Tuesday's Tip ~ Spelling Doesn't Count

I recently visited a Family History Center in order to view some images from FamilySearch.org that are not available to me at home.

The images I viewed were from the New Jersey index to records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1848-1900. Some were for my family in northern New Jersey, and some were for my husband's family in Cape May County, in the southern part of the state. (See the image at right from Wikimedia Commons for the location of Cape May County.)

Two years ago, I shared an image of the ketubah (Jewish marriage contract) for my husband's great-grandparents, Max Levitt and Golda Segal. The Hebrew date translated to 26 October 1898.

Although these records are indexed at FamilySearch.org, I had not found the marriage record of Max and Golda in the index because their names were not what I expected. I had to browse the marriages year-by-year, looking for Cape May County, which, being sparsely populated at the time, made it not too painful.

Following is the page for the Index Register of Marriages in Cape May County, 1898-99:

Division of Archives and Record Management, New Jersey Department of State, Trenton. New Jersey index to records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1848-1900 (Salt Lake City, UT, USA, FamilySearch.org, 2017). Family History Library microfilm, #589818, Marriages Atlantic-Hudson v. 36 1898-1899, image 137 of 372. p. 124, line 59, Maik Levin-Lossie Siegel marriage, 26 October 1898.

The marriage of my husband's great-grandparents is the last one on this page, with a date of 26 October 1898.

Sixth Blogiversary

This is blog post number 215 in six years of blogging here at A Jewish Genealogy Journey.

I didn't blog as much as I wanted to during this past year, but I did share several Wordless Wednesday posts, as well as a few Tombstone Tuesday posts. And, of course, blog posts about DNA are always fun to share, though they take quite a bit of time to write!

I want to acknowledge that I will not be blogging much (if at all) during the next couple of months. I am two weeks into the fifteen-week Boston University Certificate in Genealogical Research program, which is taking up a lot of my time.

I look forward to taking what I am learning and applying it to my research and blogging. Thank you to my readers for staying with me; I do hope to return to regular blogging in the fall!

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Hersh Handler, d. 1863

In early 2016, Radovan Sremac, a researcher from Serbia contacted me through JewishGen's family finder and provided me with some images from the local archives showing the 1882 marriage record for Aron Handler and Szali Handler, my husband's great-grandparents, and the 1900 death record for Aron Handler.

He also let me know that there is a Jewish cemetery in Ilok, Croatia, and he shared several photographs of gravestones from that cemetery. Just about all of the text on the gravestones is in Hebrew, but with the assistance of resources like JewishGen's Reading Hebrew Tombstones, Steve Morse's Deciphering Hebrew Tombstone Dates and people on Facebook groups: Tracing the Tribe and Jewish Genealogy Portal, that isn't too much of a problem. I thank these kind volunteers for their translation assistance!

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Anna Gershman, d. 1909

Over two years ago, I connected with a DNA match of my husband's and we theorized that she and he were fourth cousins. See Connecting with a Segal Cousin.

A year before that, I shared a photograph of the gravestone of Simche Siegel (husband's 2x great grandfather) in Woodbine, New Jersey. See Tombstone Tuesday ~ Simche Seigal, 1919.

This fourth cousin recently obtained a photograph of her 2x great grandmother's gravestone in Har Nebo Cemetery, Philadelphia.

Hinde, daughter of Yehuda

Beloved Mother

Anna

Gershman

Apr 20, 1909

Age 60 Years

This is one more fact to help confirm that Anna / Hinde (Segal) Gershman is the sister of Simche Segal/Siegel - both gravestones list Yehuda as father.

Thank you Jill for sharing this photograph with me.

AncestryDNA Genetic Communities

I have already shared some information about AncestryDNA's newest feature: Genetic Communities at my other blog, From Maine to Kentucky.

Just for fun, I thought I would share my husband's Genetic Community. I'm sure you can guess what it is, based on the title and theme of this blog.

Yes, it's the Jews in Central Europe Genetic Community.

Jewish DNA and Endogamy ~ One Example

I have written about endogamy before:
DNA ~ Chromosome Browser and Endogamy
One Jewish Family's DNA Ethnicity Results (at FamilyTreeDNA)
and I usually mention it in my blog posts about DNA.

Due to endogamy, my husband's match list at FamilyTreeDNA has 9,902 matches. Yes, that's a lot. (I have 2,403 matches, and some of them appear as closer relatives than they really are due to endogamy, because of my many colonial New England ancestors.)

Recently I noticed a fellow blogger's name in the match list for my husband's DNA test results, at both FamilyTreeDNA and at GEDmatch. She shares more DNA with my husband than she does with either of his parents! This match is Emily Garber of (going) the Extra Yad, a blog to check out if you have Jewish ancestry.

1925 New York State Census ~ Morris Goldstein

Genealogists are familiar with the United State Federal Census, which has been taken every ten years since 1790. The most recent federal census in which we can find our ancestors is the 1940 U.S. Census.

Many states also took censuses in between the federal censuses, and New York is one state where we can find state census records for several years in between federal censuses.

Here is the New York State census record for my husband's grandparents and uncle in 1925. It is the first census record where I find Morris Goldstein. (No luck in the 1915 New York State Census or in the 1920 U.S. Federal Census.)

 New York State Census, 1925, digital images. Ancestry.com.

New York, New York, A.D. 2, E.D. 24. Page 63, line 33, Record for Morris Goldstein.

This census reports that Morris Goldstein is 27 years old, born in Russia, and has been in the United States for 12 years. (Actually he was born in Romania, and immigrated in 1914.) He is listed as an alien (non-citizen), though he supposedly became a citizen after serving in WWI. (Click here to see his C-File.) His occupation is a tailor of pants.
Wife is 23-year-old Rosa (should be Rose) Goldstein, born in the U.S. with occupation House Wife. However, I believe she did tailoring work of some sort for much of her young life.
And here is 1-year-old Uncle Stanley.
(Their daughter, my mother-in-law, was born a couple of years later.)

Some interesting observations:
There are eleven men named Morris Goldstein with wife Rose or Rosa living in New York City or Brooklyn in 1925.
There are 48 people living at number 7 Second Avenue. The birthplaces are U.S., Russia, Italy, and Poland.

We visited New York City last August and found that 7 Second Avenue is still standing.

Forty eight people lived in this five story building at the corner of Second and Houston in 1925. We visited the Tenement Museum when we visited New York and got a taste of how the Goldsteins lived.

It is also a good idea when exploring your relative's census record to scroll back and ahead a couple of pages. In this case, I learned that in 1925 there was a number 5 Second Avenue, a number 3 Second Avenue, and a number 1 1/2 Second Avenue.  East Houston was a much narrower street in 1925 than it is now.

By the 1930 U.S. Census, the family was living in Woodbine, New Jersey.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Cousin Israel (in Israel)

Another of the many photographs from my mother-in-law that came from her father's family in Romania and Israel in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. I am sharing them here in hopes of reconnecting with this branch of my husband's family.

The translation of the Yiddish appears to be:

This is my son Israel.
Next month, on 7/16 he is turning 24...and to many long years

Israel is a first cousin of my mother-in-law and the son of her uncle Usher (Morris Goldstein's younger brother). Now I have a birthday for him - July 16 (sometime in the 1940s).

Thank you to those at the Jewish Genealogy Portal Facebook group for assistance in the translation.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Unknown Wedding Couple in Romania or Israel

Another photographs from my mother-in-law that came from her father's family in Romania and Israel in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. I am sharing them here in hopes of reconnecting with this branch of my husband's family.

This one has both Yiddish and Romanian on the back.

The Yiddish is:
This is my daughter Liba with her husband Moishe

The Romanian / Yiddish on the right is:
memento
for my brother
Moriti Goldstein

Moishe Goldstein is my husband's maternal grandfather. So could this woman be a first cousin to my mother-in-law? Unfortunately, I don't know if this was taken in Israel or Romania.

Thank you to volunteers at the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston's "Help Day" in January 2014, as well as volunteers at Jewish Genealogy Portal Facebook page for assistance in the translation.