 Jews in the Houston area, Lee Wunsch, executive director of the Jewish Federation, estimates Hispanic Jews make up as much as 2 percent of the population. In 1984, an influx of Jews from Mexico and South and Central American countries self-organized into a social network called Hebraica, which had a membership of 250 families at one time.

Among former Cubans are the Esquenazi and Halfon extended families.

When Fidel Castro came to power in 1960, Sara Esquenazi's parents, both physicians, left behind a good life to come to Houston. Esquenazi was 13 then, but she remembers much of her life in Cuba. She celebrates with her brother and sister-in-law Leon and Rebeca Halfon and cousins.

“When our great-great-grandparents were expelled from Spain, or our parents had to leave Cuba, it showed us that they would give up all their worldly possessions so they could keep their religion, because that was more important,” Esquenazi said.

Esquenazi keeps a worn set of papers with the instructions for the Sephardic seder for Rosh Hashanah, which few American Ashkenazim know anything about.

Every item on their table represents something significant as a wish for the coming year. The fish head reminds them that they “should always be a leader, and not a follower.” A pomegranate apple with its many seeds symbolizes abundance. Spinach is served to ward off evil. A lively discussion of the foods and prayers in Spanish commences when they sit at their holiday table.

Sylvia Fleischer and her sister Dori Yudelevich are from Santiago, Chile and came to Houston in 1973. They prepare the special foods and the ceremony is conducted in English and Spanish.

“We cook our vegetables and apples until they are soft and sweet for a sweet year,” Fleischer said. We eat dates for abundance and cook special tortillas with leeks to keep the bad away.”

Fleischer said the work of preparing all the special symbols is much like the work Jewish cooks do in preparing a Passover Seder.

“For us, this is not like a regular meal, and that gives our Rosh Hashana celebrations special meaning,” Fleischer said. “It's a lot of work, but we want to continue the traditions passed down from our grandparents to our parents, and from our parents to us.”

Among Sephardim of all origins (including Persians, Syrians, Iraqis, and others), some of these Rosh Hashanah traditions include:

- Fish head: Reminds them to be leaders (the head), not followers (the tail).
- Pomegranate: Its many seeds represent abundance.
- Spinach: Wards off evil.
- Dates: Represent abundance.
- Tortillas with leeks: Keep the “bad” away.

Read the complete article at the link above.

Ohio: Wooster synagogue remembers its history

In Ohio, Wooster's Knesseth Israel Temple members celebrate the High Holy Days while they also remember their history.

The Daily Record article details the city's Jewish community and also mentions the Wayne County Public Library:

Ed Abramson, the congregation's historian, learned a great deal about his heritage and that of the Jewish community in Wooster when he retired in 1992 and began volunteering in the genealogy department of the Wayne County Public Library.

In studying newspapers on microfilm back to the 1820s, Abramson "became quite surprised how far back the Jewish presence was in Wooster," he said.

According to Abramson's research, Abraham Greenbaum, a merchant, was the first Jewish resident, arriving in 1841. The first Jewish birth is recorded in 1848 in Reedsburg.

"By the 1880s, we had a small little community in Wooster," populated by merchants and peddlers, Abramson said, adding, the Freedlanders settled here during that time.

Abramson's ancestors on his mother's side, the Brenners, "got here in 1904," he said, having immigrated to the United States from an area that was at various times in history either Russia, Poland or Lithuania.

Abramson's own father arrived in 1917, fleeing the Russian army during the Russian Revolution and arriving in America during the Great Flu Epidemic.

The story details the first synagogue, the first rabbi and more of the first families, as well as the synagogue's memorabilia, including a Holocaust Torah. on permanent loan from a Czech museum.

Read the complete story at the link above.

New Mexico: Rare genetic condition

This story may have general implications for those of Jewish ancestry, and particularly those with Hispanic and/or known Converso or Sephardic ancestry.

While researching a a recent posting on genealogy and health issues for the MyHeritage.com Genealogy Blog, this 2004 New York Times article popped up.

In 1598, Joyce Gonzalez’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather followed the famous conquistador Juan de Oñate from Spain to Mexico, then north on the Camino Real, the Royal Road to Santa Fe.

Mary Ann Chavez and her brother, above, are among the family members who suffer from oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy. In the 1800s, one of Mary Ann Chavez’s distant relatives, possibly a French fur trapper and trader from Quebec, also made his way into northern New Mexico. Mrs. Chavez and Mrs. Gonzalez, though not related, share a Hispanic heritage and a fascination with genealogy.

They also share the burden of having forebears with genetic diseases that, like the remote mountain villages in this region, have remained largely hidden from medical diagnosis and treatment. Now, thanks to the efforts of patient advocates and the work of a clinic here at the University of New Mexico Medical School, these illnesses are finally being confronted and studied.

“We call it the family curse,” said Mrs. Chavez, 73, “and you don’t know you’ve got it until you’re 40 or 50 when your eyelids start to droop, and you begin to have trouble swallowing and get muscle weakness.”

The illness is called oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy, or OPMD, and the largest group of Americans affected are Hispanics living in northern New Mexico. They are descendants of the wandering French-Canadian or, perhaps, early Spanish colonists. Mrs. Chavez’s son, her brother and innumerable aunts, uncles and cousins have all inherited the disease.

The family names referenced in the article are confirmed Sephardic names, listed in Pere Bonnin's Sangre Judia and on Sephardim.com. Oñate himself is considered to be of Converso ancestry, according to researchers, and most of the settlers in his expeditions were of similar background.

Considering that the geographical area covering this genetic disorder is northern New Mexico, where there is a very high percentage of the familias viejos ("old families"), it is possible that there is a Jewish element to this. I'm also wondering if southern Colorado, also a hotbed of Converso ancestry, has a population with this condition as well.

The fact that it has been found in Spain, Israel, France and England - all destinations populated by Sephardim and Conversos leads me to these suppositions. Tracing the Tribe is trying to find more information and will post when it is discovered.

Meanwhile, this is a fascinating story. Aren't newspaper archives wonderful resources? I'm amazed that I haven't seen this story before. If either of these conditions sound familiar or you know people who may have these symptoms, checking with a doctor seems a reasonable idea.

The genetic mutation OPMD was first identified by Canadian researchers in Quebec, which has the largest OPMD population in North America. The defective gene is thought to have been introduced by three French sisters who came to Canada in 1648. It is now found in 29 countries, in addition to those listed above.

Mrs. Gonzalez’s disease is cavernous angioma, also called CCM, for cerebral cavernous malformation. It is caused by abnormal blood vessels that form raspberrylike clusters in the brain and spinal cord. If these angiomas bleed or press against structures in the central nervous system, they can produce seizures, neurological deficits, hemorrhages and headaches.

Cavernous angiomas occur sporadically in the general population, but 20 percent are inheritable, and the disease is found at a much higher rate in Mexican-American families, particularly in northern New Mexico. Like OPMD, it is an autosomal dominant disease, meaning that each child of an affected parent has a 50 percent chance of inheriting it.

According to the story, the gene CCM1 seems to be found only in Mexican-Americans. Gonzalez persuaded nine relatives to undergo genetic testing; five tested positive for the CCM1 gene and all had angiomas in their brainstems.

“The Hispanic families that have lived here for 300 or 400 years — we’re practically all cousins,” she said. That led her to trace the genealogies of four other Hispanic families with histories of cerebral cavernous malformation. She held a complex genealogical chart whose five converging family trees pointed to Gerónimo Márquez, the 16th-century patriarch of her family. “He could be the guy that brought it for all of us,” she said.

A volunteer support group, Angioma Alliance, is headed by Dr. Connie Lee who estimates that tens of thousands of Hispanics carry the CCM1 gene. For CCM patients, genetic testing and MRI tests have improved diagnosis and monitoring, with treatments including medication for seizures and headaches, and neurosurgery for angiomas that can be accessed.

For those with OPMD, treatments include so-called sling procedures in which the eyelid is drawn up to a normal position and suspended from a muscle in the forehead. Swallowing difficulties may be treated with esophageal dilation, or Botox injections to relax the swallowing muscles.

Another physician from the University of New Mexico Medical School is quoted and says that because Mexican-Americans live all over the US, health professionals and patients - especially those in the Southwest - need to be aware of symptoms such as seizures, recurrent headaches or strokelike symptoms, and individuals need to tell their doctors about angiomas or cavernous malformation. In the case of OPMD, she says that droopy eyelids and swallowing trouble may be more than just a family trait.

If these symptoms are in your family, check with your doctor.

Read the complete article at the link above.

Lithuania: Marijampole passport project

Researchers with a family connection to Marijampole, Lithuania or the general area will be interested in this project.

A translator at the Vilnius Central Archive has begun working on the internal passport records for Marijampole.

It is always important to realize that because your direct ancestors left the town, many other relatives may have remained there. The internal passport files have proven valuable for others for just this reason.

According to Howard Margol, who is coordinating the Internal Passport Project:

If your ancestors lived in the vicinity of Marijampole, they probably applied for their internal passport there and not in the village where they lived. Most of the internal passport records include where the person was born. Usually, 30 - 40 percent of the applicants were born somewhere else other than in the town where they applied for their internal passport. Consequently, these lists are very comprehensive in the areas covered.

The Marijampole file contains quite a number of lists organized by year and shtetl. For instance: One shtetl list contains the name, surname, passport number, issuing date and place where the person lived. The applicant's photograph is usually available by contacting the archive.

These types of projects are not free. For a minimum contribution of $100, earmarked for the "Marijampole Internal Passport Project," researchers will receive all the records as they are translated and the records translated in the future.

Read more about the project here. Contribute to the project here. When your contribution has been made, contact Howard so he can send you the records as they are translated.

DNA: Numerous Cohanim lineages?

According to Dr. Michael Hammer, new research indicates that Cohanim descend from several lineages, that the "bloodline comes from more than one source."

Recent research on the Cohen Y chromosome indicates the Jewish priesthood, the Cohanim, was established by several unrelated male lines rather than a single male lineage dating to ancient Hebrew times.

The new research builds on a decade-old study of the Jewish priesthood that traced its patrilineal dynasty and seemed to substantiate the biblical story that Aaron, the first high priest (and brother of Moses), was one of a number of common male ancestors in the Cohanim lineage who lived some 3,200 years ago in the Near East.

Hammer is a University of Arizona population geneticist in the Arizona Research Laboratory's Division of Biotechnology. The study includes such collaborators as Dr. Karl Skorecki of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Rambum Medical Center (Haifa); Dr. Doron Behar, population geneticist and senior physician at the Rambam Medical Center Department of Critical Care Medicine (Haifa), who is also FamilyTreeDNA's Chief mtDNA Scientist and Scientific Advisory Board member, as well as collaborating scientists from Tel Aviv University and the Russian Academy of Sciences.

According to the story, a decade ago Hammer and Skorecki were part of the first research group that found the DNA marker signature of the Cohanim - the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH) - using a much smaller number of markers. Today, they are able to use a much larger battery of DNA markers and are able to develop a more complete CMH, called the Extended Cohen Modal Haplotype.

Hammer says that the findings should motivate renewed interest in historical reconstructions of the Jewish priesthood as well as high resolution DNA marker analyses of other populations and ‘lost tribes' claiming ancient Hebrew ancestry.

The team was able to pinpoint geographic distribution of a genetically more resolved CMH and "tease apart a multiplicity of male lines" that founded the priesthood in ancient times.

The Extended Cohen Modal Haplotype accounts for nearly 30 percent of Cohanim Y chromosomes from Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Jewish communities and likely traces to a common male ancestor who lived some 3,200 years ago in the Near East. It is virtually absent in non-Jews.

Other lineages that are shared among Cohanim from diverse Jewish communities are distinct from the extended CMH, which reveals, says Hammer, that the priesthood was established by several unrelated male lines.

The Human Genetics journal published the Hammer team's newest findings in their article entitled "Extended Y chromosome haplotypes resolve multiple and unique lineages of the Jewish priesthood."

Some statistics: The team used a sample of 215 Cohanim from various Jewish communities; 1,575 Jewish men from across the Jewish Diaspora; and 2,099 non-Jewish men from the Near East, Europe, Central Asia, and India. Here's a bit of the abstract:

While Cohanim from diverse backgrounds carry a total of 21 Y chromosome haplogroups, 5 haplogroups account for 79.5% of Cohanim Y chromosomes. The most frequent Cohanim lineage (46.1%) is marked by the recently reported P58 T->C mutation, which is prevalent in the Near East.

Based on genotypes at 12 Y-STRs, we identify an extended CMH on the J-P58* background that predominates in both Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Cohanim and is remarkably absent in non-Jews. The estimated divergence time of this lineage based on 17 STRs is 3,190 +/- 1,090 years.

Notably, the second most frequent Cohanim lineage (J-M410*, 14.4%) contains an extended modal haplotype that is also limited to Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Cohanim and is estimated to be 4,200 +/- 1,300 years old.

These results support the hypothesis of a common origin of the CMH in the Near East well before the dispersion of the Jewish people into separate communities, and indicate that the majority of contemporary Jewish priests descend from a limited number of paternal lineages.

Hammer says that the findings should motivate renewed interest in historical reconstructions of the Jewish priesthood as well as additional high resolution DNA marker analyses of other populations and ‘lost tribes' claiming ancient Hebrew ancestry."

Read the complete University of Arizona article here and the Human Genetics article here.

Talk like a Jewish pirate - in Ladino!

Geneablogger colleague John Newmark in St. Louis, Missouri, has noted that in addition to being Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, it is also International Talk Like a Pirate Day, which gives Tracing the Tribe another opportunity to talk about Sephardic Jewish pirates.

While John covers Jean Lafitte and Moses Cohen Henriques, there are others

Tracing the Tribe has always been interested in this topic and has written numerous posts covering this in some way. Here are some:

http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com/2009/02/israel-jewish-pirates-on-parade-feb-24.html
Dr. Steven Plaut's talk for the Jewish Family Research Association (Israel)

http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com/2008/10/jewish-pirates-of-caribbean.html
Putting the Oy back in Ahoy ... Haifa University professor Steven Plaut's article ... Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean...Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of Manischewitz!

http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com/2008/07/jamaica-sephardim-pirates-and.html
Jamaica's pirate history.

http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com/2006/09/for-fun-swashbuckling-sephardic.html
Samuel Pallache and Ladino-speaking pirates.

http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com/2006/10/yo-ho-ho-oy-update.html
Singing Jewish Pirates ... in the Yiddish version of the "Pirates of Penzance"

Even Chris Dunham got into the act:

genealogue.blogspot.com/2006/09/oy-vay-i-mean-arrrgh.html

Read John's post above which focuses on Jean Lafitte.

While John wonders if the above Jewish pirates recited the Al Chet (confession of sins) yearly on Yom Kippur, what has been established is that the rabbi on a Caribbean island strongly chastised the Jewish pirates for attacking a fellow Jew's ship. The pirates were believed to have established a community on an island where they observed Jewish laws and holidays. There is a South American marine museum that preserves pirates' letters written in Ladino.

Thanks, John, for providing this reminder about Talk Like a Pirate Day. But we'll need to learn Ladino!