JewishGen Features ~ SIG Mailing Lists and KehilaLinks

As you probably know, JewishGen is a necessary online resource for Jewish Genealogy. The link is in the sidebar of this blog and is also a tag, meaning that all the posts that I've written about JewishGen are tagged with JewishGen.

Do you know what country your ancestors were from? If so, you should check out the SIG (Special Interest Group) mailing lists. These are online discussion groups for researchers to ask questions and to receive news from the JewishGen volunteers about new resources that are coming online at the website.

I subscribe to only four SIG mailing lists:
Gesher Galicia SIG (Galicia, where the Levites/Lewites/Levitt family was from)
H-SIG (Hungary, where the Handlers and Hollanders were from)
Romania SIG (Romania, where the Goldstein (possibly Yancowitz) family was from)
Ukraine SIG (Ukraine, where the Segal family was from)

You can even search archived messages within each SIG for surnames and other topical information.

The mailing list subscription page looks like this for me:

However, there are 31 possible SIGs to subscribe to ranging from DNA to rabbinic genealogy to Early American.

It occurred to me this morning that I wanted to be sure that all JewishGen users were aware of this (free!) benefit because in each of the SIG emails I got today (and no, they don't all have daily posts), there was an update on the KehilaLinks projects (which I have shared before at KehilaLinks at JewishGen) noting that the KehilaLinks page for  Farming Communities of New Jersey had been updated. I don't know if the page for Woodbine was updated, but this web page has good information about the history of the town that my mother-in-law and her mother before her grew up in. Both the town-specific page and the main page give a wonderful sense of what life was like in rural southern New Jersey at the turn of the last century.

Take advantage of all that JewishGen has to offer, and if you are able, consider making a donation to this non-profit organization, not only because it's doing great work, but a donation of at least $100 gives you greater flexibility in searching their databases.

Herman Handler - Birth Record

JewishGen's Hungary Database is a treasure, despite there not being digitized original source images available. These indexed birth records from the Historical archive Srem in Serbia have helped tremendously with piecing together the Handler family ancestors.

Following are search results after searching for Herman Handler and Erdevik:

There were two Herman Handlers who had their births registered in Erdevik during this period. Herman Handler, son of Filip [Philip] Handler and Jetti Hubert (born in Erdevik) and Herman Handler, son of Adolf Handler and Katrina -- [Fuchs] (born in Ljuba).

KehilaLinks at JewishGen

JewishGen.org (a favorite website for those researching their Jewish ancestry), offers many resources, as I have shared previously. I receive occasional emails noting updates to the KehilaLinks project and I thought I'd share links to my husband's ancestral communities in one blog post for reference.

What is KehilaLinks? 

From the website: "KehilaLinks is a project facilitating web pages commemorating the places where Jews have lived. KehilaLinks provides the opportunity for anyone with an interest in a place to create web pages about that community. These web pages may contain information, pictures, databases, and links to other sources providing data about that place."

These pages are coordinated by volunteers. Some have more information than others. And there are not pages for every community, but where there is a page, it can provide additional background to your research.

I found the following:

Iaşi, Romania where Morris and Max Goldstein came from.

Shytomir/Zhitomir/Zhytomyr, Ukraine where Simche Segal came from.

Husiatyń/Gusyatin, Ukraine (formerly part of Galicia, Austria) where the Lewites / Levitt family came from (Max, Emanuel, and Sophie).

Farming Communities of NJ (specifically, Woodbine, New Jersey) where the Goldsteins and Levitts settled and where my mother-in-law grew up.

There is not a page for Hőgyész, Hungary, where Anna Honenvald's family was from. The KehilaLinks page for Hungary will show any updates and additions.

There is also not a KehilaLink page for Bonyhád, Hungary, but there is a Yizkor Book page which references Bonyhad: a destroyed community; the Jews of Bonyhad, Hungary, a book by Leslie Blau, from which a KehilaLink page could probably be created. This is where the Hollander family was from, and where the Handler family was originally from before an ancestor moved from there to Ljuba (now in Serbia).

Yizkor Book Project is another wonderful resource from JewishGen. Yizkor books, usually put together by survivors of the Holocaust, were written after the Holocaust as memorials to Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust.  They might contain descriptions and histories of the community, biographies of prominent people, and lists of people who perished. I do own the book for Bonyhád, which gives a wonderful sense of what the community was like before the war.

There don't appear to be any pages for communities in what is now Serbia and Croatia. The Handler family, before immigrating to Akron, Ohio, came from Ljuba, near Erdevik, Serbia, and Ilok, Croatia.

Have you explored the KehilaLinks pages for your Jewish ancestral community? You won't necessarily find your family name, but if you do find your community in this database, you can learn more about the history of the community and explore a variety of different resources.

Researching Jewish Ancestors? Use JewishGen Family Finder!

The Internet, and especially JewishGen, has made researching Jewish ancestors easier than it might have been just a few years ago.

In November, I shared Handler Birth Transcriptions at JewishGen with the news that the Hungarian Databases at JewishGen had added a new database of transcribed records from Erdevik, Serbia, which included some Handler ancestors.

JewishGen also has the JewishGen Family Finder (JGFF), where a researcher can enter surnames and places being researched. In August 2012, I added some of my husband's family names in the JGFF. I just added a couple of new ones. This is what my Family Finder list looks like:

I am very excited to report that the Serbian researcher from Šid, Serbia, who transcribed the records from the Historical archive Srem - Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia, contacted me after seeing my interest in family from Ilok, Croatia (in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries), which is a community just over the border from Erdevik, Serbia, where he is researching. He has provided me with a family tree of information about the Handler family!

Handler Birth Record Transcriptions at JewishGen

I subscribe to the H-SIG (Hungarian Special Interest Group) email list because of my father-in-law's Hungarian roots. (Click here to see the various JewishGen mailing lists you can subscribe to.) I was excited early last week to see that there was a new upload to the JewishGen Hungary Database: an individual has transcribed all the births, marriages and deaths from registers from a couple of small communities that are now in present day Serbia: Erdevik and Sid, and has provided these transcriptions to JewishGen.

Erdevik is a familiar place name because Sam Handler reported it to be his birth place on his 1919 naturalization papers, so I was very excited to take a look.

At the JewishGen search page for the Hungary Databases, I searched for Surname: Handler, Town: Erdevik, and GivenName: Sali. (Note that, although JewishGen is free, I make an annual donation to JewishGen, which provides me with this searching flexibility.)

Harry is Tzvi Hersch

My husband's parents got married in 1952. I scanned their ketubah (Jewish marriage contract) last summer. The digital image has been sitting in a folder waiting to be filed.

I took a look at it today and realized that their Hebrew names are on it. The following image is a small part of the entire ketubah:

However, I can't read Hebrew script, so I uploaded this section of the image to the Tracing the Tribe Facebook group (everyone is SO helpful there) and almost immediately received the following response to my translation request:

Tzvi Hersch son of Yosef the Levite. Bride is Ita daughter of Moshe.

(I already knew that Chana Ita is my mother-in-law's full Hebrew name.)

JewishGen has a Given Names Database, which I have previously explored. I returned to this search page today to see what it might tell me about the name Tzvi Hersch.

Military Monday ~ Jacob Reisner World War I Draft Card

Ancestry.com, U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005), www.ancestry.com, Database online.
Registration Location: Kings County, New York; Roll: 1754613; Draft Board: 80. Record for Jacob Reisner.

When I first found this record, I wasn't sure that it belonged to the Jacob Reisner who married into the Levitt family, whose origins in "Austria" have eluded me for years. However, I more recently found Jacob's 1965 obituary, which noted that he had worked for Asinof and Sons Co. for many years, in New York and in Springfield. The occupation for Jacob Reisner here is as a Tailor for Essenoff + Sons at 37 Broome St. N.Y.

He claims exemption from service because he needs to support his family, his wife and three children.

The back of his card indicates that he was tall, of medium build, with blue eyes and brown hair.

In June 1917, Jacob Reisner is living at 74 Louisiana Avenue in Brooklyn. He has declared his intention to become a citizen and this record tells me that he reports his birth as January 12, 1890, in Kolamayer, Bucave, Austria. (At least that's what it looks like to me.)

However, I am not having any luck finding this place in JewishGen's Community Search or the Gazetteer. Anyone have any ideas?

UPDATE: Thank you to the Tracing the Tribe Facebook Group members (several of them), who let me know that this is Kolomea or Kolomyya, in present-day Western Ukraine. In the late 1800s and very early 1900s, this community was considered part of Galicia, within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Celebrating Blogiversary #2

It has been two years since I started this blog and I have learned a tremendous amount about my husband's ancestry. I would like to share some of the resources I have discovered and/or rediscovered during these past two years.

Hungarian records are relatively easy to find, with civil records from October 1895 forward online at FamilySearch.org and Jewish records before October 1895 on microfilm at the Family History Library (click here to search the catalog). I have learned how to rent these microfilms and have learned a great deal about the family of Bubbie Lena, my husband's paternal grandmother. Among other records, I have shared the March 10, 1909 marriage record for my husband's grandparents, my husband's Bubbie Lena's birth record from Bonyhád, found her siblings born in Bonyhád, and in upcoming blog posts, I will continue to share what I have found out about Bubbie Lena's mother's family in Hőgyész, Tolna, Hungary.

JewishGen is a tremendous resource for Jewish genealogists. I'm sure I have only taken advantage of a few of its resources. The JewishGen Gazetteer contains the names of one million localities in 54 countries in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. I blogged about looking for Erdevick and Illok, Hungary at JewishGen. More recently I learned about JewishGen's ViewMate, which I explained in detail how to use to request translations for family gravestones.

JewishGen also has an online Worldwide Burial Registry which has helped me find burial locations for a few family members. This works with FindAGrave, where I can enter a memorial and request that a volunteer take a photograph of a gravestone for me. (See my Handler memorials at FindAGrave.)

I also recommend JewishGen's Reading Hebrew Tombstones to anyone trying to decipher the Hebrew on a tombstone.

I have met some fellow bloggers and Jewish genealogy researchers on Facebook, where I have found a Jewish genealogy group and a Hungarian genealogy group. These friends have been very helpful in translating handwritten records that I have found in my microfilm searching. Being able to share electronic images is great. I am also grateful for cousins who have contacted me and shared information - one second cousin on the Handler side, and another second cousin on the Segel / Siegel side.

I have also enjoyed sharing other information - newspaper articles, census records, naturalization records, passenger lists - from a variety of other websites.

Thanks for reading!

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Hebrew Translations of Handler Gravestones

I previously posted photographs of the Handler family gravestones for family buried in Akron, Ohio. I then shared my experience using JewishGen's ViewMate to obtain translations of the Hebrew on these stones.

One respondent provided the following translation: "Here lies our dear and respected father Reb Josef Ben/(son of) Reb Aharon, Z"L. He died on the 19th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev (and the Hebrew year). May his soul be bound up in the bonds of eternal life."

She also provided the additional information: "A couple of explanations....The word "Reb" is a title of honor and respect, however it does NOT imply rabbi. The use of "Z"L" is the Hebrew abbreviation for one who has predeceased or is of recent memory. It clarifies that Joseph's father Aharon had predeceased him. The Hebrew name Aharon translates to Aaron, and the father could have been named Adolph in Hungary (with a Hebrew name of Aharon)."

Another noted that: "Date is 19 Kislev, 5708 = December 2, 1947" I have his death certificate, so I do know this is the correct death date for Joseph.

~~~~~~~

For his son, Alfred, the first response noted: "Here lays Anshel son of Joseph, fell on the kiddush hashem for our country on 2 Tamuz tav shin dalet"

The second said: "Some additional information for you. The "Z'L" after the name of the father Yosef indicates that he had predeceased his son." Now, this puzzles me, as I know (see above) that his father, Joseph, died three and a half years later. I'm not sure why this was put on Alfred's stone.

A third reply added: "Might the second line also be rendered as "died a martyr for our country"?" An interesting thought.

And the fourth response clarified the date of death: "Date is 2 Tamuz 5704 = June 23, 1944."  This is the date that Alfred Handler died fighting in New Guinea.

~~~~~~~

Tuesday's Tip ~ Using JewishGen's ViewMate

I recently learned of another great feature at JewishGen, a wonderful online research for Jewish Genealogy. From JewishGen's ViewMate page:

ViewMate allows JewishGen participants to post photographs and documents online, and request help in translating or identifying information.

Here you can submit:

• Photos: for identification of people, clothing, buildings, scenes, objects, artifacts, etc.
• Letters, documents, book pages, maps, etc. for analysis or translation.

This past month, I posted photographs of gravestones with quite a bit of Hebrew on them. I shared these images at JewishGen's ViewMate to see what translations might be provided by volunteers. I thought it might be helpful to share my experience.

Tuesday's Tip ~ Using JewishGen Gazetteer

My husband's great uncle Sam Handler reported his birthplace as "Erdvick, Hungary" on his 1919 Naturalization Papers.

From the Declaration of Intention (December 31, 1912)

From the Petition for Naturalization (March 20, 1919)

From WWII Draft Card

However, by the time he had to provide information for the World War II Draft Registration, he reported that he was born in Illok, Hungary, which is where his brother, Joe Handler reported he was born. (See Josef's passenger list and naturalization papers.)

I had not had luck finding a community with the name of Erdvick, and I thank the reader of my blog who was a little more creative with looking for this community and searched for Erdevick at the JewishGen Gazetteer.

The result looks like this:

Erdevick is in what is now Serbia.

Illok (or Ilok) is in what is now known as Croatia:

Ilok is about 16 km or 10 miles north of Erdevick.

So today's tip is to remember to be creative as you search for a Jewish community in the JewishGen database. The spelling may not be what you think it is.

Update / clarification: Be aware of the different search methods drop-down box at the bottom of the search screen AND if you think you know the general area of the community, in this case, possibly near Ilok, use an online map, like Google Maps to scan for the community name.