Mining Ancestry.com Hints by Specific Record Collection

Randy Seaver, author of Genea-Musings, has again shared a wonderful hint on Mining Ancestry.com Hints by Specific Record Collection. Do click through to his blog post to see his explanation on how to do it.

The example he used was for the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, where I have found some interesting facts for my family and my husband's family. (I shared one when this database was new on Ancestry.com.)

I want to share another interesting example in this database from my husband's family. Elizabeth (Girfanan or Girfanun or Girfman) Levitt was my mother-in-law's Aunt Betty.

This record, from the Social Security Application and Claims Index, 1936-2007, at Ancestry.com, shows that Sarah's maiden name was Brodsky and her father's name was Garson Girfanan (or Girfanan). Elizabeth's mother, Sarah Brodsky, immigrated from Russia as a young mother with her toddler daughter. I shared her naturalization papers here, one of which states that her husband is deceased.

Her 1923 marriage record shows her name as Elizabeth B. Girfman. (Philadelphia Marriage License Index - 1917 to 1938, found at FamilySearch.org.)

I should get the original copy of these records to look and the handwriting and see for myself if the name is Girfman, Girfanan or Girfanun.

Another source that I have for her father's first name is on her gravestone, which lists her as Leah daughter of Gershon.

Find-A-Grave.com: photo courtesy of Mark Barnett

Elizabeth married George Levitt, Rose Levitt Goldstein's oldest brother, and I shared their gravestone here. They are buried in Montefiore Cemetery, Jenkintown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.